Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

311 YEARS ASO..• FEJlRUARY g, '971 Heat-race action from the Houston Nationals graced the cover of Issue *4. Jim Odom (Bul) took the Expert Short Track race win, whIle Dick Mann (BSA) took the Expert TT victory. The Short Track and TT Junior classes were won by Kenny Roberts (Yam) and Gary Scott (Bul), respectively ... We showed off the 1971 Hondas, which actually came out in January of 1971! Among the Hondas we featured were the new 125cc Motosport and the new 500cc Four street bike, which looked exactly like the 750cc Four, but with smaller displacement... A bill (H.B. 63) was introduced into the Arizona State Legislature that would make it ....a misdemeanor for any person to drive a vehicle off an established roadway across public or private lands or over an abandoned road or trail.· ... An ad announcing the Daytona 200's approach revealed some other news about the event, such as the first Daytona motocross event over the infield of the track. It served as the last event of the Florida Winter-Am Series. 20 YEARS ASO.•. FEBRUARY 4, '9B' Suzuki's prototype street bike, at the time unnamed, was photographed for the cover of Issue *4. Inside was a look at SuzukI's 1981 motorcycle lineup... It was announced in an ad for the Anaheim Supercross that the event may be the oniy Supercross event In California for 1981. It seems that the Super Bowl of motocross hadn't received a final date yet because of the possibility that the Oakland Raiders would move to Los Angeles. Another thing the ad listed among the reasons to attend the race was that the "Foxiest Chi<:ks" would be there, because the promoter had already given hundreds of them free tickets ... We interviewed up-and-coming enduro rider Jeff Fredette about where he got his start and what he does when there are no enduros to race. He said that one of his favorite things to do in the off-season was ice race ... Round four of the CMC Golden State Nationals went off at Huron Cycle Park in Huron, California, with Rex Staten (Yam) sweeping the 500cc Pro class, Broc Qlover (Yam) winning the 250cc Pro class and Ron Turner (Suz) taking the 125cc Pro class. '0 YEARS ASO•.. FEBRUARY 6. ,gg, More than 56,000 spectators filled Anaheim Stadium for round three of the AMA Supercross Series and watched as defending champion Jeff Stanton (Hon). who races across the cover of Issue *4. raced to his second win of the season. Team Kawasaki's Jeff Ward chased him home in second, while his Kawasaki teammate Jeff Matiasevicb filled out the podium. Teammates Jeremy McGrath and Steve Lamson placed one-two on their Peak Hondas in the 125cc Main event. McGrath extended his points lead with the win ... A young man named Sean Hamblin wrote to Cycle News to find out how he could get involved in the Pee Wee class at the Supercrosses. Hamblin is now a fast Southern California Pro motocrosser ... The results from round three of the Florida Winter AMA Motocross series read like a list of future factory pilots, with Timmy Ferry winning the 125cc Pro class, Ricky Carmichael winning the 80cc (7-11) class, Kevin Windham winning the 80cc (12-13) class and Ezra Lusk finishing second to Ferry in the 125cc Youth class. F irst off, a bit of housekeeping. Many who read this page might notice that the name of my space here has been changed {rom "In The Tapes" to "Scooter Mania. " Sometimes, ouer the course of years, the meaning of certain things - such as a column title can be lost or diminished through a breakdown in understanding of the original concept. While my colleague Chris Jonnum thinks that this can often bring an aura of hip to such things, I just felt that it's time for a change. The original inspiration for the term In The Tapes comes from the world of speedway racing, signifying what happens when your front wheel, or worse, your whole bike, breaks through the tapes of the starting gate. For me, it always marked a sort of crossing ouer that boundary from what is journalism and into the world of the controuersial in motorcycling. But while speedway will always haue a special place in my heart, I think it is time to retire In The Tapes in fauor of this new title, Scooter Mania, which is one part friendly nickname, Scooter, giuen to me by my cohorts at Cycle News years ago (heh, heh, it is friendly, right guys?), and Mania, which ref/ects that I am slightly disturbed (you'd haue to be to work here this long) and still could go off at any minute. Put them together and thatjust about sums up my loue for all forms of motorcycle racing, {rom Supercross to Superbikes, dirt track to drag racing. Thanks {or understanding. Scott Rousseau It happens every year, right after the holidays. That's when our esteemed publisher, Mike Klinger, starts making the rounds through the various departments at Cycle News and takes a head count of employees who would like to attend the opening round of the EA Sports Supercross Series at Anaheim Stadium (okay, so it's now called "Edison International Field", but it will always just be "The Big A" to me). I usually make sure that I ask for my allotment of two tickets, but not because I am a hard-core Supercross fan. Instead, I'd imagine that I'm like a lot of people in that I find Supercross to be a good excuse to get out of the house, hang out with my friends (usually at some tailgate-athon), party, and then be entertained by the spectacle of it all as Jeremy and da boyz to their thing. Of course, there was that one time I imbibed in the spirits a bit too heartily and had to be carried into the stadium. Ahh, foolish youth. I'm older now. Point is, that I never really looked upon Supercross as serious racing before. While I love all forms of motorcycle competition, my tastes run heavily toward triple-digit speeds, with riders either pitching it sideways and planting their steel-shod left boot into the earth, or heeling it over and dragging the 01' knee pucks on the tarmac. Some of my heroes carry the last name Roberts, Parker, Rainey, Bostrom, Hayden... you get the connection. Texas dirt track vet Terry Poovey rather humorously echoed my convictions on the Supercross discipine rather humorously when he once told me, "That Supercross stuff ain't racin'. They put all that shit in the way and it just slows you down." If you, like I, only ever enter the stadium just before the singing of the National Anthem, then many of you might feel the same way. But head into the stadium early, check out the pre-qualifying races, and I'll bet your perspective might change. For me, that happened when I took my first Supercross reporting gig almost by accident. Just prior to round two, the SX/moto arm of our editorial department came up short in their search for a 125cc writer for the San Diego round. I'd been offered the chance to go and just spectate, but I had already turned it down. This was different, though. The team needed me to come in off the bench. No biggie. They'd do it for me. Wanting to get there well ahead of time, I found my way to the press box just as the pre-qualifying races began the day's program. I'll bet I didn't see more than 500 people in the stadium at the time, but what I did see was pretty cool. It turned out to be some of the most intense battling that I've ever witnessed, at a Supercross or anywhere else, as riders slammed bars and took monumental chances, clawing for a spot in the regular program. By virtue of the fact that the pre-qualifying heats are just a few short laps, the action quickly took on a sort of two-wheeled dimension akin to the film Gladiator. More than a couple races really got my attention, such as the brawl between Husqvarna/FBF rider Damien Plotts and F&S Suzuki's Ted Campbell, two riders that you might not hear an awful lot about in the regular coverage of the event on the pages of Cycle News. They made the left tum off the start straight and then lept onto a tabletop, then across a chasm to set up for what either turned out to be a weenie double or a hairy triple, depending upon what kind of run was attained toward the catapult jump. Plotts nailed it on the first lap, but Campbell was right with him. On the second lap, Plotts screwed up the approach, bobbled and was forced to simply roll up the face, while Campbell already had a serious head of steam and made the triple with ease. On the next lap, those roles were completely reversed, with Campbell bobbling while Plotts made the triple. It was a great race, never mind the fact the combatants' last names weren't McGrath or Carmichael. In another, a rider numbered 179 lost several places when he slid out and went down on what was probably the most benign portion of the track, the right-hander that dumped the riders onto the start straightaway, after taking a commanding lead during his qualifier. He would quickly remount, Coming up In only to crash again, suffering the heartbreak and disgust of failing to qualify for the regular heats. Even from my perch in the press box, 179's disappointment was clearly evident. It was a crappy break, but there's always next time. Tailgating at a Supercross is a lot of fun and, for some, that may take precedence over coming early to watch guys that you may have never heard of simply because they're either nowhere near the front of the pack - or in many cases - probably already loaded up by the time the main events start. Too bad that most of the great action they are a part of is witnessed by just a few hard cores mixed with a lot of empty seats before the sun even dips below the skyline. There's a lot more than just racing to see, too. You like seeing crashes? You shouldn't, but if you do, then you'd probably be in awe by some of the carnage that takes place in the prequalifiers. First-turn sandwiches, guys coming up short and casing it so hard that the shock wave is felt at the California Seismographic Institute, riders tangling handlebars and going down in the rhythm section, riders jumping over and sometimes landing on other riders - it's all part of the show in the qualifiers. The one that absolutely took the cake at San Diego was when some poor soul on a 125 endoed over the first of two humps on a step-up jump located just adjacent to the starting gate. His front wheel never left the ground before plowing headlong into the second step, launching him over the bars and into the tuff blocks, facefirst. Oooh, that had to hurt! Fortunately, most of the time, they do walk away, but for all its glamour, Supercross can be a cruel, cruel learning experience. For a guy who catches between three and five Supercross rounds a year and, again, doesn't always understand what the hoopla is about, you might think that watching the qualifiers would have given me my fill for the day. Strangely enough, it only made me more interested in the big show that was to come later in the evening. In fact, I took note of a few three-digit numbers, which gave me even more reason to pay attention, as I had a few underdogs to root for. Hey, they deserve it. So the next time that you hit a round of the EA Sports Supercross Series, you might want to head into the stadium early to watch the prequalifiers. McGrath, Vuillemin, Carmichael, Lusk and your other favorites might be the heart and soul of Supercross, but these other guys, many of whom live and breathe merely in the hope of making it to a regular heat race - let alone a main event - in front of a packed grandstand of screaming fans, are its backbone. But don't check them out because you owe it to them. Check them out because you owe it to yourself. If you don't, at least once, then you're missing out. eN • PIIoenlx SUpercross • 2001 Aprilia Mille Rrst Ride • Baltimore Arenaeross cue' e n e _ S • JANUARY 31,2001 63

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