Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1996 11 20

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127810

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1·INTHE¥iIND Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes was awarded the King of Bercy crown at the threerac\! Paris Supercross in France, November 8-10. Hughes didn't win any of the three races at Bercy Stadium but he was the most consistent, going 2-4-2 over the weekend. On the first night, Suzuki's Greg Albertyo. and Honda of Troy's Larry Ward battled for the lead with Albertyn crashing out on the last lap. Ward took the win, followed by Hughes and Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli (Kaw). AMA Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath suffered arm-pump problems and finished 10th. The second night of racing saw Kawasaki's Damon Huffman reel in and pass McGrath for the win. McGrath again suffered forearm pump late in the race and finished fifth. Huffman's teammate Jeff Emig ended up second, followed by Ward and Hughes. Sunday, McGrath scored a wire-to-wire victory over Hughes, Emig and Huffman. Emig leads the World Supercross point standings with 63 points, Huffman is second with 61 and Hughes is third with 57. McGrath is back in the pack with 37 points. OuId Pederson (Yam) won three of four races during round two of the PJI Super Arenacross Series at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York, November 8-9. Pederson won both the 125 and 250cc classes Saturday night, a day after coming away. with the victory in the 125cc class 'and a second-place finish in the 250cc class. Friday night, Pederson topped Buddy Antunez (Hon) and aiff Palmer (Suz) to win the 12Scc class and followed Antunez home in the 250cc class. Mike Jones (Kaw) was third. Saturday night, Pederson won both races, topping Palmer and Denny Stephenson (Hon) in the 125cc race and Antunez and Stephenson in the 250cc class. Pederson leads the overall championship point standings with 1,249 points to Palmer's 134 and Antunez' 133. The final round of the NETRA Enduro Series was held in Chester, Connecticut, November 10, and it was Bob White (CRE) scoring the win. Second place went to Dave Gunn (KTM) followed by Kemp Stewart (Hus), Rick Claxton (Hon) and Paul Milliken (KTM). Jason Cayer (CRE), who finished eighth, wrapped up the series title. Road racer Scott Zampach continues to show progress from the injuries sustained at New Hampshire International Speedway in October. On November 4, doctors removed a halo that had been fitted to stabilize his spinal cord and his tracheotomy has been removed. "Scott's getting better every day," his wife Dinah said. "He'~gettir\g pretty feisty and wants to get home right now." Zampach is receiving physical and speech therapy twice daily at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wiscons'in, where he is expected to stay for another six to eight weeks before returning home to complete his recovery. Former road racer Ron Haslam has inked a deal with Honda that will see 0\ the former Grand Prix racer use Honda T""'i motorcycles in a racing school schedd uled to run in 1997 at Donington Park in C"l Donington, England. The school will ~ consist of three stages - basic, premiere ,.0 and elite - with CB500s, CBR600s and CBR900s being used in the three-level Q) school. The schOOl will begin in March. tR S ~ Z 2 British road racer Nick Jefferies has agreed to terms to race a Honda CBR600 and RVF750 in what he says may be his final year of racing. "I'm looking for- Elsinore Grand Prix a success FI's Goat Breke.r pulled it off. After months of planning, city council meetings, negotiations and headaches, the famed Elsinore Grand Prix, last held 25 years ago, was resurrected over the November 8-11 weekend in Lake Elsinore, California. And for most of those who competed in the gala event, it was deemed an overwhelming success. As for GFI and the city's opinion of the event, we've yet to hear of anything official, but much of this has to do with the fact that the festivities in Lake Elsinore are not yet conduded as many of the "Extreme" events were sched~ed for Veteran's Day, Monday, November 11, while this issue was going to press. We do know than an estimated 2,OOO-plus motorcycle racers turned out for the 12 grand prix races that where held over the weekend. The racing got under way Saturday morning with the Unclassified race which was won by Kawasaki's Jeff Matiasevich, followed by KTM riders Destry Abbott and Lance Smail and Kawasaki's Paul Krause. Nick Pearson, on a KTM, rounded out the top five. The 250cc Pro class was won by Team Honda's newest member, Scott Sheak. He battled with Kawasaki's Ty Davis before Davis dropped out with a flat tire. Second went to Smail, followed by Suzuki rider Brian Manley and Abbott. In the Open Pro race, Smail took the win, followed by Davis and Honda rider Mike Healey. .KIM's Scot Harden took top honors in the Legends race, topping Kawasaki rider Brent Wallingsford and Honda riders Bob Rutten and former National MX Champion Gary Jones. Malcolm Smith, the man who ruled the Elsinore GP back in the late '60s and early '70s, finished 11th. Smith rode a Husaberg. On Sunday, Smail rode his KTM to the Four-Stroke class win over Abbott and Honda rider E.J. Wright. In the following race, two-time 125cc National MX Champion Steve Lamson topped the Dual Sport class on a CRM250 two-stroke. Honda rider Eric Graves finished second, and KTM-mounted Damon Powell took third. The Vet Expert class went to former 125cc National MX Champion Micky Dymond, on a Honda, followed by Krause. The motorcycle racing program was capped off with the Hame1.100, covering 100 miles and featuring a $5,000 purse. Lamson t90k the win after dicing with Davis for most of the race. Sheak finished third, followed by National Reliability Enduro Champion Rodney Smith, on a Suzuki, and Abbott. Matiasevich finished sixth, Kawasaki rider Steve Hengeveld seventh and Honda rider Dan Richardson was eighth. G ward to the 1997 season and mainly the TT where I hope I can get some better results than this year where I rode the races injured after my crash at the North-West 200 the week before," Jefferies said. Other news from Honda has Isle of Man TT hero Joey Dunlop set to race a Honda 500cc V-twin in next year's Senior TT and in the North-West 200 in his native Northern Ireland. "It would be an ideal machine for me around the TT course and hopefully we can use the North-West 200 as a practice run for the Island," the 21-time TT winner said. The RWJ Silkol~ne Honda team, a Honda factory eUort in the ZSOcc Motocross World Championship Series, has signed Brit Justin Morris to join Swede Joakim Karlsson for the 1997 season. Morris, who has been a Honda test rider for the past three seasons, will compete in the British MX Championship as well as the 250cc World Championship. Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz gave Michael Doohan's Honda NSRSOO the' thumbs up after riding the three-time World Champion's mount at Eastern Creek the day after the Australian Grand Prix, reports Cycle The event was attended by many well-known racers in the motorcycle industry, including former World Superbike Champion Scott Russell, who competed in the Junior Vet Expert class. Technically, this was Russell's first "official" ride on a Yamaha since signing with the team for the 1997 World Superbike Championship next year. Russell's ride at the Elsinore GP was cut short when he crashed his borrowed YZ250 - get this - on one of the pavement sections of the traCk. The six-mile course consisted mostly of two-track dirt roads and about two miles of pavement. The races were staged in town, on pavement, and most of the races ran about seven laps. An estimated 20,000 spectators turned out over the two days of racing. Check out next week's issue for a complete report on the Elsinore Grand Prix. News contributor Darryl Flack. Schwantz also rode Tadayuki Okada's NSRSOOV and the production version of the V-twin, but said the V-four was his pick of the three. Speaking in Australian Motorsports News, Schwantz said: "It was fun. I enjoyed the ride, but five laps was about aU I could take. It's still a very physical thing. I've been doing a lot of training, but when you take even a short amount of time off a bike it's much harder to reach competitive times. It made me realize how fast· these 500s are." The Texan's best lap was a 1:37, some six-plus seconds off the new lap records set by Doohan's teammate Alex Criville with a 1:30.359. Doohan said that given an afternoon, Schwantz was capable of getting within a couple of seconds of him and CriviUe, who both finally dipped into the 1:29s in private testing on Micheli!t prototype tires the following day. Doohan reeled off a 1:29.1 while Criville carded a 1:29.9. Schwantz kicked off his second season of Australian NASCAR racing with a fourth-place finish in the opening round of the championship at the Thunderdome Tri-Oval at Calder on the outskirts of Melbourne. The 32-year-old debuted his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, featuring sponsorship from Talbo Fast Freight and Clarion Car Audio in place of his previous backers, Pepsi Max. The Texan also scored a last-minute drive in a Ford Mondeo at the final round of the Australian Super Touring Championships at Oran Park, November 10, where he finished sixth. Schwantz' next outing will be in a NASCAR at tlie Thunderdome, November 17. Former World Superbike Chainpion Scott Russell will make his Yamaha debut in a test session at the Misano circuit in Italy, November 21-22. Russell will be joined by his teammate Colin Edwards II. The big time: Drag racer Angelle Seeling was featured on the Leeza show November 6; is scheduled to be featured on an upcoming 48 Hours with Dan Rather; and will also be interviewed by People Magazine and Sports lllustrated. Seeling made hiStory when she won the NHRA Pro Stock class in Pennsylvania in September. Arenocross '96 ~ll be held at the Reno Livestock Events Center in Reno, Nevada, November 15-17, with riders such as Casey Johnson, Kyle Lewis, David Pingree, Casey Lydle, Mike Healey and Jeff Willoh scheduled to participate. The four-round SSC Thousand Oaks

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