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/128103
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o u o o c o Continued from page 3 Glen Helen Raceway is looking for selected 80 cc Riders to rac e in a • HalfTime " and " End of Race " show on M ay 13 at G le n He le n du rin g the open ing round of t he AMA M o toc ro s s N at io nal Champion ship . On-line ap pl ica tions are be ing ta k en at G le n He le n Rac ewa y' s web sit e at www.glenhelen.com. OMS Ltd . has added Rich O liver to its list of road-race cli entele. Ol ive r, the win ningest 250cc GP rider in AMA his tory, captured his 50th 250cc GP win at Daytona Int e rn at io nal Sp eedway th is past March. " I' m looking forward to working with the OMS Ltd. team, " said an enthu siasti c Oliver fr om his California home . " A n added bonus w ill be working with Jeff Haney [OMS road race and dirt track acc ount execut ive ], wh o is a long-t ime friend and former c om petitor. OMS has g reat c re di bility w it hin t he motorcycl e industry and I am looking forward to a , -.. long and fruitful relationship , Racing is all abo ut having fun for me, it' s wh at I enjo y more than anyt hing. I w ant to be able to secure my fut ure in the moto rcycle rac ing ind ust ry long aft er I retire from activ e co mpeti tion. and w ith OMS I know I can accomplish tha t. " O n Saturday, M ay 5 , the 10th A nn ua l S tudent Awards w ill be held at Irw indale Speed way in Irwindale, Cal if orn ia. Tw elve co mmunity colleges w ill have dis plays about thei r vocational-technical pro gram s and there will also be a display of classic and racing motorcycle s. A victory lap behind the pace car will be taken by rider s of 1978 and ea rlier mo torcycl es, acco rding to event promot ers, and racing lege nds such as Eddie Mu lde r, D ick Hammer , Skip V an Leeuwen , Ern ie A rag o n and J.D. W illiams will be on hand . M ot o rcycle owners wh o d isp lay any make or model of moto rcycle or sideca r, 197 8 or earlier , run ning o r not , will be provided • BMW Gets Ready To Blow With the Strada tarmac version of the F650GS single still on track to be launched this summer, speculation in Germany now insists that BMW management will tum their attention next to revamping their Boxer twin and K-sertes foor-cylinder ranges, in time to mark the 80th anniversary in 2003 of the company's entry into the motorcycle business with the debut of its first shaft-drive flat-twin, the R32, launched at the Paris Show in 1923 . Well-informed German sources have insisted for some time that 8MW is developing a replacement family of engines for its current range of four-cylinder bikes, with the 'Flying Brick ' lengthways in-line design replaced by a Boxer-style flat-four with vertically stacked cylinders, to differentiate it from the Honda Gold Wing, which is its main rival in several key ma rkets . Howev er , those sources now insist that this option has now taken a back seat to a more conventional across-the-frame in-line four-cylinder format, still with a dohc 16-vaive cylinder head and shaft final drive , but in a departure from normal BMW practice, employing a wet multiplate clutch as well as a six -speed gearbox. A Telelever front end would be retained, with the consequent absence of any fork deflection allowing BMW to incline the cylinders of the engine forwards consid erably, to aid handling by lowering the cee of gee and increasing front weight bias. Watch this space for more details - but for sure. after two decades of evolution, the K-series BMW family is due for a shake-up. But according to persistent rumours, B"\W is also reputed to be planning to launch the first supercharged sportbike of the modern era from a major manufacturer, in the form of a Kompressor version of the current R1 J OOS Boxer twin, either in the scaled-up Rl J 50S guise in which it's expected to be updated later this year, or else in scaled-down l000cc form with a 150 bhp power target. which would enable it to be 8 o G n L, ,..... ~ ,..... ~ ~ L; free admission. For mo re informatio n, call 626 /442-8683. Ducati N orth America has formed an associatio n w ith current AMA Pro Thu nder Champion and 2001 Dayt ona wi nner J e ff N ash and A dvanced M otor Sports, to com pete in t his ye ar ' s Pro Thunder Champio nship. Rid ing und er th e Du cati Performance banner, N ash will compete on 200 1 model 748RSs . " It is a great honor to be involve d with Ducat i's rac ing program th is season , " Na s h said in a D ucati press relea se . " Ho pefully , we will be able to fulfill the ir high expectations. " In SFX Formula USA rac ing , forme r Ducati Au stralia Superbike rider Craig Connell will compe te on Ducati Performance AMS 996SPSs prepared by Na sh and his cr ew. G len Helen Raceway in San Bernardino , C alifo rnia. will be auctioning off three of its RV sites w ith hook-ups (electrical, w ate r and sewer) wi th proc eeds go ing to marketed as a direct competitor to the current range of onelitre V-twln Superbikes from Ducati, Honda, Aprilia, etc, which would be its main commercial rivals. However, there's no suggestion that BMW intends to go Superbike raci ng with the new Kompressor, since superch.!lrging would not be permitted under current SBK regulations. It's believed this engine will be fitted with new dohc four-valve cylinder heads with bevel- shaft cam drive, rather than the hi-cam design of the present Boxer range, and will have radical race-replice styling as distinctive looking compared to current Superbikes as the last BMW Kompressor, the 500cc works Grand Prix bike which in 1939 won the final Isle of Man IT before the outbreak of World War II in the hands of the legendary Georg Meier, was compared to its contemporaries.The F1M's postwar ban on supercharging in Grand Prix racing put an end to the Kompressor version of the Rennsport BMW, which remains the last supercharged as well as shaft-drive motorcycle to win a Grand Prix. Supercharging as a means of obtaining bolt-on horsepower is an idea whose day has come again, with the new generation of compact, ultra-precise compressors using high boost pressures. and controlled by the same electronic engine management systems as the now practically ubiquituous fuel injection fitted to today's performance motorcycles. And without any of the installation problems, heat buildup, bulkiness or throttle lag of a turbo system, supercharging's application to motorcycle use seems long overdue, especially as it's now commonplace again on luxury performance cars, such as Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz or Cadill ac models , BMW's much smaller German compatriot MZ has been working on a supercharged 1000cc parallel -tw in sportbike for the past three years, but the greater techni cal and financial resources of their giant Bavarian counterparts makes them favourites to win the race to bu ild a modern Kompressor first. If the rumors are true , expect the new "blown" Boxer twin to make Its debut on BMW 's home ground at Intermot 2002 in Munich. And there's more! Although the new BMW Kompressor won't be headed for the racetrack, further speculation regarding the future direction of the German marque insists that, contrary to BMW's explicit denials in the past, the company will be retuming to Grand Prix racing after it goes four -stroke (0 5 5 Series rounds SOR four -s troke ? M AY 9 . 2 0 0 1 • cue I .. n e .... s wiIJ an Justin Aaron, 21 , wa s killed in an aut omo bile accident o n April 29 in Southern Califomia. Aaron was a salesman at Hahm Motorsports in An aheim , Calitornia The $53,500 Pro P rivateer Performance Award Program has been renewed by U ,S , Smokeless Tobacco Company for the 2001 AMA 125/250cc Nat ional Moto cross Championships . Back for a seventh consecutive year, the award includes a $51 ,000 award program to the top two finishing non-factory priva teers at the individual events and a $2500 contribut ion to the AMA O utd oo r Nation al Communication s Program. CN next season, with a purpose-designed GPI engine which will not, however, in any way be related to the current BMW Y-l0 Form ula 1 motor which powered Ralf Schumacher's Williams to victory in the San Marino GP at lmola on April 15. Instead, BMW's motorcycle division is rumored to have commissioned a ground·up GPI engine design from an outside specialist supplier, as yet unidentified. With BMW competition boss Berti Hauser confirming that the company is pulling out of official participation in desert rallies - where the factory team's 1-2-3-4 blitz of the 2000 Paris-Dakar gave a superb sendoff to the new F650GS production model launched immediately after, but was followed this year by an equally comprehensive defeat by the German firm's Austrian KTM rivals - resources are being freed up for the putative attack on GPI. with BMW already scheduled to become a feature of the Grand Prix race paddocks this year, thanks to the Boxer one-make series scheduled to be held as a support event at several of the European GP rounds. BMW may be dipping Int o rather histo ri c territory with the rumored development of a superc harg ed twin en gine . Before Wortd War II, the company achieved acc lai m by bu ild ing Kompressor5 (such as this Emst Henne land-speed motorcycle) t o eam GP vlctortes and land-speed records" To ca st your va e , lag an to http://www.cyc:l en ew s. com. cyclenews.com reader poll question of the week the G len Hele n/Chaparral Charity Golf Tournament . To bid , v isit G len He len ' s website at www.glenhelen .com. The minimum bid is $ 150 and there are a total of 13 spots av ailable (10 available at the track, three from the auction) that will be so ld on a firs t-eome-first-sold basis,