Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GIN THE WIND By Papa Wealey with T wo Bro th ers Racin g for the 1992 season , ending specu lation that he wo u ld lea ve that team a nd rid e a Du ca ti for Eraldo Ferracci. Spe nce r will ride th e team 's Honda RC30 in th e 1992 AMA Superbik e National Championship. " We' re really happy with Freddie," team o wner Craig Erion said. " He had three other offers and took a 50% pay cut to ride for us. That tell s us hi s loyalty is stro ng." Canadian Steve Crevier will join Spencer o n th e team's Honda RC30s and will also ride a CBR600 in th e AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport Seri es. The team will al so have Rick Kirk aboard a CBR600 and possibl y a Honda RS250 for the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Seri es. Japan 's Takanobu Koyama may return for 1992 if he can get an extension o n his visa. e dus' Repsol H onda crew ch ief, will not be joining Lucky Strike Suzuki in 1992. T he Austra lia n who makes h is home in EI Cajon, California, was offered a con tra ct to work as crew 'chief for Kevin Schwantz for the 1992 seaso n, but con tra ctu al com m itme n ts with Cardus wouldn't allow it. Cardus fin ished third in th e 1991 250cc World. Ch ampionship a nd will be aboard a H onda NSR250 again in '92. According to a press release from Junior Racing, Jacques Guenette, Jr. has resigned from Muuy Kawasaki a nd has obtained a release from Rob Muzzy from his right of first option on Guenette's co ntra ct. The press rel ease sta tes that Guenette does not wish to dis cuss the reasons for his resignation and will entertain other possibilities for the '92 season. Muuy was involved in tire testing in Florida and was unavailable for comment. T he November 16-17 Dunlop t ire test session a t Florida's Daytona Intern at ional Speedway saw II riders from eig h t tea ms tak e part, T he list o f wh o 's wh o in cl uded World Su perbike Ch ampion Doug Polen (Fas t By Ferracci Ducati ), AMA Na tio na l Superbike Cha m p ion Thomas Stevens a n d Larry Schwarzbach (Vance & Hines Yam aha), Daytona 200 winner a n d AMA 600 Su pe rs port cha m p Miguel DuHamel, Tom Kipp a nd Randy Renfrow (Co mmonwealth Honda ), AMA 750 Supersport cha m p Scott Russell (Team Muzzy Kawasak i), and Chris D'Alui si o and n ew teammate Colin Edwards (DavH ar Racin g Yam aha). T he y were joined by Dave DeVeau of T eam Suzuki End ura nce a nd Scott Zampach of th e Jacksonvill e Yam aha endurance team. . Contrary to reports published elsewhere, Kel Carruthers, Carlos Car- " Do ug Pol en was th e workh orse in testing th e Dayton a 200 tires ," said Jim Allen, Dunlo p 's roa d race coordinato r in th e U .S . o n Mon day , November 18, a da y th at saw th e test session sto p ped by rain. " H e ra n steady laps at o ne minute, 50 seco nds, a nd dropped to I:49.40 on a t least two occasio ns. Do ug set th e track record in q ua li fying for thi s year's Daytona 200 a t I:53.638. He'll have to wa it for next Mar ch to put a new mark in th e records. Ch ris D'Aluisio drop ped th e best 250 ti me to I :58.17 wh ich is abo u t a second u nder th at existing record th a t Harald Eckl (1:59.054) set in qualifying for this year's 250 race." T h e engi neeri ng co n ti ngent from Dunl o p a t Da yton a in clud ed , in addition to Allen, D a v e Watkins, Du nl o p Engla nd 's ch ief designer o f G P tires: "Max" Suzuki, th e head o f DO T tire design a t Dunlop J apan, pl us tech n ica l manag er Dave Buck and co n stru cti o n eng i neer Tom Welch from th e Buffalo, New York , o ffices of Dunlop. T he December 6-8 Anaheim International Motorcycle Show at th e Ana hei m Convent ion Center will feature ex hi bi ts o f th e n ew 1992 m otorcycl es by BMW, H arl e yDav idson, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki a nd Yam aha. AMA members receive $1 off th e admission price by pr esenting the ir membership ca rds a t th e.box o ffice. Just a rem inder that Cycle Gear will host a free Off-Road Show and Enduro Seminar in Walnu t Creek, Ca liforn ia , on Saturday , December 7. The sem inar wi ll in clude gues t speak ers, incl ud ing National Rel iability Enduro Ch ampion Larry Roeseler, th ree-time National Enduro Cham pion Randy Hawkins , 1987 Enduro Champion Kevin Hines, two-tim e Na tional Reli ability Enduro Ch ampi on Dave B e r t r a m , multi-time ISDE go ld medalist Malcolm Smith, Czech oslovak ian End uro Champion Bohumil "Bubba" P osledni, Suzu ki's Charles Halcomb a nd eigh ttim e Women's Na tional MX Ch am pi on Mercedes Gonzalez. They'll di scu ss ridi ng techniques a nd ra ce ta cti cs a n d will be a va i la b le fo r a u togra p hs. For mor e in forma tion call 510/ 236-7384. Randy Hawkins, factory Kawa sak i MX er Jeff Matiasevich , Jack Ward (the father of multi-time Supercross and National MX Champion Jeff Ward ), helmet painter Troy Lee, " MX Profess or" Gary Bailey, Smith Goggles' Hook a nd Rich Taylor, THOR's Bob Maynard a nd MX , promot er Goat Breker wer e just som e of th e bi g nam es in th e motorcycle industry th at took part in the inaugural Pro Circuit Golf Clas sic - - - - - - Con tinued on page 3 ROAD RACE ThefutureofGP road racing The dayafter FIMaccepts therole of"sportingsupervisor" in the Ecdestone Doma-IRTA World Championship RoadRacing Series By Dennis Noyes t a meeting in London, England, on Friday, November 15, the FIM signed yet another last-minute co m p r o m ise a greement with th e organizers and promot ers of the breaka wa y World Championship Road Ra ce Series. Will th is o ne stick or will th e latest agreem ent be just a no ther Beruit ceasefire that will last until th e fir st militiaman ge ts an itch y trigger finger? After an a mazing turnab out at last month 's FIM Congress in New Zeal and wh ere FIM President Jos P. Vaessen urged th e Gen eral Assem bly to reject an agreeme nt th a t he himself had sought and sig ned in Bar celona , it see med as if war was in ev it ab le. Vaessen told th e press tha t th e ma iler was clos ed , that there would be no Iuther negotiations. Ho wever, it was a pparent to FIM First Vice Presid ent Francesco Zerbi a nd, in fact, to .almost everyo ne else o n both sid es, that th e FIM , in rejecting the agreement with Two Wh eel Pro m otions (Bernie Eccl esto ne's co mp an y) a n d Dorn a P rom oci o n de l Dep orte, had pu t the mselves into an im possi ble si tuation . For Vaessen, wi tho u t Dorna and without the su pport o f the teams and riders, to ta ke on th e break aw a y seri es was like a kid A 2 on a scooter playing ch icken ' with a Greyhound bus. Although th e FIM cla imed to be prepared to run its 16 ra ce sch edule in sp ite of the fact th at virt ua lly all major teams and top rider s were co n t rac ted to Internati onal Race T eams Associa tion (IRT A) and th e breakaway seri es, th e real ity was th at th e FIM World Ch ampionship was dead in th e wat er. T he FIM was reduced to a spoi ler's ro le. T hey cou ld n 't win, but th ey cou ld hinder th e o ther side by crea ting legal obs tacles that would prevent the break aw a y organizers from ga in ing access to some of the wor ld 's best mo torcycle racing circu its. T he fact that IRT A had not yet a nnounced a definitive schedu le cl early co n fi rm ed suspi ci on s th a t several established Gr and Prix circu its , such as Assen a nd Suzuka were still co mmit ted to th e FIM . O n th e very day of the London meet in g, IRTA issued a press release, carr ied by th e Reuters wire service, a n nou nci ng th a t th e d efinitive sc hed u le o f th e World Cha m pi onsh ip would be a n no u nced on November 29. T he Lo ndon agreeme nt ·Iim its th e FIM to th e role o f " sport ing supervisor" in th e Ecclesto ne-Dorna-I RTA orga nized Road Raci ng Worl d Cham- pionship. While this co nstitu tes a co n siderab le loss in prestige and a uthority for the FIM co mpared to their dominant rol e in th e past, it does mean th at th ere is, in fact, life aft er New Zealand for th e proud old federa tion which was founded in 1904. So me FIM hard-liners will sa y 'tha t the FIM has su ffered a hum il iating defea t. IR TA lead ers believe th at the FIM execu tives sho uld co nsider themselves lu cky even to be inv olved in the Eccl eston e-D orna-IRTA World Ch ampi onship. History will be the fin al judge o f Vaessen 's performance as FIM Presid ent during th e year 199J. H er e is h ow th e ex t rao rdi n a ry London meeting came about and what th e FIM 's accep ta nce of a supervisory position in Grand Prix motorcycle racing reall y means. ••• When the FIM del egates returned from New Zeal and, convin ced that th ey had tak en a decisiv e sta nd in defense o f th e honor a nd authority of the FIM , th ey found that th e European motorcycl ing press, with very few exceptions, co nsidered th at th e FIM had sq ua n d ered a n exce llen t o p port u n i ty to ac h ieve peace with honor. The FIM had once again , a p parently , seized defeat from th e jaws o f victo ry. T he y had blo wn it big time. This is wh at the papers were sayi ng and th is is even w h at some h igh -r ank i n g FIM members were sayi ng as wel l. Top European riders from co u n tries wh ere th e FIM is very stro ng were now say in g tha t the FI M wa s h istory. Italian riders told Ita lian journalists that th ey didn't ca re what Francesco Zerbi a nd Vin cenzo Mazzi (Presiden t a nd Gen eral Secreta ry of th e Italian Fed eration, resp ective ly) sa id, they were ra cin g in " t he rea l World Ch ampionshi p ." Perhaps th e most a m using publ ic exchange o n this su bjec t took pl ace at a motors p orts a wards banquet in Barcelo na. T he king of Sp ain, Don J ua n Carlos, a n ac tive motorcyclis t and knowledgable road race fan put Repsol H onda factory 250cc rider Carlos Cardus on the spot by asking him, " Ca rlos, which cha mp ionship are you participating in next year?" This was a very difficult moment for Carlos because th e Spanish Federation is officially named "T he Ro yal Spanish Federat ion of Motorcycling," and Ca rlos was not pr epared to tell th e king o f Spain th at he was go ing to break fro m the Royal Federation. Carlos responded , " I ' m raci ng in the cham pionship th at Carmelo tell s me to race in." " Who 's Carmelo?" said th e King, and looked abo u t him for instruction from his aides. But it was World Champion Rally Driver Carlos Sainz who stepped in quickly to explain that Carmelo Ezpeleta is the director of Dorna Motor, th e Dorna su bsid iary company formed to market road racing TV rights. Sito Pons, who has announced his retirement and has signed form er 125cc World Champion Alex Criville to rid e the 500cc Campsa Hondas of Pons' team, exp lained, " We have not left the FIM. The FIM has a ba ndo ned us, expelled IRTA, a nd left us with no ch oice but to jo in th e p rofessional ch am p ionship organ ized by Ecclestone and Dorna." Meanwhile in Rom e, Zerb i told the Italian p ress th at th e post-New Zealand sit ua tio n was impossibl e a nd tha t he was taking it upon hi mself to a ttempt to nego tiat e a compromise with Ecclesto ne . tha t wou ld satisfy th e racing teams while a t the sam e time allow the FIM to reta in its dignity. When th e Italian press reached Ecclesto ne and asked for co mment on Zerbi 's proposal, he gave them th e quote o f th e year: "My door is always ope n to th e FIM as long as th ey come through it o n their kn ees and remain o n th eir knees throu gh out th e . meeting." So much for th e dignity o f th e FIM . . . - - - - - - Continued on page 24

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