Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I·><: IN·THE WINo ·1 . . Bob M oo re (Yam) won both motos to extend his series points lead at the Ger man rou nd of the World Cha mpionship 125cc MX Series in Goldbach, on July 31. Mo ore ' s m a in rival, Ita li an Alessio Ch iodi (H on), su ffe re d m e cha ni cal problems in the first moto and failed to score an y points in that race. In the second rnoto, Ch odi finish ed second . Second overall on the day, however, went to Dutchman Pedro Tragter (Suz) who. posted 2-3 moto fin ish es. American Bader Manneh (Su z) finished fourth overall, while Massimo Bartolini (TM) rounded out th e top five. Moore now hea ds the series sta nd ings by 30 points over Chiodi, 287-257. Tragter is th ird w ith 224. With just two roun d s left in the series - Great Britain (August 7) and Belgium (August 28) - Moor e stands a realistic chance o f clinching h is fir st World Championship title next week in Great Britain. Moore' s win in Germany was his fourth of the season. . Scott Everett (Tri) top ped the 540cc class at round five of the AMA National Championship Hillclimb Series, held in Haydenville, Ohio, on July 30. T ed Wilkins (Rtx) was the runner-up while Pa ul Lowe (Kaw) ro unded out the top three. Mickey Dent (H-D) bested the 800cc class, edging out Harry Schrei ber (H-D) and Jim Di ng ee (H-D). Road racer Da le Quarterley obtained a one-race sponsorship package from Delta Faucets for the WERA Pro Series round which was held at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 24. " Having the Turtles (Teenage Muta nt Ninja Tu rtles, Qu arterley's ma in spons or) on board has been a rea l positi ve in flu ence on h elping get o ther ou ts ide-the-i nd ustry sponsors involved. It worked out good . The family-type crowd is what appealed to Delta Fau cets." Quarterley won the race by finishing second in both legs of the tworace F-USA final. In the July 25th edition of AutoWeek, Sam Moses interview ed fo u r -tim e World Champion Eddie Lawson. Th e story's lead featured the following quote from Lawson: "How serious am I about racin g cars? How much do I want to do this? I'll give you an idea of how much. In 1992, my last year racing GP bikes, I w as paid $50,000 to we ar my g loves, $75,000 for my boots, $150,000 for my leathers and $300,000 for my h elmet. I could still be racin g bike s if I wanted to. Las t week I needed a new Nomex u nd ers h irt, an d I couldn't get a sponsored one . I had to pa y Simpson $40 for it. That's how much I want to race cars ." The story goes on to report that Lawson has paid $250,000 for the first six races for his inclusion in the Tasman Motorsports Group, the top team in the PPGFir estone In dy Li g h ts Series. Te am owner Steve H orne speaks h ighly of Lawson's car racing talents in the story, saying: "You could put Eddie in an lndycar tom orrow, and as long as he'd driven the track for a couple of da ys, he wo uld instantly run in the top six." The story also say s that La wson ge ts pa id $125,000 per day to race motorcycl es. The Californian who n ow calls Lake Havasu City, California, home, raced a factory Yamaha to third -place finish in the Daytona 200 in March and combined with Japanese rider Yasutomo Nagai to finish fourth in the Suzuka 8-Hour on July 31. AHRMA President Jeff Smith called News to say tha t the associa tion has already received its limit of preentries for the AH RMANi ntage Iron National m oto cros s at Steamboat Springs, Co lo rad o, on September 16. "We ha d a limit of 350 entries, and we actually ex tended that to 375," Smith said. "Right now, we're al ready oversubscribed by 100 entries. Smith also said that while the motocross entry is now closed, there a re still plenty of entries available for the National road race, tr ial and flat tra ck events scheduled for Steamboat. exan Do ug Polen (right) and New Zealander Aaron Slight rode their factory Honda RC45 to victory in the Suzu ka 8-H ou r endurance race on July 31 in Suz uka City, Jap an. Surprisingly, afte r 666 miles and eigh t hours of racing, the pair topped the factory Kawasaki duo of Scott Russell and Terry Rymer by a scant .28B-of -a-second. Both teams comp leted 183 laps on the 3.641-mile circu it in wha t was the closest Suzuka 8-Hour in history. The race began in seasona l hot we ather w ith the first inciden t com ing on the 12th lap wh en Japan's Yasutomo Nagai crashed the factory Yamaha he was s h a ring w ith four-time World Champ ion Eddie Law son. Fortunately for the Yam aha pair, the red flag wa s brought ou t when some six bikes crashed later on the sa me lap. The factory Honda RC45 rid den by Daijiro Kat o caug ht fire, brin ging an early race stoppa ge. With scoring going back to the 11th lap, the Nagai crash didn't enter into the scorin g an d he and Lawso n were able to eventua lly finish fourth, one lap behind the leaders. The last hour of the race was frantic with Russe ll try ing to catch Slight in the final 20 laps. In the end, the de fending Worl d Superbike Champion came up just short of catching his former Muzzy Kawasaki teammate, leaving the victory to Slight and Polen. Thrid place went to the factory Honda team of Shinichi Itoh and Shinya Takeishi with the Kawasaki of Kelichi Kitagawa and Shoichi Tsukamoto finishing fifth behind Lawson's lead Yamaha team. Floridian Thomas Stevens teamed with Akira Yanagawa on the factory Suzuki GSXR to finish eighth, four laps behind Polen and Slight. T Cycle Two-time Camel Superc ross Champion Jeremy McGrath will be up for grabs at the end of the 1994 season, and it's no secret that the likable Californian is asking a hefty sum for his services. Honda officials reportedly balked at McGrath's $600,000 per year asking pric e, and McGrath did likewise upon hearing Honda'a $450,000 counter offer. While it is fairly certain that McGrath is entertaining bids from Yamaha, one of the wildest rumors we've heard is that five- Desert Bill Passes House Floor he U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the controversial Califomia Desert Protection Act on July 27, moving this restrictive piece of public-land legislation one step closer to becoming law, reports the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). The House passed the measure by a 29B-128 vot e. The Senate had previously passed its own version of the desert bill , meaning that the plan has now overcome its two biggest legislative obstacles. However, significant differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill still must be ironed out before it can be sent to Pres ident Clinton for his signature. Although both versions of the bill would ban motorized recre ation from millions of acres of public land in the California Desert, the Senate version conta ins a package of compromise amendments de signed to preserve several exis ting motorized-recreation routes. The same pack age of amendme n ts was proposed in the Hou se by the sponsor of the bill, but those compromise efforts were sho t down by Rep. George Mill (D-ealifomia), chairman of the House Natural Resources Comm ittee. Under normal circumstances, the bill would now go to a joint House-Senate conference committee to resolve those differences. However, House lead ers have taken a differen t ap proach, renumbering their version of the bill to match the Sena te version, 5.21. As a result, the Ho use-passed version now goes back to the Sena te floor, where it could be accepted, rejected or possibly amended. If the Senate refuses to accept the Ho use vers ion, it cou ld still end up in a conference committee. And with a busy cong ressiona l agenda ahead , a fina l version of the bill might not be approved before the an ticipated congressional adjournment in the second week of October. That could effectively kill the desert p Ian for this year.· "We're urging all concerned motorcyclists to write to their U.S. senators, urging them to adopt the Senate's compromise language regarding motorized recre at ion ," said Robert Rasor, AMA vice president of government relations Letters can be sent to senators at the United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510. T Polen/SIi hI win Suzuka thriller time World Champion Roger DeCoster is trying to arrange a deal for himself and McGrath to sign with Suzu ki. Should McGrath leave the Red Riders to join the Yellow Magic squad, he wo uld join returning teamsters Damon Huffm an and Ezra Lusk, who will defend their pair of 125cc Regional Supercross Championsh ips, and 125cc pilot T im Ferry. Rum ors ha ve Craig Decker close to s ig n in g on to contest the Western Regional 125cc Supercross Series. But what about the 250cc class? Supposedly, Suzuki has invited Jimmy Button to stay aboard, but has not offered Brian Swink a return invita tion as of yet. Look for Swink to possibly join Michael Ray Craig on the Honda of Tro y squad. Is Jeremy McGrath considering a speedway career? Well, it's not likely. But McGrath did take part in a special match-race at the Grand Re-opening of Lake Perri s Speedway in Perris, California, on July 30. McGrath hopped on a speedway bike an d faced off a ga inst two-time U.S . National Champion "FIyin'" Mike Faria, who was mounted on McGrath's Honda CR250 . McGrath thrilled spectators by putting together two solid laps on the brakeless machine while Faria did a tank slapper on the 250 and nearly crashed. However, when the two rid ers trad ed motorcycles, Faria redeemed himself by easily defeating the defending AMA Supercross Champion and then went on to top both main events later in the evening. About 2000 specta tors attended the reopening of Lake Perris Speedway. New prom oters Scott Bell and Bill Manley were p lea sed with. the turnout at the facilit y, w h ich had bee n closed si nc e early June after former promoter Brian Chu rch p u lled o u t. "We antici p a ted w hat w e had ," Bell said. "We gave it 110%, and tha t's we got out of it. Everyone I talked to had a good time, and the riders loved the track. There is a speedway crowd in this area. The problems in th e pa st w ere jus t to due to lack of enthusiasm." Perris will run another race on Satu rday, August 6, before revertin g back to Thursday nights until the season finale on September 29. Charlie Ven egas (la w) scored both the Handicap an d Scratch main event wins before a ca paci ty crowd during the inaugural Sa turd ay Night Thun d e r speedway season opener at the Sola no County Fairgrounds in Vallejo, California, on July 30. Seven weeks of . AMAsanctione d speedway are scheduled at Vallejo, which ma rks the first retu rn of speedway to the bay area since the closing of Na pa Sp eed w ay a t th e en d of 1991. The August 7 Peoria TT round of the AMA Grand National Championship Series should be one to see, as a slew of IT hot sh oes will be out to gun down current series points leader Chris Carr and hi s Kenny Tolbert-tuned factory Harley-Davidson. Carr has won the last seven Grand Nationals held at the Peoria M.e. C1ubgrounds, as well as the last s ix 600cc Nationals, bringing his wi n streak total to 13. "The pressure to win there keeps getting greater and greater," said Carr. "So many people expect me to win there, that I really don't want to let them down." Among those favored to give Carr a run for his money at Peoria are his factory Harley-Davidson teammate Scott Parker and Bartels' HarleyDavidson's Mike Hale, though HarleyDavidson of Sacramento's Aaron Hill, r ecently-crowned 600cc Champion Mickey Fay and 1993 Rookie of the Year Ben Bostrom should also be in the hunt. "So you think Carr's gonna win again?" said Parker. "Well, you picked the wrong gu y." Parker's wife reports that in preparation for the even t, Parker has been spending extra time at the gym and jumping his motocross bike. At the July 30 Brainerd Superbike National, Hale reported that he would be ready as well. "1 dusted off my 600 the other day and rode it around in a field by my house . I'm gonna ride that bad boy every day this week, and spend a lot of tim e catching air on it." Not to be out- ~ done, Carr has been training at Tolbert's 0\ house in Texas. "I've been sta ying in a ....-I hot climate, beca use it's always so hot at Peoria," said Carr. "An d, oh, yes - I'll definitely be floggi n g Kenny's motocross bike all week ." Defending Grand National Champion Ricky Graham will not be on ha nd at Peoria, as his ankles are still to o sor e to handle the jump. The Ninth Annual Wegman Benefit

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