Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Six-time World Champion Jordi Tarres wrapped up his championship-winning season in style, as he topped the July 2324 World Championship Trials Series finale in Biasca, Switzerland. Tarres posted a final score of 30 aboard his factory Gas-Gas, while Finn Tommi Ahvala (Fan) earned second overall with a 39. Japan's Takumi Narita (Bet) was third with 44, while Brit Dougie Lampkin (Bet) and Spain's Joan Pons (G-G) rounded out the top five. Ahvala clinched second overall in the final . championship standings, while Pons nabbed third . Tarres wrapped up his sixth title one week earlier in Italy. England's Jamie Whitham (Duc) won the Supercup Superbike race that was held in conjunction with the World Championship Road Race Series round at Donington Park, England, on July 24 (see sidebar). Whitham topped Steve Hislop (Hon) in the race that was stopped and restarted due to rain. Prior to the restart, Doug Polen and his Castrol Honda teammate Aaron Slight battled for the lead, but neither went back out for the rain-sodden restart. The final round of the World Championship Enduro Series decided all four class titles in Kaposvar, Hungary, on July 23-24. Italian Giovanni Sala (K1M) clinched the 175cc (-plus) title on Saturday, as did Finland's Kari Tiainen (Hus) in the big-bore Four-Stroke class. Finland's Silvan Petteri (Hus) saw his 125cc title hopes go up in smoke on Saturday night after being excluded from the day's results for starting early. This effectively handed the 125cc title to Great Britain's Paul Edmondson (G-G). Swede Svenerik Johnsson (Hus), who was in contention for the 350cc FourStroke class title, was also DQ'ed on Saturday for missing a checkpoint, thus effectively handing the class title to Italian Mario Rinaldi (K1M). Kevin Hines (CRE) carded the overall win at the AMA National Championship Enduro round in Rose City, Michigan, on July 24. The runner-up was series.points leader Steve Hatch (Suz) while defending champ Randy Hawkins (Suz) finished third. Rounding out the top five were Kelby Pepper (Kaw) and Jeff Russell (K1M). According to the AMA's Roy Janson, the Pro Racing department was extremely pleased with the electronic lap-time transponders that were tested at the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship round last weekend at the MidOhio Sports Car Course. "We're real thrilled with it," Janson said. "The issue now is trying to pay for it if we decide to buy it. We really couldn't have been more pleased with it. Being able to see each rider's laps times provides a real value." According to Janson, the cost of a unit that would score all SO riders in the Daytona 200 would be roughly $55,000. The AMA is looking into buying a less-expensive unit that would work for a 40-rider field, and would then lease a second unit for Daytona, the only race with an SO-rider field. "We'd like to try and find a sponsor for the transponders," Janson said. Janson said the decision on whether or not to purchase the AMB units (which are made in Holland) will likely come at the next AMA Board of Trustees meeting which will be held the end of August. The test at Mid-Ohio came about mainly because the SCCA had already recently purchased a similar system, and Mid-Ohio had been pre-wired to accept the transponders. The Indianapolis Raceway Park round of the WERA Pro Series (see sidebar) was the first round of the EBC Brakes Triple Crown. The leading team after one round is the Dale Quarterleyowned team that consists of Quarterley and Scott Gray. Gray' and Quarterley combined to score 14 points at Indy. Michael Martin and Chuck Graves are next on the Team Hammer, Inc. squad, scoring 17 points, with Rich Oliver and Chuck Sorensen third with 36 points. Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha's Daryl Beattie said at the British Grand Prix that he was hoping to return to action at the Czech GP on August 21. The Australian was spectating at Donington Park following surgery on the left foot that he injured in a crash at the French GP at Le Mans on July 15. Beattie had all five toes amputated below the upper joint and a skin graft was applied from his left thigh. Beattie also suffered a broken scaphoid bone in his left wrist which didn't require surgery. "The hardest thing is that it's impossible to predict how long it's going to take," Beattie said in England. "If it was a broken bone you could say it'll be four or six weeks. At the moment I can't walk on the foot and I can't put any weight on it, so I don't know whether it's going to be one day or one month. Dr. (Claudio) Costa mentioned it may be okay for Czecho and Kenny (Roberts) and I have talked about a plan." Beattie said he hoped to begin walking after the stiches are removed from his foot on Friday, July 29, and that after that he would begin training on a mountain bike. Cycle News Rider of the ~M onth: Mich Doohan ael eA us t rali a n Michael Doohan (right) won six straight 500cc Grands Prix on his way to building what seems to be an insurmountable lead in the SODcc World Championship point standings. -.::r To make matters worse for the competition, Doohan 0\ hasn't finished worse than second since the opening ~ round of the series in Australia - and his "poor" outing there still resulted in a third-place finish. In the month of July, Doohan won twice and finished second once - those results and his pure domination of the most prestigious series in motorcycle racing made him a unanimous choice for Cycle News Rider of the Month. With 231 World Championship points out of a possible 250 points, Doohan leads defending World Champion Kevin Schwantz by 71 points with four races left in the 14-race series . Schwantz stops Doohan in British GP inally someone stopped Michael Doohan from winning a 500cc Grand Prix. Fittingly, it was World Champion Kevin Schwantz (right). The Texan rode his Lucky Strike Suzuki to victory in the 10th round of the World Championship Road Race Series, held at Donington Park in England, on July 24, beating HRC's Doohan by 2.366 seconds to stop the Australian's win streak at six. Schwantz's victory came after a horrendous highside crash during Saturday's final qualifying session. Schwantz injured an ankle and some toes in the crash, but fortunately didn't re-injure the wrist he broke a month ago . The Texan took the lead from Doohan on the 19th of 30 laps after those two had moved past early leaders Luea Cadalora and Doug Chandler. Cadalora and the lone Marlboro Yamaha in the race went on to finish third with John Kocinski recovering from a slow start to finish fourth on the factory Cagiva. Chandler managed to nurse a wrong tire choice to a fifth-place finish - his best of the season - on the second of the two Cagivas. . HRC's Alex Criville, Ducados Honda's Alberto Puig, Slick 50's Niall Mackenzie, HRC's Shinichi Itoh and Roc Yamaha's Jeremy McWilliams rounded out the top 10 finishers. Although Schwantz won his second SOOcc GP of the season and his fourth career British GP, it did little to put a dent in Doohan's massive points lead. The Australian leads the Texan by 71 points, 231-160,with four races left in the series. Kocinski is third with 120 points, eight clear of Puig. Criville is fifth with 109 points. Italian Loris Capirossi took over the lead in the 250cc World Championship point standings by winning his fourth 250cc GP of the season. The Marlboro Pileri Honda rider benefitted greatly when his rival Max Biaggi crashed at the halfway mark as a result of his Chesterfield Aprilia seizing. Capirossi ended up beating Kanemoto Honda's Tadayuki Okada by 3.233 seconds with HB Honda's Doriano Romboni finishing third. Yamaha France's Tetsuya Harada was fourth with Chesterfield Aprilia's Jean-Michel Bayle rounding out the top five. Capirossi now leads Okada by 16 points with Biaggi slipping to third with 144 points. Romboni holds down fourth with 129 and RaU Waldmann, seventh in England, is fifth with 113 points. Bayle is now seventh in the championship point standings with ' 7S points. The closest race of the day at Donington Park was the 125cc Grand Prix. Japan's Takeshi Tsujimura rode his Honda to a .267-of-a-second victory over the Aprilia of Italian Stefano Perugini. German Peter Oettl finished third on the Marlboro Aprilia, just ahead of World Championship leader Kazuto Sakata. Sakata's lead in the championship is 46 points over Noboru Ueda, sixth in England, 183-137. Tsujimura is third with 132 points. F "Then as soon as I've got some feeling I'll jump on a minibike, either in Europe or in the States. At the moment the nerve endings are pretty sensitive and the skin's new, so I don't know whether the foot could cope with the vibration on a race bike, but once I can ride a minibike okay on the dirt I can get on a race bike." Beattie's replacement on the Kenny Roberts-owned team, Japanese sensation Norifumi Abe, didn't have much luck at Donington Park. The 18-year-old Japanese 500cc champion crashed on the fourth lap of his first practice session in a highside at Goddard's Comer, a first gear hairpin leading onto the front straight. He broke a bone in his right hand, just above his fourth finger, suffered a concussion, and was taken to a hospital in nearby Nottingham. Doctors there put a wire in his right hand which will remain in place for three weeks and he was scheduled to Japan on Monday, July 25. "When I started practice on Friday morning I could feel the Yamaha was different to the Honda I've been riding in Japan," Abe said. "I expected that, and I knew I was just meant to ride around and get the feel of the bike, but I guess I nailed it too soon. I was exiting Goddards and when I was nearly out of the tum the back end slid around tnd the bike highsided me . I couldn't remember much about the crash at that point, I just remember a little about being taken to the medical center." "We must wait for the doctors to tell us when he can ride again.rYamaha motorsport manager Mike Maekawa said. "If he does ride for us again in '94 we'd like to allow him to get more accustomed to the YZRSOO during a test session. Abe is young, he has a lot of potential, and we want to do everything we can to support him and he's already talking with Kenny about next year." No decision has been made on who will ride the bike at the Czech GP. Much depends on Beattie's progress. The appeals filled by World Superbike riders Aaron Slight 'and Andreas Meklau, regarding their disqualification from the British round of the World Championship Superbike Series because their bikes were found to contain illegal fuels, will be judged by the FlM international Court of Appeal in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 27. A benefit fund has been set up for Aaron Lanningham, the road racer who was partially paralyzed in the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship round at New Hampshire International Speedway on June 19. Lanningham already faces some '$100,000 in medical bills. Donations can be sent to the Aaron L Lanningham Benefit Fund, c/o West One Bank, 2714 South 300 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84115. Camel Supercross Champion Jeremy. ' McGrath will take on former National Speedway Champion Mike Faria in a special match race at the grand re-opening of Lake Perris Speedway in Perris, California, on July 30. McGrath will be

• Cover