Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE WIND G Mot a Liberty/Nankai II (Suz) clin ched the AMA/CCS EBC Brakes Endurance Series GTU Ch ampionshi p wi th a wi n in the fina l three-hour race, the AMA/CCS Race of C h a m p io n s at Da y to n a Internationa l Speedway, Oc tober 23. Doug Ca rm ichael teamed wi th Takahito Mo ri to complete 76 laps of the 3.8 7-m ile course. The key to their w in was racing th e entire th ree- h ou r eve nt on the same DOT tires. The race was red-flagged once due to oil on the track and drenched by afte rnoon showers jus t after the firs t hou r. 4 & 6 Racing (Ho n), who en tered the race one point behind M ot o Liber ty /Nankai II, fin ished third, behind AGV Sport Group (Ho n), after bein g forced to pit for a tire cha nge. Canadians Owen Weichel and Jonathan Cornwell rode the 4 & 6 entry with Steve Crevier and Michael Taylor aboard AGV Sport Group. After w inning their fifth race in the 12-race series, Moto Liberty /Nankai II tallied 339 poin ts, six better than 4 & 6 Racing . N o rt h w es t Ra cing, fifth today with An d y Fenwick a nd De an M izdal riding, finished the season third w ith 271 points. Th e GT O cl as s win wen t to Fas tline/MCM Ra ci n g (S u z), w ith Michael Barn es and S co tt Zampach leading the entire rac e to win by four minutes, 17.889 seconds in a race which was fin ish ed under a clou d of sco ring discrepancies . Fas tli ne co m p le te d 79 lap s at an average speed of 93.415 mph. It was their second win of the yea r, the first coming in the March running of the AMA /CCS Endurance Cha ll eng e a t Daytona. Hall-n -Still Racing (Yam) finished seco nd, better than a lap beh ind, in only their second AMA 3-ho ur event, w ith Tray Batey and Thomas Wilson handling the rid in g cho res . Th ird went to the 1993 GTO cha m p io ns, Two Brothers Racing (H on), w ith Tommy Lynch and Nick lenatsch taking turns on th e b ik e . They w e re scored a la p d ow n o n th ir d , but a lap u p o n Dutchman Racing (Ya m) with Ray Yod er and Mike Harth riding . A scoring re-co unt was done on Sunday night, b u t the o rd er stoo d . Two Brot he rs fin- ished th e season wi th 38 7 poin ts, 30 m ore th a n Fas t line/MCM Ra ci n g . Dutchma n Ra ci n g ended th e s ea son with 305 points. Tilley's H- D's Scott Za mp ach no tched his sixth Harley-Da vidson Tw in Sports win, ta king the fin al race in a th rilling th ree-way r u n to the flag at Daytona Interna tional Sp eedw ay . At the lin e, it was Zam pa ch by .00 1 s eco n d s o ver Barters H-D 's Mike Ha le, wi th H-D of Ja mes to w n 's Shawn Hi g bee a cl ose third. T.Room's Ricky Graham finished just ahe ad of Hal 's Harley-David son 's Andy Fenwick fo r fo u rth . Zampach, who had already clinched his third consecu tive Twin Sports titl e, fini shed the se as on wit h 385 p oints. Hi gbee end ed up second w ith 336 an d Fen wick w as thi rd with 236. Earlier Za mpa ch had finis h e d second in the Exper t U.S. TwinSports, a race won by Lancaster HD's Randy Texter. Earl Smalls HarleyDavidson's Br ian Gi bb s w a s th ird . Graham's fourth-place fin ish gave him the championship in the Continental Cup, a series which combined road racing and d irt track poin ts from the 883 class: Floridian Da n n y Roberts w a s a b igmoney winner a t the Ra ce of Cham pi ons at Da ytona, ea rning $3500 fo r winnin g th e H ond a C BR900 Challenge. Roberts, Fritz Kling,and Ricky Orlando fou gh t for mos t of the 10 lap s, with Orlando crashing spec tac ularly in the International Horseshoe on the final lap . Rober ts went on to beat Kling by .310 seco nds w ith ' Wood y Deatherage third jus t ahead of Gene Church. Klin g pocketed $2500 for second with Deatherage taking home $2000 for third. Rob erts stood to mak e a lo t more, but was d isq ua lified, along w ith race-winner Owen Weichel, after finishin g third in the Honda CBR600 Ch allen ge. David Estok, who had finished second, wa s given the win and the $2000 first p rize money . H y d-M ech Saws/Ho n da Cana d a 's Weichel and TBR Raci n g ' s Es tok w ere d isquali fied for ha vi n g a Ermolenko injured in En _ land C u r ren t u.s. Na tiona l a nd World Speedwa y Ch am p ion Sam Ermolenko (right) wa s seri ously injured on Monday, October 18, in a race at Monmore Gre en, Engla nd , the h ome tra ck of th e Wolverham pton Wolves for whom Erm olenko comp e te s in t he Britis h League. T he 32-ye a r-o ld Ermolenko sus tain ed a broken bac k as well as a broken fem ur and tib ia in his left leg. Wh il e the re we re n o s igns of p a ra lys is , Ermolen ko was given a body scan at the Wolverham p ton Royal In firmary on Tuesday, October 19, to determ ine the extent of his ba ck inju ry. He underwent surgery the followi ng day to p in the brok en bones In his left leg, but doctors ha lted the p roced u re af ter repairing only the femur. Ermolenko crashed in the first hea t rac e of th e night and slid through the catch fence, striking one of its ma in su pport posts. "Kelvi n Ta tu m beat Sam out of the start , a nd after three laps, Sam tri ed to go ar ou nd the outside of him, " said Carl Blornfeldt, Ermolenko's mechanic. "He just ran out of racetrack. It was a racing accident. The re ar e a few chipped ve rteb rae in Sam's back, but the doc tors figure bed rest will heal that 100%." While a full recovery is likely, the crash marks another significant blow to the World Ch ampion's career. A crash in Germany in 1989 left Ermolenko with shattered bones in h is right leg, which took over 20 screws to repair and required that the leg be shortened some two-an d-a- half inches. But Ermolenko came back with a vengeance in 1993, winn ing the World Individual title, captaining Team USA to its second -st ra ight Wo rld Tea m Cu p vic to ry , and mo st recen tly w in ni ng the U.S. National Cha m pionship in Cos ta Mesa, California. Er molenko was sched u led to compete in the fin al British League cha mpionship ma tch of the season between Wolverhampton and the Belle Vue Aces, and in seve ral invitational meetings in Australia over the w inter. Erm olenko should recover in time to a ttemp t to defend his World title in the 1994 Grands Prix. Kocinski si ns with Ca iva F ormer 250cc Wo rld Champion Joh n Kocinski (right) was set to sign a contra ct with Cagiva on Monday, Octob er 25, following a ch am p agne celebratio n a t the Pal ace Hotel in Var ese, Ita ly on Sunday nigh t, Oc tober 24, according to his manager Dave Stevenson. Kocinski has agreed to terms on a one-year pact with the Italian team after meeting with the owners of Cagiva, the Ca stiglioni brothers. According to Stevenson, all members of both Castiglioni families w ere present on Su nday night in Varese, in the Palace Ho tel which is ow ned by Cagiva. "John will re tu rn to the USA on Wednesday to start tra ining for next season, " Stevenson said in a fax sen t to Cycle News on October 25. Kocinski dominated AMA 250cc Grand Prix racing in the la te '80s, winning three straigh t championsh ips in 1987, 1988 and 1989 before going on to win the 250cc World Championship in his first attempt in 1,990 on a Marlboro Yamaha. In 1991, Kocins ki was moved to the 500cc class and he finished fourth in the championship, winning the final race of the season in Malaysia. In 1992, Kocinski finished third in the 500cc World Cha mpionship, again on a Marlboro Yamaha, winning the final race of the series, this time in Sout h Africa. At the beginning of 1993, Kocinski was ousted from the Marlboro Yamaha team to make room for Italian Luca Cadalora, and he signed with Lucky Strike Suzuki to ride their unproven 250 in th e 250cc World Championship. T he hi ghlight in the Kocin ski/Suzuki relationship came w ith the 25-yea r-ol d 's second-place finish in the season opener in Au stralia ; the lowlight came following his third-place finish in the Dutch GP midway through the season. On the night following the Dutch GP, Kocinski was fired, reportedl y for purposely blowing up the Suzuki on the cool-down lap (an allegation Kocinski denied) and not attending the winner's ros trum celebration. Cagiva then snatched Kocinski up for the final four races of the sea son, with the Little Rock, Arkansas, native turning in impressiv e performances. Kocinski was fourth in his d ebut rid e on the Cagiva in Czechoslovakia, was fourth again in the Italian GP and then won the United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on Sep tember 12. In the final round of th e series in [ararna, Spain, Kocinski earned th e pole position, but cras hed when he coul dn't avo id Shinichi Itoh w ho had crashed in front of him . Still, Kocins ki ended the season 11th in the 500cc World Championship. camsha ft with 10 deg rees more lift than the standard Honda cam. Both Roberts and Weich el filed appeals, and they had 48 hours from the time of the ap peal to se n d in $300 for an appeal he a ring. It was not immediately known if the d iscre pancy was do to Weichel's CBR600 being Canadian -spec. American Flyers' Mike Murphy was mo ved up to second and James Leslie was elevated to third. Over 1800 entries were listed for the 27 sprint races and the final 3-Hou r EBC End u ra nce Cha lle n ge at the Daytona AMAlCCS Race of Champ io ns which was plagued b y rain showe rs and d elays throughout the three-day w eek end'. And unl ik e prev ious Races of . Ch ampions where one rider dominated, this year's race had a number of multip le wi nne rs, mostl y Florid ians, but no record-setters. Among the professionals, Miami Bea ch ' s Pablo Re al won th e Expert Heavyweight SuperTwins and , Unlimited GP aboard a Ducati 888. Two Brother Racing's Hikaru M iy agi also won two races, w inni ng the Expert Solo GT U a n d Ex per t Middlewei ght Su p e rbike aboard a H o n da C BR600, despite ha vin g to start from the rear of the g ri ds . In t h e Amateur cl a ss, Orlando's Eric Moucatel took a pa ir of vic to ri es, ri din g hi s Mikmar Motors Ducati to wins in the A m a teu r Heavyweight SuperTwins and Amateur Lightweight SuperTwins. Gainesville's J o h n Blessed ca p tu r ed wi ns in th e Amateur Middleweight Su p er bike and Amate ur So lo GTU a boa r d the Sandersons Cycle's Honda CBR600. Dan n y Hamel (Kaw) kept his p erfect record intact, wi nn ing the final round of the AMA Nati on al Cha m pionship Hare & Ho u nd Series in Lu ce rn e Va ll e y , Californ ia, October 24. Hamel, who had already clinched the series title back in May, topped ru nner-up Ty Davis (Kaw) b y o v e r four m inutes w ith Ted Hunnicutt (Kaw), Larry Roesele r (Kaw) e and Dan Richardson (H on) fill ing the to p fiv e. Hamel won ea ch and eve ry round of the seven-race series . Scott Summers (Hon) scored the overall w in at th e Lea d Belt N ational H are Sc ra m b les in Fla t Riv er, M iss ou ri , October 24. The runner-up was series p oints leader Scott Plessinger (KTM), while Jan Hrehor (Yam), Phil Converse (Ya m ) a n d Leigh Letellier (KTM) rounded out the top five. Kenny Roberts Jr. (Yam) lost all hope of winning the Open Ducados Championship when he crashed out of the sixth ro u n d o f the se ries in Ja rama , Spa in , October 24. Spaniard Luis D'Antin (Hon) won the race and the championship after Roberts Jr.'s teamma te Sete Gi b ernau (Yam) also crashed out of the race while disputing the lead with D'Antin. Second place went to Juan Bautista Borja (Hon) with Luis MaureI (Apr) finishing third. The series finale will be held in Jerez, Spain, on October 31. Jim Neese (Kaw ) and Kevin Windham (Kaw) w ere the big w inners at round five of the AMA Dirt Shirts Fall Classic MX Series in Bloun tv ill e, Te n n essee, October 24. Neese won the 25Occ/Open class, finish ing ahead of Mike Brown (Hon), Todd De Hoop (Ho n), Windham a nd Chad Lough (Suz). Windham topped the 125cc division, wi th Ezra Lu s k (Suz), Brown, Neese a nd Barry Carsten (Suz) following. Rob M uzzy h as announced tha t Ca nad ian Superbike Champion Sh>,Ye Crevier w ill join the Mu zzy KiCl~ s~ ki team and w ill contest th e lt99lF'AMA Su perbi ke Na tional Champ ions hip as well as the AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport Se ri es . Crevie r joins form er W o~,U;i' Superbike Champion Fred Merkel, Who will r id e in the Superb ike a iie .the AMA /CCS 750cc Supersport classes.. " . . • !'.::\t '\J ,e " 'h 1

• Cover