Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

uHamel suffers season-endin m eri can H ond a ' s Mi guel DuH am e l (r ig h t), th e AMA /MBNA Superbike Series points lead er going into the New Hampshire Internati onal Speed w a y round of th e hampionship on Jun e 21, saw his title hopes end when he sufred a d ouble com po und fractu re of the left femur in a turn-on e sh in a wet qu alifyin g session on June 19. DuHamel crashed just after completing a fas t lap, the mot orycle ch as ing him in to 'the co m p lete ly u nprotected turn-one 'a ll. The fem ur in his left thigh brok e th ro ugh the skin, knockg the kn eecap ou t o f place. He was transported to Co nco rd ospital in Concord, New Hampshire, where he underwent five ours of surgery to place a rod in the femur and insert pin s on th sides of the knee. He wa s sai d to be awake and alert and sted in good condition in the orthoped ic unit of the hospital, lau gh tir ed. He is being eva luated to see if more surge ry is eeded , "It's a season-endi ng injury," said Gary Mathers, di rec tor of notorcycle mo to rsport for Hond a. "You can't turn left in the ouring rai n . Everyone was looking for a fast lap early on ecause of the impending weather. We tell ou r ride rs to come in f they start ge tting d rops on thei r shie lds . The rain moved in to he area of turn one first while the rest of the track was dry. " As to w hen DuHamel might return, Mathers sa id the knee njury was the mo re problematic. merican Supercamp, the dirt track acing school tha t u ses Honda XR100s, as se t a d a te for Las Vegas, Nevada, ctober % - the Monday an d Tuesday .Her th e AMA /MB A Superbike ational Championship ro und at Las egas Mo to r Speedway. For informaton on Las Vegas and other dates, call 70 /669-4322, or see the American upercam p h ome page on the World ide Web a t the followi ng a dd ress : Up:/ /www.americansu percam p.com. 'oor weathe r d idn't dampen the Utica ide for Kids as some 125 rid ers braved he elemen ts to rai se $15, 298 for the ediatric Brain Tumor Foundation of the nited States . The rid e began in Utica, ew York, and end ed in Old Forge. re -entri e s are now o p e n for the FIITeam Gree n Yo uth N a ti on a l s, cheduled for July 4-5 at Glen Helen in a n Bernardin o, California . For m ore nformation , call 909/653-4042. he Independence Day Cycle Fest, a ound of the NASB Series, will be hel d t Button willow Raceway Pa rk in Buto n w ill ow , California, July 3-5 . The reekend 's activities will feature the premier class of the se ries, EBC Brakes, port Bikes. For more inform ation, ca ll OO/ 997-N ASB. he 1998 M ikun i LA Cal en d ar Bike how will be held on Sund ay, July 19 at he Santa Monica Airport'S Mu seum of ying in Santa Monica, California. This ' ea r 's show will fea tu re th e Wh ite rothers West Coast Horsepower Dyno hooout, a $20,000 cust om and perforance streetbike show and the new Battletrax Series , a timed race course open o all riders of bik es inclu di ng Buells, sportbikes, Harleys a nd Supermotard machi nes. For more in fo rm a tio n, call 310/392-8822. Over 20 motorcycles fro m the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum will be on d isp lay from Jun e 19 through September 6 at the Birm ingham Mu seum of Art in Birming ham, Alabama. Barber wi ll also have bikes on d isplay at the Gu ggenheim "Art of the Mot orcycle" display. in New York City, beg inn ing on Jun e 26 and running throu gh September 12. e Jim Kelly Memorial dual-sport rid e will be held on Ju ne 28 in Gana raska "They' re (the d octors) are saying his knee is going to be the biggest tim e," Mat hers said . "The leg is a five, six-week d eal. The kneecou ld be three mon ths . But riders always see m to po p back soo ner." Mathers sai d that the d ecision would be made later this week abou t w he ther to repl ace Du Ham el on the RC45 superb ike and that the rid er wo uld come out of the Erio n Racin g Honda su pport team - most likely Eric Bostro m. "We' ll p robably put the m on it d own the road ," Mat hers said . "So many riders ca me asking if they could ride it thi s weekend . The onl y riders we'd put on it is somebody we already have a contract with. Eric (Bostro m) is the first choice in my mind ." Part of th e ind eci si on regarding Bos trom ha s to d o with Bostrom' s sta ndi ngs in th e Pir elli For m u la Xtre me Championship, which he currently leads, as well as the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport championship. Mathers also said he wanted to make sure that whomever gets the rid e is ab le to test before having to race the bike. 'W e'll ha ve to look at where and when we can test. I wouldn't want to put so meone on it before testing. It's not a jump-on-itand-go deal." DuHamel's injuries ended up being less severe than those su ffered by Thomas Wilson and Brett Metzger at New Hampshire International Speedway. For the complete story, see page 12. Forest in Kirby, Ontario, Ca nada. Proceed s from the rid e will go to the Canadian lSDE Gold Fund and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario. For more information, call 705/277-9511 . Willie G, Davidson recently designed the official logo of the Dirt Track Hall of Fa me ra ce , sc heduled for Labor Day weekend in Springfield, Illinois. The Willie G-designed logo will become a foca l poin t of th e Ha ll of Fame fu nd raiser, and David son will autog raph an excl usive se t of 10 number ed p rin ts of the d esign . The pieces will be sold to the high est bidders in a sea led- bid auc tion. For more information , or to bid on the Dirt Track Hall of Fame print set, write to Dirt Tra ck Hall of Fam e Logo, PO Box 313, Bishop, GA 30621. fea tu res a co llection of his best w ork from b o th the AMA Supercross and AMA Na ti o n a l Championsh ip MX Series . Each page featu res a different rider w ith room for a signature. The books can be purchased for $10, a price t ha t in cludes sales tax and shipping costs. To order, write to Manana Grafix, 255 9 Ma yfield A ve ., Montro se, CA 91020, or call 818/957-1166. Cycle News ph otographer Kinney Jones sorb.. in Springfield, Ohio. on J 'S uly 24. Tea m Yamaha's Dou g Henry , Kevin Windha m and John Dowd has produced an autogra ph book that Longtim e mo torcycle d ealer Jack Barnett died on May 11. Barnett owned Jack Barnett Cycles in Denison, Texas, for so me 40 years and was an avid lifelong mot orcyclist. NAM ED: K&N. as the officia l air filter o f AMA Grand N ational Dirt Track racing. AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: At Competition Acces - are sched uled to appear. For mo re information. caU 937 /32J.{)S13 . OPENED: Spo rt Elite Cycles' hom e page on the World Wide Web. The site can be found at the following address: http:/ / members.aol.com / cycle-sales /indexl .html. MOVED: Tw o Brothers Racing. to a larger facility at 1213-A East Hunter Ave., Santa Ana, CA 927ll5. The pho ne numbers remain the same at 714/ 550-6070 and 714/550-9661 (fax). PROMOTED : Dan Donati . to international account executive for AdvanS tar's call cen ter/voice group. effective imm ed iately. OPEN ED: CMC Racing Cana da', home page on the World W ide W eb. The site can be found at the follo win g add ress: http:/ / w w w .ancracing .rom. RESCHED ULED: The M IA Hal f Mile Dirt Track dou bleh ead er sched uled fo r May 2J..24 .in Celi na. Ohio, to Sep tem be r 5-6. For more information, call 219 / 486-7172. OPENED: Deluxe Works' hom e page on the World Wide Web. The site can be found at the follow ing add ress: http :/ /www.qnet .com / -deluxe/ . OPENED: Dirt track racer Stepha nie Welch's home page on the World Wid e Web. The site can be found at the fo llowing ad dress: http:/ /www .fla ttra cknews.co m / stevie- w elch.httnl . BORN: Drew Steph en Rizzo. to Hond a d istrict sa les manager Jeff Rizzo and his wife, Jennifer, on June 5 in Ohio. OPE/'oo"ED; The Us. Open of Su percross' home pag e o n the Wo rld Wide Web. The site can be found at the following address : http:/ / www.uss x.com . OPENED : F&L Raci ng Fuel s' ho me page o n the World Wide W eb. The site can be fo und at the fo~ lowing ad d ress: http:// www.landl.com. O PENED: Innova tion Training Sys tems" ho me pag e on the World Wide W eb. The site can be found at the following address: http: / / www.an gelfire.com / fl / innovationtrain ing. BOR N : " H u rr ica ne" . Han n ah Ro se Felt on . to m ot ocro sser and App lied Racin g Resea rch a nd Development rider Jim Felton and his wife. Jane. in Fallbrook, California, on June I I. HIR ED : Co rey Eastman. as publisher of Ho t Rod Bikes, by Petersen Publishing. OP ENED: Fast Line Cycles in Fremont . California. Fast Line is a new motorcycle service shop offering perf orma nce tuning. cy lind er boring and ge ne ral repairs for all makes and mod els . For more informa- tion, call 510 /44S-1 080. .-x Lon live the two-stroke? eports of the imminent death of two-strokes are exaggerat- year, which uses the ARC (Ad vanced Rad ial Combustion) twoed , accor ding the president of HRC, Mr. Taka shi Shinozaki stroke techn ology pioneered by Honda in the Paris-Dakar rally . - and Honda has no intention of dropping them from their Shinozaki did not rul e ou t the return of sp orting two-stroke model lineup. road motorcycles in the future. "I think that it is poss ible tha t there The sensational new s - a contradiction of earlie r reported state- is a future for the two-stroke spo rtsbike, But there are some appliments that Honda planned to cease all two-stroke production by catio ns wh ere a four-s troke is better - for exam ple for scooters or the year 2002 - came in an exclusive interv iew at the Gran d Prix of sma ll city bikes, where you do not need a lot of power. The noise is Madrid, wh ere Shinozaki wa s on hand to conclude spo nsorship better wi th a four-stroke, and it is a more friendly engine," he said . Regarding sugges tio ns tha t th e cu rre nt ge neration of tw oagreements with Spanish sponso rs Repsol. The " no more two-strokes" stories broke late last year, from Mr. stroke SODs shou ld be replaced by fou r-strokes in Gra nd Prix racNobuhiko Kawamoto, president of the Honda Motor Corpo ra tion. ing, Shin ozaki responded by sugge stin g even mor e sweepi ng It was in the wake of this announcement that the current discus- changes for the futu re of GP racing. The idea is being d iscus sed by the Gra nd Prix Manufac turers sions to swi tch GP racin g to four-strokes came abo ut. 'W e have mad e no sta temen t like this , but the repo rts we re not Associat ion, including all the ma jor man ufactu rers in the GP s, after a requ est from Doma to su bmit a proposal along these lines. completely wrong," said Shinozaki. "Wha t Mr. Kawamoto said was that Honda would concentrate Yama ha's he ad o f First Engineering, Mr . Toshi mits u lio, al so ~ . . on four-stroke engines . Where there was an alternative in a partic- enthus iastically mooted the idea. "Honda has experience wi th the NRSOO how di fficult it is to ular applicati on , we would concentra te on the fou r-stroke verbuild a four-stroke to race against two- strokes. And so, so expe nsion," he said. But Ho nda 's motorcycle resear ch and development facility at sive. ~ "The reason Yam aha is talking abou t four-strokes so much is ~ Asaka had by no means abandoned the two-stroke engi ne, and was still looking at radical solutions to solve some of its problems. because of cos~. They hav e the Rl streetbike that they could easily ~ "At Asaka, there are ma ny engineers who are very enthusiastic modify for raang. It wouldn'tcost that mu ch. "Bu t in my opinion, we don' t have to stick too mu ch to two- 00 abo u t tw o-strokes, and we ha ve a n ex perimen tal tw o-stro ke engine that offers almost the same fuel consum ption and exhaust stroke or four-s troke rules. We need a d ifferent struc ture for racing 0\ 0\ pollution levels as a four-stroke," he said. "We recentl y submitted . for the new century. For example, a ru le about fuel cons umption." In this wa y, engineers would be give n a limited amount of fuel ., d etails of this research to the Society of Automoti ve Engineers in to use as they wish. Shinozaki hinted at other id eas for a new rae- ..... the USA." Shinoza ki revealed that Honda still "share opinions" wit h the ing formula, bu t would not expand. 'T op secret," he said with a smile. 'That is the kind of agenda Australia n two-stroke development engineers Orbital Co . He added: "People say that four-strokes are cleaner than two-strokes, we will discuss With the GPMA. We have already met once, and we will talk about it again." but that is oniy wi th a catalyzer." Michael Scott Th er e was also a new two-stroke scooter proposed for next R ..... 3

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