Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·RAC R·X E · . By.DaveyCOOmbs n January of this year I was standing in the p ress box at the Minneapolis Supercross with SRO race promoter Chris Wallace as more than 50,000 people sat below us watching supercross. "The magic of supercross is that peop le can come in ou t of the snow in the middle of winter and see a motorcycle race ," sa id Wallace wi th tears of joy in his eyes. Cut to Ma y. I am stand ing in the press box at the Cleveland Supercross w it h Walla ce again a s m ore than 50,000 empty se a ts s it b e low us w at ch ing su percross . "The magic of supercro ss happen s when p eople can come in out of the snow in th e middle of winter and see a motorcycle race," said Wall ace with a tear of so rrow in his ey e. The dramatic drop in th e crow d s did not make sense to me, not at first, anyway . Cleveland is prob abl y a little bigger than Minneapolis. The sta te of Oh io probabl y has more motorcycl e tracks, ra cer s and en thus iasts than M i n neso ta . A n d th e wea th e r was danger ously cold in Minnesota but comfo rtably warm in Cleveland. The n I thought ag ain abo u t w hat Chris Wallace said. So her e's my plan: Let' s start the su percro ss series the first week end of Decem ber, ge t th ree races in before Christmas so w e' re six weeks ah ead of th e old sched u le, and th en sta rt u p again th e second weeken d in January. With an ea rlier start we cou ld end the series in la te Apr il a n d e v e r y o n e coul d sta rt concentrating on th e outdoor nationals. The supe rcross series cou ld fin ally start in Ana he im again because that ve n ue w ill be va cant the NFL' s Ra ms ha ve m oved to St. Louis - and then move to Las Vegas an d Orlando before Ch ristmas. All three of those venues are open-air stadiums located in th e sou thern pa rt of the cou ntry. But after the New Year, when the regular football season is over, the circuit can move into th e big do m e d s t a d i u ms o f Minn eap olis , Indianap olis, Seattle, Atlanta, Hou ston, and wherever. Many sports straddle New Year ' s I Day during a playing season, including professional foo tball, basketball and hock ey. Major Leagu e Baseball does not cross January 1 in its working season - when it is working, that is - but who wants to take an y practical hi nts from baseball? One traditional ar gumen t against moving th e s che d u le up ea rly h as always been that it wou ld inter fere with the int ern ati onal p a yd ay s American riders ge t during the offsea s o n . But the days o f th e bi g money European a nd Asian invitational races are al m o s t over. Th e dollar is a disaster in many foreign markets, making it financially d ifficu lt to bring a lot of America ns over for those races. Als o, after a d ecad e of such rac es, th e appearance of th e m araud ing American motocrossers isn ' t suc h a big dea l an ym ore. Ther e are still a few big, im po rta nt d at es on the in ternation al cale nd ar like Paris Bercy, Barcelona, Tokyo, Ma ggiora an d Osak a, but non e of those ra ces tak e pla ce after Thanksgi ving in lat e N o v embe r. Even if th ey did , they cou ld a lways be resche d u led , right? For on e yea r th e rid ers would lose a m onth of vaca tion with a sc hed u le cha ng e, but aren' t they always rid ing any wa y? A ch ange in the sc he d u le mi gh t h elp the factories , too. The cu r re nt AMA pro season TUns from January to September, ye t th e mod el yea r for each m anufacturer is m ore like th e previou s Septem ber to April. In other wo rds , by the time the su percross season s ta rts, m ost consumers hav e a lre ady chosen their brand for th at season - and competed aboard it for several months. As a ma tt er of fa ct, many of th e ' 96 m odels w ill be on di sp lay at the AMA Am at eu r Nationals at Lore tta Lynn's in Au gust '95. That's a full fiv e m onths before the U.S. publi c will get to see Jeremy McGrath or Mike LaRocco use one in legal AMA National-caliber competition . Th e marketing p eople a t these fac to r ies wo u l d prob abl y love to have a cha nce to push product while they still ha v e it ; many m od el s ar e 25 YEARS AGO,.. JU E23, 1970 N and Ron n ie Jones third...Jean-MicheI er Gary Scott was leading the at Ascot motocross classes visited Atlanta InterBayle scored big in Foxboro, Massachuin the TT final wh en his engine seized national Racewa y and Kent Howerton came away with the overall win in the setts, round 15 of the Camel Supercross on th e last lap, opening th e door for Kenny Roberts to take 250cc class on 1-1 moto scores. Honda 's series. The Frenchman topped Jeff Ward the win. ~~fjF,ljf\'l~~~ Chuck Sun rode to victory in th e and Mike LaRocco in the 250cc class 500cc class. Both riders left the round and moved back into contention for the Y AR E SAGO leading their respective classes in the points lead. Deny Stephenson won the 15 . . . p oin t stand ings ...Team Yamaha ' s 125cc main eve nt.. .Tex a n Kevin JUNE1B 80 ,19 Bruce Og ilvi e a nd Chu ck Schwantz won his first Grand Prix of " vetter's vis ion M ille r kep t th eir YZ465 on "' '·"' ~,H\ . " rl4=. "I -·.L r ~f\j . the year, at Nu rburgring, going to win round three of the ~ ~ 4.Jj ' ii.:l beat ing po ints lea de r r e v e a l ed " ...,:.-.:::::.",,>-_ ~ Wa yne Ra i ney by mo re read the cover SCORE off-road series, the Baja of Issue #23. Th e "'::':::::;: 500, despite both rid ers being Carru 01 Lou;svllleDowns th an 11 secon ds . Niall acco mpa nying sto ry ..:::: inv olved in head -on collisions Mackenz ie, on a Lu ck y ..::cI w ith ve hicl es tra veling the Strike Suz uk i was thi rd . profiled Craig Vett er and h is M ystery wro ng way on th e course...!n The 250cc race was won by Ship, a $10,000 KZ I 000- - -- Grand Prix road racing, Kenn y Wilco ZeeIenberg - on ly based , Vetter -styl ed , Yoshimura-mod iRoberts won round one at Mis0.066 of a second in front of fied collector's bike..."Ohio, Ohi o! The ano and round two at Jerez. second-place Carlos Cardus. John Koc insk i fin ish ed Ohio Misfits strike again," shou ted winner Steve Morehead, w hile hugging _~'-""~= I third ...Tor ont o' s Skydome 5YEARS AGO... sec ond -place fini sh er Ha n k Scott as ---,-",=~!!!!!~~'-.1 hosted the 11th annual ToronJUNE13,1990 they entered the winner's circle at the to Su pe rcross, whic h Larry hris Carr had this to say about his Harring to n Half Mile in Delawar e. Ward wo n ha ndily. War d sa id it was win at the Louisville Half Mile: "It Traged y struck dirt track racing for the "like practice, only I got a trophy and wa s pretty simple: Qu alify fifth second week in a row , as Steve Dallemoney." Kawasaki-mounted J eremy fastest, holeshot the heat, ho lesho t the McG rath wa s the runner-u p , and feld of Canto n, Illinois, was killed in a main and run 20 perfect laps. We had a Saturday evening practice session...The in third was a Canadian, Carl Vaillanperfect da y." Scott Parker was second, court. National Championship 250 and 500cc vercoming a lon g s trea k of bad luck an d me chanical ails, Gary Nixon look his Trium ph Trident to victory in the 100mile ro ad race f e a t u r e a t [Z" : Loud on. Dav e 1 1 11 S mith moved - - - - - - . . :.:. _ 1 from fifth to third , passing Yvon DuH amel and Don Emd e . Emde finished thi rd , DuHamel fourth. In Amateur racing Tom Gill was running third un til he was bla ck-flagged . Why ? His \pants were coming off...Dateline: Ensenada , Mexico, for the infamous Baja 500. The Husky-mounted team of Billy Silverth orn and Gene Fetty rode a rela ti ve ly tr ouble-free ra ce aroun d the pounding 558-mile course, finishing first in the motorcycle class and second overall behind only Parnelli Jones in his "bru tal" Ford Bronco...Novice dirt track- O sold ou t befor e th e supercross series is over, let alone the outdoor Nationals . Bumpin g th e sc hed ule up one month early w ill al so help some of th e o u tdo o r Nationals get better spring d ates . H angtown '95 was a great event th e first weekend of May, but when they used to schedule it for the middle of June the crowds stayed home in th e air-cond it ioning whil e the riders tried to avoid heat stroke. The August dates they used to assign to the long-g one San Bernardino Nati onal is just one major reason why sou the rn California does not have a professional motocross Na tiona l. If race w inn ers were passing out in that swelteri ng nightmare, ho w can any o ne ex p ec t an overweight, cool erdra ggin g 40-year-o ld in sea rch of a p orta-john to make it up and d own those cliffs all aftern oon ? The Californi a d es ert can be an inferno in th e s u m me r . With thi s chan g e in th e Su p ercr oss sc he d u le, w hy n ot g ive some So Cal promoter a lat e-Ap ril, ea rl y-May d at e? How ab ou t Castillo Ran ch in early May? The way th e schedu le is now, com petitors are faced with the dubious task of taking a supe rcross-formatte d bik e a n d, aft er th e Charl otte SX, ch a ng ing it ove r to m oto cross fo r Hangtown, the n ba ck to supercross for Cleveland, th en back to motocross for Hi gh Point, th en ba ck to su percross for San Jose and Las Vega s, and th en back to m ot ocr o ss fo r Bu d d s Creek. Tha t ma y not m ea n a lo t to fa cto ry ri ders w h o ha ve fu ll - ti me mecha nics to take ca re of all th ose transitions, bu t th ink of all those priva teers wh o also ha v e to dr iv e to . thos e races, make th e changes, find a p la ce to practice , compet e o n th e weekend, and do it all over aga in . And because th e lat e su pe rcrosses are in th e West an d most Nationals are in th e Ea st, the travel p att ern co u ld be a dj uste d to make it m ore effi cie n t for everyone. Last year th e Nation als of Budds Creek (in Maryland ) and High Point (Pennsylvan ia) were se parated by seven days and a fo ur-hou r d rive. This year th ey a re sepa ra ted by three weeks, two supercrosses an d a 6000-mile detour through Cal ifornia. It 's no wonder tha t entries a re down. They call the Gainesville National in Florida "the orphan" because it sits in the middle of the supe rcross series. But Gainesvill e ca n't b e cha nged because its fan-friendl y date right before Da ytona's motorcycle m ecca gives the outdoor Nationals maximum exposure. Without the visiting Northern fan s, the race might fail - as th e old St. Pe ters bu rg National did and th e crowd ed state o f Fl orida mi ght be left withou t a motocross Nati onal just like Ca lifornia . It may b e m addenin g fo r fan s to have one series start before another is finished kind of like basketball starting the '96 season before the '95 pla yoffs are over .- but an exception must be mad e for Gai nesville . However, ge tting into the thick o f th e out d o or series b efore supercross is ove r doesn't make sense at all. By th e tim e the '95 supercross series is over th e outdoor se ries will b e one-fou r th com ple te d. A n d th e tw o pre-season ti tl e favo r ites defending 250cc C h ampi on Mik e LaR occ o an d 125cc vice-champion Steve Lam so n - go t hurt supercrossing and ha ve missed ou tdo or rounds. Also injured in one series eno ugh to affect th e othe r wer e Greg Albe rtyn, Robbi e Reyn ard , Mike Craig and Ezr a Lu k. Fina lly, m a yb e the s u p e r cr oss series is ju s t too lon g. For th e la st thr e e yea rs Jer emy McGrath h a s clinched th e titl e before th ey started tru ck in g in th e d irt fo r th e la st rounds . Ma yb e no w th at MT EG is kaput they can trim a ra ce or tw o off th e sch ed u le, move every thi ng up a month so everyon e gets bett er dates, and add that much-n eed ed SoCal outd oor National. And maybe that way th e United S ta tes ca n ge t back a round of th e FIM World Motoc ross Championship s. That's my the ory. OJ C 79

• Cover