Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

B The AMA has named the riders w ho w ill represen t the Ll.S. on the Wo rl d Trophy and Junior World teams in the Octob er 11-16 Interna ti on al Six Day End uro (ISDE) in Holland: The Tro phy team will consis t of Fred Hoess, fou rtime National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkin s, ne wl y crowned N at ional Reliability End u ro Ch am pion Rodney Sm ith , Steve Hatch, T y Da vis a n d David Rhodes. Hoess and Hawkins w ill compete in the 125cc class; Smith and Ha tch in th e 250cc cla ss; Da vis in th e 500cc class, and Da vid Rhod es in th e 350cc Four-Stroke class. Pat Garrahan, Chris Smith, Sco tt McLaughlin a n d Josh Whitaker mak e up the U.S. Junior World team. Garrahan w ill compete in th e 125cc class, while th e other th ree will com pe te in the 250cc class. Tw enty-seven riders will represen t the Ll.S, at the ISDE on nine thr ee-rider club te a ms . They are Thomas Ebe rsole , Mark Ruple, Jim Walker, William Rush, Bob Bechtel, David Lykke, John Mo ody, Chad Carlisle, Steve Travis, Curt Wilcox, Randy DuBois, Jason Edie, Tom Ady, Robert Johnson, Dan Harte, Steve Silvestri, Josh Chandler, Jason Dahners, Jeff Fredette, Paul Krause, Kevin Bennett, Mark Lambert, Marc Grossman, Kerry Clark, David Crain , Doug Deaton and Ron Lawson. The balloting has been completed for the team that will defend America's MX des Nations championship in Austria on September 12. The squad will consist of Jeff Emig (l25cc class), Jeremy McGrath (250cc),and Mike Kiedrowski (500cc). Emig was scheduled to serve as best man at Buddy Antunez' wedding the weekend of the event, but he says he'll regretably skip the wedding to compete in Austria. The team will be attempting an unprecedented 13th consecu tive win at the event. Grand National Champion Chris Carr wrapped up his sixth-consecutive 600cc National Championship with a win at the Maine Asphalt Short Track in July. Since the introduction of the serie s in 1988, Carr has been the only rider to ha ve earned the title. "It feels great to w ra p up the titl e:' said th e Team Harley-Davidson rid er. "Now I can concen trate solely on defending my Gran d National Championship title." And s pe a ki ng of th e Gra nd National Cha mpions hi p Series, this yea r's titl e chase is undoubted y the most interesting in recen t years -10 years, to be exact. In 1982, Ricky Graham captured the cha mp ions hip as a p riva teer aboard a Tex Peel-tuned Harley-Davi dso n XR750. Since then, every series title has bee n won b y a fact ory rider . Team Harl ey -Dav ids o n's Ran d y Goss dethro ne d privateer Gra ha m in 1983, but with a new-found H ond a fac to ry ride; Graham reclaimed th e cha m p ionship in 1984. Tea m Honda's Bubba Shobert swept th e se ries from 1985 to ' 87, as did Harley-D a vid so n ' s Scott Parker from 1988 to '91 before losing the title to his factory H arley teammate, Chris Carr, in 1992. But what abou t this yea r' s series, you ask? Well, surprise, su rp rise. Graham, aboard a privateer H ond a, has dominated the series thus far and e njoys a healthy se ries point lead ov er Carr. In the first 12 of 21 rounds, Graham has posted seven wins, while Carr has won only two. Pa rker has won only a single event, as have privateers K evin Atherton and Dan Ingram. The s u perc ro s s- s t yl e format - one points-paying moto - will be used exclusively next yea r at AMA National MX events, according to AMA Pro Racing Di rector Roy Janson . "The promo ters voted, and it was un a nimous," Jan son said . "T he points system will be the same as in supercross, and we have discussed t he id ea of ha ving a Grand Nationa l Champion. We don 't know ex actly how we ' d work it, and we' d need a big spo nsor to come in, but the . idea is there." Defendi ng World 250cc MX Champion Donny Schmit announced at the Budds Creek U.S. 250cc MX GP that he will most likely return home from Europe to ride the final three 125cc MX Na tionals aboard a Yamaha YZl 25 after the concl us io n of this year's World Cha mpionship 250cc MX Series . "I feel likeI've lost a little bit of my speed, and racing a few Nationals might help," said Schmi t. Fo rm er 250cc Wo rld Cha m pion John Kocinski has changed m a nage m e n t compan ies following his d ismissal from the Lucky Strike 250cc Grand Prix team. Kocinski has ended his long association w ith Gary Howard and In ternational Racers, Inc . and his bu siness ve ntures w ill now be hand led b y Dave Stevenson, who is best known for manag ing such motocross sta rs as Jeff Stanton and former motocro sser and current off-road truck ra ce r Rick Johnson. Stevenson also man ages former Grand National Champion Bubba Shobert. According to Steven son, w ho is based in San Di e g o, Califo rnia, Kocins ki will be working on securing a place on a team in an effort to win the 1994 500cc World Championship and is ready to sacrifice the remainder of the '93 season if necessary. Stevenson said the first priority is to contact Kocinski's many loyal sponsors to see wh at he can do in order to "do right by them " for the cu rren t year and to assure them that his future holds great opportunities for all involved. Kocinski is the second rider this year to leave International Racers Inc ., joining Scott Russell, w ho br oke hi s contract with Howard p rior to the start of the 1993 World Ch ampion ship Superbike Series. And right off the bat, Stev e nso n obtained a two-race Cagiva rid e for John Kocinski in th e 500cc class. Stevenson negoti ated the contract wit h Cag iva team ' m anage r G i aco m o Agostini at the British GP. Kocinski w ill join tea m regulars Dou g Cha nd ler and Mat Mladin at th e U.S. GP at Laguna Seca and the final event of the season a t [ararna, Spa in, which takes the place of th e ca nceled Sou th African GP. According to the Italian p ress, Kocinski w ill earn $100,000 per race pl us incentives . Muzzy Kawasak i ' s Takahiro Sohwa h ad hi s second-pl ac e fin ish in ' th e AMA /CCS 750c c Superspor t race a t Road America on July 12 reins tated by an appeals board that met in Minnesota later in the month. Sohwa was origina lly d isqu alified for using 1992 brak es on his 1993 Kawasaki ZX7. Camel Honda's Tom Kipp s uffered a broken foot after crashing hi s Ho nda RC30 superbike during a practice ses sion at the AMA Superbik e Nationa l at Brainerd International Raceway in early August. Kipp, who is still reco vering from a bad ly broken lower right leg su ffered at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, was riding just to get his timing back in an effort to make a full comeback at his home race at Mid-Ohio. 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 sporting a brand new cast on IN THE WIND G /94 Buell Thunderbolt unveiled at Harlef dealer show A e ttendees at Ha rley-Davi dso n's recen t dealer show in Nashvill.e,Tenn essee, got the opportunity to view a pr ototype version of the 1994 Buell S2 Thunderbolt, which was on d isp lay there. Buell, which was started in 1987 by former H arleyDavid son emp loyee Erik Buell, temporarily shu t down at the end of last yea r when Harley stepped in and bought a 49% share of the company. The Th underbolt will be the first model actu ally produced by the new Buell Motorcycle Company, and past Buell models 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 plann ed for the fut ure. Buell has always been known for building unique and exclusive Ha rley-Davidson V-twin-power ed 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 500 '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 we lding on the frame as opposed to TIG welding. Spun aluminum wheels will be available as an option. Other changes include a more upright rider position, new body sty ling, an allBrembo brake on the rear, a different mirror location, a switch from chain dr ive 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. Sunday afternoon. "I've broken fi ve bones in my foot (on the same side as the broken leg). They' ve set it to see if it'll take without surgery. It's a major disappointment because I'd worked so hard to get to that point. I was just out there scrubbing in tires for Mike (Smith - his Camel Honda teammate). It looped around so fast I didn't even know what happened." Kipp is expected to be in a cast for six weeks, forcing him to miss the rest of the AMA series. Yamaha Motor Fr~nce's Freddie Spencer made his first Grand Prix appearance since crashing heavily during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka at the end of April when he showed up at the British Grand Prix to give a progress report on his recovery and discuss the accident for th e first time. "My right wrist isn' t bad, but I can 't bend it back much:' Spencer said, d em o ns t ra ting the limited range of . motion. He also showed a broken finger on his left hand which was threatening to come throu gh th e s kin . "Half the join t's gone: ' he said. "I've been spe ndin g a lot of tim e at the Landry Sport Clinic in Dallas," because, he said, of a bigger problem - his righ t knee . "I can' t get it straigh tened ou t and I can't get it -back to get it on the footpeg. At Suz uk a they were so busy with my finger an d w ris t "that they d idn't notice the knee problem until I got off the table. I pu t my pa nts on to step off the table and the knee we nt ou t. I go t to the U.S. and the d octor said I'd torn both medial ligame nts and had to have the ACL (anterior er ucta te ligamen t) opera tion. Most times it's a four to six-month recovery. Th ey d idn' t repai r the m ed ial. They replace the anter ior w ith cartilage and screw it into th e broken bones. I was hoping to be testing by now ." Becau se of the d e velopment o f the works Yamahas b y the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha team, Freddie Spencer w ill ha ve four d ifferent machines to choose from when he returns, hopefully at the Czech GP in mid-August. Of the accident, he remembered doing three or four laps, th en coming into the p its. "The main adjustment was to go softer and softer on the semi-active OhIins suspension . It also responded very fast as fa r as any movement. It reacts fast because it's making so many minute adjustments in a short period of time. We came in, softened it up , and it happened that lap . It must've been pretty fast. It was in a fourth gear comer, but not high revs. If it's a high-gear comer it usually gives you some ·warning. It's very unusual," he said. Whether Spencer can continue with Yamaha Motor France for 1994 is up in the air. If the team continues to get funding from the French government, an uncertainty at this po int, there is a chance they may have to use French rid ers, according to Yamaha Motor France team boss Serge Rossel. "If we continue next year it will probably be difficult to use the money from the French government for an American r id er:' said Rosset, who also owns the ROC framebuilding concern. "If we can't keep him on Yamaha France I'd be pleased to do it with ROC." The current Yamaha Motor France riders, Jose Kuhn and Bernard G a rcia, are using ROC Yamahas. One race after Kevin Schwantz signed a new two-year deal with t he Lucky Strike Suzuki team, his teammate Alex Barros also re-signed. The 22-year-old Brazilian signed a two- year cont ract, the second being an option yea r. Barros said it wasn't a difficult decision and that he h ad n't a p p roached a ny o ther teams seeking a ride . At the p ress conference announcing the Barro s signing, Mitsuo It oh, Suzu ki's d irect or of racing, sai d th at Suzu ki w ou ld once again field a 250cc team in the World Championships next yea r. There was some speculat ion that the firing of John Kocin ski would give them an opening to shut the unsuccessful program down, but that isn't the case, accord ing to Itoh. Who the rider w ill b e for th e Lucky Strike 250cc effort hasn't been decided, Itoh said, but there are a few riders it won't be . Aprilia Racin g anno unced at Donington Park that the y had retained both of their riders for 1994. Italian Loris Reggiani, 33, and Frenchman JeanPhilippe Ruggia, 27, signed within hours of each other on Saturday. Reggiani said it would be his last assault on the 250cc World Championship where his best finish was second last year. . When Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha's Luca Cadalora won the SOOcc British Grand Prix he became the winningest GP rider at Donington Park. Cadalora won the 250cc GP on a Marlboro Yamaha in 1988 and 1990 and on a Rothmans Honda in 1991 on his way to his first 250cc World Championship. CN 1

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