Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I.·IN:THEWIND .. I Rodney Smith (Suz) won the opening roun d o f the A MA Natio na l H a r e Scrambles Series in Hollister Hills, California, on Febru ar y 4, top pin g Steve Hatch (Suz) . Scott Plessinger (KTM ) w as third. An es timate d 1800 entries were fille d ou t for th e 16th Annual Desert Vipers MC Ad elanto Gr and Prix in Ad elanto, Cali forn ia , o n Feb ruary 3 ~4 . Te am Gr een' s Ty Davis (Kaw ) competed in fiv e clas ses and w on thre e o f th em. Davi s captured wins in th e Pro, 250cc and Op en classes, and was leading the 12Sccclass before running out of gas. He w as also out in front of the Four -Stroke class wh en his bike se ize d . Dana Van Stee (Kaw) topped the 125cc class, whil e Todd Campbell (Hon) went on to win the Four-Stroke division . Vet Expert rid er Corky Krickbaum died in the Adelanto Grand Prix on February 3 as a result of injuries su st ained in a crash. Krickbaum wa s a District 37 an d Viking s Motorcycle Oub member. Mike Kidd Promotions, the producers of the AMA-sanctioned PJ1 Super Arenacross Series, w er e forced to cancel round eight of the series, scheduled for Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on February 2-4, due to a massive ice sto rm which cau sed power outages throughout the city, including the Lawrence Joe Veterans Mem orial Colis eum - the site of the race. "My entire staff, along with city and building officials, made ever y effort to try and salvage the event, bu t without power at the coliseum we had no choice other than to cancel the entire event," Mike Kidd said. "With four consecutive se llo u ts during the month of January, w e hav e b e en fortun at e t o es ca pe th e severe w inter wh ich h a s plagued mu ch of th e co u n t ry ." Th e ev ent wa s not res ch eduled, therefore rider en try fees will be refu n d ed and ticket holders sho uld contact the LJVM ticket office at 910/ 727-2930, or a local Ticketrnaster ou tlet, for a full refund. Troy Bayliss (Kaw) w on th e openi ng ro u n d of the 199 6 Sh ell Au stra lia n Superb ik e Seri es a t Sandown Park in Au stralia on Februar y 4. Bayliss rode the ex-Ma t Mladin Kaw asaki to a convin cing win after Peter Goddard (Suz) crashed while chall en gin g for the lead. Shawn Giles (Due) en de d up seco nd in th e firs t leg wi th former Malay s ia n Superbike Champi on Benn Archibald (Du c) th ird. Bayli ss topped hi s teammate Martin Craggill (Kaw ) i n the seco n d le g, w ith God dard e n d ing up third . American Suzuki has anno un ced that the company will condu ct a safety recall and mod ification camp aign on all .1996 RM125 and RM2S0 models. Ow ners of such machines have been instructed not to ride thei r motor cycles until the cushion leve r rod in the rear suspension has been replaced by an au tho rize d Suzuki de aler. Suzuki has determined tha t hard impact to the rear suspension can lead to cracks formi ng in, or breakage of the p ivot section of the cushion lever rod, lea ding to collapse of the rear sus pension and red uced ability to control the m o t o rcycl e. In addition, the -RM250 bikes must also have the kickstarter arm rep laced , as some of the units have been brea kin g off. Owne rs are advised to contact thei r dealer to arrange appointmen ts to have the necessary warranty service pe rformed. 2 Anyone who p ur chases a new Kawasaki sportbike in 1996 will be entitled to take th e Penguin Racing Sch ool at h a lf.price, according to a press release issue d by Pen gu in Racin g Schools. This ha lf p rice deal will also be honor ed for the tw o-da y Pro School which is held just prior to the AMA Superb ike Na tional at New H ampsh ire Intern ati on al Sp eedway. For m ore in form ati on, ca ll 904/ 795-8895. Cycle News corresp ondent Daryl Flack reports that two-time World Champion Michael Doohan has been n am ed the Au st ralian Mal e Athlete of th e Yea r after winning a poll of Mobil customers : a n d reader s of the Murd och-own ed n ewsp ap e r, Th e Austra li an. Pri or to Christmas, Do ohan was named Au strali a' s number-one sportsman by 30 spo rts jou rnalists in Au stralia' s Sports Wee kl y 1995 Roll of H onor. In both polls, Doohan was cho sen over go lfer Greg Norman, world boxing champion Kostya Tzyu and a horde of Australian cricket and ru gby players. Before flying to his Malaysian test, Doohan led a rally of 15,000 motorcyclists to the Australian cap ital o f Canb erra on January 27, where leading two-wheel activists di scu ssed a varie ty of road-safet y issues with se v e r a l p oliticians in an open forum. Tadayuki Okada and Honda's 500cc Vtwin GP racer ended up with the fastest lap times at the four-d ay, rain-interrupted IRTA presea son te st in Shah Alam, Malaysia, held Janu ary 29-February 1. Okada lapped at 1:24.2 to top Michael Dooh an ' s best lap o f 1:24 .4. Luca Cadalora wa s third- fa stest o n the Kanemoto H ond a a t 1:24 .8. Loris Capirossi clicked off a 1:25.4 on th e Marlboro Rainey Yamah a to lead Norifumi Abe (1:25.5), Doriano Romboni (1:25.6), Carles Checa (1:26.2), Kenny Roberts Jr. (1:26.8) an d Jean-Michel Bayle (1:27.3). Robert s Jr. su ffered a bro ken leg on the final day of the test (see Wind Box). Michael Doohan wasn 't overly conce rned ab out n ot being th e qu icke st rider in the Malaysian test, according to Cy cl e N ews cor re sp ond ent Berni e McGu ire. "Serious ly, I'm not too concerned abou t an y of the ot he r ride rs," Dooh an said. "I just have to concentra te on what I'm doing, an d if I give my best effort, th en ther e is no po int wo rryi ng abo ut the othe r gu ys. If the y've beaten m e, th en I know I' ve g iven m y b est effort . Basically, I' ve just got to do my own thi ng an d be the best I can. There are a lot of fast gu ys out there, bu t I've just got to put it out of my mind and d o my own thing." . Dooh an has again spo ken ou t in regards to weight limits in 500cc GP racing, especially now with the new Ho nda Vtwin an d Aprilia 400 doing so we ll in p reseason tes ts:' "The 250 is su rp rising here at this circuit (Shah Alam) , wit h the lap time between a 250 and a 500 being very small, " Doohan said . "The biggest problem we have with a four-cylinder, at a circuit like this, is the weight. If we can red uce the weight of our machine, I' m sure we can go quicker. We don't need to redesign the motorcycle. We just need to pu ll the weig ht back off. We are going to ru n into the same problems as the Aprilias. In a race situation, it's not going to be as good as it is in a flying lap . It wo u ld be the same if you put a 250 in a 500cc race. For qualifying you get a clean lap and a good result, but in a rac e situation, w here it is stop star t and the re are other bikes involved , it' s not rea lly th e ideal weapon. If we all start racing twin cylinders, I think you Roberts Jr. hurt in Mala sia test M arlboro Roberts Yamaha's Kenny Roberts Jr. suffered a broken righ t leg on January 31 after crashing his Yamah a YZR500 on the third da y of a four-day IRTA test at the Shah Alam circuit in Malaysia. Robert s cras hed earl y in the morning sessio n on Wednes day and suffered break s to both the tibia an d fibula of his righ t leg. That afternoo n, he and his team-owner feather, Kenny Roberts, Sr., flew back to California, where the younger Roberts underwent surgery to have the leg plated that night. "I fell down and there w as a lou d crash," Roberts joked on Monday, February 5. "Actu ally, I was just running aro u nd five or six secon ds off the pac:e try ing out some different gearing . It was through a left-to-right, I gave it some gas and was looking at the next comer, the right, and it steppe d out. I w as on line and ·the tires were wa rme d up, so I don't know wh at happened . But it sure sho t me up in the air. I've had it plated and screwed and they say it went well and I won 't have any arthritis; and there was no damage to the joint. They say after the six to eight weeks of healing, I'll be okay to rid e. Tha t pu ts us right at the first Grand Prix. Right now I'm just thinking about getting well. Every World Champion I can think of has gone int o a seas on hurt, so wh y shou ld I be any different?" With Robert s Jr.'s teammate Jean-Michel Bayle already having crashed on the ope ning day of the test, de stroying one of the team' s YZR500s, the team h as withdrawn from its schedu led test session in Sen tul, Indonesia, the week of February 5. will see th e cro w ds dwindle. Su re th e raci ng will be closer, if everyone is on the same bike. But it won't be spectacular. There will not be wheel-spinning. Th ere will n ot b e wh eel -standin g (wheelies). Peopl e will think, "I can do that on a Sund ay when I go riding in the mountains.' Wh ereas a four cylinder is spectacular to w atch." H ond a Pons ride r Alberto Puig didn' t atte nd the Mal aysian test aft er having furth er su rgery on the left leg he broke last season. The Spaniard wa s operated on in Rochester, New York, jus t prior to Christmas, an d is exp ected to test in Ind onesia this week. Loris Capirossi d idn 't hesitate to p raise h is new team owner, Wayne Rainey, d u rin g th e Malaysian test. "I spen t a long tim e with Wayn e, s taying at h is h ome in California, " the 22-year -old Italian sai d . "The d irt tracking in California has helped me a lot. It is jus t not possible to do that in Italy in the off-season . Wayne and I have the same feeling. I h ave spoken a lot w ith Wayne, an d now h e is my tea cher." Cap ir ossi h as gained nearly nine pounds, thanks to a training regim en ou tli ned by Rai ney. "This is m y first year wi th Yamaha," Capi rossi said. " It is a factory bike, with full factory support. Last year I had little prob lems with Honda ge tti ng w ha t I wa nted, but now with Yama ha - w hen I ask for some thing, they say, "No prob lem.' This is very good for me." One rider who was far from happy with his performance at the Malaysian tests was Ge r man RaIf Waldmann, w ho stormed away early from the test - disgusted with the performance of the 1996 Honda NSR 250. "Th e H on d a is shit," Waldmann said after lap ping nearly two secon d s slower than Apri lia's World Champion Max Biaggi. Word has it that former National MX and Supercross Champion Je ff Ward has sig ned on to become a pa rt of th e Doricott Racing Indy Lights team. Ward will be teamed with Shigeaki Hattori in a tw o-car effo rt. Hattori, of Okayama, Jap an , is a form er Formula 3 and Formul a At lantic competitor. Ward and Hattori will compete in the Tl -race Firestone Ind y Lights which kicks off March 3 in Homestead, Florida. Centerstand, the Southern California li stener-sponsored, commercial- free, motorcycle talk show on KPFK 90.7 FM, can now b e h eard at 7 a.m . on Saturdays. The one-hour show, which is hosted by Margaret Fowler and Dick Miller, is now in its 15th ye ar and is the .only motorcycle radi o show west of the Mississippi. Th e Se cond Ann ua l AHRMA' SoCal Motocross Series Awards Party will be held on Saturday, February 10, at 2 p.m. at Tro p hy 's Sp orts Grill in San Diego; California, jus t two miles fr om Ja ck Murphy St adium, the site of th e San Diego Supercross. Former AMA National Motocross Champion Marty Smith is sched u led to present award s to the AHRMA vintage racers. For more information, call 714 / 897-8265. Sport Rider Magazine editor Nick lenatsch is th e sche duled gue st for Sp or t Bike N ight a t America Live in Sa cramento, California, on Februar y 13. For more information, call 916/373-1557. The AMA recen tly presented 'a check for $22,254 to the leadership of the N orthwest Motorcycle Association (NMA ) in support of th e grou p 's court battle to keep open a mul tiple-u se trail in the Gifford Pin chot Na tion al Forest of Washing ton. Th e m one y ca me fr om th e Northw est Tra il Fu nd , establis he d by the AMA to solicit d on at ion s for th is I legal·battle. The March 10 running of the Daytona 200 By Arai w ill agai n be televised live on Th e Nashville Network (TNN) . The race is sc hedule to start at 1:30 p .m . Check your local listings . A look through the Daytona 200 record book shows tha t the odds are aga inst Scott Ru sse ll in his quest to becom e the on ly rid er to wi n the race four tim es. The other members of the three-victory club - Dick Klam foth, Brad Andres, Roger Reiman and Kenn y Roberts - each collected a sing le win an d then back-toback victo ries. To secure a fourth Day. tona 200 crown, Russell would also race into the record books as the only rider to win the Superbike Oassic three cons ecutive times. Rocky Agusta, so n of Count Agusta of MV Agu sta fame, competed in the Rolex 24 Hou r at Daytona on February 3-4, codriving a Callaway Corvette to third in th e GTS-l division and 13th overall. It was Agusta' s first trip to Daytona as he is a regu lar in th e Europea n Grand Touri ng Series .

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