Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

B Joey Hopkins (Kaw) scored the overall win in round two of the AMA National Championship Enduro Series in Maxeys, Georgia, February 21. The runner-up was Kevin Hines (Hus), and George Waller (Kaw), Jeff Russell (K1M) and Allan Gravit (KTM) rounded out the top five. Defending series champ Randy Hawkins (Suz) finished ninth. Unofficially, Russell and Hines are tied for the series points lead. The final round of the CMC Golden State Nationals was held February 21 at Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto, California. Dean Matson (Kaw) topped Rick Ryan (Yam) and Damon Huffman (Suz) in the 125ccc Pro class. Mike Chamberlain (Kaw) was the winner in the 250cc Pro class, edging Matson and Cory Keeney (Kaw). The fifth Iound of the GFI Winter Series SOuth, scheduled for February 21 at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, California, was cancelec1 due to rain. The race is rescheduled for Saturday, February 28 at Perris Raceway in Perris, California. Also rescheduled are the North and South Showdown races. The North Showdown will take place at the Hanford Fairgrounds in Hanford, California,. on March 6-7, and the South showdown is scheduled for March 13-14 at Perris Raceway. For more information contact GFI at 714/371-3434. The Denver Half.Mile, a round of the AMA Grand National Championship Series that was scheduled to take place at Rocky Mountain Speedway on August 14, has been canceled. As we reported last week in this section, both the Pope and President Clinton will be in Denver that weekend, plus the Denver Bronco NFL football team will be playing an exhibition game in Mile High Stadium. Promoter Chris Agajanian said, "1 believe that there will be a race there next year, but for now, after days of trying to reschedule to a more favorable date, we have come to a mutual agreement that the only date was the 14th of August and that just won't work." Agajanian said he found that area hotels were already approximately 90% booked for the weekend. Texan Doug Polen suffered a compressed vertebra in his back in a practice session crash in the rain a t Phoenix International Raceway on February 14. "It's compressed and pinching a nerve," Polen said on Monday, February 22. "It's getting better but it's not something that you can fix real quick. I'll be getting worked on all the way until I leave for Daytona, but it should be okay. It's a pretty serious deal, but I'm glad that's all it was. I feel pretty good right now." Polen, who won the opening round of the AMA Superbike National Championship in Phoenix, will ride a Fast By Ferracci Ducati in the Daytona 200. Harley-Davidson wins contract to produce motorcycles for British Army _ Harley-Davidson announced on February 9 that it has won a contract to produce 1570 military motorcycles for the British Ministry of Defence. The vehicle will be produced and delivered over a four-year period, beginning in July of 1993. The motorcycles will be used primarily for dispatch riding and combat communications. The British Ministry of Defence will use the vehicles worldwide. They will replace their existing fleet of motorcycles which were purchased from 1985-87. Harley-Davidson Vice President Mike Hillman said, "We are very excited about receiving a contract of this size from an important world power such as Britain. It reaffirms our belief that the motorcycle is one of the most cost-effective vehicles in use by the military and is the best vehicle available for ce.rtain military purposes." The Harley-Davidson MT350 motorcycles are built exclusively for military use and designed to meet the needs of the Company's military customers where reliability and ease of maintenance are prime consideration. From five bids that were tendered, the Ministry of Defence selected three finalists for extended durability tests conducted by the Ministry. Harley-Davidson's competitors during these tests were Suzuki and Cagiva. The MT350 features a 350cc air-cooled, single cylinder, four-stroke, electric start Rotax engine and has a range of 200 miles. It is a development of a design originally acquired from the Armstrong Motorcycle Co. by Harley-Davidson in 1987. The specific~tions on the unit purchased by the British Ministry of Defence are alterE;d slightly to include forward mounted panniers (saddlebags) for added carrying capacity. The vehicles will be built at Harley-Davidson's assembly plant in York, Pennsylvania at a rate of approximately two bikes per day. The assembly will take place in a separate building and will not affect the Company'~ ability to deliver pleasure or police model motorcycles. The predecessors of the MT350 and MTSOO (a 500cc military motorcycle) are currently used by the armies of Jordan and Canada and are the motorcycle of choice for the United States Air Force's Combat Control Teams. The vehicles are NATQ-Codified to allow for international, inter-armed forces operation. These vehicles are available only on a contract basis through the Harley-Davidson headquarters in Milwaukee. They are not available through the Company's retail dealers and distributors. Repsol Honda's Alex Criville was the fastest of the 500cc Grand Prix riders who took part in the annual IRTA test session in Jerez, Spain, on February 1921. Criville circulated at one-minute, 45.27-seconds, just fractions of a second quicker than Doug Chandler on the factory Cagiva, who lapped at 1:45.59. The 250cc riders were led by former 125cc World Champion Loris Capirossi, who lapped at 1:45.73 on his Honda NSR250. Takada Harada was second fastest at 1:45.73 on a Yamaha. Former 500cc World Champion Wayne Gardner has inked a deal with General Motors to race touring cars this year in Australia. Gardner raced a .Honda NSX on February 21, finishing fifth in a sixhour endurance race ilt Sandown in Melbourne, Australia. Three-time World Champion Wayne Rainey recently returned from Australia where he tested the 1993 Yamaha YZRSOO for the first time. Not all went smoothly during the tests. "I'd say it went about average," Rainey said. "We're having some teething problems with the new bike, but it's really nothing that can't be fixed. The bike is brand new and it's so different from anything we've had in the past. I was the first one to ride the bike and we've run into a few little problems with it. I guess you could call them testing technicalities. I have a bike we can fall back on if we have to, but 1 have a lot of confidence in the guys at Yamaha and 1 think we'll be okay." According to Rainey, the remainder of the Team Marlboro Roberts pre-season test sessions will be done at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. The AMA Grand National Championship Series returns to ESPN this year with 11 hours of tape-delayed programs from the dirt track series' 40th anniversary season. All programs will air in prime time on the West Coast. With the exception of the series recap, all programs are scheduled for Thursday evening broadcasts (early Friday in the East). Producing the programming for the AMA for the third straight year on ESPN will be Dave Despain & Associates, with Dave Despain at the anchor microphone. Providing expert analysis again this year will be race mechanic Bill Werner and Lany Maiers . returns as pit reporter. Additionally, an agreement in principal has been reached to continue broadcasts of the series on ESPN in 1994, when expansion to 15 hours is anticipated. The series of ESPN telecasts is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 19 (August 20 in the East) and the first show's subject will be the April 25 San Jose Mile. Other events tentatively scheduled to be aired are both the spring and fall runnings of the Sacramento Mile and the Springfield Mile, the West Virginia Half Mile, Syracuse Mile, Oklahoma City Half Mile, Peoria IT and fall Pomona Half Mile. Lany Pegram, who sustained multiple injuries in a Superbike race crash a t the February 15 AMA National Championship Road Race Series opener in Phoenix, Arizona, underwent surgery in a Phoenix hospital on Tuesday, February 16, and was scheduled to be flown to Akron General Hospital in his home state of Ohio on Thursday, February 18. Pegram suffered a double fracture of his left femur, one of them compound, as well as a broken kneecap, a cracked pelvis, and a bruised bladder. Cards and letters may be sent to Pegram at 12843 Parliament Dr., Baltimore, OH 43105. Two-time Grand National Champion Ricky Graham was also on hand as a competitor at Phoenix International Raceway, teaming up with Scott Gray and John McMahon to make up Team Racelaw. The team competed in the GTO 3-Hour Endurance race and finished seventh. "1 only had a few laps of practice and I was still a little sketchy when I took over for the second leg," said Graham. "After 1 got comfortable, though, 1 felt pretty good. When this guy came around to lap us, I decided to chase him and we diced for quite some time. Then 1 found out that it was Rick 1

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