Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THEWIND Da ve Hamel (Ka w) won the final round of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series in Wells, Nevada, on November 2. Ham el, the brother of th e late multi-time AMA National Hare & Hound Champion Danny Hamel, was followed across th e line by 250cc-d ass winner Russell Pea rson (KTM). Rounding out the top five overall weft:' Destry Abbo tt (KTM), Donnie Book (Kaw) and J i m Gray (KTM ). Ty Davis, who had alread y clinched the ove ra ll series cha mpi on ship , was attempting to win every round of the seven-race se ries in Nevada when h is bike broke o n the bomb run. Book wrapped up th e 250cc-dass cha mp ionship. Yamaha research-and -d e vel opment rider Doug Dubach pil oted a preproduction 1998 Yamaha YZ400F fourstro ke to a 1-1 mota tally and the overall wi n at th e White Broth ers Vet Mo tocross C h a m p io ns h i ps he ld at G len Hel en Raceway in San Bernardi no , Ca lifo rnia, Novem be r 1-2. Dubach topped 1b-tim e South Ame rican Motocross Cha mpio n Adria n Rob erts (Ho n), Team Honda of T roy m ot ocr oss team m an ag er Eri k Kehoe (H a n), Terry Fo wler (Hen) an d Tom Carson (Suz) . Tim Ferry (Yam ) won the Pro division i n th e s ixt h and fi n a l round o f th e WorldSports Gold Cup Series, held at Dade City Raceway in Dad e City, Flori da, o n November 2. An tho ny Pocorcbb a (Suz) an d Ro nn ie Re n n er (KTM) rounded ou t the lop three . Pocorobba won both the 125 and 250cc A classes. of Mike Brown was the big wi nner the $2 0,000 third a nnual Texa s Pro C ha llen ge MX, held a t Swan Cycle Pa r k in T yl er, Te xa s, o n Oc tober 26. Bro wn ea rn ed $5250 for wi nning bo th the 125 a nd 250cc Pro classes. The Texas Pro Challenge was held in conjunctio n w ith the final round of the Texas State Champi onship Seri es, and Swan Cycle Park hosted 768 entries ove r the weekend. Bria n Keegan (Kaw ) and Barry Hawk Jr. (Suz) edged two- time and defending ch am pio ns D uan e Conner a nd Ti m Shepard (Yam) to claim the 1997 Team Ha re Scrambles C ha m p io ns hip of th e World in Alba ny, Ohio , on Nov ember 2. Scotl Plessinger a nd Ja son Dahners (KTM) outran Heath Bennett a nd Rob b ie Jacks (Yam) for thi rd o ve ra ll. Th e team of Dou g Bl a ckwell and Scoll Mclaughli n (Yam) was fifth. Texan Mik e Hale has signed a contract to ride Fast By Ferracci Ducatis in the 1998 AMA Superbike Na tional Cha mpi- o n s h ip . lIal e rod e a fac to ry Su zuki GSXR750 in th e 1997 World Superbik e Series, a ye ar a fte r m akin g hi s World Superbike debut on a Pow er Horse Promotor Ducari in 1996. Prior to that , Hale finished second in the AMA Su perbike National Ch am pio ns hip in 1995 o n a Srnokin' Joe's Honda RC45. Hal e made his debut on the Eraldo Ferracci-owned Du cati in the . ASB Formula USA Series final e at Dayt on a In ternati on al Speedwa y on November 2, winning the first leg before running out of gas while leading th e second one (se e page 6 for the full sto ry on the Daytona races ). Hale " ill join Tom Kipp on the tw o-man Ferracci team for the 1998 seaso n. Although details ar e yet to be final ized, it looks a s thou gh Chris Carr will be back in the AMA Superbike ational Cham pions hi p Series next yea r ridi ng an Earl Sma ll Harl ey-Davidson VR1000. " I' ve go t a pretty good id ea of ho w things ar e going to work, " Carr said on Monday, October 3. "It's jus t a matt er of getting the finances together. I'll be rid ing Earl Small's VRs. They see m to be the best thin g to sell to corporate America right now, and the :.;' re the bes t privateer bik e to have: ' Carr rod e a facto ry Harley-Davidson VRl OOO in 1997. Former AMA Superb ike N ational Champion Thomas Stevens has sign ed a one-year contract to ride a Vance & Hines Ducati in th e 1998 AMA Superbike National Championship, joining Australian Anth ony Gobert on the twoman team. Ma t Mlad in has broken his sile nce o n his defection from the Fast By Ferracci team to go back to the Yoshimura Suz uki tea m , according to Cycle News co ntributor Darryl R ac k. Mlad in, who fino. is hed th ird i n th e A MA Su perbike Na tio nal Cham pio nship on Fer rucci's Duca ti this yea r, ..aid tha t a lack of testing and a World Superbike rid e with the Ducati factory that fell throu gh were the reason s for his decision to leave. "It wa s a verbal agreem ent with Ferracd that if I won the 1997 AMA Cham pionsh ip, I'd get a factory ride for next year's World Supers, " Mlad in said. "When we were still in a position to win the title late in the season, they sta rted talking to me about racing in Am erica again next year - with no menti on of the World Supers." Mlad in has no ill feelin gs abo ut his time o n the Ita lian V-twi n . Wh en as ke d if Troy Corser's unexpected return from 500cc GP racing into one of Ducati 's factory sca ts may ha ve s ty mi ed h is o wn Wo rld Su perbike as pi rations , Mlad in said: "Troy's a good guy. I've never had a ny q ua l ms a bo ut Troy. Bu t if Jo h n Koci ns ki is still rid ing th e RC45 next yea r, Tro y' s go nna find it a lot harder than last time. Racin g agai nst Migu el DuHam el' s RC4 5, I ca n see th ey're putting the po wer down a whole lot better now. And the way the Dukes we nt in World Superbike this year, yo u can see the y have a lot of work to do... Anybody w ho thinks th e Du cat i was fas ter than the Kawasaki or Ya ma ha th is ye ar is playing with them selv es: ' Provided his Yoshimura Suz u ki team sc he d u les an inte ns ive, season-long test prog ram , M ladi n is confident that he can challenge fo r the 1998 AMA Su perbike Nationa l Championship . "Wit h Ferr acci, we ha rdl y d id any testing, which 1cou ld never understand with such a big team in an important championship. Sitting around for six weeks between races is not m y idea of ra cing fo r a championship." Mlad in ha s a lso spo ke n o u t to Darryl Flack about archrival Anthony Gobert, who will also ra ce for th e 1998 AMA Superbike Championship. Gobert - who recently signed to race a Van ce & Hines Ducati in the '98 title chase - and Mladin raced for th e 1994 Au stralian Superbike Championship, with Gobert taking the title, despite Mladin winning eight races to his seven. Asked to comment on Gober t, Mladin sa id: "Who ca res? I've go t nothin' to say about the guy - abso lutely n othin' ." Th e tw o ex -m otocross star s have follow ed a similar career path, and ~ the Gobert fami ly even purchased the Mladin rural property some time ago for Gobert and his brothers to practice their riding. But following the eve nts of the past few months, Mladin had this to say about Gobert: "I had a lot of respect for him once. In 1994, I still had respect for him, but he was going off the rails then. He wa s a da m n good rider, wit h a lot of talent. I don 't know if it's a lot of tale nt Doohan wins, Kocinski fourth in Su 0 F our-time World Champion Michael Doohan wo n the TllC Big Road Race at the Sugo Circuit in Japan on November 2, ending the most successful season of his career. The Au stralian wa s a comfortable winner of the nonchamp io nship race, crossing th e fini sh lin e Ji ve seco nd s ahead of Repsol Honda teammate Tadayuki Okada . The Sugo race also marked the retu rn of John Kocinski (abo ve) to 500cc racing, a nd the recently crowned World Supe rbike Cha mpion finis hed fourth on a Cas trol-backed Honda NSRSOO. Third place wen t to Yamaha's Norihiko Fujiwar a. Kocins ki las t raced a 500cc Gra nd Prix bike in 1994, w hen he finished third in the 500cc Wo rld Ch ampionship on a factory Cagiva . Spaniard Alex Criville, who had qualified second for the race, crashed on the opening lap and suffe red a minor injury to his left hand . Rainey Yama ha's Norifu mi Abe also cras hed out of the race. Onlv six riders finis hed the race. Suzu ki's Katsuaki Fu jiwara , meanwhile, narrowly d efeated Castrol Honda's Shinichi Hoh to w in th e final rou nd of the All-Japan Su perbike Cha mpionship . The superbike crown was won with two rounds remaining by Yamaha 's N oriyu ki Haga. who cras hed ou t of the race . goi ng to waste, but it's go ing to waste at the m oment." Mlad in, 25, has carved ou t a happy and lucrative e xis ten ce in AM A racing and appears unperturbed about Gobert co m ing to th e United States, especially in light of Gobert's earlier claims abo u t winning three 500cc World Championships and ot her championships. "He's dug his own g rave," Mladi n said . "He's s till go t three 500cc Wor ld Cha mpio nships to wi n and th e Wo rld Superbike Cha m pionsh ip . And th en he 's got to bea t Jeremy McGrath (the four -time AMA Supercross Champion>. He forg et s you get old er each yea r, not you n ger . H e just talks too mu ch. I d idn 't mind having a chat with Goey once, bu t now if he walked past, I wou ld n't even look at the gu y: ' According to reports from Japan, Suzuki will only field tw o riders in the 1998 500cc World Championsh ip - Nobuatsu Aok i and Katsuaki Fujiwara. Fujiwa ra rod e Suz u k is in the 1997 All-Japan Superbike Cha mpio nship. According to reports from Europe, the Elf 500cc Grand Pr ix team has been ta ke n ove r by MZ. Th e team, run by Frenchman Serge Rosser, is exp ected to field Doriano Romboni as its rid er in the 1998 500cc World C ha m pions hip. Other reports also indicate that Aprilia w ill stay in th e 500cc class for at least ano the r season, thou gh it has ye t to be decided wh o will rid e the bike in '98. Te xas bu sinessman Ki rk R. Clovis, owner of the rrim~1 Impulse Race Team, in partner sh ip wit h Bill Cervera of Bill's Pip es, a nnou nced th at he has been con tracted to take ov er the operati on a n d management o f American S u zu k i Motor Corpo ration's fa ct o ry 125c c racing effort for the upcoming 1998 s u per crass, m otocross and arena cross seasons . Thi s agr eem ent between the two will ma rk the first tim e in the history of American Suz uki's raeing efforts tha t an outside com pa ny will manage a m otocros s e ffo rt. The team w ill co nsis t of Robbie Reynard (l25cc Easter n Re-g ional Supercross Series and selected 250cc Supercrosses , a nd 125cc Nationals), Buddy An tunez (Arenacross . and selected 250cc Supercrosses, and 125c Nationals), Ryan Huffman (125cc Western Regional Supercross Series and se lec ted 250cc Superrrosses , and 125cc Nation als), Charley Bogard (Arenacross and selecte d I2Scc Eastern Reg ional Supercrosses, and I2Sec Nationals) and Ji ri D o st al (l 25cc Western Regi onal Supcrcr oss Se ries a nd selec ted 125cc a tio na ls a nd a m a te u r mo tocros s eve nts) , Clovis and Cervera hav e pur cha sed a 10,OO O-square-foot building r-, next to Troy Lee Designs in Corona, Cal- 0\ ifo rnia, to be used to house the manu- 0\ facturing o perations of Bill's Pipes and to provid e a perman ent location for the N' race team 's headqu arters . Clovis \'\11 be ; find ing a new building in Austin, Texas, com pany. A new outdoor track is cu r- o rentl y und er constructio n at Clovis' ranch in Temecula, California, whic h will be used by the team and other fac- ..... ..... ... E z 1

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