Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(ill1ffi 0]:Jj VOICES America's weekly motorcycle newspa per LmERSTO THEE DfTOR Volume XXXV Sharon Clayton, President MichaelKlinger, Publisher Editorial Paul Carruthers, Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Scott Rousseau, Associate Editor Mark Hoyer, Managing Editor Keith Bush, Assistant Editor /Copy Editor Alan Cathcart, European Editor David R. Holth er , Copy Editor Advertising Terry Pratt, National Accol/nts Manager Mark Thome, Western Sale Manager s Thomas Center , Western SalesManager Forrest Hayashi, Western Sales Manager Greg Mitchell, Eastern Accounts Manager Jim Clark, Eastern Sales Manager Rhonda Crawford, Western Ad Coordinator Bridgett Bobrofsky, Assistant Carla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Marketing & Promotion Ma rk Th ome, Dire ctor Forrest Hayashi, Manager Kory Klinger, Dealer Representative New Media Development Rick Mathen v, Webmaster Stephanie Leamon, Assistant Classified Ads Teri Kerr Graphics and Production Mandy Loa, A rt Director Dennis Greene, LAb. Tech. Amanda Wol!ny, Graphic Artist Sandi Gettvs, Graphic Artist Paul Fisher , Graphic Artist Ad mi n istrati on Judy Klinger, Coordinator Leann e Sims . Administrative Assistant Accoun ti ng/Data Process in g Donna Bryan-Diamond, A/R Coordinator Geneva Repass, Assistant Theresa Milburn, Credit Circulat ion Alma An guiano, Circulation Manager Carol Maggio, Processing Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Coordinator Joy lou, Dealer Coord inator Service and Support Shannon Clark, Receptionist Jim Olson, Service and Support Na tional Hef)'dquarters 3505-M CadillacAve., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 P.O. Box 5084, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-50 84 (714) 751-7433 FAX (714) 751-6685 Eastern Office 4188 First Ave., Tucker, GA 30084 P.o. Box 805,Tucker, GA 30085-D805 (770) 934-7850 FAX (770)934-311 2 e-mail editor@cyclenews.com su bscri be@CJclen ew s.com advertisingescyclenews.com Internet http:/ /www.cyclenews.com The U.S. Open of SX them when the bikes are racing an d be quiet, or th e bikes need to be q uieter. How bad would it be to use a doublew alled pipe and a large silencer? I thin k it would actually be cool to hear what Rick Johnson had to say during a race . 7. Track - Is it hard to build a track that is easy to pass on? I guess so . 8. Format - I coul d have sworn tha t there wa s to be only 20 riders invited and th ey would race tw o m o tos each nig ht for a to ta l of fo u r po in t-sco rin g motos. Bad info or misinfo rmatio n? 9. Annou ncer Please eit he r look at the scoreboa rd or pay a ttentio n to th e racing. You should kn ow w ho is in the lead and w ho is in second . Wh y w as the m uch -hyped 80cc ma in o n Sa tu rday started with zero announcing? 10. Appearance - Th e TV intervie ws coul d not hav e been of the highest qua lity wh at with the music blaring and the other announcers speaking over the PA at the sa me time. Here is a no vel conce pt: Hook the TV announcers up to the ~A and pipe their cameras into the video system while they are doing their thing and we might have a professional-appearing sport - both in the stadium and on TV. 11. Cameras - lf there is going to be racing in the tunnels, please put a camera on th e act io n . In fact, how a bo u t sho w ing racing when the re is racing and th e crow d when there is no racing? I d on 't kn ow how many tim es th at th e lar ge video screens w ere d isplaying pictures of th e cro w d during a race. In co ncl usion, and with no offense m eant to the riders , I sp e n t wa y too much m oney to watch th e absolu tely worst-prod uced and -organized race in my life. I am going to let someone else wa st e their money until they ge t it right. Someone has to fix this mockery. Kevin Smyth Lee's Summit, MO billing. This is not to take any thing away from the awesome rides put in by Damon Huffman and Robbie Reyna rd . (Sor ry , McGrath, everybody expected you to win anyway.) However, the field at the U.S. 'SX wasn't even as tough as that of an y su percross main from the preceding year. The event was missing a number of marquee riders and was w ho lly lacking in in terna tional flavor. (Takeshi Ko iked a and David Vuillemin are not on a par with th e cu rren t Wo rld Cha m p io ns .) Wh ile it is not within the con trol of the promoters over w ho m igh t have been injured, it certainly is wi thin their control over whe ther a rid er like Alessio Ch iod i cou ld have ridden if not for his fac tory . Husky . To use the hom ologation rul e to exclu de a rider from an invitati onal , non point s-pa ying supercross is rid iculous. As for the trac k, the eve nt had been uni versally billed as th e co m ing-ou t p arty fo r Rick y Carmicha el o n a 250. How ever , even a ride r as gifted as R C. cannot pass on a track w hich ha s vir tu ally no lines for passing . Unfortunately , the ride r with the holeshot wa s the ride r with all the cards. Aga in, this ma y be d ue to the limitations of trying to sculpt a track within the confines of the MGM Grand. However , the racin g came across as boring and predictable. I am glad for the concept of the U.s . SX. I am m ost happy to see the riders running for a purse commensurate with their awesome courage and skill. Howeve r, the next installment of th e U.s . SX could use some fine-tuning, in my opinion , if it is to live up to its billing. Wade Wallace Greenwood, IN Th e last time I w ro te Cycl e News wa s about a fiasco in Las Vegas. Ima gin e the coincidence. Will they ever get it right? I would glad ly contribute my time to the o rga n iza tio n of a properl y pl anned su pe rcros s. It is apparent we will never see it done with the current crowd. Here is my list of gripes from the Ll.S, Open of SX in Las Vegas (in no pa rticular order): 1. Tickets - I purchased a total of 14 tickets for both n ig h ts mon ths in ad vance from TicketMaster, only to find out that much be tter seats we re ava ilable throu g h Fox, MGM , etc. The ma p d ispl a y ed o n www .u s s x.corn, s howing w hich com pa ny has w hich seats, should have been placed ther e prior to the tickets going on sale, not after. 2. Music - Wh o picked the music? For a while it so unded like they forgo t all of th eir CDs except one. Unfortu nately, they d id find one more. My main complain t was with the Offspring song tha t · fea tu red ex pletives. Do I have to say it? Families watch s u p erc ross . Chi ldren we re racing, and I don't want to hear it. 3. Flag m en - Train th em right, pa y them, whatever. Just get it right. I sa w several scary incidents. On e in particular involved an 80cc rider who had cras hed. Someone jus t came over and picked him up. I wonder if this guy had ever heard of a little thing called spinal injury? 4. Entertainment - I d o ha ve to say that the laser show w as very coo l. Th e tempo of the ev ent, however , su re hit rock bottom after that. I ha ve to believe the Paris ev ent doesn' t ha ve m assive lulls in the excitement. 5. Raci ng - Wh ere w ere all th e confirmedriders? Wa s there a problem with starting mo ney? I am only left to specula te s ince th ere is a comple te void of info rmation. I have seen heat races with la rger numbers of s tars tha n were in tho se main even ts. Wh y we re th e main even ts prematurely e n ded? The an no uncer w as saying 20 lap s, the scoreboard said 20 lap s. Was there a cu rfew? Wou ld fi ve more laps at 33 seco n ds apiece have m ade a di fferen ce ? I a m s u re the g uys w ho were no t in first w ou ld say yes. Let' s see: Th e tick et s were at least twice the normal price on average; the main had 25 percent fewe r lap s that wer e 50 percent sho rter. I figu re I paid at least 5.33 tim es m ore per second of m ai n-event racin g th an a t a normal supercross (no t to mentio n the cost of air fare and a hotel). 6. So u nd - I k now this may sound like her esy, but ei the r the an nouncers need to rea lize that no bo dy ca n hear As an avid m o tocross fa n an d rid er, I waited w it h great an ticipatio n fo r the ru nn ing of th e inaugural U.S. Open of Su pe rcross. I updated m yself on rid er s, th e track and TV listings - thanks to th e In ternet. I softened up my wife for w hat I knew was going to be a weeke nd of m a rit a l tensi on ce n te re d a ro u n d two hours of p rogramming on Speed vision and Fox Sports. The race ha s come and gone, and I must as k myself w he the r it was wo rth all of the hype . First, for a race billed as the riches t and most prest igious supercross ever run, I would have to say that the events of the U.S. SX si m ply d id no t live up toth e Questi on: What d o Patrick Ca ps, Miska A lto rie n, Jo shu a Co p p ins a n d Leon Giesbe rs all have in com mo n? Answer : Th ey w er e a ll m ember s of MX des Na tions teams th a t beat the American squa d th is year . Let's see , in 1997 the track w as onelined and you couldn' t pa ss on it. In 1998, there was a downpour causing impassable, muddy conditions . In 1999... ???? . Maybe I'm being too critica l, but I happened to be at Unad illa in 1987 and saw Bob H annah, Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson d oin g what they had to do. As I said last year, if the track goes stra igh t up a cliff and is cove red in Ch eez-Wiz, my mon ey sfill is and always will be on our guys. Maybe next year. Stretch Eberly Enola, PA FEATURES NHRA Series fro m Memphis 26 DEPARTMENTS RACER TEST World Su perbike GSX·R750 Suzuki.......8 ENDURO NCCES Polecat Enduro ISDT Reu nion Rid e ECEA Scrub Pine End uro 28 29 34 SUPERCROSS 80cc U:S. Open of SX fro m Las Vegas : 30 > And more... Cycle News (usrs 141-340) is published weeklv except the last two weeks of the calendar year for $50.00 year by Cycle News, Inc.•3..iO>M Cadillac Avenue. Costa Mesa. CA 92628 Periodicals Postage Paid at Costa Mesa, CA and at . add itional mailing office Canada PaM International Publica. tions Maillf546615. MX des Nations' Per POSTMASTER: Send addres s changes to Cycle Newe, P.O. Box 5084 Cosu Mesa, CA9262S-5084. , To determine the expiration date of your subscription. check the four num bers on the first line of your address label, The first two digits ind icate ~e last issue number you11receive and the I ~t two characters ind icate the year of the last issue. 00 0\ 0\ ...... 00 ' N l-< IJ.) 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Oh io Fall Classic/Four-Strok e Series...20 GFI Fall MX Series North from Hollister 27 SUPERBIKERS Mette Superbikers from Belgiu m DRAG RACING Pros tar Gulf Coast Nationals from Ho us ton 22 24 DIRTTRACK Ca l-Expo Vintage Dirt Track from Sacramento Speed & Sport National Vintage Motocross fro m Peoria HARE SCRAMBLES NETRA Clarkie's Wild Rid e 11 HS fro m Freetown INTHE WIND 2 EUROALE .4 EVENTS .35 RESULTS 47 LEADERBOARD 48 CALENDAR .49 WANT ADS ...•..............................................54 INTHE PADDOCK...........................•.•..........71 LOOKINGBACK 71 ON THE FRONT COVER 31 33 .32 Cross Country cha m pion Rodney Smith tacked on another w in at the Ne w Lisbon GNCC in Ohio. File photo by Jim Talk ingto n. Rick ey Ga dson took th e 600cc Su persport wi n at th e AMA / Pros ta r Gulf Coast Nationa ls at Houston Raceway Park. Ph oto by Matt Polito.

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