Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTHEWIND e By Papa Wealey Mike Faria successfully defended his National Speedway Championsh ip a t the U.S. Champ ionships a t Orange County Fa irgrou nds in Costa Mesa, California, Octob er 12. Faria scored 14 points - out of a maximum 15 - in his five races. Steve Lucero was second with 13 points and reserve rider Rob Pfetzing finished third with 12 points. Tim Frazier (BSA) completed hi s sweep of every round o f the AMA Na tio nal Cha mp io nship Hill cl imb Series by wi nning at O regon ia, Ohio, Octob er 13. Frazier wo n all eigh t series rou nds pl us th e non- points paying National In vit at ional to easi ly clinch th e 540cc class title. The 800cc class wi n a t Oregonia and th e class title went to Lou D. Gerencer (H- D). Kevin Hines (Su z) was the overa ll wi n ner in round seven of, the AMA National Championship Enduro Series in Redding, Ca liforn ia, Octob er 13. Hines edged local rider Chriss Kudla (ATK) on tie-brea ker points, whi le Dan Nielson (Suz) was th ird. Roundin g o ut th e top five were Matt Cullins . (Suz ) a nd Dave Bertram (Suz ). Three- tim e Na ti o n al Ch a m pi on Randy Hawkins (Su z) was kn ocked ou t of cham p ionship contentio n after finishing sixth overall. Series points lead er Jeff Rus sell (KT M) su ffered me chanical problems a nd fi nished 15th o vera ll. T here are two ro u nds remaining i n the seri es. Australian Michael Doohan (H on) was the overa ll win ner in th e Super prestigio ro ad ra ce in Barcelona , Spain, O ctob er 13. Doohan split ra ce wins wi th John Kocinski (Ya m ), but added a second pla ce in race two to Kocinski's third place finish in race one. Juan Garriga (Yam) finishe d third overall. In 250cc action at th e ne w Ci rcuit de Catal unya, German Martin Wimmer (Suz) took th e overall win. W imm er' wo n th e fir st race w i th Sp a niard Carlos Cardus (Hon) w inning th e second. Canadian Miguel DuHamel ha d an impressive outing a t the Su perprestigio . In his firs t-ever rid e aboard a 500cc ' G ra n d P ri x mac h i ne, Du H a m el i mproved each time h e rode t he So n auto-backed Yamah a YZR5 00 , knocking I. 7 seconds off hi s p revious best time in the final race to ta ke sixth after battling with Niall Macken zie on a simi lar YZR50 0. Ca lifornian Rich Oliver finis hed sixt h overa ll on his Marl boro Rob erts Yam aha. Ol iver and DuHam el tied on points, but Oliver had th e better overa ll tim e for the two rac es. Entries for the Octob er 18-20 13th Annual Daytona AMA /CCS Championship Series Finale a t Dayton a Internat ional Spee dway have. topped the lIDO mark. In ad ditio n to th e 27 National ti tles up for grabs, th e event plays host to the final ro u nd of th e U.S. Endurance Seri es and th e n ext-to -last rou n d o f the H arleyDavidso n Tw in Sports Na tio nal Cham pionship Series . T h e Florid~ Harley-Davidson Dealers Association ha s sweetene d th e po t for both th e Daytona and Cam el Mo torcycl e G rand Prix of Miam i ro u nds o f th e Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Seri es. The winner o f each ro u nd will receive a check for $500. 2 Congressman Jerry Lewis (R -Ca l) expressed outrage at actions of a House subcommittee in passing HR2929, the California Desert Protection Act, on O ctober I, th e Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) rep ort s. Lew is criticized the Subcommittee on Gen eral Oversight and California' Desert Lands for ignoring th e will of th e peopl e who live in th e Ca li fornia desert a nd th e Congressm an fro m those distri cts. " I am astonished a su bco m mi ttee of this quali ty wo u ld completely ignore th e com me n ts o f over 2 million peop le a nd th e elected officials chosen to represent the m," Lewi s said. H e asserted th a t th e subcom m ittee' has mad e no effort to com m u n ica te with th e four m embers o f the H ou se re p resen ti n g d esert districts. Lewi s sai d that tac tic "indica tes th e subcommittee has its own age n da." Lewis introduced HR3066, a bill backed by th e Bush Administration. The Lewis bill wo u ld p lace federa l wilderness restri cti ons on o nly 2.3 million ' acres, whereas HR2929 would lock u p over 7 m ill ion acres. You 've been living in a vac u u m if you aren 't awa re of th e Yellow Umbrella P r oj e c t that is cu rrently on display in sou the rn Cal ifornia. T he work o f a rtis t Chr ist o , 1700 brigh t yellow u mb rell as, each measurin g a lmost 30feet across , are sca ttered along an 18mi le stretch th roug ho u t the Tejon Pass area on eith er side of Intersta te 5. T he project is drawing th ousands o f view ers fro m arou nd the world and on the day the u mbrell as were first opened, Oc tober 16, traffic was slo wed on the . int ersta te a nd backed up at its exits . If you wa nt the best possible view of Ch risto 's umbrell as, take part in th e , Oc tober 20 Yellow Umbrella Run, a d ual -sport ri de hosted by th e Team Dua l Dogs. The one-day rid e starts at Rowher Flats O HV and th ere is a 200rider limit (post-entry on ly). For more information, call 818/70 1-1913 or 886-, 7194. Spanish road racer AlexCriville has sig ned a contract to ri de a Ca rnpsabac ked H onda NS R500 in the 1992· Wo r ld Ch am pio n sh ip Ro ad Race Series. Crivill e will tak e over for team o wner Sito Pons, who will anno unce his retirement a t a p ress conference to be held in Spain, Oc tober 18. Spaniard Alberto Puig tested Si to Pons' Ca m psa H onda NSR500 o n Monday , O ctob er 14 in Bar celona, ' Spain , and m ay be in lin e to ride as a team ma te to Criville. Wayne , Gardner as ked Po ns to g ive Puig a test because the Austral ian was very im p ressed with Puig 's rid in g a t th e recent Guid on D'Or su perbikers race in Pari s. Superbike World Champio n Doug Polen rejec ted a n offer to ride Cagiva's 500cc V-four GP bike on October 6 in an Italian Na tional Cha mpio ns h ip race at Vall elunga. Pol en was supI posed to test the bike th e da y after th e World Ch ampionship Superbike Ser- , ies round in Mu gell o , but rai n sto p ped th at . Always lu kewarm abou t the test, Pol en sai d th e opportunity to rid e th e bike did not come as a precursor to a GP ride in 1992, but as a one-off deal because nei th er Eddie Lawson or Alex Barros were ava ilable. Pol en mad e it clear that he would be o pen to test th e bike in th e right circu mstances. ' 'I'd reall y like to ge t to kn ow it," he said. One offer Polen has accepted is to rid e hi s Ducati V-twin in th e MFJ Grand - Prix at Tsukuba in Japan at th e end o f th e month. The T exan will be co m peti ng against works FI ma ch in es. The W o rld Championship Super bike Series calendar that will be finalized at the FIM Congress lists a 15-race schedule, including two races in Spain and Italy, new listings for Early-day- hillclimber honored O ver 80 fri ends and famil y members turned ou t in Lancaster, California, o n September 22 to honor Harold Mathew son (l eft ). The speci a l occa sion was Mathewson 's induction into the Indian Motorcycle H all o f Fame. Making th e offici a l presentation was Max Bubeck (rig h t), a Hall of Farner himself. Other sport and industry members pr esent included Eddie and Elaine Kretz, Lucile Flanders , Ella Hatfield (o n behalf o f her absent husband, Je rry ) a nd Bill Bagnall, who served as master o f cerem on ies. H arold's introduction to motorcycling was a t the early age , o f 12. Actuall y, he was building a car and needed an en gine to power it. H is mother bought him a 1911 single-cylinder Indian. H e soon found th at hi s car was not as sati sfying as he felt it wou ld he. So he took th e engine o ut o f th e ca r a nd mounted it into an Indian frame. The bug had bi tl H e kept that bike for four years. H e competed in his first motorcycle hillclimb in 1918 on a n Excelsior. H e visioned some thing bigger for hillclimbing from what it wa s in those p ioneer da ys. In th at era they passed th e hat and th e dea lers a lso chi p ped in to help make so me type of purse. So , in 1925 Harold formed the still current Fresn o Motorcycle Club, as you needed a club to obtain a san cti on . Hap Alzin a and Dud Perkins helped him ge t that sancti on. Mathewson 's hillcl imbs in Fresn o became very popular . H e promot ed 34 climbs in Fresno, and eigh t o thers in California. H e a lso ro de in a ll of these events, p lus cli mbs in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan. In all , he won five Pacific Coast Cham pio ns hi ps. In order to co mpete in Na tional Ch ampi onsh ips in th ose da ys, you had to win your di vision. H ar old's division was Pacifi c Coast. H e o nly competed in one Na tion al , whi ch was held in Oakland in 1932. H e won th at one, which mad e him eligible to be inducted into th e Indian H all of Fam e this past July 2 1 by proxy. Accep ting his medal was J err y H atfield. Besides his ,in volvement in m ot orcycling - he had an Indian age ncy for 27 years - he and hi s partn er Ern ie Lauck buil t some o f th e very first midget race ca rs, usin g mo torcycle engines to power them. T he y raced th em a t Fresn o' s Airport Spee dway . The sport caught o n to the extent th at th ey bu ilt a bigger sta diu m. Besid es b uilding the Fresn o tra ck , Mathewson a lso built th em in Ca lifornia locations su ch as Huntin gt on Beach, San Bernardino 's O range Sh ow, th e Rose Bowl , and was the first to put in tracks at Antelope Vall ey Fairgrounds, Merced Fairgrou nds, Bak ersfield a nd Selma. H is big drea m was to build a big trac k. H e finall y located 607 acres in Rosam ond, California, a t $80 an acre. T oday we kn ow th e site as Willow Sp ri ngs (wh ich was named after a n old stagecoach stop with th e sa me nam e). H e built the 2.5m ile course from "know -how," in 1953, without a ny perm its or a ny legal hassle from ci ty, state or cou ntyl ' Mathewson a nd his wi fe Ruth sta rte d th e an n ua l Pioneer Mo torcycl in g Enth usias ts banquet in Fresn o I I years ago. After two years, th ey turned it ove r to Ed a nd Lucil e Su m ne rs, who ran it for a few years. T hey the n .tu rned over the reins to Nedra and J erry Turner, who still p romot e th is an nual ga theri ng. And as if th e mid-da y festivities weren 't en ough, th ere was a second ca ke at Mathewson's party - thi s one a birthday ca ke hon oring H a rold's 91st bi rthdayl H a ppy birthday, Harold Ma th ewson. And th anks for your co nt rib u tio ns to our wo nderfu l world of motorcyclin g ! By Bill Bagnall Belgium, Czech osl ovak ia and Yugo slavia. Meanwhile, Au strali a, Canada a nd Swede n will lose the ir rounds, but Brazil rem ain s on th e sched ule despi te bein g ca nceled for three seaso ns in a row. Merlyn Plumlee, the tu ne r for Fred Merkel's T eam R umi H onda RC30, is leav in g th e Italian team, citing "a lack o f co m pa tibi li ty with the Italian lifestyle." Plumlee hopes to contin ue hi s involveme nt in su pe rbike racing and ad mi ts to havin g severa l op tio ns in both AMA a nd World Su pe rbike racing. Pirelli has ind ica ted its inten tio n to return to World Ch ampionship Su per bike racing in 1992. A spokesma n said that four or five riders would be on th e Italian rubber: This year, Fred Merkel, Stephane Mertens and David e T ardozzi used Pirelli tir es. S h e rri e Fitzpatrick of Tampa , Florida, won the $25,000 grand prize in the 25th Kawasaki Anniver, s a r y S w eepstakes. The sweepstakes ran from February 15 through June I. Contestants entered the swee pstakes by filling out an official game card 'and depositing it in a special di splay at participatin g Kaw asaki deal ers. The ent ries were th en sent to a n inde pe nden t judging ag en cy, who conduc ted a random selectio n during th e week of June 17. First prize, a Ninj a ZXI I , went . to Walter J . Houston o f Birmingham, Alabama . Seco n d 'prize, a Kawasaki J et Ski , was awarded to William G. Maxin of P hilad elp hia , Pennsylvania. In add itio n, 25 th ird place winners were aw arded $100 g i ft c~ rt i f i ca tes fo r Kaw asaki accesso nes. Pat Owens, th e organ izer o f th e annual AMA Dirt Day at so u the rn California 's H ansen Dam Park, is attempting to locat e an American 750cc twincylinder dirt tracke r. The Ameri can was produced in limited number s by Ohioan Bill Kenn edy in th e ear ly eig h ties a nd campaigned by th e lik es of the la te Ted Bood y. If you ca n su p ply any in forma tio n tha t will help Owens loc ate an American, give him a call a t 213/225-1687. The November 2 2nd Annual AMA D irt Day will offer a ttendees a red, white and blue pin designed by Jack Froelich and based on an action photo of T ed Boody taken by Dan Mahoney. The event is best described as an

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