Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1·INTHEWI.ND .· :. :' j · .· Sco tt Ples singer (KTM) captured the overall win at the National Hare Scrambles round in Millville, Ohio, on October 24. He cr ossed the fin ish line approximately 10 seconds ahead of Rodney, Smith (Suz), who had already sewn up the series titl e. Third w ent to Tommy Norton (Kaw), while Doug Blackwell (Kaw) and Terry Cunningham (Kaw ) rounded out the top five overall. Mike Brown (Hon) won both th e 125 and 250cc Pro classes at round four of the AMA Fall Classic MX Series at Muddy Creek Raceway in Bountville, Tennessee, on October 23. In the 125cc class, Brown fin ished ahead o f Jim Neese (Kaw) and R obbie Horton ' (Kaw) . In 250cc action, Brown scored the win ahead of defending series champ T odd DeRoop (Hon) and Jim Chester (Suz). With just one round remaining in the series, and Brown enjoys a 34-point lead over DeHoop. Form er 500cc MX World Champion Brad Lackey competed in a motocross race for the first tim e in three years, at the AHRMA Vintage Iron National MX in Hollister, California, on October 23. La ckey contested in the Past Masters class a n d s cored the win aboa r d a Ma teo-framed CZ . Finishing second was AJ5-mou nted Doug G ran t, while th ird w ent to Gary Bailey. Buc Murphy and two-time Wo rld Champion Jeff Smith completed the top five. T oby Jorge nson (Hon) dethroned defending 100cc National Ch a m p ion . Chris Carr (Hon) at the loocc National Championships, held at Lodi Cycle Bowl in Lod i, California, on October 23. Jorgenson and Carr battled throughout the National, but in the end it was the 12-year-old Jorgenson who prevailed. Ro d S pen cer (Hon) was th ird , while Brett Landes (Hon) and promoter /100cc engine builder Fra nk Nye (Hon) rounded ou t th e top five. Defendin g 250 cc Na tional Road Rac e Ch a m pion Rich Oliver crashed out of conten tion, as did 500cc Grand Prix star John Kocinski. Spaniard Luis d' Antin (Hon ) w on the 250cc class in the Ducados Open Serie s in Jerez, Spain, on October 23. Marlboro Rainey's Jimmy Filice was winning the race by four seconds when he crashed out on the 12th lap . "I lost the rear, saved it and then pushed the front," said Filice, .:> who injured the ring finger on his right hand in the crash. Filice expects to compete in the ne xt and final round of the series at Albacete on October 30. Sco tt Zampach (H-D) won the HarleyDavidson TwinSport World Final at the AMA/CCS Daytona Race of Champions on October 23 at Daytona International Speedway. Other action s aw Danny Roberts (Hon) and Todd Harrington (Hon) winning the Honda CBR900 and CBR600 Challenge, respectively. Pablo Real, Sh an e Turpin, Greg Esser and Mike Murphy were other big w inners at Daytona. Au stralian Superbike National Champion Anthony Gob ert has inked a contract that will see him ride a Muzzy Kawasaki in the 1995 World Superbike Championsh ip. Gobert, 19, will team with World Champion Scott Russell on the Rob Muzzy-owned team . This ends s p e cu la t io n that Miguel DuHamel would be Muzzy' s number-two rider on the World Superbike team. Althou gh no official announcemen t has been m ad e, ·it ap pears that tw o-time Worl d Su perbike Champion Fre d Merkel h as signed a contract to ride Yoshimura Suzukis in the 1995 AMA U.S. Su perbike National Championship. Merkel, who rode a Muzzy Kawasaki in th e 1994 series, will jo in Thomas Stevens and Donald Jacks on the threeman team. ' A star-studded field is set to compete in the Vet Pro class at the November 5-6 White Bros. World Veteran MX Cham~ pion sh ip s 'a t Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. Amongst the pre-en tered rid ers are last yea r's w inner Doug Duba ch , mu lti-time champ Rex Staten, form er National and Supercross Champ ions Jeff Ward and Jo h nny O'Mara, a n d Fo u r- Stroke N ational Champion Greg Zitterkopf. Also on hand for a Legends Exhi biti on will be Kent Howerton, Warren Reid, Chu ck Su n , T om m y Croft and Rich Eirstedt. The Legends race will see the aforementioned rid ers mounted aboard the ma chines that made th em famous, wearing the riding gear from the same time period . For more information call 714/692-3404. Paradama reorganizes rofessional racing_ _ ursuant to the announcement that Cary Agajanian will chair Para dama, the AMA announced several changes that will be made with regard to its 1995 National . _ Road Race and Supercross programs. "We've had a chaotic 10 months," said Tom Mueller, vice president of sports mar, keting for the AMA. "We're no longer going to be reactive, but proactive." Mueller said thatall negotiation with NASB's Roger Edmondson has ceased, and that the AMA has begun planning its 1995 National Road Race program . Accordingly, Mueller announced that the AMA will post a $100,000 points fund for competitors in the 1995 AMA Superbike Series. "We are still workingto find a series sponsor, but that ha s not happened yet, " Mueller said. "If we do find a sponsor, their money will be in addition to the $100,000." In addition , Mueller announced that HP4, Honda's motorcycle oil, will again post a $10,000 championship bonus for the AMA's 600cc SuperSport Series, and Progressive Insurance will put up the same amount for the Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Series. Mueller said ,that he and Agajanian would be attending a meeting with last year's series promoters on October 26 to discuss their plans for 1995. Mueller said that he believes the promoters will contract to run AMA events. "We 're going to offer our sanction proposals next Wednesday," Mueller sa id . "They (the promoters ) are then going to have to make a business decision. We are confident that when they see what we hav e to offer, they will be back with us in 1995." An example of the AMA 's new commitment cam e with the announcement tha t the promotional budget for the AMA Sup erbike Series will be increased by $50,000 in '95. Accord ing to Mueller, the money has become available as a result of streamlin ing and restru cturing the management of the series . "This increased budget is going to ena ble us to move into p romo tional activity based on the AMA 's strength as a 205,000-member organization," said Mueller. "In 'a dd ition to the advertising we did last year, we wil l offer our road racing event promoters the opportunity to reac h by direct mail, at no expense to them, all AMA members in their market area." "This is a good example of the advantages of Paradama and the AMA working together," said Agajanian. "Reorganization of our road racing program has given Paradama more money to work with, and by utilizing the AMA's huge membership resources, we can get more fans to the events, advance the sport and improve the profitability of all concerned." , ' According to Mueller, the AMA's plans to reorganize supercross are also underw ay. The associa tion has been unable to resolve its differences with AIR - the promoters' group that has split from the AMA to form its ow n series - and Mueller said that the AMA must move ahead with the organization of the 1995 series. "The AMA will be looking to open up supercross promotion to anyone who wa nts ' to su bmit a proposal," Mueller said. "Tha t includes the current supercross promoters." To stimulat e in terest among promoti onal groups, Mueller announced a new "joint venture" sanctioning pa ckage that will allow p romoters to undertake an AMA Supercross withou t the usual deposi ts, insurance fees, sanction fees and official fees. "In 1995, promoters will have the option of the stand ard sanctio n package - unchanged from 1994 - or a joint ven tu re sanctio n agreeme nt that will reduce their up-front financial risks," Mueller said . Mu eller also sai d tha t he has recently negotiated wit h promoters for as many as four venues that were not on last year's schedule, though he declined to say where those races would take place until the agreements were finaliz ed . Mueller also said that the AMA is sti ll working to find a sponsor for the 1995 AM A Supercross Series, an d a points fund has not yet been ann ounced . ' "On e thing I will say is that we don't want to create a glorified ' arenacross series ," Mu eller said . "We want to make su re that the promoters run bonafide supercross P races." Which series the factories will commit to is still unknown, though thr ee of the four major Japanese manufacturers ho ld places on the AMA Board of Tru stees. La~occo tops Golden Cu Su ercross ' eam Kawasaki's Mike i..aRocco (right) was the winner of the Gold en Cup Supercross, held in the Fu ku oka Dome in Fukuoka City, Ja pan, October 23. Team Honda /I-800-COLLECT's twotime Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath finished second, and Team Noleen /Sizzl er/Yamaha rider Larry Ward rounded out the top three. Honda of Troy's Mike Craig hol eshot the 25-lap main but dropped out of contention with a spectacular crash -.:j< on the opening lap. Kawasaki's Mike Kiedrowski 0\ too k over the point position and was never chal~ lenged. With only a few turns to go, Kiedrowski enjoyed a comfortable five-second lead, but his facC'l tory KX250 lost its chain and left the former 250 and I-< 500cc National Champion stranded. . Q) Af£'er starting 10th and 11th, respective ly, McGrath and laRocco freight-trained th ro ugh the field and up into second and third. At the time of Kiedrowski'sdemise, laRocco had :>- pulled out a five-second lead over McGrath, who reportedly suffered from arm pump. o Ward finished further back in third: Team Suzuki's 12Sec Western Regional Supercross Champion Damon Huffman ran away with the win in the 125cc class race , easily besting Team Splitfire /Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes new Suzuki teamster Craig Decker. T ~' 1 Z 2 And speaking of the White Bros. World Vet Championships, a full progr am of Pee Wee class races will be run on a sepera te mini track, in conjunction with the Saturday and Sunday Vet races. The 1995 AMA U.S. Sup erb ike Series will implem en t an electronic tra nsponder system for tim ing and sco ri ng, accord in g to the AMA's vice presid ent of sports mark eting Tom Mueller. The $5 0,000 sys t em, p roduced b y AMB Prod ucts of Holland, has been successfully us ed in severa l different forms of national and international racing including Formula One auto racing and World Championship Grand Pr ix road racing . The system tracks names and numbers of riders, every rider's position in the race, time behind the leader, each rid er's fastest lap and the fastest lap overall in ' each race. "We race- tested the system at Mid-Ohio in 1994, and the results were fantastic," Mueller said. "The AMA will be able to provide instant information to officials and the media . Plus, we can line-feed this information to scoreboards and television monitors. AMA Super- bike teams will be abl e to access th e transp onders for lap-time data. Th e AMA ha s also purchased new laptop compu ters to accompany the AMB system , and will be testing new scoring software for road raci ng, motocros s, supercross and dirt track. The AMA also recently announced its 1995 AMA/ProStar Motorcycle Drag Racing schedule. Th e nine-race series will run predominantly in the southern, eastern and midwestern regions of the U .S ., beginnin g with the Sunshin e Nationals a t Gainesville Rac ewa y in Gainesville, Florida, on March 3-5. AMA /ProStar has also announced the formation of the 600cc Supersport drag racing series. The new class will parallel the 600cc Supersport class currently run at AMA-sanctioned road racing events. The class, which was designed with attention towar d encouraging new bike sales, will be comprised of a heads-up, no index format with limited modifications allowed to stock motorcycles. Each series event will pay $1000 to the win -

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