Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

o o [] o o Chuck Woodford ( Kaw ) was the overall wi nner in the openi ng round of the Part s Unlimited Ch ampionship Off-Road Ser ies in M or rison, Illinois, on M ay 13. W o o d f o rd topped Fred Andrews (Kaw) by four minutes in the flve-hou rlong rac e . Third plac e w en t to Joey Ambrosini (G·G) fo llo w ed by Todd Morian ( KTM) an d Jeff Fredette (Kaw) . o o o 8 o Steve Hislop (Duc) won bo th legs of th e Brit ish S upe rb ike Serie s ro und at Ou lton Park in England on May 13. Hislop topped John Reynolds (Due) in both races w ith Sean Emmett (Ouc) and James Haydon (Ya m) f inishing third in race one and two, respective ly. Reyn olds leads the championsh ip over Hislop , 185· 168 . o o o o o o Destry Abbott ( Kaw ) sco red t he ov erall win at round five of the AMA Nat ional Hare & Hound Serie s in Je richo , Utah, on M ay 12. Russell Pearson (Yam) fini s hed s ec on d o ve rall , an d Shane Esposito (Kaw) finished third overall. o o o o Ricky Carmichael (Kaw) made the most o f his M ay 11 appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Lena , eme rging victorious in the Lena C up II, which was tap ed for airing on t he same evening . Carmichael posted a time of 48 seconds , less than a second faster than Mazda Yamaha rider Jeremy McGrath's 48 .8 · second time . o o o o Current Formu la USA Pro Singles Champion Kenny Noyes (Hbq), now liv ing and road racing in Spain, gave Spanish fans a taste of Am erican-sty le dirt -track racing w hen he w on the " C hampio n of Champion s D irt Track of Lerida " on Saturd ay, M ay 5 . N oy es us ed t he same 400 cc Li neaw eav er Hu sabe rg th at he rode to the F·U SA t itle in 2000 to beat a field of 600cc Supermotard machines ridden by Spain's top dirt-track and SuperTI riders under the lights on the bumpy and rutte d Le rid a qu arter mil e . "It w as a st range night, ' said Noyes. "To make the main, we all had to ride in six heats and the to tal points determ ined grid positions . I won five heats and had the carb come loose in the sixth , so that meant I started seventh on the grid. The hardest part was the start . They started us 16 wid e in back o f t um four out of a motocross gate and I had a hard t ime getting the Husaberg over the gate gratings, but the SupertTI bikes wi th their long suspension travel just launched out o f t here and le ft me spinning. I ran up high all night and everybod y else st ayed down low, but they steamro lled the track before the main and I had a hard time hooking up at first. The main started at 2:30 on Sunday moming und er a full moon ... th ose are normal hours fo r Spa nish dirt-t rac k raci ng. The fans come to party all night.' Noy es went from last to fir st in 11 lap s an d t he n cle ared off to w in the 20·lap main by a comfortable margin. o 8 o o o o o 8 8 o o o o o n Noyes ' Excellent Eu ropea n Vaca· tion continued in Jarama, Spain, on May 13 as he managed to qualify for his firsteve r European road race, the opening round o f t he S p an i s h Ro ad Rac i ng 2 MAY 23 , 2001 • c ue I e Series. Noyes qualified 32nd with 75 oth ers vying for the 36 spots on the 600cc Supersport grid , and ended up finishing 21st. Spanish C hampion Oriol Fernandez, on an Antena 3 D 'Antin Yamaha, won the race . Jason Disalvo, meanwhile, was running top l O in the early go ing of the 250cc race in Spain, but was involved in a melee and eventua lly finished 17th . The 250 c c race was won by A lex D ub o n CApr). AMA Pro Racing made official it s hir· ing of John C . Farris Jr. to t he pos lt io n of vice pre side nt of commercial dev elopment , 'a new ly created posi tion for the organization , on May 9. Farris will co lla bo rat e wit h sponso rs , prom ot ers, tea ms and media re pre sen t ativ e s t o strengt hen th e cu rrent ltne-up of AMA prof essional racing series and he will also focus his attentio n on a variety of existing projects as we ll as design and implement fut ure plans for growth in racing, according to a release from the A MA. "To have someone of John ' s caliber joining A MA Pro Racing is a huge step forward," said Pro Racing' s CEO Scott Holl ingsw ort h. "The motorcycling industry is undergoing a time of rapid growth and change , which makes it absolutely vital for us to staff up and apply strong gUidance to our sport during this time of incredible opportunity. John's knowledge of the industry and passion for t he sport of mot orcycle racing will be great assets to our organ ization." Farris has ridden and raced motorcycles nearly all his life and owns eight motorcycl es . He comes to AMA Rac ing from G eneral M o t o r s ' B ran d Managemen t organization, wher.e he was most rece ntly the M arket ing M anager for the co mpany's highest vo lume brand, Chevrolet Silverado . Farris orchestrated the cooperat ive eff ort s that brought financial support fr om Ch evy Tru cks t o indi vidu al race teams and en tire AMA raci ng se ries • partnerships th at int rod uced significant levels of sponsorship from a hiqh-pro ftle, we ll-respected "ou tside industry' source , according to the AMA. "The integrat ion of Ch evy Trucks into the spo rt of professio nal motorcycle racing was extremely gratifying to me bot h professionally and personally,' said Farri s. " As I became more involved with the motorcycle industry , I ident ified more and more opportunities to become directly involved with the sport of motorcycle racing , and I began to reco gnize how I could help AMA Pro Hacing fulf ill a larger ove rall potential. I'm excited to be com ing on board in this vital capacity with AM A Pro Racing." The Kev in Schwantz Suzuki School at Road Atlanta will feature the Yoshimura Suzuki Superbike team racers as guest instructors for its school dates on M ay 15· 16, preceding the Big Kahuna AMA Superbike event. The Tuesday, M ay 15 sc hoo l w ill feat ure M at M ladi n and Jamie Hack ing, in addition to the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School's already capable sta ff of inst ructors, incl uding fo rmer AMA Superbike Champion Jamie James, former F·USA Ch ampion Tray Batey and many ot hers . On W ednesday , May 16 , Aa ron Yates will comp lete the team . Depending on how the ir race weekends go. the Yosh imura Suzuki riders may be n e .... s An Idaho federal judge has issued an order blocking implem entation of former President Clinton 's roadless initiativ e that would ban road-bu ilding and commerci al activities on almost 60 mill ion acres of national forest, according to the AM.A. The action , coupled with the Bush administration 's prior announcement that it would propose amendments to the roadless plan in June. may create opportunities to expand protections for multipl e-use recreation on these federal lands. While the land is called roadless, it contains thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails used by mot orcyclists . all - terrain vehicle users, horse riders, hikers and others. Even though the AM.A and other motorcycling groups were successful in getting recognition of motorized recreation as a legitimate use of these lands in the final version of the plan, trail riders remain concemed that the roadless initiative might allow feeder roads to deteriorate, choking off access to riding and other recreational areas. On May 10, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge issued a prelim inary injunction stopping implementation of the initiative as a result of a lawsuit filed by the state of Idaho and others. The suit charged that the Clinton administration violated the National Environ· mental Policy Act (NEPA) by deciding on the roadless rules before involving the public in the rule making. Earlier, Lodge had ruled that there was "strong evidence" that the U.S, Forest Service failed to present a "coherent proposal" or engage in a "meaningful dialogue," The end result, the judge said, "was predetermined." The rules were to go into effect May 12. Meanwhile, Idaho Attom ey General Alan Lance said he would seek a permanent inj unction against the roadless plan. The U.S. govern ment hadn't decided whether it would appeal Lodge's decision. The AM.A has maintained from the beginning that decisions involving the public use of public lands should be openly debated and voted on in Congress rather than being dictated administratively. With these new developments , Royce Wood, AM.A legislative affairs specialist. suqgested that off-highway motorcyclists, ell-terrain-vehicle users and others interested in outdoor recreation need to let the Bush administration know that it should maintain recreational access to publi c land. One way to do that is by going to the AM.A website at www.AMADirectlink .com and click ing on the AM.A Rapid Response Center logo. There, you'll find a message you can send to the appropriate federal officials just by filling in your name and clicking a button. back guest inst ruct ing at the KSSS on the Monday, May 21 school date as well , at their opt ion. The Kevin Schwantz Suzuki Schoo l is a full-service performance riding schoo l - not a racing school - so don 't feel you need to be a racer, althoug h raeers are obviously we lcome, according to the school. New 200 1 Suzuki renta l bikes on M ichelin Pilot tires are included in the price of tuition and complete riding gear rental is ava ilable at a reasonable cos t wit h prior arrange ment to ensure prope r sizing. Class size is limited to 25·30 students, and will be split up into Beginner, Intermediate and Ad vanced G roups. For more information, call 800 /849·RACE or v isit t he schoo l 's we bs ite at : www.schwantzschool.com . Last year, the Buells in the Buell Pro Thunder c lass did little to make the series sponsor prou d. A n endless number of mec hanical problems, impressive for both its frequency and variety, gave the V·twin runners little success . The saga didn't go unnoticed by the Buell factory. Ov er the w inter, they redoubled their efforts and the results were clear at Dayt ona. Though Jeff Nash wou ld ride his Advanced Motorsports' Ducati to his first ever Pro Thunder victory, the Buells showed their mettle, mostly by finish ing and finishing in close order. At Sears Point, they took it one better. Hal' s Performa nce's Mi ke Ciccotto winni ng handily from the back row of the grid . " Those Buells are fast. " Nash, the Ducat i·riding defendi ng natio nal champion who finished fou rth, said after his heat race. According to Buell Race M anager Henry Duga , the difference t his year is attention to detail. "The teams just did their homework over the winter time,' Duga, the first emplo y' ee Eric Buell ever hired , sa id . ' The re were a lot of late nights . The teams sat down and analyzed what failed and took corrective measures to make sure they didn't happen again.' What failed was virtually everything. "A lot of things," Duga said, "va lve springs, bad valves, out-ofround cylinders. Every once in a while a rocker arm wou ld break ." To make sure the fixes worked, the Buell teams from Hal' s and Tilley' s tested in the off-seaso n fo r t he fi rst time, first at t he D unlop December Daytona tire test , then again at Carol ina M otorsports Park. Not only were the machines faster· they 'd gained abou t five to six horse po wer and now make 120 hp at the rear wheel - but they were most ly reliable. " I spent most of this wee kend tuning the chassi s,' D uga said at Sears Point. The racing bike is based on the Buell X·1. It uses the production frame, but has a specially built tubular tail section, fi tted w it h A ir Tech -style bod y work, in place of the stoc k aluminum tail se ctio n. The teams use the S· 1 styl e sw ing arm, braced for strength. The front forks are stock, equipped with Nissin GP· styl e slx-caliper brakes stopping Marchesin i wheels. The teams have also built aluminum oil tanks. The work began jus t after the C hrist mas break and was finished in the middle of January. The Buell factory is more involved this year, though Duga made it clear that it wasn't a factory effort. The bikes are built at the fact ory, but t he teams do the majority of the work . " These are independent dealer efforts ," he said. This year's seco nd ann ua l Road 2 Recovery Foundation's (R2R) Celebrity Golf Tournament in Las V egas bro ught out rec o rd atte nda nce, ac co rding t o eve nt pro mo t ers . Am ong t he stars in atte ndance we re Greg Alberty n, M ichael Byme, J eff Emig, Tim Ferry, Emesto Fonseca , Damon Huffman, Mi ke Jones, Grant Lang st on, Mi ke LaRocco , Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana, David Pingree, Nate Ramsey, Brock Sellards Rod rig Thain , Sebastien Tortelli , Trevo r

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