Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1998 KTM 125 me ter's swa p meet, sched uled to run in co njunction with the races, fell throu gh , a nd they opted to cancel the whole pr og ra m. No rep lacm en t race is p la nned , th o u gh an A HRMA e ve n t is i n th e works fO T next sp ring at the New Castle sh ort track, according to AHRMA. T om Morgan Ra cin g is curren tly accep ting resumes for it> 1998 Pro-Suppo rt program. AMA Pro riders expecting to finish in the top 100 in th e 1997 Supercross and AMA National Cha mpi onship Series can submit their resumes by September 30. Send them to To m Morgan Racing, 1624 Lind a Dr ., Lake Havasu City , AZ 86403, 520 / 453-5061. Rem ind er to tr ials fans : Th e 1997 U.S . Wagner Cup co mes to the Donner Sk i Ranch in Norden, California, o n July 2627, for rounds 15 and 16 of th e World Ob serv ed Trials Cham pions hip. Amo ng th ose wh o will co m pete a re D ou g Lampkin, Mar c Co lomer, Jordi Tarres, Kenichi Kuroyama, Bruno Camozz i and Amos Bilbao - as well as the top Americans. Each day will featu re two loops of 14 sections. For more information, ca ll 916/ 426-3635. The correct da te for the AHRMA/Speed & Sport Vintage Trials Series round at Sea rs Point in Sonoma, Cali fornia, is Augu st 23 - no t Augu st 24. The trial will run in conjunction with th e rest of th e AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days West at Sea rs Point. For mo re information. call 91b/ % 7-{)2b2. MX Sports, the promoters of the AM A Am ateu r National MX Champi ons h ip at loretta Ly n n's, in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, August 3-9, will be hosting an Indust ry class race for people w ho wo rk in the mot orcycle ind ust ry . Pre entri es are limi ted to 20. For more information , call 304/284-0084. BO RN : C ha ndler Ro y Ca uthen , to Pro-A m motocrosser David Ro v Cauthen and h i", wife, MIchele. on Ju ly l b. • FO RMED: Spo rt-Twin Riders A'!o...-.ocialion, by AFM road racer ]ohn A. Sweeney. Th e > TRA is bA~ a ro u n d S p o r t -T w in NC·w5, .1 ncw s tctter t h a t Sween ey has been ~ tinK for mo re tha n tw o and a half yea r';. For mort' infonnatinn , call 415/922-1436. CORRECTION: Off-road race Tim Mort on is marr rytng ]e l\n ifl.r Wibon dt Milul !> Sly Ranch in Baja ' Ca lifornia , Me xico - not Tom Morto n, as we recently reported . OP[NI::D: Yok o Ap parel's hom e pa ge on the World Wide Web . The s ite com be fou nd a t the follo wi ng addres s: http :/ / www.yokoformot o.com. AUTOGRA PH SIGNING: A I Mol o Va n ier Kawa saki in Qu ebec City. Ca na da, on ]ul y 31 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., a nd a t Pre mont Harl ey -Da vid son in Ooebec Ci ty from 7:..10 to 8:30 p.m . Dirt tra ck legend ]a y Sp rin gs tee n and Ca na d ia n dirt t racke r Ch r is E" ans are scheduled to appear . For more informa tio n, ca ll 81Q/(R(..2134. OPE."l"ED: J&K Racewa y's home page on the World Here Is a sneak preview of things to come from KTM for 1998. Pictured here is the all-new KTM 125 SX. which leatures the new PDS (Progressive Damping Sys tem) no-link rea rsu spension system and right-side klckstan motor. The ent ire line 01 '98 KTM motorcycles wlllleatu re major changes. Wid e Web . The site ca n be found at the follow ing ad dress: htt p : / /www .mt>mbers .t r ip od .com / - JRit"!iellberg/ truesddle.htm . A PPO INTED: Robert Ha nn igan , as d irec t o r o f booking for PACE Motorsports . Han nigan will be res po ns ible for aU aspects of the booking p rocess, incl ud ing scheduling, rou ting.. cuntr act administr.... lion a nd oew cpportumnes. BORN: Jord.n ~ ve .q Alicia , to Jeff an d Mew.sa Welb uf Su.o;;pm." io n,.on ]uJy 16 in Hesperia. Cal - ifornia . 1998 AMA ·Supercross .and Nat'l MX schedule • T he re are no big ch a nges in the AMA Su percross a nd 125 /250cc a tio na l Motocross Series ten tative sched ules for 1998. Once aga in, th e AMA Supercross Series will consist of 15 ro unds and the outdoor at ionals 13 rounds. There' s only one real cha ng e in the Supercross Series sched ule thu s far: the return of the San Diego Supercross at Qualcomm Stadium, form erly known as Jack Murphy Stadium. With th e return of the San Diego rou nd , th is means there will be no back-to-ba rk rou nds in Los Angeles, Ca lifornia, as there were this year. However, ther e is one TBA da te on the new sched ule. in April, and. as of ye t, the florida Supercro ss at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando is not on the list. The sched ule is as follows: A M A S UptKC ROS S S ERIES Roun d 1: Los Angeles Memo rial Coliseum, Los Ange les, Ca lifornia - January 10 Rou nd 2: Hou ston Astrodome, Hou ston , Texas - January 17 Round 3: Sun Devil Stadium, Phoen ix, Arizo na - Jan uary 24 Round 4: King dome, Seattle, Wash ingt on - January 31 Round 5: Qualcomm Stadi um, San Diego, Californ ia - February 7 Round 6: RCA Dom e, Indianapolis, Ind iana - February 14 Round 7: Geo rgia Dome, Atlan ta, Georgia - February 21 Rou nd 8: Daytona Inte rnatio nal Speedway, Day tona Beach , florida - March 7 Round 9: Texas Stad ium, Dallas, Texas - March 14 Round 10: Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota - March 21 Round 11: Trans World Dome, St. Louis, Mis souri - March 28 Round 12: Silver Dom e, Pontiac. Michigan - April 4 Round 13: Cha rlotte Mot or Speedway, Charlotte. N orth Carolina - April 18 Round 14: TBA - April 25 Round 15: Sam Boyd Silve r Bowl,Las Vegas. Neva d a - May 2 AMA 1251250cc N ATIO N Al C U AMPIO N SHIP MX S ERIES Round 1: Gatorback Cycle Park, Gainesville. florida - March 1 Round 2: Glen Helen Raceway, San Bernardino, California - May 10 Round 3: Pra irie City SVRA Park, Sacramento, California - May 17 Round 4: High Point Racewa y, Mount Morris, Pennsylvania - May 24 Round 5: Budds Cree k MX Park, Budds Creek, Maryland - June 14 Round 6: MX 338, Southwick, Massa chusetts - June 21 Round 7: Red Bud Tra ck 'N' Tra il, Buchanan, Michigan - July 5 Round 8: Unadilla Valley Sports Center, New Berlin, New York - July 19 Round 9: Kenworthy' s MX Park, Tro y, Ohio - Jul y 26 Round 10: Washouga l MX Park, Wash ougal. Washington - August 2 R\!und 11: Spring Creek MX Park, Millville, Minnesota - August I b Round 12: Broome-Tioga Sports Center, Bingh amton, New York - August 30 . Round 13: Steel City Raceway, Delmont , Pennsylvania - September 6 MARRIED: Tram Suzuki Ott-Road 's Steve Hatch. to Deni se H am ilton, in Yosemite Nation al Park in Yosemite, Callfcmte, on ]uly 19. G roo ms men in the wrddin g includ ed tea m ma tes Rand y Ha w kins and Rod ney Smith. CO RRECTION: In ou r featu re story on Kent How e rt o n in last week 's iss ue , w e reported tha t Greg Arnet te was, How ert on 's mechanic d urin g his cha mpionsbrp yea rs , w hich was only partiall y co rrect. When Howerton. rod e tor Husqvarna, Eric Cri ppa W.I!> h i!> mec han ic and th e pai r wo n o ne (SOOcd ch.am piOl15hip . Arn e tte tu ned for Howert on during his tenure a t Suzuki, wi th the pair teaming u p to ",,-in tw o (250cr) ti tl~. Tha t' ", Crippa in two of the p hotos which accompa nied the story. a: 883s out Pro Thunder in he Progressive Insurance Harley-David son Su perTwi ns class will be replaced in 1998 by Progressive Insurance Pro Thunder, a new roa d racin g series that wi ll T fea ture sing les, twins and triples racin g togeth er , acco rd ing to the AMA. Th e class was outlined in a press conference at the Mid-Ohio Spo rts Car Course on Sunday, Jul y 20, and was met with mixed reacti on by those in the paddock. With details still to be finalized, eligible bikes will includ e the following four -stroke engi nes: unlimited singles; 600-85Occ liquid-cooled twins (except desrnodromic): 7001l0Occ air-cooled twins; 800-1250cc' pu shrod twins; and 700-9OOcc triples. This wou ld incl ude a ra nge of m o torcycles, including the likes of th e KTM Duke, Yam aha's TDM850, BMW's RIlOO, Moto Guzzi's Sport 1100, Ducati's 900SS, Buells and Harley Da vid so ns. Altho ugh the AMA has said that 883s will be eligible, it's hard to imagine o ne being competitive. The most vocal of those agai nst the new seri es was one of the stars of the cu rrent TwinSport class , Dave Estok. Following his second-place finish in the race on Sunday, Estok lashed out at the AMA 's announcem ent in the post-race press conference. "It's the worst thing they ever d id - I'll be the first to say it," Estok said . "How do you no t get rid of Formula Xtre me, but ge t rid of the Harl eys? You kn ow how many people come to the races to see the Harleys , especially at Daytona. Have you eve r bee n ove r there to Hog Heaven and see n all those Harl ey guys? They ai n't comi ng no more. They do n't care about no Jap bikes. The re will be all kinds of d ifferent lines, different ho rse po wers... it's going to be a mess. I think the 883 class is one of the best up-andcoming classes. It's the only class out there where you have sponsors like Eric's, rriine and Jake's. What other dealerships are bringing in 600s and stu ff like that ? No one. I gu ess the AMA doesn't like Harleys. That's all I've go t to say - it' s the stupidest thing they' re doin g . If it weren't for the Harleys, I wouldn't be doing the Nationals for the last couple of years. I can' t af ford to do it. I'm not rich like half the guys out there. It's brought a lot of us into road ra cing and now they' re getting rid of it - they just don 't unders tand . The 883 will not be able to compete wi th the o ther gu ys." Many joined Estok in being surprised that Formula Xtrem e avoid ed the knife, consid ering that most of the races feature anorexic grids of true Xtreme bikes filled with leftover T:>Occ Su perspon entri es. Th row in the fact that the series is dominated by one team - Erion Racing - and it wa s somewhat surp ris ing that it had mad e the cut for 1998. Th e AMA , tho ugh, is app arently happy w ith th e gro wth of th e class and has had encouragement from the ma nufacturers tha t mo re entries would come in 1998. Tilley' s Harl ey-Davidson's Don Tilley, a lon gtime suppo rter of the Harley-Davi dso n 883 class. wasn' t su rprised by the m ove. "I d id n't know how or what, bu t I kn ew it was coming," Tilley sa id . '1 hat e to see that class go away. There are now a lot of Superbike racers that have come from racing those bikes. They're heavy and I think the y' re good for training riders. It's the AMA's call: ' Ca n a Harl ey-Da vidson be competitive within th e new rul es? "I think so," Tilley said. "I t'll be hard and expensive. But I'll bui ld a Harley and run with 'em - ma ybe a Buell." 3

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