Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In the Wind The new Ho nda XR650Rs certainly performed as planned, as they we n t 1-2 in the 32nd running of the SCO RE Ba ja 1000. Johnny Campbell and Tim Staa b wo n the overa ll in 14 hours, 15 minut es and 42 seconds , topping the seco nd facto ry 650 , r id d e n by Jonah Street, Tors ten Bostrom a nd Greg Bringle, w h ich fi n is hed se cond in C lass 22 (Ope n) and thir d ov erall, some 14 seconds behi nd Tro phy Truck class wi nne r Larry Ragland . Rou nding ou t th e top five bikes were Tex Mitch ell /Ron Wilso n /Scott Me y e rs (H e n ). M ik e Dellar / Eric Brown /Harry N evil /Mark Varner (H o n) and Jo s e Ruvalcaba /Leone! Ru valcaba (Ya m). This was Campbell's third 1000 win in a row and Honda's 10th. The cou rse was a lot rou gher and slo wer than usual, with the winning time working ou t to about a 47-m ph average (it' s usually arou nd 55). That was partly because it was a tw oloop fo rmat s tar ting a nd fin ish in g in Ojos Negros, so lapped traffic proved to be more difficult than normal. Off-road motorcycle racing legend Larry Roesel er end ed up second in the Trophy Truc k class in his Chevy. Roeseler go t hung up behind a crashed tru ck early in the race, losing valu able time . Nick Wey (Kaw) wa s the big wi nner at th e open ing r ound o f th e 1999-2000 N ati on al Ar en a cro s s Serie s in Des Moines, Iow a, November 5-6. Wey too k both 250cc main even t wi ns, crossing th e finish line in front of Hea th Voss (Hon) and Kevin Cri ne (Hon) on Frida y, and Voss a nd Denny Stephenson (Suz) on Saturday . Friday' s 125cc final was won by G rayson Go odman (Ho n), w ith Pe dro Go n zales (Kaw) a nd Jeff Willoh rounding out the top thr ee. Gonzales came back to take Sat ur day's 125cc wi n over Stephe nso n and Wey. Doug D ubach (Ya m) was d ominant agai n in th e Ov er 30 Pro class a t th e Worl d Vet C ham p ions h ips hel d on Novem be r 7 a t Gle n Helen Racew ay Pa rk in San Bernardin o , Ca li fo rn ia. Dubach wo n both motos for his sixth win in the las t seven yea rs . Second went to Terry Fowler (Yam) wit h a 2-2 ta lly, ma tching his finis hing p osition from a yea r ago . Ty Davis (Yam ), a new member of the World Vet rank s, finished third with 3-3 finish es. Fourth went to Adrian Robert, who returned from Costa Rica for the event after placing third last year. Ano ther new Wor ld Vet competitor was Jeff Matiasevich. The "Chicken" finished fifth overall wit h 4-6 finishes . The fina l round of the District 37 Big Six Gra nd Prix seri es took place a t the Hu ngry Valley O HV facility in Go rman, California, No vem ber 6-7. The Pro sp ectors MC hosted several races th rou gh out the weeken d , bu t th e hig h ly an t ici pa te d Team Race on Saturday afternoon drew qu it e a turn out. T a kin g fir st pl a ce mon ey was the team of Ty Davis and Nick Pearson (Yam). Tea m Green's Dave On das a nd Shan e Espisito (Kaw) fin is hed seco n d, fo llowed b y Mi ke Kiedrowski and Rich Taylor. The teams of Kurt Caselli and Joey Lanza (Kaw) an d Sc ot Ha rden a n d Chris Nei tzel (KTM ) round ed out the top five out of the 42 teams entered . Newly crowned 500cc World Ch ampion A le x Crivil le u nderwen t su rgery to ha ve a pI a te a nd two screw s in serted into his broken wrist on November 3 at th e Dexeus Clinic in Barcelona, Spa in. Criville had inju red his left wrist d uring practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Oc tob er 1. "I can' t un derstand how he has been able to go through such pain at Thornton named AMA President he AMA an no unced No vember 3 tha t J. Scott Tho rnton has bee n hired as the presid ent and CEO of the 240,000-member AMA, effective immediately. Thornton has some 22 years of expe rience in associa tion manageme nt, and his professiona l ba ckground includes managemen t posit ions with the American He art Association, the International Ed ucation Forum a nd the Cr edit Union Execu tives Societ y. An AMA member for 18 years, Thornton gradu ated from an AMA EAGLES leadership acad em y in 1994, and since then has served as one of the association's field rep s, representing the AMA at a variety of events. "I enjo y motorcyclin g of all kinds ," Thornton said . "The ma in thing for me is the cama raderie. Often , the fact that you ride is en ou g h to start a convers a tion . There 's an instan t feeli ng of friendship ." T the Argentine Grand Prix," said Dr. Villarrubias, the surgeon who worked on Criville. "Because a fte r crashing ther e [Cri ville also crashed d uring pr actice for the season finale in Arg enti na ] on Saturda y, his fissure of th e pisi form bon e turned in to a frac ture with a 5mm d isplacem ent . I spoke with Dr . Cos ta [Claudio, the GP med ic] on the ph on e yesterday to know more about the in jury in Australia, and we both agreed that this was very painful. " lt will tak e Cri ville so me eig h t w eeks to recover from th e injury, his doctors sa id. "I feel calm, " Criville sa id. "Lu ckily enoug h, the races have now finish ed and I will have plenty of tim e to recover. In Jan ua ry, I will be fu lly fit to st art' with m y physi ca l prepara tion for next yea r." Former roa d racer Virginio Ferr a ri, a tw o-tim e 500cc Grand Prix wi nner, will mana ge the factory Bimota team in the 2000 World Superbike Cha mpio ns hip, acco rdi ng to Cycle News correspondent Pa ol o Gozz i. Bim ota w il l r e turn to Worl d Su pe rbi ke racin g n e xt yea r, armed wi th SB8Rs, fea tu ring Suzuki's V-twi n 1000cc engine. The new team will be based in Rirnini, Italy, with Ferrari supplying the racin g structure and Bimo ta su p ply ing techni cal support. In order to fully concen tra te on the World Superb ike Ser ies, Bimo ta has opted to pull out of the Worl d Superspo rt Series . The rid er at the top of the team 's wis h list is fo rme r G rand Prix racer Simon Crafar, who has already bee n contacted by the team . Fo r me r AMA Supe rbi ke a nd W orld Su per bike Cha mpion Troy Corser is still in negotiation s wit h Aprilia, regarding the Aus tralia n joining th e team for the 2000 World Superbike Cham pio ns hip . Corse r has been in d iscussion wi th Jan Vitteween, Ap rilia's racing di rector, but n othing h as been sig ne d ye t, thou gh tha t could cha nge shor tly, accor d ing to so urces close to the tea m. Corser has as ke d to test th e Ap rili a RSV pri or to signing a contract, but Aprilia has yet to reserv e a track. There is a strong possibility, how ever, that Cors er will test the bike at Mu gello, November 15-16. Corser isn't Aprilia' s on ly option . Vittew een has also had talks with 250cc GP rac er Jeremy McWilliams, and the Brit is a strong can didate to sign on for the tw oma n team. The team has also tested w ith Cristiano Migliorati, Chris Walker and Stefa no Perugini . Ya ma ha Belga rd a ha s announced its road racing team for 2000, with Italian Vittoriano G ua reschi set to spearhead the tea m's effort in the World Superbik e Tho rn to n has decad es of experie nce in mo torcycling, tak ing his first rid e on a Cushman scoo ter in the '50s, and then moving to roa d and off-road riding. He also has raced di rt track, on an Ind ian. Since his tour of d uty in Vietnam, Tho rnton has accu mulated ove r a hal f-mill ion miles, mostly on tou ring machin es. His wife, Dian a, is also a mo torcyclist. "The streng th of the AMA is the sheer diversity of our mem bership," Tho rnton said . "But that is also ou r greatest weakness, because va rious p ar ts of the associa tion ca n fin d th em selves working at cross pu rposes. My job will be to kee p the channels of com munication open to get all of the diverse grou ps that make up the AMA focusing on cooperative efforts and working toge ther on our com mo n problem s." According to Carl Reyn olds, chairma n of the AMA Board of Trustees, the board chose Thornton after consid ering the qu alificat ions of a large number of applicants in a search pr ocess that lasted sev eral months. "We are pleased to have found a new AMA president with the unique combination of motorcycling background and management skills necessary for this complex job," Reynolds said . "We had a rich field of candidates to consid er, and we would like to thank all of the dedicated individ ua ls who offered their services to help lead Ame rica' s motorcyclists ." Ch ampionshi p. G uaresch i w ill be the team ' s lone R7-rid ing World Superbike rid e r, a nd J a m e s W hitham a nd Massim o M ereg alli , who will compete in the World Supersport Ser ies aboard Yama ha R6s, will join Guareschi on the team . Last year, Guareschi was Noriyuk i H a g a 's teamma te on the fa ctory Yam aha World Superb ik e team . The s ig n in g of W hitham , who resides in Huddersfield, Englan d , ma rks the first tim e th at the It al y-ba s ed team ha s sig ne d a non-Itali an rider. Whitham w on the 1999 round at Donington Park while replaci ng the injured Merega lli. Th ere ' s a s tro ng possibility that th e Alstare Corona World Supe rsport team m a y a d d a thi rd rid er to it s sq u ad . Already set to go with Wor ld Champion Steph a ne C hambon an d ' 98 se r ies cha m pio n Fabrizio Pirovano, the tea m is now looking to ad d 1999 European Su perstock Cha mp ion Ka rl Harris to the mi x. The 19-yea r-old Brit cou ld hav e a third factorv Suz uki GSX-R600 as he visited the team 's headquarters in Belgium on November 3 for talks with team man ager Fra ncis Batta . "We are ve ry inter es ted to support Karl," Batta said. "He is a very young and talented guy, but we alrea dy ha ve a tw o-m an team and we need to in cr ea se a lot ou r Su persport staff. We will see." German female racer Katja Poen sgen w ill race a Co rona Extra Suz u ki GSXR750 in the Europea n Su perstock Cha mpions hip in 2000. Alsta re's original idea was to ha ve a women-on Iy team, featuring a fem ale rid er and fem ale crew, but the tea m had trou ble findi ng ex perience d cre wrne mbe rs. Poensgen ' s crew will now be made up of men . The Southeastern Trials Riders Associ atio n (ST RA) w ill h ost th e fi rs t-ever NATC You th Nationa l Trials Champi- onship, June 21-23, 2000, in Sequa tchie, Tennessee. The eve nt will be sanctioned b y th e A MA a n d rec o gni zed as th e Na tional Cha mpionship for rid ers aged 6-15 (as o f January 1, 2000). Th e meet w ill ac t ua lly b e a w eeklong affair between th e N ATC Nation als in Kentucky (June 17-18) and Tennessee (June 24-25). The youth tri al will cons ist of a three-round champion ship during th e thr ee da ys, with youth rider s competing aga ins t their own age gro ups. For more information, call 334/826-1969. Bultaco USA has announced that it has signed lO-year-old Will Ibs en to a fiveyea r co n trac t to co n tes t th e NATC Youth Na tio na l Tri als Cham p io ns hip, beginning in 2000. Ibsen will be under th e tutela ge o f both six-time Na tio nal Trials Cha mpion Ryan You ng and current Na tional #2 trials rid er Ray Peters . Youth is Served, Part II: H ot on th e heels of the press release issu ed by Bultaco is one from Cameron Smith Racing. Smith, an eight-yea r-old motocrosser, ha s signed a co n trac t to race as a Ho nda factory su p port ride r racing out of Ho nda of Hou st on. The multi-time Ama teur Na tional Cham pion has signed to race a C R80, thou gh he will also still race 60s and possibly 50s in next year's Amateur Na tionals. Co ntra ry to earlier information , sign-u p fo r th e El s i n or e Grand Prix h a s not been moved . Pre- an d post-Registration will be held a t the Lake Elsino re Co mmunity Ce nter in Lake Elsino re, California, as in yea rs past. Registration opens Fr iday , Novem be r 12 th a t n oo n . For more inform ation , call 909/341-8002. Th e 7t h annu al "No Wim ps" Dual Sport Rid e, host ed by Malcolm Smi th Motorsport s, will be held on ovember 14, w it h sig n- u p sta rti ng a t 6 a. m ., at W Fulton Sr. 1918-1999 alt W alton Fulton Sr., 81, of Ama do, Arizon a, died in a hospital near his ho me on November 4, 1999. Fulton was best known for his ab ilities as a IT racer in the 1950s. Fulton was a d istrict sales manage r for Triu mph mo torcycl es as well, and he used one to win the inaugural Catalina Grand Prix in 1951, finish ing second at the event the following year. He also finished third at the Peori a IT in 1951. Upon retiring from racing in the late '50s, Fulton mov ed on to become a district sale s manager with Ame rican Honda. He later became national sales man ager with U.S. Suzu ki. He also served as the national techni cal inspector of bo th d irt track a nd road racing for the AMA during the '60s and '70s. Fult on is the father of Walt Fulton III, wh o rode for the Harley-Davidson factory road racing team from 1967-1970. Fulton is su rvived by wife Cecilia, so ns Walt III, Rob and Greg. Card s and letters can be sent to Cecilia Fulton, P.O. Box 572, Am ado, AZ 85645. '" '" '"..... ~ ~ ~ Q) .c E ~ o z 1

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