Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTHEWIND ~ "' C\.l 1""""1 By Papa Wealey Mike Brown (Hon) was the overall winner i? the 125cc Pro class at round six of theGFI Winter MX Series South, held at Perris Raceway in Perris, California. Ryan Hughes (Kaw) was second overall with Erik Hilton (Yam) finishing third. Mike Chamberlain (Yam) scored the 250cc Pro class win, Craig Dack was second (Ya m) and Terry Fowler (Yam) third. Mike Healey (Suz) scored the 125cc Pro class win at round 5 of the CMC Golden State MX Nationals South, held at Barona Oaks Raceway in Ramona, California. Michele Monti (Hon) was second overall , while Donald Upton (Hon) rounded out the top three. Larry Brooks (Yam ) , scored th e 250cc Pro class win ahead of Bader Manneh (Hon) and Ray Crumb (Kaw), while Rex Staten (Hon ) topped Tim Telford (Hon) and Steve Drew (ATK) in the 500cc Pro class. Tallon Volhand (Suz) was the 125cc Pro class winner at round five of the CMC Golden State MX Nationals North, held at Silverstate Raceway in Carson City, Nevada. Rodney Smith (Suz) was second, with Scott Myers (Kaw) third. Smith topped Vohland for the 250cc Pro class win , while Myers was again third. Carlo Hulsen (Hon) won th e 500cc Pro ' class, with Ron Allen (H o n) second and Marc Peters (Hon) third. James Sherrill of Hillsboro, Tennessee, is the grand prize winner of our 1992 Daytona Sweepstakes. Sherrill has won the TravelCraft Bike Week Package that includes roundtrip airfare for two to Daytona via US Air; six days/five nights lodging for two at H oward Johnson's Hotel; use of a rental car ; two VIP tickets to the Budweiser 600cc Dirt Track National, Camel Pro National Kickoff, Daytona Supercross by Honda, and the 51st Daytona 200 by Arai; and a on e-year subscription to Cycle News. Patricia "PJ" Jackson of Stevens, Pennsylvania, is th e winner of the second prize, a 1992 Honda Cub and a one-year Cycle New s subscription. Larence K. Porschien of Hollywood, California, is the third prize winner. He'll receive twoArai helmets and a one-year Cycle News subscription. The sixth round of the CMC/Valvoline Golden State Nationals which was scheduled for February 15-16 at Huron Cycle Park in Huron, California, has been changed to a one-day event -All classes will run on Sunday, February 16. The following weekend's round at Glen Helen OHV Park in San Bernardino remains a two-day event. Metzeler will continue its support of AHRMA this year with a contingency program for National Championship vintage road racing and motocross, as well as for AHRMA Regional Championship road racing. The program awards certificates redeemable toward the purchase of Metzeler tires, paying down as far as 10th place at Nationals. The payouts range from $80 for a win to $25 for fourth through 10th place finishes at National events in selected classes. At. Regional road races, the program , covers the first five finishers. For more information, contact AHRMA at 715/ 842-9699. 2 Motolink, Inc., promoters of the U.S. 500cc MX GP , have formed Motolink Off-Road Events (MORE) as a separate company that will promote MX, hare scrambles, enduros, dual sport events , etc. The first offering will be the four round MORE Four-Stroke Pro MX Series which will be staged in California. The opening round, the White Bros. Four-Stroke World Classic, will run in conjunction with the U.S. GP at Glen Helen OHV Park in San Bernardino on April 5. The White Bros. Four-Stroke World Championship at Perris Raceway will be the second round. Round three will be held in conjunction with the Mammoth Mountain MX on June 27, and the series will conclude with th e final round taking place at th e Commotion By The Ocean MX at Carl sbad. For more information, call 602/948-4137. Eight-time ISDE gold medalist Dick Burleson and Alan Randt, manager of the victorious 1991 American Junior Trophy Team, will be conducting a two-day ISDE Training Camp at Jellico Creek OHV Park in Winfield, Tennessee, on March 21-22. All aspects of ISDE competition and the American IS DE Qualifying Series will b e covered. Subj ects include the selection process, scoring, speci a l tests, tir e changing, motorcycle preparation and riding technique in struction . A rib boned grass track will be used for practice and training, and the organizers promise "gruel in g trail for technique and instruction , and simulated checkpoints." T he camp's cost is $100 per rider. For more information, call Burleson at 616/223-4675 or Randt at 517/393-2421. After six years aboard Honda RS750s, dirt tracker Ronnie Jones is switching to a Harley-Davidson XR750. The former Garvis Honda Town rid er will campaign the 1992 Camel Pro Series aboard an XR owned by Charlie Gardner, who has fielded eq uip ment for such riders as the late Steve Eklund and most recently Rodney Farris. Bill Weibler will spin the wrenches for the team. " I would've roughed it out on Hondas without a complete (sponsorship) program, but their lack of interest and involvement really turned me off," said Jones, who had offers to compete aboard two different Hondas throughout the season . " I saw no sens e in beating my head against the wall, so I'm gonna go back to Harleys. I know there 'll be some adjusting to do, but I'm sure I can adapt. I'm just going to set out to do bett er each race.. . stay positive and win some races." And speaking of Jones, we were wrong when we reported that his wife, Trina Jones.was expecting in March. " Not until Mayl" said Jones. "We just had an ultrasound done. The doctor said not to paint the room pink yet, but they think it 's a girl." Two-time 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey turned lap times in the one-minute, 25-second range at the Shah Alam circuit in Mal aysia last week, despite considering himself only 65% fit. Rainey, who suffered a badly broken leg at Shah Alam at the end , of September while testing for the Malaysian GP, was within a halfsecond of John Kocinski 's lap record. Rainey participated in the Team Marlboro Roberts test with the footpegs far forward and the seat raised almost a n- inch in order to compensate for the lack of flexibility in his right knee. Rainey believes he will be 90% fit by the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29. John Kocinski, meanwhile, clocked a I:24.9 at the Shah Alam circuit after Brainerd says no to World Superbike, 0Dts for AMA National ot on the heels of the announcement that there will not be an FIM Grand Prix road race at Laguna Seca this year comes word that Brainerd International Raceway has been forced into pulling the plug on its round of the World Championship Superbike Series. . According to BIR 's vice presiden t/general manager Dick Rowe, in addition to a 7.5% purse increase that the circuit had agreed to, the FIM upped the ante an other $100,000-$125,000 in airline tickets and freight costs. " In addition to the purse increase we were suddenly expected to pay for 60 roundtrip airline tickets and 10,000 kilos (22,000 pounds) of freight," Rowe said. " We absolutely could not justify this type of an increase." Last year BIR paid the purse, FIM sanction fees, AMA sanction fees and $36,108 in travel expenses to riders and their team s. The $36,108, however , came to BIR fro m the Flammini Group, the series promoters. All BIR had to do was convert the Swiss francs to U.S. dollars and distribute the money; For this year's event , the $100,000-$125,000 was in addition to the Flammini money and was to be paid by BIR. "T h is year is the last year of a , three-year agreement between Flammini and th e FIM," Row e said. " Maybe they (Flamm in i) are having financial problems and are trying to put it on the non-European races. Maybe this was a way of cu tting costs. Maybe they wanted us to drop the event, but it 's definitely not ' a World Championsh ip." Brainerd will now host the fifth round of the AMA National Championship Road Race on June 12-14. "We elected on Friday (January 31) to go with a complete AMA Na tional event. We reall y, really enjoyed the association (with World Superbike). They are the neatest group of riders and crews ... We look forward to a very good event with the AMA. Between Roger (Edmondson ) and Bill Boyce, they are just neat people to work with. Hopefully, we'll be able to retain the same spo nsors s-> Honda and Yamaha - to present the event." With the addition of the Brainerd event , the AMA National Championship Road Race Series will now consist Of nine rounds, beginning March 8 with the Daytona 200 at Daytona ' Int ernational Speedway and ending October 4 at Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas. H puttin g in some 400 laps on the 1992 Yamaha YZR500. The time equalled his pole position earning time at the Malaysian Grand Prix in September. The team, though, still hasn 't made a tire choice after testing both Dunlop and Michelins in Malaysia. The IRTA (International Race Teams Associati on) Gen eral Assembly held last week at the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, was att ended by two of the three men who hold the key to the future of Grand Prix road racing, Bernie Eccelstone, owner of Two Wheel Promotions and Richard Golding, CEO of Dorna. They confirmed by their presence and statements that the 1992 World Championship will be held with or without the FIM and that the third man in the triangle, Jos Vaessen of th e FIM, had until February. 5 to o fficia lly announce th e schedule. Vaessen had been invited to the meeting, but said he was unable to attend because of his responsibilities a s director of th e Dutch Driving Li cense Bureau. Bernie Eccelstone confirmed that there were still no signed contracts for th e French, Italian and Dutch Grands Prix and that the Austrian GP at Salzburg was in doubt. There is, however, a con tract with the organizers at Brno in Czechslovakia and negotia tions are in progress to run the Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring near Budapest. The points paying system for the 1992 World Championship Road Race series has changed. While all races will now count toward the championship, only the top 10 riders will score points and the difference between first and second place is now five points rather than three. The point system is as follows: 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, I. The new system applied to last year's 500cc World Championship would have given the title to ,Wayne Rainey over Michael Doohan, 218-213. Under the 1991 system with the worst two scores thrown out, Rainey beat Doohan, 233-224. Other changes to Grand Prix racing that came out of the Geneva IRTA meeting include a staggered four-four system of gridding riders. Surprisingly, the traditional black, blue and yellow number backgrounds for the 125, 250 and 500cc classes, respectively, will 'no longer be required. Teams can ' paint their bikes anyway they wish as long as the number is easily readable against a contrasting background. Our In The Wind item in the January 29 issue incorrectly stated tha t' the AMA National Championship Road Race Series will be televised' in five, 60-minute shows. The series will actually consist of 10,6O-minute shows on Prime Network; only the Daytona 200 will air on The Nashville Network (TNN). According to reports from Europe, four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson and his Cagiva teammate Alex Barros will use Dunlop tires during the 1992 Grand Prix season. Former Wo"rld Champion Kork BalIington WIll be on hand at Daytona this year as a team owner. Ballington's team will debut Kawasaki 's new 250cc two-stroke twin in the International Lightweight lOOK on Sunday, March 7. The Ballington Team Kawasaki squad will be made up of South African 250cc National Champion Trevor Crooke and Japan's Yoshi Takahashi. British broadcaster Chris Carter and Californian William Word, the director of the 1991 World Superbike Championship TV films, will host a course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 27 to teach riders, mechanics and crew chiefs how to cope with interview situations. The course will feature a TV studio-like setting, complete with cameras, lights and microphones and, after instruction

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