Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Michael Brandes (Ka w) a nd Axel Holvoet (Yam) were the w inners in the 125 and 250cc Expert classes, respectively, at the GFl Winter Series North-South Showd own, at Perri s Raceway in Perris, Californ ia, Ma rch 6. Donald Upton (Yam) was second in the 125cc division, with Greg Schnell (Suz) finishing th ird. In the 250cc class, Brian Manley (Yam) a nd Up to n pl aced se cond a nd third, resp ectively. The d ay before, at the final round of the Winter Series South, Brandes won both the 125 and 250cc classes ahead o f Upton. Cory Keeney (Kaw ) wa s th ird in the 125cc d ivision, while Mike Chamberlain was third in th e 250cc class. Barry Carsten (Suz ) won th e 125 and 250cc Expert classes at the Gainesville Amateur Supercross, March 4 at Gatorback Cycle Park in Gaines ville, Florida. Michael McDonald (Suz) and Randall Harris (Kaw) finish ed second and third, resp ectively, in both divisions. David Aldana w on the AHRMA BMW Battle of the Legends at Daytona International Sp eedwa y, March 7. Yvon DuHamel fi n is hed secon d a n d Jay Springsteen wa s th ird. Th e AHRMA Sound of Sing les Expe rt class was won by Alan Carter (Due) wi th Rodney Fee (W-R) and Alan Cathcart (Due) finis hin g secon d an d thi rd , resp ect i vel y. Car ter also won th e Sou nd of Sing les Senior division, which was run simultaneously wi th Cath cart finishing second; Russ Ma ttson (W-R) finis hed third . In th e Battl e of th e Twins rac e, Andrew Stroud (Bri) took th e win a hea d o f Pablo Real (Due) and Nick Ienatsch (Bim). Todd Henning was the big winner in AH RMA Vintage racing, takin g the 500cc Premier, Form ula 250, and 350 a nd 500cc Sportsma n d ivisions. David Aldana (Mat ) and Stephen Mathews (Mat) rounded out the top three in the 500cc Premier division. Spaniard Luis D' Antin (Hon) won the 250cc class during the second round of the Open Ducados road ra ce series at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona, Spain, on March 6. D' Antin beat German Bernd Kassner (Apr) and Spaniard Miguel Castilla. The 125cc clas s win went to Spain's Emilio Alzamora (Hon) over countryman Carlos Giro (Apr) and Australian Garry McCoy (Apr). The only American in the series, Kurtis Roberts, crashed out of the 125cc race on the warm-up lap. Road racer Chris D'Aluisio, the second place finis her in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Se ries in 1993, w ill be Apriliamounted this yea r, begi nni ng wit h the Mar ch 11 runnin g of the Int ern at ion al l OOk n ic e a t Day tona In tern ati on al Sp ee d w ay . Th e d eal ca me abou t as a result of an "In the Wind " item that ran in Cycle News about a month ago. "Two da ys after that blurb ran in the pap er, John (Lassak) sa w it and called Brad (Lowe) ," D' Aluisio said. Brad Lowe, wh o put th e d ea l to g ether, runs a n import company ba sed in France and has ties to Aprilia . "Aprilia wants to better th eir name in th e U.S., so they're helpin g out," D' Aluis io said. " I was beginning to get more and more anxiou s to race and the phone call got me motivated. I've been training for bicycle races so I just changed my training style a little bit. What had made me not want to race was that it seemed like th e field was m inimal. Then I heard Jimmy (Filice) was riding, Nick (lenatsch) had a good deal, Danny (Walker ) and Rich (Oliver) would be riding. It kind of bummed me not being there." The team will also get backin g for Spectro Oils in a deal which wa s put to gether by former National Road Race Champion Mike Baldwin. Th e AMA 12Scc Na tional Motocross Series will be broad cap t o n ESP N2, according to the AMA. All 12 rounds as we ll as the 125cc sup port class of the U.S. GP from Budd s Creek, Maryland will be aired in one-hour shows. . Harley-Davidson has posted $4300 in specia l awards for a ma teu r d irt tr ack racers participatin g in AMA events featuring the 883 Sportster. Each of the 43 AMA di stricts will be p rov id ed with $100 Harley-Davidson gift certificates to award champions in the Harl ey-Da vidson 883 dirt track class. Road racer Ron McGill will campaign the AMA /CCS 883 Tw in Sports series aboard a Brians' Harley-David son of Langhorne, Pennsylvania-backed 883 Sportster. There is also the po ssibility that McGill will ride a Harley-Davidson VR1000 superbike later in the season. McGill was running th ird in the 883 series in 1992, but he season was cut short when he suffered a broken neck in a car accident. McGill will also ride a Manfred Hecht/Pete Johnson MotoGuzzi 1200 in the Team Challenge end urance series. Kenny Noyes, the 15-yea r-o ld son of Dorna pr ess officer Dennis Noyes, finished second in his class during the California Desert Bill headed for Senate Floor [1 A ~ ~ s. 0\ ,....; -.D ,....; ..c: ~ III ::::8 2 ccording to the AMA, the controversial California Desert Protection Act, which will shut down approximately 9 million acres of public land in the California desert to a variety of uses including motorized recreation, may soon be scheduled for debat e on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The bill, d esignated S.21, passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee last October, jus t prior to Sena te adjournment. It was unclear at the start of this year's session when 5.21 wou ld be scheduled for Senate floor debate. However, sources have told the AMA that Sena te Majority Leader Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) will seek floor passage of the desert bill by March 25. The Sena te will then recess for the Easter holiday and return April 10. What is not clear is w hether the bill's sponsor, Sen. Diann e Feinstein (D-<:alifornia), has made the necessary arrangements for the bill's passage. . According to AMA Washington representat ive Jim Bensberg, maps of the affected wilderness areas have not been p repared since the bill was amended in committee. In addition, other Senate requirements must be met before the bill can be considered. Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, H.R. 518 (the companion bill to 5.21), is awaiting the outcome of Sen. Feinstein's bill. A sim ilar bill was passed by the House in 1991 but stalled in the Senate. The Harley VR1 000 makesits debut V ery few ma chines have been as eagerly anticipated as the ne w Harl ey-Davi dson VR100 0 Superbike, partially becau se it's been cloaked, un til recentl y, in a veil of secrecy, and partly becau se it's been fiv e yea rs in the ma kin g - but m ostly because it's a Harley and they haven 't been in the Day tona 200 for 20 years. The team chose the Daytona AMA/CCS at Daytona International Speedway on March 5-6 to unveil the machine, even setting up an unfaired show bike at the entrance of the team's ga rage. Everyone had their stop watches on Miguel DuHamel as he went out for practice The early times were respectable, one-minute, 56-second lap s while the best teams we re do ing 55s and 54s - but practice was just a tease r. The V-twin would mak e i competitive debut in the Unlimited GP class, running against the factory Ducatis an Suzu kis. The race was red-flagged on the fifth lap, with DuHamel in the lead trio after having led briefly. How much of that was the bike and how much DuHamel is hard to say. One thing is certain: DuHamel was riding it as hard as it could be ridden, spinn ing the rear tire out of tum one and leaving long black marks into tum two, and braking as hard as any one. Officially, he would be credited with third place due to the red flag, but it was a moral victory. "I had no doubt when we were on the starti ng line that the bike would run good," DuHam el said. "The team worked until 2:00 a.m. on the machin e. The only thing I was conce rned with was ge tt ing a go od start. We had ne ver practiced sta rts with the machine and I thought we d id good." Mirage Racing's Dale Qu arterley, who diced with DuHamel for most of the race, agreed . "I was .kind a impressed with how stable it handled," Qu arterley said. "It was real sure-footed. It wasn't wiggling or twitching or doing anyth ing silly - it was right there. It seemed to ha ve real good torque right off the tum, but when it got a little up in the rpm's it seemed to be lacking a little horsepower and that's wh en the Kawasaki went by it. It's certai nly not that far off the pace." "I think we all smiled a bit broader when Miguel got back to the garage and we saw Steve (Scheibe, racing team manager) crack a smile," said Art Gomper, Director of Public Relations for Harley-Da vidson Motor Company. "We're un der a lot of pres sure - a lot of people are watching us to see ho w we do. Miguel's ride lifted all our spi rits. We definitely ha ve to be happy with how we did. We're in an uphill battle anytime we're out on the track. I think we 've surprised a lot of people and I hope we continue to do so. "I think people's expectations are very high . There's always something to prove wh en you haven 't been involved in something for 20 years . It's a big barrier. People have been saying all alon g that we couldn't make Daytona. I think we 've proven some things because we're here. We'd definitely love to prove the world very wrong about how good this effort is," Gomper added. "We can't do anything about horsepower right now," DuHamel began, "so I've been fine-tuning the brakes since we 've been here. I keep asking for more and more braking power so that I can make up some of the time we lose by not being as powerful as some of the other bikes." Their second outing wasn't as successful. In the Expert Heavyweight Superbike, DuHamel was running in third place when he had a clutch failure coming out of the chicane onto the East Banking. By then Ducati's Troy Corser was long gone, with DuHamel sandwiched between Quarterley and Lucky Strike Suzuki's Donald Jacks. For complete coverage of the AMA/CCS weekend, see page 12 Henny Ray Ab rams indoor m ini bike races at San Jose Speedway on February 26. Noyes was joined in the Bam Burner Series by Scott Copeland, who is Wayne Rainey's assistant. Copeland also finished second on his Honda XR100 after being beaten by Lynette Wosick (we would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Rainey heard that result). World Superbike Champion Scott RusseIl and factory Suzuki MXer Phil Lawrence were featured as part of a sto ry titled "Those Racy Racing Bachelors" in the latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. In the story, Russell says his favorite type of girl is "just herself - for re al, free-flowin' - like me. " Lawrenc e says his favo rite type of girls are those who "show a lot of teeth. I like a real big mouth." If you 're interested in the new Honda CRE line, you might wan t to give Manchester Honda Racing a call at 800/3480070. The Connecticu t shop has established the toll-free hot- line especially for the two-stroke off-road bikes, which are being imported by CRE Imports. Despite the fact that it is being held the same weekend as a National Enduro (March 26-27), the Tecate 250 K enduro is still drawing some big names, including none other than Marty Tripes, who has signed to ride on the same minute as his brother Mike . Suzuki's Guy Cooper is also planning to ride. Multi-time MX National Champion Jeff Ward phoned the Cycle News offices on Fr iday, Ma rch 4, to let us know he's thinking of starting a motocross school. Wa rd is basically feeling out what the response would be to a Wardy Racin g School that will likely begin in southern California . Ward says the school would be open to a ll levels of rider s and all brands of motorcycles. For more information call Ward at 714/248-5882. Australian Michael Doohan unofficially lo w er ed t he track reco rd a t Eas te rn Creek in Sydney, Australia, du ring his fina l pre-season tes t sessio n on the Honda NSR500, February 28 throu gh March 4. Doohan circula ted the 2.41mile race track in one-minu te, 31.3 seconds to take a ten th of a second off the

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