Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In the Wind "We always kn ew that our enthusiasts li ked to dis p lay o ur motorcycles on pedestals in their living rooms. But to have our bikes d isp layed and auctioned at So theby's - in fro nt of the world's grea test connoisseurs and collectors - is a rea l hon or." Among the bikes sla ted to be auctioned is the Duca ti 996 used b y Ca rl Foga r ty in t he 1998 World Su perbike Championship. In a race wit h a prou d tradition of Australian succ ess fro m Ton y Hatton and lat er Wayne Ga rd ne r, Mick Doo ha n, Kevi n Magee and Daryl Beattie, n ot a sing le Austra lian racer was en tered in this year's Suzuka 8 Hours - for the first ' time in the 21-year history of the eve nt. Cas trol Honda's Wor ld Supersp ort rider Pere Riba is exp ec te d to b e ba ck in action for the next rou nd of the series at Brands Hatch in Eng land , on Aug us t 1. Rib a su ffere d a brok en left w ris t and elbo w in a cras h during round six of the cha mpions hip in Misan o, Italy, on Jun e 27. Rib a und er w ent su rgery o n h is elbow. Ent ries are still ope n for the Mammoth Mountain MX II in Mammoth La kes, California, Au gu st 7-8. For mor e information, call 760/934-5831. Boyesen and Twin Air will hav e both product and technical ass istance availa b le at th e Lore tta Ly n n's Ama te u r National MX from July 31 to August 7. For m ore in formation , call 800 / 4411177. . Ch amp ion sh ip Cup Series (CCS) and Yam ah a have annou nced that the contin gency m on ey Fro rn th e Ca roli n a Motorsp orts Park ev ent that w as cance le d in June has been m ov ed to th e Roeblin g Road even t, sched uled for Septemb er 4-5. Kawasaki will also move its contingency mon ey fro m th e cance led Brainerd Intern ational Raceway even t to th e Blackhawk Farms race, sc he duled Davey Cam/in: 1969-1999 irt tra ck motorcycle racer Davey Cam lin, 29, of Roc k D Is lan d , Illin ois, was killed in a mu lt ipl e-rid er acciden t whi le competing at the Du Quoin Mile on the Du Quoin, ' Illinois State Fairgrounds, on July 24. The accident occu rred during the secon d semi-feature of the day, as the 12-rider field raced up the front straightaway to complete the first lap . Just past the start/finish line, leader Sha un Russell's engine ex p ired, and th e tr a il in g riders, left wi th nowhere to go, stacked up at 140 mph. Six riders were involved in the accident, wit h Camlin suffering fatal injuries, and Kevin Athe rton, Brett Landes an d Johnny Murphree receivin g serious ones; all thr ee were airlifted to St. Lou is-area hospitals for treatment. Rid ers Paul Lyn ch and Gary Rogers were also invo lved in the cras h, but neith er appeared to be hurt. In ligh t of the accident, the Grand National main eve nt was canceled , and severa l rid ers, led by reig n ing AMA Gra nd National Champion Scott Parke r, completed a 10-lap mem orial exhibition in Carnlin's honor, with the Grand Na tional purse going to the Camlin family and to the Steel Shoe Fun d to benefit injured racers. Born into a racin g family, Camlin turned professional in 1986. He qualified for his first Grand National main eve nt at the Sacramen to Mile in 1990. Iron ically, his first career Gr and Nationa l w in came at the Du Quoin Mile in 1994, where he also achieved his first top-10 finish in the series points standi ngs: finishing 10th that year. Quickly gaining recogni tion for his abilities on the mile for Sep tembe r 25-26. For more in form ation, call 828/670-5304 . Ural America has chan ged its nam e to Classic Moto rcycles and Sidecars Inc. in an effort to "mo re accurat ely define itself and to posit ion the company for th e rel ease of new Classic mot orcy cle m od el s th at a re unr el ated to th e Ural / 1M2 line." Ural Ame rica will continue to operate as a d ivision under this new parent compa ny, but it is no longer the legal corporate name . PVL USA will be on han d at the Lor etta Lynn's Ama teur Na tio na l MX fro m Okada, Barros triumph'at Suzuka 8 Hours , r adaYUki Okada and Alex Barr os mastered tricky conditions to convincingly win the Sprite Su zuka 8 Hours aboa rd a Lucky Strike-sponsored Ho nda RC45. The two 500cc Gra nd Prix riders completed 213 laps, one short of the record , yet one more than second- placed Castrol Ho nda ride rs Colin Edwards II and Aaro n Slight. . Small, dark clouds that wo uld wet the track in pa rticular section s b rou ght on the tri cky conditions in the world 's premier endurance race - and round four of the World End urance Champio nship. These rain clouds appeared twice, da mpening the track eno ugh that the riders slowed down some 20 secon ds a lap, bu t not watering the track enough to force en masse immigration to the pits for rain tires . Okada and Barros whizzed along the wet track unfazed , whi le their riva l teams tip toed on shiny slicks, or pitted for rain tires that were needed for only a hand ful of laps. "(Okada) make a very (good) lap time, and I always tried to ma ke the same one," said Barros from the victory podium to the estima ted 85,000 spec tators. "He's fast always, and always tries to make time." It was Barros' first Su zuka win after finishing second the two previous yea rs. Okada p reviously wo n th e race in 1995 with en Sligh t on a Ho nda. . en en "Today was a very, very hard race, and it was a hard week for cD us," said Slight. "(Colin and 1 have) been behind the eight ball all week, and we just couldn't find a setting . Today, everything CD c: ::> seemed to work very good . Tady and Alex, their bike was going good and they were just flying. Their bike just went very fast. We 2 tried all we could ." .., tr a cks, Cam lin returned to Du Quoin in 1995 and wo n the e ven t for the second straight yea r. In 1996 he mad e h is tory as th e fi rst rid er to score back-toback Grand Nationa l wins at the Springfield Mile, accou n ting fo r his caree r tally of four Gra nd Na tio nal wi ns , a ll of th em on mi les . He placed a caree r-bes t s ix t h in th e G ra n d Na tiona l se ries poi n ts standi ngs in 1997, and also earned his first AMA National Cha mpions hip by winning seve n of 13 races to claim the Harl ey-Davidson Sport ster Performan ce Series Championship. Camlin is survived by his wife, Melissa; his father, Don; his ' mot her, Ran di Ram os; his stepmot her, Becky; his brothers, Wade and Erin; and his sister, Ashley . Visita tion has been scheduled for Wednesd ay, July 28, from 1-5 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. at the Knox-Larson Funeral Ho rne, 2106 SeventhAve., Rock Island, Illinoi s, A fun eral se rvice has be en sche d u led for Thu rs d ay, Ju ly 29, at Christ Episcopal Church, 1717 8th Ave., Moline, Illinois, The service sta rts at 10 a.m, A mem ori al in Camlin's nam e has also been established for the Rock Island YWCA Youth Basketb all Program, 229 16th St., Rock Island, IL 61201. Jul y 31 to Aug us t 7 to offer ass istance to th ose racers u sing PV L ignitio ns. For m ore inform at ion, ca ll 440 / 9884474. . According t9 a release from the company, Race Tools is once again the exclusive d istributor of Silent Sport muffler packin g and noise-r ed u ction products. For m ore in formation , ca ll 716 /5293750. ' . Acco r ding t o a p r e ss r el e a se fro m Duca ti, Termignoni, a h igh-pe rfor m an ce exha ust-syste m ma nufa ctur er a nd t he o fficia l te ch n ica l p artn er. o f "1 think Okad a and Barr os today were jus t a little too strong for us," said Edwards . "We did the best we could. I'm happy to be over with it." . Defend ing champions and heavy p re-race favorites Shinichi Itoh and Tohru Ukawa sta rted the race fro m pole position, but each crashed in the race, and the team eventua lly retired . Itoh put . the Ho nda on its right side in the snaky section of'S' curves, and Ukawa put the Hon da on its left side at Spoon Curve. Akira Yanagawa and Hitoyasu Izu tsu miscalculated multip le times on tires and fuel. and that placed their sharp Kawasaki third at the end, 10 seconds away from Edwards and Slight 's Honda . Noriyuki Haga and Regis Laconi were a distant fourth, two laps behi nd Yanagawa and Izutsu. Haga was hell-bent-for-leather on the race track, but the powerful Honda RC45s cou ld outrun Haga 's glis tening new Yamaha R-7 w ith a simple tw is t of the throt tle. Frenchma n Laconi was plainly out of his element. John Kocin ski low-sided his d irect -from-the-factory Hon da RC45 in the chicane during the first hou r, taking himself and Freddie Spencer-substitute-rider Yuichi Takeda out of conten tion. The former World Superbike Champion fell in the slowes t section of the track for reasons he couldn't find wo rds for, and served out the rest of his endu rance race sen tence to finish sixth. Yama ha USA's Jamie Hacking was ru nning in the top 10 during the first hour, but cras hes by himself and his teammate No rihiko Fujiwara bounced the sole AMA Superbike Series rider back deep in to the rank s of also-rans and no-hopers. Hackin g and Fujiwa ra climb ed back to finish 14th. Current World End urance Champion Doug Polen made his first appearance on a race track in 1999, riding a Kawasaki ZX-9R in the privat eers-only X-Formula support class . Polen and his teammate Takahito Mori retired after three hou rs and 76 lap s. The X-Formula su pp ort class win went to Gaku Kamada and Naoto Og ura on the Yoshimura Su zuki Hayab usa . That was Suzuki's bright spot of the day, as the factory Suzuki GSX-R750 superbikes we re outgunned, ou trun, an d ou tdone by the very well-prepared and profes sionally ru n Honda teams, and the two quick factory Kawasaki teams. '" Tracy Hagen '0 Du cati Co rse, has given exclus ive dist ribut ion o f it s pr oducts , d esi gn ed s peci fica lly fo r Du cati m od el s, t o Du cati Performa nce. The exclus ive deal will take effect w orld wid e w ith th e · ex ce p tio n o f G e r m a ny and Japan , where a se pa ra te p artnership agreement for distribution has been reache d, acco rd ing to Duca ti. Accord ing to the race promoter, tickets for th e rain ed- out AMA D a ir y la n d Grand National dirt track in Plym outh, Wisconsin, will be honored at next year's eve nt, schedu led for Ju ne 10, 2000. California Superbike School is n ow using transp ond ers so that stude nts can receive electro nica lly tim ed laps. Previously , the schoo l relied on staff members punching converted laptop compu ters . ST OLEN: A 199 9 Kawas aki KX250, VIN #JKAK XMLClXA004784, from N o rris town, Pe nnsy lva nia . Th e bike is mi ss in g th e enti re clu tch asse mbly. Any one wit h any inf ormation ca n call 610/ 239-8373. BOR N: Hen ry Cole Mattson , to AMA Distric t 37 enduro cham pion Erik Ma ttson and his wife, Piper, in Long Beach, California, on July 22. OPENED: Hud son Cycle Center's hom e pa ge on the World Wid e Web . Th e site ca n be found at : http: / / www .hudsoncyc1 e.com . OPENED: Dark Horse Racin g' s hom e page on the W orld Wid e Web . Th e s ite can be found a t: http: / /www .darkhorser acing.com. OPENE D: Emig Racing's home page on the World W id e We b . Th e s ite ca n be fou n d a t: http: / / ww w.emigra cing.com. O PE NED: H o n d a Su zuki No r th 's hom e pag e Wid e Web . Th e s ite o n th e World ca n be found a t the fo ll ow in g a d d ress : htt p:/ / www. hondasUzuk inorth .com . OPE NED: Aktive's wes t coast office at 4200 82nd St., Unit F, Sacram ento, CA 95826, 916/739-0572, 916/ 739-0574 (fax). Akt ive manufactures ca rbo nfiber reeds. O PENE D: Dir t Diggers Motorcycl e Club ' s hom e page o n th e World Wid e Web . Th e site can be found a t: http :/ / www.dirtdiggers.com. RESCH ED ULED: The d P Safe ty Scho o l ses si on schedu led. for October 5 at Sears Point Racewa y in Sono ma, Californ ia, has been cha nge d to October 15. For more inform at ion , call805/m·S301. eN

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