Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO... APRIL 20, 1971 Two photos graced the cover of Issue #14. The first featured Bill Clements blasting over a jump at Carlsbad Raceway in California. The second caught Dave Damron leaning hard off of the side of his road· racing machine at Willow Springs in Rosamond, California. Both riders won their classes ... A motocross race in Austin, Texas, was interrupted as a trio of young ladies from a local topless club watched the motocross action from the back area of the track and surprised the Open class with a display of their wares, much in the same way they're displayed professionally. A couple of riders fell, Jack O'Leary Jr. won, and most of the riders returned to that portion of the track after the race to see if their eyes had deceived them ... John DeSoto (Cl) won the 250cc and Open Expert classes at Ascot MX in Gardena, California. Tim Hart (Cl) finished second in both classes. 20 YEARS AGO... APRIL 15, 1981 Honda's new NS750 dirt tracker was unveiled for the cover of Issue #14. The new Hpnda was reported to have 78 hp at the wheel at 8000 rpm. Jeff Haney tested the machine for our cameras and had no problem lifting the front wheel off the corners. The machine was to be ridden by Freddie Spencer and Haney in the 1981 AMA Grand National Champi· onship Dirt Track Series... Bob Hannah (Yam) broke the Suzuki win streak at the Saddleback Motocross National in Orange, California. Hannah split moto wins with points leader and defending 250cc Nation· al Champion Kent Howerton (Suz), but the second· and most important· moto belonged to the Yamaha star. Mark Bar· nett (Suz) kept his win streak intact through four motos, although Jeff Ward (Kaw) kept him honest all day and finished second... Mike Kidd (Yam) won round four of the AMA Grand National Championship Dirt Track Series at the Ascot n, in Gar· dena, California. Steve Eklund and Scott Parker rounded out the top three. 10 YEARS AGO•.. APRIL 17, 1991 Team Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's Wayne Rainey was laguna Seca bound on the cover of Issue il'14, our Laguna Seca GP Preview issue. The defending 500cc World Road Racing Champion was favored to win the American round ... Rainey went into round two of the 500cc World Road Racing Champi· onship in Australia and stopped the Aussie dominance of the race for the two previous years. Mick Doohan (Hon) got a bad start, but stin raced through the pack to second place, 2.5 seconds behind Rainey... Chris Carr (H·D) won the Sacramento Mile, round two of the AMA Grand National Championship Dirt Track Series. Ronnie Jones (Hon) and Scott Parker (H.D) fin· ished second and third ... Jean-MIchel Bayle (Hon) won his fifth Supercross of the season at round nine of the series in the Suncoast Dome of Florida. Early leader Damon Bradshaw's spark plug broke and ended his night as he hounded the French· man for the lead... Damon Huffman (Kaw) won the 125cc Intermediate class at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, Califor· nia. over Donald Upton (Hon). Bobby Bonds (Yam) won the Pee Wee Modified class with 1-2 moto scores. The second moto was won by Jonathan Shimp (Yam), who had problems in moto one. Last week, we ran Looking Back for Issue 1114 by mistake in Issue #13. I PAUL CARRUTHERS 'm in the mood to offer up some cheap advice. I'm not asking to be put on the payroll; I don't need a con· sultant's fee. Shoot, I don't even expect to finally be issued a perma· nent credential to attend your races. Consider it free. All you have to do is listen up, AMA. I'm about to tell you how your AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series should be run. First of all, let me tell you that I'm not against stealing good ideas from other sanctioning bodies or promot· ers. Therefore, virtually nothing I have to offer is original. But if something works, I say let's use it. Why reinvent the wheel? Some of this stuff seems so sim· pIe, it's almost embarrassing that I have to tell you. After all, I've only been covering these AMA Superbike races for 16 years. You guys have been at it for hundreds of years· right? Let's start with what's important: Since it's called the U.S. Superbike Series, Superbike racing is obviously our main concern here. Fixing that is relatively simple. Since the best part of a race is usually the first five laps and the last five laps, let's run these races in two legs· on the same day. I realize that promoters often tell you that they want a Superbike race on Saturday to help draw a Saturday crowd, but I bet they'd be happy with a really large crowd on Sunday something we could perhaps build by putting on a better show for those pesky fans we all try to think about every once in a while. But that program sounds a lot like World Superbike, you say. And what's wrong with World Superbike, I ask? Daytona is Daytona and I know they want their 200-mile race. Give it to them. Just split it in half. Two 100mile races. That will still give 'em the pit stops they crave, and the opportunity to perhaps parade their Pontiac Aztec (or "Pontiac Asspack," as one top'level racer called it after the Day· tona debacle in March) in front of the pack and call it a pace car (though I'm vehemently opposed to pace cars, but that's the subject of another column). Okay, so there should be two Superbike legs on Sunday. What do we do to fill the time between the two legs? I know how you feel about downtime (never, ever, ever give a guy time to buy aT-shirt and a hot dog when you can lull him to sleep by racing so many motorcycles past him on the racetrack that he feels like he's at the Rose Bowl Parade), so I've come up with something for that as well. Again, I must regress to stealing. And, again, I'm going to lift this idea directly from the World Super· bike guys. This is groundbreaking, so watch your heart rate: We will run a 600cc Supersport race in between the two Superbike races. Damn, I'm smart. Why didn't you guys think of this? Okay, smarty-pants, you say, how is Miguel DuHamel and Co. going to run a Superbike race, then run a 600cc Supersport race, and then come straight back and run a Super· bike race again? He's not. The 600cc Supersport race will be filled with men· young and old· who don't race in the Superbike Series. Suzuki can have bikes in the class. Honda can field teams. Ditto for Yamaha and Kawasaki (and I'd also let Ducati race, but that's probably really wearing out my welcome with my chums in Ohio). But Paul, you might argue, 600cc Supersport racing can't survive with· out our biggest names racing in it. Wrong. How many of you had ever heard of Jorg Teuchert before he won the World Supersport Championship last year? Not-so-young Jorg battled in every race with the likes of Paolo Casoli, James Whitham, Christian Kellner. .. and if you saw any of them on television, you can't argue that they weren't excellent races. And that was without Colin Edwards, Troy Corser or Ben Bostrom competing in them. You need to build new stars. So build them in Supersport. While Supersport is an important class, let's not forget that it is still a support class . a class for up-and· coming racers, and also for older guys trying to either hang on or get back to the Superbike ranks. Look at Frenchman Stephane Chambon. He raced World Supersport, paid his dues, won a World Championship, and has since been rewarded with a shot at the Big Series. And it works the other way as well. Katsuaki Fuji· wara didn't cut it last year on the Corona Suzuki World Superbike team, so he finds himself racing World Supersport. That, my friends, is how it should be. So there . your Sundays are now nice and full. You run three quality races and call it a day. Let the people buy a few souvenirs. Let them take a stroll through the midway or cruise the paddock area to look at just how trick the motorcycles have become. Let them get a few autographs, immerse themselves in the racing scene. Give them the fantastic racing they pa id to see and let them get home before midnight. When they leave, they will know that Miguel DuHamel is a big star and he only races in the big class. CART doesn't parade Michael Andretti around in an Indy Lights ride a few hours before he goes out and races his Indy car. And what of Saturday, you pon· der? Easy. And again, we stoop to stealing. We do Superpole. The fans seem to like it, and somebody can make a nice little half·hour television show on Saturday afternoon to preview their live telecast on Sunday afternoon. Perfect. If you insist on DUD I _ more support classes, run them on Saturday and be done with them. Make Sunday's program nice and clean. Some of the teams may complain about all of this. They may tell you that running two Superbike races in one day is too much work, they'll use too many tires, they'll need more crew members, it's too expensive ... blah, blah, blah. Don't listen to them. Listen to me. And whenever they bring up the money issue, remind them that, somewhere back in Japan and Italy, their engineers are working on building four-stroke Grand Prix bikes. What they will spend here run· ning two Superbike races in one day is chump change. Trust me, they can afford it. If the riders complain ... well. you should be used to that. But you can deal with them with a little common sense and some common courtesy. Remember· they are your show. They are your stars. They are the rea· son people come to the racetrack. "Easy for you to say." you may be thinking. But, really, it's simple. So while I'm in the mood to offer up free assistance, I'm going to make it a two·for-one special and teach you how to improve your relationship with the racers. Listen up, it's easy stuff and, if you heed my advice, the riders will be eating out of your hands, doing all they can to help you promote the heck out of the series· and together you can really make this thing work. Okay, here we go: All you hage to do is clean up the program enough so they get plenty of quality practice, bring in all the hay bales you can find to keep them safe, don't take them to racetracks that you wouldn't want your own sons to race on, treat them like professionals, listen to their ideas, value their input, wave a blue flag in front of lapped riders to let them know that the leaders are fast approaching, and do what you can to increase the purse levels (this will come with the increased crowds you'll see by following my earlier advice). There you go. Eight simple things that will go a long way in improving what is probably the' most important relationship you can work on. All you really have to do is pro· vide them with a working environ· ment that is as safe and user·friendly as it can be . just like you expect your bosses to provide you within your workplace. One last piece of advice and then go back to answering mail from people who don't agree with any of this: Make solid decisions, even if they aren't always the most popular ones. Make them quickly, and make them with authority. I know, I know, it's too late for 2001, but 2002 . it's just around the corner. eN "II n __ s • APRIL 11. 2001 103

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