Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128092
our customers in motorsports continues to grow, we've increased our commitment. We look forward to our continued relationship with the team at AHDRA. " Reigning Sidecar World Champion Steve Webster is preparing to battle for his ninth world title this year and he will do so with a new team - Team Uveanscreen.com Racing. Passenger Paul Woodhead. who rode with Webster for the first time last year. will join the Brit again for 2001. "I still enjoy racing," Webster said. "I can't wait to get on the grid for the first race." Team Uveonscreen.com Racing is launching a motorcycle racing Web site at www.liveonscreen.com.. beginning on February 19. Edward Moreland, vice president of government relations for the AMA, will serve as a guest instructor at the association's March 17-18 EAGLES Leadership Academy in Boston. according to the AMA. Moreland. based in Washington, D.C.• will share the teaching duties with Terry Lee Cook, who works as a state programs developer in the Government Relation's Department at AMA headquarters in Pickerington. Ohio. As part of the intensive training that EAGLES attendees get. Moreland will explain the threats facing both street and off-highway motorcyclists today, the important role motorcyclists play in shaping laws at the state and federal levels. and the special programs that motorcyclists can get involved in to help protect their right to ride, the AMA says. AMA President Robert Rasor will serve as a guest instructor at the AMA's EAGLES Leadership Academy scheduled for May 5-6 in Kansas City, Missiouri. EAGLES is an acro'nym that stands for Education, Activism. Growth. Leadership. Expertise and Skills. For more information, call Tracey Powell at 614/856-1900. ext. 1248. VP Fuels has renewed it's support for the AMA-sanctioned 2001 DM Sports Women's World MX Champi. o o o o o [g@@O New Zealander Aaron Slight will be joining Larry Pegram on the Competition Accessories Ducati team after negotiations with John Kocinski (pictured in his one and only ride on the Competition Accessories Ducati) broke down at the end of last week, according to Competition Accessories general manager Tim Pritchard. "The last few days there were things we couldn't do and he [Kocinski] wasn't comfortable with that," Pritchard said, "We certainly had plans to run John. He's an incredibly talented guy and we wanted him on the bike. Ducati North America had talked to [Aaron] Slight when we were deciding on John, but the deal just came together at the end of the week when we realized we had some problems. He's flying in here and he will ride at the Willow test [February 12-15). It's been a tough deal and we would have liked to have gotten it done with John." Meanwhile, in a conversation with Cycl£ News the week prior, Kocinski hinted that there was a good chance !'Ie wouldn't race in 200 1. Although he said the contract with Competition Accessories was in his possession, he had yet to sign it. "I received a contract from them last week, but I haven't done anything with it," Kocinski said at the time. "I'm going to trY and get my personal life the way I've always wanted it - that's 'What's important to me right now. It's time to get a life. I'm 33 years old and I still rent cars and houses. I'd like to find a house, get a car and find a wife. 1 won't go racing if I don't feel as though I have the opport!Jnity to win, Right now, I'd say there's a SO-SO chance that I won't be racing." On Monday, February 12, Kocinski confinned that the Ducati deal was off. "We just weren't able to come to tenns on a contract," Kocinski said. "That's the bottom line." Slight, 35, has raced in the World Superbike Championship fulItime for the past nine years, the last seven of which were spent on the Castrol Honda team. Slight, a three-time winner of the Suzuka Eight Hour, has finished second two times in the World Superbike Championship - in 1996 and 1998. Last year, the Kiwi ended up eighth in the series despite missing several early rounds after undergoing brain surgery early in the season. Kocinski, meanwhile, seems content with moving on to life after racing. The 1990 250cc World Champion and 1997 World Superbike Champion (won on a Castro! Honda while, ironically, paired with Slight) rode the Competition Accessories Ducati just one time, at the Dunlop tire test at Daytona Intemational Speedway in December, emerging from that test with the fastest time. onship Series as a contingency sponsor paying in all three classes 125cc Pro, Open Amateur and the 60-105cc (7-15) class. Alpinestars has also signed on as product sponsor of the series. The series opens on March 4 at the Hardrock Cycle Park in Ocala, Florida. The Autism Awareness Vintage MX will be held on March 5 at Gatorback MX in Gainesville, Florida. with several foreign riders as well as Brad Lackey and Barry o o o o "I accomplished what I wanted to,' Kocinski said of the test. "I came out of there first." Now, Kocinski's focus will be on his new ventures, including real estate investing and developing. "I can now concentrate on being a real estate investor and developer,' Kocinski said. "I've been extremely busy these last six months. J just bought a home two days ago in Beverly Hills (California]. It's an $8-million estate and it's perfect - ready for me to move in to. Now I have the time to get my things moved while continuing my work in the real estate business." That business has so far proven to be lucrative for Kocinski. The Wall Street Joumal recently reported one of the largest-ever land sales in Los Angeles County to comedian/actor Eddie Murphy - a four-acre parcel that went for $11 million. The seller? None other than Kocinski, who had purchased the Beverly H;Us land just six months prior. Kocinski is currently negotiating with the Adler Group to build two new spec homes in Beverly Hills after recently doing a joint-venture deal on a S5.2-million spec home in Sacramento. "Racing is a passion for me," Kocinski said. "But it would have to be the right situation for me to return.' Paul Carruthers Higgins scheduled to attend. The event is open to all bikes and modem classes will also be held. For more information, call Unlimited Sports at 904/935-6872. third Anaheim round of the EA Sports Supercross Series. For more information, call 877/274-JOHN. The Desert Vipers Motorcycle Club, the promoters of the annual Adelanto Grand Prix off-road race, made a substantial contribution to help in the fight to keep public lands open in the Southern California desert recently, according to the Blue Ribbon Coalition. The donation was presented to Don Amador, a spokesman for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, just prior to the Adelanto GP. To date, the Desert Vipers have donated over $10,000 to help the Blue Ribbon Coalition's legal defense team fight the closure in federal court, Amador said. John's Motorcycles of nearby Murrieta, California, is hosting a freestyle motocross benefit will be held at Lake Elsinore MX Park in Lake Elsinore, Califomia, on February 18, with several items slated to be auctioned off, including the pants that Ricky Carmichael wore in the Rain in the high desert of Southem Califomia put a halt to the planned Ducati test before it even began on Monday, February 12. The CompetitionAccessories.com and HMC Ducati teams spent the day sitting in the pits at Willow Springs Intemational Raceway waiting for the rain to stop, but the forecast didn't look promising. "The forecast is for rain for two more days," HMC Ducati's Scott Russell said on his cellular phone from the track. "We've got the track through Thursday, and Friday is an open track day. They have a club race this weekend. If worse comes to worse. we may stay for that." In the meantime, Russell and his teammate Steve Rapp, as well as CompetitionAccessories ,com's Larry Pegram, were waiting out the rain, and Pegram was waiting for his new teammate. "We're waiting on [Aaron] Slight to get here. He's on the way," Russell OPENED: YSR Extreme Racing's home page on the World Wide Web. The site can be found at the follOWing address: http://www.ciaysr.com. RESCHEDULED: The Daniel Boone, Kentucky round of the Women's Motocross Series to June 9. A WSMX school will be held at the same facility the day before, on June 8, For more information, call 949/837·2206. OPENED, Lindemann Engineering's home page on the World Wide Web. The site can be found at the following address: http://www.le- NAMED: White Brothers. as the title sponsor for the World FourStroke MX Series, which will take place from March through May in California, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. suspension.com. AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: At Millennium Cycleworks in Lilburn, Georgia, on February 23 from 7 to 8 p.m. Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael and Stephane Rcncada, Team SplitFire/Pro-Cir- SIGNED: Fresh Rags, Inc.. a fashion sportswear manufacturer, as the exclusive licensed maker of MX sportswear bearing the FMF logo, Fresh Rags recently displayed its FMF line at the Action Sports Retailer show in Long Beach, California. --------COntinued on page 84 a U a • e n e _... ' FEBRUARY 21,2001 3 o o o o o o o o o 8 o o o o o 8 8 o o o o o B o o o o o o o o