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America 's weekly motorcycle
VOICES
n ewsp ap ~r
LETTERSTO
THEEDtTOR
Vo lu m e XXXIV
Sharon Clayton, President
Micht two characters indi cate the year of the last issue.
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6
Thanks for the greatest motorcycle publi ca tion ava ila b le . A t time s m y wife '
seems jealous of Cycle News.
In re fer en ce tu W a y ne Gard n e rs
co m m ents (" In the Wind ," Issu e #26,
july 2), it sou nds more like he's tryi ng to
di scredit Mick Doohan and Eddi e Lawson than contribute any useful informalion . It looks like the "the olde r I ge t the
faster I was" sy nd rome is starting to ge t
aho ld of Gardner . Maybe he should just
get his fat butt o u t of retirement and
show Mick how to do it on h is "eas y
handlin g" NSR. I bet he'd ge t pitched
ov er the bars by th e new N SR ju st as
readily as the old one. Did you see Criville in practice from Assen? Ouch!
I also agree wit h David Rogers' letter
(Issue #26, july 2). What's so impressive
a bou t needing a 400 cc four-stroke to
co m pete with 250c c two-strok es? If it
Was a YZ250F and could run with 250cc
two-strokes, then I would be impressed.
Hey, if the YZ400F becomes the bike to
beat and everybody junks th eir 250cc
two- str okes to race a 400cc four-stroke will they still call it the 250cc class ?
I hope Dennis No yes writes a GP
book. Man , he had me crying with that
piece on Nieto. Wh at heart!
.
.
. Don Walter
Tucson,AZ
Co~yrightCi Cycle News, In('.1991. Trad emark Cycle News
registered U.s . Patent Office. All righb reserved.
Dave y Coom bs hit the nail on the head
w it h hi s co lu m n about Dam on Bra ds haw (Issu e #22, j une 4). I am a hu ge
Brad sh aw fan, whether he' s in firs t or
last. Certain mo tocross publicatio ns and
jou rnalists make it a point to bash Br~d
shaw . It is lime they grow up and gIve
him a break .
Bradsh aw left motocross beca use of
p rob lems that nobod y could un derstand
except him . It takes a big man to tum his
back on money and fame in orde r to ge t
his personal life in ord er . The motocross
indust ry is be tter off w ith Bradshaw
around - so than ks to Davey' and Cycle
Neio» for not bashing him.
I a lso wan t to say, "Tha nk Cod for
Cycle News." I am in the middle of th e .
deser t in Saudi Ara bia an d it's a hu ge
mora le boost every time I get the paper-
even though it takes a while because of
the mail service.
Tim Wal ker
Prince Su ltan Airb ase
Saud i Arab ia
Isl e of Man
I was at the IT and wish to say that the
Isle of Man IT ar ticle by Stephen Burn s
(Issue #25, june 25) was great. I realize
you d on't have eno ug h space to put in
all the activities of the IT festiviti es - but
co u ld n ' t Burn s put in th e s ide ca r
results?
There is one major error in his report:
The production race was not shortened
two laps because of "fears of bad weather." The start of the race was postponed
two h ours be ca u se the m ist on the
Mountain was below race sa fety and th e
track at th e Hairpin and over th e mou ntain ran ged from damp to wet. The officials had to shorten the race two laps so
the Senior race could be run that day.
I also tak e objection to the statement
"... the competition below them ranged
from competent to mediocre to downright slo w ." I don't care if the rider is
going so slow that he gathers bugs on
the back of his helm et, they d eserve the
sa m e respect as th e winner - jus t for
ha vin g th e g u ts to ge t o u t th er e and
rac e . In the 90-year hi st ory of th e TT,
th ere have been 79 races (1916 to 1919
a n d 194 0 to 194 6 didn 't run du e to
World War I and World War II) and 179
racers have lost their lives.
Mr. Bu ms, have you ever put in a lap
on th e TT? O the r th a n th at o bjecti on,
Mr. Burns, 'y ou wrote a very good article.
James D en t
San [ose, CA
Foot in mouth
First of all, MOX4 8, w ho di ed...? Are
vou sayi ng it was Dou g Henry o r Ihe
fuur-stroke? Last tim e I checked , Doug
Henry loo ked alive and we ll, with the
exce p tion of two casts . Second ly, a re
you im plying tha t all two-stroke riders
clear a ll thei r ju mps? Do we nee d to
me nt ion all the co u rag~ous racers, past
a nd pres ent, wh o e n d u p ser io u s l y
injured from their love of the spo rt and
desire to take risks?
And yes, befo re yo u as k, I personally
ended up sho r t on a double a nd paid
the unfortunate conseq uences. But I still
en joy rid in g bo th m y two- a nd fo urstrokes.
.
I, for the recor d, con sid er myself an
"equal opportunity" mot ocro ss fan and
do not di scriminate agai nst two- and Zor!
fo ur-s tro ke bikes . My hat's off to a ll
Ama teur and Professiona l racers.
Alex Sokolov
Sou th Pasadena, CA
V for Victory
I'm glad I can always count on Cycle
News to be first with the information.
The Polaris V92C (Issu e #27, july 9) was
especially interesting in design and concept. You d idn't mention it in the article,
but I noticed that this bike has right-tole ft i n te r ch a n gea b le e xh a us t pipes,
brake ro tors, master cylinders and belt
drives, along with some o ther component s.
I d on't kno w wh y customers would
want these features, bu t I'm sure Polaris
did extens iv e market research be fore
incorporating these id eas into th eir new
motorcycle. I can hardly wa it to visit my
local dealer to see th is exciting new concept.
Kent Stephens
Reno, NY
Good catch. One of our photos was indeed
scanned backward... Editor. .
Letters to the editor s houl d be se n t to
Voic es, Cycle News, P,O. Box 498, Long
Beach, CA 90806-0498, faxed to 56214276685 o r e-mail.ed ito r@cyclenews.co m.
Pub lis h ed lette rs d o not necessa ril y
refl ect the position of Cycle News, Inc.
Letters s houl d not exceed 20 0 w ord s
and all letters are s u b ject 10 ed it in g.
Ano nymous le tters will not be co ns id ere d for publ lcat ionr All lett er s should
cont ain the writer's name, add ress and
daytime phon e nu mber .. . Edit or.
INSID
E
Issue#28Jut 16, 1997
FEATURES
FEATURE
World Superbike facto ry team
managers
"
"
ROAD RACE
Round 8 - World Championship
Road Race Series frum Italy
8
Roun d 5 - WERA Nationa l Endurance
30
Series from Cla remont, Indian a
DIRT TRACK
Round 8 - AMA Grand National
Championship Dirt Track Series fro m
Lake Odessa, Michigan
14
MOTOCROSS
Round 7 - AMA 125/ 250cc National
Cha mpionship Motocro ss Series from
Buchanan, Michiga n
16
30th annual Mammoth Mot ocross from
Mam m oth Lakes, California ,,,
24
Round 7 .. 500cc World Ch ampionship
Motocro ss Series from Sweden ......."....32
INTERVIEW
Mike Kidd
20
" ..22
ENDURO
Round 6 - AMA National Cham pionship End uro Series from Ake ley,
Minneso ta
28
PROJECT BIKE
Tom Morgan Racing (TMR) Yama ha
YZl25 ~
34
RIDING IMPRESSION
Hond a Am eri can C lassic
Ed ition 750
,
36
DEPARTMENTS
EVENTS
RESULTS
CALENDAR
LEADERBOARD
WANTADS
DAY SIX
LOOKINGBACK
e
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ON THE FRONT COVER
:
.38
48
..49
,
.58
.59
:.75
75
Yamaha' s john Dowd w on his seco nd
straight AMA 250cc MX National, wi~h
thi s victor y com ing a t Red Bud In
Michigan. Photo by Kinney jones. Inse t:
Cameron Coatney flies ou r Tom Morgan Racing YZl 25. Photo by Matt Freema n.
