Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GINTHEWIND By Papa Wealey Greg Albertijn (Hon) becam e the first South African to win a 125cc MX Grand Prix when he won the opening round of the World Championship 125cc MX Serie s March 29 in Jerez , Spain. Fren chman Yves Demaria (Suz) finished seco nd overall and former 125 and 250cc World Champion John Van den Berk (Suz) was third. American Tallon Vohland sat ou t the race du e to a hand injury su££ered th e previous week. e ~ 00 Scott Summers (H o n) wa s the 'o vera ll winner of the co m b ine d Nati onal Ch ampionship Hare Scrambles/Cross Country Series in Hurrica ne Mills, T ennessee, Mar ch 29. Scott Plessinger (KT M) finished second with Larry Roeseler (Kaw), Duane Conner (Kaw ) and Kurt Hough (Kaw) rounding out the top five, respectively. Team Suzuki Endurance (Su z) won the second round of th e WERA Vanson/PM Nation al Endurance Series at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway in Talladega, Alabama, March 28. Kurt Hall and Michael Martin combined to beat DAK Racing (Suz) by seven laps in the six-hour race. Moto Sport Racing (Suz) finished third, one lap behind DAK Racing. Motorcyclists have another ally in the effort to repeal a federal measure designed to blackmail states into pa ssing mandatory helmet laws. The measure, passed as part of the federal highway funding bill , requires states to pass helmet laws for all . motorcyclists or lose control over a portion of their highway construction spending. According to the AMA, Representative Scott Klug (RWisconsin) has introduced House Resolution 4226 that would retain all the same provisions but only require states to pass helmet laws for those under the age of 21 as well as those wi th less than two years riding experience. Due LO a pending budget crunch, the state of California is poised to force o££-highway enthusiasts to loan over $12 million of the state's O£(Highway Vehicle or "Green Sticker" fund to the state's Department of Parks and Recreation, which is facing a projected $30 million deficit. The State Senate's budget subcommittee passed its proposal on March 24, and an Assembly budget panel approved its own version several weeks ago. A final version with other budget issues will be sent to Governor Pete Wilson for action. Both proposals would require the state to reimburse the fund, and include a $1.2 million introductory funding plan for the proposed Otay Mesa OHV Park near San Diego. The California Senate' s Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee approved a measure that would r e n e w the state's OHV "Green Sticker" program and extend its funding arrangement. The program faces a "sunset" clause that would eliminate it unless renewed by the state legislature before then end of 1992. The Senate's renewal bill would continue the sunset provision for another five years , but includes a forced-loan provision that would take an additional $2.5 million from the OHV fund and apply it the Department of Parks and Recreation 's '92 budget shortfall. 2 P eter Bolt , managing editor of Great Britain's Motor Cycle News, was killed instantly in a road crash on Monday night, March 23. Bolt , 32, was on his way home on a Honda CBR900RR when he crashed into the rear 'o f a van only four miles from the newspaper's headquarters in Kettering, Northants, England. He joined Motor Cycle News in 1983 'and progressed through the ranks to become managing editor. He was appointed editor in November, 1989. A staunch road race fan , Bolt attended Daytona with his family thi s year and was the force behind Team MCN that compe ted there. Bolt is surv ived by his wife Dawn, and two sons, Joseph , 9, and Daniel, 6. Approximately 80% of the 240 bikes entered in th eJ. Wood & Co. au ction at Daytona during Cycle Week were taken home by new owners. T opping the list were a pair of British bik es tha t brought $26,000 ea ch . First to co m ma nd th at figure wa s a 1924 Brough Superior SS-80 a nd nex t to go was a 1951 Vincent Black Shadow. Several Aerma chi-built Harl ey-Davidson two -stroke ro ad racers of th e seventies went for impressive figures: a 1976 RR500 brought $20,000, and a '74 RR250 went for $14,000. J erry Wood 's next auc tion will take place at Charlotte over th e AMA National Championship Road Race Series weekend, May 1-3. California Superbike School founder Keith Code has -decided to return to racing and will be contesting both the AMA 250cc Grand Prix and WERA FII series. Code, 47, will ride the 1991 TZ250 Yamaha that . Donnie Gre ene rode to the WERA titie last year and will be backed by Dianetics, the California Superbike School, Dunlop, and AGV. Greene will continue to be a member of the team , which Code will manage. Code last raced in 1979aboard a Vetter superbike. "Part of the truth is' that I couldn't think of any reason not to do it," said Code, who was at the Japanese GP in Suzuka helping Doug Chandler. " Road racing is 90% a mental sport, and since I retired I've done nothing but think about racing. It's way easier to ride now because I understand it. I found out I'm a way better rider than when I was racing." The racing will also serve as research for "Twist of the Wrist-Volume 2" which Code has been working on for six years. Since beginning his comeback, he's won two Over-40 races at Willow Springs International Raceway and finished fifth and fourth in two 250cc races. Australian Kevin M a gee rode ' the first practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix on March 27, then opted not to race. Magee, who will be contesting the Japanese 500cc Championship aboard a Yamaha YZRSOO sponsored by Japanese Telecom, was riding with injuries he'd su££ered two weeks earlier in a practice crash for the first Japanese race at Mine and found he wasn 't competitive. "I rode this morning and as everybody got faster I found I couldn't hang on," Magee said. "I really wanted to ride , but my gut feeling was to park it." The crash at Mine had come earl y in Friday morning's session on cold tires and had left him wi th a broken left collarbone, which was plated and pinned, and a cracked bone in his right hand. "My bas ic aim is to win th e Japanese championship and get good results in the GPs I ride . Here , I had everything to lose and nothing to gain." The choice this year for Magee was between a second-rate 500cc GP rid e or a factory ride in the 12-race Japanese series, and he chose the latter. He'll also do the Suzuka 8-Hour on a factory Yamaha. The race at Mine was rained out, so Magee didn 't lose any ground in the championship. Doohan wins wet JaDanese GP oDener ichael Doohan prevailed against the elements and the rest of the 500cc GP field as he rode his Rothmans Honda to victory in the season op en ing Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Japan , March 29. Doohan won th e 22-lap race, held in a dri vin g rainstorm, after .taking the lead from Cal ifornian Doug Cha ndler on the eigh th lap. The Australian th en pulled away to win by 28 seconds, giving Hon da its first-ever 500cc J apanese GP victory. Ch andler held on to fini sh second in hi s debut ride aboard the Lu cky Strik e Suzuki; it was the 1990 AMA Superbikc National Champion's bestever G P finish. Third pl ace went to hi s T exan teamma te Kevin Schw an tz with J apan 's HRCbacked Shi nich i Ito finishing fourth. Fifth pl ace c +::..-._· _ went .to Budw eiser Yamaha 's Randy Mamola , in h is return to racing after a one. . year hiatus. Defending World Champion Wayne Rainey and hi s Marlboro Yamaha teammate J ohn Kocin ski both crashed out of the GP, but escaped injury. Rothman s Honda's Wayn e Gardner, though, wasn 't as fortun ate. The forme r 500cc World Champion crashed on the 19th lap and suffered compo und fractures to his lower right leg. Cal ifornian Edd ie Lawson fin ished 14th on the factory Cagiva. Using the new point paying structure of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, Doohan leads Chandler in the 500cc World Ch ampionship, 20-15; Schw antz lies third with 12 points. . . The 250cc GP , also held in appalling conditions, was won by defending World Champion Luca Cadalora. The Ita lian and hi s Rothmans Honda topped Japan's T ad ayuki Ok ada (Hon) and Nobuatsu Aoki (Hon). Last year's championship runner-up, Helmut Brad l, finished fourth on the HB Honda with Aprilia's PierFrancesco Chili finishing fifth . Austri an Ralf Waldmann rode hi s Zwafink Racing-backed Honda to victory in th e 125cc GP. Waldmann topped Aprilia 's Bruno Casanova and Honda's Noburiko Wakai in taking the win. . See next week's Cycle News for complete coverage of th e Japanese Grand Prix. M D o u g B r a une ck, the 1990 AMA 250ccGrand Prix National Champion, will be the head mechanic for Dutchman Cees Doorake r s in the 500cc World Championship. Brauneck met Doorakers in 1990 through Dr. John Wittner, whose Moto-Guzzi Doorakers . rode in European events that conflicted with Brauneck's AMA schedule. "When I retired I told Cees I was ready," Brauneck said. "In January we started talking and I came over in February. Last year he had a mechanic already con tracted. This year he didn't, so I decided to give it a whirl." The team, which has one of the Harrisframed Yamahas, failed to qualify for Suzuka, mostly because they weren 't ready to put in a hot lap at the beginning of the second timed session which was mostly rained out. " It 's a low-budget team. We realized the importance of tire warmers." The team is based in the southern Holland town of Gilza, where Brauneck will live during the season. Confusion reigned at the Japanese Grand Prix as to how eight extra riders were allowed to enter each class and whether they would score points or earn money. "For thi s race only, due to special circumstances - the japa- . nese factories had a number of con. tracts with riders that depended on them running the Japanese Grand Prix - IRTA decided that eight riders would be added for this race, and this race onl y," IRTA president Paul Butler said. According to Butler, a management council decision - made by Dorna presidentRichard Go lding, race director Pier-Paolo Gardello, who'd been in touch with Two Wheel Promotions head . Bernie Ecclestone, and himself - decided that these added riders would not score points. He also said that it was up to local federations to reward the riders, if they chose to, and that FIM president Jos Vaessen o££ered a fund for that purpose. Just prior to the race weekend, the management council received a letter from the Japanese Federation, the MFJ, saying they would pull out if the ad ded riders didn't socre points. The FIM awarded points to all who finished in the points, but Butler said they wouldn't count. Only riders contracted to IRTA for the season would get points, he said, noting that the FIM points notification was not on o££icial stationary. On the o££icial results, riders who scored points were denoted with a small block next to their name. Though HB Honda's H elmut Bradl finished fourth , he was awarded second place points because the second and third p lace Japanese riders were not contesting the entire World Championship. Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardner new back to Australia on March 30 following the Japanese Grand Prix to make a decision on how to treat his broken right leg. Gardner fell twice in the 500cc GP, the second time with less than four laps to go while running in sixth place and about to take over fifth . The Australian slid between two large foam-rubber safety blocks and hit a post behind them, causing a com pound fracture of his lower right leg. The two bones in the lower leg, the tibia and fibia, were broken in at least , five places, possibly seven, and one piece of bone pierced the skin. A cast was applied, and if Gardner allows it to heal naturally it will take at least three months, according to a doctor familiar with the injuries. If he chooses to have it pinned and plated his recovery would be much faster, but there is a much greater risk of infection, the doctor said. Because of the severity of his injuries, it is widely speculated that Gardner will retire from racing. When he broke hi s foot in a practice crash at the Nurburgring in 1990 he contemplated retirement and many people, some inside Honda, believe this injury will convince him to quit racing. Specula tion on his replacement on the Rothmans Kanemoto Honda team centered on 21-year-old Australian Dar r y l Beattie . Beattie, who thought he'd be racing GPs this year,

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