Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1992 01 15

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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~ INTHEWIN By Papa Wealey D e Erik Kehoe (Ho n) was th e overa ll win ner of a three-day supercross event in Dortmund, Germ an y, Jan uary 3-5. U lt racro ss Champion Mike Craig won the first n igh t of competition, Keh oe scored the victory the second nigh t and Mike J ones (Suz) won the fin al day. J ones was the runner-up in the o vera ll standings and Crai g was third overa II. Dou g Henry (Yam) topped Fred Andrews (Suz) and B rian McElroy (Suz) in the 250cc Pr o class at ro und two of th e Florida Winter AMA MX Series J anuar y 4-5 in Coco a, Florida . Vince DeVane (Suz) won the 125cc Pro class, Timmy Ferry ( Ka w ) fini sh ed seco n d o vera ll a n d Jeff Curry (Kaw) rounded ou t the top three finishers. Norwegian Roy S n e llinge n (Su z) topped the 125cc Pro class at round tw o o f th e CMC G olden State Nationals , held in Marysvill e, California. Tyson Vohland (Yam ) was th e winner in the 250cc Pro class, while Carlo Hulsen (H o n) scored the 500cc . Pro win . R e x Staten (Hon) swept the Vet Pro clas s. Round two of the GFI California Winter - MX Series North, sche duled to take pl ace January 5 in H ollister , Ca liforn ia, was ra ined o u t. The event has been rescheduled for J anuary 19. Ha If o f th e sec o nd round o f th e sou thern portion of the GFI California Winter MX Series scheduled for January 5 at Perri s Ra ceway was also postponed du e to rain. Beginner, No vice and 25+ classes were abl e to co m p lete th eir rno tos o n Satu rday, but rain for ced the Intermediate , Pro , Vet and Old Timers classes to be rescheduled to February 1. The date for th e Dallas S upercross, h-eld in T exa s Stad ium, has been changed from May 2 to May 30. The event is round 14 of th e Cam el Supercross Series. Dan Ingram will contest the '92 Ca me l P ro Series aboard H ondas fielded by M&M Racing. The team, wh ich is owned by Mike Morr of Broomfield, Colo rado, will field a pair of RS750s and a 600 for In gram. Morr purch ased the tri o of Hondas from Skip Eaken. For the pas t severa l years , Ea ken, in partnership with Mike Spo nse ller under th e Eaken - Sponseller Racing ban ner, field ed the Hon das fo r the li kes of Ingra m, Ricky Graham and La rry Pegra m. Eake n and Sponseller anno unced late last year th a t they'll field a Harl eyDavidson XR 750, with major backing from Texas H arl ey-Davidso n , for Pegram this year. " I called Skip and sa id I wa s i nteres ted in ge tti ng invo lved wit h the team ," said Mo rr. " He said, 'Why don 't you buy the bik es?' So I did." T he Vintage Dirt Track Racers Association (VDTRA) wi ll hold its awards banquet, in co nj u nctio n wi th the Kansas Mo torcycle Sportsma n Association ban quet, at the Holido me in Manhattan, Kansas, on Saturday J anuary 25. Other news from the VDTRA has th e Febru ary 23 indoor short track scheduled for February 23 at Columb ia , Mi sso uri , bein g ch a nged fr om a Nationa l to a Regional. That cha nge came abo u t after Motorsports America determ ined there would not be sufficient pit area spa ce for a Nati onal. For more infor mation, call 918/445-0671. Three-time World Ch ampion Kenny Robe rts celebrated hi s 40th birthday on New Year 's Eve. Belated happy birthday, champ! Amon g the prizes awarded to Brandy (tha t's it, folk s, no last name) for bein g named Penthouse ma gazin e's 1992 P e t of the Year was a Suzuki GS500E. Brand y, who went by the nam e of J isel (yep , no last nam e) wh en she ma de her first ap pea rance in Penthou se in May 1990, recently visited American Suzuki's California head q uarters to take deliv ery of the bik e. " I like this," Brandy said. " I found out I won the bike and I th ou ght, ' Wo w, tha t's great. ' " Amon g her ot her prizes were a new helm et and free admission to th e Mot or cycl e Sa fety Fo u nda tio n Rid erCourse. After seven years of co-sanctioni ng of froad races in Nevada, Ca lifornia and Mexico, th e High Desert Racing Association (HDRA) and Southern California Off- R oa d Enterprise (SCORE) have parted comp any . Accordi ng to HDRA's Dan ny Coe, the spli t was for financia l reasons o nly and was not a bitter one between HDRA and SCO RE. " If you looked at our sched ule last year, you 'd see tha t we had o nly one (of four) rac e(s) betw een October and Jul y, that left o nly o ne source of income in nin e New owners nut KIM back on track s reported in our last issue, in late November, 1991 , KTM Austria filed for bankruptcy pro tection and an offer and opera tio na l concep t had been presented to a trustee to tak e over the Spo rt mo torcycle division of the firm . On Decemb er 30, 1991, there was an officia l takeover of the division. . The new o wnershi p gr oup cons ists of five Eu ro pean KTM distri but ors, a Swiss' investment group, and severa l memb ers of the previou s KTM man agement team , all of who had experience in the Spo rt mo torcycle di vision. Accor din g to a press release issued by KTM America, the takeo ver was acco mp lished wi tho ut any int err up tio n in bus iness at the KTM factory in Austri a. T he n ew co m pany, KTM Sp ortmot orcycle Ges mb H- Internat iona l, will concentra te on the development an d worldwide sales of their motocross, enduro and four-stroke LC4 models. Acco rdi ng to Rod Bush , president of KT M America, " Management is confident that by focu sin g solely on the productio n and development of sport mo tor cycles, it will ens ure a stro nger company and maintain the reputation KTM has for bu ildin g hi gh quality, perfo rman ce machines." Production operatio ns at th e KTM factory have resumed as pl anned foll owi ng the factory's normal Ch ristm as holiday break. Some restructuring will take place at KTM America in or der to meet the goals of th e new parent company. " However, the deli very of spare parts, motorcycles and services to KTM dealers an d customers will conti nue at the cu rre nt sta ndards," Bush said . It has also been confirmed tha t factory KTM motocrosser Mike Fisher and AMA Nationa l Enduro Champion J eff Russe ll wi ll again pursue the ir racin g efforts on KTM in 1992. A 2 National revlaces G Laguna Seca Pat I t's officia l. After hosting a motorcycle Grand Prix for the past fou r years, th e U.S. and Laguna Seca International Ra cewa y will not host a ro und of the World Cha mpionship Road Race Series in 1992. . Accordi ng to th e AMA, Laguna Seca dropped pl ans for the '92 U.S. GP " when it becam e im possibl e to agree on a race date and ot her condi tio ns imposed by series administra tors." Those "other condi tio ns " are said to be a $1 million fee and no signage rights. In other wor ds, th e Bernie Eccelston e led gr oup tha t now controls motorcycle Grand Prix roa d racin g, T wo Wh eel Promotions, requires that race promoters pa y the ,SI mi llio n to host the race and mu st either pro vide TWP with a sig nfree race track or pay an addi tio na l $500,000 to keep wh at ever signage exists a t the race track (i.e, Dunlop br idges, Marlboro billboards, etc.), Lee Moselle, the managing director of SCRAMP (Spo rts Car Racin g Association of th e Monte rey Pen in sul a) said the signage cla use was impossible to work with. "That became impossibl e," Moselle said. " We have o uts tandin g, long-term contracts with peo p le who have becom e o ur good friends and su ppo rters. We could n 't go back to those people and ask for more money. " I'm sor ry to see the race go because we've put a lot of money and effort into it. We were given the sam e dat e, but wh en th e FIM became involved in negotiations wi th Bern ie Eccelsto ne and Dorna we were told to ren egotiate with Bernie Eccelstone. We did , but the date didn 't work and th ey had o ther demands that we couldn' t acco mmodate," The loss of the race is a bl ow to American road racing fans , wh o now lose o u t o n the o ppo rt unity to see the world's best race at Laguna. " I' m very di sappointed th at we can't race in America ," two-time World Cha mpion and three-time U.S. GP winner Wayne Rainey said, "It was my home race and the o n ly opport unity I had to race in front of American race fans now I don 't have that chance. I don 't know if it was money, or a calendar problem, I don 't know the details, I just know that it 's off - and that's a shame." The o nly bri ght new s to co me from the an no unce ment is that Laguna Seca will host a ro und of th e AMA Superbike National Ch ampionship on April 2426. The AMA ha sn 't held a National event at -the northern California facility since 1987; the AMA first held a race at the northern Cal ifornia facility in 1972. " My regret is tempered by th e fact th at we will con tin ue with the AMA and run the T oyo ta Grand Prix of Laguna Seca, ' Moselle said. "It will be one hell of an even t and we'll be back in full force with a bigger and better AMA program tha n we've ever had. Our hope is th at Laguna Seca will be synonymous with first-clas s motorcycle racin g." Laguna Seca and the AMA, though, apparently aren 't th e on ly on es having problems with the new Eccelstone/Dorna/FIM tri angle. The French Motorcycling Federation issued a strongl y worded stat eme nt to th e press o n January 2, calling upon the FIM and national federations to drop plans to run the 1992 Grand Prix Cha mpions hip with the new group. T he reaction from the French federation comes three weeks after organizers of the Paul Ri card and .Le Mans circuits flatly told other race organizers at a pre-Chris tmas meeting of the Roadrace Organizers' and Promoters' Association (R OPA) that th e o nly way to stop Eccelstone and Dorna would be a united stand by ROPA. Italian organizer Maurizio Flammini su ppo rted th e French and said that under the co nditions offered by Eccelstone, th e Flammini Group would " no longer be in the Grand Prix bu siness." H owever, most of the ROPA representatives p resent, whi le sho wing sym pathy for the French position, ad m itt ed that they had already signed con trac ts or pre-contracts with TWP. Circuits and organ izers that ha ve already sig ned contrac ts are Suzuka (Japan ), Eastern Creek (Aus tra lia), Sh ah Alam (Ma laysia ), Hockenheim (Germany), Jerez and Catal u nya (Spain), Kyalami (Sout h Africa) and Donington Park (England). Eccelstone himself is said to be th e or ganizer of the GPs scheduled for Hungaroring (H ungary), Spa -Fra nco rcham ps (Belgi u m ) and Interlagos (Brazil), so it appears that TWP is very close to hav ing the 14-race GP sched ule consi dered ideal by IRTA and the sponsor associatio n. mo nths. T ha t's not enoug h cash flow.• So, we had to sp lit lrom SCO R E and ru n six of ou r own races in th e '92 schedule. The events will be spread throug ho ut th e year with a t least six weeks in between races, wh ich will give the racers am p ie time to get th eir mac hi nery read y for each race." On ly two of the HDRA events in '92 will incl ude mo torcycle 'e n tries: the Nevada 500, May 9-11, and the Color Country Runoffs, Aug us t 1. SCO RE will host four events in '92, all will include mo torcycles. Ontario High Schoo l in Ontar io , California, is o fferi ng a cert ificate program in motorcycle mechanics to all Cal ifornia residents, age 16 and over, free of charge, T he state-funded vocation al tra in ing program provides instruction in mot orcycle and sma ll eng i ne repa ir from a ce rti fied mech an ic/ins tructor. The course is spo nsored by the Sta te of Ca lifornia an d the Baldy View Regio nal Occu pa tio na l Program. For mo re in formation, call ·714/ 624-0063 or 714/ 9888511, extensio n 145. Ca lifornia 's No rt h Orange Cou nt y Regional Occupational Program is offering a tuitio n-free m otorcycle rep air c o u rse a t both Fullerton High School and Buena Park High Sch ool. Enrollment priority is given to hi gh school students, but adults residing in north Orange County are also eli gibl e, For further information call 714/77 6-7292. West Vall ey Occupational Center in Woodland Hills, California, is a lso offeri ng motorcycle m e chanic s training. T he classes will be h eld Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p .m. begi n n in g February 13. Regi strati on starts o n January 29 and costs $30. For mor e informa tio n, call 818/3 46-3540. T he outgo ing head of the Nation al High way Traffi c Safety Administratio n (N H TSA) has commended th e motorcycle com munity for its efforts to im prove mo tor cycle safety du rin g 1991. In annou nci ng a drop in th e nati on al traffic fatali ty toll this year, NHTS A Ad m i n is tra tor Jerry R . Curry told a ro undta ble group of sa fety a na lysts th at m otor cycl ist s deserve a sha re o f th e cre d i t for

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