Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In the \Vind Jeromy Buehl (Hon) went 3-for-4 in rounds 19 and 20 of the AMA/PJ] National Arenacross Series, held January 29-30 in Niagara Falls, New York. Buehl won both the ]25 and 250cc classes on Friday night and then came back to win the 250cc class on Saturday. Buehl topped Buddy Antunez (Suz) and Greg Rand (Kaw) in Friday night's 125cc class before bea ting Cliff Palmer (Kaw) and Mike Jones in the 250cc final. Buehl then held off Denny Stephenson (Hon) aDd Antunez to win Saturday's 250cc main event. In the 125cc final on Saturday, Jeff Willoh earned his lOth win of the series, beating Antunez and Palmer. After 20 of 34 rounds, Palmer leads the eries point standings over Antunez, 627-605. Willoh is third with 5~5 points and Buehl is fourth with 555 points. Doug Dubach (Yam) topped the 250cc Pro class at round three of the CMC Sunstar Sprockets Golden State Nationals, held at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, California, on Sunday, January 31. Terry Fowler (Yam) and Robert Naughton (Suz) joined Dubach on the podium. Jan Zarvena (Suz) won the ]25cc Pro class over Nick Metcalf (Suz) and Masaki Hiratfuka (Hon). Barry Carsten (Suz) won the 125cc Pro class iD the fifth and final round of the Unlimited Sports Winter AMA Series, held at Dade City Raceway in Dade City, Florida, on January 31. Tony Lorusso (Suz) and 'Keith Johnson (Yam) filled the top three. [n the 250cc Pro class, Paul Currie (Suz) took the win over Johnson and Kenny Yoho (Kaw). Mike Healey (Yam) won round four of the PACE U.S. Off-Road Championships at Edison InternatioDal Field. in . Anaheim, California, January 30. Doug Dubach (Yam) finished second and Scott Meyer (Yam) took third. Mark Wyskiel (Hon) took the win in the Pro-class final during the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Flint/Flint MC 39th annual indoor ice races at the lMA Sports Arena in Flin t, Michigan, on January 30. W.yskiel outran Craig Pickett (Hon) aDd Doug O'Boyle (Hon) in the dash fo the finish line. Multi-time event c11ampion Chuck Springsteen (Hon) finished last in the main event but retained his numberone plate after earning 13 points in the night's heat races. Eraldo Ferracci has signed Larry Pegram to join Matt Wait on the twoman Fast By Ferracci Ducati team for the 1999 AMA Superbike National Championship. According to Fen;-acci, John Kocinski showed interest in returning to AMA Superbike racing with Ferracci's team, and Ducati was ready to offer the former 250cc World Champion a deal. Kocinski, however, couldn't make a decision quick enough, as he continues to wait and see if he can find a sponsor tha t would allow him to ride in the 500cc Grands Prix on Erv Kanemoto's Honda team. Ferracci's ~ team is slated to hold its first test ses::: sion at Willow Springs in Rosamond, • California, February 8-9. Pegram rode for Ferracci in 1996, finishing a career§! best second in the Superbike National - in Pomona. He ended the season seve;; _ enth in the ]996 AMA Superbike ~ National Championship. In ]997 and 2 1998, Pegram rode Yoshimura Suzukis ~ in both the Superbike National Championship and the 600cc Supe,rsport 2 Series. II iii! ~ ... Strangely, reports from Ducati's press introduction of their] 999 racing teams, held in Milan, Italy, last week, had, Brit Matt Llewellyn joining Ferracci's team as Wait's teammate, according to Cycle News correspondent Paolo Gozzi. Ducati's efforts in ]999 will include Carl Fogarty, Troy Corser, Doriano Romboni and Lucio Pedercini in World Superbike; Matt Wait, Larry Pegram, Anthony Gobert and Ben Bostrom in AMA Superbike; Paolo Casoli in World Supersport; Neil Hodgson, Troy Bayliss, Sean Emmett and John Reynolds in the British Superbike Championship; Craig Connell and Steve Martin in the Australian Superbike Championship; and Andreas Meklau in the German Superbike Championship. It now appears certain that a round of the 1999 World Supercross Championship will be held in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on November 20. The race will be promoted by FAST, the same people who annually promote the World Superbike Championship round at Laguna Seca. News of the race being held in the Rose Bowl was first reported in the Los Angeles Times, and FAST's Dan Murphy has confirmed that the race is imminent. "We have signed a sanctioning agreement with the AMA and with the World Supercross people," Murphy said on Thursday, January 28. "We have preliminary approval from the Rose Bowl people and are just waiting for the Pasadena City Council to put a rubber stamp to it. It's a little early to discuss the rider situation, but we anticipate all the top teams and riders, both European and American, will participate." Concerning television coverage of the event, Murphy said: "We are working on network plans for television coverage, and we expect to be able to announce a package in the next two to three supersport riders at the test. "With the la bora tory (tes t) bi ke, I rode jus t a series of three to four laps," Casoli said. "I don't know if the new parts are better or not." It was also Casoli"s first time on Michelins after years with Pirelli. "The new tires are very good. I found very early a good feeling with that. I lapped my fastest with a soft compound, but I also did many laps under 1:39 with the hardest tires." Casoli crashed without suffering injury on the first day of the test. Casoli crashed again in the first day of World Supersport testing in Kyalarni, South Africa, on Monday, February 1, injuring his left foot in the process. Despite the crash, Casoli ended the first day as the quickest in the test, leading Suzuki's Fabrizio Pirovano by just four-hundredths of a second. Ste£ane Chambon rode his Suzuki to the thirdquickest time, al1ead of new Kawasaki recruit lain MacPherson. Ducati's World Superb ike. Champion Carl Fogarty picked up where he left off in 1998 by emerging from the first day of the World Superbike tests in Kyalami with the quickest lap times. The Brit lapped the South African race track - the site of round one of the 1999 World Superbike Championship, scheduled for March 28 - at 1:44.420, just a half-second off the lap record set in last year's race by Pier-Francesco Chili. Second quickest on the opening day of the test, Monday, February 1, was Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards II. The Texan lapped at ]:45.21] to lead his teammate Aaron Slight (1:45.245), Ducati's Troy Corser (1:45.865), Suzuki's Pier-Francesco Chili 0:46.]96) and Aprilia's Peter Goddard (l :46.737). Japan's Noriyuki Haga was eighth fastest on the new Yamal1a R7, surpriSingly slower than his new teammate Vittoriano Guareschi. weeks." Yamaha's Rich Oliver threw down the gauntlet during testing at Phoenix International Speedway in Phoenix, Arizona, January 27-28 - leaving the two-day test after setting the fastest lap times on both his 600cc Supersport and Superbike machines. Oliver lapped at ]:01.17 on his YZF750 and turned in a ] :03.39 on his R6, according to handheld stopwatches manned by Dunlop personnel. The second-quickest superbike rider over the two-day test was Muzzy Kawasaki's Aaron Yates, with the Georgian lapping at ] :01.49, just ahead of the two factory Harley-Davidsons of Pascal Picotte and Scott Russell - the pair lapping at an identical 1:01.67. Then came Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin at 1:01.71. M1adin qualified at ]:00.641 for last year's AMA Superbike National in Phoenix. At the test, M1adin was trailed by Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler (1:01.84), Yoshimura's Steve Rapp (1:02.06), Jason Pridmore' (1 :02.06) and Steve Crevier (1:02.70). In 600cc Supersport; Oliver again led the way, with his Yamaha teammate Tommy Hayden and Yates lapping at identical 1:03.54 for second quickest. Then came Mladin (1:03.60), Pridmore (l :04.0]), Rapp (l :04.09),. Chaparral Suzuki's Richard Alexander Jr. (1:04.45) and Damon Buckmaster (1:04.59), and Crevier (1:04.69). Italian Paolo Casoli set the fastest tir(le during World Supersport testing at the Cartagena circuit in Spain, January 2728. The Ducati rider lapped at 1:38.01 to top new Castro! Honda rider Pere Riba's 1:39.15 as the quickest of the The German round of the 125cc World Motocross Championship, slated for August 22, will be held in Haenchen instead of Bielstein, according to the FIM. The 500cc World Motocross Championship also has a change, with the rounds in Slovakia and Germany exchanging dates. The Slova kian round, slated to be held in Lucenec, will take place on July 18, with the German round,. scheduled for TeutschenthaI, being held on June 13. In addition, the Italian round of the 500cc GPs has been moved from Arco di Trento to Castiglione del Lago. The Great Lakes Road Racing Association and Pirelli have announced that they will run "America's first spec-tire Supersport Series." The series will be called the Pirelli National Supersport Series, powered by Dodge, and will run in conjunction with the nine GLRRA events. The series will feature both 600 and 750cc Supersport and, according to GLRRA, will get national television exposure. For more fi,formation, call 616/458-5888. According to a press release issued by Honda, aU four manufacturing plants operated by Honda of America Manufacturing in west central Ohio have achieved the ISO 14001 environmental registration, signifying that Honda's plants are operating in accordance with a world-recognized \!nvironmental""anagement system to improve environmental performance. VMX and AHRMA have announced a new regional motocross points series for ] 9.99, according to VMX. The MidAtlantic MX Series will complement two other VMX-sponsored series - in AHRMA's Northeast and Southeast regions. The April ]7 race at Budd's Creek in Maryland will open the series. For more iniormation, caU 914/4299465. Orange County Dualies will hold its fourth annual Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Parking Lot Sa e in conjunction with the Adelanto Grand Prix, February 6-7, in Adelanto, California. Money raised from the parking lot sale will benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumt>r Foundation. For more information, call 714/992-9291. The Lodi Cycle Bowl in Lodi, California, will host a special Sweethearts event with its next marathon race on February 14. For more information, call 209/544-1027. How does 14 days of motorcycle touring in Peru sound? Lotus Tours is currently pu tting together its Peru OffRoad Tour, slated for March 26 to April 8. Departing from Lima, participants will ride Honda XR600s across deserts along the Pacific Ocean to lea and Nasca. In addition, there will be a train ride to Machu Picchu. The Peru trip ls just one of many Lotus Tours scheduled for ]999. Among the others are a Ducati factory tour of Italy and Austria, an Isle of Man tour, and a tour of Corsica and Sardinia, to name a few. For more information, call 312/95] -003] or visit the Lotus website at www.lotustours.com. Donington Park Leisure and the British Automobile Racing Club have agreed to a 10-year lease with the owners of Foxhill tha t will ensure the fu ture of the motocross venue in England. "Foxhill is regarded 'as the finest motocross course in Europe," said Robert Fearnall, managing director of Donington Park Leisure, "and the commercial development of World Championship motocross events complements our involvement in World Championship road racing events at Donington Park." The Sidecar World Cup round scheduled to run in conjunction with the World Superbike round in Kyalami, South Africa, on March 28 has been canceled, according to the FIM. The Sidecar World Cup will now feature 10 rounds and will begin in Australia on A.pril ]8. Despite losing its contract to purchase the Indian Motorcycle trademarks, Eller Industries is continuing to move forward to produce a full line of American-made heavyweight motorcycles, according to a release issued by Eller. Despite an adverse ruling on its contract to purchase the trademarks by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on December 7, 1998, Eller still plans on building motorcycles. "For over five years, I have been working to rebuild the Indian Motorcycle Company," said Eller president Leonara S. Labriola. ''It's not easy to walk away from that kind of commitment. Still, the common sentiment out there seems to be that the popularity of the Indian name is not about a compa-, ny that has been out of business since 1953; it's about the motorcycle that changed the industry and about the community of people behind it. So to find overwhelming support of our efforts within the industry and from

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