Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Voices America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Volume XXXVI Sharon Clayton, President Michael Klinger, Publisher LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Parkhurst's story of the bags of cash in the trunk of Edi son 's car, this was an event I will not soon forget. My hat goes off to the White Brothers and G len H el en Ra cewa y . First class all the wa y. Roy Kn ight Cre ston, CA Editorial Paul Carruthers, Editor KitPalmer, Associate Editor Scott Rousseau. AssociateEditor Keith Bush, Assistant Editor /Copy Editor Matt Freema n, Associate Editor Chris [onnurn, Monaging Editor Alan Ca thca rt, European Editor David R. Holther, Assistant Editor jennifer j. Dutcher. Proofreader Good moves Congra tul a tio ns to Ha rl eyDav id s o n for makin g tw o w ise signi ng d ecisions. O ne for re-signin g Pascal Picotte for its AMA Superbike team , and two fo r sig ni ng Rich Kin g to th e AMA dirt track team . No w, Harley, com plete th e s ig ni ng " h a t trick" b y buying ou t the remainder of Scott Ru ss ell' s contra ct a nd signing a capable rider to com p lime n t Picotte. Russell is a liability rather th an an a sset. Good lu ck to both Picott e and King in 2000. ) Roger Maxwell Maxwell@lsol.net Advertising West ern States (714) 751-7433 Terry Pratt. National Accounts Manager Mark Thome. WesternSalesManager Forres t Hayashi, Western SalesManager Dan Legere, Westl.,. SalesManager n Rhonda Crawford, Ad Coordinator Bridgett Bobrofsky, Assistant Advertising Eastern States (770) 934-7850 Greg Mitchell, Eastern Accounts Manager jim Clark, Eastl.,.n Sales Manager Carla Allen, Ad Coordina tor Marketing & Promotion Mark Th ome, Director Forrest Hayashi, Manaiter Shannon Clark, DealerRepresentative New Media Development KoryKlinger. Site Monager Classified Ads Melissa Parker Graphics and Production Mandy Loo, Art Director Amanda Wollny, Lead Graphic Artist Paul Fisher, Graphic Artist LyndaVu, Graphic Artist Administration judy Klinger, Coordinator Pam Klein, Adminis trative Ass istant AccountingfData Processing Donna Bryan-Diamond. A/R Coordinator Geneva Repass. Assistant Theres Milburn, Credit Manager a Circulation Alma Anguiano, Circulation Monager Carol Maggio, Processing Coordinator Donna Sharp, Billing Coordinator Ashleigh Klein, Dealer Coordinator Service and Support Amber Hill, Receptionist Jim Olson. Serviceand Support National Hea dq ua rters 3505-M CadillacAve., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 P.O. Box 5084. Costa Mesa. CA 92628-5084 (714) 751-7433FAX (714) 751-6685 Eastern Office 41 8 FirstAve., Tucker, GA 30084 P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA 30085-0805 (770) 934-7850 FAX (770) 934-31 12 e-mail editor®cyclenews.com subscribe@CJclene ws .com Good idea II Edison Dye was honored at the White Brothers Vet Wor ld Championships at Glen Helen in Southern California. World Vet and Dye Havin g just retu rn ed from an outstanding wee kend at the annual Whi te Brothers Vet Wo rld Ch ampionsh ips at Gle n Helen Raceway, I felt compelled to write this lette r of thanks to Tom Wh ite and com pa ny. Not only did they provid e us old guys wit h tw o days of excellent racing conditions along with the usu al topqua li ty premier eve nt (Doug Du ba ch was flawless), but this year's tribute to Ed ison Dye turned thi s into one of the m ost mem orabl e even ts I h a ve w itnessed in many yea rs. To see a lineup of guys like Malcolm Smith, Gu nner Lind strom, Chuck Min ert, Roger DeCoster, Joe Parkhurst, Jack McGrath, Jeff Emig and other sign ificant members of our sport give than ks and pay ho mage to this great man wa s trul y something to behold . The very frail Mr. Dye was obviously quite moved by the sincere gra tit u de of th e s peake rs and thos e in attend ance. And so me of the stories we re absolute gems . From Malcolm Smith's recollection of his first rid e ever on a Husqvarna mot orcycle to Joe Your argument to co m b ine the World and AMA Su pe rbike races is excellen t if two co nce rns ca n be ad d ressed . The first is tha t the Lagu na Seca track can not su ppo rt two full grids starting all at once. Who wo uld be exclu ded? The second is that less-exp eri en ced AMA riders s ta rti ng in th e b ig ra ce could cause probl ems as they try to win it on the first lap . A friend of mine wa s one of the rid ers wh o went down in horrible starti ng-line accident in 1998. John McCoy Ca pitola, CA The grid for the race wouldn 't be any larger titan normal. Only a certain number of riders wou ld qualify - and those "less-experienced riders" would likely not be among the qualifiers... Editor Good idea III Good idea IV I agree 100 percent with your column on combining the World and AMA Superbike ra ces . Co mbin in g th e races has man y more benefits than running them sepa ra tely . Some will complain abou t the split scoring used for the combi ned ra ce s . Guess wh at ? Th e ca sual fan d oesn 't ca re . H e / sh e w ants to see a Your opinion on how the World Superbike and AMA even t a t Lag una Seca sho u ld be formatted in 2000 is right on the money . If the pro moters wan t to make a tru ckload of mon ey, as I thi nk they shou ld, then they should ru n the races a s a co m b in ed eve n t. What an even t th at w ould be. The best riders advertis ing~'cydenews .com I N S I D E : ISSUE #46 NOVEMBER 24, 1999 Internet WWVl,' .cvclenews.com Wl't.klyW ebsite Password: speedway ' CycleNl.-WS(USPS 141-340)is published weekly exceptthe last two weeksof the calendar year for $58.00 per veer by Cvcle Nt"\\~.lnc.. ~M Cadilla c Avenue. Costa ·Me'Sa. CA 9i62b. Periodi als PostagePaid at Costa Mesa. CA and at c add itional mailin~ office. Canada P05tInternational Publica - DEPARTMENTS FEATURES ARENACROSS Round 1 - Pace Nationa l Arena cross Series from Des Moines, Iow a EVENTS 30 LEADERBOARD 44 CALENDAR 45 WANTADS 50 IN THE PADDOCK 67 LOOKING BACK 6 67 tion!' Mail'546615. POSTM ASTER: Send .lddrn5 changes to Cycle N~W5, P.O . BoxSCM Costa Mrsa. CA 9262S-5OSI. , To dete rmi ne th ~ exp iration .ide of your subscription. check the fou r num be rs on the firs t line of vour address lab el. 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Tra de mark Cycle News ' registered U.S. Pat en t Office. All rights reserved. OFF-ROAD Baja 1000 from Mexico SPECIAL OLDPROJECT BIKES SECTION Motocross: 1979 Yama ha YZ250 Motocross: 1982 Suz uki RM250 Dirt Track: Yama ha XT540 l0 12 13 20 MOTOCROSS White Brothers Vet World Championships MX fro m .22 San Bern ardino, Californ ia FIRST RIDE 2000 Laverda Black Strike : 28 great race. What's better than our bes t rid ers vs . the best riders in the world? Mo re than that, how about a race wit h a full grid of fast riders? Let's take a close loo k at th is yea r's AMA and World Superbike races at Laguna Seca. Onl y 44 riders can start the race. The AMA race had 38 rid ers of whi ch onlv 32 sta rted the ra ce. Th e World Superbike race featured only 24 riders, four of which wer e AMA regulars. The d isparity in lap times in the AMA race was 10 seco nd s from fa s test to s low es t with th ree seco nd s se p a ra ting the facto ry su perbike riders from the privateer s, the major it y of which we re on Su persport bikes. Twen ty- th ree of th e 24 World Superbike racer s were wit hin five seconds of the pole time. Now combine the tw o grids . All the AMA factor y rid ers make th e grid as d o all o f th e World Superbike regul ars - and ther e is room for eight pri vateers. Now that is a race worth watching. If you want to cut down on the backmarkers, then enf orce th e lI S-percent rul e and you are back down to a grid of only the top rid ers on pure superbikes. Th e only real issu es faci ng the promot ers, teams and rid ers are the purse pa youts and th e podium celebra tio n . Th e podium sho u ld be for the ov erall resu lts in each race, and the purse can be worked ou t. Consider this as well: If the races are run separa tely, AMA teams will be forced to co n cen tra te on th eir ow n series. This means there is a chance there will be no A MA r id ers in t h e World Su perbike race . That is not w ha t the fans want to see. Th e b ot t om lin e is eve rvo ne is al ways talking abo u t how to mak e ou r sport a p pea l to a broad er fan b a s e. How can we ge t mor e people to come to the races? How can we en tice cas ual fans to tu ne in to th e coverage? We need to st op th inkin g in suc h narr ow, tr aditional fas h io ns . The spor t needs new, exci ting ideas . Thi nk ou tside th e bo x and give th e fans a ra ce w orth watch in g. Morgan Broadhead San Clem ente, CA ONTHE FRONT COVER Tim Staab teamed with Johnny Ca m pbell to give the Honda XR650R the victor y i n th e Baj a 1000. Pho to by Ma rk Kariya,

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