Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

e~y!~~5~~~O~~Pa~_~_~-t~-~-IO~-l<.-Yth-ek-n-ee-as-a-re-su-It-~-f - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- ~ . win in round eight of the AMA National . Championship Enduro Series in New Waverly, Texas, September 5. Kelby Pepper (KTM) was the runner-up, while Steve Hatch (Suz), Kevin Hines (Hus) and Matt Stavish (KTM) rounded out the top five. With one round remaining in the series, Hawkins leads Hatch by 11 points, but each rider still has to throw u) out their two worst results. With their r l two "throw-out rides" taken into $-I account, Hawkins leads Hatch by five Q) points. ...0 ~ 6J ... ~ "" CfJ Californian Ronnie Correy suffered several crushed vertebrae when he and teammate Kenneth Lindby collided during a Swedish League race in Stockholm. Correy was operated on in Stockholm's South Hospital on September 3 and steel pins were inserted along his spine. Doctors say it will be at least a year before Correy can even begin thinking about riding again. His injuries are similar to those suffered by 1991 World . Champion Jan Pedersen in May 1992. Pedersen has not ridden since. The meet was called off after Correy and Lindby crashed. Lindby suffered broken bones in his hand. Correy will stay in the Swedish hospital for at least two weeks before he can travel back to the home he maintains in England during the racing season. AMA 250cc Grand Prix National Champion Jimmy Filice will ride a factory-backed Lucky Strike Suzuki RGv250 in the 250cc U.S. GP on Sunday, April 12. Filice was originally slated to ride his Wayne Rainey Racing/Otsuka Electronics-backed Yamaha TZ250 in the Grand Prix. Kazuto Sakata, Dirk Raudies' rival for the World Championship 125cc Road Race Series crown, will become the first Japanese rider to ride for a works European team next year after signing a contract with the Italian manufacturer Aprilia for 1994. He signed on the dotted line the morning of the Italian GP on September 5. Sakata will ride a factory bike fielded by Team Semprucci, with an as-yet-unnamed sponsor. The second rider - could be Spaniard HerTi Torrontegui, who rides the Semprucci Aprilia this year, fitted with a '92 works engine; also under consideration is current Honda rider Fausto Gresini. Honda may be close to putting a sponsorship package together to replace Rothmans, as Cabin cigarettes is the favorite to take over the works HRCsupplied 500 and 250cc Grand Prix teams. This follows much speculation about the replacement for the long-time HRC road race sponsor. Other potential sponsors that have been mentioned are Camel, Canon and Fosters Lager. The Cabin brand, part of the Japan Tobacco Industry national monopoly, sponsored a works Honda in 1989, bu t it was an ilIfated exercise, with rider Bubba Shobert suffering' career-ending head injuries in an accident at the U.S. GP. His place was taken by Rob McElnea, without conspicuous success; then a domestic Japanese corruption scandal concerning highly placed Cabin staff caused a major upset before the year was ou t. 2 Australian Michael Doohan seems set to stay with Honda for 1994, no matter what happens with their sponsorship crisis. "I spoke to them at the (Suzuka) Eight Hour, and basically I've signed," he said at the Italian GP. Meanwhile, the Australian rider was already working on . development for the 1994 season, to make up for the fact that he will miss much of the winter testing season having surgery to straighten his right leg, which over-enthusiastic phys io therapy last year following his crash at the Dutch GP in June. He also hopes add itional surgery will restore lost movement in his ankle. "I am speaking to Dr. (Claudio) Costa here, to anoth er surgeon in the U.S., and to somebod y else in Britain. There are various possible methods, and I have to decide which one to have. I'll have the operation straight after the last race at jarama, and I should be able to ride again by the end of December," Doohan said. "I will probably only miss one test session." Doohan's brother, Australian Superbike Ducati rider Scott, was still along for the ride at the Italian GP, and the pair visited the Ducati factory en route to Misano, picking up some parts for his Australian bike. Australian Daryl Beattie is also likely to stay with Honda, but has not signed yet. "I have spoken to them, but it's the usual thing - nothing final. I suppose they're waiting to tie up their sponsorship deal. I'd have to consider other offers, but I'm not expecting any. The other teams seem to be basically settled." All of the talk in Italy about teams being secure was prior to Wayne Rainey's crash, which now throws open the whole question of the future of Team Marlboro Roberts. A day before his accident, Rainey had confirmed that he would stay with the team for 1994;while contrary to earlier opinions Luca Cadalora also seemed likely to stay with the team, following his late-season success. The only uncertainty was when or if Kenny Roberts would reach agreement with Yamaha. "I'm happy with the team, and Luca is now doing well like he could have done all year if the bike had been right." Did that mean he would stay? "It only means I'm happy right now," Roberts insisted. Nevertheless, it seems highly unlikely that Roberts will quit Yamaha after some 20 years of association, though he will use every means at his disposal to push Yamaha into a greater technical commitment than they have shown this year. One rumor in Italy was that Yamaha would quit the 250cc class next year to concentrate more efforts in the 500cc class. This was firmly denied by Telkor, sponsors of the Valesi team running the works TZM250s this year for Tetsuya Harada and Pier-Francesco Chili. "We have a contract with them for next year," said spokesman Steve Cooke. Aprilia arrived at Misano with the factory 250s of Loris Reggiani and JeanPhilippe Ruggia in the colors of their new 1994 sponsors Chesterfield. Well, not exactly colors: the bikes were predominately black, completely different from the yellow, red and white of JeanMichel Bayle's Chesterfield-backed Team de Radigues Aprilia. "We have been having discussions for such a long time that when we finally reached agreement for 1994 we said why not begin immediately for the last three races of '93?" said Aprilia race team manager Carlo Pernat, who had until now firmly denied any Chesterfield link. The Aprilia deal is for the existing two riders Loris Reggiani and Jean-Philippe Ruggia, but Carlo Pernat did not rule out the possibility of a third rider. "If so, we will look for a young rider - possibly Alex Gramigni (who won the 125 title for Aprilia last year), or Max Biaggi (who won his first GP last year on an Aprilia, but deserted them for Honda this year)." Asked whether Chesterfield would continue to back former motocross hero Jean-Michel Bayle, he said: "That is not our business. We are ---- 1994 Su ercross dates announced T he AMA has announced the schedule for the 15-race 1994 AMA Camel Supercross Series. Included in the series will be one first-time venue, the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The site, home of NFL's Minnesota Vikings, will stage round 11 of the series on April 16. Team Honda's Jeremy McGrath, who won a record 10 events this year, will begin defending his title on January 15 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The series will visit nine states and conclude on June 11 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. For the first time since 1977, the Seattle Kingdome will not host a round of the prestigious series. Scheduling conflicts made it impractical to hold a Kingdome event in 1994, though organizers hope to return the series to the Pacific Northwest in 1995. The series will feature one less round than it did irll993, as only one round will be held in Pontiac, Michigan's Silverdome, traditionally the host of a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader. January 15 January 22 January 29 February 5 February 12 February 26 March 12 March 19 March 26 April 9 , April 16 April 23 April 30 June 4 June 11 Citrus Bowl Houston Astrodome Anaheim Stadium Jack Murphy Stadium Tampa Stadium Georgia Dome Daytona International Speedway Hoosier Dome Memorial Stadium Silverdome Metrodome Texas Stadium Sam Boyd Silverbowl Spartan Stadium Los Angeles Coliseum dealing with Chesterfield Italy, but his team is different. But we would have no . problem in supplying him w ith a bike, because he has had some good results this year." Revenge can be sweet - but all the same nobody would suggest that Australian Cagiva rider Mat Mladin had deliberately T-boned new part-time teammate John Kocinski during Saturday morning's untimed practice session for the Italian GP. The American, in only his second race for the Italian squad, was again using both of Mladin's bikes while the team 'regula r was riding the same bike that expired on him in the warm-up lap of the Czech Republic GP. Kocinski pulled out of the pits and was negotiating the first tum when Mladin, on a fast lap, ran into him. Team boss Giacomo Agostini later blamed Mladin, saying it is the duty of the overtaking rider to find a safe way past; Mia din was less sure, feeling that a rider on a slow lap should not be on the racing line. Gilera have had the plug pulled on their racing effort even before finishing their second season. Piaggio, their giant holding company, announced at the Italian GP that this would be the team's last race, and that they did not intend to complete the season. A statement compared the high cost of Grand Prix racing compared with the small returns, particularly in view of the reduced Italian TV coverage of the class. The Arcore firm also lost two mechanics in a fatal car crash before the Czech Republic GP two weeks ago. Riders Alex Gramigni and Paolo Casoli are not the only ones left without a job. Tuner Harald Bartol was also expecting to continue working with the team next year. But Piaggio may have to pay compensation to racing for their premature decision. lRTA issued a statement reminding them that they have a contract to continue for the full season, or to put up a replacement team; and there was a clear threa t of legal action against the giant industrial combine, most famous for Vespa scooters. Team Marlboro Pileri rider Loris Capirossi succeeded in breaking four world records in his trip to the 7.81-rnile Nardo test circuit near Bari, Italy, on a modified Honda NR750. He ran a flying Oriando,FL Houston, TX Anaheim,CA San Diego, CA Tampa,FL Atianta,GA Daytona Beach, FL Indianapolis, IN Charlotte, NC Pontiac, MI Minneapolis, MN Irving, TX Las Vegas, NY SanJose,CA Los Angeles, CA kilometer (.62-of-a-rnile) at 299.825km/h (185 .891 mph), .a flying mile at 299.788km/h (185.868 mph), a standingstart mile at 221.219km/h (137.155 mph) and 10km (6.2 miles) with a standing start at 283551km/h (175.801 mph) . The first visit to Misano Adriatico circuit for two yea rs found the wea ther as unpredictable as ever, with light rain spoiling the second day of practice; the new garages much too few in number and still without any doors; and the circuit lengthened to 2.48 miles to comply with minimum length for the first time. The quote of the weekend came from Helmut Bradl, concerning the extra loop. "To make a brand new piece of race track that bumpy is almost a piece of art," the German Honda rider said. Most riders had taken part in IRTA tests there when the new loop was widely criticized for being very slippery. Since then part of the track had been sandblasted, and now it was said to be ridiculously slippery only off the racing line. Kevin Schwantz reported a curious result. "The tires that worked in the test (he was fastest) don't work now. With them, the sandblasted sections seem more slippery than the surface as it was before, and the tire hooks up better when you run off the bit that was cleaned." While the Marlboro Yamaha team is the only factory 500cc GP road race team using Dunlop tires, Dunlop also backs a separate test team (the first in GP road racing) with Randy Mamola recruited to test without any direct racing involvement. Now rival teams believe team owner Kenny Roberts has used the test team to circumvent lRTA regulations designed to prevent teams from testing on tracks prior to races there. It was widely suspected that the Wayne Rainey/Luca Cadalora one-two at the last race at Bmo was the result of prerace tests at the difficult circuit by Dunlop. Not so, insisted Dunlop supremo Jeremy Ferguson. "We did not test there at all." However, he admitted that Mamola had tested at Misano (Italy) as well as at Montmelo (Spain), which was the last track where Rainey won before Brno. Yamaha France, a presence in GP road

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