Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Continued from page 3 said. Slight was Russell's teammate in 1993, the year Russell won the World Superbike Championship for Kawasaki. That same year they teamed up to win the Suzuka Eight-Hours. Russell knows what kind of competitor Slight is and is looking forward to his joining the series. "That's kind of cool. I like Aaron a lot better than John [Kocinski - who Slight is replacingl. Somebody I talk to like John, he's always telling me how much money he's got every weekend. It would have been great to have him in the series, with him back and me back and all the young guys, it made for a great field. It still does without him, but with his name and what he's done it would have been something. I've never run head to head with him." Russell also pointed out a mistake in a recent Cycle News article. In a Daytona tire test story, it said that Dunlop had won every Daytona 200 since John Ashmead won in Michelin tires in 1989. "I won it on Michelins in '98," Russell said of his fifth Daytona 200 win, aboard a Yamaha. After winning the 2000 Buell Lightning Championship for the Hal's Performance Advantage Buell/Harley-Davidson team, two-time class champion Mike Ciccotto has decided to remain with Hal's for the 2001 season, according to a release from the team. However, rather than defend his number-one plate, Ciccotto will instead focus his efforts on the AMA Pro Thunder Championship. "I'm really excited about showing the Ducatis that our Buells are up for the challenge," Ciccotto said. .. And with the Hal's team and the increased support from Buell, I feel ' we can legitimately win the championship." Hal's Performance Advantage Buell/Harley-Davidson team will receive increased factory support from the Buell Motor Company in 2001 for their Pro Thunder championship run, the team says. Ciccotto will also, once again, be • • Derbi Sells Out An important merger is about tCl take place between two market leaders in their respective countries, whkh will transform a key sector Clf the European two·wheeler market. Italy's Plaggio - manufacturer of Vespa scooters and owner of the histClric Ollera and Bianchi motorcycle marques - will complete an outright acquisition of Spain's Nacional Malor, the Barcelona.based manufacturer Clf Derbi scooters and small·capacity motorcycles, as well as owner of the rights to manufacture commercial two- wheeled products bearing the Bultaeo name. Valued at 13,31 billion pesetas (about $72 million), and expected to be announced officially at the Barcelona Show opening on March 6, the deal calls for an exchange of sharecapital which will see Piaggio obtain 100 percent of Derbi stock, in retUm for which, through an increase in capital, the existing Oerbi ownership will net a minority five percent sharehCllding in .the expanded Piaggio grClup. Since 1996, when the founding Rabasa family sold a 60·percent share· holding to Spain's Mercapital merchant bank, this has been shared between MercapitaJ, the Rabasas (whose holding has been reduced to 33.1 percent) and the Axis investment fund, which has a 6.9-percent stake in Europe's largest manufacturer of small·capacity two-wheelers with gearshifts. Accounting for a market-leading 28.percent share of the total European market for pClwered two-wheelers, with 475,000 sales in the year 2000 of products bearing the Vespa, Ollera and Piaggio names, Plaggio presently has a cash turnover 11 times greater than Oerbl, which SClId a total Clf 60,000 units in Europe last year. The globalizatlCln of the PTW market, and the need to generate eCClnomies Qf scale in order to reduce costs, are thought to have been the main reasons behind Derbi's decis,ion to sellout- though another faetClr is believed to have been the Spanish company's InablJIty to meet the costs of developing a much·needed new generation of engines, lIS 84 n FEBRUARY 21,2001 • CUe I • riding for American Suzuki and its Hooters Restaurants' sponsored team. But this year, the team will contest the Formula USA Series' Sportbike and Unlimited Superbike classes. "I've been with Suzuki for three years and I'm happy to be with them especially with all the dominant bikes they have come out with recently," Ciccotlo said. "I feel that I'm on the best bikes in the class. I can't wait to throw a leg over the new 600s at Daytona... Dirt track motorcycle racers from several states were treated to good weather, great racing last year during the inaugural AMA/VDTRA South Central Amateur Nati'onals in Texas: prompting Checkered Flag Promotions and AMA director Hugh Fleming along with the Vintage Dirt Track Racing Association's Mike Zbrozek to plan the event again for 2001. The three-day race weekend will take place April 27-29, visiting Devils well as tCl expand its motorcycle range upwards in capacity beyond its present 125cc ceiling. The increased emphasis in Europe on larger-capacity products - both scooters and molClrcycies - has left the product lineup of a company which has traditiClnaUy been a builder of smallE:r-engined products, looking exposed. Founded in 1922 by Simeon Rabasa., whCl built the company up into Spain's largest bicycle manufacturer before switch· ing into powered two-wheelers In 1951, Derbi was the only one Clf the "Four Musketeers" of Barcelona-based Spanish marques (Bultaeo, Derbi, Mootesa - now owned by Honda and Ossa) to survive Spain's transition into the post.Franco free-market era intact, and remain independent In an age when Spanish marques are no longer protected from outside competition by tariff barriers and import restrictions. Thanks to the astute management of the Rabesa family and its rnanaging c1Irector JClsep M. Puig (no relation to the former 500<::c GP rider of the same name), Derbi has prospered through a combination of overseas expansion and strategic agreements. Thus, while continuing to concentrate on volume ptoduc· lion of small-capacity scooters and motorcycles fClr the Spanish home market, Derbi has taken care of big·blke saIE:s by forging links with Kawasaki, for whom It has been the Spanish importer for mClre than a decade, while Kawasaki sells Oerbi scooters In Japan. 'Jlhe Spaniards halle also worked with Piaggio's Italian rivalltaljet, as well as supplying engines to Cagiva, to power the Cucciolo range of scooters. Oerbi has shown itself to be a far-sighted company, lIS evidenced by its early expansion into Asian markets, with the construction of an engine plant in Taiwan in 1993, links with Indian and South American partners, and a joint-venture agreement with the local Huari company to build a large fac. tory in Shandong, in the east of China, for the manufacture of 50cc Derbi models. The company's global strategy matches Piaggio's Clwn commercial Vision. and In many ways Derbi may be considered a smaller-scale Iberian versiCln of Plagglo. It's thus an ideal partner for the Italian giant, now owned by British-based Morgan Grenfell Private Equity (MaPE), the Deutsche Bank equity investment ann which. in a deal val· ued at 1.35 trillion lire ($752 million), acquired 80 percent of Plaggio stock in December '99, with 10 percent each in the hands of former Due./lti owner TPCi and Ornberto Agnelli (b~r of Fiat boss Giovanni and ex-husband of foUnder Emleo PIagglo's late daughter, Antonella). __ s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite and Boyd Raceway in Boyd. The series will feature Pro classes along with 10 AMA amateur classes and five VDTRA vintage classes, with ATV classes also joining the schedule. Pre-entry blanks are available. For more information, visit Checkered Flag Promotions' home page at www.cfpracing.com or call 940/683-4742. Acerbis USA has just signed on as the official plastic sponsor for Jeff Emig's TheEdgeSports.com Kawasaki team. Casey Johnson and Australian Michael Byrne are using Acerbis plastic on their KX250s. White Brothers will be offering a contingency program of over $5000 for the AMA Western Four-Stroke Series. The program is available to any Pro-class racers participating in the series while running a White Brothers E-Series or R-4 exhaust system. eN In fact. the two companies have already enjoyed a commercial relationship

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