Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TEARDOWN BY PAUL CARRUTHERS or the past thr ee years I've tried to e xp la in h ow w e cou ld possibly ignore Mick Doohan as our choice for Cycle News Rider of the Year. Well, now I don 't have to any more. After winning four consecu tive 500cc World Cha mp ionships, Doohan finally ou td istan ced himself from th e rest of this ye a r's stars to be named as our Rid er of t he Year. And h e ri chl y deserves it. Bu t, as always, th er e was plenty of argu ment for ot hers . Le t' s ta ke Jeff Em ig, for exa m p le . He'll likely earn the AMA Pro At hlete of th e Year Award in Las Vegas ne xt wee ke n d . Winn ing b ot h the AMA 250 cc Na tiona l Motocross C h a m pions hi p a nd th e AM A Su percross title tends to bring those kinds of accolades. An d if you think win ning those two tit les is hard , try changing the minds of America - try making the m believe tha t Jere my McGrath is n' t th e only m otocro s ser in exis te nce. He proved tha t b y match ing everyt hing that McG rath had eve r do ne in a single season... well, excep t for that Motocross des Nations th in g. And that loss .ca n ha rd ly be pi nned o n h im. Pu t it th is way: If Dooh an ha d wo n the award in the p a st three years , Em ig w ou ld un d oubtedl y have won it thi s year. An d what about last year's Rider of the Year , Scott Parke r? All he did was win a n eig hth AMA G ra n d National Champions hip. In a year in w hich he was pressu r ed t h ro ug hout , Parker responded li ke ... well, he respond ed like Scott Parker. Early on, it looked as though Will Davi s had a very good chance of de throning Parker - but we all knew that the best d irt tracker in th e his tory of the s por t would somehow . find another gear when th e su m mer mo nths heated up and the all-important mi les s ta r te d litte rin g th e sc he d u le . Besid es, he was last year's Rider of the F Year, an d isn' t seven the number of perfection anyway? John Kocinski wou ld make a more compelling arg u me nt for Rid er of th e Year than a lot of people mig ht think es pecia lly if you co nsider factors ou tside of jus t mere race resu lts, w hich w e do. Call it an act, call it min dless cheerlead ing orcall it wh atever you want to, but it certainly appears that the former 250cc World Champio n certainly ma de an ab ou t-fa ce in the a tt it u de d epartment en route to his World Su perbike Champions hip . The new Koci nski is more ma ture, more th ou ghtful. .. and, finally, more liked . Sure, it ge ts old listeni ng to hi m praise Honda over and over, bu t it seems to be wo rking . Honda lik es Ko cinski a n d Kocin s ki like s Hond a . And that re la tio ns h ip h a s allowed him to tot ally rebuild a car eer tha t only three years ago wa s languis hing on a water-ski in ' some California lake. . Then there's this California kid w ho walked away wit h the World Speedway C ha m pionship. I beli eve his na me is Greg Hancock, thou gh tha t may be los t on anybody other than the die-hard reader of Cycl e N ews. Hancock won a World C hampion sh ip in a d ifficult arena, Yet to gai n an y real attention he may have b e e n bett er o ff tryi ng to stra ng le his British League team manager. Hancock fulfilled a lifelong dream to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Bruc e Pen hall, and capture the top pri ze in speedw ay racing. Unfortunately for him, his bu d dy Billy Hamill bea t .him to it just a year ago . Still, if Han cock find s himself at op th e cham p io ns hip sta ndings next year, he may also find himself atop our voting list for Rider of the Year - but then agai n, he'll also have a fight on his hands for that honor . On e cu rr ent cha mpion who alm ost s li d b y wi t ho u t eve n a thoug h t is NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Cha m pion Ma tt H ines. Think of it this way: Ju st tw o yearsago, thi s kid wasn't even in the spo rt of drag racing; now he' s the best the sport has to offer. Th en again, maybe it' s not mu ch of. a surp rise, consi deri ng th e fac t that hi s su rna me is sy no ny mo us with drag racing . Maybe he'll actuall y ha ve to top Uncle Terry Vance's list of titles to ge t a bett er "reaction" from us. Doug Chandler's name also came up wh en we hagg led over our Rider of the Yea r se lectio n . But Chandler's worst ene my was Ch andler himself.. He simply d idn't win e no u gh . Wh at he d id , though, is what cham p ions u ltim a tely do b etter th a n an yo ne e lse: H e d id exac tly what was need ed of hi m to wi n. a cha m pionship. The bott om line is simple, really: Chandler is the 1997 AMA Su per b ike Na tiona l C hampion, a nd that 's all any body is goi ng to remember in 10 yea rs . The fact that it was his third tit le is what's more impressive. If h e wins title number fou r, he'll hea d th e list of AMA Superbike Cha mpions , and he' ll a lso be one to argue for w he n it comes time to ha nd ou t ou r Rider of the Year hon ors in 1998. And there are still others . How abo ut AMA 125cc Na tional Mot ocross Cha mp ion Ricky Carmich a el? Or five- t ime AMA Gra nd Nationa l Cross Co u n try Champion Scott Su m me rs? Or arguably . th e Malco lm Smith of the ' 90s - Ty Davis (ag a in )? There are good argum ents fo r all of them, depending on what form of the sport you follow most closely. But a ll you ha ve to be in order to ag ree with our selection of Doohan isa fan of motor racing - peri od . Not on ly ha s Doohan do m ina te d 500 cc Grand Prix racing for the pa st four years, but he' s now reached the upper eehelon of the sport itself. In 20 years, w hen peo- pie d iscuss the long and illu strious his tory of Grand Pri x raci ng, they' ll men tion Do oh an rig h t alo ngs ide Agostin and Hailwood . He has not only becom a modern -day legend in the spo rt - he' a legend for all time . In 1997, the mal w on 12 ou t of 15 races, finished secon in two others, and on ly a cras h in th final round ke p t him from a near-per feet sea son. Critics of Doo ha n will point out tha th e Aus tra lia n isn ' t racin g the likes 0 Ed die La w s on , Wayne Rai n e y an Kevin Schwantz anymore. Those critic also have sho rt memories. Week in an week out, Do oh an b eats th e li kes 0 A lex Cri vill e , Tad a yuki Okad a a n Luc a Cad al ora - but le t' s n ot forge w ha t is perhaps the most impressi v thing about him. He's beaten them all includi ng Rainey, Schwantz and Law so n. Jus t look ba ck to 1992 (and the were a ll st ill there): Dooha n wo n th first four Grands Prix of the season, fin ishe d seco nd in the nex t tw o, and the won the seventh ro u nd . Then he suf fere d a broken leg th at wo rds can' t d justice to. He missed the next four race. an d th at cost him the Wor ld Cha mpi ons hip . At the end of th e season, his Ie was put in an appa ra tus which gave i the appea rance more of a caged animal than a limb. In 1993, he came back, but lost the champions hip as his season was . litte red with probl ems . He came ba ck in 1994, h is fit nes bac k to full strength. And he hasn' t lost yet. In fact, he may en d up keeping the 500cc World Ch a m p io ns h ip until th day he finally decides to han g up the lea thers. We'd hat e to think that would happ en before we got the cha nce to nam e him as our Rider of the Year. After all, he earned it. . I'~ ILOOKING BACK.... 20Y A SA O E R G ... JANUARY 11 , 1978 10 YEARS AGO... JANUARY 6, 1988 ond a gra bbed the spo tlight, with its 1978 model lineup gracing the fro nt pages of issue #50. Billed by Honda as the "m ost spectacu lar Su perbike," the 1047cc, six-cylinder CBX was definitely the flags hip of the line, al mos t overs hadowin g the CX500 an d the radi call y improved CR250R ... Roger D eCoster (Suz) won the Motocross de las Americas in Lima, Peru ... Be rnie Schreiber (Bu l) be at out Ma rla nd Wh al e y (H en ) at t h e AT A El Tria l d e Esp an a in Orange, Calif ornia ... Jim Gianatsis took a good lo o k at the Tran sAM A Ma ic o of "Cassin'" Ga ylon Mos ier... We a lso told yo u wh ere you cou ld r a ce m ot o c r o s s durin g th e wintertime in e ith er Flor id a or California on pa g e 20 ... Pa ge . 22 offered a lo ok at the excell en t LA Trad e Tech motorcycl e m echani cs cou rse... A clea nlooking, l-year-old box van wa s fetchi ng about $7000 in the Want Ad s. . y cl e N ews . ce le b ra te d 25 ye a r s as Ame rica 's weekly mo torcycle newspap e r, ~ w it h a fu ll -col or, co a ted -s tock cove r and a few fu llco lo r p ages insid e as well feat uring photos with mot orcy cl in g ' s h istoric na mes of th e p ast 2 1/ 2 d ecad es. Rid e rs s uc h as Bob Hannah, Kenny Roberts, Dick Mann, Jay S p ringste en a n d Roger DeCoster graced the co ver - you had to be that good. Scatt ered ins ide were photos of other riders who sha ped motor cycli ng into w hat it is toda y ... We profiled AMA Na tional Enduro Ch ampion Kevin H in es and Wor ld 500cc Road Race Champion Wa yne Gard ner, and we tested bikes such as th e 1988 Suzuki RM250, HarleyDavi dson Electra Glide Sport (?), and the Yama h a YSR50... As for even ts, Ma rk Manniko (Fan ) w on bot h th e Schreiber Cu p and the EI Tr ial de Espana in La Cresta, California... Randy Hawkins (Hu s) ed ged ou t Larry Roeseler (Kaw) at the Tecat e 250k Enduro... Our 1988 Buyer' s Gu ide featured photos and sp ecifications of 154 d ifferent mot or cycles. All in all, it was a good f~ issue w ith which to wrap up an excellen tyear. H A 8 ~ 108 C

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