Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE PADDOCK· By Michael Scott here is purity and nobility in motorcycle Grand Prix racing. We see the human spirit in uplifting circumtances - the individual hero pitting ourage and skill against implacable teo These are noblemen indeed; this is "hat lifts humans above the animal . gdom. Or are they just 11 bunch of overpaid ooligans? . The question is posed by one new .val in particular. Valen tin 0 Rossi on of a famous racing mamac father raziano and Aprilia's latest 125cc GP ·nd - is a hooligan among hooligans. d his arrival as a gangling girlish oer with an Alice-band hairstyle and he chargingest racing style the days of ro-Am racing is a joy. You may (if you weren't preoccupied ·th being miserable) have noticed him t Donington Park. He was the guy in e mainly yellow leathers and the outigger elbows who swooped through he tight-knit field from 14th on lap one o lead by half-distance, before breaking own. Nothing new, however, to GP egulars, who'd been watching the rooke do the same thing all around the orId. This is something special. The 125cc ss is a brawl where you often get 10 r more bikes in the leading pack. It's ull of kantikaze Japanese pilots not verse to the odd kick or shove, and hose notions of personal safety fall a ong way short of the average hanglider pilot or mountaineer. For anyone o stand out in this company suggests a evel of hooliganism beyond and above e call of duty. At just 17 Rossi is a definite paddock resence, lanky and extroverted, wackiy dressed at all times, and often to be potted wheelieing his scooter to the howers wearing a hooded white terryowel bathrobe of the type affected by 50s film starlets hoping to get their picture in Vogue. In between hooting with laughter at his antics on and off the track, everyone was delighted at his first GP win in Czecho. He will surely do it again and again. It also prompted thoughts of the hooligan factor, and of how it dwindles away as the bikes get harder to ride. It's endemic to 125s, far from uncommon in the 250 cla s, rife in superbikes, but almost absent from the 5OOs. These bikes punish wayward behavior. The last notable wild man on a works 500 was Wayne Gardner. The one-time Wollongong Wild One remained unwilling to accept tha t he couldn't ride his Honda NSRSOO V-four in the same carelessly wheel-sliding way that he could his superbike-like Honda TT-Fl machine, and often paid the price. Who can forget his 1989 U.S. GP. The day before, he'd said: "I've decided not to go at it like a bull in a china shop this year." He crashed fast in practice, then again in the race, badly breaking his leg. "You know, when you squash a bag of potato chips and they go all crunchy? That's how my leg felt." Or how in Japan in his last season he crashed in the wet, remounted and was blazing through the field when he fell once more, breaking his leg again. Well, hooligans deserve punishment - though surely not that much. There are 500 riders who used to be hooligans, but have learned how to play percentages instead. Michael Doohan is one - ever see the way he threw a superbike around? So also, going back a bit, were Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey, in their four-stroke days, when they both now admit they'd happily have knocked the other off into the grandstands. Murderous rivalry was a. feature of their AMA Superbike racing, and they brought it with them to the Trans-Atlantic series. And there are also those who break into hooligamsm now and then. Alex Barros at the Austrian GP in 1993, when on the last lap, lying a safe third, he was slightly balked through the bends that start the lap by privateer Juan LopezMella (sadly since then the victfm of a fatal car crash). Instead of just riding by up the straight, Barros launched into an on-bike assault, trying to punch the hapless Spaniard. Rainey, a little way behind, watched in amazement before motoring by the boxing match to steal Barros' rostrum finish. Then there was Mike Baldwin, who opened a racing school in America after concluding a maniacal 500 career. "What does he tell them?" wondered forD;ler team boss Kenny Roberts. 'There's the curb. Just bounce off it." Nowadays you have to look away from 500s to see the hooligan spirit unleashed. Up-and-coming (though at 30 not particularly young) German Jurgen Fuchs is an intelligent and thoughtful 250 rider. Yet he can succumb to the Valentinian spirit. In France, he had brake trouble early in the race, while lying a close third. Most riders might throttle back and ride for points. He decided to press on regardless. Soon, at the end of the straight, when French bright hope Olivier Jacque braked for the first-gear bend, he center-punched the back of his seat at barely diminished speed, sending both somersaulting out of the race. Bashing, kicking, punching and seatgrabbing are endemic in the 125 class, but the bikes are so wieldy that the riders generally get away with it. Similar things happen in World Superbike racing, where one of Foggy's better tactics may be described as Applied Road Rage. But full-on hooligan Anthony Gobert's up-and-down career shows that you can't always get away with it here either. It's also true that hooliganism fades away not only as the contestants get older and their bikes more powerful, but also as the racing gets more serious. Your average club day at Cadwell Park (I'm often told) has hooligans aplenty. In this way, the maddest story of all comes not from the World Championships but the middle ground of the AMA Superbike Championship. Doohan's elder brother Scott and American rider Brad Hazen were dicing it out toward the finish of the last National round of 1994 at Road Atlanta. As they approached a dangerous fast bend, beneath a bridge and with zero runoff, they exchanged kicks and blows. Then eye-witness Dale Quarterley, a little way behind, watched in amazement. Instead of trying to negotiate the comer, Hazen let off his handlebars; reached right over with both hands, and grabbed Doohan round the neck in a stranglehold. The resultant crash was spectacular, and left Doohan comatose and severely injured. He is now fully recovered, but never raced again. That, of course, is carrying it a bit far. But a touch of the hoolies does enliven the racing; and it is comforting to report that there may be a way back in for them in the 500 class. Honda's new V-twin is much more like a 250 than a V-four 500. So far, one can only imagine how one would go when flung around with abandon by an ex-loony rider of the caliber of Doohan or Schwantz, etc. The hooligans could be corning back. {1\' I: LOOKING.BACK... YEARS AGO... CTOBER 12 1971 MX held at the Red Bud Track 'N Trail in Michigan. Suzuki's I SuzuJci's LarryWard in third...Honda's Scott Summers won the AMA Grand ational Cross Country race held in Fairmont, West Virginia. Kawasaki's Terry Cunningham and Duane Conner got second and third, respectively...Suzuki's Keyin Hines won the AMA National Enduro in New Waverly, Texas, followed by Kawasaki's Kurt Hough and KTM's Jeff Russell...Team Harley Davidson's Chris Carr wrapped- up ills fourth consecutive AMA 600cc National Champion hip by winning the Castle Rock IT in Washington. fX , Darryl Schultz finished secriumph's Gene ond and Yamaha's Rick BurRomero won the Oklahoma City - gett got third. Honda's Danny ational dirt track after Chandler won the 500cc Supain threatened to cancel port class, followed by Arlo e event. Teammate Englund on a Yamaha and ddie Mulder finished Larry Wosick on a econd and BSA's Honda...Bruce Penhall, the 1981 World Individual Speedway ave Aldana got ...., IlUlnlEllcii- Champion, half of the 1981 · d. Kenny Roberts -... . World Best Pairs Championship on the Junior. ain...Maico's Adolf team and 1980's U.S. ational eil won the 500cc -~""';;;;::~!-;-:-,..,.-.J Champion, became the 1981 CaJintemational class at the Trans AMA fomia State Champion with a win at Inland Motorcycle Speedway in 'fj~IJ1f1:llr;;r.-...L..L held in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Suzuj's Sylvain Geboers"got second and orleif Hansen finished third on a San Bernardino, Cal• ifornia. usqvarna. Doug Grant won the 250cc ational class on an AJS, followed by 5YEARS AGO... im Hart on a Maico and Rob Norgaard . n a CZ...Featured on our cover was the OCTOBER 9, 1991 orId's Largest Motorcycle Built by awasaki's . ild Bill Gelbke. It's got to be the ugli: Jeff Ward; t. won the 500cc class at the Steel City AMA I 15 YEARS AGO... National MX held. TOBER 7, 1981 in Delmont,;., efending champ Randy Goss won Pennsylvania. ' the Ascot finale but the AMA Honda's Jean-Michel , Grand National Championship Bayle and Jeff Stanton got second and ent to Mike Kidd, who finished secthird, respectively. SuzuJci's Guy Coopnd. Terry Poovey finished in Bultaco's Jim Pomeroy gets a helping hand before stepping onto the podium at the 1975 er won the 125cc class, followed by · d ...Team Yamaha's Mike Bell won Belgian 250cc MX Grand Prlx, becoming the first American to win a World Championship Yamaha's Jeff Emig in second and he 250cc class at the AMA Trans-USA K D MX avent. Photo by Champion Photo service. 75

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