Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1993 07 14

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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~ !~.!~~B~~~ro!! Pa M~'~~~~h.n, B ....... ~ in a low score of 29 to win the French round of the World Championship Observed Trials Series, July 4. Series points leader and former World Cf') Champion Jordi Tarres (G-G) of Spain 0'\ was second with 31 marks and 0'\ defending World Champion Tommi M Ahvala (Apr) was third with 32 . ... Tarres, who has won five of the seven -.::f'I rounds conducted this year, leads felM low Spaniard Marc Colome (Bet), 12th >-. on the day in France, in the point ....... standings, 128-101. Bilbao is third with ;J 94 points. -- The 3rd Annual Lo udon Vintage Celebra tion held over the Fourth of July weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway saw D av id Alda na win both legs of the BMW Battle of the Legends. Yvon DuHamel was second overall and Ga ry N ixon third. In addition to his runner-up performa nce in the Legends race, DuHamel won both the Formula 750 and Formula Vintage races in AHRMA competition. Aldana was also busy, finishing second in the 500 Premier class and third in the Formula Vintage race. But it was T odd Henning who was the star of the weekend. Honda-mounted Henning topped the 350, 500 and 750 Sportsman races and won or finished second in several USCRA classes. Force Raci ng (Yam) won the 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges in Warren, Ohio, July 4. The race was round seven of the WERA Power-Mist/Performance Machine National Endurance Series. Force Racing completed 1021 laps for a total of 2042 miles on the two-mile Nelson Ledges road course. Second place went to Team Pearls S u z u k i (Suz) with 1012 laps while Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) finished third with 1004 laps. Kenny Rob erts Jr. finished fifth in a round of the All Japan 250cc Road Race Series at the Sugo circuit in northern Japan, July 4. Roberts rode a factory Yamaha TZ250M for the Marlboro Ya maha Tai ra team . At a press conference following the event, Roberts Jr. said that there is a possibility of him returning to Japan next year to contest the entire All Japan series on the Tadahiko Taira-owned team as well as some selected Grands Prix. It was also announced at the post-race press conference in Japan that Kenny Roberts Jr. will ride in the Suzuka 8Hour on Yamaha's number one team with Australian Kevin Magee. The pair will ride a works Yamaha YZF750SP and it will mark Roberts' first outing on a superbike. AMA President ยท Ed You ngblood announced on July 6 that Dick Maxwell has resigned as the association's vice president of sports marketing, effective July 1. Youngblood indicated that Maxwell's resignation will not result in any immediate changes in the AMA's professional racing program or policies and that no replacement will be sought prior to the next scheduled meeting of the AMA Board of Trustees in late August. 2 The Ro thm an s tobacco company announced on Jun e 6 that it is pulling out of the World Championship Road Race Series at the end of this season and will instead give its sponsorship dollars to the Williams Renault Formula One car racing team in 1994 and 1995. Rothmans has been a longtime sponsor of HRC's World Championship road racing teams, including this year's 500cc team of D.ryl nd Shinichi Hoh, and the 2S0cc team of Max Biaggi and Tadayuki Okada. The Frank Williams-owned F-l car racing team is currently leading the F-l Championship with dr iv er Alain Prost; the team fin ished 1-2 in the' French Grand Prix on July 4 with Prost winning and Damon Hill finishing second. Carl Fogarty had a handlebar-mounted rear brake lever on his Ducati at the World Championship Superbike Series round at Misano, Italy, June 20. "I've never used a rear brake before, mainly because I haven't got the movement in my ankle when I'm on the bike," . Fogarty said. "But if (GP road racer) M ick Doohan has it set up this way, I'm sure it's worth trying. It might give the bike a little extra stability going into comers. I'm no t sure of it a t the moment. It's been on the bike all weekend and I think I've touched it twice ." Foga rty's lever was mounted on the left handlebar below the clutch lever. Not to be outdone, Gi ancarlo Falappa had a handlebar-mounted gear changer on his works Ducati at Mi sano. Falappa has lack of movement in his left ankle so his crew chief, Rolan do Simionelti, has rigged up an electric motor connected to the gear shift. Falappa changes gears upwards through the box by pressing a button on the left handlebar. Downwards shifts are carried out in the conventional manner. Prior to the Misano round, Fallappa tested a de ve lop ment factory Ducati motor (bigger than the 920cc they have been running this year) at Mugello the Monday before the Misano race and suffered a huge crash. He was highsided coming onto the start/finish straight and the bike was destroyed . Falappa suffered a badly bruised right foot. Then, to ad d insult to injury, the night before the Misano race he was spectating a t the paddock bike race and fell fro m th e Ducati truck when the s teps he was s tanding on co llapsed. He hurt the other foot/ankle and spent most of race day - when he wasn' t on the bike - with an ice pack strapped to the foot. Davide Tard ozz i tested the 1994 Ducati 916 superbike at Misano the week preceding the World Championship round. The test was carried out behind closed doors but the bike is believed to have a singlesided swingarm - although the famil iar trellis frame, as used on the current 888s, is retained. Tardozzi crashed twice during the two-day test, hurting his shoulder. Scott Russell admitted to being tired at Misano. He recently finished fourth in a race at Japan's Suzuka circuit, won the Loudon round of the AMA National Championsh ip Superbike Series in the wet, and then jetted in to Misano at 11 p .m. the night before practice was due to start. Take a break? No way. Russell was due to test in Japan after Misano and then return to Euro pe for the July 11 Austrian round of ' th e World Championship Superbike Series . Team Undo's Ricky Grah am returned to 1-96 Speedway the morning af ter the July 3 Grand National Championship race that he won to test the new Dunl op K180 front tire on his Do uglas Fay-tuned Harley-Davidson 883. "Dunlop gave them to a few racers a while ago," said Graham. "But the AMA wouldn't let us race with Raine~ fi his backl wins GP of Euro e ar lbo ro Yamaha 's Wayne Ra iney (right) celebrated Independence Day with a victory in the 500cc Grand Prix of Europe, held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, July 4, the win moving him to within 19 points of World Championship leader Kevin Schwantz. The Californian led from start to finish in recording his third win of the season and the 23rd 500cc GP victory of his career. At the finish line he was some four seconds clear of Rothmans Honda's Michael Doohan, who in turn led Schwantz by a margin of 15.727 seconds. Doohan's teammate Daryl Beattie was fourth with Schwantz's Lucky Strike Suzuki teammale Alex Barros fifth. The third American in the race, Californian Doug Chandler, cras hed the factory Cagiva on the second lap when he was hit from behind by Japan's Shinichi Itoh on the third Rothmans Honda . With eigh t races complete and six remaining, Schwantz leads defending champ Rainey, 172-153, in the World Championship 500cc poi nt standi ngs. Beattie is third with 106 points, followed by Doohan 's 95 and Alex Criville, a non-finisher in his home GP, fifth with 77 points. Rothmans Honda's Max Biaggi won his first 250cc Grand Prix since joining the Honda team, the Italian getting the better of a five-way battle. At the finish line, Biaggi was 2.601 seconds ahead of Japan's Tadayuki Okada on a second Rothmans Honda with third place going to Spaniard Alberto Puig on the Ducados Honda. Kanemoto Racing's Nobuatsu Aoki and Aprilia's J.P Ruggia rounded out the top five finishers . American John Kocinski, who was fired by the Lucky Strike Suzuki team immediately following the previous weekend's Dutch GP, did not race in Spain after failing to find a replacement ride. Though he failed to finish in Barcelona, Telkor Yamaha Valesi's Tetsuya Harada continues to lead the championship over the injured Doriano Romboni, 135-96. Helmut Bradl, 11th in Spain, is third with 87 points, just two clear of Biaggi's 85. Lor is Capirossi, who was third in the standings, slipped to fifth with 81 points after failing to finish in Spain. Japan's Noboru Ueda ended his two-year winless streak with his victory in the 12SecGP on the Marlboro Team Pileri Honda. Ueda, who won the Spanish GP in 1991, beat Marlboro Aprilia's Ralf Waldmann by .610-0f-a-second. Third place went to Akira Saito on the Elf Team Kepla Honda with Team Semprucci Aprilia's Hem Torronlegui and Team Europa Raudies Honda's Dirk Raudies filling the top five. Ra udies' fifth place finish moves him into the lead in the 125cc World Championship point standings, 152-145, over Kazuto Sakata , a non-finisher in Spain. Takeshi Tsujirnura, ninth in Spain, is third with 103 points. M them until th ey were ' tes ted." When ' asked how the n e w tire w o r ked, Graham rep lied , "Fine." Ba ton Rouge, Lo uisiana, is survived by his wife Sharon and three child ren . Godspeed, Jerry. After the Michigan Half Mile, George Roeder II and Jay Sp ringsteen packed their bags and headed for California again to face the cameras for the madefor-telev ision movie Ride th e Wind. "We're supposed to go to Ven tura Raceway for a couple days, then to . Willow Springs," said Roeder. "They said something about doing some crashes. That will cost them extra if they want me to crash on purpose." Lon ni e Hardy, the business manager of three-ti me World Champ ion Freddie S pen cer, loo k exception to ou r In The Wi nd item regarding Spencer's expected return to GP racing. "Any reports tha i Freddie has been elusive or unable to be contacted are untrue," Hardy wrote in a letter to Cycle News. "We have been in constant contact with the team and have sent numerous updates on Freddie's condition." Hardyenclosed a copy of a facsimile message sent to Sonauto Yamaha 's Francoise Depierre dated June 24 (10 days after Sonauto Yamaha crew chief Serge Rosset told Cycle News GP correspondent Michael Scott: "We've heard nothing," of Spencer's projected date of return) explaining Spencer's health woes as a result of his crashes in both Australia (March 28) and Malaysia (April 2). According to th e fax, Spencer has undergone surgery on his injured knee and the fax quotes Dr. Warren King: "F reddie will be able to return to racing as soon as he has enough strength in his knee an d has m o re mo tion in h is wrist. Freddie will be able to ride as soon as this is accomplished . At the rate he is wo rking at now, it could quite possibly be August." The British Grand Prix a t Do nington Par k will be he ld 'o n August 1 with the Czechoslovakian round to follow on August 15. The AMA/CCS road race meet originally scheduled for October 16-17 at Heartland Park Topeka has been canceled . No replacement for the date has been named at this time. Rev.Jerry Landry, SO, died in his sleep on Monday, June 28, succumbing to liver and colon cancer that was diagnosed just a few months ago . Landry had preached in his newly completed church in Indianapolis on Sunday and he was hospitalized immediately after the services. Doctors expressed amazement over his being ab le to preach that day-, His ill ness was firs t diagnosed jus t three months ago, and according to longtime friend and fellow former dirt track racer Hank Sco tt, he never did accept the fact that he was sick . "He told me he had bought a Harley and after the doctors told him he had only three months to live, he said he wanted to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway," Scott said. "He never got to do that. He'll be missed by many ." Landry, who was originally from Last week, a Fi rst Judicial District Court of New Mexico jury, convened in Santa Fe, held for the defense in the

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