Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS TOYOTAfTHORIPARTSUNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES Round 1: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum began challe ng ing Hugh es for th e last tran sfer spot. In almos t an instant replay o f h is earlier se mi rac e, Hu gh es fe lt Ferry' s Yamaha come in on the inside of him on the last turn before the checkers - but this time , Hu ghes kep t it o n two wh eels and edged Ferry across the finish line, Button wo n, MAIN Henry and Mc Grat h d iced f or the lead early in the race, Henry, on his booming fou r-stro ke, found th e righ t com binatio n of power and tra ction to gra b the holesho t in the first ma in event of the 1998 series - but right behind him wa s McGrath, w ho has always proven dangerous w hen he gets goo d sta rts, After th e fir st lap w a s co m p lete d, Henry still had the lead, and McGrath seem ed to be sizing him up in seco nd , Emi g held third, followe d by Albertyn, Win d ham , H u ff m a n , Pic hon , Ward , LaR occo and Craig , Back in 12th was Tortelli, wi th Button 13th, Lus k 14th and Bel ley l Sth. Mean while, Hu gh es, af te r crashin g, was last. McGrat h wa s keeping Henry in sight on the deeply rutted and o ne-lined tra ck - McGrath out bra king Henry going into th e tu rn s a n d H enry o u td riving McGra th on the exits . "A lo t of th e tim es, we' d go in to a corn er, tu m , he'd go int o the rut and go su pe r, su pe rslow - like in the jump sec- 1 2 5cc~c1ass ~inner James Dobb was 'seen lurking around the Co liseum pits: England's Dobb was In Southern Cabfornia to train and prepare for the 1995 FIM 125cc Grand Prix seaso n, which wH I . se'e him competing for Dave Thorpe's " Ca't " Honda teani .· " I love being around racing, 'and it's great to be back here for a while," Dobb said. : W e have 'a great team put together for 1995, and I'm . really looking'forward to the season ." . . . .' teams"worked out of and everyth mq was so' small and run down . It ' was nothing like you see here in' America.- Brown said, referring to the American pit setup." Also , the hote ls we re the wo rst Yo u never knew where y ou-were goii,g to eat.:and I hardiy ever ate ..... . out, I remember in Portuqal.,they opened the hotel near the' track ' Split Fire/ Pro C ircuit/ Kawasaki' s Casey Jo hnson' was a-nofor one day. so that we co uld stay there. 'and .when yo u went to show at the LA race . Casey, who was sc heduled to compete in tum the water on, it 'was all brown and rusty. A fter thefirst three the W estern Regional 125cc Supercross Seri es: is recuperating races . I about"cried , .1just wanted to come hom e. .But if I would from a broken ankle, He .will be out' of action indef initely, Riding D a v e Grant. owner and manager of Honda's factory 250cc Grand " , have come home, I woul d have lost all the money I was riding for, his motor cyc le at the .LA even t wae: 9SS and 'S9 W est Coast Prix' team, was to America.to keep an eye on his new team mem-. At the erid of the seaso n, when the re we re three' races left , I was 125 cc champ Jeff Matia sevich, who has in recent years been raeall happy and sia rted riding real well, but that was because 1knew ber, Fre d e r i c B o lley . The yo ung Frenchman will ride the first Ing in Japan: " Mydeal irrJapan f ell through, and I talked to M itch I wa's co ming home . At that point in time, I knew I had to do 'some, seven AMA supercross events before heading back to Europe for and he gave me a nde.": M atiasevich said, "This all came about . ih ing i o get back home and race, ' . ' . the GPs. Grant was also hanging out in Los Angeles on behalf of two weeks ago - I haven' t ridd en a 125 in years: Two wee ks ago, the FIM , acting a representative for Giuse ppeLuonqo and his .when I rode the 125 again, 1 was aw ful ' but the last : co uple of " Ac tion' Group," t he organizers 'and prom oters 'of the FIM·sancFormer ;125cc Wo rld Champio n and fMF/ Honda tea';' manager days. I've been feeling bet ter. " M atlasevlch is eligible to race in tioned W orld Championship Grand Prix Series. Recently, Luongo Bob Moore provided Cycle News with t he lowdown on the FMF -the 125cc class aga'in because he hasn't held an A MA license in race bikes. " Basically, what Honda has authorized us to say about ove r three years . M atiasevich finished l Oth. .. . . was enlisted to help reorganize the FIM W orld Supercross Champi'. . . '. . - . . onship. and, as part of the "overhaul." he hop es to arrange a round the bikes is t hat we we re i eal happywith the production rnot orcyTea;'" C h a p a r ral' roiled ' into the damp 'LA Co liseum pits w ith .-' of the series' in America. Grant met with representativesof PACE cle,' but we are puShing to get more out of it," said.M oore, taking Motor Sport s, promoters 'of the AMA Supercross Series. to ' help' the company line to the nth degree, " W e start ed With (Steve ) 'corpora te 'suppo rt from M azda T ruc k s . Th e deal, whi ch was bro kered by Chaparral.own er Dave Damron andrace team man-.· make the event a reality. If these plans co me to fruition, the series, ' · Lamson's bike and began working With the engine. Each rider on which will nun in the late fall and early winter months, is tentatively" the team has their own spec ific performance setup." ager Larry Brook s; will provide a healthy infusion of cash into the : '. .. . ... . . operation, which is filling its financial war chest from a number of scheduled to visit Japan: Barcelona, Spain: Leipzig, Germany: Nice, .: - ' , .. ' Yeah: it' s nice to be b ack," said Team C haparralrace consultant ·unique spo nsorship arrangements. . France: the United Kingdom: and hopefully. the UnitedStatei . Kel C a r r uth e r s ,' who is a former World Champion Grand Prix . -405 freeway in . V 'alentin':' Rossi ,' the 199 7 F IM 125cc W or ld Road RaCing' .. road racer and title-winning race tuner, lri recent years , Carruth ers Near the Coliseum and off to the side of 'the 1 Champion, was o n hand to watch the opening round of the AMA .. wasa per sonal w atercraft engine R&D spec ialist for the' W est, . ·Los A ngeles '- one of the busiestmotor -vehicl e thoroughfares in coast/ Se a-Doc racing team. Now 'spinning wren ches 'and doing Supercro ss .Series. " I. am a big fan and like supe rc ross very the.world - sit s a ' massive 14-bi4S·foot biJlboard pro mo ting much," said the friendly yo ung Italian, " I really like .to watch Jeresome heavy thinking for Chaparral, he had an inte resting take on : Oakley, 'However, what is so specia l abo ut thlsparticulerboard my M cGrath, J eff Emig and Ezra Lusk -' I like them all." Rossi will modern-day supe rcross : " It' s more .of a.s how now , but that' s is th at i t fea t ures a da'zzling blac k-and-w hit e ima ge o f Team ride' the 250 cc Grand Prix class for Apri lia in 199S. Anoth er Italian " okay >.yo u give the public what they want. I liked the ,old tracks Splitfire/ Prc Ci rcuit/Kawasaki rider Rick y C armic h a el com' road racing star in attendanc e at the race was 250cc rider Lori s bett er because. to me, that was more like an indoo r motoc ross ' plete ly whipped over a.supercross j ump. Superc lean arid radical in . . IPCe. .The tracks were f aster , and that's what I liked. ' . C a p i ro!.s i , Rossi's teamm ate.' appearance. the board is just another sign of America's new and pronounced fascination with.supercross . . Nati on: O n Saturday evening, Aprll.2 5, the AMA Supercross . Team Suzuki factory rider LarrY W a ;'" was eager to get the season started, Now on the brink of .13 co nsecutive wee ks of travel, Series w ill enter uncharted - but. potent ially.pro sperous ' wa ters , PACE M otor Sports had the L os Angeles publicity m a c h i n e when the Dallas Supercross w ill be taped for a one-ho ur, next-day War d was 'v ery 'unfazed by the daunting prospect. "I like to race cr anking in overdrive the wee k prior to the Co liseum ope ner . every weekend, " .W ard said. "Yo u just show up, go out there and . airinq on AB C 's popular " W ide .W orld o f Sport s " prog ramCth e Jeremy Mc G rath sat in on' KROQ radio's po pular ' Love Line " same show' that brought us the annual airing of the Carlsbad U.S. show: w hich deals wi th various dat ing and relation ship issues,' race - 'you know exactly what y ou have to do to prepar e. W hen you have weeks 'o ff between races, sometimes you don 't know ' . GP of Motoc ross back in the 1970s and "SOs). The condensed M eanw hile, ' J ell' Emig 'w o ke up early (wh ich he did n't like ) to what to do ." . , airing, whic h will highligh(the' evening's 125cc and 250cc main appear on Fox TV's LA morn ing show . Factor that in wi th a major events . 'w ill run in' a high,pro file: one-hour time slot immediate ly new spape r; radio and telev ision adve rt ising blitz that covered alter the national bro adcast netw ork'stelecast of the W inst on ' Babylon by th e Sea, and it became quite apparentthat PACE had . Team K a w a s a k i ' s 'n e ";' r ace b ike s we re by far the tnc kestD looking bikes in the pits and were graced with some cleve r' techni- . Select SO NASCAR Win st on C up race from Talladega, Alabama. most of the major corn rnunicatlon bases covered. cal innovations: Each bike was equipped wi th new DID " no shoulA number of insiders believe that the time slot will attract a num. , der" rims. solid brake rot ors, Berg RaCing carbon-fiber guards and . ber of viewers of NAS CAR (far and away A merica' s most popular Tea m H onda/FM F showed up in Los An geles with a unique sponsor, D eMa ri ri i , one of Am erica's largest aluminum,baseball, . susp en sio n com ponent s .tha t. fe at ur ed e xt ra ca nis ters and . form of motor sport ), and hop efully they will stay tuned for the adjuste rs that ran into the upper fork tubes and rear shock . "We supercross broadcas t. ' ' . :bat manufacturers, has signed on to back the Harbor Ci ty: Califorrna-bas ed race team. . . . . . . don 't know all the details of the performance characteris tics o f tbe rims," said Kawasaki team manager Bruce Stjemstrorn from Jeremy ' McGr ath 's and J immy B utton 's Chaparral suppo rt-. ed YZs were both equipped w ith 1994 YZ cylinders, w hich is what 'Courtesy of the cleverly name d " Pineapple Express,,, a massive ' the pits on Satu rday afternoon : " but they 're clever and appear to storm front encroached upon .Los Angeles on Fridayrnornlnq and he lp perf orm ance .A s far as t he. fo rk c anis te rs , they help ·to· the factory Yamaha effo rt used for most. o f last year. Report edly, · dumped more' than three inches of rain on the city. -In addition, a .. improve .feel and mod ulation, However, there' s nothing in them, . both riders are happy wi th the set up. Both bikes ~ere also graced w ith a trick high- and.low -speed rear-suspension arrangement. .t o r n ad o - something M other N ature generally doe sn't send to and we don't anticipate placing them on the production bikes . " . . .' visit Sout hern California , to uched downin Long Beach,. ripping . .. ·the roof off a m'ajor ,supermarket and tearing up a number of house Team Honda of Troy ' s M ike .B r o w n 'is happy to be bac k in' Team Stiffie rolled into Los. Angeles w ith an.impressive .race acing: es. Fortun ately . no one was hurt, but Friday' s activities at the Col- .-: A merica: Through a tumu ltuous year in Europe as a member of " ope ration . Com peting aboard bikes featuring Tom M organ "R iseum were com pletely washed out : . Mi c hele Rinald i's facto ry Yamaha/Chesterfield tob acco team, . tuned suspension and motors. :team riders Shaun Perolio. Mi chael : '.. . . . Bro w n found th at Europe just wasn ' t his sc ene,'. " Everyt hing Brandes. .J eff Willoh, and young .Fren ch race r J erome Hernery seemed old there, Th'ere were all these small Volvo . . that the . (!res h off the FIM 125 cc GPcircuitl make 'up the team. -'. : ~ : .,., vans "For';'er AMA national wi~ner. ~n d '99S·.·Motocross des Nation s . . :Brieflv... a s TV co 0\ 0\ ...... 8 tion before the finish:' McGrath said of dicing wi th Henry . "He' d go slow then, braaaa, just jump off real easy; o n a tw ostroke, you have to ha ve a little m omen tum, so I'd have togo up besid e him , By the tim e I'd get going, he'd tak e off," McGrath mad e halfhearted att empts to pass Hen ry and later admitted that he wa s reluctant to go off the main line for fea r he'd be slowed down by th e mud, All the w hile, Emig wa s making his presence kn own by sho wing McGrath his fron t wheel her e and there, Mea nwhile, Tortelli was bu sv climbing up throu gh th e pack - as was Lusk . And Albertyn was holding his own in fourth, with Windham in fifth, Up front, Henry, McGrath and Emig raced clos e to geth er while building a cu shion b etween th ems elves and the •res t of the p ack , H enry, thou gh, soo n s ta r te d inchin g a way from McGrath , w ho wa s now fee ling se rious pr essure from Em ig. Things took a tum for the worse for McGrath when he came up short ov er th e fini sh-line d oubl e 'ju m p a nd w a s nearly tossed off the side of his bike, "The rut go ing up th e fi n is h -li ne jump was real deep, and it was an gled ," McGr ath sai d of his near get-off, "I we nt in kind of side ways and go t on the gas, but I was going to go off the track, so I ba cked off,"

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