Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTHE WIND Sebastien TorteIli (Kaw) clinched the World Championship with a perfect II tally in the 125cc Motocross Grand Prix in Maribor, Slovenia, on July 14. Tortelli won both motos for his ninth straight victory. In doing so, the 17year-old became the youngest ever to win an FlM Motocross World Championship title. Second overall went fo Great Britain's Paul Malin (Yam), followed by Erik Camerlengo (yam), Luigi Seguy (TM) and Thomas Traversini (Hus). With one round yet to be run in Germany, Tortelli holds an insurmountable 73-point lead, with 345 points to Malin's 272. Third is Frederic Vialle with 239 points. Defending 250cc Motocross World Champion Ste~an Everts (Hon) inched closer to series points leader Marnicq Bervoets (Suz) at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Belo Horizonte, on July 14. Everts won both motos, while American Tallon Vohland (Kaw) went 2-2 for second overall. Bervoets was another consistent finisher after posting a pair of third-place finishes. Rounding out the top five overall were Swede Jocke Karlsson (Hon) and German Pit Beirer (Hon). Bervoets still maintains a healthy 49 points, 303-254, over Everts: Vohland is a dose third with 252. The Kawasaki factory endurance team of Brian Morrison, Piergiorgio Bontempi and Stephane Coutelle took the victory in the 24 Hours of Liege, held at Spa-Francorchamps in Liege, Belgium, on July 13-14. The ZXR750Rmounted team completed 537 laps in 24 hours, 18.830 seconds, at an average speed of 96.643 mph. In a guest ride for the team, American Doug Polen led the official Suzuki World Endurance effort to second place, one lap down on the winners. The Texan circulated under the official lap record mOJ:e than once during his stints aboard the GSXR750. Polen's teammates were Frenchmen Eric Gomez and Bmno Bonhuil. The 532-lap effort of Alex Vieira, Christian Lavieille and William Costes netted the Honda• mounted team the final place on the rostrum. Fourth and first privateers were Honda riders Jean-Michel Mattioli, Michel Simeon and Pascal Guigou, with 521 laps, and rounding out the top five at 509 laps were the Honda RC45-mounted team of Miche) Amalric, Guy Bertin arid Philippe Guinand. On a tragic note, 25-year-old Kiedrowski to come out of retirement F ormer 125, 250 and SOOcc National MX Champion Mike Kiedrowski (right) armounced that he is coming out of retirement to compete in the 1997 Supercross and outdoor National Championship MX Series.."1 signed a letter of intent with Honda of Troy Saturday Guly 13)," said Kiedrowski, on Monday July 15. '1t's a done deal." . Kiedrowski, 27, called it quits following the 1995 season but stayed on as a team advisor for Kawasaki, who he has been a factory rider with since 1991. Before that, Kiedrowski was a member of Team • Honda in 1989 and '90, and before that was a Kawasaki Team Green rider for eight years.. Kiedrowski, whose contract with Kawasaki officially runs out at the end of the year, was approached by Honda of Troy team owner Phil .' Alderton, who offered the former champ, over the phone, a ride on IUs team for 1997. "Erik Kehoe came to my house ~d we talked it over, and I made my decision on Friday Guly 12): "I then went to Kawasaki and talked things bver with Roy Turner (Kawasaki ~ce team manager) and told him what 1 wanted to do, and he was happy for me," said Kiedrowski. "I told him (Turner) this is what 1 wanted to do, and he was totally supportive and wouldn't try to holli me back. I l~ there (Kawasaki) feeling really good. There are no bad feelings. He (Turner) said he wanted to keep me on the team but just didn't have the room." Kiedrowski will finish the season with Kawasaki, at which time he will be released from IUs contract immediately following the last National, at Delmont, Pennsylvania, on September 1. "PItil gave me a good opportunity," said Kiedrowski. "Just the fact he called me made me feel real good; that right there made me want to be a part of the team. Plus, with Denny Betley doing their suspension - he knows suspensions - and with Mitch Payton doing the motors, these are all the key parts to win. I'm not saying I'm going to win, but there is one guy I want to beat." Kiedrowski's announcement that he is coming out of retirement pretty much answers a lot of questions as to whether or not he really wanted to retire in the first place. "A lot of people have said that, that I really didn't want to retire - and, yeah, they're right. I've had the itch to race all year. I still feel good, and I haven't really been doing much (at Kawasaki). I've been going to all the ra.ces anyway, why not race?" Kiedrowski rode last week for the first time since retiring and again today (Monday, July 15). "I felt really good on the bike, and made noticeable improvement in those two rides." 2 ... Kiedrowski had one request before signing with Honda of Troy - :he wanted his old mechanic back. And Alderton agreed. "Shane Nalley will be my mechanic again," said Kiedrowski. Nalley has beetl Kiedrowski's mechanic throughout most of his career, though Kiedrowski's last year racing with Kawasaki, he had Brian Lunniss turning wrenches on his bike. "Shane is a good mechanic, and I wouldn't have another mechanic other than him. Right now, Alderton and NaUey will have to work things out, but that shouldn't be any problem." Kiedrowski will compete on 250cc machinery in both the Supercross and National MXSeries. DuQuoin Mile rained out T eam Corbin's Davey Camlin was looking forward to defending his DuQuoin Mile title at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in illinois, and the Rock Island, illinois, rider may have have had a real challenge on his hands in the form of Total Control Racing rider Kevin Atherton among other competitors, but that is all speculation now as the "Magic Mile" was rained out on Sunday, July 14. The event has been rescheduled for August 18, the Sunday after the.Indy Mile. . The rainout marks another blow for the series as CBS Sports television was on hand to provide live coverage of the event as a makeup for the Memorial Day weekend running of the Springfield Mile, which rained out as well. At press time, there was no official word as to whether or not CBS would return for the DuQuoin rain date. "Tltis was a big-time bummer," said Camlin, .the two-time and defending event - champion. "Depressing. This was the fourth rainou! of the year.. At least they rescheduled it. It was nice to be back on a mile though. We had some high 34s and low 35s m practice. 1 think we would've been right there, but the track was rough, and that might've left a lot of guys out of it. But we might all have been chas~g Kevin around there. He was flying." . "We keep showing up to all these bike shows," said a disappointed Atherton, who was unoffically clocked in practice with a 34.7-second lap - nearly a tenth of a second ahead of anyone else. "We show up and roll the bikes out, and polish them up, and then it starts raining. Oh well, at least 1won practice." Surprisingly also on hand for the event was USC Racing Honda rider Terry Poovey, who showed up and shook down IUs own personal Harley-Davidson XR750 with laps in the 35.4-second range - tltis in the face of the recent tragedy that claimed the life of Poovey's mechanic Lou McCory and all of Poovey's racing equipment in a fiery highway accident in Michigan less than two weeks earlier. (See issue #28, July 17) Poovey put the bike together with the help of some friends in a 48-hour thrash prior to leaving for DuQuoin. ''I'm tired," Poovey said. ''we've been working for two days ~traight on it (the bike). I've been through so much in these last two weeks, but 1 just wanted to get back and show everyone how tough I can be. I Lost everything rve been working for in that wreck, but I'd burn it all up myself if I could get Lou back." Racing was scheduled to begin just after opening ceremonies at 1 p.m., but a slight drizzle began to fall at about that time and continued to fall intermittently for the next 'two and a half hours. At approximately 3:30 p.m. the bottom fell out, and a torrential downpour spelled doom for any racing ~ctivity on that day. AMA officials were reportedly considering rescheduling the event for the Monday after the Springfield Mile doubleheader, but instead the event will take place after Indy, forcing the riders to compete on Saturday night and then make the drive to DuQuoin for a Sunday Mile. "This is going to make it really hard on us," Harley-Davidson of Sacramento mechanic Kenny Tolbert said. "And for guys who only have one motorcycle, there's no way they're going to be able to handle that." British racer Lee Pullan was killed in' a crash Sunday morning. In one of the fastest corners of the circuit = just before the riders brake to dive into the "bus stop" chicane.- a marshall, who was crossing. the track in order to clean up some debris, was struck by Pullan. Both men were killed instantly. This was another serious blow to the' British Phase One team as they had lost Robert Holden a few weeks before during the Isle of Man IT. Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) w'on the WERA National Endurance Series round at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana, OR July 13, topping Arclight Racing (Suz) by three laps. TKO Racye Team Suzuki Too (Suz) finished third. Michael Goodwin, the founaer of Supercross, was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison on Monday, July 8, for making false statements to three banks while trying to borrow nearly $400,000. Goodwin was taken into custody immediately to begin' serving his sentence. Goodwin's exwife, Diane Seidel, who was sentenced to 16 months for committing- the same offense, was allowed to remain free pending an appeal. Goodwin and Seidel were convicted in October on 13 of .15 counts of conspiracy and Plaking false statements in 1986. In ad.dition to the sentence, Goodwin has been ordered to pay about $290,000 in restitution. According to a story in the Orange County. (California) Register, it is highly unlikely that a round of the 1997 AMA Supercross Series will be held at Anaheim Stadium. The 70,500- seat stadium is scheduled to undergo renovation in October when the Walt Disney Co. takes over the operation of Anaheim Stadium, transforming it from a multi-use facility to a baseballonly stadium. "We're going to demolish the seating, the concrete shell, move electrical and light standards," Disney Sports Enterprises president Tony Tavares told the Register. "We probably won't be able- to (hold many events), especially in the beginning when we have cranes on the field." The remodeling will permanentlyreduce the number of seats from 70,500 to 43,000 and remove the section added for football in 1978, among many other changes. Pa(e Motorsports' Ken Hudgens·told the Register that they are still· planning to produce supercross and monster truck shows at the stadium·in 1997. "We're committed to Anaheim Stlldium as long as it's a viable stadium," Hudgens said. :'We've been doing events·there for a long time." Taveres, though, said it seems unlikely that the stadium will be in condition to hold the annual motor events in January. Stay tuned. Okay, okay, it's free. We recently ran an .item in this space that told readers about Ducati Island at Laguna Seca Raceway. We.negle~ted to say that admission to Ducati Island during the World Superbike race at Laguna on July 19-21 is free. There is also free parking for Ducati motorcycles, a mini vendor row geared toward Ducati fans, upgraded food facilities and , autograph sessions. In addition to all of the above, those with Ducati VIP hospitality passes (which are free at partici pating dealers) gain admission to the Ducati hospitality tent, where

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