Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127598
IT' S IT' S IT' S NEW • •• MEAN • • • HERE'M900 ArrDIMoIotcycles. Inc. Dumont NJ G & G Cycles Salisbury, rnA 508-462-7900 201 -38~1103 BCM_ports Laconia. NH 603-52~98 Cycle Connection carlstadt. NJ 201-935-4797 Worl d Champion To mmi Ahvala en ded h is tiUe-d efe nding season th ird overall. th e only Japanese world round rid er and eve n tua l fifth-place finisher, m anaged to clean the trap on all three.loops. Sec tio n eigh t was a 100-ya rd h ill climb up a steep, shale-covered asce nt. Gas-Gas-mounted Italian Donato Miglio and Fren ch Beta rider Jean Luc Nictou bo th managed two cleans and a one on th is section for the best rides of the day here. Th e 10th section pro v id e d m any th rills for th e spectators, bu t it looked m uch hard er than it actually was. The section opened with a mod era te th reefoot-high step, followed by a fla t area where riders could get p osition ed and accelera te for the ne xt ob stacle - a 10foot-high rock step . Thi s was followed by a few loose, wheel-ca tch ing ro cks . Next was a scary six-foo t d rop-off that se n t the riders flying d own and out of the sec tion. Section 11 looked to be a very tricky and op ened wi th a small ledge , fo llow ed by so me sharp, pointed rocks to ride over. This then led to a large clearing where riders got read y for a fivefoot -hi gh step which didn't give many rid ers trouble. The hard part of the sec, tion w as the clas sic "V" wheel-catcher, ' w he re rid e rs had to drop their fro n t w heel a coupl e of feet d own into a crevice, while their rear wheel w as still up on a rock behind. The riders had to somehow ge t their front wheel back up onto the next rock while easing their rear off the rock behind. Very tricky! After that, the r id e rs had to ma ke a floa ter tum off another rock in order to get lined up for the exit. Tight turns we re the order in section 13. It opened w it h a blas t u p a rocky hillside, then a tight tum and off a threefoo t d ro p-off. Nex t was a four -foo t step, then a rocky area wi th so me modera tesized rocks which required trick turns in order to make it through. Several riders performed the "helicopter" maneuver he re, in which they compressed the suspension of th e bi ke and w ith p er fect tim ing, used the reb ound to lau nch the b ik e into th e a ir, turn th e b ik e 180 degrees and land, all without tou ching a foot to the ground. After that, it was an easy out. After lap one, it looked like it would be a Bilbao w in, as th e Spaniard had g iv en up only ei ght points. Bilba o 's eight -poin t loop would be the low est of th e da y, th o u g h Tarres a ls o had a n eigh t-poin t loop on lap tw o. Tarres got off to a bad sta rt, finishin g up with 20 points after the first loop. Eve ntual winner Colomer had 13 after his firs t loop, while the rapidly improving Narita was tied for third w ith Brit Dougie Lamp kin an d w ith Miglio - all three finished loop one with 15 points. Last yea r's world ch a m p Tommi Ahvala, Aprilia's top rider, was running sixth with 16. After la p tw o, it looked even more like a Bilb ao w in as he s till he ld firs t place with an ll-point second loop. Ta rres made up for his first loop w ith an eig ht-poin t seco nd loop, while Colom er was sti ll running seco nd wit h 10 points. Ah va la improved his score enough to be running third at this point. Because of h is great seco n d -lo o p score, Tarres ran up the lead erboard to fourth. Narita dropped back to fifth, even though his score of 16 w as only one point more than he had on the first lap. Miglio also dropped ba ck to sixth place with 18 points and Lampkin was seventh with 22. Fatigue looked to set in after the second loop, as the scores changed fairly drastically on this th ird loop . Bilbao blew up on his third loop with 21 points and had to settle for se cond overall. Colomer took over the lead and took the win with 11 points for hi s thi rd loop . Tarres put in a 14-point loop to tie with Ahvala for an event total of 42 each. Tarres got th e nod - as he almost a lways seems to in a tie situ a tion - with more cleans, 23-22. Narita put in a consistent th ird la p for 18, good enough for fifth place on the day. . Two A m e r ica n riders compe ted : Apri lia-mounted Raymo nd Peters from New York and Gas-Gas-moun ted Ron Co mo of Vermont. Como finished 33r d ou t of the 37 riders with a score of 180, while Peters finis hed 37th - last - w ith a score of 199. "The trial was really difficult," said Peters. "But I could have d one better on several of th e sections . I was al most there on many of the sections bu t I jus t ~ co uld n' t p ut it all toge ther." Ghost Motorcycles Pot! Washington, NY 5 16-883-5300 Midcoasl MoIorsports o ... N H (J) ..0 DUCATI ' o ...... u o Rszee Motorcycle cenler NOI1JI Kingston, RI «J1 -29f>.8837 R/IIeIsid9KBwasakJ SoImivi/Ie. AlA 617-491-7007 S8arsporI. ME 207- 548-031 3 Rods Cycle Skowhegan. ME DunbarEutD Sports Brockton. AlA F'ot1cIIesIer, NY 508-583-4380 9 1~937-3342 Easlern Cyc le SalVage Bewrly,A1A01915 508-922-3 707 Norwalk KBwasakVYamalJa Norwalk.CT 203-84>8888 1rloIotbuc Corp. 20 7-47~63 7 WlUowsKBwasakVYama ha CheshlrB , CT 203- 272- 720 1 The dealers who support local roadracing Resu lts O/A : 1. Ma rc Co Jomer (Bet ); 2. Amos Bilbao (Mon); 3. Iord i Terres (G-G ); 4. Tommi Ahva la (Ap r); 5. Taku mi Ne rita (Be t); 6. Donato Mig lio (G--C); 7. Ste ve-Co lley (Bet); 8. Jua n Pons (G-G); 9. Doug ie Lampk in (Bet); 10. Jean Lue Nictou (Bet); 11. Diego Bosls (fa n); 12. Bruno Ca mozzi (500); 13. Poero Sembenin i (Bet); 14. Th ierry Michau d (Fan); 15. Cesar Panicot (G-G). WO RLD CHAMP IONSIIIP OBS ERVED TRIALS SERIES FINAL PO INT STANDINGS (Aft" 12 of 12 rounds): 1. Jord i Terres (206); 2. Marc Colome r (188); 3. Tommi Ahvala (161); 4. Amos Bilbao (152); 5. Don ato Miglio (129); 6. Juan Pons (114); 7. Takumi Nartta (l08); 8. Steve Co lley (102); 9. Bruno Camozzi (102); 10. Diego Basis (80); 11. Piero Sembenlni (53); 12. Ange l Garcia (4-1); 13. Thierry Michaud (26); 14. Cesar Panko! (25); 15. Jean Lue Nieto u (2S); 16. Christophe Camozzi (17); 17. Dougie Lampkin (10); 18. jose Benitez (10); 19. Daniel Crosset (9); 20. Robert Crawford (6) . - . lJll!J@/1 f(fjJ1l/lIJO/lJ1lJt&/ If It's A Race, We 're ThePlace / 29