Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TEARDOWN .· . ByPaul Carruthers othing gets my b lood flo wi ng m o r e rapidl y th a n a deadli ne M onda y h e r e at Cy cle News pecially the kind of Monday we had ere thi s week. For th e firs t time eve r, the issu e of y cle News y o u' re holding in y o u r ands featu res same-week coverage of he World Champion ship Road Race ries and the World Superbike Cham ion ship. Okay, we've tackled ne xt-day overage o f the Grands Prix befo re ut only when those races were held in he U.S. or somewhe re in rad ically d iferen t time zo nes, i.e. Aus tra lia, Japan nd M a la ys ia. Tru s t m e, thi s is a n bsolute first from Europ e. Although getting sto ries from th e ther si de of th e Atlantic in time for eadline has never been a problem, 'etting photography ha s proven to be mpossible. With mo st of Europe in a im e z o ne onl y nin e hour s a h e a d f California, th ere is no way to get hot o s here on a Mond a y via even he fastest courier system. Instead, we ver e forced to hold o u r co ve r ag e a veek while we wa ited for the photos o arrive via Fed er al Exp ress or some ther worldw id e ca rrie r. Th ose were ore simp le tim es. Prior to re ceiving he phot os, we were ab le to leisu rely o about the busin ess of ed it in g th e tory, ad d ing results, e tc. But w e're eyo n d a ll of that n o w , thanks to omputers. . Usually I have a love- ha te relati on hip w ith what have becom e our elecron ic tools of th e tr ad e, but I have ever lo ved a co m p u ter m ore than od ay . Recei ving s tories through th e se of modems has become a daily rouine a round her e, but starting wi th the apanese Grand Prix a few wee ks ag o ve act ua lly r e ce iv ed ph ot o s vi a a od em. And th e quality of the transitted phot ography was sim p ly briliant. Brilliant eno ug h to make us want to o ahead with ou r plans to give you arne-week cove rage of the Grands Prix each a n d e veryone of them . From oning ton Park, Eng land to Bmo in the zech Republic. But why s to p th ere? h en Da v id G oldm an a n d P atric k osling of Gold & Goose Photography ounced that they wo uld split up on a ny given weekend to s hoot not only th e Gra nds Pri x bu t a lso the Wo rld Su pe rbi ke Seri es, we we n t with them. Thus this week's issue features no t onl y Henn y Ray Abrams' coverage of Alberto Pu ig's s tunning first win in Spai n, but also Gold & Goose's ph otos. An d in ad di tion to Jo han Va ndeckerchove's story of Carl Fogarty 's do u ble wi n a t Hockeheim in Germany , there are photos to accompan y it. No t pho tos we've gathe red from a file cabinet, but ph otos d irect from Spain a nd Germany via the Gold & Goose offices in England , And that' s the way it sh ould be. Now if we can just get the phon e bill d own a little bit. It has lon g been a goal of m in e to spee d things up around here. Nothing irks me more than opening a magazine from Europe and seeing st ories a nd photo s fr om Grands Prix that w e haven't had in Cycle News yet. That will no long er happen . I can now guarantee there is no fast er way of seeing th ese stories and photos in print here in the U.S - with the po ssible exception of the nearly non-existent cove rage the sport receives in d aily newspapers. If I sou nd excited , it's because I am . And I'm not going to apo logize for it. With television coverage (no t to mention th e In formati on Superhighw ay ) gettin g fas ter all th e time, th e pri nt media's nee d to be mo re efficient is at a p remi u m . What we have d on e in th is we ek's Cycle News is livi ng proo f th at we' re not sitti ng on ou r hands. We will d o w hatever it ta kes to get fu ll coverage of every ma jor eve nt in the newspaper followi ng th at event, and we' re hopeful that the GP an d World Superbike reports a re only the beginning. And ou r fas ter in tern ational coverage in no way imped es ou r effo rts to get the Na tiona l-level events in just as qui ckly. . Associ ate Editor Scott Rou sseau and free lance photographer Dave Hoenig were in Harrington, Delaware, this past weekend cov er in g th e th ird round o f the AMA Grand N ati onal Champio ns hip . And fu ll cover age is in thi s iss ue. As for th e seco nd round of th e A MA N a tio na l Mo tocross Cham pi onshi p, va lued (and growin g increasingly less val ua ble as de adli ne ru sh es upon us) co ntributo r Davey Coombs was t here along w i th photo grapher Kinney Jones . And the story and photos from Mike Kied rowski's wi n a re also in this issue. The re's no th in g un usual about that. We've been d oing it for years. As is the case in a ny busin ess, in order to do a better job yo u ha ve to work harder. Ditto for all of th is com puter wizardry that allows us to get the stories an d ph otos here on time. But it isn't just ab out fa n cy m achi nes a nd ph on e lines. It' s abo u t hard-working people w ho are w illing to p ut in th e ex t ra tim e . Van deckerchove a n d Ab rams worked lon g into S u nd ay night in order to get th e stories here in tim e; likewise fo r G oldman a nd Go sling , who no w no longer have to worry only abou t shooting qu ality ph otos but also abo u t transmittin g th em. And Gold & Goose assistant Euan Mu ir also had a extende d night in their Lond on o ffice, s tayi ng la te on Mond ay night (after bei ng up all night on Sund ay) in orde r to transmi t the ph otos to us earl y on Monday morning. Yes, the days of leisurely strolling t hrough a Mon da y wi t h ju st a few National stories to edi t are lon g gone . Now we get a 7:0.0 a.m. sta rt (at the latest ) to ou r Mo ndays on these busier deadline days in an effort to complete the paper by 5:00 p .m . But d on 't take any of this as a complaint. Believe me, being here longer and wo rking harde r is much less painfu l than see in g faster in ternatio na l cove rage thrown on my desk in a magazine I can 't even read . Transmitting ph ot os over a m od ern is nothing new . But it's so me thing I've balked at in the pa st. While Grand Prix team and eve nt spo nso rs like Marlboro (and ex-sponsor Rothman s) have been offe ring a sim il a r se rvice for a fe w years now, it wasn't what we wa nted. Sure th e ph otos would have arri ve d here, but my biggest worry was that we wo ul dn' t ha ve ph otos of a Lucky Strike Su zu ki, an Ap rilia, or perhaps even the w inner, when the p ho tos wer e tr ansmitted by a sponsor's pr ess agen cy. The bottom line is we simply wouldn't ha ve an y con t rol o ver what ph oto s we received. With Gold & Goose it d oesn't wo rk th a t wa y . We kn ow th e pho tos they se nd will ha ve news va lue ra th e r th an just publicity va lue. No matter the winner, we 'll have the shot. And we also have access to any thing else they ha ve on film. This week, for instan ce, we wanted a Jimmy Filice p ho to to acco m pany our story and just like that, we had it. If Gold & Goose captured the image on film, we have the ability to get it - fast. As in racing itself, speed is the nam e of the game. If we were riding a 125cc GP bike p rior to the chan ges I just told yo u abo ut, we're definitel y on a 500cc V-fo u r r ight no w . As fo r cra s hing, well... Wit h these compute rs yo u just never know. I can guarantee one thi ng. at least if we cra sh we' ll be go ing fast when we do it. Then aga in, a fe w w ee ks ago we proved that yo u d on 't e ve n have to be going fast to sc rew up . As much as it a n noys m e to bring u p past m istak es, th e one in Issue #17 wa s so ba d yo u ca n' t hel p but ch uckle - at least w he n you' re fi nished k icking and screa m ing. Th at was the now infamou s issue in which th e ph otos from the Le Ma ns 24-H our story we re also feat u red in voila...the World Championship Trials s tory. And th is catastrophe was in a story that d id n' t come in record tim e, didn't feature photos that cam e over a mod em. No, th is one was a sto rv d one in the old -fas hioned wa y. But ;"e can still bla me the damn computer - or a t least th at' s what the prin ter bl a me d after we blamed them. For now, th e re is no co lo r o n th e cover fro m th is wee ken d's overseas eve nts. But that too is just arou nd the com er. Soon there will be color ph otos fro m Eu ro pean races r ight up fro n t...a nd th is is qu ickl y sta rti ng to sou nd like an AT&T commercial. Enou gh sai d . So this is the last time yo u' ll see us bragging in a banner across the top of th e page: " Next-d ay Grand Pri x and Worl d Superb ik e coverage ." It ' s a ll stan d ard stuff at this point. You won't have to be told abo ut it in headl in e type, you'll come to expect it. And so you should . 1:\ LOOKING BACK... h e 200-m il e T a ll a d e g a National road ace w as won by irst -ye ar Expert ave Aldana of an ta Ana, Caliorn ia , a bo a rd BSA Ro ck et hree. The w in I laced him sec- Ii t nd in poin ts ~'~ #:::---_--.J ehi nd h is BSA te am a te , Dick Mann .. . At th e ro deo rounds in Dixon , California, No vice irt track racer Kenny Roberts - riding a igid-frarne Suzuki - pla ced third behind im Odorn and first-p lace fini sher Jim .ce...Read ers were offered the oppor.ty to meet Suzuki's road racing capin Ro n Gran t in a n intervi ew ...!n peed way competition, Rick Woo d s k three out of three scra tch mains at e Orange County Fa irgrounds in Costa Mesa, Califom ia..Sweden's Arne Kring sna tche d th e lea d in th e 500cc world m ot ocross cham pio nshi p with epic rides throu gh rain and mud d uring the fourth round of the series in France. Re igning champ ion, Bengt Aberg, crashed in the second leg. 1 EAR 5Y SAGO..• M 21,1980 ay u r co v e r pr oclaimed, "The only wa y to cruise Daytona is on a Harley!" and showed a sna psho t of just such a bik e being r idd en on the sa nds o f Da :::::::::;;;;;::=':::z;;~~~j tona Beach. The ac companying test wa s of an FLT Tour Glide, ridden coast to coa st ...Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, hosted round 12 of the AMA O v- Supercross series. Kent Howerton hu stie d h is factory Su z uki to the w in in fron t of Brian Myerscough and Mike Bell...Terry Vance gave Suzuki another reason to celeb ra te as he p ilot ed h is Vance & Hines racing GSll OO to its first NM RA Pro Stock win with a nin e-second, 146.57-m p h run at State Capit al Dragway's Cajun Natio nals...Texan Don "Bub ba" Shobert led all 20 lap s of the m ain e ve n t a t the Long Beach s h ort t rack in Califo rnia . Wa yne Ra iney p lac ed fifth ... Greg Zitterkopf - ridin g motocross rc-:-,.-I::J , , f.j - • . - wo n the 250cc Pro class ~ at DeAnza Cycle Park in - - - .; Su n ny mead, Ca lifo rn ia, . w it h tw o secon d- p la ce finishes. s ho wi n g up at Road Atla n ta fo r the AMA National road race series. Lapped riders were th e key to th e Texan na rrow ly d efea tin g Ka wasa k i-m oun ted Doug Chan dler, an d Jamie James, who was riding a Ducati. In 600 Supersport, Thomas Stevens mad e a nam e for himself by beating his teammate, Dave Sadowski, to the finish line. Sad owski forgot to shift into top gear in the drag race to th e fini sh ...The Nation a l MX series visited Lake Sugar Tree in Axton, Virginia, an d Jeff Ward and Jean-Michel Bayle s tom pe d the co mpetition . 'i 'l Ward topped the 250cc class, edg,~ ing Damon Bradshaw, an d Bayle -'~ beat Gu y Cooper in th e 125cc cl ass ...Su zu k i' s Scott Gray was untou chable in ro u nd on e o f th e WERA Pro For mu la USA se ries at Willow Sp rings . Gray led sta rt to finish defe ating teammate Dave Sadowski and Thomas Stevens. Team Su zuki Enduran ce' s Mike Sm ith, alon g w it h te ammate Ku rt Ha ll , topped the six-hour endurance event at the same venue. f:'i iJj , 5Y SA O EAR G ... M ay16, 1990 o ad racer D oug Polen took a break from hi s overse as racing work by R

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