Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1995 06 21

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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IN THE WIND Rodney Sm ith (Suz) captured the overall win at the Lone Wolf !SDE Qualifier in Tillamook, Oregon, on June 9-10. The runner-up was Ch ris Smith (Hon) who finis hed ahead of Italian Davide Trolli (Hon), who was com peting in the FourStroke class. Mark Kerling (Yam) and Drew Smith (Hon) rounded ou t the top five overall. O f the a p proximately 80 riders tha t entere d th e event, only six earned gold medals. Tw o - time Ca nadia n Nationa l Tr ia ls Cha m pion Ron Commo Jr. (Bet) success fully kicked off his bid for a thirdstra ig h t titl e b y win ni n g t he June 4 series opener in Port Colborne, On tario, C an ad a . Tom Farr (Ya m) a n d Paul Belanger (Bet) round ed ou t th e to p three. Mechanical prob lems sidelined the series favorites at the sixt h rou nd of the World Cha mpionship 500cc MX Series, h eld June 11 in Cingoli, Italy. Belgian Gerald Delepine (Hon) was the ove rall w in ne r . Home ri der Attilio Pignotti (Hon) was seco nd overall, ahead of Austrian Erwin Machtlinger (Ho n), American Trampas Parker (KIM) and Du tchman Gert Van Doom (Hon). American Mike Young (Ver) was second in th e opening moto a nd s ixth overa ll. Jo el Smets co n tinues to lead Parker in the series point sta ndings, 158-152. Brit Pa ul Malin (Yam) scored a popular home-country win at the seventh round of the World Championship 125cc MX Series, held June 11 in Swindon, England . Italians Alessandro Puz ar (Hon) and Alessio Chiodi were seco nd and third . Puza r ha s a commanding lead over Chiodi in the poi nt standings, 274168. For the first tim e ever, two serie s' rounds were held on the same day, at the same facility . Belgian Stefan Everts (Kaw) wa s the 250cc Grand Prix winner, edging ou t German Peter Beirer (Ho n) and Belgian Marrricq Bervoe ts (Suz) , Everts moved into the series point lead with 217, overtaking his American team mate Tallon Vohland - fourth overall in England - w ho has 206. U) 0\ 0\ ...... 2 Australians swept th e p odium in th e O verseas Speedway Final at Coventry, England, on Ju ne 11 as Rya n Sullivan, Leigh Adams and Jason Lyons finished fir st th rough third , re sp ecti v ely , t o advance to the Intercontinental Final sc hed uled for Elga in e, Norway, o n Augu st 19. The remainin g five qualifie rs were Mark Thorpe (New Zealand), Joe Screen (England) , Jason Crump (Aust ralia), Martin Dugard (England) and Shane Parker (Aus tralia). It was a rough day for th e American . hop efuls. Chris Manchester tallied nin e p oints an d to ok pla ce in a three-man runoff for the final qualifyin g spo t that incl u ded fe llow Ame rica n Charles "D u kie" Ermolenko and Parker. Manches ter made t he fi rst start an d appeared to be on his way through, but th e race was halted w hen Ermolenko cras hed in to the fence at high speed. On the restart, Park er led all the way to gra b the last ticke t. Manchester was second and will be a reserve in Elgaine. Ermolenko , Mi ke Fa ri a and Bren t Werner failed to qu alify. Masanori Enomoto (Kaw) won round seven of the All-Japan MX Series, held June 11 at Sports Lan d Sugo in Miyagi, Japan . Kenji Suzuki (Yam) was second, a nd Hi royuki Sasaki (Ho n) ro u nded out the top three. American Jeft Maliasevich (Kaw) had an off-day, finis hi ng six th overall. Still, Matiasevich continues to enjoy a commanding lead in the se ries p oin t stan d ings over Enomoto, 183-127. A memorial service was held for offroad racer Danny Hamel, 23, at Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 8. An estimated 1000 people turned out to pay last respect s to th e multi-time offroa d cha m pion w ho was killed Ju ne 3, while com peting in the Baja 500 in Mexico. Many in attendance were members of the off-road community, including such not ab les as off-road legend Malcolm Smith, five-time National Hare & Hound Champion Dan Smith, five-time N atio n a l En d uro C ha m pion Ra nd y Hawkins, cu rre nt enduro champ Steve Hatch, H onda' s Chuck Miller, KTM 's Sco t Harden, m ulti-tim e Baja 500 and 1000 win ner La rry Roesel er a nd the e n ti re Tea m Green staff, as well as supercross racers Mike Kiedrowski and Mike laRocco, and Skip Norfolk, tu ner fo r s u perc ross champion Jeremy McGrat h . As one perso n sai d, it looked like a who's who of the off-road ind ustry. Scott Sh aw , a close fr ie n d of th e H amel fa mily, p erformed th e eulogy, while a few close frien d s spoke, including off-roa d racer Bry an Folks, Pro Circuit's Jim "Bones " Bacon, Betty Rivers moth er of desert racer Jack Johnson and Ka w a saki Team Green Manager Mark Johnson. Hamel was cremate d and the ashes were spread over the Nelso n Mou ntains, a mountain range east of Boulder City, where Hamel lived and grew u p. Injured Team Suzuki star Craig De cker underwent surgery to repair his broken back and appears to already be on the road to recovery following his cras h in practice at the Las Vegas Supercross on June 10. "Craig was in surgery last night (June 11)," said Suzuki PR Manager Joe Colombero. "The doctors took a bone from his h ip and fused his fifth and sixth thoracic vertebrae. They also put a rod in there for support. There has been trauma to his spinal cord , but there is no paralysis, and they expect him to walk out of the hospital." Decker was said to be in good spirits following the surgery. Longtime Suzuki works rider Yoshihito Baba competed at Sports Land Sugo wit h a pair of works Show a forks on his Suzuki RM250. The conventional units had a trailing axle , and a very relaxed stee ring an gle. The headline in th e Itali an d aily new spaper Gazette Della Sport on Mo nd ay, June 12 featured a quote fro m Marlboro Roberts Yamaha' s Luca Cadalora: "1 w on ' t finish the s eason," the fo rmer 250cc World Champion sai d in referen ce to the rumors of a split between himself and Robert s' team. Robert s was quot ed in the same new spaper as saying that a d ecision wou ld be mad e as to the futu re of his team by the Dutch Gran d Prix on June 24. Ca dalora finished 12th in the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello on June 11. Acco rding to sources in Europe, there was a cha nce tha t Co li n Edwards II would tes t the Marlboro Ya maha YZRSOO in Mugello, Italy, on Monday, June 12. The Roberts team had already scheduled to test the day after the Italian Grand Prix. Colin Edwards II tested his Yamaha YZF750 at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan recently, in preparation for the upcoming Suzuka 8-Hour on July 30. "Everythin g has been great," Edwards said . "We made a lo t of changes to the bike and have come away with a totall y new Retiring Schwantz honored in Ital K evin Schwantz (right) walked away from racing while he could still walk away from it. A few horrific cras hes in the past yea r had convinced him tha t it was tim e to quit, he told a packed news confe rence at the Italian Gra nd Prix. The d ecision was not an easy one , he said, a nd he broke d own in tears more than once during the news conference. His impact on the sport had been so great, that th e va rious governing bodies had ag reed to retire his number 34 from further use in the 500cc class. It was the firs t tim e in the 46-year history of the sport th at a rider's number had b een re tire d . Excerp ts from the news conference follow. - "1 have d ecid ed to sto p racing for a couple of different reasons. Probab ly the biggest reason is just my heart is just not in it anymore. In th e past, when I've been racing, I really wanted to be out there. But since I got hurt last yea r and the su rgery after the fall at Laguna Seca, the excitemen t just hasn't been there. I went to Phillip Island, I tested there, I fell off. It was a pretty big crash. I brok e my thumb. Next up, I was testing in Spain and at Eastern Cr eek, then I had the crash at Eastern Creek in the warm-up. When I came to a stop there it was a decision that I made wh en I got up. It was d o I tu rn around and go back to the bike or do I turn aro un d and go sit on the wall?" - "1 managed to convince myself that I should at leas t give this season a try ; tha t I should go out an d at least get a cou ple of races un der my belt an d see if that wouldn't help . I felt it d id help , especially afte r Malays ia, but I never felt comfortable on the bike or felt like I was myoid self and especially the race in Japan. That, I think, was pr obably my big one beca use in the wet that used to be one of m y favorite condi tions, but I found on that d ay, it wasn't." - "After Japan, actually I flew home on the p lane wi th Wayne Rainey. We talked a lot about how he felt w hen he was racing in 1993 and he sai d he wasn't havin g fun doing it; 'I was racing because everybody else thought I should be racing: And I guess that's the kind the of feeling I had. I wa sn't doing it for myself anymore... I didn't feel that I was ab le to do wha t I wanted to do on the bike, especially when there were other people racing around me. The strength in my left wrist wasn't allowing me to control the bike like I needed to." - "With Daryl (Beattie) working with the team there's not a big diffe rence between ou r number-one an d number-two riders, so Daryl gets the same treatment. But to have him out there and have him winning and being consis ten tly at the fron t made my decision that mu ch easier." - "(Wayne Rainey' s crash) is something tha t I think about a lot~ Wayne and I started racing as probably the two worst enemies you could have known, but we ha ve become rea lly good friends. When that ha ppened, well, it rea lly takes it out of yo u. The decision I ma de was based on my particular situation. It is something tha t I d efinitely will always think about." - "1 look back on the crashes tha t I have had since Assen last year, at Donington and in testin g at Easte rn Creek and Phillip Island. They were three of the biggest, fastest crashes I have ever had. The last one at Eastern Cr eek was the fastest, but I just got up and wa lked away when I sho u ld not have got up at all. A lot of those accidents were caused by me just not being 100 percent focused on what I was doing. There comes a time when you get up from one of them and realize 1 might not bounce nex t time: " - "After lunch I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Hopefully some type of NASCAR racing. I have a couple of oppo rtunities . It' s the first yea r of the NASCAR Supertruck series . It's abou t halfway over now, I mi ght squeeze in some of those races at the end of season. Prob ably, that's what I'll be d oing next season - a full season of truck racing." setu p which has been se nt back to th e team in Italy. Joe Skidd (the Ohlins technician) was out there wi th us as were the peo ple from Dunlop and we seem to have sorted things out and found some grea t tires. I'm feeling much more confident now for the rest of the season:' 'We can eithe r ro ll ove r or stand up and fight, and there's no qu esti on as to what we're going to do ," said Rob Muzzy on Monday, June 12, in reference to the ongoi ng contrac tua l problems wi th Scott Ru ssell . Russell raced the Lucky Strike Suz uki in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, June 11, finishing 11th after a being ke p t off the machine for Frid ay' s practice session (see Grand Prix cove rage on page 20). "Essentia lly, there were a lot of nego tia tio ns with Suzuki t hat fe ll through late Friday night. Ou r pla n was set, but two things had to happen - Scott had to actu ally ride the bik e, and Suzu ki and Lucky Strike had to be i nfo rmed of w ha t we were doing . All tha t has ha ppened so now the stage is se t for the ac tion we're going to take . We just coul d n' t agree. There was an attempt on our part to come to an agreement. We were going to give them permission for him to rid e, based on them going to the bargaining tabl e. They didn't accept our presentation so the re was nowher e else to go. They b asically were saying, 'to hell w it h yo u guys: I can assu re you that th ey reali zed on Friday that ther e was a prob lem. He's (Russell) clearly breached his contract. They (Suzuki and ยท Lucky Strike) are aware of that and have taken party to tha t." American Roadracing edi tor Brian Catterson suffered a broken pelvis wh en he cras hed the Grand Prix Apparel-backed Yamaha GTSl oo0 endura nce racer during practice for the SuperTeams race at Road Am erica on June 10. Former Gra nd National Champion Gary Nixon cras hed at Ma llory Park in England on Friday, Ju ne 9 and suffe red broken bon es in b oth feet, a broken lef t ha n d a n d a b ro ken le ft co lla rbone. Nixon is expected to be released fro m the Royal Armory Hospital for a return home in the next few days.

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