Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1992 05 27

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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Su nday, May 10. H ensley, wh o su ffered pa ra lyzing injuries in a racing accident at Ascot years ago, was headed hom e fro m th e Bartels' H arley-Davidson open house in Los Angeles o n Sunday eve n i n g wh en t he fatal acci de nt occurr ed. He is survived by his parents, two brothers and two sisters. Funeral services were co nd ucted on Saturday, May 16. Contributions can be made to the Dean Hens ley Memorial Fund, cl o Am erican. Moto r cycl e H e r ita ge Founda tion, P.O. Box 6114, Westervill e, OH 43081. Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardner wi ll return to action at the Italian Grand Prix o n May 24, just eig ht weeks after frac turing h is right leg in five places a t the j apanese G ra nd Pr ix. " I' ll just be seeing how I go a nd no t doing an yt h i n g silly ," Gardner said. . "Mugello is a ha rd circuit physically. If I find during quali fyin g that I can't ride th e bik e properly I may not race, and if it's ' raining I defin itely wo n 't. But I th ink I shou ld be okay. I spent all this week a t Dr. Costa's cl inic near Bologna (I tal y) a nd he was amazed how well the leg had come o n. He said there had been a lot of bone growth and tha t the leg was pretty stro ng. I have a lot of fait h in Dr. Costa because he go t me back racing in nine weeks when I broke m y left leg in 1989." T he 1987 500cc World Champion will wear a light cast o n h is lower leg for th e ItaIia n race. Whi le th e World Championship Su perbike Series ha s produced so me thrill ing races th us far in 1992, some of its lead in g riders may have to' mi ss races because of o ther co mmitme nts or fi n a nc ia l reason s. Scott Russell in dicated a t the Ger ma n round of the seri es th at his fu ture in the series is uncertain, In addition, Raymond Roche has fi nancial problems. Although the Fre nchman has factory Ducatis, he still has no maj or sponsor to help meet the season 's ru nning costs. New Zealander Aaron Slight has a dea l wit h Kawasaki for only the first four ro unds plus five other races , incl ud ing Mal aysia, j apan, Australia and New Zealand, a nd he's not sure if he'll be able to secure the budget to ru n hi m in a ny races af ter the Belgian ro und on May 24. Former three-time AMA Na ti o nal Motocross Champio n Kent Howerto n has been competing in Central Motorcycle R a cing Associat io n (CMRA) end urance road races aboard a Ka wasaki ZX750 sponsored by VP Racing Fuels. T he Texan has been ri d i n g a long wi t h a n oth er e xmotocrosser, Danny Storbeck, a nd the duo will make their AM AlCCS End ura nce Challenge debut at T exa s World Speedway on May 30. In additio n , Howerton will rid e his Kawasaki in the AMA/CCS 750cc Supersport race a t T exas World. T o m my Lynch had his first-ever race on a 250cc road racer at Willow Springs' International Raceway on Sunday, Ma y 17, riding his Del Amo-backed Ya ma ha T Z250 to a third-place fin ish after a ra ce- long duel with Nick Ien a tsc h (Ya m) a nd Ch uck Sorens o n (Yam). For hi s efforts, the 19-yearold Lynch, wh o turned lap tim es in the one-minute, 27-second ra nge after on ly th ree pr act ice sessions, has earned a o ne-ride deal with Del Am o to rid e the T Z in the AMA 250cc G rand Prix Na tio na l a t T exas World Speedway o n Ma y 3 1. " He impressed th e hell out o f m e ," Del Am o tun er S teve Biganski said after watching wh at he call ed, " the best 250 race I' ve ever seen." At last the pos inon over Gran d P rix r oad rac e points has been resol ved. Acting o n a decisi on sanctioned by B e rnie E c cle s t o n e , tea ms ' associa tio n IRTA has been for ced to back down, and all finishers in the seas o n-ope n in g j apa nese GP have been g iven points according to their finishing posit ion . "We screwed up, a nd we apol ogize," said IR T A ch ief exec u tive Paul Butle r , accepting the blame for a situat ion in wh ich IRTA had been blackmail ed into an a wkwar d posi tio n tha t they ultimately found im possible to defend. T he decision to award poin ts to a ll top10 riders at the japan GP came from the all-powerful Perma nent Bureau, comprising Bernie E ccle s tone , Dorna's Richard Golding, and FIM president Jos Vaessen . Vaessen had earlier said that the japanese ri ders wo ul d lose points " o ver m y dead bod y." H e was not obliged to make the u ltimate sacrifice aft er lega l adv isers consulted the rules and told Ecclestone tha t they agreed with the FI M view , that once the riders had started th e race, they sho u ld be eligible for points. Although the decision was made more than two weeks before the news was made public, it was kept private until all th e teams could be informed. T hose worst affected ar e Aprilia and Cagiva, who lose ma nufacturers' champ ionship points. Riders went along with the natural justice of the affair. " O nce th ey had been allowed to take part, I guess they deserve to take po ints off whoever they beat, " said Eddie Lawson, who lost three points in the ch a n ge-o ver." Team o wne r Kenny Roberts also welcomed the decision. "I always argued Yamaha 's case tha t the guys shou ld be allowed to race. I don 't want to see a bunch of the same o ld cro n ies going round and round together every weekend. There should be room for new talent. As for t he argument over the points - it 's lik e a bunch of kids taking candy away from each o ther." Bernie Ecclestone made h is first bike G P visit of the year to jerez, flyi ng in for a series of meetings o n the first day of practice. H is visit followed a flurry of paddoc k tidying and vehicle polishing from IR T A - Ecclestone's obsess io n with neat presentation is legendary. He left it to IRTA to break the news on the points p osition, but did tell an impromptu press conference: " It's a cock-up. "DIose riders should not have been all ow ed to start. Compromises never work." The Spanish GP a t Jerez seem ed cer tai n to hav e th e bigges t crowd of the year - partially du e to th e success of Spa nish riders lik e Alex Cri ville and Alb erto Pu ig in Mal a ysi a. N ew s reports before th e ra ce were th a t 180,000 tickets had alread y been so ld o ut, and another 60,000 had been printed. On race da y, the h ill sides were cra m med and tra ffic jams started wh ile it was still dark o n race morning. The officia l cro wd figure was 2 3 0 ,000. The d isp ute over advertising righ ts at the trackside took to the air a t j erez. Bernie E ccles tone will on ly all ow two international br ands to be ad vertised at each race - a nd in Spain th e honors went to Marlb oro a nd Ducad os. But fans (an d TV cameras) looking upward were a ble to spot a small aircraft towing a Lu cky Str ike banner. " T he air space is th e o nly thing round here th at doesn 't belong to Ecclestone," said a local offic ial. ]kyle tunes up for road racing debut amel Supercross, 250 and 500cc National Motocross Champion j ean-Michel Bayle recently tested his Honda RS250 at the Magny-Co urs cir cuit in France, th e site of the French Grand Prix schedu led for july 19. The Frenchman, who will make his road racing debu t at the Fren ch GP, will test his H RC-kitt ed RS250 again a t Magny-Cours during the first week of june to further prepare for the race. Bayle, who will be backed by Ro thman s Honda France, finished fourth overall in the second round of the AMA 250cc National MX Series at Southwick, Massachussetts (see coverage in this issu e), and currently leads the Camel Supercross Series point sta ndings. C Alessandro Gramigni, winner of .th e Malaysian 125cc G P, missed the Spanish G P after sustaini ng leg in juries in a street bike crash in the interval before th e start of the European season. Gramigni broke a leg after he was torpedoed by an elderly woman motorist. H e was riding to Flor ence from the Mu gell o circuit with his girlfrie nd on the back of his motorcycle when th e accident happened. Former Du n lop and Pi rell i ti re tech ni cian Peter Ingley was at j erez wearing a Yokohama uniform. Ingley, from Birmingham , En gl and wo rked in Formula One ca r raci ng last year befor e Pi rell i withdrew, and is now ba ck in motorcycling with the j apanese firm, who support 250cc G P ri der Jurgen van den Goorbergh , among others. I The pair of Yamaha 125s made their clas s deb ut a t jerez - a low-key affair th at was no netheless rewarded by a perfect finish record. Giuseppe Fio- . rill o was 23th a nd Fausto Ricci 26th out of 27 fin ishers in th e machines entered under th e auspices of form er class cha m pio n Eugenio Lazzarini. to Yamaha owners who participate. For more informa tion, call Paul Kellen at 714/761-7547. Gary Bailey tells Papa that despite recent personal problems that have delayed shipments of videotapes produc ed by his company, Gary Bail ey Videos, and caused poss ible problems . with the schedu ling of his MX schools, " things are now under contro l." Bailey added, " I' m sorry if people ha ve been inconveni en ced in any way." For information on videotapes or upcom ing MX schools, call Bailey's new . num ber, 703/650-1 759, or write to: P .O . Bo x 26, Axton, VA 24054. The 8th Annual Dinosaur Daze will take p lace j une 6-7 a t T hurston County ORV Sports Park, which is lo ca ted just west o f Ol ym p ia , Washington . Emil Ahola , Jim Pomeroy, Ron Pomeroy , Buck Murphy , Mickey Fay a nd Del Schnitzer are just a few of th e Northwest racers from the past and present who are gearing up for so me racing bo th on the track and on the ben ch . The Tacoma M.C.lCamerano Bros. -sponsored ac ti vi ties include vi ntage scra m bles a n d short track racing, a bike sho w, and a swap meet. Camping is avai lable. For more informa tion, call 206/581- 3374. Bob Barnard , the man wh o orga nized the first two Australian GPs, was a surprise visi torto j erez, but was cagey o n why he had co me. Was he o n vacation or tending to business? ''I'll tell yo u w he n I kn ow for sure," Barnard said. Rumor s linked Barnard with Team Marlb oro Roberts, wh ere the manager's job has been left vaca nt . after Paul B u tler began working full tim e as chief execu tive of IRT A. Olin Hunt , 94, passed away o n May 13. The Cal ifornian was a lon gtime su p porter of racers, from the tim e he firs t a tte nded races wi th h is so n Paul Hunt in the fifties. He was a NORRA official a nd hel ped prom o te events . Gods peed, " O lie." Yamaha is looki ng for pre-I 975 Yam ah a mot or cycles in good co nd ition to be di spl ayed at th e july 25-26 AMA Vi ntage Motorc ycle Days in Westerville, Ohio. Sh ipment of th e motorcycles to a nd from the event ma y. be arranged, a nd incen tives are offered Karl Forre s t e r , a 28-year-old gra duat e of Cal Sta te Ch ico , recentl y purch ased Santa Barbara Yamaha in Gol eta , California. For rester added the Suzu ki line a nd will be celebra ting wi th a gra nd o peni ng extravaganza on - - - - - - Continued on page 0{ 3

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