Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1993 09 22

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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/ ~ ~ IN THE WIND B Brit earl Fogarty (Duc) won both legs of the World C ha mpionship Su perbike Series in Assen, Holland, Sep tembe r 12. Fogarty top ped Georgian Scott Russell (Kaw) in both le gs with Kiwi Aaro n Sligh t (Kaw) finishing third in the first leg and Stephane Mertens (Duc) finishing third in the second race. Russell now leads Fogarty by only seven points, 293.5-2865. Lowe (Kaw) co mpleting the top five . Series leader Scott Everett (Hon) finished nin th. In the 800ccclass, Tim Frazier (Tri) was second ahead of Lou Gerencer (HD) , Ga ry Mill er (H -D ) and Ha rry Schreiber (H-D). Greg Williams (Hon), who was leading the point standings coming into the round, finished 13th and . handed the series lead to Reiser. Te rry Cunn in gham (Kaw) scored the overall win in round seven of the AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series in Millfield, Ohio, Sep tember 12. The four-t ime National Enduro Champion finished ahea d of Jan Hrehor (Yam) and Rodney Smith (Suz), who led much of the race before crashing. Steve Ha tch (Suz) finis hed fourth and Tom No rto n (Kaw) rounded out the top five overall . No rthwest Honda (Hon) won th e WERA Power-Mist/Performance Machine six-hou r endurance race at Texas World Speedway in Coll ege Station, Texas, September 11. Force Ra ci n g (Yam) was second with Virginia Breeze, (Yam) third. And y Tre sser (W-R) won the final round of th e AMA 600cc National Dirt Track Series a t Hann egan Speedway in Bellingha m, Washin gton, Sep tember 11. Mickey Fay (Rtx) was th e runner-up with Matt Wait (Rtx), Dan Stanley (Rtx) and John Wincewicz (Rtx) filling the to p five . Tea m Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr d id not compete at Bellingham , as he had already clinched the series title for the sixth time. Danny Hamel (Kaw) ro mped to the overall and Open class victory in round six of the AMA National Championsh ip H are & Hound Series in Wendo ver , Nevada, September 11. Hamel, who had already clinched the title in Ma y, fin ished appro ximately ei ght m inu tes ahead of the second place finisher Larry Roeseler (Kaw), who topped the 250cc class. Jim Gray (Kaw), Brandon Gerber (ATK) and Aron Huntington (Kaw) rounded out the top five overall. By finishi ng eighth ove rall in Nevada, Greg Zillerkopf (KTM) cli nched the 250cc cla ss championship, and by fini shing ninth overall, Jeff Capt (Kaw) sewed up the 125cc class cham pionship. Only one round remains in the series and Hamel has thu s far won every race. Ryan Hughes (Kaw) an d T y Da vis (Kaw) were the big winners at the 26th An nual Mammoth Mountain MX, he ld in Mammoth Lakes, California, September 9-12. Hu ghes top ped the 125 and 500cc Exper t classes, while Davis earned top hon ors in the 250cc and Fou r-Stroke Exper t classes. Re x Staten (Kaw) was the winner in the Vet Pro class. Ron Comma Jr. (Beta) became the first Am erican to earn the Can ad ian Motorcy cl e Associ ation (C MA) National Ch ampionship Ob served Tr ial Se ries title by winning the final round of th e series in WeIland, Ontario, Canada, September 12. Last year's CMA champ Tom Farr (Yam) finished second in the series with Paul Yvan Belanger (Beta) third. Commo scored three overall w ins in the four-round series. Brit Steve Colley (Bet) won the 11th round of the World Champ ionship Observed Trials Series in Kinna, Sw eden, September 12. Spaniard Jordi Tarres (G-G), the series points leader, finished second, w ith fellow countryman Marc Colome (Bet) third . Finn Tommy Ahvala (Apr), the defendin g champion, and Spaniard Amos Bilbao (G-G) comple ted the top five. 2 Paul Pinsonault (Hon) and Tom Reiser (H -D) sco red th e 540 a nd 800cc class wins , respectively, at the Bushkill Valley M.C: s National Championship Hillclimb in Freemansburg, Pennsylvan ia, September 12. Ted Wilkins (Rtx) was runner-up in the 540cc division, with Alan Hoskins (H on), Paul Garrety (BSA) a nd Paul Greg Alb ert yn, the recently crowned 250cc MX Worl d Champion, will jump ship for th e 1994 season. The Sou th African will defend his nu mber one plate aboa rd a Suzuki on th e Bieffe Suzuki Team. Albertyn ea rned his first title while riding on the Honda Team. Belgian Stefan Everts, who finished second to Greg Albertyn in th e 1993 World Ch am pion sh ip 250cc MX Series will sw itch tea ms as well. Everts, w ho competed on the Bieffe Suzuki Tea m, will pilot a Kawasaki next yea r, an d his ma in sponsor will be Oxbow, a French clothing company. Billy Liles is rep ortedly close to signin g w ith Husqvarna for the 1994 World Championship 500cc MX Series. If th e Georgian does sign on w ith the Italian manufacturer , he will compete aboard a four- stroke-powered H usq varna and w ill be teamm ates wi th th e recentl y crowned 500cc World Champion Jacky Martens; the Belgian who also rode a four-stroke. a d eal Shane Nalley, who turns wrenches for 250cc National MX Cham p ion Mike Kiedrowski, suffered a possible broken rib and in ternal injuries when he was struc k by a racer 's han d lebar during a moto a t the Mot ocross des Na tions in Austria. Nalley man aged to continue his pit board d uties for Kied rowski un til the end of the moto. Those wishing 'to to send cards or letters to injure d three-time World Champion Wayne Rainey are being asked to send them to his manager Gary Howard, who wi ll forward them to Rainey. Howard's office is located at 1633 East 4th St., #132, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Fl M Sa fe ty O ff ice r Hans Bahmer is sched uled to do a safet y inspection of Road America this week as the track has applied for a round of the 1994 World Championship Superbike Series. Bahmer, who al so serves as the official starter for the Grands Prix, was in Californ ia for the U.S. GP at Laguna Seca and wa s planning to travel to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, following the race. According to Eraldo Ferracci, he will field a Fast By Ferracci Ducati team in the Bel d 'Pr 24-hour endurance race on September 18-19at the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France. The team w ill consist of 1993 AMA Superbike National Champion Doug Polen, French Canadian Pascal Picotte and Belg ian World Superbi ke rider Stephane Mertens. Geo rgian Mike Smith rod e his Cam elbacked Hond a NSRSooto an eighth-place finish in the ninth round of the All-Japan Road Race Series in Suzu ka City, Japan, Sep tember 12. Th e rac e w as won by Yoshihiko Fujiwara (Yam ) with Toshihiko Honma (Yam) second and Norifumi Abe (Hon) third. The race was Smith 's first-ever on a 500cc GP bike. U.S. scoe straightMX des Ntio swin rs13th an T he American team of Jeff Ernig, Jeremy McGra th and ' Mike Kiedrowski barely won the Motocross des Nations in Schwanenstadt, Austria, September 12, emerging with a one-point victory to extend the U.S. win streak to an unprecedented 13. Team Yama ha's Emig (right) was America' s top performer by record ing 1-2 finishes for the overall win in the 125cc class. With a record 29 nations pa rticipating, the U.S. squad . defeated the Belgium team by a single point. Sweden finished a close th ird , wh ile the Great Britain and New Zealand teams rounded out the top five. Under the Motocross des Nations' unique format, each team is represented by one rider in each of the three 125, 250 and 500cc classes. Each rider races twice, and the best five of six results are coun ted for the team scoring . The U.S. team started strong in the first race, which fea tured 125 and 500cc bikes, as Team Kawasaki's Kiedrowski won his class and Emig second in his. In moto two, Emig top ped the 12Secclass wh ile Team Honda's McGrath ran fourth among 250cc riders. After two rnotos, the U.S. had a five-poin t lead on Belgium, and Italy was another poin t back in third. But before moto three, Italian rider Alessandro Puza r had troub le negotiating his way through the 'peop le and motorcycles in the congested pits, an d arrived approximately 30 seconds la te to the staging area. Each ride r is required to repo rt to the starting area no less than 10 minutes before the start of the moto, As a result, PUZ3r was not allowed to compe te in the final rnoto, which ruined the Italian team's chances a t the win . Belgium took full ad vantage of the Italians' misfortune, as Mamicq Bervoets won the fmal500cc race and Stefan Everts finished third among the 250ccriders. America's win streak appeared to be in jeopa rdy when Kiedrowski got off to a poor start in the final moto, bu t the 250cc AMA National Champion passed three 500cc class bikes in the final three laps to finish third and sew up the U.S. win with an l l-point total. Belgium was a close second with 12 points, and Sweden finished third with 15. This was Kiedrowski 's third appearance in the fam ed even t, which dates back to 1946; he' also rod e for winning team s in 1989 and 1991. Emig mad e his MX d es Nations de but last year, and McGrath was the team's only roo kie this year. In indi vidual scoring, Emig was the overall winner in the 12Sec class, Everts topped the 250cc class, and Bervoets edged out Kiedrowski on a tie-breaker for the 500cc class win. Davey Coombs If the absent Wayne Rainey cast a long shadow over Laguna Seca, it didn't show in po or crowd attendance. Fea rs that injuries to the three-time World Champion would keep crowds away were not realized as both car and motorcycle park" ing lots filled up and vendors reported brisk sales. That is surely how Monterey resident Rainey would have wanted it. The feeling of shock and desp air at his injuries sustained less than a week before wa s am eliorat ed to an ex ten t by new s from his team that he was facing the crisis wit h characteristic strength of character and determination. Proof came in a handwri tten fax received by Marlboro Roberts team member Chuck Aksland on the second morning of pr actice: "Just becau se I'm not there doesn't mean you can quit wo rking. Where are today's times?" Promoters issued a pr ess release claiming a crow d est imated a t 50,000 for Sunday'S race and a three-da y crowd of 80,000. Ti cket pric es for the Un ited States Grand Prix were set at $65 for a' threeday ticket and $45 for race da y (th ese were for tickets purchased in advance - ' race d ay prices were higher). They were a little lower than prices at some recent European GPs, but s tillrep resen ted a doubling of prices prevailing two years ago, when the race was last run at laguna Seea. Promoter Kenny Roberts was pleased w ith his first-ever race promotion : "It looks good ," Roberts said . "Everything went well with the exception of the sheriff' s department. Th ey were going a little ov erboard, giv ing tickets to mechanics carrying wheels on scoote rs. We've just got to do somethin g about it before next yea r, bu t overall I'm very happy. I think we provided good entertainment and facilities to specta tors of every income level." Lagu n a S eca s till lacks p e r m a n e nt garages, but condi tions were somewhat imp roved this yea r compa red w ith the container-boxes of p revious years . Several enormous ten ts had been acq uired from the golf tour, and pressed into service as temporary workshop s behind the pits, as well as a paddock restaurant and press office. Aprilia to join the 500cc class? Maybe so, according to strong rumors a t Laguna Seca. But th ey will d o so in th eir ow n way, with a d evelopment of their 250 tw in that will take ad vantage of lower weight limit to ch allenge th e heavyweight V-fours. The bike is said to be a 400cc vers ion of their twin-cranksh aft ro tary-valve- ind uc ti on 250, which returned to GP-winning form in Britain and Misano. While there was no official confirmation, it is expec ted that they will ha ve a mach ine ready for first tes ts in October. Loris Reggiani is expected to ride it, and then to be given the choice of staying in the 250cc class next year, or (if tests are promising) of racing in the 500cc class. Engineers expect a power output in the region of 130 horsep ower. Regula tions give a twin-eylind er 500 a 66-pound weight ad vantage over a four-cylinder machine of similar capacity. Bimota have long threatened to bring a twin-cylinder 500 to the GPs, but although the bike has undergone tests and raced in the domestic Italian championship it ha s ye t to make a World Championship appearan ce. Racing opinion is that a super-250 would be able to match and perhaps even beat lap times of the current 500cc Vfours because its narrower tires and lighter we ight would allow higher cornering speeds, but would be at a disadvantage in a head -to-head race because of inferior acceleration. There was no more news 01\ HRC's supposed new spo nso r at the U.S. GP, but confirmation came from the F-l car race in Monza, Italy, that the Japan Tobacco Industry monopoly is moving back into motorsport. Benetton confirmed that their lost Camel sponsorship will be replaced by Mild Seven. The connection is Cabin, ano ther Japan ese tobacco bran d, who is strongly rumored to be workin g on a sponsorship package with HRC. Sete Gibernau, wild card for the 250cc GP in Spain, is looking for a third-time-

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