Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE WIND Ty Da vis (Yam) won the final round of the AMA atio nal Championship Hare & Ho und Series in Lucern e Vallev , California, on Oc tober 25. Davis, who ha d al ready clinched the series title, sco red the wi n ahead of Destry Abbott (Kaw), Pa u l Kra use ( Kaw) , Donnie Bo o k (Yam ) and Brian Brow n (Kaw). At the final round of the Grand National Cross Country Series in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on October 25, Rodney Smith (Suz) , who had alread y wrapped up the series cha m p io ns hip, sc o red the win ahead of Suzuki teammates Steve Hatch a nd Paul Ed m o n dso n . Rounding out the top five we re Fred Andrews (Kaw) a nd H are Scrambles Champion Doug Blackwell (Yam) . David VuiIlemin (Yam) won the opening ro und of the 1998 World Su pe rcross C ha m pio ns h ip Series a t th e Sta d d e Fra nce s tadi u m in P a r is , Fra nce, on Oc tobe r 24. Seco nd pl ace we nt to fellow Fre nc h ma n Mickael Maschio (Ya m) , wi th Robbie Reynard (Suz) fin ishing third. Series favo rite Larry Ward (Suz ) reti red after th e thick mud made it impossible for him to hold his ha nd lebars. Vuillemin recorded the win after several riders fell in the wet conditions. Rain fell on the ev en t from early Saturday af ternoon until the even t was com pleted at midnight. " I was in fourth place early in the fin al; then Reynard fell, and soon after Maschio also crashed out," VuilIemin said. Rounding out the to p five overall were Ste ve Lamson (Yam ) and Ryan Hughes (Hon), Jeff Northrop (Ka w ) was crowned th e ove ra ll champion in both the 250cc and 125cc classes at the fina l showdown of the 17th an n ua l Sunstar Sprockets CMC Tran s-Cal Na tio na ls, held in Marysvill e, California, on Sunday, Oc tober 25. Rain canceled Sa turday's raci ng sc he dule, with the races su bsequently ru n in a sin gle- moto , do u ble-poin ts fo rma t ea rly Sun day morning. Rusty Holland (Hon) won bo th th e rescheduled 125cc and 250cc motos, wi th Northro p seco nd bo th tim es and Chris Gosselaar (Ho n) third in both races. Later in the day, North ro p took the ov erall in the 125cc class, followed by Gosselaar and Holland, while Holland took the overall in th e 250c c class, with Northrop second and Tyl er Eva ns (Suz) third. Damon Buckmaste r a nd Andrew Pi tt teamed up o n a Kaw asak i ZX-6R to wi n the inaugura l Eas te rn C reek Six- Hou r endu rance race in Syd ney, A ustra lia , on October 25 . Second place went to the Suzuki team of Mark Will is and Paul Fre e. Ronnie Renner (Hon) won the 250cc Pro class at the sixth and fina l round of the Florida Gold Cup Series, held at Gator. back Cvcle Park in Gai nesville, Florida, on October 25. Ren ner top ped An thony Poco robba (Suz) a n d Jason Thomas (Yam). Thomas won the 125cc Pro class over Pocorobba and Renn er. 00 0\ Mo toc rosser Tra v i s Pe st rana wa s i nju red in a jump cont e st i n Lak e Havasu City , Arizona, Octo ber 17 . ~' According to a so urce close to PesM trana, th e 15-year-old suffered a badly (J) bru ised tailbone a nd, over the weekend of October 24-25, had su rgery to (J) re p a ir int e r n a l o rgan s t h a t were ;;- "knocked out of pl ace." Contrary to o ru mors, Pestrana suffered no paralysis, a nd although the results of the su rge ry a re not yet known, Pestrana "...is going to-be fine." ~ ..n E z 2 Speaking of PACE Motor Sports, th e co m pa ny has rel eased its new video, which d ocu men ts the 1998 AMA Ll.S, Supercross Series. The video is called "Bar to Bar II - The Quest For Victory" and is ava ilable by caIling 1-88S-659-RACE. CHiPs! onner m ot ocrosser an d cu rrent Hollywood stunt man Jim Holley and Mo nty Perrin ge t se rious air durin g recent filming for the upcoming "CH iPs '99" television show. The sho w will reu nit e stars Erik Estra da, Larry Wilcox an d former Speedway Worl d Champion Bruce Penha ll and is sched uled to air on October 27 on TNT. F Tea m Suz uki O ff-Road has officia llyresigned all of its riders for the 1999 offroad season. The team will once again be made up of GNCC Champion Rodney Smith , Steve Hat ch a nd P aul Ed m onds on . Yamaha has signed Jimmy Button to ride the team's YZ400F four-stroke for th e 1999 AMA ational Motocross Championship season. Button will take over full time for Doug Henry, with his mechanic from last yea r, Brian Kinney, handling the tuning duties for the AMA Supercro ss and outdoor 250cc ational MX series. "Keit h (McCarty, the team's manager) called to offer me the job," Button said. "I've wanted to race o n Team Yamaha since I was a kid. I've been a fan of the YZ400F since the first day I rod e one. The bike's definitely capable of winning. Now I' m shooting fo r my fi rst su p e rcros s championship." "It' s a great signing for Team Yamaha," McCa rty said. "Jimmy had several pod ium finis hes la st year, .and we feel the combination of the team su pport, the capabilities of the YZ400F, and his talents will allow for eve n more podium appearances for 1999." The F1M has announced that the World Supercros s Champion ship wiII now consist of four round s, fo llo wi ng the cancellat ion of the Belgian ro u nd scheduled for December 12-13 in Antwerpen, The Tok yo , Japan, round has a lso been canceled. Th e series d ates are as follows: October 24 - Pari s, Fran ce; Oc tober 31 Belo Horizon te, Brazil ; November 20-21 - Lei pzig, German y; ovember 28-29 Genova, Italy. Au stralian road racer Troy Corser contin u es to make progress in recoverin g from the injuries he sustained in a cras h in Sugo, Japan, on October -t - the morning of the final round o f th e World Superbike Series . Corser was rel eased from hospital on Oc tober 16, and th e 26year-o ld is now back in Europe, where h e wil l s tay fo r a few weeks befo re hea d ing back to Au stralia. "My healt h is improving every d ay a nd th e d octo rs said I hav e made a full recoverv ," Corser s a id . " Bu t obviou sl y 1 need a few more weeks just to make sure I'm fully healed . I went th ro u g h a nonsurgi cal operation in Senadi Ho spital and no w there's no pain in the spleen area. Th e three fractured ribs are giving me a bit of pain at the moment, bu t that's natural for a short w hile. I think that in the next four to six weeks, [' II be pretty mu ch 1OO-percent fit. " Corser also sa id that he will sho rtly sign a contrac t that will see him back with Ducati in 1999. The Suz uki World Su pe rbike team w ill be a nnounced in the comi ng weeks, and sources in Europe say the two-man team will consist of Pier-Francesco Chili and Keiich i Kitagawa . The Alstare Suzuki team will be backed by Corona Extra in 1999. British road racer Jamie Whitham, who rode a factory Suzuki in the 1998 World Superbike Championship, looks set to rid e a Suzuki in the German Open Superbike Championship in 1999. Whitham, however, is also talking with Aprilia about rid ing its new superbike in 1999. Ya maha is still negotiating with Luca Cadalora in ho pes th at th e Itali an w ill join Japan's Noriyuki Haga on the factory World Superbike team for 1999. "We are read y to sign, but we do n't know if Luca wa nts to or not at this m om en t," tea m manager Davide Brivio said. "If nego tiations with Luca brea kdown, Yamaha w ill be read y to make an offer to Troy Corser - a very good solution for us." A me rica n Su z u ki h a s sig ned 1998 AMA 750cc Superpor t C ha m pio n Richard Alexander Jr. to a contract for th e 1999 AMA 600 a nd 750cc Supersp ort Se ries. Alexa nder will joi n Australian Damon Buckma ster o n the Chaparral Raci ng team. Suzuki was known to be courti ng form er Mu zzy Kaw asa ki rid er Tommy Ha yd en to join the .Chaparral team, but Yamah a recently anno u nced that they had signed Hayden to join Rich Oli ver and Ja mie Hacki ng o n the fac tory tea m 's n e w Yamaha YZF600RI. Oliver and Hackin g will also rid e Superbikes for the team , while Ha yden's effo rts will be concentrated on the 600cc Supersport clas . PACE Motor Sports, in cooperation wit h PM Communications, will manage and ad m inister the Conti ngency S ponsor Program for the 1999 AMA U.S. Su percross Series. PACE will ma nage the pr og ra m , with th e C ali forni a -ba sed PM Co mmu nications Corporati on ha nd ling the ad ministra tio n duties of the program. 'The Co ntingency Sponsorship Program pay s out in the area of $450,000 a year," said PACE director of supercross Todd Jen d ro. "We've refined th e program to make it easi e r for compa nies to ge t in volved , w h ile providing even more exposu re than in the pa st. And we want to see it grow in relations to su pe rcross's popularity." Companies interested in the 1999 U.s . Supercross Series Contingency Sp onso rship Program ca n co n tact PM Com mu nications at 916/737-6272. Police officer s or firefighters who would like to compete in the Wor ld Police and Fire Games, sched uled for Ju ly 16-24 in Stockholm, Swed en , should co n tac t Henrv Jones a t 520 /670-6546, ext. 288. jonesand lon gtime motocross racer Lars Larsson are organizing the North Am erica n effort. T he A MA National Champions Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday , November 2 1, a t t he Flaming o Hi lto n in Las Vegas, Nevada. TI,e bla cktie even t features a fo rma l dinner followed by a wa rd p resenta tio ns for all 1998 A MA P ro Ra cing and A m a te ur Na tiona l C ham pions . Ti ck et s are $50 an d the p u b lic is w e lcom e. Fo r m ore informa tion, co ntac t Dee Wh it e at 614 /891-2425. Myron Henrickson, 63, died on October 7 in Nice, California. Henrickson was a Class C d irt tracker in the 1950s and '60s. He is survived by his so n, Bryan; his brothers Harliss a nd Gary; his sisters Eu nice Fowler a nd Auline Knudsen; and o ne grandchild. BMW of North Am erica and Saint Barnabas Health Care Sys tem have teamed up to introduce the nation's first hospital-based motorcycle paramedic team. The 12-member team wi ll ride specially eq uipped BMW R1100 RT-P mo torcycles purchased from Cross Country BMW of Me tuchen in New Jersey . A $50,000 purse will' be up for gra bs in the 10th ann ual Las Vegas GFI Invitational Supercross, sched u led for January 3 at Las Vega s Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. Saturday's SX will be followed by a GF1 Winter Series warmup race on Sunday, Ja nuary 4. According to G FI, Jeff Emig is a confirmed entrant. Noted Cycle News photographers Gold & Goose have an nou nced that they will be selli ng their photographs directl y to the public. The hand-printed photos can be chosen from any Gold & Goose image seen in maga zin es o r newsp apers from a round th e world, or fro m th eir extensive archives that cover the last 10 yea rs o f Grand Pr ix a nd World Su pe rbike racing. For more info rmation, ca ll 44/ 181-333-2244 or fax 44/ 181-333-2255. Speedway International Racing Bistro & Bar in ewport Beach, Californ ia, will host Hon da Rider' s Club of America Night on Thursday, November 5, from 7 to 10 p.m. The night will include the display of seve raI pro minent Hond a motorcycles, includ ing Tea m H o nd a' s RC45 su perbike, RSl25s, 250s and o thers, and three- time World C ha m pio n Fre d die Spencer is scheduled to appear. In addition, ESPN2's MotoWorId2 will be on hand to tap e the evening for broadcast. Those interested in displaying old or unique Hondas can contact FS Productions at 714/573-4993. Former World Superbike C hampion Scott Russell is sched uled to be the featu red guest at the 1998 Motorcycle Roadracing Association Awards Banquet o n November l-t in Denver, Colo rado. For more information, call 303/530-5678. The Lodi Motorcycl e C lu b will once again host it s 100cc TT N a t io n a l for charity at the Lod i Cycle Bowl in Lodi,

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