Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Hondas took the top three positions in the opening round of the 500cc World Motocross Championship Series, in Payerne, Sw itzerland, on April 10. In his 500cc Grand Prix debut, Dutchman Gert Van Doom (Hon) took the overall after winning moto one and finishing fourth in moto two . Belgian Ronny Weustenraed (Hon) was second ahead of New Zealand's Shayne King (Hon). Belgian Johan Boonen (Kaw) was fourth, with Swede Marcus Hansson (Hon) taking fifth. American Billy Liles (Hon) finished second in moto one and was sixth overall, while countryman Ron Lechien (Kaw) went 12-11 for 10th overall. Overnight snow had threatened cancellation o f the race, but it went off as scheduled on a muddy track. Frenchman Mickael Pichon (Hon) turned in perfect 1-1 moto scores to win the second round of the 125cc World Motocross Championship at Sourdeval, France, on April 10. Finishing second overall was defending champ Pedro Tragter (Suz), from Holland, with Italian Alessio Chiodi (Hon) third. American Bob Moore (Yam) and Dutchman Leon Giesbers completed the top five overall. Tragter took over the series points lead with his runner-up finish. Rodney Smith (Suz) won his third race of the four-race-old AMA National Hare Scrambles Series in Redding, California, . on April 10, pulling to a commanding 21-po int lead over Thomas Norton (Kaw) in the points race. Norton finished second, with Ron Naylor (ATK) th ird, Eric Mashbir (Hus) fourth and Patrick Garrahan (Kaw) fifth. Defend ing Champion Danny Hamel (Kaw) won round three of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series in Jericho, Utah, on April 9. Ty Davis (Kaw) fin ished second, while Greg Zitterkopf (KIM) was third overall and first in the 250cc class. Jim Gray (KIM) and Paul Krause (Kaw) rounded out the top five overall. Ricky Carmichael scored three class wins at the National Minicycle Association's World Mini Grand Prix at the Las Vegas Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 8-10. Carmichael topped the podium in the 80cc Stock and Modified classes as well as the Super Mini class, while Jeff Willoh won championships in the 125 and 250cc Stock Intermediate classes. Casey Johnson was victorious in the 125cc Stock and Modified Pro classes, . and Kevin Windham hammered to the 250cc Stock and Modified Pro class wins. The three-day event drew about 1300 entries. :::;!:' ,",' ~ ....... ..... ~ Mike Brown (Hon) won the April 10 opening round of the seven-race FlM/ AMA-sanctioned 125cc Pan Pacific Supercross Series the day after the Pontiac, Michigan, round of the AMA Camel Supercross Series. Brown, who scored his first-ever Eastern Reg ional 125cc Supercross main event the night before, finished ahead of Craig Decker (Hon), while John Dowd (Yam), Chad Pederson (Yam) and Davey Yezek (Hon) rounded out the top five . The highest-finishing non-American rider was Australia's Cameron Taylor, who finished eighth. In the 250cc All-Star Challenge race, Denny Stephenson (Suz) scored a narrow win over Larry Brooks (Yam), Erik Kehoe (Hon), Mike Jones (Suz) and Todd DeHoop (Hon). P.. -< 2 Doug Carmichael (Hon) won the 125cc Grand Prix exhibition race at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California, on April 10. Carmichael topped Craig Waugh (Hon) and Lee Parks (Hon) in the race which was held after the AMA U'S, Superbike National Championship round on a race track layed out in the parking lot of the Pomona Fairplex. WERA announced on Monday, April 11 that it has cancelled its Pro Series event scheduled for Pocono International Raceway on August 5-7. The Pocono event has been replaced by a full WERA Pro Series weekend a t Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 21-24. The Indy race will also mark the first of the EBC Brakes Triple Crown events. The Pocono race was removed from the schedule when management of Pocono International Raceway refused to make any track improvements. In lieu of Pocono's decision, WERA has cancelled all of their racing activities scheduled at the facility in 1994 - including its club race scheduled for June 18-19. "Pocono has been historically our most profitable event," said Evelyne Pritz, the president of WERA, "but we care about our riders. We told Pocono last year that some changes needed to be made. We provided Pocono with a detailed and reasonable plan for those changes at Pocono Raceway's request. We can 't return to Pocono in good conscience without track improvements." Keith McCarty, the team manager for Yamaha's factory MX team, was absent at the April 9 Pontiac Supercross, as well as the previous March 26 round at Charlotte. So where has he been? Well, it seems that McCarty is getting more and more involved in his company's road racing effort. During the Charlotte Supercross, McCarty attended the Phoenix round of the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship Road Race Series, and during the Pontiac round, he was at the road race round in Pomona. "Last year I was promoted to department manager of our motorsports rac ing division, which includes road racing," said McCarty. "I'm trying to get myself back up to speed (in road racing) and I'm going to attend all the road racing rounds and gain as much knowledge as I can in the least amount of time. When the road races don't conflict with the supercross rounds, I'll be going to the supercrosses. I enjoy being involved in road racing; it's a h igh-visibility sport, there's real professionalism and the riders are good at P.R. - plus, it's exciting. I'm still involved in supercross (and motocross) and being in this situation is great because there are a lot of things that can be applied d irectly to both." When McCarty attends the road ' racing rounds, Jon Rosenstiel - better known as Jon "R" - and Mike Guerra will take charge of the Yamaha pits. Motocross roots run deep in Yamaha's road racing program, especially with Keith McCarty's recent heavy involvement. Tom Halverson, the team 's coordinator, used to be a tuner for multi-time Supercross and National MX Champion Jeff Ward, and road racer Colin Edwards II was at one time a member of Yamaha's amateur motocross support team. The Barstow-to-Vegas Hare & Hound might be history, but not so for all pointto-point desert races. One of the few - if not the only - point-to-point races left in the U.S. will be the April 30 round of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series that will start in Wells, Nevada, and end approximately 107 miles later in Wendover, on the Ne vada/Utah border. According to the event promoter, Ron Dillon, the Wells-toWendover course was designed w ith pit crews in mind, as well as the racers. . Each pit is accessible from a freeway, and race supporters will have ample time to make it from one pit to the next. For more info r ma tion, call 208/3423910. The AMA's District 36 has long been a stop on the National Enduro circuit, and for the past few years has also hosted a round of the National Reliability Enduro Series. This year, however, Northern California riders will finally get a chance to compete in a real-live ISDE qualifier the High Sierra M.C:s Cycle Gear Carson Valley Qualifier. The event normally takes place in October, after the Six Days, but for '94 it has been moved to April 23-24 and will actually count as a bonafied qualifier. In addition, the event has been extended from one to two days for the first time ever. The Judy Phillips Massage School will offer free massages after the finish on both days, and Larry Roeseler will host a free classroom riding seminar the Friday before the event. For more in fo rm a ti on, call 702/425HSMC or 916/582-4511 . As we went to press on Monday, April 11, Senate Bill 21 was in the process of being introduced and debated on the Senate floor for the first time ever. The bill would close over 9.5 million acres of California Desert to motorized vehicle access by designating wilderness areas and establishing new National Parks. Bill opponents had planned a fillibuster for the first day, which basically involves tying up the proceedings by discussing the bill "to death," but were apparently unable to secure enough votes to do so. While it is impossible to accurately forecast when the actual bill will be voted on, it was expected to pass on Tuesday. If it does pass the Senate, the bill will advance to the House. Separated at birth? While glancing through our photos from the Pontiac Supercross, we noticed that two riders in particular bore an uncanny resemblance. A qu ick look at 250cc main event w inner Jeremy McGrath and 125cc Eastern Regional main event winner Mike Brown revealed many similarities. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - but in this case, we wonder, who was imitating whom? Hondas are the machine of choice for McGrath and Brown, and both wear Sinisalo race gear and Bell Helmets. And, of course, underneath their helmets - both riders sport the ever-trendy goatee. Coincidentally, both riders are alumnis of the Peak Antifreeze/Pro Circuit team. Ride the Wind; the made-for-television movie starring Craig T. Nelson as a retired dirt track racer making a comeback, is scheduled to air on Monday, April 18, on ABC at 9:00 p.m Eastern time. George Roeder II handled the riding duties in the movie, standing in for Nelson, while Grand National Champion Ricky Graham and three-time Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen performed additonal stunt work. Former Grand National Champion Chris Carr served as the technical advisor, while past champ Gene Romero and race promoter Chris Agajanian played important roles in organizing the race scenes. Filice to race in Japanese GP A ccording to a press reiease from Marlboro, twotime AMA 250ccGP National Champion Jimmy' Filice is set to mark the debut of Marlboro Team Rainey at the April 24 Japanese Grand Prix. The diminutive Californian will ride as a replacement for Kenny Roberts [r., who broke his left arm during the off-season while training aboard his mini dirt tracker. Team Manager Wayne Rainey decided on the substitution to give his new team a chance to get up and running before Roberts Jr. returns. "Everyone else will be on their third race in Japan and we'll be .on our first," said Rainey. "We need to get the team ' going and we need to get the bike going. Suzuka will give us a good chance to see where we are speedw ise because the straightaways are so long. With Harada being ou t, there's not been a lot of development done on the Yamaha; we need to see which direction we need to head in:' Yamaha Motor France's Tetsuya Harada, the defending 250cc World Champion, broke his right hand during practice for the Australian Grand Prix and is expected to return to racing in Japan. Filice's outing on the new Mar lboro Team Rainey squad continues his association with the three-time World Champion. Last year, Filice contested the AMA 250cc GP Championship Series aboard a Rainey Racing Yamaha TZ250. Filice dominated the series, winning all but one race, which he DNF'ed. Filice made his 250cc Grand Prix debut at the 1988 Ll.S, GP, and won his first time out. Since then , Filice has made a handful of Grand Prix appearances. "Jimmy will do a good job. He races well and he knows the track. He's done the Grand Prix and the 8-Hour there," said Kenny Roberts. Filice last raced the Japanese GP in 1991 riding a TZ250 for Roberto Gallina. Filice later quit Gallina's team and returned to the U.S. where he won the first of his two 250 Grand Prix championships. Rainey will join Filice at Suzuka, and the nascent team will benefit from the technical support of Marlboro Team Roberts. "Like the rest of the season, my role will be to advise from a technical side," said Roberts, team owner of racing's most successful 500cc squad. "Suzuka will tell us how close we are to the other guys." Roberts Junior will now start his first Grand Prix season at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on May 8. "We were planning for him to ride in Japan," added Roberts, "but you can't speed up these injuries. We're waiting on approval from the doctors. We're hoping he can return in Spain. The actual healing part is going okay. There were things done that shouldn't have been done. The doctor said six to eight weeks. The thing about little Kenny is that he is not a GP rider. The chance that he would make a mistake is far greater than for someone who's been doing it for five years:'

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