Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RACER X BY DAVEY COOMBS uperman bought his own ticket. Kennedy actually rode. Air Jordan sent the rest of the Bulls in his place. Fabio did security in the FMF pits. Vanilla Ice brought his bachelor party to the stadium. LL Cool J and Carlton were fashionably late and missed practice. The "ESPN2 fitness chick" doesn't miss a race. In the expanding universe of AMA Supercross racing, these are just a few of the stars that rave recently spun into the orbit of this sport. As supercross grows in credibility and prestige, so does the star-power qJlality of names on the guest list.. Kind of like a posh new restaurant I on Melrose, supercross appears to be on I the verge of becoming the place to be for those select few in our society that we affectionately call "celebrities." Motorcycles were always cool, but only the heavy American-built kind ever got a lot of notice in Hollywood. Sure, there were a few great movies "Little Fauss & Ilig Halsey," "On Any Sunday" and a few not-so-great ones "Winner Take All," "On Any Sunday II). There was even a long-forgotten Peanuts teleI vision special called "You're a Winner, I Charlie Brown" that played off the i 1970s motocross surge - lovable loser Charlie Brown wearing a pumpkin for a helmet in his race against the mysterious Masked Marvel, who was actually his dog Snoopy. Anyway, motorcross was a big for a while in Hollywood ,but then the Karate Kid took the place of The Dirt Bike Kid, computer games became cooler than riding motorcycles, and having ex-soldiers blowing up entire cities became an even bigger box office draw than Steve MCQueen jumping any fence. Now it seems like the trend is coming back and 'dirt bike racing, especially the AMA Supercross Series, has become a hot scene for Hollywood hipsters and professional athletes from other sports. For instance, at this weekend's Orlando SX the press box held seats for MTV anti-vixen Kennedy, Orlando Magic basketball players Dennis Scott and Penny Hardaway, racer-turned-rapper-turnedracer again Vanilla Ice, and Mark Martin of the #2 car. No one was sure whether Penny and the NASCAR guy ever showed up, but Kennedy, Scott and the Iceman cometh. S 30 YEARS AGO.•. APRIL 20, 1967 on Grant won the 100, 125, and 175cc GP classes on Yamahas im AFM Road Race in Cotati, California. Art Baumann won the 350cc GP class n a Honda, ick. Kilgore on the 500cc P class on a - .......,.,..,...._-;-...,.._~~ onda and Dave ostrom won the Open GP class on a riumph...David Faria won the 650cc xpert main event at the Hi-Hats M,e. rambles in West Pittsburg, California, n a Triumph. William Saltzman won he 250cc Amateur class on a Bultaco nd Robert Grossi won the 200cc Amaeur class, also on a Bultaco...Huskyounted J.N. Roberts won the Pacific R Kennedy was on hand in Orlando as part of an MTV special about sports. She was supposed to drive NASCARs with the Disney pepple and play tennis with Pete Sampras, but the only thing that came through was a few laps around the 'supercTOss track with Jeff Emig. That was on Friday morning. The totally cool Kennedy came back on Saturday to ):lang out and spectate with Denny Stephenson and arenacTOSS hottie Michelle Falls, who's something of a celebrity herself. Some guys, like Denny, have all the luck During the actual race on Saturday night Kennedy was invited to join the ESPN2 coverage of the race. When Art Eckman was prepping her for the show, he mentioned all of the top racers that were absent with various ailments. Kennedy shot back, "Well, this is the cold and flu season, of course." Dennis Scott brought his whole family to the race and admitted being blown away by the action, especially when he saw Ricky Carmichael bust out that whip-it on the triple jumps: "Man, I thought a triple jump was when the dude hops up and· down on the bike three times." As for Vanilla Ice (a.ka. Robbie Van Winkle) he may not be as big a star as he once was, but he's never gotten over his love for supercross racmg. How else can you explain a guy who comes to the races on the night before his wedding, then throws himself an impromptu bachelor gig into the wee-hours with close bros Jeremy McGrath, Jimmy Button and Grayson Goodman. Ice used to race himself and was by all accounts pretty good at it. He may not be as big a rap star as he was in the day of Ice, Ice, Baby, but he seems to have never forgotten where he carne from, I'm not sure where Fabio the supermodel/butter salesman came from but you can sure:tell when he's around. A huge fan of the sport and a novice rider himself, Fabio can often be found at the races with a throng of autograph seekers around him, He usually hangs out in the FMF pits. He's taller than he looks on television or on the cover of my girlfriend's romance nov~ls, and he attracts a huge crowd wherever he goes. Still, we were over Fabio by the time the second LA SX rolled around, but this time , he brought his drop-dead gorgeous girl- friend with him on the second Saturday night of the season, and we were starstruck all over again. She was stunning, and so was her girlfriend, in their matching little FMF shirts. Fabio is the man! Ano.ther superman who came out to the races was Dean Cain, star of the television show "The New Adventures of Lois & Clark" He did not have his publicist call ahead and get him in the best seats for free. Instead, he walked up to the ticket counter and paid to get in, This came as a shock to Robin Janson, the wife of supercross director Roy Janson and the person in charge of the freebies at will call. :'We tried to give Dean and his friends seats in the press box but they didn't want them," said Mrs. Janson. "He said they wanted to sit outside in the grandstands," When asked who she thought was the most macho, Fabio or the caped one, Robin chose Superman. "He's better-looking to me because 1 like my guys to look like Superman, but I will admit that Fabio's got my kind of body," said Janson, which certainly explains why she married Roy. The guy with the master plan for hooking celebrities up is Joe Colombero of American Suzuki. While in his marketing role for the company Colombero has crossed paths with a lot of Hollywood types who are huge motocross and supercross fans. "When I tell them I can maybe get them passes for the races they go nuts," says Col~mbero. "It's like, 'Can I meet Jeremy McGrath? Will Roger DeCoster be there?' I think it's really great that they love our sport so much and that it's startipg to get popular as far as mainstream sports go." Over the years Colombero has introduced such movie and television celebs as Matt LeBlanc (Friends), Stephen Baldwin (The Young Riders), Alfonso, Ribero (Carlton on Fresh Prince), volleyballer Gabrielle Reece, Jason Gedrich (The Last Don) and Ethan Wayne (the Duke's actor/rider son), Colombero was in full effect at the two Los Angeles SXs this year, bringing along singer/actor LL Cool J, the aforementioned Carlton, and starlet Nicole Eggert, a sandy-haired blond-turnedtroubled waif who used to be on "Charles in Charge~' and "Baywatch," She now does B movies that are very thin with a lot of skin but for me the fact that she likes supercross makes her the queen of the silver screen. For me personally, the height of star power in the 1997 AMA Supercross Se~ies came at the Seattle Kingdome when the Chicago Buns showed up behind the starting gate looking for some seats in the press box. They were all invited by Oakley's Johnny O'Mara, .and most showed up. Alas, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen didn't come, but my third all-time basketball hero Toni Kukoc and everyone else on the bench was there. (Dennis Rodman was serving a suspension for nuttin' that photographer and was not allowed to travel with the team). McGrath recognized them right away and tried to hook the Bulls up with some passes but his heat race was literally ready to take off, so I jumped into action to help my beloved Bulls find some VIP seating. With the help of the AMA's Sonnie Finch and Pace man Jason Babiar, we got the greatest basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters notwithstanding, into the press box.. Now it was time to get my reward for being so helpful to the Bulls - a photograph standing next to Toni Kukoc! As I moved into the private room with my camera, reserve shooting guard Jud Buechler said: "No way. No pictures now. Can't you see the guy just wants to watch the race?" At this point I wanted to get up in the guy's face and remind him that he was the 11 th man on the roster and would be just another tall white guy playing volleyball on the beach if it weren't for Jordan and Pippen, but he was right. When the stars come out to watch the racers, they're not stars anymore - just supercross fans like the rest of us. The Bulls stayed and watched until the end, then they asked to go down to the pits and meet some of the riders, The knowledge of that alone is better than any photograph for my refrigerator. They're, still my favorite team, only now I hope and pray Jud Buechler gets traded, Next time he can sit in the stands with the stands with Superman. . {'N South West Championship Hare and Hound in Lucerne, California, that was televised by ABC-TV, Gary Preston finished second 'overall and first Open Expert on a Triumph, Larry Bergquist took third overall and second 500cc Expert on a BSA and Bill Friant took fourth overall and first 250cc Expert on a Greeves. his win at the Long Beach GP in California. Yamaha-mounted Gene Romero took second and Suzuki's Barry Sheene got third ... KTM's Tom Brooks broke Jim Fishback's stranglehold on the Orange County M C Great Bear GP at the now demolished Riverside Raceway in southern California, by taking the overall win ... Reigning 500cc World Road Race Champion Barry SheeJ:le motored his Suzuki to the Venezuelan GP. Yamaha's Steve Baker and Suzuki's Pat Hennen finished second and third, respectively. ond and third, respectively. Hondamounted Kyle Lewis won the 125cc class over Bader Mannah on a Kawasaki and Mike Craig on a Honda...Tearn Lucky Strike Roberts' Randy Mamola won the opening round of the rain-soaked Japanese GP in Suzuka. Rothman's Hondamounted Wayne Gardner finished second and Suzuki's Takumi Ito took third.. Masuru Kobayashi won the 250cc i7"'~i:llrTir.-~_~cl.a s s ... H 0 XI d a privateer Paul Krause surprised many, including race favorite and defending champ Dan Smith, who finished third on a Husky. Suzuki RM250-mounted Charlie Morris JT. finished second overall and first 250. {'N 20 YEARS AGO••. APRIL 13, 1977 amaha's Bob Hannah won both nights of racing action in an AMA Supercross held in the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. Suzuki's Tony DiStefano got second both nights, while Honda's Jim Pomeroy got third on Friday and Can-Am's Jimmy Ellis got third on Saturday. Hannah was so pleased with his wins that he raffled off his winning YZ250 to the lucky crowd for five dollars a ticket...Yamaha's Skip Aksland was nearly tackled and detained by overzealous security guards as he ran to grab his leathers just before Y 10 YEARS AGO... APRIL 15, 1987 arleY-Davidson's Chris Carr won the Sacramento Mile in California over Honda's Bubba Shobert and Harley teammate Scott Parker...Team Honda's Rick Johnson took his third straight 250cc Supercross win with a victory at Texas Stadium, Kawasaki teammates Jeff Ward and Ron Lechien finished sec- H

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