Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1:· :::I N;tH~, i W·I NQ:; : i:' · :••:;'::';':/ '1 Mike Chamberlain (Kaw) wa s the big winner at th e fourth round of the GFI Winter MX Series, held at Perris Raceway in Perris, California, February 13. Chamberlain swept the 125 and 250cc Pro classes, w hile Craig Dec ker (Ho n) nabbed th e runner-up fini shes in both classes . Mike Metzger (Yam) was third in the 12 5c c Pro class, w hile K im Ashkennzi (Yam) round ed out the top three in the 250cc Pro class. St eve Hatch started the Na tional Enduro Series on the righ t foot with an ove r all win a t the De sert Mounta in National in Wickenberg, Arizona, February 13. Ty Davis (Kaw) was the runne r-up, ahead of Kelb y Pepper (KTM) a n d Ra n d y Hawkins (Suz) . D ann y Hame l (Kaw) completed the top five. Jimmy Gaddis won all fou r classes at the Indianapolis, Indiana, AMA Prolite Na tio nal Ar enacross, Feb rua ry 11-12. Grayson Good man (Hon) was the runne r-up in Friday's 125 an d 250cc Pro mains, as we ll as Saturday' s 250cc race, b ut Sha wn Morga (Kaw) finished second in Sa t u rd ay ' s 125cc ma in, with Goodman th ird . Morga was th ird in both Friday and Saturday's 250cc main events, and Josh Steel (Suz) was third in Friday's 12Sec race. American T al10n Vo hlan d (Hon) topp ed the Beu ca ire In terna ti onal Motocross at the Circuit de Saint Roman in Fr a n ce , Feb ruary 13. Belg iu m ' s Stepha n Everts (Kaw) was second, with Frenchman Frederic Bolley (Yam) thir d. Belg ia n Marnicq Bervo ets (Suz) and French m an Yves D emaria (H on) fin ished fourth and fifth, respectively. The Beucaire race marked the debut for the new Team JHK Kawasaki, which is headed b y form er Wo r ld Champ ion Ste p han Everts . Team manager Alec Wright was absent, as he had been subpoened to ap pear in court as an expert witness . (Wright, along with D a vi d Th orp e and several other famous British MX names, w as testifying in a case in which a rider wh o was paralyzed nine yea rs a go is seeking compensa tion.) Team r id ers Ever ts, Joakim Karlsson and Ja imy Scevenels confirm ed that th ey were very sa tisfied wi th the bikes, and Everts' lap times we re, unofficially, faster than they had been last year wh en he rod e a works Suzuki RM. Team Rinaldi Yamaha was on hand in France, though an anti- tobacco advertising law kept them from touting their main sp onsor, Chesterfield . Am erican Bob Moore, who is returning to the Italian squad after a year with Team Bieffe Suz u ki, will contest the 125cc GPs this year, but reported that he is still sufferin g from ten donit is in the left foot he b ro ke las t ye a r. The tea m rode 1993 Yamahas, as they have not yet completed testing of the '94 models. It was confirmed at Beucaire that the Becchis Honda team, consisting of Tallon Vohland and Yves Dema ri a, has rec eived a two-year sponsorship d eal from Pepsi. The duo will ride HRC-kitted CR250s, and HRC and Showa engineers w ill fly in fr om Japan to assist them w ith tuning dur in g the early weeks of the season. Roger DeCos ter will serve as the team's senior advisor, and will arriv e in Eur ope 10 da ys before the opening GP. He will accompany the team to the first six roun ds of the series. Defend ing 250cc Worl d MX Champ ion Greg Albertyn has been training on a " semi fa ctory " Suzuki RM250 at h is home in South Africa, prep aring for the up coming GP season . Th e Johnson /Suzuki /Bieffe ride r was o n hand at Beucair e, b u t returned home soon after and will not return full-time u ntil a few days before the March 13 intern ationa l race in Belgium. Tha t will be the cham p's only other European race p rior to the March 20 Sp anish GP opener. Ron Lechien is set to contest the Swiss 500cc GP at Payerne on Aprlll0, aboard a Kawas aki s upplied b y Bourget Motors. At the moment it is a one-time ride, b u t th e on e-time bad-boy of MX has been rap idly provin g himself a reformed character, by his punctuality and effort, and w ould like to contest more Europ ean races. A strong showing in Sw it zer la nd could brin g more offers, so there is a chance th a t "The D o gg e r " w ill ri de th e entire se ries. Lechien is also scheduled to com pete in an international motocross in England, w ith machinery provided by Kawasaki UK. Edwi n Eve rtsen has walked out on his contract with Team Sarholz Honda, and will ride full factory Hondas fo r Eric Geboers in the 250cc World MX Cha mpionship. The Dutchman had hoped to race in Beucaire, but was withdrawn at the last minute because he holds a German license. FIM rules prevent a rider from holdi ng licenses fro m m ore than one federation in one year , and Geboers' team wan ted to avoid being tied to a German license. The German Sa rholz Honda had spent a large sum of money on m ach in e r y for Everts, and wa s u nderstand ab ly u p se t about ha ving their nu mber one ride r take n away. The team ha s reportedly co m p la in ed to Honda Japan. As we repo rted in this space last week, AMA Su p erbike Nation al Champ ion D oug Pol en will comp ete in the Dayto na 200 on March 13 at the Daytona In te rna ti o nal Speedw a y in Daytona Beach, Florid a. What we didn't know at the time was that Polen's factory Honda RC45 w ould be decked out in Smokin' Joe's Racing colors. Camel/Comm onw ea lth Hond a team owner Martin Ad am s confi rmed on Thursday, February 10 tha t Polen's H ond a will be run out of the same team as the other three Smokin Joe's Honda superbikes ridden b y K evin M ag ee, M ike S m ith an d Ricky Graham. Polen's lea thers, however, will be in the colors of Castr ol, his main s ponsor in his as sault on the World Superbike Champions hip. Polen will also ha ve his own crew of mechanics on hand at Daytona. Wh etting you r appe tite depa rtment: How does this sound for a Daytona 200 matchup? Doug Pole n vs. Edd ie Lawso n vs, Scott Russell vs. Kevin Magee vs. Colin Edward s II vs. Jamie James vs. Fred Me rkel vs . Mik e Smit h vs. Dale Quarterl ey vs. Troy Corser vs , Pascal Picotte vs. Thomas Stevens vs . Ste ve Crev ier - that's just to name a few of the top entrants from North America. Nine World Champion s hip s and 10 AMA Superb ike National Champ ionship s have been won by six of the above-mentioned 13 riders. Not bad. And d on ' t forget the possible debut of the facto ry Harley-Davidson Su perbike. A Harley d eb ut (Mig uel Du H am el has officia lly en tered ) w ould mean tha t seven different motorcycle manuf actu rers will go head -to-head with factor y- backed efforts . Is your appetite w~etted yet? Yamaha, via Eddi e Lawson's win in last "New"- u triesto-ride ISDE co n ntries have been pouring in for the 69th International Six Days Enduro, which will be held in the U.S. this yea r for only the Second time ever. The event will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma , from September 20-25, an d the hosting Tulsa Trail Riders have already received nearly 400 en tries from foreign rid ers - far in excess of the 150 that they expected. Includ ed are en tries from Chile, Columbia, Puerto Rico an d Venezuela, countries that have never before parti cipated in the ISDE. This year American riders are being given the opti on of pre-entering the Six Days by paying $500 and rid ing at least one "qualifier" within a lOoo-mile radius of their home address. The club received 160 such pre-entries before the cu t-off date, bringing the 'total to 560 entries before the first U.S. "qualifier" has even been run. Originally, only 450 rid ers were to be ailowed entry in the event, but that limi t has since been raised to 600. (Factors such as lap leng th an d the number of riders per minute may have to be altered in order to make roo m for the additional entries). With foreign entries and American pre-entries take n into accoun t, onl y 40 spots remain open for American riders who intend to qu alify via the traditional method (rid. ing several "qualifiers" and counti ng your six best days from a possible 16). "There aren't manyspots left, but we don't want to exclude anyone who attends all the qualifiers ," said AMA Member Activities Director Hugh Fleming. " If it comes d own to it, we might have to call some of the foreign countries and ask them to bring over fewer riders. Ho pefully it won't come to that, because you hate to tum away foreign entries. If we have to do it, we'll probably talk to countries like Australia that have a lot of entries." There has also been much discussion as to whether the p re-paid American entries should be allowed to wear the tra ditional blue-and -w hite "skunk-stripe" helmets. "There will definitely be a way to visibly ide ntify those ride rs who have actually qualified," said Fleming. "It 's not ou r place to tell a rider he can 't paint his helmet blue and white, but I can guarantee you that we'll devise a way to differentiate the two gro ups." E year's Daytona 200 by Arai, is tied with Harley-Davidson for the mos t victories in the 200. Each manu fact urer has 16 wins; th e Milwaukee marque last wo n the Daytona 200 in 1969 with Cal Rayborn at the helm. The February 5-6 running of the Rolex 24-Hour car ra ce at Day tona International Speedway saw a familiar name to d irt track ra cing fans in the runnin g. Tammy Jo Ki rk compe ted in her first sports car event. "I had a good time," Kirk said. "It took a while to ge t comfortable and get a rhythm with the car (a Porsche 911). I was fine on the banking and the straights, but th e infield took some time to learn - especially the righthand turns." Kirk currently competes in th e NASCAR All-Pro Tour a n d will ha ve full backing this year in her efforts to make a run at the series title. Good news for Terry Poovey fans : the 35-year-old Texan has decided to put his retirement plans on hold for at leas t one m ore season. At the end of th e 1993 Grand National Champion ship Series, Poove y reported that he wo uld retire in order to sp end more time at home with his family. "Last year, the re was no thing out there to race for," sa id Poovey, a ni ne-time National winner. "But they have a $100,000 point fun d this year, so that's incen tive en ough to sta y on the bike for another year ." Poovey will contest the entire series, wit h the excepti on of the Castle Rock TT, aboard his person al Honda RS750 with backing from USC Racing/ Gillco/ Sakaida & Sons Trucking/ H ap Jones/ Bell/ Ts uba ki/ Mo tion Pro / Da llas Honda and Jack Sisemore. New Zea lander Andrew Stroud will ride the Britten V-tw in in the AH RMA portion of Camel Bike Week at Daytona In ternation al Sp ee dway o n Mond ay, March 7. Stroud will compete in the Battle of the Twins race . In addition, former World Champ io n Walte r Villa h a s e ntere d a Du cati Supermono in the Sound of Singles race, also scheduled to run on March 7. Ten new members were recently elected to the Motorsports H a ll o f Fa me o f America in Novi, Michigan, and one of them was five -ti me World Champion Roger DeCoster. The Belgian will join 10 other motorsport legends, including Bobb y Unser, Cale Yarbo rou gh, Bob G li d den, Ji m Hall, Bernie Little, Bill Falc k, Sir Ma lco l m Campbell , Chris Economaki and Eddie Rickenb acker, in be ing ind u cted on June 8 in Detroit, Michigan. The fra me being used in the HarleyDa vidson VR-I OOO Sup e rb ike w a s m an u factured by Anod izing, Inc. in Portland, Oregon, according to a report in the Portland Oregonian. Ano d izin g Inc. is noted for manufactu r ing al uminum bicycle fra mes and it will prod uce the first 50 frames for the VR-looo. "There was so meone at Harley w ho knew we we re making aluminum bicycle frames ," desi gner Jim Merz told the Oregonian , "and (that) I was a motorcycle enthusiast up on what was happening . It was a pre tty good fit." Anodizin g Inc. employs 5000 employees and boasts annual sales of $50 million. "We tried to keep the project as American as possible a n d se lecte d American ve n d o rs ," H arley-Dav idson' s Art Gom per sai d. "We haven 't been involved in superbike racing or road racing for 20 yea rs and this w ill be o u r re -en try . We're very excited ." D.I.D Chain says they mad e an erro r in identifying a photo in their 1994 ad verti sing ca m paign . The photo showing Tommy Lync h on the Two Brothe rs Racing CBR900 was incorrectly capo. tioned . " Erion Racing o r A m e r ica n Mot or Sp orts are the names given to Kevin Erion's 1994 race team. We apolo- ~ gize for any confusion this may have caused . We are proud of Two Brothers Racing accomplishments and are ha ppy ~ to say they are a valued D.l.D Distributor," the release issued by D.l.D stated. .. Multi-time AMA MX National Champion Jeff Ward has entered the 1994 Bar- '<:ti ber Saab Pro Series season opener at the ~ Miami Grand Prix, scheduled for Febru- r l ary 27. Ward plans to contest the full Barber Saab Series after racing in five Indy lights races in 1993. "At this point, I'm fu nded well enough to d o Barber Saab this year, " W ard said. "It's an excellent championship and I like what I've seen and who' s come out of it . If things come together for an Indy lights program later on, that w ould be great too." The Barber Saab Pro Series, owned 1

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