Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I·IN THE WIND Spaniard Marc Colomer gave the Montesa factory its first World Round win in years by topping the field at the April 22-23 round of the World Champ ionship Trials Series, held at Sugar Loaf Mountain, Ireland. Brit Doug Lampkin (Bet) w as second ahead of six-time World Ch ampion Jordi Tarres (G-G) . Tommi Ahvala (Fan) and Joan Pons (G-G) rounded out the top five. Colomer leads Tarres in the series po int standings, 54-50. Ahvala is third with 48. Ricky Carmichael (Kaw) was the dominant minicycle racer at the NMA World Mini Grand Prix, held Ap ril 21-23 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Carmichael swept eight motos for four class wins . Michael Brandes (Kaw) was the.top Expert, winning the 125cc Modified, 250cc Stock and 250cc Modified Expert classes. Charley Bogard (Suz) was the most successful Intermediate, and went home with wins in the 12SccStock and Modified Intermediate classes. A 1966-rider entry list filled the weekend's program. With two round s remain ing in th e 'series, Danny Hamel (Kaw) clinched the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series title with his fourth consecutive win, this one coming in Lucerne Valley, California, on April 23. Hamel crossed the finish line with nearly three minutes to spare over Greg Zitterkopf (KTM). Dan Richardson (Hon), Todd Hoy (KTM) and Ted Hunnicutt (Kaw) rounded out the top five, respectively . Hamel's fifth Hare & Hound National Championship matches that of Dan Smith's reign of the desert. In the series' lO-year history, only two riders have won the title - Smith and Hamel. Hamel plans to compete in the final two rounds in hopes of sweeping the si xrace series - like he did in 1993. Kelby Pepper (Kaw) ended Ty Davis' four-race win streak in the AMA National Championship Enduro Series in Forest Hill, Louisiana, on April 22. Pepper scored the overall win while Davis (Kaw), who 'was knocked back with two burned checks, ended up second. Pepper dropped 13.715 points to Davis ' 15.647. Third overall went to Georgia's George Waller (Kaw) , w ith Michael Lafferty (KTM) and Keven Bennet (Hon) rounding out the top five overall. Both Davis and Waller dropped 15 points, but Davis edged out Waller on tie breakers. Five-time champ Randy Hawkins (Suz) dropped 23 points and finished sixth while defending champ Steve Hatch (502) carded 28 points and ended up ninth. Davis still enjoys a comfortable points lead over Hawkins, 145-102. Third with 101 points is Hatch, while fourth is oc cupi ed by Pepper with 96. Four-time AMA National Enduro Champion Terry Cunningham (Yam) clinched the AMA Mid-South Winter Har e Scrambles Championship with a final-ro und victory at the Mannington Volunteer Fire Dep artment grounds in Mannington, Kentucky, on April 23. Scott Summers (Ho n) finished second and Mike Cornett (KTM) was third . Cunningh am and reigning Mid-S ou th champion Robert Patterson (Suz) batL() tied to the wire for the series title, but 0\ Cunningham was assured of the cha m~ pionship w hen Patterson finis hed fifth on the day . World Superbike Champion Carl Fogarty turne d in the qu ickest lap time du ring the first of two days of superbike testin g at the Misano Adriatico circui t in Misan o, Italy, on Monday, Ap ril 24. The fac- tory Ducati rider clicked off a 1:36.430 to best Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight, who turned a 1:36.640. The Ducatis of Mauro Lucchiari and Troy Corser were next with lap times of 1:36.756 and 1:37.227, respectively. . The Misano test also saw the race track return of former World Champion Marco Lucchinelli. The Italian plans to contest the European 600cc Sup ersport National Championship on a Ducati 748 "It's a long time since I tr ied a ra cing bike," Lucchin elli said. "I'm a bit rusty, but tomorrow I hope to improve my times." Former 500cc Grand Prix winner PierFrancesco Chili will compete in the 1995 World Superbike Championship aboard a Team Gattolone Ducati 916. Chili's teammate will be Gianmaria Liveran i. It was announced at the April 22 Charlotte Supercross that the June 3 Denver Supercross has been officially cancelled. As we reported last week, SRO Motorsports and Pace /Supersports will copromote the final two rounds of the U.S. Supercross Series, stepping in for the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, that recently filed for bankruptcy and was the original promoter of rounds 14 and 15. But due to financi al difficulties, the race scheduled in Denver has been moved to Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California. San Jose has hosted a supercross round for the last four years. The final race for the 1995 U.S. Supercross Series calendar will go on as planned on June 10 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dunlop Tire Corporation's motorcycle tire div ision has announced that, due to lingering effects of the Kobe, Japan earthquake in January, it ha s been unable to maintain its planned rat e of tire development for 500cc Grand Prix racing and have given Team Marlboro Roberts Yamaha permission to test available Michelin tires . Roberts' team did just that during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 21, although the team did end up u sing Dunlops in the 500cc GP, which was held in wet conditions. "Our commitment to continuing development with Dunlop is no way shaken or reduced," Kenny Roberts said. "Both Team ' Roberts and our sponsors appreciate the hard work and effort on the part of Dunlop toward regaining their full competitive manufacturing and racing levels." Dunlop's motorcycle tire national sales manager, Mike Buckley, added the following in a release issued to Cycle News on April 24. "It is important to note that these delays apply to high-tech Grand Prix racing tires and roa d race slicks. The production of more than 200 Dunlop replacement and original equipment tires has been transfer red to ou r Nagoya, Japan, plant among others in Europe and Asia. We full y exp ect our delivery schedules to cont inue to be met through out 1995." KTM po st ed tw o $1000 educational savings bonds at the World Mini Grand · Prix, which were to be awarded to the first KTM-mounted finishers in the 50cc 4-6-year-old and SOcc 7-B-year-old classes. KTM SXRSO riders won both classes and in tum, took home what were pOSSibly the biggest bonuses of their you ng lives. Mike Aless i topped the 4-6 class, and Mike Willard won the 7-8 divisio n. EBC Brakes has si gn ed a multi-yea r agreement w ith the No rth Ame rican Super Bike Series (NASB) to be the title American Final to No Cal fter some debate and hasty planning, there will be an AMA-sanctioned American Final in 1995 to seed U.S.-based riders to the 1996 FIM World Championship Speedway Grands Prix - in Northern California. The event, which has traditionally taken place in Southern California under the promotion of International Speedway, will be held by Fast Fridays Promotions at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn on May 13. Although the move to the new format may benefit the speedway in the long run, the American Final was thought to have been a casualty of the system as 1995 Grand Pox participants - which include top American riders Sam Ermolenko, Greg Hancock , Billy Hamill and Josh Larsen - already qualified for the series last season. But AMA Special Projects Manager Bill Boyce said that rather than seeding the remaining American riders to Europe as the AMA has done in the past when no American Final was held, the decision was made to hold the race at Auburn after International Speedway decided not to run the event in Southern California. . "I've worked with (International Speedway'S) Brad Oxley for a long time," Boyce said . "He put down on his calendar that he would hold the race at the Ventura Fairgrounds (site of the '94 American Final) on May 20. But then he couldn't come up with the necessary sponsorship to lease the track and make the event profitable." Speedway USA and Glen Helen Speedway promoter Gene Woods agreed to step in and hold the event at Glen Helen. Even though Woods is not an AMA-sanctioned promoter, Boyce said that he had a congenial discussion with Woods about the possibility of holding the event, but no su itable agreement could be reached. Then, Fast Fridays promoters Rich VanderMeeden and Ted Scruggs offered and were awarded the rights to the American Final for 1995. "We're going to give Auburn a shot at it and see what happens," Boyce said . "The California State Championship and the U.S. National.Championship have always been held in Southern California, and the Northern California fans have- missed out. This should give them a real shot in the arm ." Boyce also said that in fairness to all the speedway promoters, the 1996 American Final will likely be held in Southern California if no better venue to qualify riders can be found. One of the major controversies regarding running the American Final at Auburn revolves around the track size. FIMregulations stipulate that a World Championship event be held on a 400 meter (440 yard) track. Opponents argue that Auburn is not regulation size and would not only violate the rule but present an unfair disadvantage to the European-based Americans who are used to racing on much larger tracks. Boyce said that those opponents are wrong on both counts. "In the past, the FIM has allowed us to send four riders over to compete in the World Championships," Boyce said. "They don't care whether we make the riders race for it or not. We've seeded the riders in when there has been no American Final. Besides, all of the Americans racing in Europe have cut their teeth on the smaller tracks. Sam Ermolenko has been able to come back and win twice. (back-to-back U.s. National Championships at 'Costa Mesa) on the smaller tracks." As of press time. Boyce said that 15 of 16 riders had been selected to ride in the '95 American Final. The European contingent will consist of Charles "Dukie" Ermolenko , Chris Manchester and Mike Faria. Bart Bast, Jim Sisemore, Bobby Hedden and Dustin Schroeder will represent Northern California. As usual, Southern Californians will make up the bulk of the field . Charlie Venegas, Brad Oxley, Robert Pfetzing, Shawn McConnell , Gary Hicks, Andy Northrup; Don Odom and Doug Nicol are all scheduled to compete. Two-time U.S. National Champion Bobby Schwartz was qualified for the event, but he will be forced to miss it due to other commitments. Though names like Bobby Ott, Ronnie Correy and Brent Werner were discussed as a possible replacement for Schwartz, Boyce said that the replacement rider will come from Southern California. . A sponsor of the 's e ries ' America Sport Bike class (6OOcc Supersport). As part of the agreement, EBC Brakes will offer $1000 per event in rider awards with 'championship awards totaling $5000 for the four-race 1995 season; the awards will increase to $10,000 in 1996 . "It seems the more things change, the more they remain the same," said Patrick Murphy, NASB marketing director. "EBC Brakes was the original title sponsor of 600cc Supersportwhen it was founded in 1986 and later worked with us as title spo nsor of the EBC Brak es Endurance Series and the EBC Brakes Unlim ite d Team Challen ge. With the ca rryover from ou r previou s partnerships, the relationship between us an d EBC Brakes is the long est-standing sponsorship in Americ an motorcycl e racing. We' re th rilled to ha ve An d y Freeman (EBC Brakes pr esident ) with us as we begin our new series." scheduled to come to Sears Point on August 25-27. Smokin ' Joe' s Hon d a ' s Miguel DuHamel and Mike Hale will p ut on an exhibition d u rin g th e Win ston Cup NASCAR race at Sears Poin t Raceway in Sonoma, California, on May 7. The pair will be joined by local racers James Randolp h and Mark McDaniel. The exhibition ,,:iII give NASCAR fans a p review of AM A Su p erb ike ra cing, w hi ch is Two weeks ago we rep ort ed that Giacomo Agostini, Kel Carruthers and Jim Redman w ould be reuni te d wi th famous Gra nd Prix machines on which they once raced in cel ebration of the 70th a nni vers ary of th e Dutch TT in Assen, Holland. We failed to report that th e three m otorcycl es - a 350cc MV Agusta, a six-cylinder Honda 250 and a The AMA has announced thatthe ninth round of the AMA Superbike National Championship scheduled for Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, will be held on August 11-13. The race was originally slated to run on September 3, but that would have created a conflict with the Springfield Mile, the 18th round of the AMA Grand National Ch ampionship, which runs in nearby Springfield, Illinois. ~ In other AMA news, communicat ions manager John McElfresh is no longer with the AMA. "His extended probation peri od w as up and we ju st had too many a ge nd as for him," Pro Racing Presiden t Tom Mueller sai d. "It ju st was n't going to wo rk .out. It was an amiable split."

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