Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Steve Morehead (Rtx) ~on the 20-lap main event during round three of the AMA 600cc National Championship Series at the Converse Fairgrounds in Converse, Indiana, on August 20. Former 600cc National Champion Chris Carr (H-D) finished second ahead of Georgie Price IV (KTM). Carr currently leads fhe series over Rich King (Hon), 36-33, but will miss the final round scheduled for Castle Rock, Washington, on September 9 due to prior commitments. Joe Kopp (W-R) currently sits third in the points standings with 25. MOTehead and Scott Parker (H-D) are tied for fourth place with 20 points and one win each. John Myers defeated John Smith to win the NHRA Champion Auto Stores National at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota, on August 20. Myers clocked a 7.63-second/174-mph run to win the finals, his third straight victory and his fourth of the season. Myers leads the championship over Dave Schultz, 788780. ! Davey Yezek and Cliff Palmer were the big winners at the $72,000 Suzuki RM Challenge East motocross races at Pleasure Valley Raceway in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 20. The event was restricted to Suzukimounted riders. Suzuki invited the top Suzuki contingency money winners of the year to compete for prize money totaling $72,000. Yezek scored the 12Scc A-class win, while Palmer posted the 2S0cc A-class win, and both riders earned $2000 each from the purse. Other class winners includ- ed Charlie Bogard and Travis Pestrana. American Honda has announced the signing of motocrossers Danny Carlson and Bryan McGavran to ride the company's 1996 Honda CR80R motocrossers to help introduce the allnew 80cc-class Hondas. Carlson, 16, and McGavran, 13, made their debuts at the NMA World Mini MX in Ponca City. Team SplitFire/Pro-CircuitlKawasaki will again be made up of at least three riders for the 1996 Supercross and National MX Series. So far, David Pingree has re-signed with the team, and Chad Pederson will, for the first time, sport the Team SplitFire colors next year. According to Mitch Payton, the team's founder, the third member has yet to be determined. The team will again compete on Kawasaki KX12Ss and will most likely contest the West Coast 12Scc Supercross Series and the 12Scc outdoor Nationals. Current members Ryan Hughes and Mickael Pichon won't be back. Hughes has already said that he will join the factory Kawasaki team next year, while Pichon has returned to his home in France to campaign the GP circuit. The third member, Casey Johnson, who broke his leg halfway 'through the season, will receive support from Payton ip '96. The Swedes have announced their team for the upcoming Motocross deS Nations. Joakim Karlsson will ride a Honda CR12S in the 12Scc class, Joakim Eliasson wjll ride a Yamaha YZ2S0 in the 250cc division, and Peter Parker wins Dutc'h 500cc MX GP; Everts tops 250s hreveport, Louisiana's Trampas Parker (right) scored the overall win at the World Championship 500cc MX Series round held in Rhenen, Holland, August 20. Parker, riding a self-sponsored KTM 360, went 3-1 on the day to score the overall win despite piloting a motorcycle with nearly half the displacement of that of most of his rivals on the horsepower-robbing sand track in Holland. The win was bittersweet for Parker. Despite recording the overall victory, Parker, a two-time World Champion, only gained one point on series leader Joel Smets, who posted 2-2 moto finishes on his big-bore, four-stroke Husaberg. With just one round remaining in the series, the Belgian savors a healthy 19-poinHead over Parker, 310-291. Third in the series is New Zealand's Darryl King (Kaw). The title-deciding final round will be held in Germany, A ugust 27. Finishing third overall at the Dutch GP was former champ Jacky Martens, who rode his Husqvama four-stroke to 5-4 moto finishes. Rounding out the top five finishers were the tqp-placing Dutch rider Carlo Hulsen, on a Honda, and first-moto winner, Husqvama-mounted Johan Boonen, of Belgium. Belgian Stefan Everts moved to within 12 points of clinching his and Kawasaki's first World Motocross title when he scored his fifth 250cc GP wiIl of the season at August 20 Suzuka in Japan, the penultimate round of the series. The Belgian was content to follow home Yamaha-mounted Frenchman, Yves Demaria in the first 45-minute moto as all of the riders paced themselves in the heat with temperatures well over 100 degrees, and then Everts romped home the winner in moto two. Demaria finished sixth in the second motO' for sixth overall. Second on the day went to Italian Andrea Bartolini who combined 7-2 moto finishes on a Yamaha, while American Tallon Vohland went 3-5 for third overall on a Kawasaki. Finishing fourth overall is Everts' only threat for the title, Belgian Marnicq Bervoets. The Suzuki rider, Bervoets, carded a pair of fourth-place finishes and now chases Everts by 29 points, 407-378. The series concludes in France, September 3. Completing the top five overall at Suzuka was Dutchman Pedro Tragter who posted 8-3 moto finishes on a Suzuki. Vohland currently holds down third in the series, 66 points. behind Bervoets. However, one point behind the Californian is Great Britain's Kurt Nicoll (Hon). S . .e g< 0\ ..... o C'"l ... ~ .3 ....... 2 Russell to re-sign with Lucky Strike Suzuki' G rand Prix rookie Scott Russell (right), who earlier this year bolted the Muzzy Kawasaki squad for a place on the Lucky Strike Suzuki 500cc team, is set to stay with the team for the 1996 season, according to team management. Russell, who. replaced the injured Kevin' Schwantz at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello at the beginning of June, is expected to confirm the signing of a one-year contract before the next GP on September 17 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said Garry Taylor, the Lucky Strike Suzuki team manager. "We hope to have it all sorted out before South America," Taylor said in Bmo. "We're happy with what he's done so far. Perhaps that has not been manifested by the results. But he's put his name up. there with the fast guys." Taylor said that the signing was being held up because the Suzuki factory was on vacation and senior members of Lucky Strike were traveling. "Our option hasn't expired. We're aware that other teams are talking to hinl." 'Tm hoping they'll sign me," the 30-year-old Georgian said at Brno. With 500cc Grand Prix seats being highly prized next year, there was some belief that Suzuki would tap the wealth of young riders coming out of the 250cc class or World Superbike. Promotor's Troy Corser had been offered the ride Russell eventually got, but had to turn it down because he already had a contract. The team also talked with Muzzy Kawasaki's Anthony Gobert about the Schwantz vacancy, along with .Chesterfield Aprilia's Jean-Michel Bayle and 250cc World Champion Max Biaggi. One rumor, vigorously denied, was that Biaggi had tested the Suzuki before signing with Aprilia two days later. But, in the end, Russell's experience, results, and ability to work well within the team are what kept him at Suzuki. When asked why he would keep Russell, Taylor said, "Because he's fast. I mean, top-three potential immediately with a shot at the World Championship. Others aren't fast, they're fastish. Scott is an impressive mix of talent, dedication, and aggression." On the morning of the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, where he qualified on the front row, he was the fastest rider in the morning warmup before Frenchman JeanPierre Jeandat turned into him while doing a plug chop, causing a horrific accident. Russell broke a bone in his left wrist, a ~ne in his left foot, and later found he'd also suffered whiplash. "1 was a mess," Russell said. He spent the past three weeks at home in Georgia resting, then found, at Bmo, that he'd lost muscle strength. "I'm just not strong enough to flick it around," he said after qualifying 12th. Among ·the fallback offers that Russell has is a very credible $1 million offer to race a Ducati in World Superbike. Though he wouldn't say where the offer came from, the Promotor team had offered him that same amount last winter. Promotor has also recently expressed interest in leasing Honda NSRSOOs to contest next year's SOOcc World Championship. Johansson will be aboard a Husqvarna four-stroke in the SOOcc class. Karlson, a top 2S0cc GP rider who finished fourth in the. 12Scc World Championship in 1993, is being moved to the 12Scc class to make room for Eliasson, the 1993 European Champion. Johansson i-=urrently fourth in the SOOcc World Championship. San Diego, California-based Lars Larsson will serve as team manager for Sweden in the event. Ricky Smith, the dirt tracker who was injured in the season-ending Del Mar Mile last October, recently underwent seven hours of reconstructive surgery to remove muscle tissue from his back to transfer it to his right arm. The operation was performed in an effort 1995 AMA Fall Classic MX Series set T he AMA Fall Oassic Motocross Series will return in 1995 with backing from two companies. The six-event AMA Fall Classic MX Series will be presented by Dirt Shirts Inc., which has been a sponsor of the series since its inception three years ago, along with second-year sponsor Honda of Troy. The 1995 Fall Classic Series will visit six motocross venues in the country, opening in Buchanan, Michigan, at Red Bud Track 'n' Trail on September 17. AMA professional motocross racers will compete head to head with top-level amateurs for a $5000 purse at each event, plus a $10,000 series bonus. The featured class in the Fall Classic is unique in that it allows a wide variety of motocross racing machines, with unlimited engine capacity. Following is the series schedule: September 17 September 24 October 1 October 8 October 15 October 22 Red Bud Track 'n' Trail Birch Creek Motorsports Raceway Park Lincoln Trails Daniel Boone Motocross Park Muddy Creek Raceway Buchanan, Michigan Danville, Virginia Englishtown, New Jersey Casey, Illinois London, Kentucky Blountville, Tennessee

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