Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

bill must now be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the President before it will become law. The Senate debate over the helmet-law issue, which occupied nearly eight hours over two days, was the culmination of a massive effort by motorcyclist rights groups .from coast to coast. The AMA, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) and a network of state organizations argued that the federal government has no business trying to force states to pass helmet laws by threatening to withhold highway construction funds. Since October oflast year, 25 states without helmet laws have been forced to divert a portion of their highway construction funds into safety programs as a result of a bill passed by Congress in 1991. Movie-goers living in Southern California should keep an eye open for the Los Angeles Times commercial which is being shown prior to movies in cinemas all over the area. The commercial is called "The Moving Camera" and features several methods that Hollywood is using to move cameras in the shooting of films. The commercial features Jean Claude Van Damme riding a Yamaha TDM850. In the background you can see Pet.er Starr's camera bike, using a Steadicam system to capture the shots. According to the producers of the U.S. Supercross Series - PACE SuperSports, SRO Motorsports and Daytona International Speedway - riders who participated in the series in 1995 earned a record amount of money. "This record payout exceeded more than $1.1 million for the IS-race supercross series," said Jerry West, vice president of PACE SuperSports. The $1.1 million represents event purses of more than $700,000 and direct payments to riders from series contingency sponsors which totaled just over $400,000. The North American Super Bike Series has announced purse information for the Harley-Davidson Twin" Sports and International Grand Prix races scheduled for Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on August 46. The Harley race will feature a $5000 purse that pays through 20th place with the winner taking home $1000. The GP class purse has been set at $2500 with payments through 10th place with the winner getting $750. NASB founder Roger Edmondson said he is planning to offer the same ·purses for the Road Atlanta event scheduled for September 15-17. With his second-race win at Albacete in Spain, Carl Fogarty became the all-time World Superbike win leader with 28 victories. Prior to his win in Spain, the Brit was tied with Doug Polen with 27 wins. For full race coverage see page 22. Dave Sadowski and Team Desmo will be hosting a riding school and track day at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, on July 6-7. For more information call . Tom Parrott at 404/255-5028 or Sadowski at 706/367-1700. The AMA has released a new rule amendment for the Superbike National Championship Series. The rule reads: "Engine displacement of any model may not be increased more than five percent above the original engine specification in order to achieve the displacement limit." This thwarts the possibility of a Ducati 916 bored out to 995cc, similar to what the V-twins are reportedly using in the World Superbike Series. After two of four events, Team Valvoline Suzuki holds a commanding lead in the EBC Brakes Triple Crown Challenge. Teammates Michael Martin and Chuck Graves have 95 points, 28 better than David &·Goliath's Dave Sadowski and Greg Gibson, who replaced the injured Dale Quarterley at the most recent round in Grattan, Michigan, on June 25. Dutchman's Racing's Fritz Kling and Rick Kirk are a point back in third with 66. The next race is at Portland International Raceway on August 26 - the same day as the AMA SuperTeams race at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California. For full coverage of the Grattan WERA F-USA event see page 10 With local hotshoe Greg Gibson recruited onto the Team LaBelle David & Goliath Triple Crown team when Dale Quarterley crashed on Sunday morning, Gibson needed a liberal dose of duct tape to make his former Linnley Oarke Yamaha FZR750 fit the Team LaBelle colors. Over at Dutchman Racing, the same sort of tapework was being applied to Rick Kirk's Kawasaki. Kirk had been planning to run Dutchman's second Yamaha FZRI000, but it was damaged at the Loudon AMA National and there was no time to get it fixed. Kirk, who first rode the Kawasaki at Road America, plans to use the bike to contest the NASB races, as well as the Brainerd AMA National and the Gateway Park AMA National. Dutchman Racing's Fritz Kling has found a solution to the conflict between the next F-USA round at Portland and the AMA National at Sears Point, both running on August 27. "We're doing both," Kling said. "We're going to Sears on Saturday (for the SuperTeams race) then putting everything in the t.ruck and driving 10 hours to Portland. We sign up and go. I know I'm not driving. When we signed up for the Triple Crown Challenge we knew we had to go." Because he won't be able to qualify, Kling said he would start the first of two legs from the back row, ·but could improve his starting spot in the second based on his first-leg finish. Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver went to Watkins Glen Raceway in upstate New York following the AMA National at Loudon to help the AMA with a viability study of the famed circuit. Oliver and Mark McDaniel did the riding, with Oliver's teammate Chuck Sorensen touring the circuit in a rental car, along with the AMA's Ron Barrick. "We rode around the standard track, with no protection, at about 60 to 70 percent. We decided, Barrick and I, that we needed a chicane, so we put cones up in turn two to help out with the esses. It's a nice lay-out and nice facility; there's just too much guardrail. We made quite a few recommendations of changes, paving, removing guardrail, air fence, hay bales, and possibly two or three chicanes. It gives them a way to go. You could never race it without drastic changes. However, the basic place is good." Oliver was one of several riders invited who chose to show up and thought the track should be toured by a Superbike rider. "What I don't want is people to show up and say 'Oliver OK' ed the track.' The owners of the track are very receptive to a motorcycle race. They went out of their way to work with us." Team LaBelle's Dave Sadowski took part in a 200 K race at the Suzuka Circuit the weekend prior to the Grattan FUSA race at the invitation of the Yoshimura Suzuki team. The race was a prelude to the Suzuka 8-Hour. Sadowski had made some recommendations to the American arm of Yoshimura Suzuki, and said that once they "gqt around to trying the stuff, they started running up front. One (of the changes) was a component in the engine that needed to be changed and it worked." When Sadowski got to Suzuka he found the Suzuki was 13 mph slower on the straightaways and the "chassis was in left field on a hockey rink. I did six laps with their setup and nearly highsided. I came in and made the front end the way I liked it. We put on another set of forks, a rear shock, and made some chassis modifications. I Went from 2:18 to 2:15. My setup was so different from theirs that they decided no one could run my setup so we scratched the 8-Hour deal. I wasn't interested in running the 8-Hour as part of the scenery." Sadowski qualified 28th for the race and was running 14th when he was taken out by a factory Yamaha rider in the hairpin. "Thank God it's over," he thought. But when he returned to the pits the crew swarmed all over the bike and, when it was done, Fujio Yoshimura said, "Go, we must practice. He wanted to see his bike run with the other guys. 1 did a fifth-gear wheelie down the pit straight. At the end of the race a track official came up to me and made me write something that I would never wheelie in the pit area of Suzuka Circuit again." Sadowski was riding in place of Kevin Magee, who sat out the race with a wrist injury. The Yoshimura team is sponsored in Japan by JoMo, a gas station service company. Indiana's Keith Lynn (Kaw) scored the Funny Bike win at the AMA/Prostar Northeast Nationals in West Lebanon, New York, June 23-25, with an 8.251second, 107-mph run on the Lebanon Valley Dragway. In the Pro Modified class, Steve Drake (Suz) scored the win on a 7.332-second, 179.74-mph blast, and Dave Shultz (Suz) continued his winning ways in the Pro Stock class with a 7.675/175'(l6. AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: At Honda of Troy in Troy, Ohio, on July 14 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Team Honda's Jeremy McGrath and Steve Lamson, and Honda of Troy's Mike Craig, Brian Swink, James Dobb, Mike Brown and Todd DeHoop are scheduled to appear. CORRECTION: In our riding impression of the KTM R/XC 400 and 620 dual sport motorcycles (June 14, number 23), we reported that the new QwikSilver II carburetors used in the motorcycles are built by the some company that built the old Lectron carburetors. This isn't exactly t.rue. Instead, Lectron and QwikSilver are not associated with each other. The only connection is that Mike Edmonston, the son of Bill Edmonston, who is best know for developing the Lake Injector, EI (Blue Magnum) and Lectron carburetors, was instrumental in the development of the QwikSilver II carburetors. .a r----------------------------------------------------------------, ([!ill ~ SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM Name _ o Address Gty _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ State _ _ Zip Order Date _ Please start my subscription to Cycle News: o Every week for one year (SO issues) for $38.00 (can be billed 3 monthly payments) o Every week for two years (100 issues) for $70.00 o Six months second class (25 issues) for $19.00 L o This is a 0 New Subscription o Renewal One year (50 issues), 2nd class Canada or Mexico and all other foreign countries $78.00 (U.S. funds). First class and airmail rates available upon request. 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