Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·INT EWIND · ..· 1 H . Ty Da vi s (Kaw) co ntinues to rule the AMA National Championship End uro Series, as he scored the overall wi n in Greensboro, Georgia, on March 19, giv ing him th ree wins in the three roun ds held thu s fa r . Five- ti me Natio nal End uro ch am p Randy Hawkins (Suz) finis hed second with defendin g cha m p Steve Hatch (S uz) cl a im in g th i rd . Roundin g out the top five overall were Kelby Pepper (Kaw) and Alan G ra vit (KTM). Danny Hamel (Kaw) scored the overall wi n in th e sec ond ro und of the AM A National Ch ampionship Har e & Ho und Series in Murphy, Id aho, on Mar ch 19. Th e fo u r- ti me champ w a s follo w ed acr os s the fi nis h line b y Greg Zitterkopf (KTM) , w hile Drey Dircks (H on ), Curtis Dice (KT M) and Jim Gray (KTM) completed the top five. In Seattle, Wa shin gton, on Ma rch 18, Kyle Lewis (Yam ) extended his series points lead by wi nning the third round of the MTEG Ult racr oss Ser ies a t th e Kingdome. Scott Myers (Yam) was the runner-up. Anthony Pocorobba (Suz) finished third , followed by Mike Healey (Yam) and Rusty Holland (Suz), A w hopping 1600 entra nts showed up for the GNC International MX Fin als, held at Lake Wh itney Cycl e Ran ch in Lake Whitney, Texas, on March 17-19. Michael Brandes (Kaw ) topped Scott Sheak (Suz) and Casey Johnson (Kaw) in the 125cc Expert class, bu t Johnson returned victorious in the 250cc Expert divis ion. Brandes w as se con d , w hile Jeff WiIloh (Ka w) n a bb ed third . Charley Bogard (Su z) w as the top In termediate class rider, while Ricky Carmichael (Kaw) carried on as king of the mini riders . Six-tim e World Champion Jordi Tarres (G-G) was the winne r of the March 18 Trial Master d e Bercy Indoor Trial, held in Pa ris, France . Brit St eve Colley (GG) w a s the r u nner- up, w hile forme r World Ch ampion Tommi Ahvala (Fan) rou nd ed ou t the top three . Defendin g In door World Cu p Cham p ion Marc Colomer was elimina ted in the qu alifying he ats. Dougie Lampk in (Be t) to p pe d the Ma rch 5 open ing round of the Brit ish Na tional Championship Tr ials Series, despite a pre-trial catastrophe. According to Brita in 's Trials and MX New s, while Lampkin was "preparing his factory Beta mid -wee k, a buildup of contact cleane r fu m es w as ignited b y a Calor gas fire and Dou gie was engulfed in flames. He mana ged to fling open the d oor and throw h imse lf in to th e sno w, with not hing worse than singed hair, eye brows, a slightly burned hand and d am aged p rid e." Lamp kin went on to top Steve Colley (G-G) and Graham Jarvis (Seo) a t the Mar ch 5 series opener. Scott Summe rs (Hon) took home the overall vic tory during round eight o f th e AMA Mid-South Hare Scrambles Series at the Land Between th e Lakes National Park in Cadiz, Kentucky, on March 19. Terry Cu n ningh am (Yam) fin ished second, and M ike Samp son (Yam) wa s third. Road racer Jimm y Filice will mis s the first two ro unds. of the World Champions hip Road Race Series after undergoing surgery to both leg s on Saturd ay, March 11. Filice, who suffered a hairline fracture in his right leg in a testing crash in Jerez, Spain, underw ent su rge ry to not only repair that leg but als o to ha ve meta l rod s taken out of both legs. The su rgery was perform ed b y noted moto r s po rts s u rgeo n Dr . Ar thur Ting in North ern California. Ting was also busy on Mon d ay, Mar ch 13 as he performe d su rge ry on HarleyDav idson 's Doug Chandle r. Ting p ut a p la te i n C ha n dler's shou lder in an effort to get the Ca liforn ia n ' s b ro ken collarbo ne rea dy for the second roun d of the AM A Superbike National Cha mpionsh ip Series in Pom ona, Ca lifornia, on April 2. Cha nd ler was knocked ou t of the Daytona 200 on March 12 whe n Britain's Roger Bennett cras hed di rectly in fro n t of Cha nd ler's VRI0 00. According to th ree-time World Cha mp ion Wayne Rainey, Ya maha's n ew YZR250 won' t b e re a d y fo r Kenny Roberts Jr. and Tetsuya Harada u ntil th e Wo rld Ch amp ionship Road Race Ser ies moves to Europe on Ma y 7 for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. "It's an all-new bike, but it's a little late," the Ma rlboro / Yamaha Rainey team owne r told Cy cle News con tributor Michael Seott. "When it comes you 'll see the d ifferen ce right away. And I believe (Tetsuya) Harad a is the best 250cc rider ou t th ere. Not ju st h is rid in g, bu t h is allro und tactics and overall approac h. He got beat up pretty bad last year, but he learned a lot ." Rainey feels that Worl d Cha mp ion Ma x Biaggi will be th e bigges t threat in th e Wo rld Cha m pions hip, w hic h gets u nd erw ay in Au stralia on March 26. "Max has a lo t of ra w t al en t , " Ra in e y said. "B ut h e d oesn 't always stay on th e bike. An d he'll fin d the pressure of defending the cha m p ions h ip is a lot hard er tha n the pressure of winning it." Rainey is d oing well in his new role as team ow ne r. Michael Scott, who visited Ra ine y r ecently w hile gath e ri ng info rma tion for a book he is doi ng on the former World Champion, reports th at Rainey is look in g fit and tanned, w ith his sho ulders visibly broader fro m hi s swim mi ng and exe rcise programs. Although he was raring to go racing, after w hat he admits has been a d ifficu lt winter, Ra iney is s till co mi ng to terms with the paral yzin g back inju ry that e n ded h is ca reer le s s th a n tw o years ago. "I still have weeks that I'm really d own, that I don 't even want to get o u t of b ed in th e mo rning a nd I d on ' t even want to hear about the team bu siness," Rainey sai d . "I kn ow tha t if we ' re goi ng to co m pe te p rope rly , I need to be in my office every day, but it's a real struggle so me times. Now I can forge t that I'm in a wheelchair and so d oes Shae (his wife). I'm d oin g a lot of little things I couldn't do before - like taking o u t the ga rbage. Things th a t used to tak e me tw o minutes now take 10 - and I have to use m y teeth a lot. In th e last couple of mon ths , I' ve stopped missin g racing so much. I've accepted that. But ins tead I've started missing other th in gs in life - everyday thi ngs tha t I can't do any more. There's still a lot to dea l with. " Rain ey watched the live telecast of the Daytona 200: "When a guy can fall off and still win the race, I guess the com petition ' s not that stiff and th e G Ps don't have too much to worry about. S cott Ru ss ell is the only rid er who I believe could learn to do well in GPs. (Carl) Fogar ty ' s s ty le se ems to ha ve be en developed on the Isle of Man. lf Niall Mackenzie rode a Ducati, th en Britain w ould have another Superbike World Champion. Fogarty and all the AMA Superbike gets live TV ccord ing to the AMA , Firs t Auto Television (FAST) has announced their 1995 Prime SportsC han nel Network television p ackage for the AMA Superbike National Championshi p - and it includes a live broadcast of the Mid-Ohio rou nd and same-day coverage of the Los Angeles Superbike Ch am pionship. Alt hough the broadcast of round two of the AMA Superb ike Na tio nal Cha mpionsh ip from the Pomona Fairplex in Pomo na, California, will be blacked out in the Los Angeles area, it will be shown on Sunday, April 2 from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m . (Eastern) to the rest of the coun try. The race will be re-broadcast to the Los Ange les area on April 9 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p .m. (Pacific). Coverage of round four of the series from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexing ton, Ohio, will be shown live from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Easte rn) on June 4. According to the AMA, the majority of the rem aining races on the sched u le will be broadcast within four days of the event: "I think it's great tha t the majori ty of our races will be aired within four days of the event date," sai d Tom Mu eller, execu tive director of AMA Pro Racing. This cha nge sho uld be very well received by motorcycle racing fans across the country." "The fans ha ve bee n asking for live or sa me-day cove rage for yea rs," said Dan Murphy, president of FAST. "I'm happy that we can fina lly accommodate this reques t. The fans sho uld thank the advertis ing sponso rs, beca use they ha ve ma de these live races possible." The Prime SportsCha nnel Networ k currently reaches over 41 million homes acro ss the country . A superbike guys do all this talking, and that's okay. But that's the level I think he is at." T h e Los Angeles Superbike Champio n s h ip is look in g fo r fl agger / corner wo rkers to work on promoter's p ract ice day on Thursday, Ma rch 30 fro m 8:00 a .m . to 5:30 p.m. at th e Pomona Fairplex in Pomo na, Cali fornia. Eve nt promo ters are offering an even t T-shirt and two th ree-day tickets with p add ock passes to the march 31-Ap ril 2 race. For more in forma tion call Race West Pro d uctio ns at 714/632-7070. Accordi ng to t he AMA , th ey a n d a growing number o f individual mot orcyclists have mo unted a grassroots program to comba t the d iscrimi na tory .healthcare policies of Sturm, Ruger and Company, a major firea rms ma n ufacturer based in th e No r t hwest. Th e AMA- backed p ro gr am , en title d "Ri d e Ruger," is in tended to p ressu re Sturm, Ruger in to changing a corpora te po licy, implemented last yea r, which d en ies healthcare coverage to employees who are inj ured w hile ri d ing motorcycles without a helm e t. The co rnersto ne of "Ride Ruger" is a call for all interested motorcyclis ts to p urch a s e s ha res o f St urm, Ru ge r s to ck, th en a ttend th e upcoming annual stoc kholders' meeting to ch allenge th e co m pa ny 's discriminatory policy. This year 's Los An g e les Superb ike Championship will run in co njunction with rou n d two of the AMA Grand National Championship Dirt Track S e ries , w hich wi ll b e h eld a t th e Pomona Fai rp lex on Sa turday n igh t, April 1. The road race circuit which is being constructed in the Fairplex parking lot will feature some changes from las t year' s controversial layout. "We have made a certa in number of improvem en ts to the 2.1 mi le Fairp lex road course," promoter Bill Ma rcel said . "Certain sections of the track have been repaved to eliminate bumps, part of the course has been reconfigured for ad d iti on a l r ider sa fe ty and two n ew b rid g es a r e being in st alled for ea sy spectato r access." According to a track ma p issued by Race West Productions, turn six has been altered to give riders a straig hter shot on to the ba ck straight, a gravel trap ha s been added to the outside of turn seven, and th e braking ar ea at the entra nce to turn 10 and th ro ugh the corne r itself ha s been rep aved. The Dalla s Texas AMA Grand National Cha mpionshi p Dirt Track ro und se t for Saturday , June 17, at Devils Bowl Speedway w ill be p rom oted b y th e speedway owner Lanny Edwards, who also p rom otes th e World of Outla w auto races at the speed way. Man y new sea ts ha ve been erected a nd advance res er v ations a re recomm ended. Fo r mor e in formation call 214/222-2421. Harley-Davidson 883 Sportsters w ill run th e ir fi rst season of m otorcycle road racing in the Pacific Northwest in 1995. Th e Northwest 883 Tw ins class will run under AMA / CCS curre nt rulebook; the allowable chan ges fro m "box stock" are restricted to safety item s and a limited se lectio n of Screamin ' Eagl e accessories. Each b ike will use Avon t ir e s a nd t he re will b e m and ato r y h ors ep ow er checks a t each event. A r id e r p rize fund wor th m o re th an $10,000 has already been commi tte d to th e seve n race se r ies. T he o pen in g round is set to get underw ay April 2930 a t Po rtla nd Internatio na l Raceway. See next week's Ca lendar sectio n for complete series dates and locati ons . For more information call604/585-H AWG. The Racing Enterprises Spring Break Motocross Series at Ca rlsba d Raceway in Carlsb ad, Ca lifornia, has been rain dela yed . The opening round is resched ul ed fo r Ap ril 1, a nd th e fo u r- ra ce series w ill co ncl u de on April 22. Fo r m o re in fo r m a ti on , co ntac t Racin g Enterprises at 619/484-1441. Championship Cup Series has ad ded a fourth date to the Mid Atlantic Region at Summit Point Racewa y in Summit Point, West Virg inia, on September 910. CCS road racers should also note tha t the Talladega GP weeke nd originally sched u led for Se p te mber 23-24 has been moved to Sep tember 30-Octo- ' ber 1. For more information call CCS at 704/684-4297. The 10th An n u al Pa lm Springs Concours d 'Elegance, scheduled for April 9 in Palm Springs, California, will feature two motorcycle categories - Pre 1950 and 1951-1979. The entry fee is $25. For more information call 619/323-0204. The U.S. Supercross Seri es sched uled for ESP N2 has been overhauled due to s ched uling conflicts. The Orl ando Supercross will be sho wn on April 6 from 5:30 p .m. to 6:30 p.m. (Pacific ) and 8:30 p .m . to 9:30 p .m . (Ea s te rn); the Minneapolis Supercross will a ir on May 6 from 8:00 p .m . to 9:00 p. m .

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