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/128004
In the Wind
Ju ly 18 is any in dica tio n . First among
them is the U.S. GP at Elkh art Lake, ten tati vely s c hedu le d, pe n di n g ci rc ui t
ho m ol ogation, fo r next su m mer. Also
"new on the sche d ule is th e Portuguese
Gra n d Pri x at Es to ri!. The se ries w ill
begin a t the Welkom circu it in Sou th
Africa and will end in Japan, wi th a second ro u.nd in Japan early in th e season.
Both the Suzuka Circui t and the TwinRing M o teg i w ill h ost G Ps in Japa n .
Go ne are the Ma laysian GP, the Brazilia n round and Irn ol a , s ite of th e Sa n
Marino GP. The Fre nch GP looks se t for
Le Man s and, of cou rse, there are thr ee
.ro u nds sched uled for Spa in.
Junior's helmet
goes big
O
Thanks to th e efforts of th e AMA, it s
me m bers a nd th e m otorcycle ind ustry,
U.S. trade officials ha ve decided th ey
won' t impose a 100-percent import duty
on certai n Euro pean mo torcycles in their
w ar w ith Europe over beef. H ad th ey
rem ained on the list of products targeted fo r duties, th e price of European
mot orcycl es (d isp lacing 500cc or less)
im ported in to th e United Sta tes could
have doubled , accord ing to th e, AM A.
"We sai d all alo ng that motorcycles ha d
no p lace in a trade d is pute over beef,
and we 're elated th at we were a ble to
make the case to federal officia ls," said
Edwa rd Mo re la nd, th e AMA's Washingt on represen tative. "Bu t this is really
a testament to the po w er of grou n d roo ts lo bbying and to AM A members
a nd to o the r m ot orcyclists wh o made
phone calls, wrote le tt ers an d sen t emails to their elected officials:'
_
ne of Kenny Roberts Jr: s Arai helmets sol d for a w ho pp ing $12,000 during an
auction to ra ise mon ey for Riders For H ealth at the Donington Park ro und of the
500cc World Championship Road Race Series on Ju ly 1. Pictured w ith Roberts is
RFH's Ali Cessay and event or gani zer And rea Co lem an . In all, the Day of Champions
at Donington Parkraised som e $107,0~0 for the cha rity.
Joel Smets (Hb g ) and Claudio Federici
(Yam) eac h scored victories at th e pi ggybacked 500cc and 125cc rounds of th e
W orld C ha m p io ns h ip M X Series a t
Lucen ec in Slovakia on Jul y 18. Sm et s
put together 1-2 moto sco res to top the
500ce ra nks, follo w ed by current series
poin ts leader Andrea Bartolini (Yam) ,
who finish ed seco nd overall after postin g.2-4 moto finis hes. Fo r m er 500cc
World C ham pion Shayne King (KTM)
lin ked 4-3 p lacings for th ird overall.
Fed erici ha d an easier time of it in the
125cc class, the Italian sw ee p ing bo th
motos to earn the o vera ll win , whil e
reigning World 125cc Motocross Champion and curren t series poin ts lea d er
Al essio Chiod i (Hus) finished 4.17 seconds beh ind Federici in moto one and
over 10 seconds behind him in moto tw o
to land second overall. Grant Langston
rebound ed from a first-moto sixth-place
finish to ru n third in moto tw o for third
overall.
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Ronnie Brown (W-R) cros sed the finish
line ahead of Pa ul Iw anag a (W-R) and
John Hlebo III (W-R) to wi n the Open
class d uring the fina l rou nd of Gene
Romero 's West Coast Flat Track Seri es
a t W a ts on vill e Speedwa y in Wa tsonville, Ca lifornia, on July 17. In doing
so , Brown a lso wrapped up the We s t
Coast Flat Track Series Championship
for 1999. The Open Vin tage class featured a new w inner for the first tim e all
season, as c1