Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1998 08 26

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/127957

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IN THE WIND " :.<.~ ;' :" ".1''' -.,'.;; ' . . ' ,> :: );'''? ..;.~. ._, :'~'_. ':. ', ,r ', ,.• ;:'':,'_' ''':._;, , ~:, ,'1'~.":. '" " P ete r Svensson (Btl) w as the kin g of Top Fu el a t the ninth a n n ua l AMA / Pro star Pingel Thund erna tion als at Ind i- . anapolis Raceway Park, in Ind ian apolis, Au gust 14-16. Svensson d efeat ed cla ss ch amp ion To ny Lang (Su z ) w it h a 6.280-second, 212.26-mph cha rge , while Lang p ost ed a 6.426/219.03 in d efeat. Gary Clark (Kaw) defeated Bryan Bennett (Kaw) in the Funnybike class, while Dave Lombard i (Su z) and Paul Gast (Suz) wo n th e Pro Mod and Pro Stock classes, res pectively. Lonnie Pauley (W-R) and Ste ve Liberty (H- D) were the big winne rs at round eigh t of th e AMA Na tiona l Hot Shoe Ser ies at t h e Play fair Ra ce T rack in Spokane , Washi ngto n, on Augus t I S. Pauley won the 600cc Expe rt class, wi th Jeff Ann e n (Rtx) and Pau l Iwanaga (Rtx) finishing second and third. Liber ty finished ahea d of Lonnie Kopp (H-D) and Eli Pri ce (H-D) in the 750cc Expert class. Tob y Jorgensen (Rtx) wo n t he 600cc Pro Spo rt class. Stefan Everts (Ho n) clim bed back in to th e World C ha mpio ns hi p 250cc MX Series p oints lead af te r winning b oth mot os a t the Belgian 250cc MX GP in Balen , Belgi um, Augus t 16. The previous lead er go ing into the race, Sebastien TortelIi (Kaw ), finished fifth in the first moto behind Ever ts, Fr e d eri c Bolley (Hon), Mamicq Bervoets (Suz) and Pit Be irer (Hon ). In the seco n d moto, Tortelli fin is he d secon d , foll ow ed by Bolle y, A merica n Tallon Vohland (Yam ), w ho DNFed the first rnot o, and Beirer. Tortelli lost a total of 12 points to Everts on the day, dropping to seco nd in the series . With thr ee rou nds left in the series, Everts. ha s amassed 457 point s to date, followed by Tortelli wi th 449. Beirer is a distant third with 214. Doug Lampkin (Bet) claimed his second successive World Trials Ch ampionship when he won the penultimate round of th e ser ies in H el s in ki , Finl and , o n August 2. The British ride r needed only se ve n points to clinch th e titl e on th e first d ay of th e Finnish round , and he nailed the cha m pionship in style wi th a victory over Marc CoIomer (Mo n), O n day tw o, Lampkin won again, topping Co lomer on ce again for w hat was hi s 14th victory in the 16 trials held thu s far. "I was jus t glad to tie th e ti tle up ," Lam pkin sai d. "Everyone was tellin g me that I had go t it wo n again befo re Finlan d , bu t you just neve r know. You are never across the fin ish line until yo u are across it. Just like last year, I would like to tha nk the Beta' factory for providing the pe rfect mac hi ne for the job and to my dad (Ma r tin, th e fi rs t-ever World Trials Cha m p ion, in 1975) a nd co usi n James fo r their 100-ppcent backu p . I have a superb team all aro und and all I have to do is rid e the bike." Promot er s of th e U.S. Open of Supercro ss have an no unced tha t Microsoft Corporation has signe d on as an even t sp onsor for the two-d ay eve nt to be held at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, October 10-11. According to event pro moter Mike DeS tefano, Micr osoft and their in teractive Games division have agreed to s upport th e USSX as a contributing sponsor. "Basically, Microsoft and its games d ivision believe that the USSX, especially wit h its venu e in Las Vegas, will bring them the caliber of exposu re they are looking for to promote th eir new Motocross Madness interac tive ga me," said DeStefano. "The demogra phics are a natu ral and, with th e inter na tional exposure th e .Buell injects new technology into '99 / ooe~ a r en t company H a rl eyDa vidson wasn' t the only Am er ican motorcycle man u facturer wit h big news on th e horizon for 1999. Hot on the heels of the in trod uctio n of the n e w Ha rleyDa vid son Tw in Cam 88 engine come s big news from Ame rica n .spo rtbike com pa ny Buell, which has introd uced the radical new Light ning Xl (shown) to head its lineup of h igh -perfor m ance Vtwi n mod els. According to Bue ll, the lightning Xl is d esign ed to tak e the street-fighter concept to the next level, so me thing th a t th e East Troy , Wisconsi n, firm appears to have succee ded in d oing, as the Xl incorporates tech nol ogy no t previously found on Buell mod els. Th e Xl is m ot iv ated b y 1200cc, 101-h orsepow er Thunderstorm V-twin engi ne with Buell's new Digital Dyn am ic Fuel Injection . The unit, w hich was designed in partnersh ip by VDO and the Walbro Corporation, featu res a closed -loop system tha t offers ind ivid ua l cylinde r control via independen t fuel and spark contro l. The sequential port injectors are govern ed by a microprocessor wh ich compensates for Doth eng ine and air temperature, and au tomaticallyenric hens the mixture for op tim um per formance. The result is more respon sive, less d eton ati on-prone performance at an y rpm and under any load. Stylisticall y speaking, the Ligh tning Xl offers a rad ical new look, with an all-n ew chassis, slee ke r bodywork and sea t that remains distinctly Bu ell. Out back , a new ca st-aluminum swing arm is connec ted to all-n ew Showa rear sus pension compo- " P eve nt is already receivin g, the USSX will serve as a grea t p latform to p romot e Micro soft to th e motorcycl e ind us try ." "With th e introduction of Mot oc r oss Madness, our timing as a participating spo nso r of the U.S. Open of Supercross could not be bett er," said Peter Parson , product mana ger for Micro soft' s Int er a ctiv e M edia Group . "We fe el our involvement as a spo nso r for this eve nt will no t only help u s reach th e grassroots level of the industry but w ill also genera te addi tional expos ure to su pport our internationa l marketing efforts ." A Motocross Madness display will also be set up at the USSX for fans to try. Jason Pridmore, th e ' 1997 AMA 750cc Su persport Cha m p io n an d a curre n t m emb er o f Te a m Suz u ki Spo r t, h a s started a new high-performan ce ridi ng school - Star Motorcycle School. "I've . been d oin g CLASS mot or cycle schools for the past 12 yea rs or wha tever," Pridmore sai d of the school tha t his father, Reg Pri dmor e, runs . "I felt li ke th ere was a majo r market ou t th er e th at m y d ad wasn ' t hitting - a lot of tracks he wasn' t going to. I've got the rig ht people in place for this deal and it's go ing to be a grea t thin g. It'll be for stree t rid ers an d advanced riders - they can come ou t to the track and have a great time. My dad has been so cool with th is. CLASS will st ill be goi ng on and I'll still d o so me CLASS schools - and he' s going to come and do so me of my schools. I told him I'd pay him minimum wage just like he pays me. He's bee n great and I'm looking forw ard to getting it going. It' ll be a lot of fun. " The first of the Star Mo tor.cycle Schoo ls will be held on Sep tember 21 on the s tree ts of Willow Springs in Rosamond , Californ ia. For more infor- , . nentry. Amo ng the more noticeable cha nges, the airbox has bee significantly red esign ed to better tuck into the side of the motor cycle, thus provid in g better rider erg ono mics as well as a sleek . sha pe . Myriad smaller d etails, such as new footpeg rubbers an . new mirrors, abound on the Lightning Xl.. . Despite the introduction of the Xl, Buell was not content t lea ve the rest of its lin eup alone, se ve ral updates ha ve tak e place on the Thunderbolt S3 and Cyclone M3 models, the latter 0 which ha s rec ei ved new 9I -horse Thund erstorm engine wit Cyclone ca ms . Am ong them is Buell 's new "b u ild to order' op tion, which allows the customer to personalize his /her motor cycl e by 'ord ering it in any number of new fram e /bod ywor.. pain t schemes. ma tion , call 805 / 658-6333. Edward Murawaski, an 80-yea r-o ld from Philadelphia, has w on a HarleyDavidson Sportster 1200 Cus tom and is th e first to.do so in th e Pennsylvania Lottery. The Harl ey is now the top pri ze in th e lottery' s insta nt- ticket ga me. "I still ha ve an instant ticket I bought back in 1974, shor tly after the lott ery began," Mu ra waski sai d . "Wh en I saw w ha t I go t on th e H arley ti cket, I hand ed it back to the ret ailer and said, 'I thin k I'm a winne r.' I guess I was right. Since I have th at bi ke now, I w on't be d oing mu ch walking. But I w ill have to ge t a helme t, leath er jacket... and maybe some tattoos." . As al ways, the Pocono Cycle Fes tival, sche d u led for Augus t 27-30 at Pocon o Intern a tional Raceway, will include clttb racing. However, acco rd ing to Form u la USA, the even t wi ll be open to club racers havin g any valid U.s . racing license incl u ding LRRS, WERA , O MRRA, WMRRA: CCS, MRA, GLRRA, WSMC, , AF M, e tc. Fo r more in formatio n, ca ll 914/679-5547. Sparky Edmo nds ton ca lled th e Cycle News offices to point ou t some inaccu racies rega rding ou r item abou t the stree tbike Modenas featured in our last issu e. "Part of our ob liga tion with Modenas is to provide them wit h some sor t of working prototypes; it cou ld be mo torcycles, sc o o te r h o p - u p kits, o r w ha te ver, " Edm onds ton sa id . "Bu ild ing a thr eecy li nder , two-stroke GP bik e for t he street didn' t mak e a lot of se nse to u s w hen we're in the middle of cha ngi ng engines in our Grand Prix bike, so I said to .Kenny (Roberts), ' Let's build a stree t b ike.' Thi s bik e came about becaus Kenny promised th e p resid ent of Mode na s a s tr ee t bike. As y ou know, th Modenas is very small, so we were lim ited as to what we could build (engin . wi se) tha t would be fea sib le. In actua fact, Kenny did n't even care what moto I put in th e fra me . The most se nsib l action was to use a big-bor e four-str oke Wh at was feas ible w as u sing Su zuki'. 650cc sing le, and that' s what we built It's a prototype stree t bike, with a Mod na s GP chassis as the frame bas e. Bu this project had nothing to do with Pro dri ve. It was my job to build that bike The point is that this bik e was mine an Kenny' s project from the beginning an whoever Prod rive is, they had nothin to d o with it. Tha t w as co n ceived b Kenny and me . It was a Team Robert. crea tion. I'm not sayi ng this to toot m ow n horn: bu t the information you go is wrong." T he Sidecar World Championshi rou nd sched uled for Brno in the Czec Republi c on Augus t 23 ha s been can eel ed , accor di ng to the FlM. The Sideca World Cup w ill n ow co nsist of s i ro u nd s, wi th one round rem aining i Rijeka, Croa tia, on Sep tember 27. To help facilitate easier donati on s, a spe cia l s ite on the World Wid e Web h a. been set up to receive cred it-card dona t ion s to th e John My ers Memoria Fun d . All do na tions will go directly int the fund in Myers' dau gh ter Chri stina'. nam e. Confirma tion of the tru st accoun shou ld be d irected to South Tru st Bank P.O . Box 2554,.Birmi ng ha m, AL 35290 Th e ad d ress for the site is as follows http:/ / www. d ragbike.com /johnmyers Myers, 40, wa s killed on Augus t 9 in ,

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