Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I· Defending National Enduro Champion Ty Davis (Kaw) scored the over all victory at the open ing' ro u n d of the AM A N ational Championship Enduro Series at the Quicksilver Nation al Endu ro in Coalin ga, California, February 18. Davis dropped 12 route points, topping second -p lace finisher Pat Ga rraha n (Kaw) by five points, 12-17. Third went to '94 champ Steve Hatch (Suz) with 24 points, beating out teammate Randy Hawkins (Su z) on th e tie breakers. Kevin Hines (Hon) finished fifth w ith 27.508 points. Rounding out the top 10 were Larry Roeseler (Kaw) with 27 .335 points, Kelby Pepper (Kaw) with 28, Mike Lafferty (KTM) wi th 33, Brian Ga rrahan (Kaw) wi th 34 and Jason Dah ners (KTM) wi th 35. Je ro my Bueh l (Kaw) aced the 125cc class on both days of competition at the February 17 PJ1 Super Arenacross Series in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mike Jon es (Suz) was the 250cc-class winner on Friday, and Jim my Gaddis (Kaw) topped the class on Saturday. Defending series ch am p io n Gaddis lead s Buehl in th e series point standings, 623-597. Casey Johnson (Kaw) was the big winn er at round four of the GF1 Winter Series, held February 18 at .Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. Johnson topped the 125 and 230cc Pro classes. Doug Dubach (Yam ) and Travis Preston (Suz) chased Johnson home in the 250cc cla ss, and M ichael Brandes (Suz ) and Dubach rounded out the top three in the 125cc di vision . Grand National Cross Country Champion Scott Ple ssinger (KTM ) won round seven of the AMA Mid-South Winter Hare Scrambles Series in Summertown, Tennessee, February 18. Robert Patterson (Suz) was the runner-up, and Doug Blackwell (Yam ) finished third. Team Yamaha's Doug H en ry made his return to racing at the February 18 round of the GFI Win ter Series, held at Glen H e len Ra ce w a y . According t o Cycl e News co ntributo r To n y Alessi, Henry grabbed the holeshot in the 250cc Pro main and led for the first two lap s before his foo tpeg snapped off and he w ·a s fo rced to ret ire. As s ch edul ed , Henry will compete in the February 24 Atlanta Supercross, Team Su zuki' s G reg Albertyn report s that the ankl e that he injured at the February 10 San Diego Supercross is healing well. "It was only a bad sp rain," sai d the three-time World Champ ion . "I've started riding again, and I will take the next two weeks to concentrate on my fitnes s. Roger (De Coster) w an ts me to sit ou t the Atlanta Su percross to avoid risking injury, because he wan ts me to be rea d y fo r th e (March 3) Ga in esv ill e 25 0cc Na tional. H e' d much rat her see me win there than ge t hurt in Atlanta." The June 8-9 round of the National Reliab ilitv Enduro Series in Tillam ook, Or egon.i has bee n ca n cel e d . The recen t flo oding in th e Pacifi c Nort hwest knocked out all access roads to the race sight and the roa ds w on 't be repa ired in time for th e T ill amoo k Quali fi er. Th e even t will not be resched uled, makin g it a three -round se ries. As a result, only fou r days w ill now be counte d tow ards qualifying for the Finnish Internationa l Six Day En duro in Augus t. The series gets under way in New Waver ly, Texas, May 18-19. Sp ea king o f th e Six Days, four riders h ave ve rba lly agreed to re presen t the Un ited St at es o n th e six-rid e r World Troph y te am . Acco rd in g to Rid e To Win's Dave Bertram , Ty Davis, Randy Hawkins, Steve Hatch a nd Rodney Smith have said they wi ll rid e. Candidates to fill the remaining tw o slots are Chris Smith, former 125cc ational MX Ch ampion Gu y Coo per, reign in g H ar e Scrambles Nationa l Champ ion Sco tt Summers and reigning Grand Nation a l Cro ss Country Ch ampi on Sc ott Plessinger. Honda' s new N SR500V, sensationally the fastest bike at the IRTA "Testin g Club" group factory tests in Malaysia , will be a full 500, rather than the undersize 400 capacity chosen by their for erunners Aprilia, reports Cycle N ews contribu tor M ichael Scott. The new 'ligh tweight twin, which will be raced by Tadayuki Okada in Repsol Ho nda colors and Shinichi Itoh in a separate team (pending sponsors), is clearl y a very different proposition from the Italian machine, su ggestin g that Honda has found d ifferent solutions to th e problems that beset the Aprilia . Aprilia' s chief engineer's aim was to replicate the rev vab ility of a 250; th ei r ene my ha s been midrange torque, even keeping the en gine size down. Thus the machine' s acceleration h as been fu rthe r blunted com pared with the V-fou rs by the need to back off to prevent the front wheel ri sing too high. Honda' s reed-valve m otor may have an ad vantage in it s so fter throttle response compared with the disc-valve motor. Even so, with tw o big 250cc cylinders, the HRC en gineers hav e clearly found a way to deal with the to rqu e w ithout damaging performance. On e possible reason why Loris Reggiani's offer to act as factory tester was declined - perhaps Honda felt that hi s exp erience with Aprilia so far had nothing to offer. The jinx on Team Marlboro Roberts app aren tly ha s not gone away. Following the team's switch to Michelin from Dunlop, two out o f their three riders crashed at Shah Alam, with Jean -M ichel Bayle totally destroying One bike on the first day, and lu ckless Ke nny Rob erts J r . breaking both bones in his lowe r ri ght leg sh ortly after the star t of th e third of four days of testing. Juni or flew home at once and the injury was plated. Cynics ha ve pointed ou t that both rid ers' cras hes - vicious, quick-flick high siders - were typical of a combinati on of in experience and not oriously su d den Michelin tires. The othe r h ighlight of the Grand Pri x tests in Mala ysia and Indon esia was the performance of returned injury victim Alberto Puig. The Spaniard b ro ke h is leg badl y in practice for the French GP last year, an d for a long tim e there was a qu es tion mark over whether he could retu rn at all. The Fortuna H on da rider mi ssed the Shah Alam outing, but came out at Sen tul to run 132 solid laps, placing sixth-fastest behind the V-twins, bu t ahead of teammate Carles Checa and fellow V-four Hon da rider Alex Barros. Various prob lems affl ict th e two new circu itson the Grand Prix roa d racing calen da r, b ut neith er sho ul d threaten th e events. Sentu l showed a w or ryin g tendency to surface dampness , wi th persistent seepage spoiling recent first-time tests for the IRTA Testing Club, and for Lucky Strike Suz uki following on . This was, not surprising ly, during a wet spell - but ther e is clearly no gu arant ee that th e w e a th e r wil l be a ny di ffe rent in earl y Apri l. The problems were rep orted to IRT A a n d to safety officer Fran co IN THE WIND The Grand Prix storm rand Prix roa d racing is set to be blown wi de ope n in a power struggle m ore vicious even than the IRTA-inspired hija ck from the FIM at the end of 1991. The rebelli on is again led by teams' association IRTA, which has signed up for a new breakaway series , run by th e Swiss-based in ternational sports-promotions giant ISL (International Sport and Leisure Compan y). The as-ye t-unnamed new series will begin in 1997. The curren t cont ract between IRTA an d Dorna /TWP, whereby IRTA field s the tearns for the FIM World Championshi p Series, expires at the end of 1996. . Rumors of a takeover bid for Dorna had been gathering stre ngth when the news broke in a release from IRTA on February 16, announcing a new 1D-year contract with ISL, described as "the world's largest sports-promotion com pany." IRTA pr esident Michel Metraux, wh o is understood to have been the chief negotiator of the deal, said,"The agreement guarantees a secure and progressive development of our sport into the next century." Other IRTA officials were exuding confidence after the announcement. "The important thing is the amount of investment th at they will pu t into GP racing," said chief executive Paul Butler. The news follow s months of un certainty concerning one of the web of contracts that has held racing together since the 1992. The original term of all the contracts was five years, but those betw een Dorna and the FIM, leasing all GP rights to the Spanish. TV rights marketing company, had already been renew ed for a further lO-year penod. Meanwhile, Do rna had taken over TWP (Two Wheel Promotions), the firm founded by car-racing mogul Bernie Ecclestone, to contract with race circui ts and promoters, and to subcon tract with IRTA for the supply of competitors. The IRTA /TWP contract had a deadline of August 1995 for renewal, after which both Dorna and IRTA were free to negotiate with ou tsiders. IRTA was known to have contacted Mark McCormack's!MG gr oup am ong others, but the name of ISL has only leaked out in the last week. The packa ge is obviously attractive to IRTA. after five years in which they have pl ayed a key role in improving the packagin g and presentation of GPs. ".We need investment now - not to make money for IRTA. but to develop the commera al potential of motor cycle racing," said Butler before the announcem ent. Getti ng a sport onto TV wa s an incre asingl y com petitive bu siness, he added. ISL is a heavy hitter in thi s regard. The Lucerne-based international organization ha s an impress ive p ortfolio, including ex clusive responsibility for m arketing th e Olympic Games, World and European Cup Soccer, international athletics, skiing,.baseball and cycling: The Jap anese advertising conglomerate Dentsu, the larges t 10 the wor ld, is a major shareholder in ISL. •. How ever, it is far from certain at this stage whether IRTA wi ll be able to command the loyalty of all its members - especially the crucial factory teams and their big-money sponsors. Several of th e top teams have criticized IRTA strongly throughou t 1995 becau se of the way the association's democratic stru ctu re weighs deci sions in favor of . smaller private tearns. One example was the cost-cutting one-bike ru le in the 250 and 1 .25cc classe~, .mtroduced in 1995, then re tained for 1996 in spite of vociferous complaints from Apnha and Yamaha's Wayne Rainey, among others. Sponsors and manufacturers had also formed power grou ps of their own in a bid to retain influen ce they felt was threatened by IRTA. The response from Dorna w ill be crucial. Last week, it ap peared that the mo ve had ta ken Dorna /TWP staff by su rprise. How ever, the group is owned by Banco Santan d er, and had already been on the m arket during 1994 and 1995. It is not inconceivable that they have also been negotiating at high level with ISL to sell Dorna, with their important contracts with the FIM and with the circuit promoters. If some arr an gem ent like this does not take place, GP racing may then be sp lit, with factory teams and big sponsors stayi ng with Dorna and the FlM, and lRTA/lSL p romoting a rival series. "We ge t on very well with Dorna at an operationa l level," said Butler. "We canno t rul e them ou t of our future. On the other hand, there is a doomsd ay scena rio of starting up independently of them and the F1M." . There ha ve been two previous att empts at breaking away from the F!M to found an independent race series. The first was the World Series of 1980, which failed because the FIM blocked circuit-owners from cooperating; the second was the lRTA / Eccleston e b rea kaway of 1991 , whi ch e n ded in th e current co m p rom ise between th e FIM , Dorna / TWP and IRTA. Michael Scott G Uncinl, and track o ffici als prom ised immed iat e actio n in improving ci rcu it d rainage. The ot h er new track is th e Osterreichring near Zeltweg, whi ch has been co m p letely r edesigned a nd re eq u ip ped, courtesy of exte ns ive financial backin g from th e loca l aut horities. Work is proceed ing well, in spite of the su b-Alpine winter, an d we are promised th at the sweeping character of th e o ld track - a popular World Endura nce and Superbike venue, th ough never used for a GP - w ill not be lost. Th e track w ill reta in most of its len gt h: at arou nd 3.6 miles it will be one of the longest of the season, and w ill offer su perb view ing for spectato rs. The probl em ? Simply that it may no t be possible to test at the track before the GP, lead ing to fears of possibl e problems wi th the sur face th at brou gh t ri ders close to s t riking in Argentina an d Brazil last year and this. Although there w ill be a na tio nal race the r e b e fore the G P in August, th e smallest h int of a proble m w ill renew complaints abou t th e short-cu t circui t homologation that is One downside of racing's new regi me. In FIM days, there had to be at least one international race at a trac k before it could be considered fit for a GP. IRTA may still ar range a pre-race test session if enough tea ms askfor it. The difficulties are purely logistical : The GP circus will be b usy e lse• whe re in Europe. Wi 8 a ~ It is purely coinciden tal, insisted team manager Ga rry Tay lor, that th e Lucky Strike Suzuki team did not take part in comparative tests with the other factories at Shah Alam and Sentul. "W e'd already booked our tests when the Testing Club sessions were arranged, " he said. He was speaking in Bali, at the lux- 1

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