Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127718
recent Bimota DB2. Fin all y, an ad ded attraction of BEARS racing is the threat on the tight er tracks posed to the bigger bikes by the Eu ro-engi ned sin gles, such as AHRMA 50S cha m p ion Russ Mattso n's Wood -Rotax, Vin tage champion Sven Ble y ' s WS -Rotax, a n d the Tigcraft-chassised Chrysalis-BMW of forz: mer British 50S champion David Morris. Daytona' s w ide-open s p aces m ay not allow the s ingles to he ad for Victory Lane just yet, but later in AHRMA's sea. son. it could happen. Mo st of th e bikes fron tin g for th e BEARS race will be in action earlier in the AHRMA program at Daytona, in either the BoT o r 50S cla ss es. With ju s t 12 e n t ri es , th e BoT Open cla ss lin eup emphasizes quality rather than quantity, with last ye a r' s w inner Stroud on th e Britten confro nted by another 500cc GP rider, England's Nei l Hodgson, on the Top Gun Ducati 955. The chance to compare one-on-o ne top-speed performance around the Dayt on a bankings between the Britten and a rep lica of the bike that won the 1994 World Superbike Championshi p will hold lots of interest, with lenatsch on the seco nd Britten also in content ion, a n d Pabl o Real o n hi s maxi-engined Ducati, and Dr. Dave Kieffer on h is FBF 888/ 955 Du cati cocktail itself identical to the bike on which Troy Corser won th e ' 94 AMASuperbike Championship - wavi ng the Italian flag. Stra ng el y , n eith er o f the VR1 000 Harl eys is entered for the Open Twins race : pi ty . But Kiyosh ige Watanabe on h is fast Honda Hawk racer wiII gi ve added inte rest. The BoT Formula 2 class, for pushrod ohv bikes up to 1200cc and ohc bikes up to 1200cc, will be run alongside the Open Twins race on Tuesday of Cycl e Week, with Suga i on the Jap an ese Harley and Johnson' s Moto Guzzi heading the 36 entries. The high-eam design of the BMW R1100RS Boxers of Battley and Mund makes th em eligible for this class, in which John Long's F-1 Ducati will also be a contender. Two classic Duca ti 75055 racers wo rth following, even if they won't be in contention for ove ra ll h onors against th e slick-shod mod ern bikes, are "go lden Oldie" (and Migu el' s dad) Yvon DuHamel o n th e Te am Obsol ete ex w orks bik e, a nd Alan Cathcart on h is production 75055 on which he finished a close second to DuH am el, then riding the ex-Dick Mann BSA-3, in the Vintage F750 race at Dayton a three years ago . Will the tables be tu rned th is time a ro u nd - in BoT as well as in F750 Vintage? The BoT Form ula 1 (unlimi ted, non- wh en the Cagiva factory was still own ed bv America's Finest. • The Sound of Si ng les class, n o w kn own in tern a tiona lly as Su pe rmo no, kicked off la s t yea r in th e USA, a n d AHRMA's faith inthe category has been rew arded by a s tar-stud ded lin eup for the Formula 1 (fo u r-s troke unlimited ) class which is the main event of Mon day' s Cycle Week sche d u le, head ed by Germany' s Tommy Korner, European and German Supermono Ch ampion with the Gert Daiber -bu ilt UNo-Rotax, which uses a factory twi n-eam motor . Stacked (Above) Tommy Korner, the European and German Supermono Champion, will compete in the Sound of Singles race on a UNo-Rotax. (Right) Gianluca Galasso will ride the factory Bimota in 50S. (Below) Lex van Kijk has entered 50S on a 694cc five-valve Yamaha in a Bakker chassis. (Bottom) Yoshiyuki Sugai and the Sundance team 's Daytona Weapon 1200 Evo-engined Harley-Davidson . Open class bikes) and Formula 3 (pushrod to 75Occ, ohcto 650cc) run earlier in the day will see Johnson's Gu zzi a strong con tender for the F-1 win, with Ca thcar t mo u n te d this t im e o n the VeeTwo Austra lia 90055 Ducati on w hich h e won t he Australia n TT a t Bathurs t las t Eas te r fo r ow ne r Bro o k Henry . Je r ry W ood ' s bo x-st ock 916 Du cati represents dem o engi nee ring of a m o re m od ern va r ie ty, wi t h Ta m pa, Florid a' s [oao Ch av es riding the only Japanese bi ke in the ra ce, a TDM 850 Yamaha. Form u la 3 ha s a lot more va riety in the lineup, and hardly a sing le Du cati. Ca nad ia n Ian C rera r's H ond a H awk looks like a favorite to beat out the gang of Kawasaki EX500 rid ers for the wi n, while the BoT Two-Stroke class for '85 bikes and earlier featu res GP history on wheels, w it h Lee Florin' s It alian -bu ilt RR250 Ha rley- Davidson a reminder o f up against him will be the man Komer narrowly beat for the 1994 European title, England's Alan Cathcart rid ing the factory Du cat i Su pe rm on o with bigger-bore 572cc desmo engi ne against th e 661cc Rota x. Holland's Lex van Dijk with the 694cc five-valve Yam aha-engined Bakker will be a cont ender, wit h BMW's factory development rider Herbert Enzinge r riding the Pami team's fuel-injected 700cc EM, reputedly d eveloped with factory support, with a Tigcraft chassis and F65D. based en gine . A lso BMW -en gined is the t rio of Bim ota Supermon os, ma ki ng th eir w orld d ebut at Daytona a nd led b y Italy' s Gia nl uca Galasso on the factory Bimot a entry, also fitted with fuel injectio n a nd 700cc-plus engine. England's Da v id Mo rri s on a Tigc raft-fram ed BMW co mple tes the German-en gined lineup, with Dr . Dave Ke iffer making his 50S racing debut on rather surprisingly the only cu stomer Ducati in the field . California's Kevin Johnson debuts at Da ytona to o, ridin g Ron Wood' s Wood -Rotax al ongsid e 1994 AHRMA Open Singles champion Russ Ma ttson on a similar bike, Crai g Mcl.ean on the Parra-Rotax, and Sven Bley on the lightweight, British-fra med , NWS-Rotax . Erik Anderson 's Suzuki-e ngi ned NWS w ill p rovide an interesti ng com pa riso n, in a class w here high-rise converted trail bikes have all bu t been rep laced by pu rpose-bu ilt road racers, as wa s foreseen at the ou tset. Onl y class champion Dave Knapp's Can-Am 600 buc ks the trend, w hi le th e th in e n tries for AHRMA' s o the r three 50S cl asses mu st p oint toward jus t on e sing le Su permono racing category in the future, now that the class is coming of age, caterin g for pure sing le-cylinder four -stroke GP racers. By 1996, when Daytona may host the first round of- a World Championship for these mot orcycles, that may h ave come to pass. Meanw h ile, Daytona '95 sees almost eve ryone of the top European Supermono rid ers on the g rid - p lace your bets on which one will win. .:\ lI) 0\ 0\ rl 00 ...c u ;.., ce ~ 17