Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

over the December 6-8 weekend, has been postponed. Remodel in g of a portion of the track that was demanded by the Formula One car race crowd has caused the postponement. A new date will be announced shortly. In conj unction wi th the Fire & Police MX Nationals at southern California 's Perris R acewa y o n November 14, a Pro class will be run. The run-for-the-money competi tors will be shooting for the $500 that goes to the winner and a share of the 100% payback that will be awarded from second pl ace on down. The event will benefit D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Ed ucation). The final round o f the AHRMA Western Regional MX Series that was scheduled to take place in San Joaquin, California, ha s been canceled. In its place, the fina l pointspaying AHRMA Western Regio nal MX will be held in conjunc tion with the I Ith Annual CZ World Championships on November 17 at L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale, California. For CZ class information, call 805/946- . 2728; for AH RMA information, call 213/490-0012 (da ys) o r 714/897-8265 (evenings). Dee Johnson of D's Leathers passed o n the sad news that Randy Raker, a former professional dirt tra ck racer, recently died as the result of a brain tumor. R aker m ade his hom e i n Whitehouse, Ohio. World Championship 500cc MX co ntent er, Georgia's Billy Liles was ' a spectator at the October 19-20 Kawasak i Ra ce of Champions at En glishtown, New J ersey. Liles said he wanted to race at Englishtown, but he was still recoveri ng from surgery th at was performed on October 14 to remove a steel rod from the leg he broke las t year. He a lso added that he plans on returning to the GP circuit next year , riding an ' Action Workshop/Johnson Cigarette-backed Honda. KTM's National Championship Enduro Series points leader Je ff Russell, Allen Gravitt and Jack Lafferty, Jr. will be on hand to sign ' autographs and answer questions from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at th e Track and Trail Motorcycles open house in New Castle, Delaware, October 26. The open house is being held in conjunction with the October 27 National Championship Enduro . in Bear, Delaware. Before th e o p en i n g moto at the October 13 l25 /500cc National MX at Unadilla, 1990 125cc National MX Champion Guy Cooper was presented an immaculate 1974 Mexicanmade Cooper 250cc MX motorcycle from Ri ck Doughty, owner of the Fresno, California-based Vintage Iron. Doughty felt that Cooper was robbed of the San Jose Supercross victory when he tangled and crashed with ano ther rider while leading th e main event, and because of Cooper's misfortune, Doughty, who was in the stands that nighl in San J ose, gave him the bik e. "The bik e is su per cherry ;' said Cooper. " I brought it to my dad's sho p and he really lo ved it; he 's a real Unadilla -left without arace in '92t dispute with the FIM over increased travel money and pressure from the factory teams to shorten the AMA's National Championship MX Seri es, has perhaps left the Unadilla Vall ey Sports Center without a race in 1992. " As of right no w, Unadilla does not have a race next year, " said Frank Gerace, director of communications for Unadilla, at the fin al round of the 125/50Occ National Champ ionship MX Series at the New York track on October 13. Although the 250cc U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross is tentatively schedu led for July 19, 1992, there's a strong chance that when the official schedule is announced later this month, the Unadi lla round of the World Championship 250cc MX Series will be erased. That would end the track's 13-year reign as host of th e 250cc U.G.GP. According to Gerace, the FIM wants the promoters of the two U.S. MX G Ps - Unadilla and the Glen Helen 500cc GP in San Bernardino, California - to each kick into a travel fund $50,000 more than the promoters of the European rounds, Both Gerace and Greg Bauman n of Motolink, the three-person (Roger DeCos ter, and Greg and Yvonne Bauman n ) run company that promotes the Glen Helen race, and the AMA are no t interested in ho noring the FIM 's terms. The AMA will make a counter offer to the FIM this week at the Fall Congress in Auckland, New Zealand, but Gerace said, "I don't th ink the y (FIM) will accept A it." . "All promoters - the European promoters and us - should pa y the sam e fees, it 's only fair ," said Greg Baumann. "If the FIM gets its way , it will be economically unfeasible to ho ld GPs in the U.S." , . As far as nex t year's 125/500cc National at Unadilla is concerned , th e event isn't even listed on th e AMA's tenta tive sched ule . " It was dropped without any no tifiaction, " said Gerace. " I' m against it and have appealed it, but we do not know if the appeal will be heard." According to Ro y jansen, the AMA director of professional racing, " Earl ier in the year the AMA and race teams me t in Las Vegas for a meeting, and they (the ma nufacturers) said they wouldn't support the entire race series (18 su percrosses and 13 outdoor Nationals , as in 1991). Instead, the y wanted to reduce the seaso n by three rounds in each category, putting the blame on a declining market and smaller budgets. Alt hough we wanted to expand th e series , we were sen sitiv e to their problems , so we reached a compromise by reducing th e season by two rounds per category." Gerace feels that senority was the criteria for the AMA's deci sion to d rop th e Unadilla round. Unadilla has only hosted the Nationals for three years. " T he bo tto m line, it came dow n to exposure, crowd size," said Janson . " Over the last three years , Unadilla has attracted only about 3500 to 4000 specta tors. This is basically the same reason we dropped th e Lake Sugar Tree National (Axton, Virginia) from the schedule." J anso n concluded, ,"T he AMA definitely wants a race at Unadilla. If the FIM does not accept o ur offer and the U.S. GP is in fact dropped, then we will hav e a National at Unadilla, most likely on October 14, the week following the Budds Creek (Maryland) National. We're j ust going to have to wait and see what com es out of the meeting." vintage buff. H e immedia tely swu ng ,a leg over it , kicked it over and it fired right up. The bi ke is reall y neat." According to Roy Turner, Kawasa ki' s MX team manager, Mike LaRocco has inked a deal with Kawasaki for -the 1992 MX seaso n . LaRocco, whose con tract with Suzuki does not expire until the middle of December, will compe te on a works Kaw asaki at the Camel Supercross Series in the 250cc class and the outdoor Nationals in th e 125cc class. LaRocco 's tuner will be his father, Mike LaRocco, Sr. , and his teammates will be Jeff Ward, who'll begin hi s 14th year with Kawasaki, Mike Kiedrowski and J eff Matiasevich. Californian R yan Hughes is also expected to join the Kawasaki MX team som etime during th e 1992season. " H u ghes has' been out for mo st of th e ('91) season with a broken wrist; he started riding again recently but has experie nced pa in in the wrist," said Turner. " It looks as thou gh he'll have additional surgery sometime this week. He obviously won 't make the first supercross in O rlando (january), but he should be ready by th e first 125cc N ati on al a t Gain esville (Ma rch) . Although he won 't officially be a fact ory rider, he'll get our support. We'll provide him with engine and suspensi on parts. He'll ge t the good stu ff." R odne y S mith, the overa ll winner a t ' the October 6 Carson Vall ey Qualifier, th e final ro u nd of the National Championship Reliabil ity Enduro Series in Minden, Nevada, phoned Papa and wanted it known that his sponsors are UFO, Dublin Kawasak i/Suzuki, FMF, Race T ech , Bieffe Helmets, Smith Goggles, Aluminite Handlebars, Silkolene Oils, Regina Chain, Sports Racing Gas, Powerbars, Dunlop and Wiseco . Spe ak ing of Rodn e y Smith, he wants to campaign th e 1992 AMA National Championship Reliabili ty Enduro Series in hopes of qualifying for th e '92 International S i x Da y s Enduro in Australia. " I' ve been talking with Suzuki's off-road (department), hoping to wor k out some kindof dea l," said Smith, who lives in Antioch, California. "I used to do a lo t of end uros and trail riding befor e I started raci ng motocross. I definitely want to rid e the Six Days." Smith won back-to-back 250cc MX GPs in 1987. Stop th e presses l Just moments before this issu e went to press on Monday ' even i n g , October 21, we received word that the Door na/Eccelstone GP TV c o n t r act w as r ejected by th e gen eral assemb ly at the FIM Congress in New Zealand without a vo te being taken on Tuesday, October 22. Accordin g to o u r source, FIM Presiden t Jos Vaessen wa s th e onl y person who spoke for th e dea l before th e assembl y. N o o ne else o ffered support for it. "It's back to square on e," said our so urce. . Sha w n Garrigan (Kaw ) was th e winner of th e Funny Bike class at th e IDBA World Final s a t' New Atlanta Dra gwa y i n Commerce, Georg ia , October 20. Garrigan downed Ton y Lang (SUI ) i n the finals . Pro Comp honors went to D ennis M inton (SUI), Pro Stock to William Ziros (SUI), Top Gas to Keith Van Ripe r (SUI) , Su per Comp to Ed Grothus (Ka w), Pro Gas to Randy Smith (SUI ), Super Gas to Kim Dodson ( Ka w) , Super Street to Ye r non Brow (Suz), Super Eliminator to p Jack Daniels (SUI) and ET to Art Schafer (SUI). The California Highway Patrol has o rde red $750 ,000 worth of police motorcycles from Kawasaki. The bikes are built a t Kawasak i's Lincoln , Nebraska, plant. Former National and Supercross Champion Rick Johnson will be campaigning a Nelson & Nelson Racing Chevy Thunder S-IO pickup truck in the 1992 Micke y Thompson Off-Road Grand Prix Series. Mike Craig (Kaw) was the winner of the VI tracross portion of the Micke y Thompson Off-Road Championship ' Grand Pri x Seri es round he ld at Las Vegas, Nevada, Octob er 19. K y le Lewis (Yam) was second, and Larry Brooks (Kaw) finished third. o "' Cl(j ~ Q) ..0 .o ... u o Donn Maeda, Cycle News assistant editor, underwent surgery to repair torn knee ligaments and a broken low er leg on Monday, October 20, in a southern California ho spital. Cards and letters can be sent to Maeda, c/ o Cycle N ews, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801. Over 600 road racers will converge on Georgia 's Road Atlanta for the Metze l e r W E RA G rand National Final and Suzuki National Cup Se ries F inal tha t take place October 30 through Nov ember 3. According to WERA, 28 National Championships will be decided, and $60,000 in cash purses and over $100,000 in co n tin gen cy prizes will be awarded. Gates open for specta tors on Friday at 8:00 a .m . Advance tickets recei ve a $5 di scount and are availa ble at area Ticketmaster outlets, Metro Atlanta Suzuki dealers, or by call ing 80017329383. NAMED: Steve Scheibe as HarleyDavidson 's new manager of racing. Scheib e replaces Bob Conway, wh o ha s taken a positi on in the com pany's service department. Scheibe, 30, has a mechanical engi neeri ng degre e from Michigan T echnological Un iversity, and was form erly em p loyed by ECS/ Roush in the Detroit ar ea wh ere he was involved in a vari ety of performan cerelated projects and was exposed to autom otive race engine technology for five-and-a-half-years. Sch eibe recently finished his third seaso n of road racing, com pe ting in both WERA and AMA/CCS events. CORRECTION: In our coverage of th e September 29 AMA Nationa l Championship Hare Scrambles Seri es round at L ynnvill e, Indi ana , we in correctl y cred i ted John Robbins with sixth overall. Robbins was ninth overall; Gear Ra cewear/Shoei/ Acerbis/ ATK/White Bros. -sponsored Frank Keegan fini shed sixth overal l. Furthermore, the body co py of the rep ort had fifth pl ace fini sher Ethan Goodrich listed as a Yamaha rid er; Goodrich rod e a KTM in the event . M OVE D: Lou 's Leathers, makers of cus tom drag race and dirt track leath-. ers, to 6175 Shangri La Rd. , Milton , FL 3258 3, 90 4/626-1 382, effec tive November 4. CORRECTION: We published an inco rrec t phone number in last week 's newspaper' in a n i te m about th e November 3 J ellico Creek ORV Park Toys for Tots Trail Ride in Tennessee.' For information on the even t, call Richard Price at 615/ 938-2980. 3

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