Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

only thing I can figure. How di d a 25lap race tu rn in to 28 ? The Lima race should have been called complete on lap 23 due to a red flag for a crash. I fee l beller now , but I bet Kevin Atherton and Parker don't , because they bo th lost hard -fough t positions due to the five-lap dash - what a crock! Brian Smith . Shelby,OH Anti Parker Scotty Parker did motorcycling a disservice by th row ing his trophy into the crowd because it had AMA on it. If it's in the rule book, he has no grounds to complain. I bet he cashed his check last year wh en he didn't even have .to race for it. As a fan, I found th e five -lap s ho o to u t ve ry ex ci ting . Every r a ce should end under gree n. Thomas Ernst erniee@brighl.ne t Only good news 'Are we ru nning sho rt of mo torcycling news to report? Your new direction is to malign notable (?) motorcyclists in yo ur paper. Regard ing your "repo rt " of Kurt Liebman n 's p lea ba rgain, you failed, miserab ly I might add, to inform your read e rs w ha t charge he did, in fac t, plead gu ilty to. My assu m ption is that it was to a lesser cha rge. Your "report" gave us accusations and innuendoes "accord ing to a newspaper repo r t. " We re n' t yo u able to co rrobo ra te their findi ngs? O r d id yo u accept them as fact . wit hout sworn testimony? I'd say th at most of us u ndersta nd the plea-bargaining concep t of "jus tice" toda y. Heavy charges are made aga i~t a n individual, who the n sees all of his saving", p oss ess ion s, home, job , e tc., being abso rbed by attorney fees defending his innocenc e. He is then offered a les se r ch arge in exchange fo r a guilty p lea (it looks a lot better than 10-10 ). They acce pt the offer and live with the humility th at goes with it. But I don't wa n t to miss th e big point he re - the prosecutor ge ts ano ther (minor) notch in his record - by God he has a conviction and saved his county the cost of a full jury trial. To add insult upon injury, Cycle News goes on to associate Mr. Liebmann wi th a former bus iness he owned . The key word he re being fo rmer. Why no t go after former race sponsors? 'Form er inla w s ? W hy besmirch th e new o w n e r with the former owner' s woes? I am not an attorney or a civil libertaria n. I am a trail rider from Ohio. I do not buy your pa per for thi s type of "news." Why not list all the bankruptcies and drunk driving charges for an yone who ever raced? You ha ve made this man guilty, in print, of the accusations. His rep u ta tion is forever tainted in the motorcycling community - will you clear his name if new evidence surfaces ? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Cycle N ews, you reall y blew it here. Please don't fall into the same trap as most of the other print media. I suggest y ou steer clear of th e p oli ce -b lo tte r information . T his is not motorcycl e news - it's legal news. Bob Ram say G ran vill e, O H Bob, I'm sickened by you and all the other readers who have w ritte n ill to defend the actions of Kurt LiebmalHI - just because he is a motorcycle racer, Racing motorcycles doesl"t pu t you above the law , How can you feel sorry for Liebmann , who admitted his guilt according to countv prosecutor Ike Gavzy, but not for the innocent people who became victims of his crimes?... Editor WhyTNN? Why d oes TNN bo ther to buy the rights to broadcast the New Ha mpshire ·AMA Supe rb ike race and then not show it u ntil a month after the event has taken place? What is the point? By the time they broadcast it, most mot or cycle roa d racing fans wi ll have los t interest in tha t particular race . As a ma tte r of fact, I beli eve tha t mos t fans have no idea w ho is br oadcasting that particul ar race , I wrote to Cycle News and asked if the y knew wh o wa s broadcastin g the race and they replied (tha nk yo u) that it would be on TN N - but they did not know a date. I d on 't see the logic in buying th e rights and then n ot an no uncing w ho is showi n g it and when it will be shown (thanks, TNN). TNN's ac tions in these matters are bizarre. The fan base they are wis hing to attrac t by showing motor cycle racing on their station does no t even kn ow when the race is being shown. I found out by sea rch ing T N' s web site, but I don't believe m os t people will go to s u ch ' lengths. Tell TNN to leave motorcycle racin g to Speedvision - they do a grea t job of showin g the races in a timely manner. Luis Clemente clemente@gte.net Angry ATK Since the introduction of the ATK dirt tr ack er last year, we re ad with great i nteres t every issue of Cycle N ew s to find out how well the bikes ar e doing at various venues around the country. A number of dirt track riders in Southern California have been doi ng very well, as reported to us by the riders a nd our dea ler s. However, to read your covera ge of the races, one wou ldn ' t even know an ATK had pa rticipated even when you r photos suggest otherwise (a lt houg h you do seem to go out of yo u r w a y to mention when an ATK rid er goe s down or other similar occurren ces). In yo u r articles for Cycle News, you never see m to list the ATK name when an ATK-mounted rid er takes a top posit ion . It is a lwa y s reported as Rtx (Rotax), if it is named at all. One of the riders reported to u s that you sta te d yo u d o th is because the motor cycle is Rotax-powered and therefore shou ld be refe rred to as a Rota x. To u s e yo u r logic, why isn 't the BMW F-650 called a Rotax F-6..."O - it uses a Rotax eng ine? Or shall all Rota x-po w ered Ap rilias be called so methi ng othe r than Apri lia? Might we also call the Dodge Ram pickup a Cummings because of its powerplant? I find it in te resting tha t when you repo rt the wi nni ng of a Wood-Rota x dirt tracker, it is always lis ted as W-R. Shouldn't the Woo d-Rotax be listed as Rtx as well? Or is it pe rhaps that your affiliation with the Wood's enterprise clouds your objectivity? When a n ATK wi ns, pl ea se do the righ t thing. Ma ke sure you report it as such, or turn in yo ur press pass, please. Mo nty Scoll Bou ntiful, UT Scott, the sales manager for ATK, wrote the abov,' lett er to Cycl e ews contributor Elliott Iverson... Ed The man with Mat's fork My name is David Duprey and for the pa s t 11 years I ha ve, been racing on Suzuki motorcycles and buying Su zuki products. I am a privateer and I pay all my racing expenses myself. [ build my ow n motors, revalve my own suspension com ponents, cha nge my own tires a nd provid e my own transportati on. O ver the yea rs, [ have tried to get even min imal su p port from Suzuki but to no avail. On [u ne 20, after the AMA Super> bike race in Loudo n, I claimed a set of Yoshimura-k it Showa forks. The claimin g rule, which ha s been in effect for five years, is designed to level the playing field for everyone - including privateers. All manufa cturers have been aware of this rule and the risk associated with putting on parts worth five to 10 times the claiming ru le. I was astounded by the utter lack of professionalism and sportsmanship of Yoshi m u ra when I claimed the forks. Before the bike ev en left for tech, the Yosh mechanics started threatening me with debased comments like , "L et' s break his legs... &%$# him, let 's kick his ass ," etc. Once the bike got to tech, the Yosh mechanics continued calling me names such as "wa nker, " "asshole" and "jerk-off." After the Will ow Springs National , Van ce & H ines Du cati had a p air of works forks claimed by tw o pri vat eers. Ducati handled the situa tio n very di fferently th an Suzu ki. Duca ti not only offered to buy the for ks back, bu t also ope ne d a n accou n t d irectl y for pri vateers so thev would be able to purchase specia l pa rts . I expec ted Suzuki to respond in a manner similar to Ducati. Howeve r, w hen I asked Yosh if they wanted to buy the forks back, they sarcastically replied, "What. do you think you will go any faster?" Not at all the response I was expecting. I claimed the forks in hopes tha t Suzuki would understand the position of a privateer in the AMA Superbike ranks, and that they would be willing to wo rk so mething out with me . Clearly, that is no t goi ng to hap pe n . A n d although I wou ld go fas te r usin g the claimed fo rks, it is mor e importa nt to me that I get to race as often as possible. Therefore, I will se ll the forks to finance my racin g for the rest of the year. David Duprey b are footracing@yahoo.com Lett ers to th e editor shou ld be sent to Voi ces, Cycl e News, P.O. Bo x 5084, Costa M esa, CA 92628-5084, fa xed to 714/751-6685 or e-mail, editor@cyclenews.com. Pub li shed le tt ers do not necessarily reflect th e po sition of Cycle News, Inc . Letters sho ul d not ex ceed 200 words and all lett ers are sub ject to ed iting. Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication. All letters , s h o u ld co nta in the write r's nam e, address and da ytime p hone num ber .. . Editor. .... >..., :; 5

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