Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. I . . - . is a native of England" haVing moved to South Carolina with his probably needed a littl.e more heat' in tne tire.'j3ut 'I' m l~arriing.·1 British parents when he was 9 years old. "Tbey've got their full · picked it up: but 'It was tough. to gel' going again. I\t Jeast we . British accents 'and I've got 'my full redneck accent,''' Hacking. can hopefully get .all that' out of the way in this race, There was hardly·any.damage to. th',: bike -.I've seen a iot worse. ~ .' ... . was fast in the. nnal. pe~haps too fast as he burned up tiis tires and had to settle for a seventh-place finish .. According to eve':'i promoters. a total of 18.000 people were Toe ·Sozuk.i·debut of Larry Pegram ended up'gping ,faidy well, . or> hand for the three-day.Cruise . Americ'a Superbike with the Ohio.an finishing seventh In. the Superbike. National. "I' Challenge. An' estimated 2000 showed up 'for Friday.'s prac- '. Top chassis. man ·Da·le Rathwell, wh; last' year worked extensively with Doug Chand,ler and Muzzy Kawasaki, has switched· need a couple of toii1gs and.l:lI be right there," Pegra)!) s",id. "I . tice: >l000 attended Saturday's .qualifying and support raceS to t.he Ypshirpura Suzuki team for 1g9.1 and' is' attempting to aid· think it was pretty good for the' first" race. There'.s just a few and 12,OOO'were on hand for Sunday's Sup~rbike National. . Pascal Pi~otte, Aaron .Yates and Larry Pegram in getting their chang.es I need ,for my riding 'style and FII b.e there, I think. We GSXRs sorted out. · had a little b;;ittie with .4>aron· (Yates) for a while; then I w.as just Fast By Ferracci Ducati' s Mat Mladin 'has fina'lly be,en abre to running by myself ai:\d trying to gel through lappers. 1:11' improve . return to' his favored fohD ot .exercise - running. Mladin, wno and the bike will get better. " suffered a badly broken ankle in an ultralight plane crash in . The Fast By Ferracci Ducab"s, riders and crew came to Phoenix sporting the l:Ogo of their new primary associate sponsor; 1995, tried bis hilDd ~t'bicyding over-tli~' winter in an .effort to DKNY Men, the Donna Karan-owne'd clothing company, "Not bad, bot not stellar," waS how sixth-placed superbike finshed wei9ht 'for,his debut season on the Ducati. "I bou:gHt a DKNY Men also backs the Newman/Haas Indy Car team that· isher Steve Crevier explained his opening round. "Thomas real 'nic.e push bike when I was here and I look like a real pro," features Michael Andretti as its driver. Ferracei hooked up with (Wilson} pU.1 a big jump on u's when I was behind 'Larry Mladin said. -"But I:ve got no calves so you can tell I'm not. The (Pegram). I chose the hard tire and 'it hung in really good. I was' problem with the bike is you've got to be .out on it. for two. the company 'after buildin£! two 916s for Karan's husband, Stephen. "We're real happy," team manager larry Ferracci lonely.. man. I was doing 110thinjl but watching the pit board with hours_ I wen't to a .podiatrist and he fixed me up and.1 can run. said .. " It will give us some. exposure in a number of places we ,Merlyn (Plumlee, his tuner). I didn't think I sliced' through traffic 'It's been ·good. I.use the .treadmill because of tlie extra cushion wouldn't normally be exposed to, places like Nordstrom, as go.od as I did on the 600. I had some troubles with' traffic, and I run for 45 minutes. 1'''1,10 pounds lIghter than last year: but you .can't blame it on them:" . Neiman-Marcus·... We'll be doing some 'pulilic appearances at (Eraldo) Ferracci keeps trying to feed me that pasta and he some of those places, ,It's a really good outsipe. sponsor: ~ays, 'Ah, don't worry the' Qucati ,has much poyver,' I told him, "they're excited an'd we're excite.d." Karan's husband Stephen is' HyperCycle '$ Jaso'n f>ridmor!> ~ttributed part 'of his success 'Not if you sit my fat.arse 0n there it .won't. '" . a huge motorcycli"ng fan and soon-to-be road racer. He recently in winning the Teamline 750cc Supersport raCe to a.physical rented Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California for four regimen. which acceler.ated. the recovery of his .oft,broken right In the weeks leading 'Up the opening. round of. the AMA Super· days to hone his skills. ... . leg. "After Vegas Gn October Of 1·996), I coulon't even do leg bike Series, I'!ascal Pi~otte paid a visit to the Ken'ny Roberts Squats. Lasl year r was riding wilh a big brace on my leg. i Training Ranch in Spain where he t(ained with Jimmy Filice rebroke it last year, which dic;ln't help it." 'Pridmore' said of the Doug .Chaodler's Muizy Kawasa.ki was fitted with a single" and Kenny Roberts Jr.. "I learned a lot." Picotte said. "It leg which was brokeo the· first time in a motocross accident jus.t made me so ·comfortable .. 1 want to go back for another' sided swingarm ror the Phoenix race, and it's something before the 1995 season. ''I've had my leg broken 'aboui three that will likely be in place for Daytona and beyonp, "It's our plan four or five days. It's really amazing how m'uch you can learn on to fun a single-sided swingarm at D.aytona," team oWner Rpb times in the last two years because the doctprs had to do" it those little 100s (Honda XRs). It's a really good tHing. Jimmy's Muzzy said,. "There doesn't appear to I>e any negatives or posionce also. I· worked out about two to three hours a clay 'for the (Filice) doing a really good job and I rode a 'Iot with Kenny Jr. tives other than we should be able to do qUicker wheel . last.two to three months and I'll tell you what. it paid off: That's It's really a' playground for us racers and they really made me changes. We'll 'just keep using it after Daytona; it looks trick. what I really attribute this to - because I felt that I could do feel at home." Wh;"le he was there, Picotte was also able to They are making a small change for us right now and that's the another .1 0 or 15 laps. I really busted my ass hard in the gym visit the nearby Catalunya circuit to watch the Williams Formula original prototype that we tested at Daytona." The swingarm is this year and I feel that my leg's finally coming back now." One. team test. soJd by RAM, a company based in Monaco, though the casting is done by Marchesin;, The swingarm is now a catalog item, After two frustrating seasons on a superb~ke. San Franciscan If hurting' his ankle and feet in a preseason crash at Laguna according to Muzzy, and sells for $4995 for the complete AI Salvaverria is. back in the 250cc GP class with heJp from' Seca wasn't enough, Steve Crevier Was also hospitalized setup. To accommodate the new swingarm. Muzzy's exhaust' Aprilia. Three weeks before the slart of the season he phoned with a bad flu in the weeks leading up to the ~eason opener. "I system now exits up high, through the rear of the seat on the the Aprilia factory in Italy and was assured delivery of an waS sick.at home for a week and it got so bad they put me in RSV250 for the start of the season. It arrived in San Francisco the hospital for four days with a stomach-pump tube. I'm still a 1Zawasaki. ·the day before free 'practice for the Phoenix season opener. bit weak and I. lost 10 pounds. I guess I just wanted to get it all One of the more troubled riders at the opening round "YBS · "We got the bike, literally, Wednesday," he said. "I broke it out out of the way belor~ the year started - the big crashes, the of the crate and left it'on my front lawn." That meant· he liad Doug Polen. The former World and AMA Superbike Champi~ sicknesses.~' . on's 'crew chief never made it to Phoenix- after getting sWck in limited practice and little time to learn the new machine. "We Dallas, Texas., because of the American Airlines situation. got here late and missed all kinds of practices. The 'suspension Don't play golf with Jason Pridmore dept.: The winner of the '''We"re not ready and that doesp't help," Polen said. "He's setup is really, really harsh right now. It's been two years since' AMA Teamli.ne 7.50cc Sup.ersport fi.nal on Saturday afternoon stuck in Dallas thanks to our .friends at American Airlines. I've I've been on a 250 and we're just sorting it out. taking it really c.onfessed in the post-race press conference that he has ·been onlyridde'n once, in the first qualifying session. We're using the easy. And' Aprilia gilVe me really specific. instructions to break dabbling with professional golf on the Golden State Tour in Cal'97 Showa suspension for the first· time and I wanted to go . that thing in really easy. We hallen't had a chal1ce to break it in. .ifornia. "I playa little golf," Pridmore said in what may have back fa the '96 stuff that we had dialed. but they didn't put it in I rode the thing 20 laps before the heat race and I had a terrible been the understatement of the weekend. ''.I'm playing at a the truck. Hey, you don't have' enough paper in that notebook heal race," said S'alaverria: 'who's raced Aprilias be.fore, includ-' three handicap. I'm not playi.ng very well right now." Pridmor.e to hear all the things that have happened, I am racing today and ing in the 1991 European Championship. Salaverria was running was planning to stay' over an extra day to play golf with Miguel we'll see if it's okay or not. It's been kind of scary because we in fifth and getting used to the bike when the race. was redDuHamel on Monday mom.ing·. Good luck, Miguel. can't do any testing of tires or an)l.lhing "nd we're'in the midst flagged.early·on. "I was just kind of·getting in the groov"" again of a tire-d.evelopment situation, Who k00ws?·It's (the race) real-' and I'm so used to engine braking with the slipper clutch. With The factory Harley-Davidson' VR oj OOOs were both fitted with six-speed trans'mis~'ions for Saturday's final quiliifying. ' Iy just another practice session. If it's not that bad I'll push on,. · the slipper CllItch you just slide the thing into the corner. You but if it's bad I. won't continue." Polen, who is racing Suzukis in 91ide into the corner. We came in and we were sit!ing for about "They wanted to make sure it was okay so they had' it in (Thomas) Wilson's bike for two days," Chri's Carr (below) . his development· program 'with' Pirelli. tires, ended up finishing .' 10 minutes. The fuel petcoek was plugged in and for some rea·'-3th in the Superbike National, a lap behind race winner Mat son it· started filling the ·airbox.. lt's a pressurized airbox and the explained. ".We had'prohlems with it at the' La,guna test. but it's , Mladin., bottom .carb started pissing gas. It filled up. The thing wouldn't much. better' now. I'm using all sixeven·start. I di

• Cover