Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I ; Finland's Pett eri Sil van (H us) mo ved in to the Lightweight (125cc/ u n der) se ries points lea d over Grea t Britain ' s P a u l Ed m o n d so n (G-G) b y win ning both days of the World Champions hip Enduro round in [a rnsa, Fin la nd , on June 18-19. Edmondson failed to finis h the first day, giving away 40 points to Silvan; the Brit came back to finish second on Sun d ay. Italian G iorgio Grasso (Yam), who led the class earlier in the series, was unable to compete following injuries suffered at the p revious round in Sweden. In th e Heav yweight (126cc+) d ivision, Italian Giovanni Sal a (KTM) continued his winning way s by topping both da ys of competi tion and extending his series points lead over fellow countryman Tullio Pellegrinelli (Hus). Swede Svenerik Jonsson (Hus) maintained his small lead over Italian Michele Rinaldi (KTM) in the Lightweight Four-Stroke (350cc/under) class by going 1-2 to Rinaldi's 2-3. With one round left to be held in Hungary, Jul y 23-24, Jonsson leads Rinald i by a mere two points, 174-172. Fin la n d ' s Kari Tiainen (H us ) went 1-2 to stre tch ou t hi s series p oints le ad in the H ea v yweight Four-Stro ke (351cc+) class over Italian Fabio Farioli (KTM) to 24 points. Farioli wen t 34 over the weekend. Defending cha m p ion Fre d An d re w s (Ya m) was the overall winner a t the June 19 Grand Nation al Cross Country in Elizabeth, West Virgini a. The event r o un d eig ht in t he 12-rac e s e ries se rved as a replacemen t for the nowde func t Blackwater 100. Duane Conner (Yam) w as the ru n ner- u p, with Scott P l es s i nge r (KTM) , Sco tt Summ ers (Hon) and Gen e Onail (Kaw ) roun ding out the top five. Team Nolee n riders Larry Ward (Yam ), d efending cha mp La rry Brooks (Yam) an d Kyle Lewis (Yam) cleaned ho use at t h e MTEG Sta d ium O ff-Ro ad 250c c UItracross Series round at Rice Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18. Ward, Broo ks and Lewis finis hed 1-2-3 in the ma in event , while Mike Healey (Yam) an d Ray Crumb (Yam) rounded out the top five overall. Lew is leads the series points stand ings over Brooks 336-274, while Crumb is third with 227. This was Ward's fir st appearance in the Ultracross Series, the Salt Lak e Cit y r ace I~.: ---: :·.IN:THEwIND"-1 _ : bein g the firs t th at d idn't conflict with Ward's commitme nt in the AMA Camel Supercross Series. Ward will compete in the final two Ultracross rounds in Las Vegas, October 1, and in Denver , October8. Pau l P i n son nau lt (Hon) and Greg Willi a ms (H o n) topp ed the 540 and 800cc classes, respectively, at the Ju ne 19 Avoca , New York, National Championship Hillclimb . David Watson (Kaw), Bruce Sweigert (BSA), Sco tt McNeely (Hon) and Rick Soter (BSA) filled out the top five in the 540cc division, while Harry Schreiber (H -D), Tim Frazi er (BSA), Glendal Petty (Tri) and Rob ert Castledine (H -D) did likewise in th e 800cc d ivision. Drag racer Elmer Trett (H-D) turned in the first pass of over 230 mph as he clicked off a 231.24 mph /6.45 se cond r u n during the AMA/ProStar Di xie Nationals on June 19 in Richmond, Virginia. Trett beat Ron Webb in the final. Bill Vose (Suz) won the Pro Modified class, tu rning in a 192.02 mph/7.26 second run Ron McGill (M-G) w on the Jim my Ad amo Me mo rial twins race that wa s held in conjunction with the AMA U.s. Supe rbike Natio na l Cha m p io ns h ip round at New Ham pshire International Speedway in Loudo n, New Hampshire on June 19. McGill topped Jerry Wood (Due) and Thomas Fournier (Due) in winning the event. Although Ron Meade, the head of public relations for New Hampsh ire Interna tional Speedway, said the re was no crowd count as of Monday, June 20, for th e 7Ist Loudon Camel Classic, he di d sa y th a t it was the bigges t cro wd th e s peed w ay ha s ha d for a moto rcycl e race . The re is a ch a nce that Wo rld Trials Champion Jordi Tarres will be featured on The Tonight Show with Ja y Leno so me time in June. The Spaniard, w ho will be competing in the Donner Pass, Californ ia, rou nd of the World Cham pionship on June 26, will likely be on the sh ow on June 21 or 22, or Jun e 27, 28 or 29. Apparently The Tonight Show prod ucers we re impressed wi!h a video of Fg o artyw ins,R ussell crash es · S ain ngland's Carl Fogarty (righ t) rode his Ducati Corse 916 to a pair of w ins in th e four th round of the World Champions hip Superbike Series in Albacete, Spain, on June 19, wi th the double victo ry moving him back into con ten tion in the cha mpionship point stan dings as World Cha mpion Scott Russell failed to score a point. Pole-sitter Fogarty easily bea t Castrol Honda's Aaron Sli g h t in both races with Motocinelli Ducati's Jamie Whitham finishing third in both legs . The big news of the weekend was that Russell failed to score a single point. The Georgian started slowl y in the first leg, but soon moved into second place behind Fogarty. Then disa ster struck the MuzzyKawasaki rider after 15 laps when he crashed in oil. Russell wasn't injured in the crash, but the Kaw asaki was too bad ly damaged to continue. In the second leg, Russell again got away slowly on his back-up bike while Fogarty held his position at the front. Russell was up to eighth by the ninth lap, but then he lost the fro nt end and crashed. Again, Russe ll escaped injury . Texan Doug Polen put togeth er a 6-7 tally on the second Castrol Honda RC45. Although he failed to score points at this round, Russell still leads the championship point standings by 24 poin ts over Fogarty, 112-88. Slight is third with 79 points while the injured Giancarlo Falappa is fourth with 76 points and Polen fifth with 67 po ints . American sseeded for World Speedwa Semi-FinalsW ith the Overseas and Scandinavian finals and the Con tinen tal Semifinals completed, the qualifiers for the World Speedway Championship Semifinals awaited the televised lottery on June 15 that would seed them into 16-rider fields bound for either Prague, Czech Rep ublic, or Bradford, Englan d. The lottery proved to be satisfactory to the Americans, as thr ee of them - Sam Ermo lenko, Greg Hancock and Billy Hamill - will be ridi ng in Pragu e wh ile Josh Larsen will be the lone American contend er in Bradford. The draw was especia lly kin d to Larsen, who is quite familiar wi th the Brad ford track due to his time spent in the British League, an d the fact that he will not need to deal wi th the logistics of transp orting equipment to the European con tinen t sho uld allow the young American to concen trate more on racing. Larsen will need to concentrate, as his semifinal field incl udes former World Cham pions Hans Nielsen of Denmark and Per Jonsson of Swed en as we ll as '93 World Final contenders Chris-Louis of England and Henrik Gustaffson of Sweden, who were third and fourth, resp ectively in last year's final. Italian Arm ando Castagna, 12th in last year's final, will also be at Bradford. Though the Brad ford field is a strong one, the Prague field may be tou gher yet. Ermolenko and Hancock sho uld qua lify without mu ch difficulty, but Ha mill will hav e to get off to an earlier sta rt than he did in the American and Overseas finals in order to make it through. Toma sz Gollob of Poland and Sweden's Tony Rickardsson are in the fiel d; both were '93 Wo rld Finalis ts . Other ch ief contend ers include Demmark's Tommy Knud sen, Gert H and be rg and Jan Sta echman as well as Australia's Jason Crump. With an entire country in their comer, Czechs Tomasz Topinka and Antonin Kasper can also be expect ed to provid e stiff competition. Both World Championshi p Semifinals will are scheduled for July 10. The top eight riders in each will ma ke up the field for the 1994 World Fina l in Vojens, Denmark, on August 20. Tarres that was sent to them for review. Check your local listings British sidecar passeng er Simo n Prior died on Tues d ay, June 14, two days after his cras h in the German Sid ecar Grand Prix at Hocken hei m. The 40year-old had been kept on a life-su pport s ys te m at the Univers it y Clinic in Mannhe im, Germany for two days. A hospital sp okesman said that Prior had been in a coma when he was admitted on Sunday night, bu t ha d not survived. H e died as a r es u lt of se ve re h ead injuries. Pr ior w as thrown from hi s sidecar an d into a guard ra il when his rider Yoshi Kumaga ya sw erved to av oid a pile- up after 14 lap s of the 16lap race. Ken ny Roberts Jr. is scheduled to start his tra ining this week for a return to the 250cc World Championship Road Race Series. "It's tak en awhile," Roberts Jr. said of his broken a r m. " I brok e the humerus bone an d you can't ever stabilize it co mpletely. It jus t doesn't hea l very fast. Wh ere a norm al bone takes four to six weeks to heal, this one can take four to six mon ths. It's been nearly four months for me ." Roberts Jr. said he couldn't say exactly w he n he plans on making his return to Grand Prix racing. Tea m Suzuki En d u ra n ce Advanced Rid ing School has ad ded two sessions for July 14 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and for October 7 at Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas. In addition, the schoo l, which is taught b y D a v i d Aldana , has sch e d u le d a "s u perad vanced setup an d riding semina r" to be hel d in conjunction with the regularly sche d uled scho ol at Willo w Sp rings Raceway in Rosam ond, California, on Augus t 22. AHRMA has announced that the y will put on a tw o-event Vintage National Enduro Series, beginning on August 14 in Toronto, Ohio, and concluding October 2 in Fairville, New York. The Ohio Valley BSA Owners Club, the host of the Ohio even t, will run a round of the AHRMA British Bike Magazine Trials Seri es on August 13 at th e sa me location . For mor e in fo rm a tio n call AHRMA at 715/842-9699. AHRMA has also announced tha t it is deve loping ru les for Vintage dra g racing. Cycle News contributor Alan Cathcart su ffered a b roken collarbo ne wh en he cr a shed on the opening la p o f th e Supermono Cup race in Misano, Italy, on May 29. Cathcart had finished third in the op en ing rou nd of th e five -race series in England and had qualified on the seco nd row fo r the Mi sa no race. Cathca rt plans to ret u rn to racing on July 3 a t a National race in Th ru xton, England. TravelCraft is running an independe n t co ntinge ncy prize p rogram fo r th eir customers in the AMA U.S. Superb ike Nationa l C ham p ion s hi p Serie s. The TravelCraft payouts are based on qualifying times for the spri n t classes, w ith payou ts coming when a rid er's fractio n of a second matches one of the Boeing aircraft numbers. The top prize is $1000 for a rider w ho' s time con tains the fraction .747. For example, if a rid er's fast qualifying time is 1:28.747, then tha t rid er will be awarded $1000. To be eligi bl e, the ri de r must ha ve flow n to the race on a TraveCraft-issued ticket or for the sa me race s tayed in a ho tel ro om booked by TraveCraft. For more info rma tion call 415/ 924-5570. The Continen ta l Motorspo rt C l ub (CM C) will be ho sting a "Back to the 70s" race at Sunrise Valley Racewa y on Sunday, June 26. Entry fees will be $10 and gate fees are $5_ For more information call CMC at 619/246-72 62. Road racer Don Greene will ride an East Valley Cycl es H arley-Davidson "=tI 883 in th e AMA /CCS Tw in Spo rt 0\ Series rounds beginning with Mid- ~ Ohio on July 17. Greene will compete in some AFM road races at Sears Point in Sonoma, California, before heading east to com pete in the final rounds of the National series. "It's looking really good," Greene said . "We've got two b ike s a n d it's a first-rate o rga niza tion." 1

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