Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1997 07 02

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

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r r---------------'---~-~~~~~FORMULAUSA ~SB lBRI. They we re Bate y a nd Kling , and by the third lap the b reakaway was complete.and the figh t was on. There wasn't much in the way of change unti l about the seventh lap when Kling began to lose touc h, fadi ng e ve r so graduallybut enough to lose the draft and an y hope for a late- race push . As it turns out, he wo uld n' t have to work for second. It was handed to him wh en Batey 's Suzu ki slowed on the 10th lap , for cing him to pit soon thereafter. Tha t meant smooth sailing for Sadows ki and a solid second for Kling. "1was just sitting back there, watching some close racing," Kling said. "I just sat back there and my tires started going off like Tray's did. I washanging back there. 1 wanted to get some points . What 1 was losing in the infield I was gaining on the back straight." After bifling the start, Graves mad e an im pressive run to the top, settl ing in to fourth on the fourth lap and moving up when Batey we nt out. He was about 10 seconds behind Kling but about three in front of Jason Fraser. "I was a little bit tired at the start, and I forgot to put it in gear:' Graves sai d. "Those guys were racing reall y, reall y hard up there. 1figured I'd settle for what I had. Shawn Higbee was sup posed to ride the bike." Fraser said that once he hooked up wi th Lope z th e y slo wed eac h o ther J· P ~r. ' -:::--..;':l~ Tray Batey (center) celebrates his seco nd race victory . He's fl an ked by Fr it z Kling (left) and Cave Sad o w s k i (right). down. "I was faster in half the track and he was faster in the other half," Fraser said, ad di n g th at his b ik e w orked well ' through the Gra vity Ca vit y an d un d er the Goodye ar Bridge in the second half of th e 2.52-mil e track. "It just w or ked Briefly.-,--u---,----_ been some residue in there from some other fuel." Sadowski said. Since he didn't improve his time in the second session. his first-session time stood up as 'second-faste st to ' pole -sitter Tray Batey. Team 'laBelle's D a v e S adowski w as effusive" in his praise of the Mu zzy Raptor, which he rode for the first time at Road Atl anta. ~ We' re. really j mpressed wit h the bike right off the bat." he .said. "The way it' s prepared is meticulous. Everyt hing is user-friendly for all the mechanics. They really love how the bike is put tco ether . Everyth ing is easy, eas ily accessi ble. M y first im pression on the track. instantly: the thing... youput an input into the handlebars and it goes wherever youtell it to go..Horsepowewrse. it seems that here at Road Atlanta, jus t as you start to go into the dip is where the bike is ·hitting really hard. I've tried regearing it to get maximum horsepower going through-Gravity Cavity. It seems like on real long tracks, the ram air works' efficiently on this bike. It was still,going .as you go into the dip; Each time out.d've dropped Mit a, seco nd. We kind of leveled off a~ 23 -f1at. I expect to go to 22s in the race . Compared to tbe Hondas c the, Hondas .cCBR900 ) that we run." the displacement's huge _ acceleretin q off the comer the bike is impressive, it being 850cc, but it's not overw helming because I'm used to hard acceleration.Jt's just the way the thi ng,is manageable..The powe r's manage. cble . It doesn 't make- the swine arm flail 011 around in the bock . It k ad Th h . 9 doesn ' h stays roc -ete y', e cnassrs geometry oes~.t c ange whe~ you gas It .h~rd ... d~sn t change a whole .or.Tbe first day we got It we ~re tl)'l~ to flgu.re: ou.t how to keep the fr~nt wheel ,?n the gro':Jnd, because It was npplng. The M uzzy ,guys. WIthin five minutes on the telephone, said, ·Ski. dcthts. this, and this.' tasked him wher e h e h . d be.said. vG b d hi S' ·C I ~ sar, 0 ert oes this . rmon ra ar go t t ose settinqs . an does that.' These gUys have got fouf years of data on t his chassis. H id '0 thi thi . d th' ' I did it th 'fro t d I ted ed~l , k 0 ~; - IS, a~ ffl sh · I I. .1 , . e n en w~s pan . an It tOO a.not er s~on a te ap tt~e. year in both sessions. his best time of 1:22.798 at 109.568 mph co ming in the sec on d session. It bettered his 1996 reco rd of 1:23.300/108.908. Yet it still fell we ll short of the track record w hich Cohn Edwards II. then riding for Vance & Hines Yamaha. set in the . final AMA race of the season in 1994. Edwards' pole-qualifying time was 1:21.409 / 111.437 mph. There were 27 'qualifiers for the F-USA class . " . Sadowski add~ that he wasn't sure how lonq he'd be on the Muzzy Baptors. " Dean Sca rpa, the guy that sponsored Te am Desmo , he boyght these, bikes for He'll eventually ride them, but he' s co ncentrating on a good result for me this w eekend : He owns these race bikes: and eventually, these are his race bikes, and he's just letting me use them. There's no set plan. W e' ll see what the results bring. W e'll see how impressed Bruce (laBelle) is. He's eyeballing · the thing, and he's impres sed \/Vith it as well. We're' going' to have to set. a course there pretty quickly. I need an· understanding of what _everybody 's doing ~o I know what I'm going to ~ riding. ~ .. m e. Batey topped the Sunoco Formula,USA quali ying record he set lost " f · . Sadowski was the big-money winner at Road At lanta, The' Georqian' eemed $4100 for his day's work $2500 for his first race win, and $1600 for finishing second in the second race. Dutchman Racing's: Fritz Kling was the secon d-most heavily . rewarded rider , pock eting $33 00 , $1700and $16qo . . ' . , .. ' ',. , . , " . .' . . G ngg R~clng s S t e ve G ngg took delivery of his H aptor t~ re~ ~eks pnor to Road .Atlanta: ond was able to put abou~\30 laps on It , . at R~.bling Road Raceway in Savannah, G~rgia: Wh ;ere he se tap unoffi cial trac~ r~ord. At Road ,Atlanta, ~ng9. said tliat he cut tw<;J seco nds off his t', m ~ from T~ursday to Fnday, and a~ther second . and a half from Friday to Saturday. And he said there was more In It. ~We 're struggling to get it set up just right .for us, " Grigg said after qualifying 11th for the F.USA race . " I'm pretty sure 'if ! get .some rest. I'll be okay, I'm co ncentrating onqettin q it set up so much that·I he 't tt I VVh it' . dy t 11 th - trt -' . we 'U O y n " rea t th pu · ZX 7ngheg~dr. bee O e av n . Tgh e n llet b kan s ca P·. eb " d ffe pu I , e nce was co nsrdera ':1 I ren an the n . G ' , id " ft' J t diff t b 't h t d racing, ngg sal . sao I erent . ecause I as a . ramen ousamount more torqu e. It wraps the chaSSIS up a lot faster than a co n. ventional750. and it has a broad powcrband . It has a lot marc powe r .. out of the cerne-s and it stops CJ hell, of a lot faeter.iw e're pretty co nfident we can win' on it whe n we get it the way we want. And we're conf ident we can get tt. tbe wey we want." Whil e getti ng used to the newmachine; .Grigg was also experime nting w ith tire co mpounds." wheel sizes, and numerous ,other variables in the hope of g·e:tting the fast?,st, setup. Grigg said t~t he qualified for last year's race wit h a lap of 1:25.6 , a time he improved to 1:23.363 this year. "That's .our fastest time hcr~ ever , I'm pre~ sure we. con gain at · le: st a, sec~nd . ~ rj;m~ li ne gains.a lot. MGrigg' said,' a Mot orcycl e Online's Sha~ · Higbee "showe d up at Road Atlanta" though onfy to specta te. The Californian had broken his right collar. bone during a te st session on· the Street s of Wlfiow just afte r Elkhart _We were, h~vi ng problems w ith th~ Honda· (CBR~OQ) ~hassis, ~ " Lake ·arid said he'd be out 'untll 'the Laguna Seca World Superbike Bruce LaBelle- said about he chose ·to look into the Muzzy race where ,he hoped to make his return in a one-off ride on the Gia-. bikes,: M e couldn't really get It to handle any better. Dave CSadows- ' . CaMoto Ducati. Higbee said.he was testin'g experimental brakes on W kj) is always 'riding the ' ~ike past its limit s, basically -, that ." and · Chuck Graves ' M ot orcycle Online Suzuki GSX R 'w hen he had a failHonda's conflict wit h Fonn ula·USA has ·cut our support to nothing ure that caused the crash·. M happened at kind of a· bad time, ~ Higit ~ and cut our con~ingencies to nothing. So for the riders , for the -team, '.bee· said, ~ l was planning on going to Loudon, then here: -then back , .for the future ..: I don't really have any problems with Honda myself; I up to Brainerd. The more trock time you have, the be!te r ~u ride ." have. no qualm.s with them w hatsoeve r. But . here are major prbb· t Had he not been injured, Higbee wou ld have ridden the Motorcycle j-Iems between (NASB 's) Roger Edmondson·and (Honda 's) Ray . Online Buell at Road Atlanta.,lris tead, Chu ck Graves was aboard it. , Blank, and as ·long as that eXIsts ~~'re ·not go.i g tq get any help. All n though H gbee said he was hoping to t ake the reins back at the next th ~ other 'te ams "'Ye're.going up agair:-st. -they 're getting help . So '. NASB race. . . .Muzzy's wo rking wit h us, and it's looking like we'U be ,8 Kawasaki team next year. Dave will be ,anthem for the rest of"th is year , and · . The M otorcyCle Online BueU featured new , e.xp~rimentat Nikasil We may have more of them in the future.,There was no time-to do it CylinderS, according t o Motorcycl e Online's Bl'ent-'P1ummer. ·-Just · · (make the change) between Dayto na and W iIlaiN And there really . bolting theJTI on,.you gElin instant .horsepow e( - four, five horsepow .wasn't any-time' to ~o it ~tween Daytona and M osport : But when er,M Plummer said: .- A nd ·they stay ·round , too," Because of the Mbsport got canceled it gave us·a window ·of opPortunity ," laBelle ·. humidity.. the engines actually lose power, 'and the Buell, though it added that "the team Was ..kind of committed to the Honda program, left; Califomia mak~ng the class limit of 102 ·h~ rsepowe~, · made ab~ut bEisically. We fig ured ·we had to make it 'work, becau se·we were · five, or six le·ss in At lanta. ~ EverYone's down on power. ~ Plummer _c qmmitted.: W e didn't find out we Weren 't going to get suppo rt until salQ,·The Buell 's front bra, es had eig ht -piston Fered o calipers·,' k it was too late' to' do something about it. ~uzzy wants to: campaign .: · t~ough Plummer said .the newer brakes ; which Hig~ was te~ting, ·the Raptor, !3 DaVe's leading the p~ints, and you 've got to have a . are three times better, ~ We've still got to ·work out.so me problems," nd top rider lf yo u reaBy want to promo te a motorcycle, and Dave's a . he added, . . -, top ·rider. So , I look for good things: ~ . , Graves Mo torsport s: Chuck G raves gave thO Bu·ell LIghtning e Team La·~ne' s Sadowski was disqualified frOm the sec~nd F~USA 1200 its fi'rst-e-.ier C hamp·ionship Cup Series Win when he took the qualifying .sessi'on afte r the new MuzzY Rapter fail.ee1 the post~SC:;1~ . . Expert Supe r T. ins ·race; part 9f the CCS ·prog ram· 6n Saturday.· w sion fuel test. .Sadowski Said that the fuel was the proper Sunoco Graves narrowly ·edged out a pair .of Ducatis, winning ~he s~ven-lap .Race Fuel, straight out of t he pump, butit may have been COrT Upt< ' race by .2 19 of a second.,HM C Hansen Racing' s. Shawn Conrad eel bY t~e foam in th7' mot orcyde'sgas ta.nk. ~ There might ~<':lve made it Buell 's first multi~win .day.w hen, .later in' the .aftemoon,'.he why won the Expert Heavyweight Sportsma n class, again beating a,pair of Ducatis'- His road to ' Victory Lane wasn 't easy . The Sheboyg ari Fans: Wi sconsin: ride r ble w up his engine all Thursday, a connectinq rod going through the Cases.efter -only a. handful of laps, and .had to call team owne r Mit ch Hansen bock at their shop in .Manitowoc. Wi$-: co nsin. Hansen too k the engine out of his service manager's Buell Ughtning 1200 and, instead of usinq the ·plane ticket he'd bought. · drove the 18 hours to A tlanta, arriving at rush hour on Friday moming. After shaking the engine down in an earlier race, where he fin· ished eighth, Conrad went on to win the seven-lap spnnt by".867of a second. , . . . Plummer said that the team wo uld have a new loo k at the nex t · NASB race in Po rtland, 'O regon, _ July 20. The bike s will be pain ton ed in the yellow colors of the new sponsors, Corbin Motorcy,cle . Onl i ne: Plummerwill continue as team 'owner, Higbee will be the .nder. and Chuck G raves will work on the bike s. The team wlllcam· paiqn. a Buell in .the Buell Lightning series, as w ellas th e EBC . Brake s Spcrtbike Series. ·If the Buell isn't up to ,snuff for the ESC · race . they have theoption of using Orave s ' Suzuki ,GSXR6oo .· Hig-· bee will also ride Graves ' GSX R900 in ·the Formula USA races , Gra~es said that he would continue to 'race local events at Willow · Springs and in. Suzukl Cup races. He planned on retumirlg to Rood At lanta in the fall for the Suzuki Cu p Grand.National Finals. " in Dutchman Racing's Dave Schlosser said that his team might do ·more AMA Superblke races once they get their- Yamaha VZF750 motors sorted out. The team was gIVen a collection 'of motors and parte-by Yamaha back in January to-assist them in'"AMA raCing_ Kling rode one of the 7505 ·at Elkhart Lake.' but his results were disap pointing and once they got back to their shop Schlosser quickly discovered.why. M e didn' t get a chance to so rt them out. W hen we W got back. we put one on the dyno and, in 'a co uple 'of .minutes. gained · 11 horsepower.."I here 's a big dip in the midrange powe r: They 're already getting bett er." Sch losser else said he Would decide soon 'after Road Atlanta w hether the Dutchman Racing cre« Would ' make the trip north for .the AMA race at Brainer~ on'June 28-29. Aft er years of ·com· laining about pit access at RN d Atlanta , the p rider:s we re greeted by a new slip road tJ:lis year. In.stead of going aU the way down the hill, to the fin'al comer, the riders could _ make their way to the pits by staying to the left after they exited from under the Goodyear Bridge . Grass was also planted ,on the outside -of the co rnero which is famous for coa ting 'riders in red G eor gia mud when , they spilled c? ming,out from under the ?ridge: .. W ord out of Road A tlanta was that NASB was not retUmin·g to Wil~ I~w' Springs 'next year: but that the AMA 'was . An NASB official . said that. he'd been .told that. the AMA h ad a tentatiVe date. for the wee k.before the Laguna Se~ National in late'April: The last time the AMA raced at Wi llow Springs was In 1990 ,. and that ~ace was wo n by Randy Renfrow on a Com monwealth Honda RC30 . .' . ·The ~ridgestone Cycl~ Fest attractecian in6rd~na'te number of .vend orS, including ,the Sony PJays ion ·sem i-traile r, as weU·85 .8 tat truck ftlled .wil h Buello for demo ride... That put paddock space at a . pre ~ iu m , and n ot everyone was ·happY with what they w ere allotted most notably PirellL According to NASB's Pat Murphy, PireUi's David Porte r called early in the week 8'sking for room . He was told to be at the track by 5 p.m . on Wednesday. He arrived at 7:30 and didn 't like his :s -pot. so he chose his ow n location, and set up his trailer. When another vendor 'arrived later, arid was' given a prefe rred · but previ-. : ously agreed .upon'- spOt, Porter -w ent ballistic, ~ acco rding to M urpliy, who added thaf he threatened to cancel his continge ncy pro--. gra m and pull his truc k out, w hich h'e did. How ev er , all of the: Pirelli-contracted riders wemserViced by the M etzeler truck, due to ' .. a deal ,that t he Metz~ler reps had agreed upon bef~re the race _ weekend. · , Dave Sad~skrs' win· in the first F-USA leg was his k.urth F~USA · win Elt RO?d Atlanta. The three previous .wins come Dboord' Hondo . CBR900... It wa.. the 10t h career F-USA Win lor the 1994 F-USA ·Champion,.moving him into seco nd on the all.time list, behind Dutch.' man. Racing's Fritz KJing, who has 13.' . \ 21

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