Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Moto rs po rts Pa r k and Co n tine n ta l Motorsports Clu b have joined forces to create The Temecu la Sunrise Off-Road Challenge, a three-race off-road seri es open to motorcycles and several classes of four-wheelers. The first round will ta ke p la ce July 9-11 at Temecula Motorsports Park in Temecula, Ca li fornia, with th e followi ng round p lanned for August 8 at Sunrise Cycle Park in Ad elanto, Ca lifornia. The series will retu rn to the Tem ecul a facility for th e fin a l rou nd on Sep tember 6. For more inform a tion, call 909/ 698-4800. Noleen Racing has agreed to support fo r me r Italian National Endur o Cha mpio n Angelo Cavandoli a t the Nevada Ra lly th is August. Cavon doli, 29, will co ntes t a modified Ya maha YZ250WR. In addition, American Hond a has announced that off-road ace Dan Ashc raft will compete in the event aboard a Ho nda XR600. For the fifth time the Kawasaki raced by Larry Roeseler in the Blackwa ter 100 wa s raffled off during the pre-race rider's meeting. Th is year's winner was N eal Dragovich o f nearb y Bayard , West Virginia. With the help of Ron Smith of Smitty's Kawasaki of Buckhannon and Team Green's Greg Quador, Dra govich was abl e to take th e bike home right after Roeseler had raced and placed fifth overall on it. ~ Team Honda's Scott Su mme rs, the 1991 and '92 Blackwater 100 winner, was on hand at this year's event but unable to go for an unprecedented three wins in a row due to his broken left wrist. Summers instead did color commentary for the ESPN /MotoWorld cameras and conducted a Saturday afternoon seminar on cross country racing and prep aration . Summers p la ns on getting back in th e saddle by mid-July. Mul ti-lim e National MX Cha mpion Jeff Ward had a busy weekend. On Satu rd ay nigh t, Jun e 26, Ward finished third in the Gra nd National Tru ck class in his firstever Micky Thompson Off-Road Grand Prix Series race , and the following d ay he competed in the Indy Light s race at Portland Internationa l Ra ce w a y in Oregon, finishing 17th after pulling out of the race on the fifth lap . Four-time World Champion Edd ie La w so n a lso competed in the Indy Lights ra ce and finished eighth. After turning in the fas tes t qualifying lap of the day at the June 26 Lima Half Mile, even tual-race w in n e r Ricky Graham was presented w it h a handmade red leather director's chair by Dee Johnson , owner of D 's Cu s to m Lea thers . "This is really ne at," sa id Graham, obviously qu ite excited abou t the chair tha t features an elaborate flag d esign. "And I just ordered up a new pai r of leathers from Dee, now 1 have a chair to ma tch." Ronn ie Jones competed at th e Lima Half Mile aboard the M&M Ra cin g Honda RS750 owned by Mike Morr. "George Garvis doesn't like to bring his b ikes to Lima beca use they can ge t so thrashed," said Jone s. " I'll still be racing George's bikes at the rest of the eastern races and the Lora l Lake b ike on th e western rounds, it's just this race tha t 1 had to find an other bike for." Jo nes s tru ggled to adapt to the ye llow-a nd black Ho nda and faile d to qua lify fo r . the National. For Morr, it was as diffi cult for him to all ow Jones to race the bike as it was for Jones to adapt to it. "I w a s p eeling the 31s o ff and putting Ronnie's 16s on , and I go t rea lly upset," said Morr, in reference to the inj ured Dan Ingram , who had r a ced th e machines for the past two ye ars . " It' s like, 'Oh well, your rid er gets hu rt so you just change the number p lates and go on: I felt terrible." With such a stro ng crowd fo llowing behind him at the Lima Half Mile, we wo n de re d w hy loca l favorite S teve Morehead did n' t compete in the HarleyDavidson 883 Nation al as we ll. After all, Morehead had raced an 883 at a few previo us events, and doing so at Lima wo uld have given him another opportunity to ra ce in fro n t of his hometown fans . "We go t rid of it," said Morehead. Discrimination against motorcyclists growing stud~-- -=-re- - ,-ve- - =-als _ I l nsurance discriminati on agains t motorcyclists in .the workplace is a da ngerous and growing trend, a new study by the AMA reveals. The stud y, known as the Victims Project, was undertaken in res ponse to reports from some motorcyclists that they ha d lost their employer-provided medical ins urance benefits because they rod e motorcycles. The AMA put together an employmen t di scrimination qu estionnaire that went out to all 200,000 Association member s in the June issue of American Motorcyclist magazine. The results of that su rvey, reported in the August issu e of American Motorcyclist, reveal that examples of such workplace d iscrimina tion are cropping up in all parts of the country. The Assoc iation learn ed of severa l compan ies that have eliminated all medical insurance benefits for injuries related to motorcycle riding. Other companies sev erely reduced the avail able benefits in cases of motorcycle-related injuries. In so me cases, employees who rod e motorcycles d idn't even learn that the cost of medical treatment wouldn't be covered until after they had an accident. The AMA also learned that a number of uni ons, founded on the p rincip le of protecting workers ' rights, are cu tting back insurance benefits for the ir own members who ride motorcycles . Also hard-hit by this cris is are self-em ployed workers, who must try to purchase their own medical insurance . "With the spiraling costs of health care in America, there ma y be no more insi dious form of d iscrimination than withholding a worker's medical insurance," noted Greg Harrison, vice president of communications for the AMA. "These res trictions have the effect of telling employees that they cannot participate in a perfectly legal activity on their own lime : ' The AMA is workin g with other recreation groups to promote leg islati on ba nning discrimination against employees in the workplace. The next stage in that effor t is preparing mod el legislation tha t wo uld protect workers. in all states. The AMA has p repa red an information kit to help motorcyclists fight this trend in their companies and in their sta tes. To get one, send a 9-by-12 self-addressed en velope bearing 58 cen ts postage plus $2 to cover copying costs. Send your req uest to: Lifestyl e Discrimination Kit, c/o AMA, P.O. Box 6114, Westerville, OH 43081-6114. Schw wins Dtch G~ le ds se b 2 ~oints antz u a ries 8 u cky Strike Suzu ki' s Ke vin Schwantz edged · Roth mans Ho nd a's Micha el Doohan by a scant ' .829-of-a-seco nd to win his fourth 500cc Grand Pri x of th e seaso n in round seven of the World Cham p ions h ip Road Race Series, held in Assen, Ho lland, on June 26. Sch w an tz, Doohan and Lucky Strike Suzuki's Alex Barros ba ttled throughout the GP before Barros crashed out whi le holding a slight lead on the other two on the final lap. Th is left 5chwantz and Doohan to fight to the flag, wi th 5chwanlz capturing the win and extending his champ ionship points lead in the process. Marlboro Honda's Alex Criville finished third, only .304-of-a-second ahead of Cagiva's Doug Chandler. Marlboro Yamaha's Wayne Rainey finished fifth after running short of fuel in the closing stages of the race. Schwantz's win combined with Rainey's fifth-pla ce finish gives the Texan a 28-point lead over the defending champ as the series reached its halfway point, 156-128. Rothrnans Hon da's Daryl Beattie, who crashed out of the Dutch GP on the first lap , still holds d own third in the championship with 93 points. Criville and Doohan round out the top five with 77 and 75 points, respectively. Italian Loris Capirossi won his first-ever 250cc Grand Prix in Holla nd , the 2a-yearold beating Telko r-Yam aha Valesi's Tetsu ya Harada by 3.917 seconds. Th ird place went to Lucky Stri ke Suzuki's John Kocinski, who was only .763-of-a-second beh ind Harad a at the end of the 18-lap, 67.5-mile race. Aprilia's J.P. Ruggia finished fourth with HB Honda Germ any's Helmut Bradl rounding out the top five finis hers. Har ada continues to lead the 250cc World Ch ampionship poin t stand ings, increasing his lead to 39 points over HB Honda Italy's Doriano Rornboni, 135-96. Romboni crashed early on the seco nd lap and su ffered a broken right leg. Bradl , Capirossi and Kocinski are third, fourth and fifth in the stand ings with 82, 81 and 80 points, resp ectively. . . The point stand ings i n the 12Sec World Championship tighte ned considerably with Team Europa Honda' s Dirk Raudies w inn ing his second s traigh t G P to move to within fou r points of cha mpi ons hi p leader Kazuto Sak ata, 145-141. Sa kat a and the F.C.C. Technical Sports-backed Honda finished second in Assen. Third pla ce went to Manfred Baumann on the Team Baumann Honda, ah ead of the similar Hondas of Maik Stief and HansSpaan. The Sidecar GP in Holland was won by championship leader Rolf Biland and Kurt Walti sperg over Steve Webster and Gavin Simmons. Biland leads Webster, 70-47, in the championship point standings after three of nine rounds. L "It didn' t ha ndle well an d I never felt comfortable on the motorcycle. I just couldn't see racing it all season lo ng when I wasn't having fun:' Morehead's former 883 was purchased by Wiemer's Cycle and Slatz Lowry , and raced to sixth-place in th e fea tu re by Sc ott Stu mp. "I liked it, it was a lot of fun," said Stump. "Cons idering that it was my first ride on the bike, I felt pretty <;omfortable. Steve said that it didn't handle, but I thought it was great. It stuck like gl ue in the turns. The onl y downfall is that when you hi t a bump, it makes real sure that you kn ow you hit a bump: ' ~ ~ ('f') ~ ~ longtime MTEG p ub lic rela tion s d irector, effective July 1. Gardea joined MTEG in November 1991, working directly with Russo who has been associated with th e company as an independ ent contractor since 1982. "We are grateful to Bob Russo for his years of service," said MTEG President Gary Ca mpbell. "I am saddened by his leaving, however I am happy that he and his wife Shirley w ill have an opportunity to enjoy this welldeserved retirem en t." Russo will continue doing special projects for MTEG, such as producing their annual awards banquet. Four- time Grand National Champion Scott Parker sho wed up at the Lima Half Mile wit h a temporary cast back on the right wrist that he broke earlier in th e yea r. "It's not broken again or anything like that," said Parker. "I just figured it woul d be better to race w ith it si nce Lima u sua ll y ge ts pretty ro u g h ." Unfortuna tely, Parker's H arleyDavidson spun a main bearing a n d broke its crankshaft on the second lap of the main and he earned only one point. Tho ug h he sits thi rd in the series point sta ndings behind leader Ricky Graham and Chris Carr, Parker co nti n ues to be optimistic about his cha nces at an unprecedented fifth title. "Hey, I'm only 21 poi nts down on Ricky and 19 down on Chris," said Parker. "I've come from that far ba ck and won the title befor e, and I can d o it again. Besid es, if I wi n four races and they ge t second and third a t every one, I'm right ba ck in th ere. And I have won four races in a season . Hell, I've won 10 in a season, haven't I? I'll be fine." ~ AlITOGR APH SIGNING: At Downers G ro ve Yam ah a / Su z uk i in Do wners Gr ove , Ill in ois, Tea m Su zu ki's Jimmy Button and OGY team riders Jeff Dement and Ch ad Pederson, on Friday, July 2, from 5:30 p.m . to 7 p.m. Info: 708/9712602. PRO MOTED: Ton y Gardea, by Mickey Thompson Entertainment G roup to the position of publ ic relations manager, following the retirement of Bob Russo, the NAMED: Dr. Walter Hasselkus, as managing d ir e cto r of BMW Motorrad GmbH, the motorcycle subsidia ry of BMW AG, effec tive Sep tember I. Dr. Hasselkus, 51, who presen tly heads up the Ce n tral European Regi on of BMW AG, will succeed Dr. Hartmut Kaempfer and will be responsible for the operation of the Munich, Germany-based motorcycle subsidiary and ma nufac turing at the Berli n production facili ty . Earlier thi s year, BMW named two new senior managers in Munich. Bernd Kolk is the new sa le s and mark et in g man a g er, a n d Lotha r 5ch eungraber is the new development manager. PROMOTED: Gene [u rick, by Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. (YMUS) to division manager, acces sories division, and Rocky Darger to reg ional man ager, Western Region. They will both work at Continued on page 3 3 I

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