Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Great Men and Great Machines is the name of a special parade that will take place on Tuesday, March 7, at Daytona International Speedway as part of AHRMA's Classic Da ys. Just prior to racing action at noon, some 20 celebrated mo torcycles and riders will take tw o laps o f the road ra ce circuit. Riders scheduled to appear include Da v id Aldana, Erich Bley, John Bri tten, Don Castro, Alan Cathcart, John Crens haw, Yvon DuHam el, Don Emde, Wa lt Fulton, Dick Klamfoth, Dick Manri, Eddie Mulder, [ody Nicholas, Gary Nixon, Jim Redman, Roger Rieman, David Roper, Jay Sp ringsteen , John Surtees and Don Vesco. The motorcycles which are likely to be ridden include Bley' s 1939 Supercharged BMW, Britten's namesake Vl000, a trio of MV Agustas piloted by Du H a m el, Surtees a n d Rop e r , th e Mat ch less G50 on which Mann becam e the 1963 AMA Gran d National Champion, and the Erv Kane mo to Kawasaki 750 on which Nixon narrowl y missed winning th e 197 7 World F-750 Cha mp ionship. . Motor cycl e photograp her /journalist Derryl W. Anderson, passed away February 21. Anderson, 49, who was a regula r co n t r ibuto r to Cycle N ew s and a member of the Mt. St. He lens M.e., was lost to cancer. H is son, Ry a n , is a Pro/Expert motorcycle racer. Cards and letters can be sent to the D.W. Anderson Family, 4228 N .E. 74th, Portland, OR , 97218. The Prospectors M.e. has added a .new ev ent, th e Gold Rush Enduro Team Challenge to be run in conjunction wi th th e 40th an n ual Go ld Rush End uro a t Searles Station in Red Mountain, California, on March 19. The Challenge wil l cons ist of four-ri der tea ms. Each team must ha ve one A, on e B and one C class rider, and the fourth team member can be from any of th e three classes. The team with the best combined score wi ll re cei ve four ICO en d uro clocks . For more information contact Doug Clagg at 310/676-4504. Busy man dept. : Mot orcycle artist Lee Bivens will be at the Daytona internation a l Sp eed wa y Vis itors ' Ce nter for two days (Marc h 6-7) duri ng Camel Mot orcycle Week. Bivens will be working on a four-by-six-foot mural of Ed Kretz, the winner of the first Daytona 200 in 1937, and the evolution of the . Daytona 200 from the sands of Daytona Beach to the Speedway's h ig h ban ks . Bivens, as we re ported earlier, will also be working on a Smokin' Joe's Racing m ural and a Team Hon da SX mural at Daytona. \ "We'v e gotten bikes late before, but this certainly sets the record ," Erv Kanemoto told Cy cl e N ew s con tri b u to r Dean Adams on Fr id a y, February 24 . The bikes Kz.nemoto is talking about are the 1995 Honda NSR500s for Grand Prix rid er Ale x Barros. "HRC called and sai d the bikes were built and put on the chassis d yn o this morning. They w ill be shipped to Australia and we 'll go from th ere." Kanernoto's team will be sponso red by a Brazilian soft drink company and the team will begin testin g at East- . ern Creek in A u strali a o n March 4 befor e headin g to Spain for more testing." . . Roger Hull, 70, d ied of congestive heart fa ilure on February 22 in Stillwa ter, O klahoma . H u ll , a H a rley-David son p u blic re lations representa tiv e si nce 1984, co-founded Road Rid er, a magazine dedicated to motorcycle tou ring in 1969 and he served as editor an d publisher of the m agazine until 1982. A memorial service is being arranged by the A M A for March 11 in Da y t o n a Beach, Flori da, during Motorcycle Week ' 95. The se rvice is schedu led for 9:30 a .rn. at the Harley-Davidson exhibit in the Ocean Center at 101 No rth Atla ntic in Da y tona Beach . Acknowledgments can be sen t to Joan Hull Brown at 8520 South Jamestown, Tulsa , OK 74137. After an absence of 15 years, Triumph Motorcycles ret u rns to M otorcy cl e Wee k in Daytona. The Triumph headquarters can be found at th e Dayt ona Beach Hi lton on South Atlantic Ave; a tent will be located in the parking lo t adjacent to the Hilton where a selectio n of Triumph merchandise will be on sa le. Triumph will al so have its complete lin eup of new motorcycles on d isplay and d emonstration rides w ill be avail able from Monday, March 6 to Saturday, March 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p .m. BORN: Samantha A yako Ma eda , to Cycle N ew s Associate Editor Donn Maeda and his wife Eileen, on February 25 in Pasaden a, California. MARRIED: Motorsports photograp her Dan Mahony to Vickie Lynn Ma han in Sp ringfield, Missouri, on Valentine's Day, February 14. Dan and Vickie w ill kick off their "honeymoon tour" of the Cycle News Rider of the Month: Mike·LaRocco .M ike laRocco (righ t) would no doubt p refer to forget much of the month of February , but he nonetheless ea rns th e honor of Cycle News Rider of the Mon th by virtue of on e sim ple fact: He was the rider to stop the Jerem y McGrath supercross fre ight train, and he did it three days before the month was out. Team Kawasaki's LaRocco - the 250cc National Motocross Ch ampion - put a series of below-par rides behind him and came out on top of a racelong ba ttl e on the floor of the Georgia Dome, ending McGrath's undefeated strea k at five (six counting the final round of '94) . We've got nothing against McGrath, but it's nice to see someone else on the rostrum's top step. Of course a single victory is n ot sufficient to appease LaRocco - only the stadium title could do that. But will it be enough to provide the confidence and insptration for a midseason surge by the Hoosier? We'll see in Daytona. Kocinski 'signs for Da tona Su ers ort orm er 250cc World Champion John Kocinski (ri ght) has inked a contract with Honda that will see him compete in the AMA 600cc Supersport ra ce at Da ytona International Speedway on Sunday, March 12, aboard an Erion Racing Honda CBR600F3. The race will mark Kocinski's return to AMA racing after five years of Grand Prix racing which was highlighted by him winning the 250cc World Championship in 1990. In 1994, Kocins ki finished third in the,500cc World Championship aboard a fac tory Caglva , bu t was left wit ho ut a ride when the Italian marque pulled out of Gra nd Prix racing at the end of the. '94 season . Accordin g to Kocinski, his deal is throug h HRC, who contacted American Honda and w or ked out the deta ils that will see the Modesto, California, resident slotted in to Kevin Erion's team alo ngside Larry Pegram and Mich ael Barnes. Unlike Pegram and Barnes, 'who use Brid geston e tires, Kocinski's F3 will be fitted wi th Miche lin 's DOT-approved rubber. Kocinski's signing to ride the 600cc Supersport class, alo ng with the recen t news that Doug Polen (Smokin' Joe's Honda) and Scott Russell (Muzzy Kawasaki) will also compete in the p rod uction-ba sed class, gi ves the su pport race to the Da ytona 200 ad ded pres tige and the possibility of being the best race of the weekend. "I'm happy to be riding for Honda," Kocinski sai d on Friday, February 24, a day after the deal beca me finalized. "It's an opportunity that I'm reall y excited about. They wallt to win and we're going down there (to Daytona) to win. Honda Japan talked to American Honda and it all came together. It was a nea t opportunity, and working with Honda is so mething that I've always wa nted to do. Right now I want to take this one day at a time; I jus t wa nt to go down and win the race for the m. It's been six or seven years since I've ridd en this type of motorcycle; the bikes have cha nged a lot and so have the tires. It'll be int eres ting to see if I can get along wi th it as well as I did before. (Kocinski won the 600cc Supersport final at Dayton a in '1989 after startin g the race on the third row of the second wave). "The 600cc market is very important for bike sales and it's obviously very important to the factori es. I'm happy abo u t the opportu nity. I would n't say it's a one-race deal at this po int. We 're looking into the future and it would be nice to ride for Honda in the near futu re. I would like to get an opportunity to work wi th Honda and (Erv) Kanemo- F to." Kocinski says he was offered Grand Prix rides for the 1995 season, but none of the offers were from the righ t tearns an d no one offered the right equipment. The Little Rock, Ar kansas, native also didn't rul e out the poss ibility tha t his fut ure would lie somewher e other than in GP racing. "1 want to be wherever the good bikes and the good people are ," Kocinski said. "I'm only in terested in going GP racing if it's the wa y it should be. You beat yourself up pretty good over there with all the traveling and other stuff - and I'll do tha t if I'm in a situation where I can win. Let's just say that I'm not goin g to go into a bo xing ring and keep my hands at my side. "I' m jus t very happy right now to be w ith Honda. I' ll do the racing, p.r., whatever I can do for them. I'm going down there next week to get so me time on the bike (during the NASB race at the Speedwa y on Mar ch 3-5). Kevin Erion seems like a real nice guy and he's bee n l 00-percen t professional th rough this whole thing. I'm lookin g forward to meeting him and working wi th hi m. Michelin will also be supporting me with their bes t stuff and I hav e a very good relationship with them. I've made a lot of mis takes and I know there's a lot of stuff I have to work on . A lot of it has bee n me, but the re have also been a lot of people trying to keep me from getting on the right equipment with the right people." Since his last outing on the factory Cagi va at then end of '94, Kocinski has been working ha rd on a second career - tournament water skiing. "We're trying to get into the No vice ranks right now," Kocinski said. "In one sport (road racing), I was close to being one of the best; in water skiing, I'm starting at the bottom. It reminds me of all the steps I took to being a motorcycle racer. Right now I've got three ski sponsors and my goal is to do well enough in my first Nov ice tournament that they bump me up right away. I want to be a really good skier ." Fortunately for Erio n, Kocinski sort of fell into his lap: "It all came from Japan," Erion said. " I'm jus t the recip ient of good luck. Bridges ton e (a major sponsor of Erion 's tea m) did n't have a p robl em with him (Kocins ki) using Miche lins. They just sai d that what's good for Ho nda is good for us . Working with John has been really simple; it's an easy . thing. Larry (Pegram) and Micha el (Barnes) are jazzed about the whole thing and I think it'll be a lot of fun." AMA Grand Na tional Dirt Tracks with the April 1 running of the Pomona Half Mile. Ocala in Ocala, Florida, on March 3 from 7:00 p .m. to 9:00 p .m . Team Honda's Scott Summers is sched uled to appear. CORRECTION: We misinterpreted the press release from Thor Motorsports in our " In The Wind " section la st w eek. Despite calling the se ries the Thor & Scott U .S. Supercross Series in their release, Thor and Scott USA are associate sponso rs of the U.S. Supercross Series and not the title sponsor as we reported. AUT OGRAPH SIG NIN G: At Kawasaki 0\ 0\ o f Pasadena in Pas a d en a, Texas, on ~ March 24 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p .m . Team Kawasaki's Mike LaRocco, Mike Kiedrowski, Robbie Reynard and Ryan Hughes are scheduled to appear. For more information call 713/472-3694. It) AUT OGRAPH SIG NING: At Honda of AUTO GRAPH SIGNING: At Honda of - - - - - - - Continuedon page 55

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