Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(where riders earn points in each moto). The points system will be the same as in supe rcross, and we have discussed the idea of having a Grand Na tional Champi on. We don't know exactly how we'd work it, and we'd need a big sponsor to come in, but the idea is there." Those who attended Friday's press da y and Sa tu rd ay 's vin tage rac e at Glen Helen Cycle Park before the Glen Helen Na tion al MX may have thought th ey were expe rienci ng deja vu. Multi-ti me National MX Champion Jeff Ward spun a few laps on the track on Friday, an d in the vi n tage rac e 's in du stry class, AMA 's Roy Janson, Ka wasa ki tea m manager Roy Turner, Honda team manager Dave Arnold, KTM team manager Selvaraj Nayarana, Answer Racing's Bryar Holcomb, O 'Ne a l USA 's Jim O'Neal Team Spl itfir e /H ot Whee ls' technician Bones Bacon and several others all banged bars . Holcomb earned the win in the Vintage Iron-promoted event, which ra ised mon ey fo r in ju re d AHRMA mem bers. Muzzy Kawasa ki's Takahiro Sohwa had his secon d-place fi n is h in the AMA /CCS 750cc Supers po r t ra ce at Road America on July 12 reinstated by an appeals board that met in Minnesota on July 30. Sohwa was originally d isqualified for usin g 1992 brak es on his 1993 Kawasaki zxr. Camel Honda's Tom Kipp suffered a bro ken foot after crashing his Honda RC30 su pe rbike d ur ing Sun day morn ing' s pract ice session at the AMA Superbike National a t Brainerd Internationa l Raceway on Aug us t L Kipp, w ho is still recovering from a badly bro ken lower righ t leg suffered at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, was riding just to get his timing back in an effo rt to mak e a full comeback at his hom e race at Mid-Oh io on August 8. The Ohio resident was practicing with a plastic cast to protect his injured leg in case of an accident, and the cast did its job: "That brace saved me," said Kipp , who was spo rting a brand new cas t on Sun day a fternoon . "I've brok en five bones in my foot (on the sam e side as the bro ken leg). They 've set it to see if it'll ta ke wit ho ut surgery. It's a ma jor disappoint ment because I'd worked so hard to get to that point. I was just ou t there scrubbing in tires for Mike (Smith - his Camel Honda teammate). It looped around so fast 1did n't even know what hap pened. " Kipp is expected to be in a cas t for six wee ks, forcing him to miss the rest of the AMA series . Kenn y Kopecky, Willow Springs M.C opera tions mana ger, reports that trac k records were set in two classes at southern California 's Willow Springs Raceway on July 19. Jason Padenbroke the road race course's 250cc record of o ne minute, 26 secon ds se t by Nick Ienatsch by turn ing in a 1:25.66 lap aro und the 2.5 mile facility in the mee t's Maxima Racing Oil Formula Two race. Chuck Graves set a new Formula One record in the Toyo ta Cu p Unli mited Formula One race, cutting the secon d fastest lap ever recorded at the track, a 1:25.61. Craves also owns the class lap record in the 750cc Su per Stock and Open Super St ock classes. The la ps turned in by Graves and Paden were the second and third fastest laps recorded at the track in its 40-year history, and are top ped only by th e overall track lap record of 1:25.34 set by Eddie Lawson several years ago . STOLEN: A 3500 Honda generator on wheels from the RRP pits adjacent to the Kawasaki tractor-trailer truck during the Cadalora wins Schwantz KG'd in En land '94 Buell Thunderbolt unveiled I at Harle dealer show A talian Luca Cadalora won his first-ever 500cc Grand Prix in the British round of the World Championship Road Race Series at Donington Park, August 1, after a surp rising set of circumstances saw championsh ip leader Kevin Schwantz taken out of the race on the open ing lap. Cada lora, the n on-defend ing 250cc World Ch amp ion, ended up topping his Marlboro Roberts Yamaha teammate Wayne Rainey by 3.312 seconds, desp ite being given a pit board that read "P-2" (second place) by his team. Cadalora passed Rainey with two and a half laps to go to secure his first win in the most prest igious of the Grand Prix classes. By this time Lucky Strike Suzuki 's Kevin Schwantz, his teamma te Alex Barros and Rothmans Honda's Michael Doohan were all out of the race after a first lap, three-bike crash. The crash was sta rted by Doohan as he ran into Barros and then Schwantz as the pack raced towa rds the chicane on the opening lap. Third place ended up going to Scotland 's Niall Mackenzie after a last-lap pass of Brit Carl Fogarty, who was the wild card British entry on a factory Cagiva . Mackenzie and his Valvoline Roc Yamaha bea t Fogarty to the line by a scant .34-of-a-seco nd. Rothmans Honda's Shinichi Itoh rounded out the top five finishers. The race for the 500cc World Cham p io nsh ip was thrown wide open with Schwantz 's crash . The Texan now leads Californian Rainey by only three points, 192189, with four races (the Czechoslovakian, Italian and U.S. GPs, and a race to replace the canceled South African GP) rema ining in the series. Rothmans Honda's Daryl Beattie moved past his teammate Doohan for third in the championship. The pair of Australians have 126 and 120 points, respectively. • Californian Doug Chandler didn 't start the race after qualify ing 15th. The factory .Cagiva rider found he was still hindered by the injuries to his left side that he suffered in the San Marino GP two weeks ago, and he pulled out on race morning. Chandler headed home in the hopes of being fit for the Czechoslovakian round of the series on August 15. . Aprilia's Jean-Philippe Ruggia won his first-ever 250cc GP, the Frenchman passing Marlboro Honda 's Loris Capirossi in the final laps. Capirossi held on for second ahead of fellow Ital ian Loris Reggia ni on a second factory Ap rilia. Former National and World MXChampion Jean-Michel Bayle had his best-ever road race finish as he ended up eighth. . . As in the 500cc class, the champ ionship leader in the 250cc World Championship crash ed out of the race. Japan 's Tetsuya Harada crashed his factory Yamaha in the first corner and now leads Cap irossi by 31 points, 151-126. Max Biaggi, sixth in Englan d, is thi rd with 106 points, just two clear of Ruggia. The 125ccGP was won for the seventh time this season by German Dirk Raudies on the Team Europa Honda RS125. Rau dies topped F.C C. Tech nical Spor ts' Kazuto Sakata with third place going to Aprilia-mounted Ralf Waldm ann . Raudies leads the championship over Sakata, 202-185. Rolf Bila nd an d Kurt Waltisperg were the winn ers of the British Sidecar GP, topp ing Derek Brindley and Paul Hutchinson. It was Biland's fourth win in five tries this season and he leads the championship by 50 points. ttendees at Harley-Davidson's recent dea ler show in Nashville, Tennessee, got the oppo rtunity to view a prototype version of the 1994 Buell S2 Thunderbolt, wh ich wa s on d ispla y th ere. Buell , wh ich w as sta rted in 1987 by form er HarleyDavidson employee Erik Buell, temporari ly shut down at the end of last year wh en Harley stepped in and bought a 49% share of the company. The Thunderbolt will be the first model actu ally produced by the new Buell Motorcycle Company, and past Buell mode ls will now be served by a new company called EFB Designs. The Thunderbolt replaces last year's RS and RSS Westwind models, and new models are planned for the future. Buell has always been known for build ing un ique and exclusive Har ley-Davidson V-twin-po wered motorcycles, and while the company wants to retain this feature, they hope to increase availability. Buell has sold approximately 450 bikes in their first five years, but hope to build and sell 300 to SOO '94 models. According to Erik Buell, tentative suggested retail price on the new bike is $12,500; last year's models sold for $16,000. To achieve this, Buell has replaced several of the billet parts with castings (including the wheels) and now uses MIG welding on the frame as opposed to TlG welding. Spun aluminum wheels will be available as an option. Other changes include a more upright rider position, new body styling, an allBrembo brake on the rear, a different mirror location, a sw itch from chain drive to a Kevlar belt drive, a carbon fiber belt guard and air cleaner cover and a standard twoperson seat. Buell hopes to have the Thunderbolt on dealer floors by early next year. fin al 250cc mo to at the ational Championship MX at Kenworthy's in Troy, Ohio, on July 25.The generator had been lent to RRP by Scott Swinehart of Bridgestone. A reward is being offered . If you have any information on the missing generator, call Mike of Rossini Racing Products at 908/454-8730. BORN: Cameron Kenneth Summers, son of ISDE gold medalist Duane Summers and his wife Yvette, on July 14 in Camp Hill, Pennsy lvania. Summers is currently the manager of Yamaha of Cam p Hill. BORN: Maddison Elizabeth Gues t, daughter of Cycle News graphic artis t Stacey Guest and her husband Craig, on July 14 in Long Beach, California. MOVED: CW Racing Eng ines, a two stroke perfo rmance shop, to 165 Cristich Lane, Unit A, Camp bell, CA 95008; 408/371-0644, fax 408/371-0645. CORR ECTION: As we reported la st week, d efendi ng 250cc Wor ld Champ ion Donny Schmit is plan ning to co n test th e final three National MX roun d s of the yea r for Yama ha. However, contrary to what Schmit told us, he will not ride a 360cc kitted YZ250 in the 500cc class, but instea d will contest the 12Sec class aboard a YZ125. ~ 3

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