Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1999 07 21

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128003

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N ew Z ea la nder Sim o n C ra far o n th e team, w ill team w ith Frenchman Regis Laconi. The 28-yea r-old has jus t co mpl eted a two-race s tint wit h the team, finishi ng 15th in the Dutch Gra nd Pri x before crashi ng ou t of the British Grand Prix. "I am rea lly happy to be give n the o ppo rtunity to continue the wo rk I hav e started and I would like to than k everyo ne at Yam aha, Red Bull and the team itself for th eir fait h and su p po r t. I' ve lea rne d a hell of a lot over the last two races and my aim is to be cons isten tly quick a nd score poin ts at ev ery me et ing for the rest of the season. Then, hopefu lly, I wi ll have do ne enoug h to wa rra nt a full seaso n next year." Gold Win turns 25 T o commemora te 25 years of the Go ld Win g, Ho nda will be fea turin g the 25th annive rsary-edition Gold Wings in 2000. Th e birthday bikes will feature special anniversary badging on the fro nt-hea d lig ht ga rn ish, rear tru nk lid and console. New, chromed engine-va lve covers'are standard as well. Two new colors will be av ailable for th e 2000 Gold Win g SE: pearl blu e /pearl dark blue, and pearl w hit e/pear l gray-green. Retu rnin g co lors are ca nd y red / candy da rk red , and black . MSRP is $17,599 for black; $17,899 for th e two-to ne d blue/ dark blu e and white / g ray-green ; $18,099 for tw o-toned cand y red . The Gol d Win g Asp enca de wi ll be ava ilable in cand y red , and black. MSRP is $15,199 for black and $15,399 for candy red . Th e 2000 Gold Wings ar e sche d u led to be released in August. Nick Cummings (Ho n) wa s one of several yo u n g s ta rs to s h ine du ri ng th e AMA Dirt Tra ck Gran d Championships at the Indian a Sta te Fairgrounds and at La w ren ce bu rg Sp eedwa y in Ind ian a, Ju ly 4-10. Cu m m ings cla im ed se veral feature victories in the 85c c Mod ified (12- ] 5), 85cc DTX a nd 125cc Modified finals . Candy Hiley (Yam) claim ed wins in the 50cc Pee Wee classes, and Charlie Italia (Hon) dom inated the 250cc Modi fied class . Bryan Smith and Tony Meiring battl ed long and hard all week in the 5GOcc and 600cc Modi fied divisions , wi th both ultimat ely being nam ed co-recipients of the AMA's Horizon Awa rd . Telmo Peri era, Michel Graziano a nd Bruno Bonhuil combined to give Suzuki the victory in the 24 Hours of Liege at the Spa-Francorcha mps Circuit in Belgiu m, July 10-11. The three outd ueled the number-one Suzuki team of Chrisitan Lavielle, Terry Rymer and Jehan d'Orgeix. Rodney Smith (Suz) claimed the ove rall wi n at the Gra nd Na tiona l Cro ss Coun try Series rou nd in Fairm on t, Wes t Virginia, on Ju ly 11. Fred Andrews (Kaw) fi n is h ed seco n d , fo llow ed by S teve Hat ch (Suz), Barry Hawk (Yam) a nd Doug Blackwell (Yam ). Forme r Yamaha fa cto ry s ta r Damo n Bradshaw (Yam) came out of retirement and won the seco nd roun d of the AMA Yama ha / Maxxis Tires Western Fou rStroke Na tional MX Series at the Owhyee MX Track in Boise, Idaho, on July ] 1. Finishing second to Brad sha w was Nathan Woods (Yam) , w ho wa s fo ll o w ed b y Todd Downs (Yam), Robb Floth (Yam ) and Scott Myers (Yam). Myers leads the se ries point s ta ndings w it h 84 poin ts over Woods (82) and Downs (69). g: a> : N -5 ...., 2 Francis Ma rtin (Kaw) wo n his second s tra ig ht T o y ot a Ca nada Su perbi ke Cha m pionship round with a victory at Au tod ro me St. Eustache in St. Eustache, Q uebec, Can ad a , o n Ju ly 11 . Ma rti n topped Michael T ay lo r (Kaw) and Jeff Williams (Kaw) . Martin lead s the champ ions hip points chase ove r Taylor; 13912 7. Linnley Clarke (Ya m) w on th e Yoshimu ra 600cc Sport Bike race. Former astron aut Charles "P ete" Conrad , 69, wa s killed in a motorcycle accident on Thursday, July 8, w hile en route to the World Su perbike rou nd at Laguna Seca Raceway in Mo nter ey, California . Conr ad, w ho was the th ird man to walk on the moon, was part of a gro up of 20 riders mak ing the trip fro m H untingto n Beach, California, to Monter ey. Conrad w a s join ed on th e r id e b y h is w if e, Na ncy , w ho was rid ing o n a se para te m ot orcycle w he n Co nr ad cras he d his Harl ey-Davids on on Highway ISO near Oja i. Co nrad died from int ern al inju ries suffered in the cras h. Conrad walked on th e moon in N o vem ber 1969 as co mman der of Apollo 12. Accordi ng to Cycle News corresponde n t Darryl Flack, five-time Wo rld Cha mpion Mick Doohan m ay rid e n ext year un der Winfield sponso rs hip in a Honda team th at may al so fea ture Valentino Rossi on a 250. Dooh an is also rumored to be sla ted to ru n a team that will feature Colin Edward s II o n a Shell Advance Hond a NSR500 and Anthony West on the team 's 250. Th is is a rem ind er that the Au g u st 22 ro und o f th e AMA Acerbis Nati o na l Enduro Series ha s bee n rel ocated to Harri son, Michi gan, fro m its o riginally sc he d uled site of Ind ian River , Michiga n . The Buz za rd s MC will host th e e n d u ro . Fo r mo re info rmation, ca ll 517/539-3047. Forme r Class 20 Baja 500 an d 1000 winner Scott Coutts has bee n released from the hospi ta l a nd is recu p er a tin g fro m in juries he sus tai ned in a bic ycle accid ent o n May 31. Coutts crashed a bicycle on the street and sus tained facia l frac tu res, a concussion, a fractu red colla rb o ne, two broken ri bs and a p unctu red lung . After spending 38' days in the hosp ital, Cou tts is reco vering at his par ents' home in Malibu, California. Aus tralian roa d racer Ga rry McCoy has been reta ined by the fac to ry Red Bull Yam ah a Grand Pri x te am for th e rem ain in g eig h t ro u n ds of the ] 999 World Cha m pions hip season. The twoti m e 125cc G P w inner, w ho repl a ced Last week we reported tha t the Las Vegas round o f th e AMA / M BNA Su pe rbi ke Na tiona l Cha m pionshi p had been canceled . Now the AMA has issu ed a pr ess release stating w hy it was cancelled . "The Speedway and AMA Pro Racing reached a mu tua l d ecis ion to d isconti nu e th e MBNA Su p e rbike To u r ra ces at La s Vega s Mo to r Speedwa y," sa id C h ri s Pow ell , ge ne ra l manager of Las Veg as Mo tor Speedway. Las Vegas wa s one of th e most p oo rl y attended ro u nds last year, accordi ng to the AMA. The cancellation of the road race does not affect the Gra nd Natio nal dirt track that will still be held at the facility on October 2. The Free style Motocross Air Assault is coming to the Los Angeles Coliseu m on . July ] 7. The show will featu re X-Games Bron ze m ed alist Bria n De eg an , Kri s Rour ke, Adam Pierce, Jeff Tilton, Jeremy Stenberg, Jus tin Homan, Colin Morrison and Seth Enslow. The eve nt is part of the Mo nster Truck Sho w th at' wi ll featu re a s u p e r ju m p by Ens lo w, wh o w ill be attem p ting to ju mp over eight m on ster trucks - a d istance of more than ISO feet. For more informa tion, call 801/550-7S07. To celebrate its launch, Fantasy Racer is cu rrently offering free mem bers hip to its " mini" Fan tasy Mot ocross Leagu e. The leagu e will ru n for the final six races of the Na tional MX Series and will fea tu re p ri zes af te r ea ch -ro und a nd a g ra nd Laguna to lose World Su erbike? s bizarre as it may seem, the United Sta tes rou nd of the Wo rld Superbike Cha mpions hi p may not take p lace at Lag u na Seca in Monterey, Californ ia, next year . According to a press release issu ed by the track a t the World Supe rbike rou nd on July 11, there is a local ordi na nce that speci fies tha t Laguna Seca can host no more than five races in 2000. Thus it appea rs th at one of the mot orcycle eve nts - either World Su perbike or the AMA Su pe rb ike ro und - cou ld be d ropped fro m the sched u le . In addition, the track has to be reho mologat ed to mee t new FlM standards - a process that will be d one in Augus t. If th e World Superbike round goe s away, it would mar k the end of a five-year relati onsh ip between the race track and the series . "Th e answer is yes , it could be over - for two reaso ns," said even t prom oter Dan -M urphy of Speedvision Productions. "One, we' ha ve an hom ologation issu e. We went around wit h the FlM jus t last nigh t. He told us w ha t needed to be don e. Some of it is relati vely easy and some of it is a little mo re d ifficul t. Some of it has to do with the Corkscrew - w hich is difficult to change here for emotional reasons. The y don' t want to actu ally change the Corkscrew, bu t the run-off int o the Corkscrew and the tree that' s inv olved in the Corkscrew . So now th ere ar e some issu es that will actually involve the cou nty, because the county owns th is track. That's a complicating factor, but I thi nk the other issu es are pretty goo d beca us e we 've bee n an homologat ed track before and it's jus t upgr ad es. Usua lly, you ca n get th rou gh an hom ologati on inspection . "Nu mber two, however, is that they' ve absolu tely mad e the determination tha t they are going from two motorcycle races to one. With that determination, they've come to the conclusion tha t you need to ma ke the most amo unt that you can make from one race. That, obvious ly, makes sense. We, u nfort unat ely, don't know that with the AMA race maybe no t happen ing, that our crowd wo uld significa ntly increase. We think it m ay increase some, but we think that everyone w ho is coming now is coming w hether there's an AMA race or not - so it's probably not going to affect attendance. So we've moved the number up for them and we hope that they are going to be able to accept that number. We've had good conversa tions wi th the AMA about a four-day format where we woul d actua lly run the AMA Superbikes here - becau se we don't want the AMA to lose a National here. Wehave a couple of differen t ideas in the works, and one of those is a four-day forma t tha t has (AMA) superbikes ru nning completely by themsel ves. The second one is that they run within the World Superbike race and you score it sepa rately. I think both of those ideas are workable enoug h for us to support the concept of a four-day weekend." Murphy has a contrac t wit h the Flammini Grou p to promot e a Wor ld Superb ike race in the United Sta tes for the next five yea rs . If things d on 't wo rk ou t for Lagu na Seca, he will take the ra ce elsew here. Road Am erica is at the top of that list, though the circu it will u ltima tely ha ve to choose between Worl d Superbik e and Grand P rix - with tha t se ries having already talked to Road Ame rica about next year. "Th e o the r op tion for the track is to have an AMA race in May," Murphy said . "We have su pport fro m the AM A that we basically have this Jul y date. If we can' t work so me thi ng ou t wi th Laguna Seca, we wi ll try to wo rk some thing ou t w ith Jim Haynes a t Road Am erica ." But what about the pending Gra nd Prix at Road America? " It will be eit her one or the o ther," Mu rph y said . "Jim Hayn es basically just has to make a decision. A homologation guy goes there basically the sa me time he comes here, which is the firs t week in August. Jim Ha ynes will have to look at wh at kind of credentials tha t promoter brings to the tab le, compa red to the cred en tials we have, and mak e a decision . It's very serious that the GP series has an opportu nity to come to the United States, and we actu ally sup port that, because a t Speed vision we ow n the GP television rights. We'd like to see a Ll.S, race happen. So first pri ze for us is that we stay here and the GP series goes to Road America. Two in terna tional races wo ul d be first pri ze. Basically, we've mad e a pr et ty solid offer (to Laguna Seca) and they are basically considering that pretty solid offer - and we' re hop ing that we 're going to come to terms." Paul Carruthers A

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