Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

G THE WIND IN ~ Jeremy McGrath (H o n) e a rned a $50,000 paycheck w ith a 250cc class wi n at the p restig io u s Gold e n Cup Supe rcross in Fuku oka City , Ja p an , November 6. Brian Swink (Suz) was second ahead of Steve Lamson (Hon), Larry Wa rd (Yam) and M ichael Craig (Yam) . In the 125cc cla ss, Doug Henry (Hon) ea rne d th e w in a nd $10 ,000 . 'D a m o n Huffman (Suz) w as se co n d, Mike Brown (Hon ) th ird , Ji mmy Gaddis (Kaw) fou rth and Tom Clowers (Yam) fifth . Larry Brooks (Ya m) sew e d u p th e MTEG Ultracross title with a runner-up finish to Tyson Vohland (Yam) at San Fran ci s co ' s Candlestick Park o n November 7. Butch Smith (Hon) , Erick Hilton (Yam ) and Shaun Kalas (Yam ) completed the top five. Ron Lechien (Ka w) w as also on hand , w inning the secon d heat race and placing seventh in the main eve n t. -, Doug Dubach (Yam ) was the winner of the Vet Pro class at the Wh ite Bros. Vet Worl d Ch ampionshi p s, held November 6-7 at Pe rr is Ra cew a y in Perris, California. Du b ach w on both m o tos go ing away over ru nn e r- u p Johnny O'Mara (Hon), who finished second in both races. Jeff Ward (Kaw) turned in 3-3 finis hes for thi rd overall. Defending Vet World Cha mpion Rex Staten op ted to sit ou t the race after rid ing p ractice and discovering severa l s u perc rosss tyle obstacles on the track. "I' m racing in the Baja 1000 next w eek and I can' t risk ge tting hurt," said Staten. Due to what was describ ed by racers as un safe tra ck cond ition s, the final round of the World Championship Superbike Series in Mexico City, No vember 7, was cancelled followin g a riders ' boycott . Series points leader go ing into th e event, Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell was officially awarded the series title over Roche Ducati's Carl Fogarty. (For com plete details, see page 8). Former World Superbike Champ ion Fre d M erke l, w ho recently joined the Muzzy Kawasaki USA team, chose not to ride in Mexico City, though for reasons not perta ini ng to track safe ty, or the lack thereof. "I'm riding in America next year and I'm not pu tting myself in jeopardy. I'm not con tracted to ride this race. My contract ended after Portugal," said Merkel, whose team suffered fin ancial diff icul ti es la te in the season. Me rkel also sai d that if any of the team s rode on th e Autod ro mo Int ern ation al H ermanos Rodriguez track, it woul d hel p the circ ui t's chances of holdi ng a race in 1994, a d ate that's already on the calen d ar. After the r iders' b oyco t t, which caused th e cancellation of the race, th ere was ve ry little se ntimen t among the teams to return. Because Mexico City is set at an altitude o f 7500 feet, the th in ai r ro bbed th e bikes of power - the four-cyli nder sufferi ng m ore than th e Ducati tw in s . Muzzy Ka w asa ki' s Aa ron Slight figured they were down 15 to 20% in practice, though some of tha t could be made up as jetting and ign ition s cha nges were made. He complai ned that he could n't spin the ZX7-R's rear tire. 2 Tray Batey, a race r fro m Memphis who competes mostly in WERA events, was in Mexico Ci ty for th e second time. Batey had won a s upport race for las t year's international on a Honda RC-30 once ow ned by Canad ian Ru e b e n McMurter. The bike, and two mo re jus t like it, belon g to Mexica n mining executive and racer Pepe Megallanes, who Batey mel a few years ago at a WERA race in Memphis. Megallanes, 49, splits h is time b etw e en Me xic o City and Memphis and rides at the Autodrom o International Herm a n o s Rodr igue z every Tuesday in an op en practice sessio n. "He saw me race and invited me down here to rid e in the support race," Bat ey said . "We decid ed to race in the b ig race th is time and I ha d to ge t an AMA Superbike license, then a special one-race FIM lic e n se . I was thrilled when I go t he re . I'd seen guys like Russell and Fogarty in magazines, but I' d nev er met them ." Batey was one of the eig ht rid ers who took timed p rac tice after the majority of the riders decided th at the tra ck w as unsa fe. He said he fel t no pressure to rid e, but und erst ood why the 'o th e r rid ers chose n ot to . "They 're used to rid ing at world-class circuits, and expect som ethin g d ifferent. I'm here to have fun an d race. I race at tracks like Talladega Gran Prix, Nel son Led ges. They're not on the same level, but they don't have d ogs running across the track." Rob Muzzy arrived in Mexico Cit y at 6:00 a. m . on ' Sunday morning on ly to find tha t the World Superbike race had been cancelled. "I'd been in touch wi th Peter (. ..Doyle, Mu zzy's Wo rld Sup erb ik e ·tea m m ana ger ), th e guys back in the s tates, Steve Johnson, and m y sec re ta ry. I knew what wa s going on , but I didn't know the race was can celled until I go t here and Steve told me this morning." Muzzy was coming from Lima, Peru , where he' d go ne to see an exhibiti on of Peruvian horses . "They're Peruvian pa sos and we rais e them up in Oregon," said Muzzy, w ho was mak ing his first trip to Peru. Mu zzy also wanted to talk w ith Aar on Sligh t about his plans for next year. "We'd like' to ha ve him on the team; we'd like to have him for a lo ng time. He 's done a good job for us. He's got to make up his mind. We've given him time to consider his options, now it' s crunch time." Slight has been mentioned as a possible member of the Honda World Superb ike team, alo ng with several others incl uding Doug Polen . Polen has sa id he has a two-year contract with Eraldo Ferracci a nd Ferracci seems in te n t on making him hon or it, though Honda would like to have h im . Daryl Beattie h a s a lso been me ntioned as a Ho n da Worl d ' Superbike rider, but w ill be rid in g for th e Marlboro Ro berts Yamaha team next year. Mu zzy said that he expected to have his team se t by November 15. Craig Gleason came d own to Mexico City with tw o m otorcycles tha t he ' d h op e d to sel l. O ne was th e fo rme r Va nce & H in es Yamaha FZR600 th at Terry Vanc e had given to the family of Larry Schwarzbach after Schwarzbach's d e ath at Mid- O hio last su m m e r . "Larry 's fa ther d ied a few weeks ago and I w as hoping to se ll the thing an d ge t the fa mily so me mon ey;" Gleason said . He was ab le to sell the Yama ha, bu t was ha viiig a hard er time selli ng his personal S uzuk i GSXR750 that h e 'd hop ed to race in the fina l World Superbike rou nd. "We're still trying," he sa id o n Su nday m orning a f ter it was announced that there would be no race. He' d a rri ved late on Friday and was going thro u gh te ch inspec tion o n Saturday w hen th e m orn in g p ractice session too k place. Un like several of the tea ms, Gleason had no trouble bringing his bikes in. "The trick is to not spea k any Spanish . We got stopped a couple of times and just acted s tupid. It worked ." Gleason a lso said th a t his pl an s for 1994 were un for med, 'bu t he had a few prospects. Noticeably absent from the final round Grand Nat'l Championship numbers announced T he Am erican Moto rcyclist Association released the 1994 AMA Grand National Ch ampionship number lineup, and in addition to Ricky Graham tak- Ricky G rah am ing over the number one plate, there are quite a few new na mes to be associated with the top 99 n umbers. Dethroned Grand National Champion Chris Carr has elected to carry the number four plate , whil e 1994 Rookie of the Year Ben Bostrom will wear number 11 in his second season as an Expert. Take a look on down the line to see who's who in '94. 1. Ricky Graham 2. Scott Parker 4. Chris Carr 9. Jay Springsteen 10. Greg Sims 11. Ben Bostrom 12. Rex Fisher 13. Mickey Fay 14. Don Estep 15. Garth Brow 16. Ronnie Jones 17. Aaron Hill 18. Terry Poovey 19. Billy Herndon 20. Mike Dillon 21. Will Dav is 22. Keith Day 23. Kevin Atherton 24. Bryan Villella 25. Randy Texter 26. Steve Beattie 27. Dave Camlin 28. Lance Jones 29. Da le Jenneman Sr. 30. Bryan McDowell 31. Dan Ingra m 32. Mike Hale 33. Dave Heb b 34. John Wincewicz 35. Jeff Annen 36. Steve Asel tine 37. J.P. Simonsen 38. Brian Tillson 39. Erik Graybeal 40. Tom Troudt 41. Brett Landes 42. Steve Morehead 43. Joe Kopp 44. Kris Kiser 45. Jim Sumner 46. Gary Strod e 47. Ronnie Bro wn 48. Rick Hocking 49. Jon Co rn well 50. Jeff Eklund 51. Chris Fitzh ugh 52. Joe Winston III 53. Paul Iwanaga 54. Speedy Kell 55. Ricky Henson 56. Allon McBee 57. Rusty Rogers 58. Davey Durelle 59. Willie McCoy 60. Dan Stanley 61. James Hart 62. Scott Buchan 63. Robert Buffing ton 64. Alan Eadie 65. Jaso n Fletcher 66. George Roeder 11 67. Randy Roose 68. Robert Damron 69. Roger Durkee of the Worl d Ch ampionship Superbike Series in Mexico Cit y was the Fas t By Fe rracci Duc a ti team of Doug Polen and Pascal Picotte. The Eraldo Ferracciowned team ran into p rob lem s going throu g h c us to ms a t th e U .S. Bord er crossi ng in Laredo, Texas, heading int o Mexico, an d the truck with the Ducati s inside was turned away . Polen im media tely flew h om e, th en je t te d to Los Angele s, and boa rd ed a cru is e s hi p bound for, ironically, the Mexican p orts of Cab o San Lucas, Pu erto Vallerta and . Mazatlan. Polen was originally slated to boa rd the ship in Ca bo San Lucas followi ng the Mexico City race. "It's tru e, they wou ldn't let the truck go th rough," Ferracci said on Friday, Novemb er 5. "They ke p t saying a ha lf hou r, a half hour; finally it stay ed there a full day. I think somebody und erestima ted th e customs people." Former Cycle News associate editor Tom Mueller has been nam ed vice p resident of s po r ts mark etin g fo r t he AM A, accord ing to AMA President Ed You ngblood . Mueller, 36, prev ious ly served as special p rojects manager for Me rcu ry Marine where he managed professional powerboat racing, national television packaging, product marke ting and business communica tions. Prior to working for Mercu ry, Mueller was p romotions d irector for Wrangler Jeans, overseeing an array of specia l even ts 70. Micha el SCott 71. Geo rgie Price 72. Larry Peg ram 73. Bren t Armbruster 74. Robert Cr abbe 75. Ted Taylor 76. John Resso II 77. Scott Stump 78. Don Wilson 79. Russ Yam am oto 80. Rich King 81. Kirk Strong 82. Tom my Colson 83. Michael Reid 84. Chanc e Darl ing 85. Chad Barth 86. Robert Miller 87. Mike Patterson 88. Geoff Cla rk 89. Kevin Varn es 90. Clint Vahscholtz 91. Andy Tresser 92. Rodn ey Farris 93. Danny Koelsch 94. Steve Champine 95. Matt Wait 96. Donald Paul 97. Rob Gette 98. Bret Beyer 99. Duane Veeder i ncl u d in g AMA Supe rcross racing, NASCAR au to racing, professional rodeo a n d th e Willie Ne lson concert tour. Mueller will ass ume respon sibility of th e AMA ' s p rofessio nal ra ci n g depar tmen t o n Decem be r 1 and will rep ort to Young blood . "We are excited to have Tom Mu eller joining our team," You ngblood said. "He is qui te kn owledgeable abou t the mot or cycle industry, but al so b ri ngs w it h h im a wea lth of experience from ot her forms of competition, includi ng marin e and au tomobile racing. We th ink To m has th e vision and leadership ability necessary to help us ac hieve o ur goa l of ma ki ng AMA racing an interna tiona lly-ac knowledge d form of sports enter tainment." Mu eller added: "Being effective in mo torspo rts marketin g inv olv es th e coop eration of everyone . We'll work hard to enha nce com mu nications wi th sponsors, promo ters , riders and teams , the television ind us try, and mot or cycle ma nufacturers so th at everyone can contribute to saleable promotiona l progra ms . It's not an easy sell in today's market, and we'll need a team effort to take professional mot orcycle racing to the nex t level." Yamaha Mo tor Corp. U.S.A. has signed Vance & Hines to a m ulti-year con tract for th e AMA Nationa l Cha m pionship Superbi ke Seri es be g inn in g in 1994. Superbike riders Jam ie J ames a n d Colin Edwards II will rid e Yamah a's

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