Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I' IN THE WIt~D.·. :- ' 1 Australian Scott Doohan is reportedly doing well in the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia, following his crash in the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship round at Road Atlanta 'on September 18. According to John MacGillivary, the agent for both Scott and Mick Doohan, among other noted Australian road racers, the 31-year-old Doohan was taken out of intensive care on Sunday, September 25 after regaining consciousness. "Scott was placed in a medically induced coma after the accident, but it was purely precautionary," MacGillivary said on Monday, September 26. "Scott has no head injuries, no spinal injuries, some internal bruising that won't require surgery and a left arm that's been broken in three places. Scott will be going from Gainesville to San Francisco where Dr. (Arthur) Ting will perform surgery on hisarm, Dr. Ting has become somewhat of a family doctor and he is aware of Scott's history. The Doohans feel very fortunate that Scott's crash took place so close to the hospital in Gainesville because the care he has been given there is very good." MacGillivary said that Doohan did not suffer any lapse in memory. "All he knows is that he was hit from behind," MacGillivary said. "He is not blaming anyone for the accident as he is unaware of the circumstances." Californian Brad Hazen, who was involved in the tworider crash w ith Doohan, was discharged from the hospital on September 22 with two broken legs. Canadian Kawasaki (Kaw), with Don Munroe and Michael Taylor at the helm, beat R.A. Racing (Suz) and H&:H Racing (Yarn) to win the WERA Sunoco/Performance Machine six-hour endurance race in Shannonville, Ontario, Canada, on September 23. Canadian Kawasaki completed 171 laps to R.A Racing's 169 ·la p s . Championship-leading Team Suzuki Endurance did not compete in Canada. Paul Pinsonnault (Hon) and Lou Ger. encer Sr. (H-D) topped the rostrum in the 540 'and 800cc classes, respectively, at the White Rose M.C-hosted round 10 of the AMA National Hillclirnb Series in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, on September 25. Pinsonnault topped Ted Wilkins (Rtx) and Scott McNeely (Hon) in the 540cc class, while Gerencer Jr. finished ahead of Steve Dresser (H-D) and Wade Williams (Hon). Mike Faria (GM) won the California State Speedway Championship at Glen Helen Speedway in Glen Helen, California, on September 24. Faria scored 14 points and won the title in a run-off with Charlie Venegas craw), who finished second overall. Bobby Schwartz (GM) was third. Defending U.S. National Champion Sam Errnolenko and current American Champion Greg Hancock will be returning to California to contest the 27th U.S. National Speedway Championship at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on Saturday October 1. Former National ' Champion Chris Manchester, who now rides for the Belle Vue Aces in the British League, will be third of the three seeded overseas-based riders in the 16-rider field. Manchester is already in the United States, having competed in the California State Championship. Ermolenko and Hancock are expected to be back in time for the practice day on Thursday, September 29 at 12:30 p.m. According to the AMA, the Senate passed its version of the National Highway System bill on September 23. The Senate version of the bill differs from the House version in that it lacks the $6 million for OHV trails and contract spending authority, which makes the funding automatic by bypassing both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. In response, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colorado) plans to introduce a bill into the Senate on September 29 which will restore the $6 million in funding and contract spending authority missing in the Senate bill. According to a press release from the FIM , the International Tribunal of Appeal has reversed its decision and will now exclude Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight and Andreas Meklau from one of the two legs of the British round of the World Championship Superbike Series at Donington Park on May 2. The latest chapter in the everchanging trilogy of the illegal-fuel race comes about after Team Ducati Corse filed an appeal based on the decision of the appeal board to reinstate Slight and Meklau. The new point standings including the September 25 round in Italy, has Carl Fogarty leading the way with 254 points to Slight's 234 points. Doohan ets his ninth N ew ly crowned World Champion Michael Doohan (right) rode his HRC-backed Honda NSRSOO to his ninth Grand Prix win of the season in the 13th round of the World Championship Road Race Series, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 25. Doohan topped Cagiva 's Doug Chandler by 8.742 seconds in the 27-lap, 72.B-mile race, with the Californian's second-place finish matching his career best. Third place went to John Kocinski on the second Cagiva, with HRC's Shinichi Itoh and Ducados Honda Pons' Alberto Puig rounding out the top five. Doohan's lead in the point standings is now an incredible 12S points over Kevin Schwantz, who did . not race in Argentina because of the injuries he suffered during practice for the United States Grand Prix. Schwantz lies second in the points with 169 points, now just 13 points clear of Kocinski. Marlboro Yamaha's Luca Cadalora, sixth in Argentina, is fourth -with 149 points, six ahead of Puig's 143. The 250cc Grand Prix was won by Kanemoto Honda's Tadayuki Okada. The Japanese finished some five seconds ahead of his championship rival Max Biaggi on the Chesterfield Aprilia, with the Italian just getting the better of defending World Champion Tetsuya Harada on the Yamaha France entry. Chesterfield Aprilia's Jean-Philippe Ruggia and Marlboro Pileri's Loris Capirossi rounded out the top five finishers. Californian Kenny Roberts Jr. turned in the best finish of his young career by riding the Marlboro Rainey Yamaha to sixth place. Roberts Jr. edged Chesterfield Aprilia's Jean-Michel Bayle on the final lap. U.S. GP winner Doriano Romboni didn't start the Argentine GP after injuring his hand in a practice session on Sunday morning. Okada's win moves him to within eight points of Biaggi in the battle for the 250cc World Championship with Biaggi leading, 209-201, with one round remaining. Capirossi is third with 179 points and Romboni lies fourth with 154. Team Aspar Cepsa's Jorge Martinez gave Yamaha its first 12SecGrand Prix win of the season as he topped Givi Racing Honda's Noboru Ueda by .375-of-a-second. Stefano Perugini rode the IPA Corse FMI Aprilia to third place. ' Japan's Kazuto Sakata wrapped up the 12Sec World Championship with his ninthplace finish in the Argentine Grand Prix. Sakata leads Ueda, 215-184, with one round remaining in the series . Former AMA 250cc Grand Prix National Champion Jimmy Filice announced on Monday, September 26 that he will compete in the Sacramento Mile on October 1 aboard an Eddie Atkins-owned Harley-Davidson XR750. Filice, a fourtime AMA Grand National Championship dirt track winner, won three miles in his career, the last of which came at the San Jose Mile on September 18, 1983. "I just decided this morning," Filice said. "I'm ready to go out and have some fun. We'll run practice and see what happens." Filice has two road races left on his schedule in 1994, the two remaining rounds of the Ducados Open Series in Spain on October 23 and 30th. Filice's rides a Wayne Raineyowned Yamaha TZ250 in the Spanish international events. E With only three rounds remaining in the 1994 AMA Grand National Championship Series, things look good for 1991 AMA Grand National Champion Chris Carr. With a 14-point lead over his teammate, four-time Grand National Champion Scott Parker, Carr can settle for a safe second behind Parker at each of the three races and still capture his second championship with points to spare. "Sacramento has been very good to me in the past," said Carr, who lives in nearby Valley Springs, California. "But believe me, I'm not going there to finish second." Carr also reports that the sprained ankle and twisted knee that he suffered at the Labor Day Springfield Mile will not be a problem. "I've had three weeks to heal up since the Castle Rock IT," he said . "I expect to be 1000;. by Saturday night." For more information on the October 1 Sacramento Mile, call 916/92Q-2760. 2 Bartels' Harley-Davidson's Mike Hale will compete in the final three rounds of the AMA Grand National Champi- Fogarty scores big in Italyritain's Carl Fogarty (right) capitalized on the poor luck of Georgian Scott Russell in the World Championship Superbike Series round in Mugello, Italy, on September 25. Fogarty ended up scoring 36 points after turning in a 2-1 tally in the two-leg race. The first race was won by Russell on the Muzzy Kawasaki as he beat Fogarty by 3.9 seconds. In the second leg, however, Russell was forced out of the race, while he was leading, with electrical problems. The defending World Champion's misfortune ~ allowed Fogarty to win by some six seconds over g::: Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight. ..... Slight had finished fourth in the first race, just u) behind newly crowned AMA U .S. Superbike I-< National Champion Troy Corser. The Australian, QJ however, wasn't able to improve on his third-place finish in the first leg when his Ducati suffered a mechanical failure in race two. Third place u non-finisher in in the second leg went to Ducati-mounted Mauro Lucchiari, who was a the first race. Texan Doug Polen ended up 11th and seventh in the two races on his Castrol-backed Honda RC45. Fogarty further extended his lead in the World Championship point standings to 20 points over Slight, 254-234. Russell is third with 228 points. B o onship Series. Hale, who finished fourth in the AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport Series aboard a Smokin' Joe's Honda CBR600, will commit to road racing full time in 1995 and hopes to earn his firstever Grand National "Cin in one of his last three races. "My dad and I have been trying for so long," said Hale. "If for no other reason, I'd like to win a dirt track National for him. I know that we have the speed, but we've just had some bad luck in the past." . Nineteen-year-old Anthony Gobert became Australia's youngest ever Superbike National Champion ever when he clinched the 1994 Shell Oil Series at Eastern Creek near Sydney on September 4. Gobert won the round by tallying a first and a second in the twoleg format on his Winfield Honda RC45. The championship was Honda's fourth in the six-year history of the Series. Road racer Aaron Slight has been named New Zealand's Motorsport Sportsperson of the Year. The Castrol Honda World Superbike rider wasn't able to attend the award ceremony because he was racing at the Sugo, Japan, round of the World Championship Superbike Series. According to Jim Haynes, the president of Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the meeting between the AMA and road race promoters which was held at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, on September 22 ended early with promoters scheduling a second meeting for October 26th. "There are no acrimonious feelings at all toward the AMA," Haynes said on Monday, September 26. "They simply haven't done their homework. We very definitely want to work with the AMA, but all this talk of competing series...It's the same thing as CART. It's so derisive.

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