Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

It's like going back to school, Last'we ek .I'm 10unning uP. tyontin a GP, thIS week I will be a novtee. " Ii N oW th at th is ye ar's running of th e w oeful Mot o cr o ss d es Nations is com plete, I have hea rd a number of comments which h ave centered upon America' s fall from gr ace in th e event in re cent y ea rs . Delivered to me by a host of motocross insiders - especially those of European descen t - I listened intently to what they had to say and nodded . I've learned to keep my mouth shu t and listen bef ore reacting.. Through ab sorbing these comments and th eori es - es pecially the one abo ut America now bein g a superc ross-on ly nati on and that its time is d one - I must. now say that I worry ab out the future of Gra nd Prix moto cross. And while I can .already hear the howls of protest, p lease let me try to exp lain my reasoning . As yo u can p robably tell by so me of the articles and colum ns I've subm itted to thi s publicati on , I' m a big fan of Europe an G ra n d Prix m ot oc r os s. In fa ct, Sebastien Tortelli and Stefa n Everts are two of m y favo rite rid ers. And lik e a nu m b er of guys in my peer group, I grew up fo ll ow in g Grand P rix mot ocross. The ve ry firs t professiona l race I attended was the 1977 Mid-Oh io 125cc United St ates G rand Prix of Motocross, which was won by Belgia n Gaston Rah ier. If I think har d enough, I can still pu ll pr etty clear ima ges of that day from my memory. . In late May , I was fortuna te enough to travel across the Atlantic to wa tch my fir s t Gran d -Prix at Fo xhi ll. W hile 1 enjoyed myself immensely - it was one of the bes t experiences of my life - I wa s surp rised at how much an ti-Americanrider senti men t I heard. It see med like just abou t a ny body I enco untered w as quic k to d eliver their own va ria tio n on th e th eo ry th at "America is g rea t in su percross, bu t the Europea ns are be tter motocross riders." Okay. It' s thi s type o f th inkin g th at leads me to b eli ev e th at a number of European " p layers" ha ve th eir head s buri ed deep in the sand, and I'll tell you why. W hil e wa lki ng a ro und Fo xhill on that May weeke nd , I was su rprised to see the am ount of Ame rican 'motocross clothin g w orn by the you nger .genera- , tion of fans . SplitFire / Pro Circuit race jerseys, FMF hats, Fox swea tsh irts and jackets, Je re m y McGrath T-shirts - on and on it wen t. At one point, as a 125cc qualifyin g session w a s g o ing a n, I s a w a bi g crowd o f yo u ng guys - probabl y age d 12 to 21 gathe red around a big TV, watching a highlight tape of the 1998 AMA Su percross Sezies . Th at even ing, Fox hill Grand Pri x promot er John Horl er told me t h at he specifically integra te d a Su perc ross sect io n in to hi s cir cu it because "the younger generation loves it and expec ts it. " Experienci ng a ll this ma de m e th in k th a t American •motocross is a ma jor influence on the nex t generation of Eu ropea n fa ns , whether they be Brit ish, French or Belgian . That sa me day , defending 125cc World Champion Alessio Chiodi of Italy tol d me that he desperately wanted to fu lfill hi s dream of ra cin g Ameri can Supercross. A few minutes la ter I ra n int o Sebastien To rtelli, who mentioned to me how excited he was to be coming to America. It see ms to me tha t there -are peo ple from certain nation s in Europe - I won' t m ention w he re th ey a n i from - who believe we Americans have it all wrong wit h ou r supercross. "It's a circus " is the of t-heard co m ment. If th a t' s the case, then why have France - the nation that has sup plied the GP circu it with its best group of youn g rid ers in recent yea rs and Ital y d evelop ed their own national Supercross series? , Whil e there will always be big-time motocross in both Europe and Am erica there has to be - it can' t be deni ed that supercross is the discipline of the future. AVIEWFROMTHE FENCE BYERIC JOHNS ON Crowds of 60,000 fans, TV came ras, 18whee l trucks, massive race-team bu dgets (Ho nda is send ing four rider s ou t on the road in 1999), su perstar rid er s and bigdolla r co rpora te ba cking add u p to a sp ort on the rise. And don't think that the rise of Ame rica's pre miere off-roa d se ries is lost o n the Eu ro peans: 250cc Grand Prix overlo rd Giusep pe Luon go and his hugely influential Action Group a re currently hard a t work nurturing and d evel oping a World Supercro ss Series that wi ll includ e Euro pe, Asia and p erha p s A merica . A n d if that s eries eventua lly catch e s fire, w h ic h it is expec ted to d o, wha t effect wi ll that have on th e GPs? Su re, the Fre nc h will be rea dy and prep ared to ru n in it, as will the Italians, but w ha t about the Belgians, the Englis h (the people that brou ght us "scrambles" ), the Dutch, the Swedes, the Finns an d the Germans? Stefan Ever ts is arguably the greatest natural -ter rain rid er in the world , but he ' s gone on record as sayin g he wi ll fu ture of the GPs when a ll of th e best young rid ers of Europe have their sights set on America? ' I d on't believe every Eu ro p ea n GP rid er has to come to the United States to rac e supercross, but in 'the years to . come, they are goi ng to have to face the music and race it so mew he re . Why ? Be cau s e th e fac to r ies , are g o ing to ex pect it. Th e Big Four Japanese rac e te am s , a lo ng with Husqvarna a n d KTM , are g lo ba l compani es that a re very mu ch in favor of sho wcasi ng their products an d th eir res pec ti ve brand na mes bef ore sta d iu ms full of 60,000 p e o pl e , m any of w ho m a re i n th e a tt ract ive 12-t o 34-yea r-o ld d em o g ra phic (in o ther w ord s, th e p eo p le w ho w ill be mo torcycle purchasers in the years to come) . They can d o this by bein g wrapped .. in the clean, comforta ble, enterta inmen tfriendly blan ke t of the wo rld's soccer and baseball stadiums . . I'm sorry, but the da ys of '''America never rac e su per- _--,--_.:-~--:---~;;j:::l cross in Ameri ca n have its supercross" will soon be ca. What kind of Ii gone . And if m es sa g e does Europe and its tha t s en d to the Grand Prix circ u it young up -and ex p ects to flouri sh coming riders in and work in ta n Belgium - a coundem with it (as we try that pride s _anonymoUSEuropean d o quite w ell in itself on its win Am erica ) in st ead ning herita ge in rnotocrossinsider of fighti ng agains t the sp ort ? Come to '" ", th ink of it , are it and talking of its "evils," they had bett er ge t their collecthere any go od tiv e heads out of the sand and ta ke a young riders coming ou t of Belgium? I good look around. can' t think of an y. Since the ea rly 1990s, the best young .Before anybod y ge ts down on me for riders in Europe ha ve com e from the slagging Europe's resistance to superna tion of France. However, history has cross, let me be the first to tell you that I shown us tha t once these riders succeed lo v e the GPs and n atu ral -t e rra i n on the GPs, the next step is American mo tocross as much or more than anysu percross and motocross. Bayle, Picho n one. How ever, if th e na tural-e lemen t an d Ron ca d a ha ve pu t a s take in th e d iscipli ne is to flouris h into the next milground he re. Next y ea r, and the year len nium, it will need to work in unison afte r, the trend will con ti n ue . Th e wit h su percross and not against it. defen di ng 25 0cc Wo~ l d C ha m pio n, A cha nge is coming, and our friends Tortelli, is al rea dy in California. Chiodi , in Europe had bett er be prepared for it. the 12Sce cham p, will be here in a yea r, Beca u se if th ey a re n' t, th ey'll end u p as w ill the tal en ted GP wi nn er David go ing the way of the dinosaurs - and we Vu ille min. Wha t does it say abo ut the all kn ow what happened to them. rx America is not the power inmotocros,~ that it once was ... 30 YEAR SAGO ... NV O EMBE R28,1968 20YEARSAGO... N V M R15,1 O E BE 978 1 E SAGO... 0Y AR N OVEMBER 9, 1988 CYcle News reporter was am on g th e 789 r ide rs w ho joined the Ace of Clubs mot orcycle drill team for a wee kend ride into Ensena da, Mexico, during the Ensenada Libre poker run ... At Ascot, David Aldana (BSA) fi nished up hi s ye a r by se tting th r ee track records and wi nnin g th e Novice main event... The Spokebenders desert 'race near toddard Wells, California, drew so me 360 rid ers. The incomparabl e J.N. Roberts (Hus) was the first man across the finish line... Despi te breakin g a hanIeb ar, Larry Darr (Bu l) came back to wi n th e 200cc a teu r division at the Palo Alto MC scrambles in Fremont, Ca lifo rn ia ... Se ve ra l motorcycle la n d -s p ee d records were broken on the Bonneville Salt Flats during the 1968 edition of Speed Week. Amo ng them we re the as record, wh ich was upped to 124.528 mph by Phillip aterberg (Vin ), and the fuel record, which was reset to 141.879 mph by Don Slinger (R-E). aicos w er e th e ho t ti ck et a t t he fi na l round of th e Trans AMA Series a t Sea rs Point Racew ay . Da rrell Shultz (Mai) won the 500cc class, w h ile Danny Chandler (Mai) did the tr ick in th e ' 250cc class. ', Carey Steiner cla imed th e numberone pl a te at the conclus io n of th e Ka w a sa ki W om en ' s M ot o cr o s s Nationa ls in Ca rlsba d, Ca li forn ia .. . Ka wasaki gave u s a g lim pse of its 1979 motocross a nd off-road wares . Amo ng the new bikes was the KLX250, which mat ed a 250cc fou r-s tro ke to the K X125 chassis ". Bob Balentine (KTM) ran away with the CRC'California City GP... We offe re d a feature on th ree hot new enduro clocks, which w er e ava ilable in price s ran gin g from $49.95 to $139.95.., We a lso p rev iew ed th e Anahe im Supercross - w hic h was to be the fin al round of the 1978 AMA Su pe rcross Series season - and we had a bri ef cha t with the fou nding fa ther of supercross, Mike Goodwin , uz uk i unveiled its lineup of m ot orcycl e s for th e 1989 mode l yea r. Included in the d irt line was the new RMX, an RM-based m o d el that was d esi gn ed s pecifica lly to meet the need s of the off-road rid er , Suzuki also in trod uced the b ud get-b a s ed GS500E stree t bike, which remains in the lineup tod ay... Dan Smith (Hus ) sco red a w ir e-t o- w ire wi n in th e 100s MC Ch am p ionshi p H&H near Soggy Dry Lake in Luce rne Valley, California ... Jeff Fredette (Kaw) wo n the Illinois Cross Cou ntry Cha mpions hip in Morrisori, Illinois, com pleti ng the tw o 33-mile loo ps in three hours and tw o mi nu tes ... Will Davis (Rtx) dominat ed th e fina l ro u nd of the AMA '600cc Natio nal Cha m pi ons hi p Series at Dixie Speedway in Georgia, while Ty Davis (Suz) and Buddy Antunez (Suz) did the same in th e 250cc a nd 80ec classes, res pec tive ly, at th e fina l round of the CMC Trans-Cal Series in Ca rlsbad , California... We also fea tu red an in terview wit h Wo rld 250cc MX Cha mpion John van den Berk. 0 A M S B a a ~ ,....., ,..... I-< ClJ .o S ClJ ;> o z 71

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