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/128107
8 W(J~'~ D D D D D D On Tuesday . May 29 , w e sp oke w ith Lance Langston, who handles c ontract neg o tiations for Ricky Carmich ael, as we ll as James St ewart and Ezra Lusk . and he gave us an update o n t he Carmichael will-he-or-won't-he-stay situation with Kawasaki fo r 2002 . " There 's nothing at the moment that we can say," Langston said. "There's been a lot of talk and negoti ations going on, but Ricky is unde r co ntract with Kawa sak i throug h thi s season, and his main priority right now is to win the [250cc Nationall title. " Langston did. however. say that Amateur Champion Stewart has inked a three-year contract with Kawasaki. b b o Four-time 500cc World Champion Eddie Lawson and three-time W orld Champion Wayne Rainey competed as teammates on May 19-20 in an international go-kart race at Laguna Seca Raceway in Mo nterey, California . " Eddie won prac tice, qualifying and the races , " Rainey said from his Monterey home. "It was the first time I've ever been happy that my teammate beat me. He was really good. and they were pretty impressed. I think the Europeans thought they wo uld come over here and beat us. but Eddie showed 'ern ." Lawson lapped at 1:26.5 in qualifying for the race. "Faste r than NASCAR." Rainey said . Rainey . meanwh ile. was invol ved in a cras h during Saturday ' s race . bu t f ini sh e d f ifth on S unday des pite starting 25th. "I crashed when I hit a guy from Sweden and a guy from England after a guy from France spun." Rainey explained. "It ripped off the left front lwheell. On Sunday. I started 25t h and ended up fifth. The carts were workin g really goo d and Edd ie annihil ated 'em. o D D 8 b D D D D D Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore was flown from Atlant a. Georgia. to San Francisc o. California, on May 23 where he was scheduled to undergo surgery from noted surgeon Dr. Art hur Ting. Pridmore. who suffere d a broken leg in a Formula Xtreme crash on May 19 at Road Atlanta. was hospitalized in Atla nta straight after . the race and it was initially thought that he would stay there to undergo surgery. Pridmore will be recovering at the Recovery Inn, 570 Willow Rd.. Men lo Park. CA 8402 5. D D D D D D O O D Rob Damron (RW won the Open Pro c lass d ur ing ro und fo ur of G en e Romero's E-Moola.com W est Coast Flat Track Series at Twin Cities Speedway in Marysville. California. on May 27 . Donn ie Harrell (Rtx) was second, and Lonnie Pauley (W -Rl was third. Robert Cunnington (Yam) garnered his third wi n of the se ries in th e Open Vi ntage class . and Chris Canepa (Yam) scored his seco nd co nsec utive vic t ory in th e 250cc Novice class. D D D ' D D O O D Josh Larse n (GM) won t he Scrat ch main and Eddie Castro (Jaw) won the Handicap main to start off the new seaso n of spee dway motorcycle racing at Arrowhead Mo tor S p eedw ay o n the O rang e Show Fai rg rou nd s in S an Bernardino, California, on Thursday. May 24. The track will now revert to its regular season schedu le of Wednesday nig ht events through August 29. D 2 JUNE 6 . 200 1 • cue I e a:r-- - - - .....- .....- ..........- - -.....-----., w z 8 w ~ - ~ ~ iE - In a stunning devel opm ent in the per sonal w atercraft in dus try . Yamaha unveiled its WaveRunner FX140 - the fi rst fou r-stroke -p owered persona l wa tercra ft in history - in a secret press i ntro d u c tion last w ee k in the Bahama s . Although Cycl e New s' sister publication, Personal Watercraft Illustrat ed. wa sn't on th e short list of invit ees, ed itor Jeff Hain was able to shoot spy photos of the new craft w hich reportedl y uses an engine bas ed on the one in Yamaha 's Rl streetb ike. 'T he craft is said to feature fue l injection rath er than th e Twen ty -eig ht figures in the his tory of American mot orcycling will be inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in ceremonies September 8 at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame M useum in Pickeringto n, O hio. Th is year's list o f ind uc t ee s inclu des everybody fro m racers. tuners and engineers to media figures . Among the not ables are Mike Baldw in . fivetime AMA road-racing champion; Mar k Barnett. winner of four motocross and Su pe rcro s s C hamp io nsh ip s; A lle n Carter. th e eng ineer responsible for some of the most significant motorcycles prod uced by the Indian brand: Charles Clayton . w ho. w ith his w ife . Sharo n, developed Cycle Ne ws into Am erica 's we ekly news magazine of motorcycling: Erv Kanemoto Jr•. t he t uner wh o helped Freddie Spe ncer and others win world road-racing championships: La r ry Maiers, race announcer and TV personality; Fred Merkel. three-time AMA and two -time W orld Superbike champion: and J o e Parkhurst. fo under of Cycle Worl d magazine. The Motorcycle Hall of Fame recognizes indiv iduals w ho have made significant contributions to all aspects of motorcycling. including those who have excelled in motorcycle business. history. design and enginee ring . in addi tion to those know n for their con tribut ions to road riding. off -road riding and all catego ries of mot orcycl e raci ng. Honorees are chosen by six Hall of Fame induction co mmittees consisting of Hall of Famers . and inde pend e nt vol unteers w ho are experts in various disciplines. acco rding to the AMA. "We see this as an important part of the mission of the museum." said Don Emde, chairman of the American Motorcyc le Heritage Foundation . whic h runs the facil ity . "Preserving the heritage of American motorcycling means more th an ass embl ing a collection of classic machines. It means keeping alive the memory of those who built that hern e _ s CV carbs featured o n th e Rl. Sources also say that Yamaha has chosen to run some sort of gear reduction/transmis sion system that lowers the peak rpm of the im p ell er. After all , a jet pump spinning at over 10,000 rpm would cause major c avi tati on, which leads us to believe that the im pell er w ill run at a pe ak speed of somewhere in the ne ighborhood of 7000 rpm. For the compl ete inside story o n the new Yamaha WaveRunner, see the upcoming August issue of Personal Watercraft Illustrated . itage. " The 200 1 Hall of Fame class will be inducted in ceremo nies Septe mber 8 at the museum, located on the grounds of the American M ot orcyclist Association. The ceremony . and a reception the night before. w ill be ope n to the public. The new inductees will jo in 241 others already enshrined in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. which features plaques co mmemorating each of the inductees. along with displays of motorcycles. photos and memorabilia related to Hall of Famer s. Meanwhile. the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Mu seum is gearing up for the opening of "A Century of Indians." a major new display commemorating the 1OOth anniver sary of the founding of the Indian brand. The g ran d o pe ning o f t hat exhib it i s scheduled for July 7. New Hampshire International Speedway will host The Jimmy Adamo Memor" ial Sportsma n Race at the Loud on AMA National, June 15-17. The race will be o pen t o S port sm an and 125 cc GP motorcycles. A pro license is not required and club experts with an AMA membership are invited. There w ill be a $1500 purse. according to event promoters . Full details and an entry form can be found at www.i rrsracing.co m. In addition . J erry Wood reports that th e entire NASCAR oval as well as turns three and 11 at New Hampshire International Speedway have been treat ed with a hig h t ech tra ct io n c oating . "Th ere are no mo re slip pery spots at the Loudon raceco urse," Wood said. A few of the AMA Superbike teams tested at Road America last week in preparation for the upcoming Superbike National there on June 9-10. Although one of the two days wa s rained o ut. Yosh imura S uzuki ' s M at M lad in said t hat t hey acco mplis hed some th ings . " W e done the first day and got some dry track. " Mladin said. " It wasn't a waste because we 'lI be able to get straight up to speed when we go there for the race." Ha rley-Davidso n Motor Company anno unced suppo rt of tw o Vietnam V e t eran initiatives w it h a $ 100 .000 donation made at the culmination of the Roll ing Thund er XIV motorcycle rally in W ashington D.C . on May 28. A $50.000 contribution was made to the A merican Batt le Monum ents Commission to help fund a co ngress ionally authorized memorial p laque at th e Vie tnam Ve terans Mem orial in W ashington D .C . honoring veterans who died afte r their service in the Vietnam W ar, but as a direct result of that service. Another $50 .000 co ntribution was made to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to help support the Traveling Wall. a half-scale replica of the Vi etn am V et e ran s M em o rial and The Wall that Heals. Traveling Museum and Information Center, which visit co mmunities th roug hout the U.S. " On behalf of Harley-Davidson and o ur many employ ee s , de alers and c us t o mers, we ar e proud t o suppo rt the se nobl e efforts honoring the service of Vietnam Vet erans," said Jim M cCas lin, President of Harle y -D av i d so n M ot o r Comp any. Harley-Davidson has a long history as a U.S. mil it ary supplier. The co mpany's motorcycle s we re first used for dispatching and scouting during border skirmishes on the Mexican frontier in 1916. During t he firs t yea r o f U .S . milit ar y involvement in W orld W ar I, approximately half of all the com pany's moto rcyc le pro duct ion we nt to th e military. During World W ar II. Harley-Davidson produced app roximate ly 90 .000 military motorcycles . Mo re than 14 percent of HarleyDavidson's U.S. employees are veterans of the U.S. military, and many of HarleyDavidson's dealers and cus tomers have also served. acco rding to Harley.