Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ IN THE WIND By Papa Wealey Three-time National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins (Suz) was the overa ll winner in round two of the National Ch ampion ship Enduro Series in Morrison, Ill ino is, April 5. Hawkins edged defending National Enduro Champion Jeff Rus sell (KT M). Both riders dropped six points, but Hawkins won based on tie-breaker points. Kelby P epper (KT M), Kurt Hough (Kaw) and Jeff Fredette (Ka w) rounded out the top five , respectively. e ~ ~ ,......; Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) kept their perfect season intact with a win in the third round of the WERA Van sonlPM Endurance Series at Willow Springs International Ra ceway, April 5. Kurt Hall and Michael Martin teamed to beat th e Team Suzuki Endurance II (Suz) team of Wes Cooley and Chuck Graves by one lap in the four-hour race. Mota Sport Racing (Suz) finished third. Ron Naylor (Han ) was th e overall wi nner at the Shasta Dam Na tio na l Hare Scrambles in Redding, California, April 5. Defen di ng champion Scott Summers (Hon ) fini shed secon d followed by Duane Conner (Kaw) . Eric Mashbir (Su z) was fourth with Jon King (Suz) rounding out th e ' top five. The race was the fourth round of the Hare Scrambles . National Ch ampionship Seri es. Southern California's D e Anza Cycle Park is tentatively 'schedu led to reopen on April II , alth oug h th e exact date depends o n wh en park operator Doug Hall receives the heav y equipment necessary to prepare the Moreno Valley facility for use. " I still don 't have a dat e con firmed for the eq u ipm erit," said Hall. " It's po ssib le I co uld have it opened on th at dat e." Hall said riders should ca ll 714/ 242-2140 to con firm an exac t re-open ing dat e. DeAnza was closed January 3 wh en Hall 's contract wi th the Riversid e County Parks Dep artment exp ired. Approximately.$8 million in im provements were to be made to the facility, but constructio n wasn' t sched u led to begin until August. The Ri verside County Parks Department decided to re-open DeAnza until the bu ild in g of those improvements star ts. Construction is'expected to last three mo nt hs. Team Suzuki 's S t e v e Lamson recentl y began li ght jogging and mo un tain bikin g after break in g hi s thigh bone at th e J anuary 18 H ouston Supercross. "It's coming along reall y well, I feel better every day," said Lamson, who hopes to return in time for the June 14 Hangtown 125 and 250cc National. " I haven't gotten on a motorcycle yet, but it'll be soon." Lamson, who was a spectator at the April 5 500cc U.S. MX GP, said tha t he may try to ri de a motorcycle in two weeks. The third annual Northern California Motorcycle F e stiv a l will be held June 14 at Casa de Fruta in Hollister, California, and will feature a ride -in motorcycle show, field events , dealer and manufacturer di splays, swap meet, live mu sic and ent ertain ment. Admission is $5, and AMA members can save $ 1. For more in formation , call 408/972-8063. Off-road racer Ste v e M cSwain will be out of action for at least four months Thousands attend S.21 field hearing_ n esti mated 2000 peop le a tten ded th e field hearing regarding Senator Ala n Cra nston's (D-Ca liforn ia) Desert P rotection Act U.S. Senate Bill 21 (S.2 1), an d Co ngress man Mel Levin e's (D-Californ ia) counterpart U.S. H ou se of Represen tatives Bill 2929 (H R 2929), in Pal m Desert , Cal ifornia , Apri l 4. The majo rity of those in attendance at the Palm Desert High Sch oo l gymnasium opposed the two bills th at would, if either passed, effectively close approxima tel y eig h t million acres of public lan d used by off-roa d recreationalists. The three-person pan el, wh ich included Senator Cranston, Sena tor J ohn Seymour (R-California), wh o opposes both bills and is up for re-elec tio n, and Congressman Larry Craig (R -Idaho), who is also not in favor of either bill , listen ed to more than nine hours of testimony. According to Mike Bishop of th e Ca lifornia Off-Road Vehi cle Associa tio n (CO RVA), "T he hearing was a trem endous success for desert recreation ists. The testimony given at the hearing will provide Senator Seymour th e needed information to go back to Wash ington and prove to fellow Sena tors that the real users of th e desert are ad am antly op po sed to the bill. " AMA District 37 representatives were present, handing out orange caps and T -sh irts to anti-S.21 participants, resulting in a sea of ora nge in the assembly ha ll. The preservationists, including Sierra Club members, who wore yello w Tshirts, were outnumbered by app ro ximately three to o ne. Som e of those wh o spo ke aga ins t the bills included AMA District 37 President Bill Howell , D-37 Legislative Officer Dan a Bell, and the Motorcycle Industry Council's (MIG) Jim Williamson. Also in attendan ce were representa tives from Honda and Yamaha. According to D-3Ts Barstow-to-Vegas Race Chairman T om Ge tzfrid, " The hearing was very pos itiv e, but it's not over yet," said Geufrid. "T he bill(s) come up to vote soon and we have to keep up the pressure. It's importan t that we continue writing our local Congr essmen and Senators and enco urage them to vot e aga ins t the bill(s)." A second hearing is sched uled for April 29-30 in Washington D.C.. T he Senat e Sub committee on Publ ic La nds, Nat ion al Parks and For ests will hear testim ony concerning S.21 and HR 2929, as well as S.2393, a compromise bill su pported by the Bush Administration and the Federal Bureau of Land Man agement. T he hearings mark the first action in th e Senat e on the con tro versia l legislation in the 102nd Congress. A 2 Slight, Roche sglit World SURerbike wins N ew Zealander Aaron Slight and Frenchman Raymond Roche (righ t) split race wins in the o pen ing round of the World Championshi p Superbike Series in Albacete, Spain, April 5. Slight, on the Team Moving Kawasaki, won the first race after early leader Scott Russell crashed th e Muzzy Kawasaki in the wet conditions. " I guess I just pushed the front a little too hard and down she went, " R ussell , the Daytona 200 winner, said. "I made th e mistake of loo king behind, when ma ybe I shou ld have concentrated o n keeping going as fast as I could." At the comp letion of the 28-lap race, Slight topped defending Wor ld Champion Doug Polen by n ine seconds with Ital ian Fabrizio Piro vano (Yam), cou ntryma n Giancarlo Falappa (Due) and Spaniard Dani Amatriain ro unding out the top five finishers . The second race, he ld in dry conditions , was won by 1990 Wor ld Champion Roch e and his Ducati, Roche held off the advances of Kawasaski's Rob Ph illi s, with Amatriain finishi ng th ird. Piro vano was fourth with Falappa fifth . Polen fin ish ed sixth in the second leg with Ru ssell seventh. Leg one wi nner Aaron Sligh t did not finish th e second leg. Via h is 7-1 ta lly, Roche leads the cha m pionship over Pi ro vano, 29-28. Polen is third with 27 points, one point ahead of Ama triain. after sustaining injuries in a cras h at the Nation al H are Scramb les in Cadiz , Kentucky, March 22. McSwain broke .h is leg five in ches below the knee, chipped hi s heel, and sha ttered his an kle. H e is current ly recuperating a t ho me, and cards and letters can be sent to McSwai n at 556 Crow Road , Shelby, NC 28150. Willie Surratt's Cinti teammate, threetime World Champion David Thorpe, has had no problems getting parts for his Hondas, but Thorpe says that his primary backing comes from the Bri tish Honda importer. "I've had no problems," sa id Thorpe. "M y spares come o u t of Honda U.K. and the Cinti deal is just with his sponsors. Cinti has worked hard for me." Bud get cu ts within the Motor Vehicle Admini strati on and th e state legislature may spe ll th e d emise of th e M a r y la nd M o t o rcy cle Safety P r o g r a m (MMS P) . Maryland' s bu dge t bill SB444 passed th e Sen at e on March 17 with full funding for the sta te's ri der-ed uca tion p rog ram . Unfortu na tely, a H ou se app ro pria tions su bcommi ttee amended th e bill to rem ove fu nd ing for mo tor cycle safety programs o n Mar ch 24. The Motor Veh icle Administration has tentatively sla ted the MMSP to sto p tra inin g in O ct o ber 1992. " T his important program is the un fort una te victim of the rampant bud get slas hi ng goi ng on in man y states," said Peter Fassn acht, Mo tor cycle SafetyFoundation vice president of safety programs. " Motorcyclists work ed hard to get this program estab lished and are pa ying for it directl y throu gh additio na l fees. If the program is elim inated, the fu nding so urce would co nti nue. Also , this actio n effectively makes it ill egal for anyo ne under 18 to ride a motorcycle." Before taking a rider education course in Maryland, one mu st hold a learner's permit or a motorcycle licens e. Course comp letio n is required before licensing if the applicant is under 18. The MMSP is funded by a portion of each motorcycle registration and all fees for new motorcycl e-operator licenses and permits. . 'T he 1.2-mile 500cc U.S. MX GP track, which was designed by fivetim e 500cc World Champion Roger DeCoster, featured approximately 32 j u m ps, including several sets of wh at appeared to be double jumps. FIM rules don't allo w doubles and state that ajump is any mound over 3.3 feet high, so DeCo ster mad e the jumps under that height so that they were cons idered wh oops. The April 5 500cc U.S. MX G P at so u the rn California's G len H el en OHV Park may hav e been the o ne and o nly GP that American Willie Surr att will ride for th e Italian Cinti Honda team all year . " I don't th ink I'll be go ing back (to Europe )," said Surratt follo wing the fir st mota. "I haven 't been paid (by Cinti). It' s been a struggle since day one. They shipped a bike here for the GP but no parts. Earl ier in th e week my mechanic told the team manager I needed a piston and rings, but he told him he cou ld n' t be both ered because h e was o n vacation ." D anny LaPorte, the 1982 250cc MX World Champion , was o n han d for th e U.S. GP and was man agin g the H usqvarna team and rider Jacky Martens, wh o finish ed second in the 1991 500cc World Championship MX Series. " I ride for Cagi va in rallies so they asked if I would come over and be the man ager for thi s race," said Laf'orte, wh o now lives in southern France. Mo tocross er Kurt Nicoll, the Englishman who led last year 's 500cc MX World Championship until he broke his thigh midway through the season, got off to a rock y start in his quest for the 1992 ti tle, The KTM factory rider crashed in practice and injured his ribs and chest muscles. Nicoll crashed again in the firs t moto and retired, then finished eighth and sixth in the o ther two motos. Five-time MX World Ch ampion Eric Geboers was seriously in jured in a car acciden t in Belgi um on March 31. Geboers was knocked un conscious and was rescu ed by a friend in a following car before his Merced es exploded. Geb oers underwent surgery to repair two damaged vertebrae. Although he initially lost some feeling, there is . reportedl y no danger of paralysis. Geboers is expec ted to be hospitalized for som e tim e. The new MX GP s ch e d ule, in whi ch riders mu st co mp lete qualification and tim ed practice sessions (for starting gate sele ction ), has made Sat urdays mu ch more hectic for the

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