Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·TE R O N· ADW . .·· ByPaui Carrutliers ' er e I sit in the press box at Municipal Stadium in Daytona Beach, Florid a. I'm here not to cover the AMA Grand National Cha mpionship Short Track, but to simply watch races and enjoy myself. So far I've watched 104 men a nd · m achines tu rn laps on a quarter-mile oval d urin g qualifying. Over 90 of them have waved o ff th ei r laps, an d ha ve sta rte d the w hole process over again. I'm gla d I got in for free, although if I did p ay I guess I'd be g etting m y money's worth. The track was watere d heavily earl y in the evening, presumably in an effor t to s to p a bl u e groove from forming aro und the ova l, thus makin g it a oneline d race track. Well, tha t pesky blue groove went ahead and formed anyway - at around 7:00 p.m. That was an hour and forty-five minutes ago . That's when openi ng cerem onies we re scheduled to begin. My guess is that the opening cerem on ies w ill ge t underway at rou ghly H ~:1 5. I'm a motorcycle racing enthusiast alw ays have been. I feel for those in lttend ance w h o aren 't necessa r il y motorcycle racin g en th usiasts. I doubt they'll come back. That's not so good. What's wrong with dirt track racing, they ask? Well, let's see. It doesn't take a brain su rgeon to figure out that this progr a m will go into the wee hour s o f tomorrow morning. Can people handl e that much seat time in one night? I think not. Why, I w onder, are these guys qua lifying just to qualify? People came here to see motorcycles race. So far th ey've seen three riders at a time rid e singl e file around the race track twice - the second time they take one hand off the handlebars and wave at the official time keep- er. Th is means they're not completely ha pp y wit h tha t p a rticu la r la p and they'll be back later. As I men tioned earlier, 90 of these guys' aren't very pleased with their first attempts. They'll be back later. Anyway, back to the problem solving . If people paid to wa tch people race, how about we give them that opportuni ty? In the supercross series they say there are on ly two heat races because they lack riders. Since there are over 100 of them here, I don' t th in k that's the case . How abo ut 10 heat races wit h 10 gu ys in each heat race? That, my friends, is big bang for the buck. Ten heat races, a couple of semis, a Last Ch ance Qualifier, a Na tional and we 're ou t of here. Just in time for Saturda y Nigh t Live. At th is rat e, we'll be lucky to catch th e P.T.L Cl ub before heading to th e track for to mo r row's Daytona 200. Hopefully, the traffic out of her e wo n't be too bad and w e can catch a quick brunch on the way back to the hotel. Fortunately, th e crowd seem s to be fai rly patient. We 're lu cky th e British contingent who made the flight over for the Dayt ona 200 aren't soccer fans. Time ou t: Jay Sp rin gst een is on the race track. He waved off his first lap and just bobbled his wa y thr ough a second cha nce that will hopefully qualify him for the p rogram. Coming out here and not ge t ti ng to see th e Springer race would be a crime. Hey, there's ano ther argu ment for doing aw ay with th ese time trials . No matter what, we'd get to see the stars race. It' s almost ni ne o'clock. Ricky Graham just attem pted to qu alify. By 9:30 or so, we sho uld know if we'll get to see him race later . By 11:30 or so, those who stayed home will ge t to see Saturday Night Live. I'll bet it starts on time. It ' s now 9:04 p .m . Qualifying jus t ended. There's a trac tor ou t on the race track. He 's coming out of tum four righ t now. He see ms to hav e found traction an d is hooking up. So far, so good. He didn't wa ve off. Thank God for Dave Despain. Like a good ther apis t, he'll talk us th ro ugh thi s. Dave never waves off. Dave jus t plugged Cycle News. I like Da ve more an d more every da y. The p ress room here seems to be filling up - with both people and smoke. Gary Nixon jus t wa lked in. I bet Ga ry Nixon wou ldn't have waved off tonigh t. As I look ou t of the glass windows in front of me, I see there are several you ng dirt trackers walking the track. Ah, the endle ss energy of the yo ung. I'm not certain of this, but I think Nixon jus t fell asleep . Old Num ber 9 is n ' t the only dirt track legen d who's ca ll ing th e p ress room home on this wo nderful night in Day ton a. Sammy Tanner - the Fly ing Flea - is pos itoned just a few seats down from me. He 's pretty dis gus ted with all the wave-offs. "I think I waved off about six times in my whole car eer," Tanner said . I believe him. "Now, these guys get ou t he re at noon for p ractice ," he ad d s. "Heck, I think we used to.show up at around six. We'd be road racing at the speedway all day an d then head over here." No wond er he never waved off. The Flea was probably a tad worn out. Hey, if you're tired enough, you're bound to do it right th e firs t time. Maybe they should ma ke those young guys walk the track before qu alifying - say, 100 times or so. Tha t will stop 'em from waving off. . Apparentl y, I'm no t th e only one who feels this way abou t timed qualifying. As a matter of fact, th e AMA ha s m ad e so me cha nges ... beginn ing w ith the nex t race. Who says deci sions aren't mad e quickly by the gu ys in Ohio? It see ms tha t timed qualifying has gone the way of, well, the 600cc class. No more timed qualifying. Tha t' s the new rule. Gone. No mas. It's a little too late for tonigh t, bu t it should stop the rest of these races from competing with Cona n O'Brien. While ! was wri ting, things got started - a heat race here, a hea t race there. Good, tight racing. See, racing is good. I told yo u so . Look what we'v e been mis sing. Now it 's time for the HarleyDavidson 883 class. Restart-city. Hey, I thin k they've foun d just the cure for that d arn blue groove. Jus t race a few of th ese motorcycles that weigh a shade less than an Electra-Glid e, and let 'e m crash. This is living proof that if you put enough weight behind some flying hand lebars and footpe gs, it'll chew that blue groove up and sp it it out. Whew, we're ta lking problem solving here. The Nati onal has just started, and the hands on my watch are hookin g up and find ing traction right around the 11:30 mark. Chris Carr is out fron t. This one is over. I don't care wh at color the groove is at Municipal Stad ium, there' s no beating Ca rr on this night. That's too bad . It'snot that I'm no t a Carr fan. In fact, I happen to like the guy a lot. My prob lem is this betting poo l tha t got started in the press box. I happened to pi ck Aaron Hill's name out of the hat. Thinking I was a shoo-in for at least show mon ey ba sed on h is qualifying an d heat-race pe rformance, I was pretty happy with the pick. Then he went out and finished seventh in the Nationa l. H e ea rned $8 25 and eigh t cha mp ions hip points for his efforts. I'm out ten bucks. CN '.'·IN.· T E.W D'· H IN ... .•. Continued from page 3.., FMF Racing for se veral yea r s while maintaining his own business, Varner Racing Eng i n es; wh ich h e will close down a s s o o n as po s sible. Varner brings over 15 yea rs of professional exper ience to FMF and will be responsib le for all of the firm ' s customer porting, and h ead a nd engine modification services. the Grand National Cross Country race in Ocala, Florida . CORRECflON: Doug Dubach was riding a Team Beach Sportcycles Yamaha entry tuned by Scott Buffaloe at th e Atlanta and Daytona Supercross, the Gainesville 250cc MX Series opener and CORRECTION: Our coverage of the AMA /CCS 750cc Supersport race at Daytona In ternational Speed way concluded that Chuck Graves was forced out of th e race wh en the fairing on his 25 YEARS AGO 15 YEARS AGO Ap~i1 8, 1969... April4, 1979... he Cycle News April Fool's issue in 1969 featured coverage of the Mint 400 from Las Vegas , Ne vada . The race was won by Mike Patrick and Phil Bowers who teamed up to rid e a Yamaha DT-l to the victory. Patrick and Bowers split $1500, while the winning dune buggy w on $6000 ...Gary Bailey won three o f four classes in the Spokane (Washington) MX ...Bailey also won the Viewfinders Grand Prix, held in Westla ke Village, California, beating Gary Conrad and Lars Larsson. he first AMA Nat iona l MX o f t he 1979 season w as held at Ha ngtown in California. Bob Hannah ro de h is Ke ith McCarty-tun ed Yamaha to an easy 1-1 mota tally in the 250cc class. Jimmy Weine rt was second in the' first mota wi th Marty Tripes take ing the runner-up spot in mota number two. The 125cc class saw Broc Glover and Brian Myerscough trade m o ta wins . Jeff Ward a n d Mark Barnett swapped seco nd -p lace finishes in th e two motos. Privateer Maico rid er John Roeder claimed Tripes' works Ho n da T MOVED: The Women's In ternational Motorsports Association, Inc. (WIMSA) to P.O. Box 3472, Idy llwil d, CA 925493472. The new phone number is 909/659-4754 and the new fax number is 909/ 659-4764. T Su z u ki GSXR750 fell o ff. The fairing came loo se after the Califo rnia n w as pushed into a gua rdrail by another racer; our s tory ma y have led rea d e r s to believe that the fairing fell off witho u t cause. MOVE D: Du ke Video USA, to 27075 Cab o t Road, #111 , Lagu na Hills, CA 92653. Th e ne w p hone number is 714/582-1809 and the fax number ha s been changed to 714/582-6238. AUTOG RAP H SI G NING: At To olies Country in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thurs- by po sting a $3500 check...Bruce Ogilvie a nd Chuck M ill e r combined to give Yam aha the victory in the SCORE Mexacali 250 in Baja California, Mexico. Scot Harden and Brent Walli ngsford rode a Husqvarna to second place...I6-year-o ld Jimmy Filice won 15 races in 21 tries in his first-ever Pro Novice ra ces d u rin g Dayton a Speed Week...A Triumph SiI· ver Jubile e was listed in the Wan t Ads section for $2500... 5Y SA O EAR G March29,1989... ichigan's Jeff Stan ton edged Johnny O 'Mara and Ron Lech ie n to w in the Houston As t rodom e round of the AMA Ca m el Su percross M day, Ma rch 24 at 8:00 p .m . durin g Phoenix International Raceway Rider's Night. Jam ie Jam es, Colin Ed war ds II, Mike Smith, Kevin Magee, Mike Hale, Da ve Sadowski, Jim Rand olph, Ma rk McDanie ls, Rand y Renfrow and David Estok are sched uled to appear.. ~ AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: At Grapevine Kawasa ki in Grapevine, Texas, on Ap ril 22 from 7:00 p.m. 10 9:00 p.rn. Team Ka wasaki's Mi ke Kiedrows ki, Mike laRocco, and Robbie Reynard are scheduled to appear. For more information calI 817/481-2500. CN .., Series. Mike LaRocco .won the 12?CC ~ mam eve nt, beating ::.::-.... M i k e Kied rowski and J eff Mat i -II"$", _ aS V lC h . .. T h e fi Irs t "'''ro und o f the AMA Grand National Cross Country Series in Sanfor d, Nort h Carolin a, was won by Ed Loja k. Loja k topped Scott P les singer and Kevin Brown. Randy Morales and Chuck Miller combined to win the Mojave 250 in Lucerne Valley, Californi a...Th e Spring Speedway Classic was won b y Bobby Schwartz, posting a third-place finish in Long Beach and a win in Cos ta Mesa , California... CN ._'JM,.::J 2liJ::.:JJ .r;;- . -=. .

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