Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~~ VOICES America's weekly mot orcycle new spa per LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Volu me XXXIV Sharon Clayton, President Micha el Kling er . Publisher Counter point Ed itori al . Pau l Carru thers. Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Scott Rou sseau , Associate Editor Murk Hoyer , Managing Editor Keith Bus h. Assistant Editor/CaplIEditor Cam eron Co atney, A ssistant Editor Alan Cathcart, European Editor David R. Holth er. Copy Editor Advert is ing Terr y Pratt , National Accounts Manager Mark Mitchell, Eastern Accounts Manager Mar k Thome, Westerll Sales Manager Th o mas Cen ter, West ern Sales Mantlger Forrest Hayashi. Western Sales Manager Grt>g M itche ll. Eastern Sales Manaxer Rick Ma theny, Eastern Salt'S MimagL 7 Rhonda Crawfo rd, Western Ad Coordinator Bridgett Bobrofsky, A.<;sista nt Ca rla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator' Tina Parr. Assistant Marketin g & Prom ot ion Mark Thome, Director Forrest Hayashi, Manager Dealer Sales Kelly Branscome, Deafer Sale.. Representative . New Me dia Developm ent Mark Mitche-II, Direc tor Rick Matbeny, WebmasteT Stepha nie Leamon, A%istant Cla ssi fied Ads Lauri c Torstcnscn G rap hics and Prod uctio n Rcc Johnson, Production Supervisor Mil:nl~Y Loa, Production Mnnagcr Dennis G reen e, tub. Tech. A manda Wollny, Graphic Artist Robyn Light, Gmphi c Artist Ad m inis tratio n Judy Klinge r, Coordinator Lean ne Sims, Administrative Assistant Accounting/Da ta Pro cessing Donna Brva n-Diamond , AIR Coordinator Geneva Repa ss, I\ssistQltt" . }lerlane Lew is, Credit Circu la tion . Rheba Smith, Manager Alma Ang uiano, Processing Coordinator K esho na Daws o n, BillIngCoordinator Caro l Maggio, Dt'aler Coordinator It is interestin g that th is point-sy stem sit ua tion keeps popping up from time to tim e. Yes, the Eu ro pea ns hav e a very exci ti ng po i nts bat tl e g oi ng on in World Su perbike right now. Th ere is n o questioning that. I hope Littl e John (Ko ci n s ki) cap t u r e s it . Howe v e r , I beli ev e that the America n sys te m has merit as well. In the AMA ra cing series, persist ency a nd consisten cy are rewarded - not just being able to w in at certain tra cks while crashing at o the rs . It a lso benefit s th e b u il ders for prepar in g r eli ab le mach in es. To take Do u g Chand le r as yo u r exa m p le, s u re , h e d o es n 't h a v e ma ny wins this year, bu t he h as be en co nsis te n t an d fin ish ed u p n ca r t he fro nt. Th is rem in d s me o f the age-o ld tale of the tortoise an d the hare . In the ~A, as in life, pe rsistency a nd cons istency wi ll a lw ays p reva il. I d ou b t we w ill h ear an y cu m pla in ts fru m J a son Pridmor e or any o ther past cha m pio ns . Th e on ly p e o p le I h a v e e ve r h ea rd w h ine a bout the points sys te m in th e AMA are those who cou ld not be pe rsisten t a nd consis tent. If we w ere to ha ve a tw o-race form a t in the Unit ed Sta tes, they wou ld n eed a heck o f a lot .more fan particip ati on tha n we ge t now to support it. For ins ta nce, 250,OOO-pllll; bikers come to Lou d on and 30,000 attend the races. In Europe, the e ven t is the race. Please don' t cha nge the poi nt sy ste m. Ame rica ha s alwa ys been a little differen t. I, for one , kind of like it tha t way. Clark Smi th vi a the Internet Point taken Se rvi ce and Su ppo rt Dori s Rice, Receptionist Michael Swe d berg , Serviceand Support N ational Headquar ters 2201 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806, r.o. Box 498, l.ong Beach, CA 90801-Q498 (562) 427-7433; (213)636-8844. FAX (562) 427~685 Eastern O ff ice 41 88 First Ave., Tucker, GA 30084; mailing ad d ress P.D. Box 1305, Tucker, GA 30085-0805. (770) 934-7850. FAX (770) 934-3112 I w uul d like to second Mr. Ca rru thers o n the AMA road racin g points stru ctu re, a nd ad d my own exa mp le of w hy the cu rren t sys tem is lousy. After the seco nd Su pe rbi ke race th is year, Mat M ladin and Sco tt Russell were tied in the AMA Su p erbik e C h a mpions h ip, w ith 37 poi ntsapeice, Mlad in and Russe ll ea ch h ad done a g rand sla m (pole point , lap-leader poi nt, an d o verall wi n ) and a no -scor e (a DNF for Mlad in a nd a DNS for Russell). Ahead of Mlad in and Russell in the cham p ionsh ip w as Paul Harrell, wi th 38 poin ts - 17 po int s for a 14 t h- p lace fi nis h a t Phoenix, a n d 2 1 po in ts for a 10th -p lace fin ish a t Dayton a . Dues a ri d er w ho fin ishes 14th a nd 10th really d eser ve a higher ran king than so meone w ho sweeps an even t, and th en go es sco reless the next weekend ? Tracy Hagen Edi na, M N an noun ce r J.B. No rr is k e p t us en te rtai ne d w ith in-dep th in terview s o f the AMA sta rs . H e d id a g rea t job calling the ra ces, too. Davey Du relle wun th e Pik es Peak H illcli rnb thi s yea r a nd he p rodu ced a nothe r winn er by promoting the Minnesota Mile. Than ks, Davey. Mike Asheton Janesvill e, wi: Ugh to drugs . In a n era that sees p ro fessiona l s p orts players co ns ta n tly bein g ca tered to, it . was refreshing to hear abou t Su zuki firing An thon y Gobert. Hopefu lly, a luud an d cl ea r message w ill be h ea rd throughou t the motorcyele spo rts world . Drug s wi ll no t be tolerated. W ith an y luck, th e other Japa nese manufacturers w ill ke e p Gobert uf f th eir tea m s a n d con tin ue to recruit ride rs of a high er calibe r . Ha ts off to Su zu ki for refusing to ma k e e xc uses fo r t h is irres po nsi b le action and best of luck to the rider w hu juins Tea m Lucky Strike Su zu ki. Ma rk Hanson Mira Lorna, CA Feeling Minn esota M y fri ends a n d 1 ha ve ju s t re turn ed from the AMA Gra nd Na tional tha t was held at Ca nterbu ry Park in Shakopee, Minnesota. Wh nt a race! Whilt a facility! Davey Durelle d id a grea t job. Our hats are off to him an d j.B. Norris - I d on 't know w hat he was paid kJ anno unce tht! race, but it wasn 't enough. Wh at a great job! We lonk forwa rd to th e race ag ain next year. Tha nks, Davey. St eve L. Eric ks un Faribault, M N Feeling Minnesot?, too The reb irt h of N ationa l flat track racin g in Min neso ta was awesome . I ha ve been to a lot of Natio na ls and the one in Minnesota ran ks near th e top. Ther e we re so m an y ac ti vi ties a t t h e race, fr um th e mo to rcycl e tes t r id es, th e mo to rcycl e gymcan a and the 60cc races out fro n t to th e im p ressive Excelcior-Henderson d isplay in the grandsta nd . Ca n terbu ry Park is spectacu la r. A lt h ou g h t rack-pre p ca used ini tia l d elays be cause it was the firs t race there, Not electrified The KTM 400 R/ XCe and yuur praise of its electri c starting are two more step s in t he wro ng d irection. 400cc four-s trokes s ho u ld o ffe r a co m p r o m is e bet w een weight an d p ower. b u t th e KTM ha s a d ry w eight o f 313 po u nd s. Gas a nd fluids b ring it close to 350 pound s, com p lete ly el im ina ting any we igh t ad va ntage over a big-bore. U nfo r t u n ate ly, t h e KTM is a bou t ave rage for cu rren t 4 00cc du a l s port bikes. Each year we ge t more features, m ore w ei g ht, mo re m a in te n a nce a n d les s a b ili ty to go off ro a d . We need street-legal off-road bike s, nu t marketing g im micks d esigned for d ual non exis ten t "s por ts ." Frus trated rid ers hav e bu ilt hu ndred s (possibly thou sand s) uf s t r eet- lega l XRs a n d DRs w h ich are eq u ivalent in hand ling and pow er to the KTM, bu t 50 pou nd s lighter. Cycle Nnce could perform a real se rvice by publish ing objectives for d ua lpu rp ose b ikes based on read ers' opi nion s . T h is wo u ld ge ne ra te so me va luab le di scu ssion. It mi gh t even p reve nt stereos from beco mi ng the numberone p rior ity for d ua l-pu rpose mo torcycles. Carl Adams San Francisco, CA Lellers to th e ed it or sho ul d be sen t to Voic es, Cycle Ne ws, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90806-0498, faxed to 562/4276685 o r e-rnaifeditorfecyclenews.eom. Published let ters do n ot necessaril y refl ect the position o f Cycle News, Inc . Le ll ers s h o ul d not exceed 200 words a nd all lellers are s ubject to editing. Ano nym ous tellers w ill not be considered for publication. All lellers sh ould contain the w riter's n am e, ad dress an d daytime phone number ... Editor. e-ma il cditor@cyclcncws.com su bscri be@cyclenews.com advertisingfscyclenews.c om 1 1997 Int ernet http: / / www .cyd enews.c.om B a a 1-1 e" e ye!... 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All righb reserved, DRAG RACING N HRA Winston Drag Racing Series fro m Reading, Pen nsylvania ,26 DEPARTMENTS 18 O RCULATION Printed in U ,S ,A. HILLCUMB Rou nd 8 - AMA N ational Cham pions hip H illclimb Series from Freem a risburg, Pen nsy lva nia 24 . SPEEDWAY U.S. Na tional Speedway Cha m pio ns hip tire contro versy 22 RESULTS EVENTS LEADER BOARD CALEN DAR WAN ADS T AVIEW FROM THE FENCE LOOKING BACK 27, 54 .30 46 47 65 .71 .71 ON THE FRONT COVER John Kocins k i w o n bot h races in th e ' Wu rl d Su p erbik e round in A lbac et e , Sp a in , w hi le h is r iv al , Ca rl Fo ga rt y, cr a s h ed uut o f bo th ra ces . Kocin ski lead s th e cha m p io nsh ip by 52 po int s. Photo by Go ld & Goose.

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