Voices
America's weekly motorcycle newspap er
Volume XXXVI
Sharon Clavton, President
Michael Klinger, Publish",
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Editorial
Paul Carruthers, Editor
Kit Palmer, Associate Editor
Scott Rousseau, Associate Editor
Keith Bush, Assistant Editor/Copy Editor
Matt Freema n, A~sista" f Editor
Alan Cathcart. Enropean Editor
David R. Holther, A.
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Advertising
Marketing & Promotion
Mark Thome, Director
ForrestrIa yashi,Ma nagcr
Shannon Cla rk, Dealer Representative
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luggage. He came and visi ted me, and
promised that he' d be back next year,
thanking me for my assistance and as king me if I could help again at the Tf.
He came from a ra cing fa m ily, his
popular and gregarious father, Brian, a
regular at the Tf. Brian walked with a
cane, a permanent scar from a racing
mishap. He always supported his son
and was thrilled to watch him every
time he climbed a boa rd a motorcycle
and gave 100 percent.
Gavin leaves behind his wife, Tanva,
and his young so n, who is not ye t two
y ears o ld. M y s ympathies go o u t to
Tanya and Ga vin 's fa m ily . Go d sp eed,
my friend .
Rick Matheny
Lil bu rn , GA
Tim es , they are a-c hangin'
Gavin Lee al s peed on his Yamaha TZ125 allhis year's Is le of Man IT.
Summercross s uccess
The Summercross that was promo ted by
Steve McLa ughlin on Ju ly 10 was a success, especially from a rider's point of
view . Considering it was a firs t-time
even t, th ings went smoothly and were
well-organized .
All the riders, whether big-na me or
priva teer, were co nsulted on t rack
design and safety. For example, if a portion of the track was unsafe or could be
improved, the pro mo ter gladly changed
the track pe r the riders' suggestions. In
a ddition, plenty of free g uest pass es
were p ro v id ed for fam ily an d friends
an d we we ren't cha rged an entry fee to
p articipate in the event and we weren 't
cha rged for mechanic Pilsses . We we re
tr eated to a su per b, h eal th y a nd free
dinner along w ith family and friends.
O verall, this eve n t sho u ld be tak en
serio usly, it shou ld be recognized by
othe r orga niza tio ns and hopefully it will
contin ue and receive the su ppo rt of all
th e mo torcycle indust ry .
Travis H odges
. Alb uq ue rq ue , NM
Gavin Lee remembered
I recently received news that my frie nd
Gavin Lee was kille d in a racing acc ident at the Southe rn 100 at the Billown
circuit in the Isle of Man .
Gavin was one of the happ ies t people
I have ever kn o w n . 0 m a tt er wha t
went wrong with his life, in radng or off
the track, Gavin had the ab ility to give a
little ch uc kle and sh rug it off as just a
mino r annoyance. His attitude wa s infamous among his frien ds an d fellow racers. When so me thing wen t dreadfully
w rong at the tr ac k, w e would look a t
each other and think of Gavin beaming
his trad em a rk smi le, and everyth ing
would suddenly come into perspective.
It was impossible to dislike Gavi n.
I loo ked up to him, cheered for him ,
and helped him w ith pit signals as he
ran d o wn Joey Dunl op in th e UltraLigh tweig h t TT in 1996. I too k g rea t
th rill in being there when we showed
him a "Plus 0 " at the Gooseneck on the
fina l lap as he raced with the legendary
Irishman . I'll always remember his sincere and appreciat ive su btle nod of his
helmet as he acknowledged ou r signa l.
tucked in tighter and sped away.
I remember his stint on a Gilera single as a lark in the very first Singles Tf
in 1994, Gavin "hav ing a go" on a totally
s toc k s tree t bike in the race, with no
hopes of a de cent finish , jus t a bit of fun .
I'll never forge t sho w ing him the hand written s ig na l o f " Beer Tim e " as he
a p proache d Creg-Ny-Baa fo r th e final
tim e and then ru shing to the car so we
could ge t to the paddock and celebra te
w ith him .
.
I recall faxi ng him gearing information for his TZ as he prepared to travel
to Dayto na thi s spring, his firs t trip to
the States to race. He did we ll in the race
on a stock bike carried over in pieces as
INSIDE : ISSUE #31 AUGUST 11, 1999
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
ROAD RACE
Round 9 - AM World Su perbike Series
6
fro m Brands Hatch, England
Round 11 - AMA MBNA Superbike
Series from Brain erd, Minn esota
12
Suz u ka 8 Hou rs
.30
MOTOCROSS
Round 9 - AMA Mazd a Trucks
MX Seri es from Washou gal,
Washi ngton
NEW PRODUCTS
:
EVENTS
LEADERBOARD
38
39
,
57
CALE
NDAR
58
WANT ADS
66
CHiCANERy
83
LOOKINGBACK
83
ationa l
22
ON THE FRONT COVER
ENDURO
Round 12 - AMA Acerbis Na tiona l
End u ro Series from Akel y,
Minnesota
:
.36
Colin Ed w ards en route to th e World
Superbike win at Bra nd s Hatch . Photo
by Gold & Goose . Jimmy But ton na bs
first outdoor National win at Washo ugal. Pho to by Karl Ockert.
H ow tim es have changed . I re member
w hen tryin g to ca tch a mo torcycle race
o n televisio n was a n exercise in frustratio n. Now, th anks to Speed v ision, we
have the m ost incredi ble coverage in the
history of the sport. It is g reat to see that
mot or cycles arc getting th e recogni tion
they trul y d eserv e. Kudos to the peo ple
w ho make all that possible and please
kee p up the good wo rk. We are havin g
an excelle nt time watching mot orcycle
racing fro m all over the world.
On anothe r note, I have no ticed that
it has b ecome a rou tine pra cti ce for
so me road racers to stop on the track on
th e coo l-down lap to per form a celebration burnou t. Wh ile this is very exdting
to th e racer d oin g it and to the fan s, it is
a lso -a d an gerous m o ve th at brings to
m ind a fat eful afternoon of Grand Pri x
ra ci n g a t La gun a Se ca wh en Bubba
Sh ob ert ' s so-p ro m is ing ca r ee r wa s
ended in a split second due to that very
costl y mistake 'of Kevin Magee d oing a
burnout. I still rem ember the shock and
disbelief of th at a fte rnoo n. Someone
sho uld do so mething so that nightmare
do esn't repeat itself.
Jos e Obando
jrnobando@aol.com
TRAC thanks
I am a local Loud on Road Racing Series
rid er and I wou ld like to take the time to
thank Tom Kipp for all the time he spent
to make Loudon a better track . Ov erall, I
think he, along wi th oth ers, succeeded the track is better and I think safer.
I underst and Kipp go t a lot of grief at
the rid ers' meetin g at Loudon and thereafter resigned as a mem be r of the TRAC
