David Watson (Hon) sent a message
to the c hall e ng ers in the 2001 AMA
National Championship Hillclimb Se rie s
by winn ing both classes in round one of
the series in Delbarton . West Virginia. on
May 6. Watson topped Tim Freid hoH
( Hon) and Chris VanHyning ( Hon)
wi th an 8 .1 3 5 -second pas s to w in t he
540cc class . He then beat JeH Thoma s
le ss la nds initia t ive effective M ay 12 ,
but also sa id that it would pro pose
amendments in Ju ne that would reopen a
public comment process. The move is the
first concrete step in the Bush administration 's review of the initi at ive - issued in
the waning days o f the Cl inton administrat io n - and co uld open the door to
changes in how the govemment will manage almost 60 mi llion ac res o f fede ra l
land , or an area the size of W yoming . Key
to the deba te for outd oor recreation
Ducati has announced that they will be re-entering Grand Prix racing , with a V-twin four-stroke . to take advantag e of the 990 cc fourstroke rules that com e int o force from 2002.
The com pany will fiel d a V-tw in based on establis hed Ducati
design practi ces. with a tubular steel trellis frame like that of their
road mach ines.
"It will be an ext reme development of our V-twin concept: said
Claudio Dom enicali , man aging director of Ducati's racing company ,
Ducati Corse.
But Duceti's new venture will not be at the expense of World
Superb ik e racin g. where their production-based V-twi ns are stal warts of the series.
"We will continue to race in Superbikes. Th e GP team will be a
presented with the AMA Recognition award (t o the soundtrack of
Led Zeppelin's "Com munication Breakdown ") . Still . SFX boss Charlie Mancuso extended an olive bran ch by saying. "Any rum ors you
hear about SFX and the AMA - see me, We've been with the AMA
for 27 years; we'll be with them for another 27 years."
Tho ugh there were too many other not able mom ents to cover
here. one that bears mentio ning was SFX's presentation to McGrath
and his fam ily of an all-expense-paid tri p to anywhere in the world
they choose.
Chri s Jonnum
ent husiasts is whether the roadless rule
could close off access to t rails use d by
motorcyclists . all-terrain-v ehicle riders,
horse riders . mo untain bikers and oth ers .
" There are many mile s of trails already
open to motorcycles and all-terrain veh icles o n t he so-called roadl ess areas o f
U.S . Fo rest Serv ic e land , " said Edw ard
M oreland. AMA vice president fo r government relation s. " and even the B ush
admi nistration no tes that at least 2.5 million acres desig nated as roadless. in fact.
At thi s stage, engine design was far from finalized.
"We are looking at options including oval pistons, mu lti -valves
and pneuma tic valves, as well as our desmo dromic system ," he
said.
But they do not plan to use " freaky " exotic and expensive materials , in order to keep costs in proportion. he said.
A sked what power would be needed to be compe titi ve. he said:
"It' s very diffi cult to answer. Many peopl e say that 200 hp is more
than enough to put through just one tire."
As for the trestle fram e. "we believe we can achi eve weight and
stiffness com parable with the present aluminum frames using this
system," said Dom enicale.
Mi chael Scott
separate venture. " said Domenicali.
The announcement was made on the first day of practice for the
Spanish GP at Jer ez, on May 4, with FIM president Francesco Zerbi
and Do ma boss Carmelo Ezpeleta joining Duca ti Motor Holding
president Federico Minoli and Domenicali.
Minoli gave two mai n reasons for the decisio n: "Firstly . Ducati
means racing • it is our history and it is in our blood . Now that GP
racing is open 'to four -stroke racing. there is a place for us. Second ly. after our financial turnaround. Ducati is in a positi on to make this
commi tme nt. We regard it as an investm ent rather than a cost. We
see the potential for huge technical fallout from the GP program to
benefit our product ion machi nes."
He estimated that development of the mach ine would cost $30
million. and it would cost $ 10 mi llion to run a team for one season.
Accord ing to Dom enicali , costs would be com parable to running a
Superbik e team - "perhaps 30 to 60 percen t more. but not thr ee or
four tim es as m uch. A lot depends on the rider fees, which are the
biggest expense: he added.
The tim ing is not yet certain . though they expected to fina lize
engine design and buil t a prototype machine early next year for testing.
"We will come into GP racin g when the mac hine is reasonably
com petiti ve: said Domenicali.
Ducatl had decided on a twin after exten sive comp uter simulations investigating the possibili ties offered by various engine config-
have roads. The B u sh adm inis trat ion
shou ld be co mmended for reopening the
process to get a mo re accurate idea of
where the road less area b o u nd a rie s
shou ld be , to get more public input. and
to address othe r con cerns. because we
said from the beg inning that the process
wa s flawed fo r ins titu ti ng this new rule
w ithout enough broad-based input fro m
the publ ic. " M oreland suggested that off highway motorcyclist s . A TV use rs and
othe rs interested in outdoor recrea tion
need to let the admin istration know that it
shou ld maintain recreatio nal access to
pub lic land . The easi es t w ay to do so is
t o go t o th e A MA web si t e at
www.A M A Directli nk .com and click on the
" A M A Rap id Re sp on se Cent er " ic o n
where you' ll find an already written me ssage to fede ral off icials. The Bu sh adminis t ratio n d idn "t specify precise ly what
revis ions might be made. but Agriculture
Sec retary Ann Veneman , who se depart ment oversees the U.S . Forest Serv ic e.
said t hey " wi ll add ress important issues
raised about th e rule ," The amendments
would involve. among other things, more
rel iabl e info rmati o n an d more accu rate
map s for decisio n-mak ing . she said . as
w ell as pro visi o ns fo r w o rk ing with th e
sta tes. tribes. local co mmunities and the
public. "This adm inistration is commi tted
to provid ing road less p rotection for our
nat ional fores t s, " Veneman said . " C onse rvi ng these precious land s req uires a
respon sible and balanced approach tha t
fairly add resse s con cerns raised by local
co mmunities. tribes. and states impacted
by t he rule.· Through the actions . t he
Agriculture D epart me nt hopes to co rrect
da ta errors and address co ncerns raised
by the court, lo cal commun it ies . tri be s
and state govemments . It' s unknown how
long the new process will take , o r if any
revisions are adop ted .
Yamaha 's To m Halverso n co nfirmed that
Anthony Gobert and Tommy H a y ·
den w oul d be competi ng in the W orld
Superb ike round at Laguna Seca, in addition to their AMA duties that weeken d . " I
think we' re g oin g to do it," Halverson
said. adding that a formal announce ment
had y et to c ome f rom Yamaha . " Fo r
urations and cylinder combina tions.
"We inv estigat ed ma ny different layouts to determine the optim um , and there is no clear technical advantage to anyone," said
Domenicali.
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