Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN 'THE WIND Rodne y Smith (Suz) won th e final rou nd o f the AMA National Championship Reliability Enduro Series in Id aho City, Idaho, on June 1-2. Smith finished just ahead of another Smith Chris Smith (Hon), who grabbed the runner-up honors. Third went to Gu y Cooper (Suz), followed by Jason Dahners (KTM) a nd Pa trick Garrahan (Kaw). Ro d ne y Smi th captured the series championship for the third time. In Boyers, Pennsylvania, Steve Hatch (Suz) ca ptured th e overall wi n at th e Gran d Nation al Cross Country rou nd , on June 2. H atch edged ou t d efend ing cha mp Scott Plessinger (KTM), while Scott S u m me rs (H on ) fini sh ed th ird. Rounding ou t the top five overall were Du ane Conn er (Yam) and Rand y Hawkins (Suz). Paul Pinso nn ault (Hon) and To m Reiser (H -D) topped the AMA National Championship H illclimb in York, Pennsylvania, on Jun e 2. Pinsonnault defeated Mike DeBusk (BSA) and Scott McNeely (Hon) to w in the 540cc class, with Reiser beating Lou Gerencer (HD) and Micke y Dent (H -D) in the BOOcc division. Marc Co l o mer (Mon) won the fifth round of the World Champ ionship Trials Series in Montreal, Canada, on June 2. Second place went to Doug Lampkin ' (Bet) while Jordi Tarres (G-G), winner of the previous-round in Rhode Island, finished third. Bruno Camozzi (G-G) was fourth and Amos Bilbao (G-G) ended the day fifth. The 25th running of the SCORE Baja 500 in Baja California, Mexico, on June 1, was again do minated by Kawasaki Team Green. The du o of Ty Davis and Paul Krause (Kaw) scored the overall win with 34 min u tes to spare over the runner-up team of Greg Zitterkopf and Dave Ond as (Kaw) . Third overall went to the Hon da team of Jamie Campbell and Tex Mi tch el l, w hile fou rth overall went to 250cc-class wi nner Ma rk Bu rnett (Kaw). Davis and Krau se averaged ap p roxima tely 54 mph, completing the 512-m ile race in approxim at el y nine hours and 45 minutes. Yamaha's Colin Edward s II low ered h is lap times into the two-minu te, 10second range at th e Su zuki Cir cuit in Su zuka C it y, Japan, la st wee k. Edw ards, who was testing the fact ory Yam aha for th e upcoming Su zuka BHour on Jul y 2B, was part of a group of Yamaha riders who test ed for th e race, including Vanc e & Hines Yamaha' s Tom Kipp, who circulated in the 2:12s . It is still uncerta in as to who Yam aha will team Edwards with the for th e world's most p r est ig iou s enduran ce race. Thu s far, H onda ' s Bervoets pulls ahead with Swedish MX 250cc GPwin ieffe Su zuki' s Marnicq Bervoets (right), of Belgium, wen t 1-4 to score the overall win at the World Championship 250c c MX round in Tibro, Sw eden on Jun e 2. JHK Kaw asak i' s Remy Van Reese, fro m H o ll and , used consistent 4-3 motocross fi n is hes to grab ru nne r- u p honors in Sweden, while a 7-2 tally gave Reese' s teammate Fre deric Boll e y, of Fra nce, third. Fourth w ent to Bervoets' Bieffe Suz uki teammate Werner DeWitt, of Belgium, an d Fren chman Yves Demaria, w ho pos ted a DNF in the first moto and won the second on his Rinald i Yama ha, settled for fifth. American Tallon Vohland di dn't have one of his better d ays o n his JHK Kawasaki. Th e Ca liforni an went 5-B, while d efending champ Stefan Everts, of the RWJ Honda team , didn't fare much better, going 8-6. Bervoets enjoys a healthy 43-point lead in the series over Vohland, 205-162. Everts, wh o at one point looked as though he' d runaway w ith his second stra ight championship, is righ t behind Voland with 161 points. While Bervoets was roostin g to victory in Swed en, Joel Smets was enjoying a pe rfect \0 d ay at the World Championship 500cc MX round in Sverepec, Slovak ia. The factory 0\ Hu saberg rider from Belgium posted 1-1 moto finishes on his thumper, easily top pin g 0\ the second- place rid er Germany' s Dietrnar Lacher, who we nt 4-3 on a Hon da two,..-< stro ke. Finishing third with 4-3 moto finish es was Hu sqvama's Peter Joh ansson, of Sweden, and taking fourth with a 2-7 was KTM's Shayn e King, of New Zealand. In Halim jacarta, Indonesia, again on the same day as the 250 and 500cc GP roun ds, Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli, of the factor y Kawasaki effort, scored the wi n at the World Championship 125cc MX GP. Tortelli won the first mot o and took secon d to countryman Frederic Vialle in the finale. Yamah a's Vialle, who finished fou rth in the first moto was credited with second overall. Finishing third overall via 2-3 moto finishes was Great Britain's Paul Malin, also on a Yamah a. B 2 Nielsen wins, Ermolenko injured at Italian S eedwa GP eig ning World Champion H ans Nielsen of Denmark narrowly defeated American Billy Hamill to claim victory at the Italian Gra nd Prix in Lonigo, Italy, on June 1, a night in which former World Champion Sam Ermolenko suffered yet another serious leg injury followi ng a cras h in his Grand Prix heat. In an A fina l wh ich featured the same four contest ants as in th e o peni ng r ound a t Wrocl aw, Poland, Nielsen was able to score the win and retain a se ven-poin t advantag e in th e Wo rld Individual Ch am pi onship Series sta nd ings over runner-up Hamill. Tony Rickardsson of Swed en finished third over Polish GP w inner Tommy Knudsen of Den mark, who crashed in the race and su ffered a broken collarbone. Ermolenko's hor rendous accident came in the 0 final wh ere the American fell down an d was subsequently run over by Swedes Henka Gu stafsson and Michael Karlsson . Ermolenko was tak en to a ho spital wh ere X-rays revealed a broken bon e above his thigh . He is expected to be out of action for at least three weeks and may miss the next GP round at Pocking, Germany, on July 6. American Greg Hancock finished second in the B final. John Hipkiss R Aaron Slight has be en th e fas test of the p re- B-Hour teste rs with a lap of 2:09.9 on his factory Honda RC45. Carl Foga rty lapped at 2:10.7 during th e same test. Richard Lafferty (KTM) and Jack Laff erty Jr. (KTM ) fi ni sh e d 1-2 at th e ECEA Green Marble Enduro in Wh iteford, Ma ryland, on June 2. Third pl ace went to Mark Spence (Ho n), followe d by Kevi n Bennett (H bg) and Fr a nk Vanama n (Kaw). Jas on Cyer (CRE) was the big winner at th e NETRA Kin g Phillip Endu ro in Wrentham , Massachusetts, on June 2. Je rry Ma do re (Suz) ca r de d a thir d , while James Kell y (H us) a nd Dave Carlson Jr. (Hus) comple ted the top five overall. New Zealand road racer Robert Holden , 37, was killed during practice for the Formula One TT on the Isle of Man on May 31. Holden was chasing his second TT win at the infamous 37.73-mile street circuit and had set the fastes t time in the For m ula One class with a lap of 120 m ph. He was killed during practice on the following day when he crashed his Ducati superbike. There were three other fatalities during practice for this year's Isle of Man TT, pushing the total nu mber of deaths to 126 since the inaugural Tourist Trophy production races in 1907. Born in Welli ngton, New Zealand, Holden was a much res pected and popular rider who establishe d his caree r racing Suzuki production racers and superbikes in Au stralia th rou gh the 19BOs, acco rdi ng to Cycle News con tributor Darry l Flack. Quietspoken H ol d en' s off- track demea nor stood in star k contrast to his aggressive and forceful sty le that hel d him in good stea d a g ain st th e likes o f Mal colm Camp bell, Rob Phill is, Michael Dow son and Kevin Magee. In th e '90s, H old en was based in Eng land and concentra ted his career in Europ e, New Zealand and America, riding a vas t array of machinery, incl uding Harley-Davi dson Tw inSports. Ma rtin GraggiIl gave Kawasaki its first win in the Shell Au st ralian Superbike Series at Mallaia, in South Australia, on June 2. Craggill w on both legs of th e race, end ing Suzu ki's five-race winning streak by beating Peter Goddard. Craggill's teammate, Troy Bayliss, leads the series point s tan di ngs b y three ove r Goddard. The fina l round will be held at Oran Par k on June 16. Kink o' s Kawasaki's Jas on Pridmore is hoping to ha ve a cas t fitted to his broken leg th is week. "I basicall y cracked the tibia again and rebro ke the fibula," Pridmore said on Monday, Ju ne 3. "It wa s so freak y how it hap pened, it' s a jo ke. I was tryin g these n ew clip-in pe dal s o n m y m oun ta in bike and I cou ld n't get my foot ou t and just landed flush on a curb w ith my ankle. I wasn' t even going riding; I was wea ring jeans and just trying out these pedals . Well, they worked; they kept my foot in. It's a lot better than we originally thought. I'll just have to have a cast and not another fixator (Pridmore had an external fixator mounted to his leg after breaking it at the end of the 1994 season). I'm bummed, but I'll be back. They say it's four to six weeks, so maybe Brainerd. Ron Heben from Kawasaki called and he was just awesome. He told me to take my time and both he and Robert Nutt (the Kinko's tea m m anager) have been really supportive. They're really behind me and that's nice." Mu lti-time Australian Sidecar Cha mpio n Shan e Soutar is m a k in g a good recovery after surviving a horrific highspeed accident d u ring practice for the Italian Gran d Prix at Mu gello on May 26. Sou tar suffered a br ok en right leg and verte bra, as well as a severe injury after biting his ton gu e during the incid ent. H is ADM o u tfi t w a s tota ll y d estro yed in th e crash w h ile Sou tar was flung some 10 feet in the air before landing back -first on th e grass apron. Speaking fro m the Ce n tro Tr au ma tologico in Florence, Italy, th e 31-yea r-old Sou tar sai d : "I re member p u tting 0 m y ra ce s uit a nd h ead in g o u t fo warmup, and then waking up in hos tal."

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