Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1994 03 09

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/127656

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 1 of 51

1,· : ·:IN·rHe:iWIND:· : :'~·: .:· : : .:·: :·~ /: , ·1 . '. ... ' ." . Danny Hamel (Kaw) continued his winning ways at the second round of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series in Lucerne Valley, California, February 27. The ser ies points leader crossed the finish line approximately four minutes ahead of teammate Ty Davis (Kaw). Rounding out the top five overall were Dan Richardson (Hon), Dave O n d as (Kaw ) and 250cc class winner Greg Zitterkopf (KTM). The day before the National Hare & Hound in Lucerne Valle y, Danny Hamel and Ty Davis (Kaw) combined efforts to win the SCORE San Felipe 250 team race in Baja California, Mexico, February 26. The second- place d team was made up of Johnny Campbell and Jeff Capt (Hon ), while third pla ce wen t to Tim Morton and Brent Blount (Hon), the winners of the 250cc cl ass. Tex Mitchel, Danny Anderson and Fred Wilert fini shed fou rth, w hile Jason Kawell and Steve Hengeveld (Kaw) completed the top five teams . Frenchman Cyril Esquirol (H us ) won the Gilles Lala y Classic, an extremely challenging enduro held in Lirnousin, France, on February 26. Esquirol cap italized when earl y leaders Svenerik Jonsson (Hus) and Paul Edmondson (G-G) had difficulties in the afternoon session. Jonsson, a Sw ede, held on for second overall, with Frenchman Alain Oli vier (Kaw); the 1993 Ne vada Rally winner, taking third. France 's Laurent Charbonnel (Kaw) was fou rth ahead of England's Edmondson. Kurtis Roberts, the son of three-t im e World Champion Kenny Roberts, finished 15t h in the 125cc class of the Open Ducados Series in Albacete, Spain, February 27. The opening round of the Open Ducados Series was Roberts' fir st-ever road race. The 15year-old Californian qualified on the back row of the grid, turning a oneminute, 45.342-second lap in qualifying. He cut two seconds off that lap time during the race. The 125cc race at the Open Ducados Series opener was won by Spaniard J org e Ma rtinez (Yam) over Japan's Yoshiaki Ka toh (Yam) and Spaniard Ca rlos Giro (Apr). Spain's Mi guel Castilla (Yam) won the 250cc class over countrymen Luis Maurel (Hon) and Jose Luis Ca rdo so (Apr) at the homebased event in Albacete. The 600cc ' Supersport class was won by Daniel Amatrlain (Hon) . Jimmy Gad dis (Kaw) won all fou r races in rounds 17 and 18 of the AMA ProLite National Arenacross Series in the Denver Coliseum in Denver, Colorado, February 25-26. Gaddis topped Grayson Good man (Hon) in the 250cc finals on both days and topped D o u g Stone (Kaw) and Bill y Whitley (Hon) in the 125cc fi nals on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Michael Brandes (Kaw) was the big winner at the CMC/FMF Golden State Nationals Series fina le, held February 26-27 at Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto, California. Brandes swept the 125cc Pro class on both days of competition and wra pped up the 125cc class championship, as well as the 250cc class title. Finishing second and third to Brandes in Saturday's 12Sec race were Rick Ryan (Yam ) and Joel Albrecht (Yam), while Pedro Gonzalez (Kaw) and James Dobb (Kaw) rounded ou t the top three on Sunday. Kim Ashkenazi (Yam) topped Brian Manley (Yam) and Axel Holvoet (Yam ) in Saturday's 250cc Pro race, and Donald Up ton (Yam) bested Gonzalez and Brandes on Sunday. . Kyle Lewis (Yam) won the 250cc Ultracross during the MTEG Off-Road Grand Prix event at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, February 26 . Ray Crumb (Yam) finished second and Larry Brooks (Yam) was third. In addition to contesting the March 13 r unning o f th e Daytona 200 b y Arai aboard a Smokin ' joe's Racing Honda ROO, AMA Grand National Champion Ricky Graham will ride a Smokin' Joe' s Racing-backed Honda RS600in the Daytona Short Track on March 12. "We were already helping Ricky out with the road race, and we thought it would be great for the w hole Smokin' Joe' s team to sponsor him at the short track as well," said Curtis Gray, senior manager of sports marketing for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. "For right now, it's a on e-race deal. The short track ties in with everything at Camel Motorcycle Week. It's a really neat deal." Graham's Honda will sport the purple and yellow Smokin' Joe's paint scheme, as will his helmet and leathers. Douglas Fay and Danny Malfatti will spin the wrenches, and Graham reports tha t he's "pumped up and ready to go. " According to American Honda motorcycle press department manager Jim Bates, "The initial idea came from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Com p an y, but American Honda was happy to help ." Apparently, Cycle News Rider 9of the Month: 8 ~ ~~~~AMA~!~'~!HO=dCh'~ pion Danny Hamel (right) wa s an easy choice for the Cycle News Rider of the Month for Febru"'" ary. The factory Kawasaki rider hasn't lost an AMA 0\ National Championship Hare & Hou nd race since ~ 1992 , including the firs t two rounds of the ' 94 National Hare & Hound series. 0\' On February 26-27, Hamel competed in and won the SCORE San Felipe 250 team race in Mexico on Saturday'before heading to Lucerne Valley, California, where he ~ won the second round of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series on ' CI:l Sunday. Hamel teamed up with Ty Davis to win the San Felipe 250. If Hamel, the 1993 AMA Amateur Athlete of the Year recipient, can win two more AMA National Hare & Hound Championships, he will match Dan Smith's record of five titles. i3 ::E 2 Liles' GP ride in jgQpardy__ A merican Billy Liles, who along with Belgian Joel Smets had planned to contest the . SOOcc MX GP series aboard custom-built, four -stroke Vertemati motorcycles, may hav e to make other plans. Last season, Smets rode a Husaberg that had been highly modified by brothers Alvaro a nd Guido Vertemati, who import Husabergs into Ital y. (They p reviou sly imported Husqvarnas, but that became unnecessar y wh en Cagiva - an Italian company - bought ou t the Swedish manufacturer). This year, while Swede Marcus Hansson is being sp onsored directly through Husab erg' s Swe d ish headquarters, both Liles and Smets were set to contest the GPs aboard a special bike - called a Vertemati - that is . almost 100% custom-made; the only pieces that come from Husaberg are the piston, cylinder and head. According to England's Trials and MX News, F1M secre tary general Guy Maitr e has refused Vertemati a constructor's license until the company can provide clear evidence that they actually produce the motorcycles. Some experts feel that the F1M - mu ch like the AMA - wants to keep the cost of racin g down for privateers , and is tryin g to assu re that all the bikes being raced are ava ilable to the public. As it stands now, the Vertematis are one-off machines built especially for the series, but the compan y has discussed making the bikes available to the public as we ll. . Liles' and Smets' machines feature a WP fork and Ohlins shock, along with a forward-swinging kickstart lever and a hydraulic clutch. Talon sprockets, Renthal hand lebars and Teenosel pl astics are also standard, and major spo nso rship is provided by Isostad, an energy drink mak er, and Drop Orgona va, a milk product manufacturer. Interestingly enough, the AMA has granted Liles permission to rid e a 350cc Vertemati in the final two rounds of the 250cc National Championsh ip MX Series. He will then switch to a bigger bike for the AMA Fall Series. Hansson, meanwhile, will contest the GPs on Husabergs of various displacements. He'll use an Ohlins fork in place of the,stand ard WP uni t, and expec ts to hav e several titanium parts by the first GP in April. . American H onda s u p p lie d the parts need ed to prepare Gr ah am 's personal 600cc Honda. As for the rest of Graham's season on the dirt, things remain undecided. "We should know a lot more about the rest of the series .. road race and dirt track - after Daytona," said Graham . "There are a lot of thi ng s in the works." Good th ing we didn't m ake reservations . The FIM has again made changes to the 1994 World Championship Road Race Seri es. The Brazilian Grand Prix scheduled for September 25 has been cancelled, and the Argentine and European Grand Prix have both been moved forward a week . The Argentine GP in Buenos Aires will take place on September 25 with the GP of Europe in Cataluna, Spain, moved to October 9. Lagu na Seca has also become the official site of the U.S. GP, scheduled for September 11. Yam aha will di splay it s full line of motorcycles during Camel Motorcycle Week at Daytona International Speedway. In addition, Vance & Hines teammates Jami e James and Colin Edwards II will be on hand on March 12 from 9:00 a.m . to 10:00 a.m. to sign autographs in the Yam aha display tent. On Sunday, March 13, Team Yamaha's motocross stars will again be on hand during the same time period for autographs. Yamaha will also be offering demo rides throughout the week. For those competing at Daytona, Yamaha will again be selling spare YZF and TZ spare parts in garage #49 at the Speedwa y. According to a pr ess release issu ed by th e promoter s of the World Ch ampionship Sup erbike Series, $4 million will be spent in promoting the 1994 series. "We hav e invested (a total of) $4 million to promote the 1994 World Superbike Championship," said Maurizio Flammini , the chairman of the Flammini Group, the promoters of the series. "The majority of the bu dgeted money will be spent on broad cast ing. We can already sa y that all races of the 1994 World Superbike Cham pions hi p a re going to be broadcast live and that th e television coverage is go ing to be increased by 30% w ith resp ect to las t year . In 1993, we b ro adcas t the World Supe rb ike Champ ion ship in 73 co u n tr ies in Euro pe, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and Af ri ca . This yea r the number o f countries is going to be increased . I can already say that, for the first time, even a top U.S. cable company will coopera te with World Sup erbike." The U.S. cab le company Flammini refers to is the Prime Network, which plans to air all 13 rounds of the series. The Thunderbolt, th e first motorcycle produced by Buell Motorcycle Company , will make its debut during Camel Motorcycle Week in Daytona Beach, Florida , March 9-12. The Thunderbolt is a limited-production sportbike-class motorcycle which is powered b y a 1203cc V-tw in engine, acco rding to Buell. Demonstration rides will be available a t the Deland Holiday Inn in Deland, Florida, from March 9-12 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Poor weather conditions have forced the Cali forn ia Motocross Ass ociation to resched ule another round of its Bieffe USA Winter MX Series. The March 6 race at the Pioneer Arena in Oa kdale, California, is unchanged. The final round of the series, however, is now set for March 20 in Hollister Hills, California. The 1994 southern California speedway season kicks off on March 5 with Costa Mesa Speedway's Sp ri ng Classic. The even t will feature the return of reigning World and U.S . National Speedway Champion Sam Ennolenko in his first ride back since being side lined by a broken le g at the en d of last sea so n . Ermolenko will be joine d by rei gning World Team Cup Ch ampions Billy Hamill, Greg Hancock, and Josh Larsen in a faceoff a gains t former N a tional Champions Mike Faria, Bobby Schwartz and Brad Oxley. Sam Ermolenko is also scheduled to appear at the Glen Helen Spring Classic on March 6 in San Bernadino, California . Although he will not be participating in the regular program, Ermolenko will be doing some match racing.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's - Cycle News 1994 03 09