Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

drugs by anyo ne, I find some hypocrisy in the reason giv en by Ka wasaki in the recent dismi ssal of jeff Ernig. Kawasak i su pposed ly released jeff Emig after they learn ed tha t he had been arres ted by Ari zon a authori ties under drug-r elat ed cha rges. I seem to rem ember back in 1985 just before th e Tokyo Su p e rc ross , a rid er nam ed Ron Lechi en wa s ca ug h t b y japanes e a u t ho ri t ies w it h a small am ount of d ru gs in his lug gage. Hond a promptly fired him but guess wha t com pa ny could n' t wait to hire Lechien, who was the 1985 125cc Na tional Champion and an up-and- comi ng start? Kawasaki , of cou rse . Co u ld it be th e case tha t Em ig w as ,not winning anymore, and his circu mstance presented a phony reason to term in a te hi s em p loymen t and cu t th eir losses, more than a case of implied corporate ethics at work ? I think so. Ja mes Derr Roche ster Hills, MI Shame on Everts A ny o ne wh o s te re o ty pes an e n tire ' gro up of a thletes from a no the r coun try 1S "cowards" is eit he r ign o rant o r a ra ci s t . Su ch a rem ark fro m a World : ha mpion, who kn ows it will be repea t-d, sho ws a remarkabl e lack of characer. There is no d oubt that Stefa n Ever ts s one of th e grea t mot ocrossers of all irne, but I'm afraid he has shown his rue co lo rs, a n d th ey don 't look too .ood . As to who ha s coura g e and who oesn't, there a re many great GP riders zho hav e had the cou rage to come to re U.S. to race motocross a nd superross against so me of the fastest rid ers 1 the world. jea n-Michel Bayle , Greg .lbert yn , Dav id Vuillemin , Michael icho n - and soon Alessio Chiodi - have II ha d th e co u ra ge a n d characte r to now that to tru ly be a World Champin in motocross you have to take on the .mer icans. . Let's tell it like it is. The F1M GPs are o more a "World Champions hip" than re the AMA Nationals. The GPs are a Europea n Champion ship" - an d noth:lg more. Dan Radlauer radlaue rl @aol.com Wide World of Spo rts. Altho ugh I was a maills/ream s por ts fa n (baseba ll, football a nd basketball), th e U.S. GP w as my absolu te favo ri te spo rti ng eve nt of th e y e a r. You cou ld say it ' s w hat turned me on to mot or cyclin g. I loved wa tc hi ng th e Am eri cans take o n th e mor e tal ented Europeans - g ivi ng no quarter and sho wing the tru e American spiri t. When ,I found ou t ther e would be a U'S, GP at Budds Creek this yea r, I was ecstatic. After losing fou r of the last five Motocross des Nations to the Euros , and hearing how the tracks were ,tricked up to su it th e Europeans ' riding s ty le, I looked forward to the Americans kicking s ome Eu ro pe a n as s o n ou r home turf. What happened? I'm reading an arti.cle in Cycle News a nd it says that th e on ly factory team sho wing up is Suzuki (and Tallon Volland ). I know it's been a long year a nd everyon e is reall y tir ed , bu t isn't there enoug h pride out there to race one more weekend? I wo u ld think that every Am erican factory rider wo uld be cho m pi ng at the bit to get a sho t a t these guys. I d on 't ge t it. Perhaps it' s a factory d ecision . I don 't know. But I'll tell you this, the factories and the rid ers owe it to themselv es and to th e s po rt o f mot ocr os s to be a t th e biggest race in this cou ntry . Bob Bartman b bartman@ orldn et.att.n et w Good National I wo uld like to take this opportu nity to cong ra tu la te Tom and Peggy Hurd on an outstand ing job of hosting th e 1999 Broome-Tioga N a tional. The track cond ition wa s perfect even aft er Ama teur day . The staff and crew wer e frien dly and help ful. The weather was perfect and , best of all , the teams and riders put on a great show . The on ly problems seemed to be wit h the sma ll percentage of spectators w ho would no t follow the ru les. I think this was one of the best Na tio nals we hav e been to over the past six years. Ag ain , thank you Tom and Pegg y for providing us w it h a sa fe, comfortable a nd thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Fran k Pasquale Tow aco, NJ fake on the world Bad National vly earlies t memories of motor cycl in g Ire o f w a tch i n g t he Unit ed St at e s :;rand Pri x of Motocross a t Ca rlsbad on Wha t a disaster th e last round of th e Women's Nationa l Mot ocross Cham pio ns hip at Broome-Tioga turned out to be. Because some ride rs complained that the firs t mot o was too sh ort, the WML .rep resentat ive decided to th row ou t that mot a and rerun a third moto ins tead . In my IS years of racing experience, I have' never see n a mot o that was held from sta rt to chec ke red flat rerun because it wasn' t lon g eno ug h . But th at 's exactly. wha t happened. Unfortunat ely, once aga in, be cause th e WM L ha s not been a b le to get a co py of the AM A rul eb ook, they mad e up th eir own ru les. Thi s wa s a sad day for the WM L a nd all the women racer s. With a ll the co nfusion th at was ca use d, n ow' wh en th e N a tio n a l Prom ot ers Gro up gets together to plan next yea r's sc he d u le th ey wil l think tw ice a bou t including the WML race at th eir tracks. It' s ta ken the women so me time to ge t reco gni zed , a nd now because of mi smanagem ent on th e par t o f the WML, they wi ll once again be igno red . The real losers in a ll of thi s are the m an y wo me n rid ers throu ghout th e country. Let' s hop e the WM L w ill learn from their mistakes. . S. Keuntjes Green Bay, WI Up the Hatch I wo u ld like to take a minu te to pu blicly than k Steve Hat ch of Team Suzuki for taking so me time out of his bu sy schedu le to put on an excellen t riding clinic in Bu tler, Penn sylvani a. It w ou ld have taken years to learn w ha t I learned in just three d ays. just . to illustrat e how i n-depth the teac hing w as, I w ould say th at every s tu den t felt a n e e d to r e -ev aluat e t h e ir approach to even th e most basic techniques (like braking, turning, up hill s, d own hill s, e tc.) of wood s rid ing a nd racing . In oth er word s, if you think yo u a lre a d y know m ost ev ery thing there is about going fas t in the wood s, tr us t m e - y ou don't. N ot until you visit a clinic suc h as Steve's . Additionally, d espite two da ys of. heavy rain, every one see med to have a really good tim e. I believe all of us were su rprised at the amount of practice, training, preparation and dedication t hat goes into r ea chi n g th e le v e l tha t Hatch h as reached. Also, it was very nice to see ,his wife (w ho is ex tremely knowled geable about health and nutrition) and his so n (who is probab ly a future GN CC star) seem so heavily involved in his career. It's a tru e famil y affair. His mech ani c' s vis it o n th e fin al d a y to a nswer o u r question s was just icing on the cake. All Steve Hatch - GNCC hero, teacher and just plain good guy in a ll, it was a truly awesome expe rience. So for anyone who is rea dy to tak e th eir riding to th e ne xt le vel, I highly recomme nd th ey a tte nd one of Steve Hat ch's future clin ics. As many peop le a lre ady know.. he is one of the nicest people you will eve r mee t, and a real cred it to the spo rt. Je ff Smith Cross Lanes, WV Letters to ' the ed itor sh ou ld be se n l 10 Voice s, Cycl e N ews, P.O. Bo x 5084, Co sta M esa, CA 92628-5084, faxe d to 714/7 51-6685 or e- mai led 'to e di to r@ cycle ne ws.co m. Pub li sh e d letters do not necessa ril y reflect the position of Cycl e News, Inc. Lette rs s ho u ld nol excee d 200 wo rd s an d a ll letters a re su b jec t to ed iti ng. An onym ou s lellers will not be con sid er ed for publication. All lellers shoul d con tai n th e writer's n a me , a d dress a nd da y time ph on e number... Editor. 5

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