Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1992 06 24

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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; INTHEWIND By Papa Wealey ~ America n Donny Schmit (Yam ) was the winner at round four of the World Cha mpio nship 250cc MX Series in Northeim, Germ an y, June 14. Sch mit, who hail s from Minneso ta, won all three motos. Belgian Marnicq Bervoets (Yam ) fin ished second o verall , a n d Sw ede n 's Peter Johansson (Yam) was th ird. In th e fifth rou n d of the World Cha mp ionship 500cc MX Series in Balda sserona, San Marino, J un e 14, Brit Kurt Nicoll (KT M) scored the overa ll victory wit h 1-2-1 mo to fin ishes. Italian Franco Rossi (KT M) finished second overall. Sout h African Greg Albertijn aced round eigh t of the World Ch am p ionship 125cc MX Series in Daloecin , Czechoslovakia, June 14. Albertij n won all three motos. Holland 's Davey Strijbos (H o n) fin ished second overall an d France's Yves Demaria (Suz) third. Three-time Na tional En duro Champio n Randy Hawkins (Suz) earne d the overa ll victo ry at the fifth ro und of the AMA Nationa l Champion ship R eliabili ty End uro Series in Belli ng ham , Washin gton, June 12-14. Kurt Hough (Kaw) finished second , whi le Swede Jimmie Eriksson (H bg) ro unded out the top three . Tim Frazier (BSA) had hi s 540cc class ' win strea k snapped at 14 by Paul Pinsonnault (H on ) at the thi rd ro und of the AMA Nat ional Cham pi onship Hillcl im b Seri es in Freemansburg , Pennsylvan ia, June 14. Fra zier, who still lead s the 540cc class po int standings, was th e runner-up , while Steve Dresser (Suz) fini shed th ird. Wade Williams (H on) to ppe d th e 800cc class to ma intain hi s class points lead, while Randy Gabriel (H- D) and Charlie Casey clai med second and third, respec tively. Greg Williams, wh o was tied wi th Wad e Williams for th e 800cc class points lead, failed to , . log a climb. Mo tocrosser Keith Mundie sustained serious head in juries in a cras h at Lake Wh itney Cycle Ran ch in La ke Wh itney, Texas, Ju ne 7. The 30-year-o ld ma nager of Kawasaki City in Irvin g, Texas, is listed in critical condition afte r undergoing surgery on Monday, June 8 to relieve pressure from h is brain a nd to rem ove a blod clot. Donations for hospi tal relief can be sen t to "The Keith Mundie Recovery Fund" a t any Nations Ban k branch office, acco un t #1291212513, or Kawasaki City, 1516 W. Irvin g Blvd., Irvin g, TX 75061. For more informa tio n call 214/ 438-9425. Fastiine/MCM Racing's Jeff Heino and Tommy Lynch teamed up to win the GT O class in the three-hour EBC Endurance Challenge at Brainerd International Raceway. The Suzukimounted pair beat th e T eam America's H onda CBR -900-mo unted Michael Barnes and Woody Deatherage by over 26 seconds, completing 99 laps of the 3-m ile circ uit. Keystone Racing (Suz ) fi n ish ed th ird wi th F a b ia n Cortez sharing the saddl e with Nigel Gale, who was sub bing for the in jured John Condron. The GTU class win wen t 10 MOIO Lib erty/N ankai' s Danny Walker a nd Doug Carmichael. Second , in their debut , was the America n Flyers team of Bob Meister and Todd Harr ington, wi th H orn bl o wer R a cin g 's Bill Hornblower and O wen Weichel finis hing th ird. T he top three teams were aboard Honda CBR600s. American Flyers, Meister's new sponsor, is " T h e Na tion's P il ot T ra ining Specialist" wit h schoo ls at 12 sites in th e U.S. Following th eir seco nd pl a ce finish in Sa turday'S end urance race at Brainerd, Meister and teammate Todd Harring ton were flow n in one of th e school's jets to Grat tan Raceway in Michigan for an AMA /CCS race. T he tea m is buying Meist er a Ducati Raymo nd Roch e rep lica for the SuperTwins class, wit h the possibil ity of som e Superbike rid es at th e end of the year. Kenny Roberts Jr. will be making hi s int ernatio na l debut la ter th is year. T he Rainey Racin g O tsu ka rider is expec ted to race in two rounds of the ' Spa nish cham p ionsh ip as well as the Superprestigio at the end of the seaso n . It 's no t known what team colors he'll race under at th is point. Valvoli ne Suzu ki 's Donald Jacks won the WERA Pro Series ro und at Seattle Intern ation al Raceway in Kent, Washington , on J une 14. J acks topped h is teammate Michael Martin (Suz) and Lee Shierts (Suz). In F·Il actio n, Kurt Hall (Yam) too k hi s first win of the series, beating Michael Graves (Yam ) and Chuck Sorensen (Yam ). Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) won the six -ho ur WERA/ Vanso n PM Natio na l Endura nce Seri es race a t Sea ttle Intern ati on al Raceway o n J u ne 13. Team Suzu ki top ped Cycle Sport (Suz) and Team Pasta Marin (Suz). Missing fro m th e Harley-Davi dso n XR750s that Scott Parker and Jay Springsteen raced at the Syracuse T wi n Mil es were the speci a l hip timing devices th at th ey have been usin g lately. T he bik e-mou nted ti mers are activated by an infra-red beam emi tte d fro m' a u n it tha t is ke p t sta tio nary o n the side of the track. A handleba r-mo unted digi tal disp lay lets the rid er keep track of hi s lap times and number of lap s co mp leted. T he AMA anno u nced at th e Ju ne 7 Peor ia TT 600cc Nationa l that they wou ld no longer be allo wed. "The decisi on isn' t S1w taken to speed up delivery--.,----_ C 2 ycle News , Inc. Publisher Mtk e Klin ger ha s announced th at a step has been , ' taken that sho u ld spe ed up delivery of Cy cle News to subscribers as well as deal ersh ip s and newsstands. ' " Start ing wit h th is issue, subscri ber and deal er cop ies of Cycl e N ews will advance into the electro ni c age with cop ies bei ng labeled via in k jet technology," said Klin ger: "T he purpose of th e in k jettin g is that it will save time at the printer, whic h speeds up delivery to the post office and event ua lly to the read er. We hope to ga in one addi tio na l da y and ma ybe two in delivery to some areas. Post office delivery to the eas tern part of the cou ntry has always been o ur concern and we hope this will help." Subscribers will see the ink jet labelin g of th eir nam e and address o n th e front page, while those who purchase the newspaper at mot or cycle deal erships or newsstands will no tice a bl ank wh ite box . Doohan by amile in German GP R othmans H onda' s Michael Dooh an (rig h t) b l i tz~d the rest of the 500cc Grand Pri'.' field , to Win the German G P a t Hockenheirn o n June 14. Doo ha n topped Lu cky Stri ke Suzuki 's Kevin Schwantz by 24 seconds in wirini ng hi s fifth G P of th e season . ' Third p lace in Ger many went to Aus tralia n Wa yn e G ard n er , i n h is return ride o n the Ro th mans Ho nda after badl y breakin g h is leg a t the opening round of the seri es in J apan . Gardner j ust beat Campsa Ho nd a's Alex Criv ille and Marlboro Yamaha 's J ohn Kocinski in their race for th ird place. Cagiva's Eddie Lawson finished sixth wi th ~ "; fell ow Cali forn ia n' Doug Ch and ler fin ish in g "" eig h th o n the seco nd L uc ky Stri ke Suzu ki . W-_....!..._ _L...---= "'-_"",--' = Budw eiser Yama ha 's Randy Mam ola cras hed during Sunday morn in g's practice and badly injured a fing er, causing him to miss the GP. Defending World Cha m pio n Wayne Ra in ey, meanwhile, crashed during qua lifyin g o n Sa turday, June 13, and chipped a bon e in hi s han d in addition to spraini ng an ankle. T he Ca lifornian attem p ted to ride in the GP, bu t pulled out after o nly seven laps an d had to be lifted fro m the motor cycle by his crew. Doohan's win fu rt her extends hi s cha mpions hip points lead. H e now leads Schwantz by 53 po ints , 130-77. Rainey is th ird in the standings with 65 followed by Chand ler with 57 po ints . T he 250cc GP saw a th rillin g battle betw een th e Ap ri lias of Pier-Francesco Chi li, Massami lliano Biaggi and Loris Reggiani. In the end it was Chi li to pping Biagg i by on ly .05-of-a-second wi th Reggian i also fin ishing withi n th e same second. Champio nsh ip leader Lu ca Cadalora fini shed fourth on his Rothman s Honda, 21 seconds behind the leading tri o, wi th the HRC-backed H onda of Masah iro Shi mizu ro unding ou t the to p five finishers. ' Cada lo ra lead s Reggian i in the cha mpions h ip , 120-70. H elmu t Bradl , wh o did not scor e any points in Germa ny, is third wit h 57. The 125cc G P saw six riders finis h on the same second, with Bruno Casa nova and his Ap rilia taking a nar row win over the H onda s of Fausto Gresini, Ralf Waldmann , Ga briele Debbi a and Ezio Gianol a. Waldmann sti ll lead s the cham pio nship over Gresin i and Gianola , who are tied, 84-61. V tota lly offi cial yet, " sa id Jerry Kennedy, the AMA Nati on al dirt trac k referee. "W e want ed to see how man y . peo p le wo uld use th em , and on ly a couple did. T he AMA feels tha t such a device is too costly, an d tha t those wit ho ut o ne would be a t a disad vantage." Thou gh Springs teen had no opinion , Parker was a bi t up set. "T he lousy thi ng abou t th e whol e deal is that we asked the AMA way befor e we bo ug ht it, if it was okay, an d th ey said it would be legal ," said Parker. " T hen they go and cha ng e the rules. What is tha t? T ha t means th at they can change any rule, doesn 't it?" Scott Parker co m p eted a t th e Syracuse Twin Miles wi th a heavil ytaped left ankle. " I twisted it real bad at the San J ose Mile. I had it X-rayed, and noth ing is broken, bu t it's bruised all th e way th rough," said Parker, wh o remo ved h is boot betw een every race. " It really hurts wh en I catch it in a hole." O bvio usly, the in jury didn 't slow Parker down , as he went on to pos t th ird an d first place fin ishes in the doubleheader. And Par ker was n' t the o n ly rider racing inj ured. In Sa tur day night 's mai n even t, Davey , Durelle dislocat ed h is lef t shou lde r whi le naviga ting the rough trac k. " It (the shou lder ) has gi ven me tro ub le a ll along," said Du relle, who raced o n Sunday wit h nearl y hi s ent ire u pper bod y wrapped in duc t tape. "T h e trac k was so rough that my normal brace wasn ' t stro ng enough . I'm no t look ing forward 10 pee ling this stu ff off. " Kevin Atherton a n d Larry Pegram not only competed at the Syracu se Twin Miles, but played the role of tra ck wor kers, too . When Rex Fisher crashed un hu rt in hi s Sat urday nigh t semi, Pegram and Ath ert on ran ou t o nto th e track and repl aced the demol ished hay bale s arid clea ned up the stra w on the track. " Actually, we were tryin g to g-et,a better look at the track, " said Pegram. A few minu tes . later, Ath erton was seen chasing a sku nk through turns three and four. " I was checking o ut th e ru ts, when all of a sudden a sku nk po pped through a hole in the fence," said Ath ert on. "The Jun ior main was abo ut to start, so I chased the da mn th ing away. I'm lucky it didn 't sq uirt me." After cam paigni ng a Honda RC30 Superbi ke a t selected AMA Road Race N a ti on al s , d irt tra cker Larry Pegram found that do ing so had helped hi s dirt track skills. "It makes everyt h ing seem a lot slo wer, and I have more time to think abo ut what I' m doi ng," said Pegr am . " Who would have thou gh t that I would think 130 m ph was slow!" And ho w has Pegram adapte d to the pavement? " I can han g with j us t abou t anyo ne in the lefthan ders, it' s th e righ t-han ders that I have to work on ." "A do ubleheader can mak e or break yo ur seaso n ," sa id Scott Parker 's mechanic, Bill Werner, befor e the start of th e Syracuse Twin Mil es. " You can eith er gai n a lot of points, or lose a lo t." Whi le Park er ga ined points', the doubleh ead er did indeed spe ll disaster for a few riders. Mike Hale, the 1990 Came l Pro Series Rooki e of the Year, failed to score points as he cont in ued to stru gg le with an ill handling bike and di dn 't qual ify ' fo r ei ther race. Ve tera n Steve Morehead enc o u n tered cl u tc h probl em s and fai led to score any points at the first Nat ion al, and scored on ly o ne po int on Sunday whe n hi s carburetor fell off in the main even t. An other series veteran , Tim Mertens bl ew up his mo tor on Sat urday, and unlike man y team s that broug ht two motor cyles, he had no spare motor. Merten s borrowed a H onda motor from the Hud Racin g team and used it to finish eighth on , Sunday. In winning the first leg of the Syracuse

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