Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

emTHEmND~~_aw_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ Newly -crowned Worl d C ha mpion Doug Polen (Due) sp lit wins with 1990 World Champio n Raymond Roche (Duc) in the Ital ian round of the World Cha mpionshi p Superbike Series in Mugello, Italy, October 6. Pol en beat Roche in the first leg, with the Frenchman turning th e tables o n the America n in th e second race. Terry Rymer (Yam ) fin ished third in both legs. e .. CD ~ l-l Q.) ...0 .o ..., u o Ital ian Davide Tardozzi and Aus tralian Rob Phillis were non -starters in the Italian ro und of the World Cha mpions hip Superb ike Series. Tardozzi suffered serious head in juri es in a q ua lifyi ng cra sh whi le Ph illis escaped h is cras h wi th a concussion . . T ardozzi un derwent an operation on October 5 in"Florence, Italy, and has since regained co nscio usness. Rodney Smith (Suz) was the overa ll . winner of the final round of the AMA National Championship Reliahility Enduro Series a t Carson City, Nevada, Octo ber 5. Larry Roeseler (Kaw) finished second with Kelby Pepper (KTM ), Jimmy Lewis (KT M) and Steve Hatch (Suz) rounding ou t the top five. Roeseler' s second place gives h im his first- ever AMA N ati on al Ch a mpi o n sh i p. T he Ca li fo rnia n topped H atch by eigh t points , 110-102. Kurt Hough, who finished eighth in Nevada, ended up th ird in th e series, o ne point behind Hat ch. R ound I I o f th e AMA/Wi seco / Yamaha / Yokoha ma Grand Nati onal Cro ss Country Series in Elkins, West Virginia, October 6, saw series p oints lead er Duane Conner (Kaw) score hi s first overall win of th e series. Second o ve ra ll went to Frank Keegan (AT K), who was foll owed across the fini sh line by Jeff Russell (KT M), Tom Norton (KT M) and defending cha m pio n Scott Summers (Hon), Stephane Chambon (H us) won the Guidon D'Or Superbikers even t in Pari s, Fran ce, October 6. Didier Hoog (Kaw) finished second ahea d of Americans Broc Gl over (H on ) and John Kocinski (H us) . Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) took th e overall win in th e WERA sixhou r endurance road race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis, . Indiana, October 5. T eam Suzuki' s Kurt Hall and Michael Martin compl eted 452.5 miles in the six-ho ur event to top Test Ace Racing (Suz) and OAK Racing (Suz) by one lap. Gold Hill Racing (Yam ) won th e ' AMA/ CCS U .S . Endurance Series ro und at T exas World Speedway in College Station, T exas, October 7. Gold Hill beat Team Mad (Yam ) and Yamaha of J acks onville (Yam) to win th e overall and GTO class. In GTU action, cla ss champ io ns T eam Toomer (Kaw) topped Orion Racing (H on ) by two laps with Hornblower Racing (Hon) finishin g third. ........ 2 Ron Major, a 50-year- old rider from T emple, Ca lifornia, rode his 1987 H onda Gold Wing to victory in the 1991 Iron Butt Rally. The l l-day rally started in Reno, Nevada, and required en tra nts to circu m naviga te the U.S. and reach checkpoi n ts in Spokane, Wa shington; McHenry, Illinois; Gorham, Maine; Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania; Baldwin, Florida; Mansfield, Texas; and Santa Ana, Cal ifornia, before returning to Reno where the event ended on September 12. In th e closest-ever Iron Butt Rally, Major took the lead th e last night of the event and edged out Canadian Peter H oogeveen by j us t four poi nts (31,000 points were possib le). Hoo geveen rode a 1988 BMW K75. Ca liforn ia n Steve Black, wh o rode a 1981 H onda Gold Wing, fin ished third, just two poin ts down o n Hoogeveen . Black held the lead from the " halfway poin t until the last night of the rall y. Som e interesting statistics came . ou t of the fifth running of th e Iron Bu tt Rall y. Runner-up Peter Hoogeveen racked up the most miles, 11 ,004 - that's in II days, folks; at the age of 67, Garve Nelson became the oldest rider to ever fin ish the event; Gregg Smith saw his 1987 Yama ha Ventu re's odo meter turn over th e 200,000 mile mark o n the last leg of the rally; the odometer on th e 1983 Go ld Wing ri dden by Ken Hatton passed th e 290,000 mi le mark; and the average age of the top 10 finishers was 45.7. Austra lian road racer Darryl Beattie (Hon ) won th e 500cc class at the Big Road Race in Sugo, Japan , Oc tober 6. Bea tt ie beat co u n trymen Peter Goddard (Yam), Michael Doohan (Hon ) and Kevin Magee (Yam ) in the rain-drenched race. Doohan , wh o finis hed second to Wayne Rainey in th e 500cc World Cha mpio nsh ip, cr as hed " early in the ra ce a n d remounted to finish thi rd. Accordin g to th e AMA, a federal bill calling for the designation of additional wildern ess lan d in California's Los Padres National Forest was passed by th e H ou se Interior an d In su lar Affairs Com mittee on October 2, but not befor e an am endment tha t would have rem oved a popular offhighway motor cycle trail from i ts provisions was defeated. H .R . 2556, also kn own as the Los Padres Con dor Range and Rivers Protection Act, was expected to pass without any cha nges. But at the last minute, bill spon sor Rep ." Robert Lagomarsin o (R-CA) was allowed to introduce an amendment to keep the popular Johnston Ridge Trail , which has been maintained by off-high way riders with ass isten ce from the U.S. Forest Service for th e pa st 30 years . At first, it appeared that motorcyclists had won a major victor y wh en Interior Committee members voted 8 to 4 in favor of the am endment, allowing th e trail to be excluded from th e bill. But all that changed when R ep. Bruce Vento (D-MN) a sked Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) for a roll call vote. Since man y of the com mittee members who were not present for the earl ier debate were all owed to vote by proxy, the amendment event ually failed 17 to 25. The vo te sp lit down party lines with only two Democrats, Rep . Nick Rahall (0WV) and Rep. Pat Williams (D-MT), voting to pr eserve the Johnston R idge Trail. The bill is now expected to be heard in the House Agri culture Committee, bu t a procedural rule may allo w it to be put to a vote on the House floor sooner than expected. The companion bill to H .R . 2556 in the Senate, S . 1225 , sponsored by Senators. John Seymour (R-CA) and Alan Cranston (D-CA), is scheduled to receive its first hearing on Octob er 17 in the Senate's Public Lands, National Parks and Forest Subcommittee. In what can be term ed a victory for off-road land user s, the amount of cam psites that will be availab le in the Pism o D u n e s S tat e Vehicular R e cr e a tion Area (SVRA ) on major holiday weekends has doubled - at least for a year. On Tuesday, October I, the San Luis Obisbo, California , Board of Su pervisors granted a request by the Sta te Departmen t of Parks and Recreati on to increase the number of cam psites from 500 to 1000 for the Memorial Day, Fourth of July, La bor Day and Thank sgiving weekends. The decision co mes after nine years of pol it ical battles between th e off-road com m unity, the County: the Coastal Co m missio n, the Department of Fish and Ga me, and the Sierra Club. lander 's future als o depends on the , decision. Having already rejected two offers to go Grand Prix raci ng because he prefers su perbikes, he says he has two pro posals for well-funded on erider Honda teams wh ich could well depend on the FIM decision. " If th at doesn't happen, I will make my own bik es for superb ike and do two or three bik es maximum and concentra te on th e European 600cc cham pionsh ip class." Eraldo Ferracci may not make any World Su pe rb i ke C ha m p io ns h ip p la ns if he doesn 't ob tai n a ma jor outside sponso r for hi s Du cati team : " I have no mor e money, no mor e nothing," Ferracci said. " I work for five years and spend it all in o ne." Ferracci confirms that he's been in disc ussio n with Fr eddie Spen cer regarding the three-time World Cham pi on ri ding for him in 1992. J ust wh ere Spencer fits in depends o n Ferracci's cu rrent ri der newly-crowned Worl d Champ io n Do ug Polen , who is currently in search of a multi-m illi on dollar, mu lti -year deal to wra p up his racing career. " If Dou g stay with me, then Freddie stays in America ," Ferracci said. " If Dou g go away I don ' t know if I do the World Cha mpionshi p wit h Freddie, but I'm pretty sur e we'll be coming. " T he Western Sta tes Racing Association wi ll host the in augural Fallon to Lovelock Desert Race in Nevada, November 23. Fi nishers of the 120plus mile race will receive cus to m belt buckles. In add ition to regular classes, vintage classes wi ll be ru n . T he even t " is fu nded in p art by th e Ne va da Co m mission o n Tourism and th e Fall on Conventio n a nd To uris m Aut hority. T he pre-entry fee is $40 (available un til No vember I ); pos tentry is $45: For more information, call Peter Cairns at 702/ 972-4907 or Edd Pr ice at 702/ 677·2989. T he lastest to come o ut of O scar Rumi 's World Su perbike Cha mpionsh ip Honda team is that the Itali an will run o nly Baldassarre Monti on a H onda, and he has appro ach ed Belgarda, the Italian Yam ah a distributor, about setting up a separate team to run Yamaha OWOl s for Fred Merkel. _B el gard a a nd it s racin g division, BYRD , are close ly associated with the Fabrizio Pirovan o team and it's doubtful that the y'd cu t that tie, so there may be two officially supported Itali an Yam ah a teams in 1992. The decision is expec ted to co me sho rt ly. It seems that liaving a Yamaha team would be the on ly way th at Rumi and Merkel can cont inue their fruitful relationship. The Californian is not interested in racing Hondas again next year. Meanwhile, Merkel' s old all y, Norris Farrow, is effectively out of the team. He wa sn 't at the Fren ch round of th e series in Magny Cours and the team 's public relations man said he was back in Bergamo, Ital y, workin g on o the r proj ect s. H ow ever , it is known that the New Zealander has already a pproached th e Pirovan o team look ing for a job but was not hired. Repl acin g Farrow in the Rumi team is ex Lamborghini man Carl o Facetti. Belgian tuner J ean D'H ollander 's attempts to have the weight differential between twins and fours in th e World Championship Superbike Series abolished seems to have met a fro sty reaction at the FIM. D'Hollander sent a letter, with th e support of many other teams , to the FIM call ing for a 352 pou n d limit for all s uperbikes in the class. He ha s yet to receive a repl y. " I don 't understand this," he said. " It is usuall y com mon courtesy if you receive a lett er to send a reply . I hear many rumors, tha t fours will hav e a 155 kg (341 pounds) limit and twins "will stay at 140 kg (308 pounds), but I hear nothing officia l. The problem is that the FIM anno unces its decision at the Congress la te next month and by then it is too late for many riders. Danny (Amatriai n - the Spanish rid er D'Hollander tunes for ) will go to Ducati if th e regulation stays th e same. If the regulation changes, maybe not. My riders hav e to make a decision. Octob er, I think, is too late." D'Hol- Mo tocro sser Richard Wagaman, Jr. suffered fatal inju ries in a crash at the . October 5 Budds Creek ama teur mot ocross the day precedi ng the 125/ 500cc ) Na tio na l MX at Potoma c Speedway in Budds Creek, Mar yland. Wagam an , o f I York, Pennsylvania, was a 125cc B . rider. I Yam ah a' s Doug Dubach was a no- I show at th e Octob er 6 125/ 500cc ; National MX at Budds Creek. Dubach was testing Yam ah as at the facto ry in ( . , I J apan . Motocrosser Tallon Vohland will be cam pa ig ning the World Ch ampionship 125cc MX Series in 1992. " I' ll probably do some of the Golden State (Na tio na ls) befor e I head to Ital y in mid-February," said Voh land, who com pe ted in this year's I25cc Nationals on a factory-backed Suzuki. "I'll be riding for Carpi Motors Suzuki, the same team (bro ther) Tyson rod e for several years earl ier. It (racing the 125 GPs) wasn 't m y origi nal plan, I would ra ther stay here in the U.S., but I figure if I can win a 125cc Wor ld Ch ampionshi p or two , I can come back here and try for a Supercross champ io nship. " ; . ' : P eak Antifreeze has once again been secured as the titIe spo nsor of the H onda/Pro Circui t 125cc facto ry team . According to Pro Circui t' s Mitch Payton , th e o nly rider contracted thus far is 125cc Western Region al Supercross Champion J er emy McGrath, wh o has on e year left on hi s contract. The 1992 team will most lik ely consist of four riders. Bob Han n ah will serve as master of ceremon ies at th e H a nford Sup ercross at King Speedway in Hanford, Ca lifornia, on Saturday night, October 26. Hannah will a lso take part in an autograph session that takes pl ace from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m . A " fun zone" will open at 4 p.m. and will feature manufacturer and aft ermarket compan y displays. St e v e Lamson, Mike Craig, J im H olley and M ik e Young are among th e rid ers wh o will be after a hunk of th e $10,000 purse. Mike Craig moved into the points lead in th e FIM Rodil World Champi onship Su percross Seri es with three victories in September. Craig, who began the win streak September 6 in , Gothenburg, Sweden, scor ed another victory two days later in Helsinki, Finland, and then topped the September 21 event in Madrid, Spain. Craig leads defending champion

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