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/127956
~~ VOICES America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Lm E STO R THE E DITOR V o lume XXXV Sharon Clayton, President Michael Klinger, Publisher Editorial Paul Carruthers, Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Scott Rousseau, Associate Editor Mark Hoyer. Mallagillg Editor Keith Bush, Assistallt Editor/Copy Editor AL,n Cathcart, European Editor David R. Ho lthe r, Copy Editor Advertising Terrv Pratt, National Accoullts Mallager Mark Thome, Western Sales Manager Thomas Center, Western SalesMallager Forrest Hayashi, Western Salt'S Mallager Greg Mitchell, Eastern Accoullts Mallager Jim Clark, Eask,." SalesMallager Rhonda Crawford, Wt'Stern Ad Coordinator Bridgett Bobrofsky, Assistallt Carla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Tina Far r, Assistant Marketing & Promotion Mark Thome, Director Forrest Hayashi, Mallager . KoryKlinger, Dealer Representative New Media Development Rick Matheny, Webmaster Stephanie Leam on , Assistant Classified Ads Teri Kerr Graphics and Production Mandy Loo, Production MOI/ager Dennis Greene, LAb. Tech. Amanda Wollny, Graphic Artist Sandi Gettvs, Graphic Artist Paul Fisher, Graphic Artist Adm in istration . Judy Klinger, Coordinator Leanne Sims, AdministratioeAssistant AccountingIData Processing Donna Bryan-Diamond, A/RCoordillator Geneva Repass, Assistant Theresa Milburn, Credit ... Circul a tio n Alma Anguiano, Circulation Manager Carol Maggio, Processing Coordi ator n Pam Klein, Billing Coorclinator [oy Lau , DealerCoordinator Jessica Schroeder, Assistant Service and Support Shannon Clark, Receptionist Jim Olson, Scruiceand Support National Head ~ 3505-11.1 Cadillac Ave ., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 P.O. Box 5084, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084 (714) 751-7433 FAX (714) 751-6685 Easter n O ff ice 4188 FirstAve..Tucker,GA 30084 P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA30085-0805 (770) 934-7850 FAX (770) 934-311 2 e-mail editor@cyclenews.com su bscribe@cvclenews.com advertising@cycienews.com Internet http:/ /www.cycleoews.com Cycle Nt"WS (L'SPS141 -340)is published weekly except the Ia. t two weeks of the calendar vear for S50.00 per year by .. Cvele News. fnc.,J505.. Cadillac Avenue, C~ta Me CA M sa, 92628 Periodicals Postage Paid at Costa Mesa. CA and at . add itionallt'l.liling office . Canada Post Inte rnational Pu blicanons Mail.S46615. POSTMASTER: Send address cha nges to Cycle News, P.O. 80'( sos.I. Costa M~, CA 926:zs.50M. To determine the e'llp,ir,ltion date of yo ur subscription. check th e four numb ers on th e first lin e of you r address lab el. Th e firs t two d igits indic ate th e last issue number you' ll receive and the las! two characters ind icate the year of th e last issue. Kin g Kenny Having just finished reading Henny Ray Abrams' int erview with Kenny Roberts (Issue #30, August 5), all I can say is... "Earth to Kenny; earth to Kenny; come in Kenny." Do ug Zielke Coqu itlam, BC, Canad a guidance will be sorely missed:but his impact o n th e sp ort will live forever . Godspeed , Dave. . Am y Rit ch ie Buchan an, MI Ritchie is the secretary for the National Promoters Grou p. For mart' infor mation on Coombs , see this week's In the Wind section... Editor. Wanting 80s There needs to be another class at the AMA Motocross Na tionals and I think that 80cc Modifieds piloted by t h e hottest 14-to l e-vea r-olds would fit the bill. • Gi ve them 15- or 20-minute rno tos, plu s one lap. Of course, this wou ld have to be ke p t a regional th ing for the m .(withi n 500 miles from home) - and has no po ssibil it y of a Na tional Cha mpionship . My argume nt is simple. I believe that you have to ad mit the 125c c cla ss is loaded wit h Pros like Steve Lams on an d John Dowd . I believe that an y rider who rid es a 250 in Supercross is pret ty mu ch a professional. So the tru e Amateur, u pand-coming rider, could be sho wcased in this 80cc class. Think abou t it. Ted Decker De ckert@su rfsou th.com Dave Coombs On Augus t 3, motorcycle racing lost one o f its goo d g uys in Da ve Coo mbs . Found er of th e High Po in t an d Steel City MX Na tionals, th e GNCC Series and the Loretta Lynn's Ama teur Na tional program, just to nam e a few, Dave was a promoter in the tru est sense of the word . Along with his wife Rita, he promoted not just races , but the spor t as a whole. He was driven bv his love of racing an d his dreams for its future. Dave's la s t m ission was to form a unified group of the 12 ou tdoor National Mo tocross tr acks. The group' s pu rpose wo uld be to provide a common set of goa ls, standards and sponsors for the outdoor se ries . For 25 yea rs this task seemed impossible, but Dave mad e it happen. In one short yea r, his b rainch ild, th e NPG (N a ti o na l Promoters Group), has produced a $200,000 rid er s eries point fund and landmark improvements in the ou tdoor Nationals. Th e Coombs famil y will carry on with the work of running quality, innovat ive races. The NPG will striv e to reach the goals Dave set for it. His vision and The AMA on Gobert I' v e re ad all th e lett ers co n ce rn in g Anthony Gobert , and it appears there are a lo t of fans w ho s till believe the false statement mad e in Ant hony Gobert' s Jul y 12 p ress relea se, w here he claimed tha t the first resu lts of the AMA dru g screening were negative - and that some sort of ou t-of- the-o rdi nary, ultrasensitive testing meth od was em ployed . I under stand that you co uld not print the en tire 18-page document we issued which refu ted Gober t's false claims and misrepresen tations, but we believe the fans ar e en titled to the truth surr ounding the issu e. We wou ld appreciate it if yo u coul d print the followin g segment of the Jul y 22 AMA Pr o Racing statement. Th e following s ta te m e n t, taken directly from Gobert's release dated July 18, claims that the preliminary an alysis of the AM A Pro Racing-administered drug scree ning was negati ve. "A few hours later, Gobe rt therefor e su bmi tted to the AMA' s urine test, the preliminary resu lt of wh ich was nega tive . La te r, a p o sitive re sult w a s obtai ne d afte r th e s pecimen was run through a second, ultra-sensitive screen ing process known as G5-MS. This testin g method can detect res id u al drug tra ces to a billion th of a gram (a nan ogram) many months after the last active ingestion ." Th e above cla im fr o m Gober t's release, which sta tes th a t the preliminary resu lt of th e AMA ad mi nis tere d d ru g screening was nega tive, is no t tru e. T he initial A MA-a d mi n is te re d dru g screening showed a borderline positive reading. The CC-MS tes t m ethod is recog nized as one of the most accurate methods of drug scree ni ng available, and is routinely used as a cross-check w hen the first-line test of a specimen shows an inconclusive or positive result. The G5MC test registered a conclusive positive result for cannaboid s (marijuana ) in Gobert's system. A second test of a sepa- FEATURES ROAD RACE Round 11 - AMA /MBNA Superbik e C'ship from Joliet, IlIinois Lake County Fair Stadium MX from . Grayslake, Illinois .35 .8 INTERVIEW Wayne Rainey 20 NEWBIKES 1999 KTMs Cycle News welcomes unsolicitededitorial material including stones, cartoons, photos, etc. Such material, if published, become the exclusive property of Cycle News. Reprinting in s whole or part only by permission of the publisher. Advertising rates and circulation informatio n willhesent upon request. See S.R.D.S. MOTOCROSS N MA GNC from Pon ca Ci ty, Oklaho ma W/Bn'A V ..£ ~ AUDITED Cycle News, Inc.1998.Trademark Cycle News registered U.S. Palent Office. All rights reserved, Letters to th e editor shou ld b e se n t to Vo ices, Cycle News, P.O. Box 5084, . Costa Mes a; CA 92628- 5084, faxed to 714/751-6685 or e-m ail, editor@cyclen ew s.co m, Pu b lish e d letters do not necessaril y refl ect th e po sition of Cycle Ne w s, In c. Letters s h ou ld n ot ex cee d 200 words and all letters are sub ject to editing. An onym ou s lette rs will no t be cons idered for p ub lic atio n. All letters s ho u l d co n tain th e w ri t e r' s n a me, addres s an d daytime phone nu mber ... Ed itor. DEPARTMENTS 2 EUROFILE 4 EVENTS .38. CALENDAR .52 'LEADERBOARD .59 WANT ADS 62 HOWL 79 LOOKING BACK 79 18 HILLCLIMB Rou nd 6 - AMA Na t'I Hillcl imb from Norton Shores, Michigan .32 Roun d 10 - World C'ship 500cc Series from Belgium .28 Great American C'ship Hillclim b fro m Billings, Montana 37 Amateu r Day from Was hougal, Washington HARESCRAMBLES AMA/NETRA Hoo t Owl HS Rich King wo n the AMA Grand National Ch ampionship round at the Rou te 66 Speed way in Jo liet, Illinoi s, and captured the champio ns hi p point s lead in the process. Photo by Flat Trak Fotos. 30 Printed in U. S.A. Copyrigh Recen tly my famil y and I traveled over 600 mil es to th e Wa sh ou gal Na tio nal MX. Both of my so ns race at th e Amateur level, but one was in a wheelchai r wit h two broken legs from a hard crash. All of th e racers were very kind and sympathetic to him . Two of th e Pros (limmy Button and ' Larry Ward), however, w o u ld n' t sign hi s casts du e to superstitions . On the other hand, Ricky Carmichael not only signed his casts bu t also gave him his pants, complete with a personal note and autograph . Doug Henry al so sig ned his casts a nd ga ve him gog gl es complete with a n a u tograph. I find it iro nic th at both Rick y and Dou g both won while Ward ended up going to the hospital after a hard crash. So much for su perstitions. 1 do have to say th a t bo th Button a nd Ward were very nice and did give plen ty of autographs - just not on the casts. I would also like to th a n k the Huffmans (the promoters of the race) for accom modating m y son in the wheelc hair. We had a great time and will be back next year. Ron Kelly IN THEWIND Round 12 - AMA / GNC from Rap id City Half Mile, Sou th Dak ota ....14 CI RCULA TION Washougal signings INSIDE PROJECT BIKE Baja Designs' Yama ha WR400F dual spo rt 24 $95.00; six months (25 issues], S2b trial sub (15issues), .OO; $19.00 Canada and Foreign, one year (SO isSUL"S), 590.00 two . ; years 000 Issues), $175.00; six months (25 issues), $45.00 tri.'ll ; sub (15 issues), $..18.00. Nordq uist is the communications manager for AMA Pro Racing... Editor. Issue 132 August 19, 1998 DIR TTRACI( Round 11 - AMA /GNC Rou te 66 Half Mile'frorn Joliet, Illinois 10 Subscription ra tes : Rates for the United States and its f'O!'~ sions fo r one ypar (SO issues), $50.00; two years (100 issue ), s rate urine specimen provided by Gobert also tested positive for cannaboids. The high-level accuracy of the GCMS tes t also prevents the success of a wide variety of readily available products which, by diluting or altering the urine sample, are expressly designed to give a fal se-negative reading to d ru g scr eenings. It is extremely difficult to " foo l" th e GC-MS method by using these false-negative masking agents. Thanks for maki ng all the facts avail able to the fans. Bill Nordquis t West ervill e, OH 34 36 ON THE FRONT COVER