Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~~ V OICES America's weekly motorcycle newspaper LEITERS TO Volume XXXV Sharon Clayton. President Michael Klinger, Publisher THEEDITO R Editorial Paul Carruthers. Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Scott Rousseau, Associate Editor Mark Hoyer, Ma>Ulging Editor .. Keith Bush, Assistant Editor/CoT!)! Editor Cameron Coatney, Associate Editor Alan Cathcart. European Editor David R. Holth er, Copy Editor Adverfising Terry Pratt. National Accounts Manager Mark Mitchell. Eastern Acc ounts Manager Mark Thome. Western SalesMa>Ulger Thomas Center, Western Sales ManJIger Forrest Hayashi. Western SalesMa>Ulger Greg Mitchell, Eastern SalesMa>Ulger Rick Matheny, Eastern Sales Manager Rhonda Crawford. Western Ad Coordinator Bridgett Bobrofsky. Assistant Carla Allen. Eastern Ad Coordinator Tina Farr, Assistant Marleeting & Promotion Mark Thome, Director Forrest Hayashi. Manager . Kory Klinger, Dealer Represe tatioc n New Media Development Mark Mitchell, Director Rick Matheny, Webmaster Stephanie Leamon, A'Sis tallt Classified Ads Cherie Collie Craphics and Production . Ree johnson, Production Superuisor Mandy Loa, Production Ma>Ulger Dennis Greene. Lab. Tech. Amanda Wollny. GraphicArtist Robyn Light. Graphic Artist Terra Whitmeyer. Graphic Artist Administration judv Klinger, Coordinator Lean ne Sims, Administrative Assistan! AccountinglData Processing Donna Bryan-Diamond. A/R Coordinator Geneva Repa ss, Assistant Theresa Milburn, Credit Circulation Alma Anguiano. Processing Coordinator Carol Maggio. Dealer Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Coordinator joy Lau, Assistant Service and Support Shannon Clark, Receptionist jim Olson, Service and Support National Headquarters 3505-M Cadillac Ave.•Costa Mesa, CA 92626 P.O. Box 5084. Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084 (714) 751-7433 FAX (714) 751-6685 Eastern O ff ice 4188 First Ave., Tucker, GA 30084 P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA 30085-0805 (770) 934-7850 FAX (770) 934-3112 e-mail editor@cvc1enews.com subscribedcvclenews.corn ad ve rt ising@CYclenews.com Internet http:/ / www.cyclenews.com Cvcle News (u SPS 141 -34{)) is published weeklyexcept the I~ two week.. of the calendar vear for $50.00 pt"I' year by . Cvcle Ncws.Jnc, 3SOS-M Cadillac Avenue, CostaMesa. CA A tl ~' 92628 Periodicals Postage Paid at Costa Mesa, CA and.at . additio~llTIc1i1ing office. Canada Post International Publications Mall#546615. POSTMASTER: Send ad dress changes to Cycle News, P.O. Box 5084 Ccsta Mes.a CA 92628-5084. , , To determ ine the expiration date of your subscription, check the four numbers on the first line of your address label, The fir-ittwo digits indicate the l.astissue number you'lJ receive and the last two characters indi cate the year of the last issue. Subscription rates: Rates for the United States and i~ p0sses.sions for. one year (SO issues), $50.00; two years 000 ISSUes), $95.00; SiX months (25 issues), $16.00; trial sub 05 issues), $19.00. Canada and Foreign, one year (SO issues), $90.00 two ; years (tOO issues), $175.00; six months (25 iSSUlS>'545.00; trial ' sub (15 Issue ), $38.00. s Cycle News welcomes unsolicited ed i to~a l ~ teri~ l including stories, cartoons, photos. etc. Such material, If pubhs~t.~ , . be come the exclusive property of Cycle N~s. Rcprmt m~ In s whole or part c,'nly pe~ i s.·j,]o n .of th~ publisher. Advertising rat e and circulation information willbesent upon s b r request. Sloe S.R.D.S. W/B[')'A V om!' ~ AUDITED CIRCULATION Printed in U.S.A. 4 CoeyrightCl Cycle News, Inc. 1998. Trad emark Cycle News registered ll.S, Patenl Office. All rights reserved. Report from the grandsta nd Last night at the Phoenix Su pe rcross my friend and I were sa d dened to see the ad vancing stages of the deat h of a spo rt we all enjoy - supe rcross. It's a beginning of d eath due to th e d e ad ly co m b ina t io n o f a lcoho l and greed. Drunken, unruly fans made :--:hat would have o the rwi se been an exciting, en joyabl e evening an ugly spec tacle. Th e g reed wa s apparent in th e prices charged, not only for ad missio n, but for products for sale inside the stadium. To pr omote this activity as a family sport is a cru el joke consid ering ad missio n costs for a famil y o f four , coupled wi t h a bs u r d pri ce s for thin g s like co tto n candy at $5. What went on in the sta nds was not some thi ng fit for child ren. Th e poor u se of th e sta d iu m so und sys te m an d th e co nsta n t co m m ercia l messages combined to distract from the high quality of racin g on the track. After two yea rs of attendance, witn essin g the same outrageous be hav ior, most of th e 12 peop le in our group have decided t~ give up and watch th e races on televi sion. Richard Peck Tucson, Arizona If "drunken, unruly fans" are the death of supercross, 1&11 otherfamily-oriented sports er such as baseball, football, hockey and socc would have died a long , long time ago. Unfortunately, these kind of peopledo exis.t and are next to impossible to weed out until it's sometimes too late. As is evident in the following lett er, the supercross promoters are aware of the problem. As far as price of admission is concerned, if you have not attendedany otherlarge sporting event lately , such as football or basketball, then you probably are not aware of what a bargain supcrcross really is. Comparatively speaking, $35 for the best seat in the house isn't too bad. Also, supercross has nothing to do with the cost of cotton candy. The price is the same as at a football game. Yes, the sound system wasll't great at Phoenix, but that's the stadium's fault . Sometimes the supercross promoters just have to make do . with what is provided them. Finally, supercross has bills to pay, 100. Without advertising, supereross simply would not happen, and you wouldn't even beable to watch it 011 TV . What's worse?... Editor PACE resp on ds I wo ul d like to ta k e a m om ent to respo nd to several letters to the ed itor In recent editions of Cycle News. Ther e are two issues that have been a theme in . most of these letters. Firs t, re ga rd in g par king and tr affic in and arou nd the Los Angeles Colise- urn . Th ere a re 8000 p arkin g s p aces ope ra ted by the Coliseu m and ad jace nt to the Coliseum comp lex. Th ose are the firs t lots filled on even t day. Th er e are an additio nal 13,000 parkin g spaces in lo ts o perated o n the USC ca m p us, a half mil e o r less w alk to the Coliseum. All of the coliseum and USC lo ts are be twee n $7-$ 10. There are in d e p e n den tly operated lots o pe ra ted by bu sinesses o r priva te ind ivid u als, and I reco m m e n d u sin g Coli s eum or USC parking first before using th ese lots. As s ta ted in o ne of the letters, th ese lo ts are subject on ly to how much the bu siness lindividual wan ts to charge. We w orked diligently w it h th e Coliseum staff, th e LA police d ep artment and th e Depa rt ment of Transportation to make the traffic in LA a manageable process. I believe we m ad e m ajor improvements in the pa rking / traffic issues fro m the 1997 eve n t to th e 199 8 eve n t. W h en con struc t io n forced u s to m o ve fr om Ana hei m to the LA Co liseu m, we wer e awa re tha t p arki ng a n d tra ffic w ere m ajor issues. They will con tinu e to be issues we proactively a ttem p t to d eal w i t h at every eve n t e ve ry yea r. Absol u telv the b es t w ay to beat th e traffic is to come for "early en try" - th e p arki ng a n d tra ffi c cha ll enges don ' t exist ea rly in the day. The secon d issue I w o uld like t o a d d ress is cro w d b eha vio r / safe ty a t supercross, speci fica lly a t Los An gel es. Th ere were no polic e rep o rts of incidents outside the LA Co lise u m for the event. The LA Coliseum, because of past isola te d incidents a nd th eir cu rren t efforts to be the si te for a ren ova ted NFL stadi u m, have put a major emp has is on safe tv, We had ov er 50 LA police office rs -ins id e th e Colise um, a n d 70 LA police officers ou tsid e the Colise u m, in ad ditio n to th e more than 200 unarmed sec u rity person nel working th e sup ercross event. No dou bt there were se veral d runken -behavior incidents inside.the Co liseu m, a p roblem we are awa re of a n d p romis e to b e proa cti v e a b o u t. PACE can d o seve ral th ings to wo rk on the prob lem, i.e, the "pa ce" of the show (d o w n ti m e eq u a ls rowd y behavior), no ndrinking " fa m ily " sectio ns , m o re. aggress ive facility alco hol-ma nageme n t co ntro l, etc. I will keep all su perc ross fan s advised as to ho w we are doing with these issues. The purpose of my le tter is to let you, the supercr oss fa n, know th a t PA CE ' does care, is aware and is continui ng to improve su p erc ross, an a lready ~he nomenal spo rt. Ken Hudgens Vice Pre sident, Marketing PACE Motor Sports PACE Motor Sports is the promoter for 15' of th e 16 A M A Su perc ross Series rounds...Editor Gods peed, Lee Ad ams Th e off-roa d community suffers a great loss in the passing of Lee Ada ms . Lee was a friend to man y and a com petitor. He ra ced 0-37 d esert, ORA , CRC, etc ., in the 1960-70s with an excellent fini shing record. He was also th e oldest finish er in the Bar stow-to-Vega s hare and hound one year. Lee was an avid enthusiast, racing and riding wh en- _ ever po ssibl e, and he was a member of the Masterlinks MC, LBFD MC and the Sodbusters MC ove r the yea rs. Lee wa s also a Long Beach Fire Department captai n, an avid deep-sea fisherman, and an accomplished su rfer and diver. Lee will be g rea tly missed . Godsp eed, m y friend . Mike Hood Riverside, California Cong ratUlations, Ryan Huffman I am w ri ting th is letter to co ngra tu late Ryan H uffman on his new factory rid e wi th Suzuki . I we nt to hig h school with Ryan an d, alth ough he prob ab ly d oesn 't know me from Adam now, I am a loyal fan of his. I have kept tab s on his racing career for t h e las t five yea rs o r so, a n d I w a s ext remel y impressed with hi s performa nce last year . He was co nsistent all yea r and he is now rea ping the rew ard for all of his hard wo rk. I d id n't kn ow Ryan all that well in high school eith er, but, nevertheless,.he was kind eno ug h to let all the gu ys nde on his two tracks. For the m os t part, I a m s till a s q ui d novi ce h e r e in La s Veg as , but th ere is not hi ng I wou ld rather d o th an rid e . Co ngra tu la tions , Ryan , on all o f yo ur accom p lishmen ts, and th anks a ga in fo r p rom ot in g the thrill of motocross to all of us slow guys . Good luck this year. Dave Gifford Las Vegas, Nevada Letters to the editor should be sent to Voices, Cycle News, P.O. Box 5084, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084, faxed to 714/751- 6685 or e-mail, editor@cyclenews .corn . Publi shed letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters should not exceed 200 words an d all letters are subject to editing. Anonymous letters will not be considered fo r publication. All letters should contain the writer's name, address and da ytime phone num ber ... Editor. INSIDE IsSue #6 Februa 18, 1998 FEATURES SUPERCROSS Round 5 - ToyotaTrucks / Thor / Parts Unlimited AMA Su pe rcro ss Series from .San Diego, California 6 ARENACROSS Rounds 15 & 16 - AMA /PJ1 Arenacross Series from Niagara Falls, New York ..10PREVIEW AMA /MBNA Superbike Series Preview HARE SCRAMBLES Rou nd 1 - AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series from Hollister , California GRANDPRIX 18th annual Adelan to Gra nd Prix ........16 PROJECT BIKE 1998 Race Tech /Honda XR400 20 DEPARTMENTS EVENTS .36 42 GUEST EDITORIAL 14 CALENDAR WANT ADS 12 22 59 LOOKINGBACK .59 ONTHE FRONT COVER Jeremy McGrath wo n h is s econd straight AMA Supercross Series round, this 0I1e coming at Qualcom m Stad ium in San Diego, California . Photo by Kinney Jones.

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