Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In the Wind Aaron Brown '(H on ) and Jam es large (H-D) emerged a s winners from the Goshen Iron Horseman 1 a tional Hill climb on Sep tember 19. Brown scored his first-ever victory in the 540cc class, topping Ted Wilkin s (Rtx ) a nd Phil libhart (Tri). In 800cc class action, Jeff Thoma s (Ya m) fini sh ed second , with Glen Petty Jr. (H-D) third. N ewlv crow ne d Australian 125cc GP and 250ec Production Champion Brock Parkes ha s been granted a wild card e n try for th e Austra lia n G rand Prix , sched u led for Oc tober 3 at th e Phillip Island circui t in Victoria , Australia . The 17-year-old w ill rid e a Hond a RSl25. Unless so me cha nges are mad e, we may n o t see Nicky Hayden a t th e Gra nd Na tio na l Ch am pions hi p di rt tracks in 2000 . " I d on 't kn o w, " Ha yd en s a id when asked if he'd be dirt trackin g next yea r . " I've k ind of gi v en it a lot of t h o u g h t. I'm kind of ·w ei g h ing m y options. I still have two more races this year. Dirt track is just something I really enjoy doing, and I' ve go t a grea t team with TCR. Tom Cummings and Davey (Wa lls), those guys d o me a grea t job . But d irt track, it's really not going anyw here, yo u know. Eve ry week it' s th e same stuff. The tracks are bad; they are lat e. You kn ow, I woul d like to, but I think if I do it the AMA is going to have to ste p up and ge t some new peo ple in there and make it a lot bette r of a p rogram. You kn ow just last week a good friend of mine, Toby Jorgensen, go t hu rt a t Dallas at a track we sho ul d n' t hav e reall y been a t an d th ey se nt u s the re anyway. You know, like lap eight in the m a in , he went d o wn. You know he's just ano the r kid , I think he' s the same age as me, and it's really unfortuna te he got hurt and hopefully we can all keep him in ou r pr ayers an d he'll be all right. To answer yo ur qu esti on , I d on 't know ye t - I'm thin king abo u t it." In rel at ed n ews , th e Professional Motorcycle Racin g Own ers Group met pri or to the Sacrame n to Mile and officially notified the AMA that if track condit ion s at the series fina l Del Mar Mile were not deem ed to be safe eno ug h to run on by the PM ROG , then. a mass pullout of the event b y th e gro u p , which represen ts most of the top teams ~ :::Iii !II !!Ii IIii III ~ • ~ Q s: m gf ~ 1l ~ Q. Jl 2 on the AMA Grand Nat ional Dirt Track circu it, would be considered. Th is notifica tion came in the wake of th e recent . concern over track saf ety a t the Dallas Mile, where California racer Tob y Jorgensen was gravely injured . The De l Mar and Dallas tracks feature si mi la r sand-based surfaces. "We jus t wanted to let the AMA kn ow that we w er e co ncerned about the safety of the Del Mar track in light of what happened in Dallas, " said current PMROG presid ent Dave Burks, who owns the H-D of Misso uri team for w hich Joe Kopp and Kenn y Coolbeth currently rid e. "We do no t wa nt the track to be a shi tbox like it has bee n for the past three or four years. We have not threat ened a boycott. Until we ge t to the track and see it, we can no t ma ke that d ecision . The AMA is su pposed ly going to sen d so meo ne d own to look at it. We would like to remain uni ted on this. Until we ge t there and see it, who kn ow s?" An update on injured racer T oby Jorgensen: The 17-year-old from Stockto n, California, has remained in critical condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas since his crash at the Dallas Mile on September 11tho Sources close to the family have reported that doctors have rema ined v ery co ncer ned a bo ut th e spread of infection in Jorgensen's body. Six surge ries have been performed in an effort to rem ove necrotic m uscle tissu e in Jo rgensen's b od y. Docto rs h a ve rem ained guarded with regard to Jorgensen's progn osis. Speedway fans looking for a blas t from th e past ough t to ch eck ou t th e 31st Coors light U.S . National Speedway Championship at th e Oran ge Co un ty Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, as fo rmer: speedwa y su p er s ta r John Cook is listed among the racers com peting for the titl e. Cook earned a spot in U.S. National field after competing as a wil d ca rd in th e U .S. O pen at New Cha m pion Speed way in Owego, New York. A form er British league s ta r, Coo k is al so a fo rmer tw o-time U.S . Long Track Ch am p ion , and he won the America n Final with a I S-p oint ma ximu m score in 1985. Since retiring from his full-time speedway career , Cook has been involved in the personal watercraft industry while li ving in Swed e n. Th e PortugallSDE: Finns • • wIn a aln F or only the seco nd time ever Finland wo n the RM World Tro ph y at the 74th running of the International Six-Day End uro held in Coimbra, Portugal, on Septe mber 13-18. Finish ing on the pod ium behind Finland in World Tro phy competition we re Italy and Aus tra lia. Finland, who won the World Trophy last yea r in Australia, was stac ked with a team that includ ed four class winners. Mika Ahola came away fro m Portugal with the overall and 250cc Two-stroke class hono rs. Sam uli Aro wo n the 12Sec d ivision, Vesa Kyton en aced the 250cc Four-strokes and Kari Tiai nen won the 500cc Fou r-stroke class. Tw o of Finland 's top gu ns fro m last yea r's event, [uha Salminen an d Peteri Sylvan, did not even compete due to injuri es. Fran ce' s David Fretign e won in the 400cc Four-stroke class by 29.07 seconds over Italy's Ma rio Rinaldi. U.S. World Trophy team member Ty Da vis was ag ain top Am eri can , fini shing eighth in the 250cc Two-stroke class. In junior Trophy competition, Spain won for the second year in a row , followed by .Italy an d the Czech Republic. Au stra lia took fou rth, and the U.S. finis hed 13th after losing team mem ber s Craig Wesner and Na tha n Knigh t on day one du e to engi ne problem s, O U f top placing Junior Trop hy rider was ISDE virgin Brian Brown, who also . topped Amer ican 125cc riders, finishi ng 31st in class. The U.S. Senior Team (40 years and olde r) of jeff Fredette, Terry Cu nni ngham and Drew Smith was in the ru nn ing for third place in club competition, bu t after day six was thro wn ou t due to bad weat her, the over 40 team dropped to fourth. The even t was Fredette's 19th Six Days. He finis hed on silver. Look for full coverage of the 74th ISDE in issue 39. Mark Kari ya Everts bites back at Fastcross O ne week after eating a bit of cro w at the Budds Creek u.s, Motocross GP, Belgian Stefan Everts (r ig h t) aven g ed hims elf with a vict ory at the un ique Fastcross race, held at Arsago Ser- . pio, Italy, Sep tember 19. The event, an outd oor race run under a supercross form at, is among the most popular races in Eu rope, and never fails to draw a large contingent of top America n riders. Many from th is g roup had n ot b een on h and a t Budd s Creek, bu t the extra week was ap pa ren tly eno ugh for th em to recuper at e from th e long Stateside season . After a slow start in qu ali fying, Everts was on top when it counted, besting Larry Ward, Tallon Vohland and Greg Albertyn in the final. The Radson Honda rider didn't ge t a rem atch wit h Budds Creek win ner Kevin Windham, but he did d efeat AM A Su pe rcross cham p jerem y McGrath, wh o was a lowly 12th on the northern Italian track. Also of note is the fact that jeff Emig made his return to racing after a recent arrest and firing from Kawasaki, finishing ninth on a Yama ha. U.S. Na tiona l is sc he d u led to sta rt a t 7:30 p.m. on October 2. For more info rmation , call 949/ 492-9933. enced service technician into a Suzuki service pro fessional, the training wi ll be cen tered on Suzuki motorcycles. Newly crowned AMA Ma zda T ruck Mot ocross National Champions Greg Albertyn and Ricky Carmichael top the list of those wh o collected cash from the $100,000 bonus fund posted by series sponsor Mazda Trucks. Los Angeles Country Raceway (LACR? and the California Racing O ub will host the CMC Trans-Cal Series on Octo ber 3 in Palmdale, Califo rnia. For more infor~ mation , call 805/272-8889. Malcolm Smith Motorsports of Riverside, California, wi ll be hosting its gra nd re-opening and 2nd annua l "After the Other Gu y' s Parking Lot Sale" on October 2 . Fo r more information , call 909/687-1300. T he fi n a l r ound s o f th e Australian Supercross Masters Series co inci ded with the openi ng of th e all -n ew; $150 million Sydney Superdorne, Sep tember 11-12 in Syd ney , Aus tralia. The 20,980capaci ty Superdome wi ll host b

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