Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE WIND Fred'At;'dre~s (Ka~)'~on the'~ombin~ Grand National Cross Country and Hare Scrambles National at the Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on AprilS. Rodney Smith (Suz), Scott Summers (Hon), Steve Hatch (Suz) and Barry Hawk Jr. (Yam) followed Andrews across the finish line. Desiry Abbott (Kaw) scored the overall win in the third round of the AMA National Hare & Hound Series in Jericho, Utah, on April 5. Defending champ Ty Davis was second; followed by Paul Krause (Kaw), Brian Brown (Kaw) and Ed Sorenson (Kaw). Shane Esposito (Yam) won the 12Scc class, Dan Richardson (Kaw) topped the Vet class and Steve Pitts (ATK) won the 250cc class. Nathan Ramsey (Kaw) was the most consistent rider at the Northwest Dun10p/PJl Arenacross Championships held in Portland, Oregon, April 3-4·. On Friday evening, Ramsey won the 250cc class over Mike Jones (Kaw) and Buddy Antunez (Suz), while Ryan Huffman (Suz) won the 125cc class over An tunez and Ramsey. On Saturday night, Antunez won the 250cc class over Ramsey and Jones, while Ramsey topped the 125cc class, with Huffman and Jones in tow. David Pingree (Hon) won both the 125 and 250ct Pro classes in the fifth round of the' GFT California Winter MX Series South, held at Competition Park in San Jacinto, California, on April 5. Billy Payne (Kaw) and Jiri Dostal (Suz) finished second and third in the 250cc class, while Casey Johnson (Kaw) and Dostal finished second and third in the 125cc class. The SOOcc Pro class was won by Spud Walters (Yam), with Rusty Holland (Yam) and Craig Canoy (Yam) rounding out the top three. Steve Martin (Duc) extended his lead in the Australian Production Superbike Championship in the third round of the series, held in Baskerville, Tasmania, on April 5, reports Cycle News contributor Darryl Flack. Following a slow start in the first 16-lap race, Martin finished second to pole-sitter Adam Ferguson (Hon), who rode with a collarbone injury. Martin turned the tables in the second race with a 1.48-second win over Kevin Curtain (Yam), with Ferguson in third. Arclight Racing (Suz) won the opening round of the WERA National Endurance Series at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway in Talladega, Alabama, on April 4. Arclight topped Evans Motorsports and Tapeworks Racing. Despite rumors to the contrary, there won't be a World Superbike event at Road Atlanta on July 4 - at least not in 1998. "No, it won't happen," Fast's Dan Murphy said. "It was lookeq at, but the obstacles were two- or threefold. First, this came up really late, as we only started on it three weeks ago. Then there's the fact that the open weekend was the July 4 weekend and that's traditionallya lake-oriented weekend for people in the South; having the race on July 4 would be risky. The third thing is tha t the track .isn't homologated by the FIM; and the time and effort in getting that done at a track that hasn't had a good history from a safety standpoint would have been difficult They've done a lot of work there, but we really we just didn't have enough time." The July 4 date remains open on the World Superbike calendar. The U.S. House of Representatives has voted 337-80 in favor of their version of the highway-reauthorization bill, titled the Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act (BESTEA), according to the AMA. Key House and Senate members will· now meet in conference committee to iron out the differences between their respective bills. Both House and Senate versions contain language favorable to motorcyclists, according to the AMA The Senate version, titled the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA II) would provide $131 million for recrea tional trails over a six-year period; ensure that motorcyclists' needs are represented in the development of the nation's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology; and curtail helmet-law lobbying efforts by National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials, The House version contains many favorable provisions as well. BESTA would provide $270 million in trail funding over the same time period and include motorcycles in the development of ITS. Additionally, BESTA would ensure motorcycle access to all roads built with federal highway funds, thus assuring continued access to the growing number of high-occupancy lanes in ma ny of the na tion' s urban transportation corridors. BESTA, however, doesn't contain any language to prevent NHTSA, officials from lobbying in favor of mandatory helmet laws. AMA dirt track manager Bruce Bober has confirmed that the AMA Grand National Championship Series schedule has been shortened up by three events two of them mile races. As of press time, the 1-96 Half Mile event in Lake Odessa, Michigan, the Indy Mile and the Minnesota Mile in Shakopee, Minnesota, have been canceled, and at least one more event may be canceled. "We are obviously disappointed with these cancellations," Bober said. "We are going to try and add some new dates to make up for the ones that have been lost If there is a plus side to this, it is that some of the potential new venues are in new regions, so it will enable us to tap into new markets with AMA dirt track." In the light of the success of the inaugural event, the loss of the Minnesota Mile was especially disheartening to the event's promoter, former AMA Grand National racer Dave Durelle, who said that the Canterbury Park officials dropped the event due to complaints of excessive noise. "Everything was set and in place for this year," Durelle said. Bartolini Everts Chiodi to MXGPs T he 1998 World Championship MX season got into full swing over the April 5 weekend, with both the 125 and SOOcc GP series getting under way and the 250cc series continuing on with round two. In Mantova, Italy, four-stroke riders took the first two positions in the 500cc GP, as Yamaha-mounted Andrea Bartolini won the opening moto, took fourth in the second moto, and carded the overall win over Husqvarna's Darryl King, who went 2-6 on the day. Preventing a four-stroke sweep was Honda rider Rob Herring, who finished third after posting 3-5 moto finishes. In the first moto, the Italian Bartolini got off to a fourth-place start and had control of the lead by the halfway point, and he cruised all alone to victory, finishing ahead of New Zealander King, Great Britain's Herring, Husqvarna's Johan Boonen of Belgium, and Honda-mounted Gert-Jan Van Doorn of Holland. The defending champ, Husaberg's Joel Smets, finished out of the points in the first moto but came back to win the second. 00 The Belgian scored the moto win ahead of Yamaha's Peter ~ Johansson of Sweden, Van Doorn, Bartolini and Herring. ,...... With his win, Bartolini heads into round two (Switzerland, April 19) with the series lead, followed by King, 33-27. Van Doorn and Herring are tied for third with 26 points apiece. In Agueda, Portugal, Honda's Stefan Everts of Belgium won ~ the second round of the World Championship 250cc MX series .~ with a solid 2-1 performance. It was his second win in a row. Winning the £4st moto, however, was American Tallon Vohland. In rainy conditions, the Californian chased down the early leader, KTM rider Leon Giesbers, who eventually crashed and ..... - 2 handed the lead over to the Yamaha rider, Vohland. From there, Vohland, who still feels pain in his injured shoulder, held the lead to the finish, although Everts got close to the American at the end. Third in the moto went to German Honda rider Pit Beirer, who was followed by Kawasaki's Sebastien Tortelli of France and Suzuki's Werner Dewit of Belgium. In race two, Everts led most of the way, scoring the win ahead of Beirer, Tortelli, Yamaha rider Mickael Maschio of Italy, and Kawasaki-mounted Yves Demaria of France. Vohland worked his way up from a slow start to finish sixth for third overall. Everts extended his series points lead to 72 over Tortelli's 60. Vohland is third with 54 points. Husqvarna's Alessio Chiodi scored the overall win at the l25cc GP series opener in Indaiatuba, Brazil. The Italian, Chiodi, led home Yamaha-mounded David Vuillemin of France in the first moto and then finished second to Italian Yamaha rider Eric Camerlengo in the second moto. Suzuki rider Brian Jorgensen of Denmark finished third in the first moto, followed by Honda pilot Luigi Seguy of Italy and Cam.erlengo. Taking the checkered flag behind Camerlengo and Chiodi in the second moto was Honda rider James Dobb of Great Britain, followed by Seguy and TM's Alessandro puzar of Italy. Chiodi pulled in 37 points on the day, thus jumping out to the series points lead, while Camerlengo collected 31 points and is currently in second. Third with 26 points is Seguy, who was credited with third overall in Brazil. "I had several meetings with Canterbury following last year's event We discussed i terns we felt needed to be improved, and the sound issue would be resolved by quieter exhaust systems and moving the time schedule so we would be done by 8 p.m. Canterbury's decision came as quite a surprise. Several attempts to convince them were made by area people sending letters and calling in. I even spoke with the people in the neighboring homes, and they all sigped a letter stating that they would not have a problem with. this event if we made those changes. I felt I more than proved to Canterbury we could make this work, but the answer was still no. I am currently looking at other possible locations to move the event, but no decisions have been made!' The AMA/MNBA Superbike National Championship schedule has changed again. The final round of the series will still be held at Las Vegas Motor Speed-, way, October 2-4 - and not September i8-20 as published earlier. Stunt man Gary Rothwell will perform on both Saturday and Sunday at the NASB Road America Cycle Fest in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, May 9-10. In addition, NASB has announced that they will be giving away free tickets to anyone 17 and younger for Saturday's program - while children 12 and younger enjoy free admission all weekend. Tickets are available by calling Road America at 800/36S-RACK FOX/Liberty Networks acquired onethird ownership interest in Speedvision and Outdoor Life Networks on March 26, according to a press release issued by Speed vision. The addition of Speedvision and Outdoor Life Networks to the FOX/Liberty family increases the venture's national cable networks to six: FOX Sports Net, FX, FOX Sports World; FiT TV; Speedvision; and Outdoor Life. The final team lineup has' been announced for the first round of the Vanson Leathers/Team Obsolete Transatlantic Match Race Series, scheduled for April 18-19 at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. The America,n team will consist of Don Vesco, John Ulrich, Mike Green, Todd Henning, Dave Rober, Yvon DuHan:!el, John Long,and Cal Rayborn III. The British team will fea ture Chris McGahan, Larry Swann, Vernon Glashier, Paul Barrett, Dave Pither, Colin Breeze, Richard Haas and Malcolme Tunstall. A group of riders who have been racing at Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, California, have formed Carlsbad Motocross Racing (CMXR) and will hold an eight-race series at the famous Southern California motocross track beginning on Saturday, April 18. For more information, call 888/S50-MOTO. Too many Kings dept: The Derek King' who is now working in the Indy Lights car-racing series is not the Derek M. King who is still an AMA 250cc Grand Prix racer. Derek M. King is still recovering from the broken ankle he suffered in the opening round of the AMA Series in Phoenix. A 1941 Indian Four brought in a record $36,500 during the J. Wood & Co. motorcycle auction during Bike Week at

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