Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127870
IN THE WIND Da mon Huffman (Kaw) was crow ned Wor ld Supercross Champion in the final rou nd o f th e FIM Wor ld Supe rcross Series in Geneva , Switzerland , o n December 6. Huffman won the ti tl e cha m p io ns hip after posting 4-6 results and ben efiting from Jeff Ernig (the series leader going into the event) not riding. Emig reportedly didn't race because he wasn't offe red start mo ney. However, the man of the night was Ji mmy Button (Ya m), wh o won b o th .m a in e ve nts. Mi ch ae l P ichon (Suz) w e nt 2-2 a n d wrapped up second place in the series . Je remy M cGrath (Ya m) h ad a nothe r tough outing. In the first rnoto, the multitime champion cras hed en route to a sixth-place finish, and in the second moto he ended up fifth. Finishing third in the se ries was Emig, followed by McGrath and Button . Ty Davi s (Ka w) ca me from be hind to win th e Laughlin U.S. Hare Scrambles Championship in Laughlin, Nevada, on December 6. Nic k Pearson (KTM) ended up second , follow ed by Destry Abbott (Ka w), Russell Pearson (KTM) and Da ve O nd as (Kaw), Four d iffer en t wi nners stood atop th e p odium at rou nds fiv e a nd six of th e AMA /PJ1 N ation al Championsh ip Arenacross Series, held in Rockford, illinois, December 5-6. On Frid ay, Ch ad Peders on (Kaw) won the 12Sec main, followed by Hea th Voss (Ho n) and Cli ff Palmer (Kaw), Defen ding series cham pion Buddy An tu nez (Suz) wo n the 250cc class, with Jim Chester (Suz) and De nny Stephenson (Hon) rou ndi ng out the top three. On Satu rday, Mi ke Jones took the meas ure of the 12Sec class. Antunez and Step henson fin ished second and third , respectively. Josh Demuth wo n the 250cc class, with Antu nez and Pede rson fielding the final podium positions. Unconfi rmed reports say that motocrosser Damon Bradshaw has, o nce again, ret ired . Th e Team Manch est er Hond a rider rep orted ly couldn 't come to terms with Ma nches ter Honda a nd clo th ing com pany AXO and, as a result, has op ted to call it quits . "We just could not come to an agreemen t," said Manches ter Honda's team manager, AI Cordner. "Whe ther or not he has completely quit, I really don't know, but I do know that if he does continu e racing, it wo n' t be writh us." Brad sha w has been unavailab le for comment. Afte r the 1993 seaso n, Bra d sh a w an nounced he was retiring from the spo rt but ma de a comeback midway through th e 1996 season. Bradshaw's o nly w in since his re turn to racing was in this year's Mount Morris 250cc ational MX in Pennsylvania . Brads haw finished ou t the 1997 AMA 250cc Su percross Series in eighth and the AMA 250cc Natio nal MX Series in ninth. Cordner said he will not be fielding a team for the 1998 season. The FM F/Honda 125cc MX Te a m ha s added a fifth rider to its team for the 1998 season. Eagle, Idaho's Danny Smith will compete in the AMA Wes tern Regional 125cc Su perc ross Series as well as th e AMA 125cc Motocross National Champio ns h ip Se ries . The 18-year-old Smith turned Pro last year and competed in the last th ree 125cc Na tionals. Prior to that, Smith won bo th the 125cc B Stock and Modifi ed cl as se s a t th e AMA Am ateur/Youth Nationa l MX Championships. Smith joins Jason McCormick, David Pingree, Brock Sellards and Scott Sheak on the FMF/Honda 125cc team. Speaking of the FMF/Honda 125cc MX tea m, body builder Joe Licci ardi has been hired on as the team trainer /coach. Licciardi owns and operates two personal-training/weight-management cen ters - LA Lifestvle and Peak Pro-Formance in Californi~. Not jus t Cycle News Rider of the Year: Four-time World Champi on Mi ck D oohan has been named Au stralian Sportsman of the Year for the thir d consecutive year, despite stiff co m petition fro m u .s, Open wi nner Pat Raft er and go lfer Greg Norman, both of w ho m are also from Qu eenslan d. The celebra tions we re upset somewh at when the jud ges' choice was d oubt ed by lead ing sports colum nist Pe ter FitzSimons, who questioned Doo han's consideration beca us e his chosen sport is mach ine-ass is ted . Need less to say, Fit zSi m ons receiv ed considerable corres pondence from Australia's informed motorc ycle-racing fans. The top-selling monthly sport magazin e "Inside Sport " also had no hesitation in namin g Doohan as its top athl ete of 1997. Off-read er Jason Dahners has signed a con tract to join the Husaberg U.S. Race Team for '98. The former KTM rid er finished third in the AMA National Ch ampionship Hare Scrambles Series and seve n t h in t h e G ra n d a tio na l Cross Country Series in '97. Dahn ers will contest the G CC Series and select National End uro and 1 a tio na l Hare Scra m b les , and MIl compete aboard either a Husaberg FE400 Eld uro or an electric-sta rt FE501E EIduro. After a one-year absence, Jamie Ja mes will retu rn to AMA Superbike racing abo ard the Don Tilley Ha rley-David son VR1000, according to Don Tilley. The deal came together quickly, said Tilley, w ho at te nded the Du nlop tire test s a t Da yt ona Inte rnat io n a l Speedway, December 6-8. "I had called Parts Unlimited and told a good friend of Jami e's in Ashford (North Carolina) tha t I d id n't have a rider," Tilley said . "He said, 'You know, Jamie James is loo king to ge t back into Superbikes.' 'You reckon he' d rid e my stuff?' I asked hi m ." Tha t was on Monday, December 1. "I called him and as ke d him if he 'd be interes ted. We ta lke d and got together on wh a t w e need ed to do . He called me back the next d a y (We d nes day) a nd sa id , 'I'm yo u r ma n .' We fin a lized it on Thursda y. " Tilley said he was "so mew ha t su rp rised tha t if he was going to co me back, he wo uld come back on a privateer bike. He sa id he'd been wa tching the Ha rley for a long time an d liked what he'd seen. And I'm real excited abou t it. My job is to pu t a motorcycle u nderneath hi m to ge t it done." James, who last rode the Vance & Hines Yama ha in 1996, and w ho wo n the A MA Superbike tit le in 1989 aboard a Yos hi m u ra Suz uki, will be riding the VRl000 that Tripp No bles rod e this year, thou gh Tilley said it would be completely rebuil t. " I d on ' t have it tog eth er. When I get it together, we're go ing to go to a short (road race) track and ge t so me time on it." Former Ha rley-Davidson factory rid er Chris Ca rr w ill rid e VR1000s for Earl Small's Ha rley-Davidson , but he need s a massive infu sion of spo nsorshi p to make the program feasible. Carr was given on e of his factory bikes and will also have the u se of one o f Small's VRI 000s for his assault on the AMA Superbike title. "Earl Small is providing me with the equ ipment and transport for vehicles," Carr said . "The re's no money involved at this point." Carr said that interested spo nso rs sho uld fax him at 610/944-3017. "It's up . to me to find money to run the team. It's Gobert leads the wa I n his first appeara nce on the Vance & Hines Ducati, Anthony Gobert mad e an impressive debu t by topp in g th e rest·of the Dunlop-shod AMA factory superbike riders durin g a three-day te st in unseasona blv cold wea ther at ' Daytona International Speed way. But as impressiv e as h is run w a s - it was done on a qu a lifying t ire - t h e more impressive feat was t hat of Doug Chandler had his fir st ou ti ng on a 1998 Kawasa ki A m er ica n H onda ' s Ben ZX-6 during th e Dunlo p tire test at Daytona Internat ional Bostrom. Ravaged and weak - Speedway. en ed by the flu a ll weekend, Bostro m' s healt h improved enough by Mond ay , December 10, that he could not only post the fastest time on a race ti re , h e co u ld a lso turn the qui ckest lap o n a 600 . For so meo ne who was too sick to ge t ou t of bed only a few days earlier, it was a valiant effort . Firs t, Gobert: Having not ridden a race bike since being fi re d by the Lucky Strike Suz u k i team la st summer, Go be rt took his tim e ge lli ng up to speed, learning the intricacies of th e Du cati and reacquainting himself wit h bo th Steve Crevier puts the Yoshimura Suzuki TL 1000R Into Dayton a Int ernation al Speed - Daytona's tum one . way, wh er e he twice raced the M u z z y Ka w a s aki , a n d t he Du nl op tires, wh ich he la st used in 1996. His tim es ca me down gra dually, a nd lat e on Mon d ay a fternoon he ri pped off a 1:49.90 on the bike's com pu ter (u nofficia lly 1:49.78 on the Du nlop hand-held watch ). And he d id it wi th very little adjustment to the bike. " I gra d ua lly built it u p each tim e," G obert said . "I Vance & Hine s Duca ti's Anthony Gobert was the fastest wan ted to be the quic kes t; if of the superbike men at th e test. Here he chases down not, I wa n ted to be in the 49,;." 600-mounted Do ug Chandler. The facto ry Duca ti, whic h arrived just bef o re th e test, wa s se t up us ing Troy Corse r's ba se se tt in gs from two yea rs ag o, with only a sma ll ad just me n t to the front forks. Bostro m found that the less he tried on the superbike, the faster he wen t. 'The weird thing is, when I tried to go ha rder, I'd go slower," he sa id . "I slo wed d own and went faster." The Hond a RC45 was conside ra b lv fa st er than th e machine he cam pa igned occasionally last year. Mu zz y Kawasaki's Dou g C ha n d le r was the thirdfa st est, bu t his test was cut Pascal Picotte made his Harley-Davidson VR1000 debut sho rt with a high-side on the at Daytona . Here he confers with team manager Steve second day of the test. He 'd Scheibe . do ne a s tri ng of la p s in the middle to low 50s - easily the most consis ten t of the test riders - then crashed afte r he'd come in and fitted a qua lifying tire. "I fig u red it would have been a 48," Cha nd ler sa id. The cr ash left him with a sprained left ankle, but he said he'd be ready for the next test in January. His best time was a 1:50.2 on a race tire. Back on the Yoshimura Su zuki after a one-year absence, Mat Mladin unofficially turned in the fourth-fastest time. His was a 1:50.49 on Monday aftern oo n at the beginning of a strin g of consistent fas t lap s. The differ ence was a linkage the team fitted whi ch instantly took half a second off his lap tim e. America n Honda, Mu zzy Kawasaki , Harl ey-Davidson, Vance & Hines Du cati, Yoshimura Suzuki, and Yamaha Motor Corpora tion all took part in the tests, as weII as pri vat eer s Chris Carr, on' the Earl Sma ll's Harley-David son , and Eric Bostrom , on the Erio n Racing Honda CBR600. • Hen ny Ray Abrams 1