Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Fred Andrews (Yam) wo n the second ro und of the AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/ Dun lop /B r a k ing Grand National Cross Country Series in Sum ter, South Caro lina, Ma rch 13 . And re ws, the defending series champ, was followed across the fin ish lin e by Scott Summers (Hon), Thomas Norton (Kaw), Larry Roese ler (Kaw) a n d Scott Plessinger (KTM). Greg Zitterkopf (KTM) scored the overall and 500cc class w in at the Casey Folks Vacation Village World Championship Hare & Hound race in Jean, Nevada, March 12. The runnerup was Dan Richardson (Hon), while Destry Abbott (KTM) topped the 250cc class in th ird overall. Paul Krause (Kaw) finished fourth while Brand on Gerber (Hus) was the first four-stroke rider across the line in fifth. Kyl e Lewis (Yamj .won the Seattle, Washington, round of the 250cc Ultracross Series, March 12. The defending series champ, Larry Brooks (Yam) finished second w ith Ryan Carlisle (Kaw), Jason McCormick (Hon) and Ray Crumb (Ka w) rounding out the top five. At its spring meeting, the FIM approved the 1994 World Suberbike schedule presented by the Flammini Group. The 12-race schedule includes two new ven ues; Sentul, Indonesia , and Buenos Aires, Argentina, which will host the season finale. The series will also make its return to Australia w ith a round scheduled for Phillip Island. Shane Trittler reports that the track at Castaic SX Park in Castaic, California, h as recei ved a facelift and now features an all-new section that winds up , down a nd thr oug h th e surrounding hill s. "The supercross section of th e tr ack is still there," said Trittler, "but now there's a lot more to the track . It's fairly long ; Tea m Su z u ki' s Damo n Huffman can cut a one-m inu te, 50-second lap." The Pilot Hill Motocross tr ac k in Irvine-Ravenna, Kentucky, will not be op en for racing or practice during the 1994 seas on, according to track op erator Russell Parks. Cycle Motion Racing has signed Dave Deveau and Joe Brett Williams to ride their Honda CBR900 in the 1994 WERA Sunoco/Performance Machine National Endurance Series. The team will be .based in Birmingham, Alabama, and will be managed by Landers Seveier. The U.S. Women's Motocross Team ha s announced the inaugural ProLite International Women's Cu p & Grand Prix, to take place at the Thunder Mountain Motorplex in Rusk, Texas, June 11-12. The event will reportedly ho st women from all over the glob e, and will include women's classes ranging from 50cc Stock to 250cc Pro, not to mention a male support cla ss. There will be a minimum $2500 purse for the pro divis ion. For more information, call 800/295-6397. Racing Enterprises called to inform us of their Craig Breihan Memorial MX Race, which will take place at Southern California 's Carlsbad Raceway on March 19. Breihan was killed earlier this month in a practice crash, and all proceeds from the race will go to the Schwantz breaks arm I '<:Il 0\ 0\ .-; t was a typical high-side crash, that nearly ended World Champion Kevin Schwa ntz' title defense before it had begun. The only difference was that the 29-year-old Texan was riding a bicycle, and traveling at little more than walking speed. Even so, the tumble broke Schwantz' left arm on impact, leaving him wondering whether his notorious bad luck had once again gotten the better of him. "My arm looked bad, and for the next couple of hours I was really concerned about how many races I would have to miss before I'd be fit," said Schwantz. "When I found out it was a clean break, and could be plated right away for a quick cure, I felt pretty happy." Schwantz was speaking at home in Texas, less than a week after the training incident that might ha ve jeopardized his entire title defense. With his own preseason test program almost complete, he shrugged off potential problems. "Now the other guys have all tested at Eastern Creek, and only Mick (Doohan ) has been faster than me by about a 10th. Knowing how easily I was doing those lap times, I still feel pretty confident that I can do race pace, even with an injury." The injury meant that the World Champion ended the off-season as he had begun it: under the surgeon's knife. Last October, shortly after the final race, he had carpal tunnel surgery to cure a troublesome case of "racer's wrist " on his right arm . This had been aggravated by his spectacular Donington Park crash, and marred his year-end finishing record . He was fit enough to start testing in December, and with two trips to Australia and one to Malaysia, the Lucky Strike Suzuki team was ahead of their rivals for a second year running; it seemed the build-up to his title defense season had run smoothly. In the interim, 5chwantz had taken his annual hunting vacation, attended a special FIM awards ceremony in Paris, and was full of motivation as he worked towards peak physical fitness to match the level of his moto rcycle. There remained only one more private test, to play with some new suspension ideas among other things, then the "allcomers" IRTA tests, with the first race of the year just three weeks away. At the end of last year, in the aftermath of the injury to career-long rival Wayne Rainey, Schwantz had wondered how he would find the motivation to come back and give it everything once again, for what will be his seventh full GP season. But the doubts had been short-lived, and by year's end Schwantz was bright-eyed and aggressive once again, dedicated to his newly successful creed that hard work at the testing stage is fundamental to a fruitful world championship effort. San ta Fe Ch ris tian Scho ol Fund. Over 40 sponsors have signed on, and prizes will be raffled off. Raffle ticke ts a re free with the $25 entry, as is an event T: shir t. For more in fo r ma tio n , call 619/484-1441. MTEG has cancelled the Kansas City round of t he ir Stadium Off-Road Series, and added a second Las Vega s , ro und on April 23. The swi tc h wa s prom pt ed by a dec ision by officials of Kansas Cit y's Arrowhead Stad ium to change the pla ying surface from artificial turf to natural grassfor the upcoming NFL football season. Th e newly added Las Vegas race, to he held in the Sil verbowl, will serv e as th e fourth round of the eight-race series, and the same facilit y will host the series' seventh round in October. Harley-Davids on , Inc. has contributed $100,000 to the Nati onal Motorcycle Safety Fund, the largest contribution in the fund's 14-year history. Money contributed to the fund is used to support programs of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, and portions of Harl ey's endowment will be used for research, and to help develop a safety sem ina r program that will be presented at various sta tewide and regio nal motorcycling rallies and events. "We are honored to be the beneficiaries of this kind of support," said MSF president Alan Isley. "We welcome this initiative from Harley-Davidson, and we lo o k forwa rd to the las ting benefits it will have on the sport of motorcycling." Pro South Racing Services ha s established a professional sa fety crew for hire at motorcycle road racing events. The crew is currently contracted to serve as the safety crew by WERA and by several southeastern racing facilities including Road Atlanta, Roebling Road Raceway, Memphis ,Motorsports Park and Talladega Gran Prix Racewa y. For more in form ation contact ProSouth Racing Services, P.O. Box 1504, Buford , Georgia 30518. The Hous e of Motorcycles , in San Diego, Californ ia , w ill ho st a Sport Bike Clinic on Ap ril 2. On hand will be factory representatives from Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha, as well as from Spectro Oils, RK Chain, Metzeler Tires, Airtech, the motorcycle Safety Foundation and more. Special guest will include road racers Chuck Graves, Nick lenatsch and Frank Ar igaki. On display will by a Honda RC45, a Smokin' Joe's Supersport Honda CBR600F2, a factory Yamaha GP bike, Graves' Formula USA-winning Suzuki and Steve Rice's four-time World Champion Funnybike. For more information call 619/229-7700 . CRE Imports Inc., who as it s name suggests, im po r ts Honda CRE twostroke enduro bikes into the country, dropped us a note to rem ind us that they are not affiliated with American Honda in any way. The bikes are produced in Italy - not Japan. From the "whatever floats your boat" file comes news that a record number of crashes occurred during the 1994 Elephant Ride, which organizers tout as the "world's highest, coldest motorcycle ride." Forty-eight crashes were recorded in the February 13 ride over snowcovered, 11,669-foot Guanella Pass in the Colorado Rockies. Some of the 63 participants used spiked tires, but most The bicycle crash that spoiled his physical preparation came two days before he was due to leave Texas for Australia, for the final tests in the run-up to the opening round. It haepened during a mountain bike ride with four friends that has become something of a pre-season ritual - and it was uncannily like a slow-motion replay of several of his ontrack tumbles. "I always get together with the same four guys the weekend before I start the season," said Schwantz. "We meet at a friend's house on the outskirts of Austin, then go on a 20 or 25-mile mountain bike ride around the lake to check out stamina and endurance. "I was due to leave Monday, and this was Saturday afternoon - we'd just started on the first loop of mountain-bike trails. I was running downhill to a fairly fast and narrow left-hand bend when the back started to slide. "I had gotten my inside foot down and had almost stopped when the bike skidded further ' round and tried to highside me. I was still able to kick my ouside foot free from the pedal clip and put it down, but because of my momentum was still gonna fall over on the right . "I could have broken the fall with my right arm , but I could see a cactus right there and I didn't want to spend the next five hours riding with a handful of sp ines, so I reached across to take the impact with my left hand - and that must have over-extended it." The break is close to a fracture that Schwantz sustained when he and Lawson crashed at Assen in 1992. That injury was temporarily plated - the bone snapped across a possible area of weakness resulting from that treatment He knew at once he had broken his arm , and feared a potentially ruinous injury. "The forearm was bent pretty funny after the Assen crash. Now it was bent extremely funn y. All sorts of things went through my mind - that maybe both bones were broken, or that the bone had been left brittle after the earlier treatment and had now been shattered. It turned out only the bone, the rad ius, is broken, about four inches up from my wrist, and it was a clean break, which meant the doctor - a colleague of a gu y who has treated me before - was able to plate it immediately, that evening. "Doctor Corsa in Italy agreed with what the Texas doctor said - tha t I should be fine to race in the first GP. It's the same arm I broke in Assen in 1992, and that time I had it plated and went racing in Hunga ry 12 days later. This time I have three weeks-It seems I should be just fine for the Australian GP, and I may even take part in som e of the IRTA tests the weekend before if it seems worthwhile." Since then, Schwantz has worked on keeping fit without straining his arm - mainly by riding a safer static exercise bike, which !'. s yet to throw him over the high side. His a place at the Suzuki tests was taken by Australian rider Peter Goddard, and Schwantz has plans to travel to Australia on Monday, March 14. "We only had a few suspension things to test on the bike before the first race, and I may ride at the IRTA tests if it seems it will help. More likely I'll keep the arm rested . "Eastern Creek is a very ph ysical track, and it may be the arm will give a little trouble - but I'm confident I can get into race pace, and that this whole thing shouldn't end up costing me too much." Michael Scott

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