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

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no t behind. We have a competi tive bike an d come th e first ra ce, we sh ou ld be ready to go." With the World Champions hip Roa d Race Series less than a month away, the chance of Suz uki fielding a 250cc team appears unlike ly, according to Tea m Luck y Strike Suz u ki general manager Garry Taylor: "Unless we can think of a plan, we won't have a team because we' re still short of financing, " Tayl or said, add ing tha t two recent plans had fallen apa rt. Suzu ki had hoped to sign 250cc World Champ ion Tets uya Harada and the y were in neg otiations until Harada decid ed to stay with Yamaha. "The factor y wan ted to d o this Ha rada thing and Lucky Strike Japa n was inter ested, but that was becau se he' s a Japanese rider. When Har ad a staye d wher e he was, it left us with a hole in the lineup ." Following Harada 's w ith d ra w al and de cisi on to s tay wi th Ya ma ha t hrou g h Yamaha Moto r France, a n attempt was made to join for ces with Team Valesi's Pier-Francesco Chili . The Valesi team, however, doesn 't ha ve the backing and will cease to exis t. "Team Valesi is no mor e," Taylor said. "We're still scratching our heads for something to put together." Taylor also said that no o ffer ha s been mad e to AMA 250cc Grand Prix' Champ ion Jimmy Filice, w ho rod e for th e Luck y Strike Su zuk i team at the 1993 U.S. GP, also because there is no backing for the team. During the AMA Aren across Nationa l held at th e Rive r fr ont Colise um in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 18, 19, 20, the Mik e Kid d -p ro moted event was monitore d by city officials to make su re tha t carbon mon oxide gases insi de the arena did not reach a dangerous level. "I believe all motorsport promoters knew the d a y w o u ld come when w e were going to be tested for carbon monoxide levels," Mike Kidd said . "Wh en I found ou t abou t th e testin g tha t would take place in Cincinnati, I want ed to be the one tested. I knew our program would pass; however, if ano ther prom oter had go ne in to Cinci n na ti an d fail ed - thi s wo u ld ha ve sent a n ega tiv e sign al throug ho u t th e couThin for a ifnd oh r tf;y bll o motorsports events. s was y ar t e m os t st ressfu l even t I ha ve ever produ ced . If we had failed on Friday night, the en tire even t could ha ve been canc~lled by city officials." International Cycle Events (ICE) the promo te rs of th e AMA Na tional Ch ampionship Road Race at Cha rlo tte Mo to r Sp eedway in May of 1993, has been placed in in voluntary bankruptcy by a fed eral court in No rth Carolina. As a result, its assets will be liquidated to pay cr edit ors, in cl u di ng th e AMA. IC E bounced a $78,000 check that was to have covered purse obligations at the Charl otte event. Paym ent to the riders, though, was uninterrupted with the AMA paying the purse out of its own funds . Team Marlboro Roberts' Luca Cadalora, Daryl Beattie a n d test rid er Randy Mamola completed a three-day test at the Eastern Creek circuit in Australia on February 20-22. Cadalora, rid ing a rew or ked 1993 Yamaha YZR500, turned lap times close to the lap record set by Michael Doohan during the 1992 Australian GP. Bea ttie was only two-tenths slo wer than his Italian teammate. "I'm pre tty happy wi th ho w things are prog re ssing," Beattie told co ntri buto r Bernie McGuire. "I know Eastern Creek pretty well, which hel ps. After tests at Phillip Island and also in Malaysia, I'm a lot more comfortable with the Dunlop tires . I th in k the team is on schedu le now, after thi s East ern Creek test, for the first race. We may not be in front of the other teams, but we are defini tely Spaniard Alberto Puig shared the Eastern Creek race track with the Marl boro Robe rts team, ri d in g h is Si to Ponsowne d , Duca d o s-b ac ked Honda NSRSOO in his first non-Spanish test session. Pui g lapp ed Ea s te rn Creek in 1:32.4 , r oughly a second off the lap record . The former 250cc rid er underwent surgery onboth arms d uri ng the off season and will make his 500cc debut in the Australian GP on March 27. ' I ,I l i I 'I 1 I I i I Edmond'son custed, then re-si ned b 'AMA I n a s tra nge week of twists and turns only 10 days before the start of Camel Mo torcycle We ek at Day ton a International Speedway, negotiations for a new contract be tween the AMA and ro ad rac e ma nager /Championship Cup Series I (CCS) ow ner Roger Edmondson were ter m inat ed then resumed, with Ed mon d son u ltimatel y getting a new d eal w hen the en tire p rocess was consum mated after me d iations b y Dayto na's Bill France Jr. and Jim France. In a press release d at ed Feb ru ar y 22, th e AMA announced that " the Board of Trustees of the Am er ican Mo to rcycle Associa tion voted to d ay to end nego tiatio ns with Mr . Roger Edmondson and Cha m p ions hi p Cup Series regard ing h is Round five of the GFI Cali fornia Win involvement with AM A-sanc tion ed Nation al Championship road racing." ter MX Series sched uled for Febru ary 20 The re lease w ent on to say, "the AMA has be en negotiating w ith Mr . Edmondhas been resched uled for Ma rch 5 at so n since he vo luntarily terminat ed his contracts with the AMA for ra ce managePerris Raceway in Perris, California. The me n t an d adminis tration serv ices last fall. This decision removes Mr. EdmondNorth-South Showd own will be held on son fro m an y and all inv olvem en t with th e 600cc Supersport, 750cc Supersport, Sunday, March 6 at Pe rris . For m ore Harley-Davidson Twin Sports a nd 250c c 'Grand Prix Na tiona l Championship information call 909/371-3434. series races sanctione d by the AMA. Effective immediately, a ll AMA-sancti oned ra ces w ill be d ir ect ed b y Roy Jans on, AMA's director of co mpeti tion, and the WERA has announced tha t it has AMA sports marke ting s ta ff." reach ed an agreement for title sponsorFearing th e breakdown of the Da ytona 200 and th e rest of the support races ship of the 1994 WERA Formula USA sched u led to run a t Da ytona International Speedway from March 5 to March 13, Seri es with Motoport, a manufactu rer the Frances brough t th e AMA and Edmondson to gether fo r a meet ing at the of mot orcycle appa rel. The Motoport FSpeed way on Feb ruar y 24. On February 25, th e AMA re leased the foll ow in g USA series will begin in April at Road s tate ment. . Atlanta and w ill end at the Ge orgian "The AM A has entere d into a n agre eme n t wi th Mr. Roger Edmondson and facili ty in Oc to ber. WERA has a ls o Champions hip Cup Series, th at secures se rvices throughout 1994 for race m anannounced th at the WERA For mula II agement and admin istration of AMA -sancti on ed Nationa l Champ ionship road Series w ill b e back ed b y Goodridge racing. The AMA ha d ceased co n tract ne go tia tions w ith Mr. Ed mo ndso n on USA, Inc., a manufactu rer of high-presTuesday. Yeste rday th e AM A and CCS met at Dayton a Internatio na l Spe edway sure lines. The Go odridge Fo rmula II with CEO Bill France Jr. and Dayt on a p resident Jim Fra nce, who volunteered as Series will also begin at Road Atlanta on mediators to facilita te a ne w a greement." ' Ap ri1 24. . When first con tacted a fter the initia l press release, Edmondson was tightlip ped: "It's still happenin g," he said . "1 reall y think it' s too soon for me to say Italian Franc o Rossi has re-signed with an ything. Th e AMA iss ued tha t press r elease - any qu es tions should be direct ed Farioli, th e Italian KTM im porter, to at th em. I can say tha t Champion ship Cu p Series is a p riva tely owned b usi ness , con tes t th e 500cc MX GP se ries. Rossi they (t he AMA) h a ve n othing to d o w it h it . The Pro-Am seri es will go on as will ride a 440cc two-stroke. always - it just won't be AMA-sanctioned, exce p t for Daytona. This is th e beginning of a lon g d eal. " , Italian Fabio Fario li has signed to ride a When word ca me th at he had been re-signed fo r another season, Edmondson fou r-stro ke KTM at the first two 500cc again kep t his cards clo se to his chest . MX GP rounds of the year. Farioli is the "My respo nse is this - if yo u ha ve a questio n regarding an AMA p res s re lea se, d efending World Champion in the Over ask the AMA," he sa id . " It has long been m y be lief that the actions of officials 350cc Four-Stroke class. and the sa nctio ning bod y sho uld not take preced en ce over the rac ers and th e racin g. We a re on the eve of w hat is p ro bably going to be the grea tes t Da y tona 200 Spea kin g of Coo pe r, the former 125cc ever - it shouldn't be overshadowed by so m et hing like this. There' s a story to be Nat ional MX Ch ampion is also set to told here, b u t I don ' t th in k it would be edi fyi ng to the spo rt to te ll it a t th is con test an FMF-backed Suz uk i RM 125 poin t." at the Gain esville, Flori da, National MX Whe n asked if this agreement put hi m in a some what of a lame duck position , opener on March 6. Ron Lechien, an othEdmondson sa id : "I have characte rized m y situa tion as lame duck. I will continer form er 125cc title-holder, is planning ue to ope ra te th e ev ents as always in a profess ional way, but I will not be ma kto rid e bot h at Gain es ville and in th e in g policy for the AMA ." Ma rc h 12 Da ytona Su p er cr oss , And "We th ou ght we we re going to do it ou rselves," sai d Tom Mu eller, the AMA 's w hile we're at it, the popular and girt hy vice preside nt of sports ma rketing. " We were prepared to cut off our relationJoJo Keller ha s signed up to ride the ship w it h Roger . It would have been tough. The Franc es got Roger down there March 8 Grand National Cross Country a nd go t us a t the table . They 're pretty go od m ediators an d it all wen t back Series opene r in Ocala, Florid a. togethe r. It's bu si ness as usual. We've di scu ssed a p ossible b u you t of CCS. Right now we're agreeing on 1994 so the sp ort won' t suffe r, an d Daytona will no t su fOff-road ra cer Charl es H a l comb . fer . We go t back in unison. We'll get through '94 and take a look at ' 95." crashe d w hile prerunning the SCORE When asked if a rumored law suit by Ed mo ndson in d uced the AM A into reneSan Felipe 250, February 22, and will be gotiating wi th CCS, Mu eller sa id : "We he ard of no laws uits. We hadn' t talked to ou t of action for a couple of wee ks. "I him (Roger). There w as nothing but silence fro m Roger . Th e Frances had the ha ve swelling on a vert eb ra and have sa me questio n as all of us - they wan ted ass urances tha t th ings wo ul d be wo rkbeen orde red by my doctor to lay flat on ing for Daytona. It was a good environment for all of us and things wo rked ou t." .' m y back for over a week," said HalReaction to the situa tion w as va rie d a nd ultimately clouded foll owin g the comb, who rid es on th e Honda team. "I re ve rsal of the situation. was reachin g up to fix my goggles wh en "Roge r (Ed m ond son ) ha s 'd on e an outstand ing job in b u ild in g t he s port," I hit a rock a nd went over th e bars." Smokin ' Joe' s Racing team .ow ner Martin Adams said , prior to Ed mo nd son being Halcomb expects to be back on a bike in re-signed. " Wha t we need is a ben evol ent d ictator - Roger w as n' t a benevolent a few weeks. d ictator. Dictat or sh ips work in m otorsport s. Th ey've got to hav e th e sports' best interest a t heart w hil e building equity in the series. Roge r buil t equity in the Dirt track er Ronnie Jon es was spotted series , b u t he d id n't plow any back (in to it) . That's my main ob jection to Roger, in th e garage a re a d uring the rec ent b ut I w ill commend him on being a good - an extraordinarily good - organizer." Da yt ona 500 a t Day to na International After receiving w ord that Ed m on d son would ret u rn as road race manager, Speedway. Jo nes, who wou ld like to Ada ms sa id: " In th e absence of any alt ern a tive, welcome back, Roge r." m a ke t he move to auto r acing, w as One of Edmondson 's stro ngest suppo rt ers was Team Muzzy Ka wasaki team being shown around by R.J. Reyno lds' ow ner Rob Mu zzy. Ty. No rris. "I thought tha t when I talked " I'm not su re w hat to think," Muzzy said when told of the or iginal AMA to the d rivers that the y wouldn't even press re lease. " I don't ha ve a problem with Roge r and I never really have ha d a kno w what di rt track is all about," Jones problem with him. Un like th e AMA , Roger is a busin es sman. You cou ld go to sa id . "I was s urp rised. A number of him with so met hi ng and negotia te with him. If the answer was no, he 'd look you the m said they watch the Nationals on in the eye and say no . On the o ther hand, if yo u go to the AMA yo u get d ou ble ESPN du ring the winter-time replays." talk and no straight answ er. "I 'm going to hav e to wait and see w ha t happen s. It seems to me th at anybo dy Team MC N' s Briti s h in va sion fo r th e that did anything at the races worked for Roger. 1 thi n k it w ill be a monume nt al Da yton a 200 w ill be led b y Kiwi p rob lem for th e AMA withou t those people. They'll have to eith er get those peo - -- - - - - - COntinlled on page 47 p le back, or go with new people that don't have any experience."

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