Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:I I:INTH EWINO " : Guy Cooper (Suz) and Chad Pederson (Hon) we re th e bi g winners at ro un d seven of the AMA Arenacross Series in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on Januar y 13-14. On Friday, Cooper won both the 125 and 250cc classes, while Jeromy Buehl (Suz) and Ped erson finis hed 2-3 in the 125cc class . Jimmy Gaddis (Kaw) and Ped erson rounded out the top three in the 250cc rac e. On Sa turday, Cooper cam e back to win the 125cc class over Gad d is and Ped erson . In the 250cc d ivision , Ped e rson score d th e w in ove r Beuhl and Shawn Moran (Kaw). The event was held in th e Laz y E Ar ena, which sea ts 12,000 spec tators, and was sold out both nights. Yam aha has announced th at Vance & Hines Yamah a's Tom Kipp will de fend hi s AM A 750cc Superspo rt National Cha mpionship and will not race in the 600cc Sup ersport class. Kipp's team mate Jamie James will not defend his 600cc crown and will concentr ate solely on the AMA Superbike Ch ampionsh ip - thus no Yamaha-backed riders will compete in the 600cc Supersp ort Ch ampionship in 1995. Team m ana g er Massimo Bord i co nfi rmed during a press con fere nce to introd uce new Promotor Ducati Corse team members Troy Corser a n d Andreas Meklau th at th e pair wo ul d run exactly the same Ducatis as the factory team . Ap art from th e com ple te World Sup erbike Championship, Corser will also en ter the Daytona 200 and po ssibly the Suzuka 8-Hour. Daytona will likely be Corser's only AMA appearance becaus e of conflicts with sponsors. Since the end of the 1994 racing season, 60 Ducati 916s ha ve been built for customers who want to go racing, according to reports from Europe. Eight (modified ones) will be consigned to the two factory teams and Giancarlo Falappa will also have a factory bike as soon as he is physically fit. Fabrizio Pirovano will get a stock 916 for 1995 and will run in the colors of the Italian Taurus team. Brian Deegan (Hon) upheld Am erican honor at the opening round of the GFl Winter Ser ies, held at Per ris Raceway, January 15. Th e Nebraskan won th e 250cc Pro class, edgi ng o u t English Mot ocross des Nations Champion Rob " Herring (Hon ) a nd Sw ed e Joakim Karlsson (Hon ). Greg Schnell (Su z) topped the 125cc Pro class, followed by Deegan and Dustin Ne lson (Kaw). It 's offici al: Kanemoto Racing has a n n o u nced that it will manage and operate a 500cc World Championship Road Racing team featuring Alexandre Barros as it s " r ider. Team Barros /Kanemoto/Honda w ill u se Honda NSR500 s and su p po rt for the team will be provided by several companies including Honda Brazil, Guarana soft drinks, Petrobras/Lubrax petroleum, Brut fragrances and Ga leto's fas t ~ m food. " WERA has upped the prize mUll")' for its EBC Brak es Triple Crown to $40,000, 0\ according to WERA. The prize money ~ goes to the team that can sweep the top tw o positions at each of the three For~ mula USA races at Road Atlanta, laguna Seca and Portland International Raceway. An additional $10,000 will be paid !'il if the team uses ESC Brakes. A $10,000 "prize will go to the top-placing team if ~ no team is successful at sweeping the --. top two places at all three rounds. . It) i::"' ::s 2 WERA and Protac, Inc., have renewed Peterhansel takes fourth Dakar Rail F the terms under which they sa nction and the joint venture between the two companies is officially known as the WERA Pro Series . Do u g Gon d a, the president of Protac, Inc., has purchased the Formula USA class which will continue to be held at WERA Pro Series ev ents as well as other motorsports events . The Formul a USA Ser ies will . operate as an autonomous organization with its own staff, licen sing and race p rocedure. The change in owner sh ip, accordi ng to WERA/Prota c, will allow the F-USA series to offer its teams , riders and sponsors new markets and pr omotional oppo rtunities. Furth erm ore, it will allow the series to d evelop a staff tha t is dedicated to the special need s of p rofessional racing . Formula usA contin gency p rograms will contin ue to be offered and a d mi n istered th rough WERA. Though Gonda has listed a support race to the World Superbike race at Laguna Seca on his sched ule, the ra ce has not been confirmed, "I can't tell you th a t is d efinitel y go ing to happ en ," Gonda said o n Mond a y, Janu ary 3. "We 've offered our hand in friendsh ip to the AMA. I've had a con ve rsa tion with Ed Youngblood of the AMA and we hav en 't heard back from him yet." The AMA has announced that it will run a 125cc Grand Prix National Championship Road Race Series in conjunction with th e AMA Superbike Ser ies. "The AMA has experimented wi th the 125cc Grand Prix class with a few exhibition events in 1994," said Tom Mueller, pres ident of AMA Pro Racing. "Initially, we weren't planning on including the class in 1995, but the response from riders, spectators and sponsors has been overwhelming, Now that we've made a full commitment to the class, we're working hard to solicit contingency sponsorship, which is what drive s the show." Th e 125cc series will begin a t the Pomona Fairple x National on April 2 in Pomona, California, w ith Daytona opting not to run a round of the series. A round of the series will also be run as a support race during th e World Superbike round at Laguna Seca. renchm an Step han e Peterhansel scored yet another win in the prestigious Granada-Dakar Rally, after assuming the overall lead just two days before the finish on Janu ary 15. The final week of the rally took competitors through the Mauritanian towns of Chingu etti, Tidjikja and Ayoun el' Atreus, then entered the country of Senegal. There, the rally stopped at Bakel before crossing over into Guinea for an overnight in Labe, then head ed back north into Senegal. An overnigh t in Tambacounda provided the final rest before the finish in Dakar. " Riding a Yamaha 850 XTZ twin for the French Sonauto Yamaha importer, the offroad hero took ove r the lead during the hottest part of the event, then extend ed his ad van tage over the final two d ays. His final margin over ru nner-up [ord i Arcarons was 23 minutes, 16 seconds . Arcarons , a Spaniard, rod e a Lucky Strike-sponsored Cagiva. Last year 's winner, Italian Edi Orioli, took his Camper Cagiva to thir d, and the top five was filled out by Italian Fabrizio Meoni and Frenchman Jean Brucy. Both riders we re Honda-mo un ted , but Bru cy's bike was the compa ny 's expe rimental new EXP2 environm ent-friend ly two-s troke. Danny LaPort e, the sole American en trant, injured his wrist and was forced to drop ou t. The rally.covered 6240 miles in 15 days. ' Georgia, suffered a br oken neck while racing at the Florida Winter Series at Gatorback Park in Gainesvill e, Florida, on January 1. Martin suffered no dam.age to his spina l cord and should recover fully. Cards and letters can be sen t to Martin at 1061 Brisbane Street, Macon, GA31206. The North Am erican Sup er Bike Series (N ASB) ha s annou nced that Geral d McHale and Du ke Pennell have joined the NASB staff. McHale, the AMA road race referee since 1991, will serve as National Referee; Pennell, the AMA starter since 1969, will assume the duties of Chief Starter. McHale also currently holds the position of director of competition for the Championship Cup Series. j I. I I The San D iego Antique M ot orcycl e Club will present the third annual display of antique and classic motorcycles at the San Diego (California) Automotive Museum on February 4-19. There will be over 100 motorcycles surrounding the current display of unique automobiles and memorabilia . AMA Pro Racing has announced its new "head star t" program which is being offer ed to companies in te res te d in be coming AMA contin gency aw ard sponsors. "The Head Start program is d esigned to give first -time sp ons ors a low-cost way to get involved in AMA's contingent awards program," said John McElfresh, AMA Pro Racing's communications manager. "This pa ckage doesn't include all the fringe benefits of our st andard contingent awards program, but retains the promotional core of that program at a reduced rate . It will be especially attractive to smaller companies that want to get involved in our program, but do not have as large a budget to devote to a series as some of our larger companies do ." AJ:I administrative fee of $250 will be ch ar ged to companies who have not been involved in the AMA Pro Racin g Contingent Award s Pro gram in the past two years and new companies will be required to post a minimum of $150 per class, per series. Sponsors need not post award s for all classes within a series. The new . program will apply to the following AMA properties: AMA Superbike, Grand National Dirt Track, National Mo tocross a nd National Hillclimb. Sponsor benefits include advance event information, event s ummaries, AMA news re leases, rid er notifications and logo distributions to riders. The Los An cian os M.e. a re finalizing plans for th ei r Tecate Trail 100 - the replacement for the ir traditional 250K Enduro. The event will be held at Ranch o Santa Veronica near Tecate, B.e., Mexico, on April 8-9. A thr ee-loop, 100mile trail ride will be held on Saturday, with rid ers leaving in groups of four to spre ad the group out; Sunday will feature a variety of yet-to-be-d etermined fun events, including more free riding. A poker run and an ISDE-style timed special-test competition ar e also being considered. Free camping is availab le at the ranch, as well as $60 hotel rooms. For more information call 619/465-7569. Motocrosser Tommy Ma rtin of Macon, Brian Deegan and Chad Pederson will Air-Tech is now accepting proposals for pri va teer support for the 1995 road racing season. The carbon-fiber specialists will back Valvoline Suzuki, Yoshimura Suzuki, Vance & Hines Yamaha and Smokin' Joe's Racing in the coming year. Send inquiri es to Air-Tech, 3052 industry, Ste. 109, Oceanside, CA 92054. Pro-Prept Racing Servic es - an off-road performance shop in Escondido, California, will be supporting Dennis Dahlin and Jeff Tilton in the 1995 125cc Western Regio nal Supercross Series an d MTEG Ultracross Series. In addition, Pro-Prept is backing SCORE off-roa d racers Dewey Belew and Steve "Tex" Mitchell. be rid ing th e 125cc We st ern Regional Supercross and 125cc National MX Series for Atomic 22 Honda, a new team with backing from Princeton Honda . The squ ad also has races pl anned in Japan, Australia and Mexico. Du e to the recen t storm activity in Northern California , th e GFI Winter Series Northern Regio n races slated for January 8 at the La Grange OHV Park and January 22 at the 'Prairie City OHV facilit y have been re scheduled. Th e dates will be made up during a two-day event at La Grange on January 21-22. The event will be counted as rounds two and three of the series. For more information contact the California Motocross Association, 209/ 673-8080. Wet conditions also forced the cancellation of the O rlando Am ateur Su p ercro ss w hich was sched uled to ru n the day after the U.S. Supercross Series round at the Florida Citrus Bowl on January 14. " Husaberg, the Swedish manufacturer known for their high-performance offroad four-strokes, has been' purchased. The purchaser is the same .A ustrian company that bought KTM when that firm ran into financial woes. Details are still sketchy, but race team s will reported ly remain unaffected, and no maj or changes are yet being planned. The Mickey Thompson Stadium OffRoad race on January 21 at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California, will be the debut for the 1995 15-race Women's Stadium-Cross Series, which will feature female riders from all over the world, including members of the U.S. Women's Motocross Team. The Women 's Stadium-Cross will run its inaugural season in conjunction with events produced by MTEG - U.S. Supercross Series, Mickey Thompson ArenaCross Series, and th e Stadium Off-Road Racing Series. The U.S. Women's Motocross Team was founded in 1992, and has been under the direction of Kat Spann and Elaine Ru ff. Spann is the publisher of Tex MX, and Ruff is the d irector of opera tions for Acerbis USA. "The U.S. Women 's Motocross Team is a showcase for the top female riders in the country," said Ruff. "The Stadium-Cross Series is a step in the right direction for women racers. The re is definitely going to be some great racing!" Heading the list of competitors this season are two U.S. Women's Motocross Team members Jodi Hollow, of Oceanside, Californi a, and Corinna Chinen, of Gardena, Cal i-

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