Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

VOICES. America's weelcly moton:ycle newspaper Letters to the editor Volume XXXllI Sharon Oayton. President Michael Klinger. Publisher Editorial Paul Carruthers. Editor Kit Palmer; Associate Editor Scott Rousseau. Associate Editor Mark Hoyer. Managing Editor Keith Bush. Assistant Editor/Copy Editor Cameron Coatney. Assistant Editor Tom Titus. Capy Editor Advertising Terry Pratt, National Acc~nts Manager Mark Mitchell. Eastern Accounts Manager Mark Thome. Western Sales Manager Thomas Gonter. Western Sales Manager Forrest Hayashi. Western Sales Manager Greg Mitchell. Eastern Sales Manager Rick Matheny, Eastern Sales Manager Rhonda Crawford. Western Ad Coordinator Carla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Laurie Snow, Assistant Marketing & Promotion Mark Thome. Manager New Media Development Mark MitcheJl. Director Rick Matheny. Operations Oassified Ads Shaton Van Hazelen Graphics and Production Ree Johnson. Production Supervisor Mandy Loa, Production Manager Dennis Greene. Lab, Tech. Stacey Guest, Graphic Artist Vance Lanoy, Graphic Artist Administration Judy Klinger. Caordinator Leanne Sims. Administrative Assistant Accounting/Data Processing Donna Bryan-Diamond. AIR Coordinator Geneva Repass. Assistant Herlane Lewis. Credit Circulation Rheba Smith. Manager Alma Anguiano. Processing Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Caordinator Carol Begovic. Dealer Coordina(pr Service and Support Bridgett Boprofsky, Receptionist Kirk Chavis. Service and Support National Headquarten; 2201 Cherry Ave.• Long Beach. CA 90806. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801-0498 (310) 427-7433; (213) 636-8844. FAJ«310)427-6685 Eastern Office 4188 First Ave,. Tu.cker. GA, 30084; mailing address P.O, Box 805. Tucker, GA 30085-0805. (nO) 934-7850. FAJ< (770) 934-3112 e-mail editor@cyclenews.com subscribe@cydenews,com advertising@cyclenews.com Internet http://www.cyclenews.com Cyde News (lJSP5141-340) is published weekly ex«pt the last two weeks 01 the calendar yoar for $50.00 P'" Y"'" by Cyde News-Inc.. 2201 Ole:ny Avenue, Long Beach,. CA 90806. Periodicals Postage Pakl at Long Beach. CA and at additional mailing o~ Canada Post International Publications Mail 1546615. POSTMASTER: Send addrns chang" to Cycle News, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801-0498. To determine the expiration date of your subscription, ch«k the four numbers on the first line of your .tddre:ss Labt'l The first two digHs indiate the last issue nu~ yeu'U rec:eive and the last two charactm indicate the year of the last issue. Sub5cription rates: Rates for the United States and its posse!sions for one year, (SO issues), $50.00; two years (100 issues), $95.00; six months, (25 issues), 526.00; trial sub (15 issues). 519.00. Canada and Foreign, one year (50 issues), S9().00; two years (100 issu..). $11li.00; '"' months (25 issu..). $45.00; trial sub (15 issu..). $38.00. l-< OJ "S Cycle News welcomes unsolicited editorial mnteriaJ including stories, cartoons, photos, etc. Such material, if published. becomes the exclusive property of Cycle News. Reprinting in whole or part only by permission of the publisher. Advertising rates and circulo1tionjnformation will be sent..upon requ..1. See S.R.DS. .2:! W/Bn'A p-. 'if....!:"':"" AUDITED CIRCULAnON ~ Printed in U.S.A. 4 Co~yrigh Cycle New" Inc. 1996. T...denur)< Cycle News NSJsteM US. Patent Office. AU rights rtset'Ved. I also feel motivated to resp.ond to this article ("Batey the Best," Issue #36, September 11) because I have built many (in excess of of 10 Honda CBR900 stroker engines), one of which we used in the Sportrider UFO test in 1995, to run over 200 mph with and this same motorcycle (with.8000 street miles) to this day has never been apart and has never had any crankshaft-related problems. Jack O'Malley Orient Express Racing Freeport, NY Falicon's response I am writing this in reply to the accusations Mr. LaBelle has made about my company and its products ("Batey the Best," Issue #36, September 11). Unfortunately, Mr. LaBelle has chosen to attack me in a forum where I could not immediately reply, hence this letter. My company is known worldwide for giving the best quality and service possible and 99.9 percent of our customers will attest to that. We go so far as to refuse jobs if we think they will not work successfuIJy. We do as much as we can with the alloy that we are given. It is stupid to think that of all the O.E,M. Honda CBR900 cranks that we've stroked successfully, the only two to ever fail were carefully planned to be shipped to Mr. LaBelle. Do the words "over-rev" mean anything to you, Mr. LaBelle? Sure we told you "that's racing," and refused to refund your money ... you abused the hell out of those cranks - it's a wonder they lasted as long as they did, I wish the whole story would have been told regarding the outside heat treatment of your future crank. Fortunately, for the rest of my customers, the whole world does not revolve' around your racing effort. The whole world revolves around all my customers' racing efforts and we schedule our work in the order that it is received. When we would stop all production and put Mr. LaBelle ahead of all our other customers. he chose to abuse rather than wait a few days for us to try to work his job in and accommodate him with a heat-treating source other than ourselves. I probably should not have wasted the time to reply to Mr. LaBelle's shallow accusations since we are bles ed wi th the best customers in the world and I know they appreciate all the effort my men and I put into each job. Tom Falicon Clearwater, FL Falicon is the presidellt of Falicon PeTformance Engineering... EditOT, Sign_Russell I'm writing in response to the "In The Paddock" column by Michael Scott (Issue #36. September 1.1). I really enjoyed the piece on Scott Russell. Even though there has been a lot of controversy over the way he left Muzzy Kawasaki, I think it was for the best. As for his results this season, they're pretty good for a guy who just came off a superbike and threw a leg over the unfamiliar Suzuki 500 rocket. I hope Lucky Strike Suzuki will renew his contract for next season because he's just the man from America to give Doohan some company, Kevin Henriques Lancaster, CA Apology To everybody who spent his or her time, effort and money to go to the open house at the Portland Off-Road Center. I would like to respond to you. I have always taken time to spend it with the fans of the motocross world, especially my fans. I certainly in no way wanted to disappoint anybody by not showing up for the autograph session since it is one of the only ways to spend time with your fans. On the Thursday before the Washougal National, I spent a little extra time testing my bike durin.g an afternoon practice session at the Washougal Motocross Park. During the drive to the hotel to get ready for the autograph session, I was delayed by a traffic accident. By the time I was able to get through the accident. the autograph session had already finished. I can't control time and I was simply unable to make it. I apologize to everyone and hope you don't hold this against me. I am sending autographed posters to the Portland Off-Road Center for everyone who would still like to have one. I hope I can make it up to you next year. Jimmy Button Phoenix,AZ Dirt track dilemma I recently read the article in the September 4 issue of Cycle NrolS about the demise of professional dirt track racing. The AMA and PRMROG are going to put their heads together and figure out the problem. Well. what needs to happen is someone needs to bounce their heads together to wake them up. The reason dirt track racing is dying is because Amateur dirt track racing is all but dead, Any sport's popularity hinges on how much the general public knows abou t the sport on a first-hand basis. People love football, baseball, basketball, etc., because we all played them as kids and we understand them, I was lucky enough to be part of an era of race tracks in Oklahoma and Texas that produced Freddie Spencer, Terry Poovey, Ronnie Jones, Mike Kidd and Bubba Shobert and many other excellent riders. These guys didn't start out as professionals. they learned dirt tracking on race tracks near their homes. I personally plan to build a short track in Oklahoma to try and revive dirt tracking here. Professional dirt tracking can only survive and gain popularity if Amateur riders are involved in the sport. We need many more Amateur dirt tracks and we need manufacturers that produce small, race-ready dirt track machines the kids can learn on. Blane Fore Ardmore,OK Letters to the editor should be sent to Voices, Cycle News, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach. CA 90806-0498, faxed to 310/4276685 or e-mail.editor@cyclenews.com. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters should not exceed 200 words and all letters are subject to editing. Anonymous letters wiIl not be considered for publication. AIl letters should contain the writer's name, address and daytime phone number ... Editor. INSIDE 25, 1996 Issue 138, September FEATURES MOTOCROSS German 500cc GP Final ROAD RACING Catalunyan GP , 6 DIRT TRACK Dirt Track USA Eldora AMA Half Mile Nat·I Castle Rock AMA 600cc Nat'l 11 12 30 TEST 1997 CBR1100XX RACER TEST Elf 500.., , ,.,., , , 18 , ,.,.,.22 INTERVIEW Aaron Slight 26 SPECIAL REPORT Ducati's New Deal .32 34 HILLCUMB Freemansburg AMA Nat'l 36 ENDURO BlackJack100AMA 38 DRAG RACING AMA/ Pro-Star Nat'I at'1... ..40 DEPARTMENTS EVENTS"",,,,, """""""",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,..42 LEADERBOARD , , , ,., .51 CALENDAR , 52 RESULTS 59 WANT ADS , ,.,., 60 INSIDE THE TEXAS TORNADO 75 LOOKING BACK , 75 ON THE FRONT COVER Michael Doohan didn't win the Catalunyan GP. but his second place was good enough to bring him his second World title. The race win went to Carlos Checa. Inset: Riding the 1997 Honda CBR1100 XX. Photos by Gold & Goose.

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