Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERView' Lyle Lovett --=.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:..:.-~~~~~- cent "Grey Flash" SOOcc single into third place. The duel in Formula 750cc should have been Triumph against BSA - but as Big D Cycles rider Chris Stobaugh wheelied his eight-valve Triumph twin away from the start line, the Triumph screamed in protest, and a pushrod left its mount. Stobaugh pulled in at turn one, leaving BSA triple rider Dave Russell a clear path to the lead. Russell started to pull clear of Norton-mounted Robert Goodpaster, and his lead seemed unassailable - until the BSA rider locked the front wheel over the stutter bumps in turn one, slid the bike into the corner sideways and looked set for a trip to the haybales. Russell was thrown out of the saddle but regained control, and kept the lead to the end, at a slightly slower pace. In the Sportsman 750cc race, one of the best filled grids of the day charged down into turn one. By the time the carnage was over, Larry Kirby had pulled into the lead over James Comstock's Norton and Chris Stobaugh's Triumph twin. By leaning his flat-track styled Yamaha XS twin over to the maximum, Kirby kept the lead to the checkered. The 250cc GP race wasn't notable for the competition - Jim Neuenburg took the lead from the start, and held it for the win - but for the nostalgia quotient. It was Jim Neuenburg's 25th Anniversary - from when he bought his winning Bultaco, a 1970 model Metralla 250. It was 25 years ago to the week that the then 16-year-old Neuenburg spotted the Bultaco on the floor of his local dealer. The street bike was lost in the dirt bike dealership, and was virtually going begging at the end of the season. Jim remembers, "The bike cost $541 new, and the dealer that sold it to me in San Rafael raced in the dirt track series at Steamboat this week." The Premier 500cc race turned into a duel of the 350s. Roper and Cronshaw simply swapped the bikes they had ridden in the 350cc GP race, and Cronshaw got the faster of the pair of 1962 AJS 350s. Cronshaw got a good start, and everything went smoothly from there for the Lancaster, England-based rider. Roper admitted afterwards: "I thought I could catch up, until we got to the con. dos on the first lap, then knew I couldn't. Cronshaw just went away." Steamboat Springs Road Rece Steemboat Springs, Coloredo Results: september 16, 1995 200 GP, 1. Byron Blend (CB); 2. Quinn Swift (Mon), 3. Gordon Pulis (Mai); 4. Michael Gontesky (Due); S. Curtis Harper (Hod). SOO PREM 1. John Cronshaw (AJS), 2. Dave Roper (AJS); 3. Larry POOM (See); 4. Jeffrey Elings (Mat); S. Virgin Elings (Nor). 350 GP: 1. Dave Roper (A}S); 2. John Cranshaw (AJS): 3. Thomas Marquardt (Aer); 4. Jim Neuenburg (Aer); 5. Kurt Mund (H-D). FORMULA SOO: 1. Dave Rosno (Hon); 2. Richard Merhar (Yam); 3. Rick Newman (Yam); 4. John Chrismer (Yam); 5. Ride Doughty (Yam). FORMULA 250: 1. Richard Merhar (Yam); 2. Ride Doughty (Y~m); 3. William Boyce (Yam); 4, John Loude (JML); 5. a"" Saam (Yam). FORMULA 750, 1. Dave Russell (BSA); 2. Robert Goodpaster (Nor), 3. Kevm McKinney (M-G)' 4. ~chael Haracourt (fri); 5. Daniel Jacobs: (Tri). 750 SPRTSMN: 1'. Larry Kirby (Yam); 2. James Comstock (Nor): 3. Chris Stobaugh (Tri); 4. Randy Bradesku (BMW); 5. Glenn Cambell (BMW), 500 SPRTSMN: 1. Patrick Schieffer (Hon); 2. Timothy Stancill (Hon); 3. Greg Tagaris (Due); 4. Dennis Miller (Hon); 5. Stuart Carter (Due). I' 350 SPRTSMN, 1. POatrick Schieffer (Hon); 2. Timothy Stancill (Hon); 3. Greg Tagaris (Due): 4. Dennis Miller (Hon); 5. Stuart Carter (Due). CLSSC '60" 1. Bobby Winters (BSA); 2. Jeffrey EHngs (Mat); 3. Bruce Redding (AJS); 4. Gordon Menzie (Tn), S. Lon McCroskey (A)S). PRE-1940: 1. Blake Wilson (lnd); 2. Cordon Menzie (Tri); 3. Butch Baer (lod); 4. Doc Batsleer (lod); 5. Gregory Frazie (lnd). CLASS C, 1. Blake Wilson (lnd); 2. Gordon Menzie (Tn); 3. Carleton Palmer IT (Vin); 4. Doc Blatsl..r (fnd); 5, Erich Bley (BMW). FORMULA VINT: 1. Dave Rosno (Hon): 2. James Comstock (Nor); 3. Glenn Campbell (BMW); 4. Bob ewby (Yam); S. John Christner (Yam). 250« GP, 1. Jim Neuenburg (Bul); 2. Byron Blend (Hon); 3. Harold Parks (Due); 4. Richard Bonelli (Yam); 5. Larry Poons (Due). ([; By Andy Saunders 4: ~ovett Yle is a determindly individual singer I songwriter, who just happens to love motorcycles. Once pigeonholed as a country-western star, his eclectic rock, blues and country albums have crossed over into the mainstream and ensured his exclusion from the country music hall of fame. He's also an accomplished actor; he played a detective in Robert Altman's smash hit "The Player." Lyle has been making the tabloids ever since his spectacular but doomed marriage to Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts, although the supermarket scandal sheets have recently published pictures showing a reconciliation may be possible. But I'm not here to ask Lovett painful questions about acting or. his love life. He's in enough, more immediate pain right now, and I want to keep the questions to the subject of motorcycles. Lovett was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to take part in an AHRMA vintage motocross, and we'd hoped to capture his riding talents on film. No such luck. We're a little late. He's just crashed the Fay Meyers Honda 250 Elsinore on one of his first practice laps. "He can't have gone more than two laps," an eyewitness said. "It was just after the start of practice. He came into the jump on the wrong line, hit the ditch and went over." Lovett hasn't been lucky with motorcycles lately, breaking his collarbone in a previous fall from a dirt bike on a trip to Baja California. When I see him in the pits, he's just back from the hospital - with a brand-new: cast on his right arm, his guitarpicking side. He's somber, but doesn't seem depressed. Like everyone else who has ever crashed in the dirt, the moments before the incident keep replaying in his mind. "If I'd just walked the track; I'd have been fine," he says. What happened before the fall? I was riding the Novice Sportsman 250cc class, and it's a very good class to start in. The 1972 Honda Elsinore came from a shop in Denver - Fay Meyers Motorcycles. We played here, at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, about a month ago and I stopped in at the shop. They invited me to come up and ride. It was such a nice offer, I couldn't pass it up. We had the bike up here yesterday; we dialed it in, and it was running great and handling great and then I just hit the ditch. What damage have you done to your wrist? It's a fractured radius, and the bone wasn't displaced. It's just a crack, and the doctors say it shoUld heal up within four weeks or so. rt is going to interfere with your schedule, or your guitar playing? Right now we're not doing shows, so it's a good time to do it. I can still move my fingers though, so the way I play guitar (smiles), probably nobody will be able to tell the difference. How long have you been riding motorcycles? I got a minibike when I was 10, started riding enduros with my dad when I was 12, and started riding motocross when I and it got me interested in off-road riding again. This is my very first vintage race. Did you decide to get the same type of motorcycle you rode as a youngster? Well, I used to ride Pentons when I worked at Cycle Shack, so I went out and got a KTM 250EXC and it's terrific. Do you do any other dirt riding? I went on a Chris Haines Baja trip, which they just did a piece for MotoWorld on, and on that trip we rode Kawasaki dirt bikes. I really enjoyed that experience. This vintage race has been a painful experience for you. Do you think you'll try it again? This really is a lot of fun. The track is really suited to these bikes, and they've done a great job of preparing it. This won't. be my last vintage race. I really love seeing the bikes that were racing back when I was a kid. Seeing these old Huskys makes me want to get back on the track ... I still have my last Husky. You kept it over 20 years? Yes, it's a '74 Husky 125. Lyle Lovett In the pits et St8llmboat Springs - complete with newly fitted cest. was 13. I'm from Houston, Texas, and would ride the local tracks out there. There's a track just north of there, in Conroe, Texas, where I saw my first international motocross in 1970, and I was hooked. Sylvain Geboers was there on the Suzuki team, John DeSoto... I got to see all those guys. It was great. Then I was lucky enough to get a job as a go-fer and parts guy at Cycle Shack in Houston. It was a dirt bike shop. Back then we sold Huskys and Pentons, Maicos, Greeves, Sachs-engined DKWs, Hodakas, and we carried BMW streetbikes. It was a great off-road shop. It's still in existence today and it's where I do all my off-road shopping. The same guy owns it. I didn't ride for about 20 years, but about a year ago I was given a Harley street bike, and I started riding again Do you still ride streetbikes? Yes, it's fun to putt around on the streets, but my real interest is off-road. Any interest in other forms of motorcycle racing? Well, I think it would be fun to go to a road racing school It must bring back memories also to see some of the stars of those days, like Dick Mann and Jeff Smith, still out there racing. I didn't get to speak to Mr. Mann, but just seeing him around, walking around the pits - it's amazing. People like Dick Mann, their life is motorcycles, they're just such good examples for the sport, for people who are interested in riding. It does a lot of good for motorcycling, just to see them come out to an event like this. Have you felt any pressure, coming out here, being a celebrity? Well, you .know people are very nice, even when I was a teenager racing, the friends I made out at the track are still people I know today. It's really like stepping back to my childhood for me. You get to hang out in the pits with folks, and people come over and help you with your bike. You meet really great people, everyone wants to have a good time, and people are as interested, I think, in looking at your bike as beating you out on the track - so it's a friendly atmosphere. It's terrific. If I could make a liNing riding vintage motocrossers, I would. CN

• Cover