Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

· ·. ,I~·.,.HE· : IN :'! WD Scott Summers (Hon) wo n the AMA . Grand National Cross Country round in Millfield, Ohio, Augus t 28. Scott Plessinger (KTM) was the runne r-u p, with Fred Andrews (Yam) third, Randy Hawkins fourth and Tom Norton fifth. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) won the WERA Sunoco/Performance Machine National Endurance Series round at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, on Augu st 27. Tea m Suzuki topped Team Pearls (Suz) by four laps with R.A. Racing (Suz) finishing thir d. Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell will compete in the final round of the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship Series at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, on September 18, according to event promoters. Russell, who currently lies second in the World Championship Superbike Series, could throw a wrench into the current AMA point standings as Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jam ie James leads Fast By Ferracci Duca ti ' s Troy Corser by only three poin ts with just Road Atlanta rem aining in the l a-rac e series. In add ition, Russell - the current World Superbike Champion - will do all of the pre-race publicity for the race. Russel! is al so exp ec ted to m ak e an appearance at the grand re-opening iestivi tiesa t Roswell Fun Mach ines in Roswell, Georgia, on Friday, September 16 from 6:00 p .m. to 9:00 p.m. In addi tion to Russell, celebrities expected to appear are Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz, new World Champion Michael Doohan and over 20 other top AMA professional road racers who will be in the Atlanta area for the final round of the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship. Race West Productions has acqu ired the two AMA Grand National Champ ionship events which are held annually at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, Russell bounces back in JaR_an _ _ I from Chris Agajanian. Race West will promote the new dirt tra cks beginning w ith th e Octob e r 8 runn in g of th e Pomona Half Mile. On March 31-April 2, 1995, Rac e West Prod uction s will bring the Los Angeles Superbike Championship, a round of the U.S. Superbike National Champ ion ship, back to th e Fairplex in Pomona and will r un a round of the Grand National Championship in conjunction with the road race. "We will introduce a new forma t in the spring with an incredible mot orcycle weekend - running the Grand National Dirt Track event in conjunction w ith the L.A . Superbike Champ ionship," Race West Productions' Bill Marcel said . "Road racing will run from Thursday through Sunday, with the Grand National race taking place on Saturday evening. Th is new format will give fans a unique opportunity to witness two of the most exciting types of tw o-wheel racing at the sa me facili ty an d will provide a motorcycle racin g ex tra vagan z a unmatched a nyw here west of Daytona, Florid a." Former WERA Form ula USA Champion Chuck Graves will rid e as a re placemen t rid er in the Uni ted States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway on September 11. Gr aves has been signed by Serge Rosse t to ride one of the Frenchman's ROC Yamahas as a replacement for Udo Mark in the 500cc U.S. GP. The team has an option on Graves for the remaind er of the 1994 season that may see him rid e in the following two GPs if he does well at Laguna. For more information on the United States Grand Prix, see our preview section which begins on page 32. "Kevin Schwantz: .The World's Champion", a 272-pa ge, 12 x 12-inch coffee; table book depicting the life of 1993 500cc World Champion Ke vin Schwantz, will be on sale at the United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway on September 9-11. Th e book, t appears the dry spell for Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell (above) is over as the Georgian stormed to two victories in the seventh round of the World Championship Superbike Series in Sugo, Japan, on Au gust 28. Russell was forced to work har d in both races. In the first of the two legs, Russell held off the advances of Ducati-mounted Fabriz io Pirovano and pole sitter Yasotumu Nagai on the factory Yamaha YZF750 as Brit Carl Fogarty struggled to finish fourth with sticking throttl es on his factory Ducati. Yamaha's Wataru Yoshikawa was fifth, wi th Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight sixth, Honda's Takuma Aoki seventh, Australian Ho nda rider An thony Gobert eighth, Ducati-mounted Andreas Meklau ninth and Castrol Honda's Doug Polen 10th. In the second race, Fogarty nailed down the holeshot and Nagai almost ran Russell off in tum two as the pair tangled. Somehow both managed to not crash and Russell soon disposed of Fogarty to take the lead. In the dosing stages of the race, Nagai gav e the partisan crowd something to cheer about as he moved past Russell to take the lead . It was short-lived, how ever, as Nagai ran off the track. Russell took the win over Fogarty, with Kawasaki 's Keiichi Kitigawa, Yoshikawa, Nagai, Gobert, Slight, Aoki, Muzz y Kawa saki's Terry Rymer arid Ducati-mo unted Jamie Whitham rounding out the top 10. "Tha t's just wha t we needed," Russell said after the do uble win . "We're back and hunting. That second race was one of the hardest of my life. Whe n I saw spots of rain on my viso r, I thought that the race might be stopped - all I could think of was making sure I was in front at half-distance. Now we're back on cou rse and looking forwa rd to the next race in Assen (Holland)." Russell's double victory moves him to wi thin six points of cham pionship lead er Aaron Slight , 192-186. Foga rty is third with 176 with Polen's 124 and Meklau 's 110 points filling the top five in the World Championship point stand ings . Edwards set to sign with Yamaha Ot on the heels of Winning three-straight AMA U.S. Superbike Nationals, 20-year-old Colin Edwards II (right) will sign a lucrative twoyea r contract with Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A . sometime this week, according to his fa ther Colin Edwards. Edwards, who has won the last three Nationals at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Brainerd International Racew ay and Sears Point Raceway, has come to terms with Yamaha and is only awaiting the formalities of signing the new deal. "It's on a handshake right now," Edwards Sr. said on Thursday, August 25 from his hom e in Conroe, Texas. "We attended a meeting with Yamaha in Los Angles on Monda y and they' ve accepted everything just the way we drew it up . The meeting took about six hours and we went through each item on the contract. I tell you one thing, it's going to be tou gh to beat Colin next year. He knows the package is there with the team and the bike, and he's really happy and ready to go. It's awesome. We're on cloud nin e righ t now, with winning at Sears and getting this contract done." Although terms of the contract were not released , it is expected that the new deal will make Edwards the highest earning su perbike ride r in the AMA series beginning in 1995. "Colin has been really frug al wi th his mon ey," Edwards Sr. said. "Apart from his watercraft and a set of golf d ubs, he hasn't pu rchased anything. He still drives a '87 pickup truck wi th 140,000 miles on it. I told him we'd go out and get him his first toy next week - an (Acura) NSX." Edwards wo n the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Na tional Cham pionship in his rookie season in 1992, and he finished sixth in his first superbike season in 1993. He currentl y lies 'sixth in the 1994 U.S. Superbike Na tional Championshi p on his Vance & Hines Yamaha, but a win in the final round of the series at Road Atlan ta on September 26 would make him the winningest ride r in the series wit h four victories. H which was wr itten by long-time Grand Prix rep orter Peter Clifford, w ill be ava ilable at the Suzuki tent at the race track for $45. For th ose not ab le to attend the Grand Prix, the book can be ' ordered from the Kevin Schwantz Fan Club at P.O. Box 34, Pa ige, TX 78659; don't forget the additional shipping and handling charge of $5. Cred it cards will also be accepted by placing a fax order . at 512/321-7899. Championship events calendar will be released during the last week of Septembe r. Barrick a lso confirmed that the Middleweight Team Challenge ha s been dropped fro m the s chedule. "We're taking things slowly for next yea r and we 're jus t d ropping th e one class; a nd we're not ad di ng anything new," Barrick said, putting an end to speculation that the AMA would run a 125cc Grand 'Prix class in 1995. According to Ron Barrick of the AMA, the 1995 AMA U.S. Superbike National The 16th editi oIi of the AMA /CCS seri es finale at Daytona International AMA seeks to reconcile with SX Q romoters F OllO.Wi;"g an August 26-27 meeting of the AMA Boa rd of Trustees, the AMA announced its inte ntion to seek fur ther negotiations with supercross promoting organizations which recently ann ounced the formation of a new sancti oning entity separate from the AMA, called AIR (American/International Racing). "So me misleading information has surfaced indicating that the AMA broke off negotiations with the promo ters for AMA sanction of the 1995 Supe rcross Series," said Tom Mueller, the AMA's vice president of sports marketing. "The AMA neve r broke off those talks, and in fact had recently contacted one of the promoting groups offering the same sanction terms as 1994. It's clear that the best interest of the spectators, riders and teams are served by a unified supercross circuit, not two separate programs. Several parties in the industry have requested that we resume negotiations, and of course we agree that a single series would be better for all concerned. We feel that the AMA and the promoters should come back to the negotiating table in an attempt to resolv e our differences." Bill West, the president of World Sports Promotions and one of three supercross -.:j< promoters, said the promoter group wo uld be willing to sit down with the AMA to dis- 0\ cuss the organizations involvement in the 1995 series, though his story of the original ~ problem differs from Mueller's version. "We had basically been forced out, " West said on Monday, August 29. "And I can substan tiate that with documents. I d on't think they (the AMA Board of Trustees) were kept informed and we were only allow ed to deal with Tom (Mueller) . We were forced to replace them as a sanctioning body. Now that doesn't mean that we're opposed to sitting down and talking further. I'm a charter life member of the AMA and I realize the tremendous value that the AMA has. We are still receptive. I wo uld love to see an AMA logo on what we do, but it (the arrangement) wo uld have to be a lot differe nt than what it has been in the past." Mueller added that the AMA will announce its 1995 sched ule of events in earl y October, pending the' outcome of renewed supercross negotiations. 1

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