Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2001 06 13

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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o d o D oug Lamp k i n (Mon) emerged with two victories in rounds seven and eight of th e World Trial Champion sh ip , he ld at Twin Ring M otegi in Japan, June 2-3 . On Sat urd ay, Lampkin t opped Takahisa Fuj inami (l-ion) and Steve Colley (GG). On Sunday, Lampk in retumed to beat Fujinami again, wit h Adam Raga taking third . After eigh t rounds of the se ries, Lampkin lead s Fuj inami in th e c ham pi onship stand ings, 150-122 . o o o o o The pairing of Steve Hengeveld and Jonah S t reet rode its Hond a XR650R to v ic to ry in the 33rd ann ual Teca t e SCORE Baja 500 , Jun e 2-3 in Baja, Californ ia, M exico . Hengev eld and St reet topped a second Honda team of Johnny Camp bell and Tim S t a a b wi th t he Eric Brown team finishing third on yet another XR650R . Hengeveld and Str eet completed the 500-mil e run in nine hour s, 55 minutes , 26 seco nds at an av erage speed of 48.77 mph. d o o o o o o Fred Andrews (Kaw) took top honors at the G rand National C ross Coun try Series in Uhrichsville . Ohio , o n Jun e 4 . Se cond place went to Ro d ney S m it h (Suz), followed by S ha ne Watts (KTM ). P a u l Ed mon d so n (Kaw) and Mike Lafferty (KTM) . 8 o John Hamilton Jr. (Tr i) ed ge d ou t Phil Libhart CTri) by .039 of a seco nd to take the 540cc win in round th ree of the AMA National Champions hip Hillclimb Series in York, Pennsylvania, on J une 3. Point s leade r David Watson (Han) carded a third to increase his series lead over Tim Freidhoff. W atson came back in the 800 cc class to take the win after outrunning T ig e r S t ra n k (Tri) by .,043 of a second . libhart (BSAl finished third . o o o o In Genk , Belgium, on J une 2, many of the top motocros s GP regu lars, including Jo e l Smets .a nd Stefa n Ev ert s , turned out for th e Rad s o n S t ad i um Cross, but it was 19-year-old A ust ralian Chad Reed (Kaw) who came away with t he win . Finishing second wa s Gordon Crockard (Hen) . fo llow ed by Everts (Yam), Avo Leok (KTM) and Shayne King (KTM ). Smet s finished 13th. d d o o o o o Aft er being disqualified from the Houston Half M ile for running fuel that was illegal according to AMA Pro Racing rules, Jay Springsteen was reinstated followinq an appeals bo ard he ar ing on M ay 24 . Ac cording to an AMA Pro Racing press release, the appeals board heard the evidence and saw f it t o mod if y S pri ngsteen' s penalty . The penalty modifi cat ion allo w s Springsteen to get eight of his original 16 championship points fro m the race re i ns ta te d and he h as been assessed a fine o f $500 . The appea ls board found that w hile the fuel collec ted from Springsteen's race bike was below the minimum specific gravity, it was so by ju st two thousandths (the lower spec ific gravity limit is .7 15, Springst een' s fue l was fou nd to be .7 13). W hile the fuel was te chn ica lly illegal , t he boa rd found no intent by Springsteen or his team to violate the rules. Furth er, the board fou nd that A M A Pro Racing t echnical officials made an error in collecting the sample . Thi s er ro r, w hich invo lv ed not ge tt ing o d o o o o o B 2 JUNE 1 3, 200 1 • c u e I e Longtime motorcycle race announcer, Cycle News contributor and friend of motorcycle racing "Bigtime" Bill Spencer passed away suddenly at his home in Mountain View, Califomia, of an apparent heart attack on May 30. Spencer was 59. Hailing from Northem Califomia. Spencer was a prominent figure in that region's racing community , serving as announcer at such venues as Laguna Seca Raceway, Sears Point Raceway and the Sacramento Mile during the National motorcycle events held there. Spencer had also served as a play-by- play anno uncer for the Speedvision and Fox Sports television networks during coverage of the AMA Superbike Series. He was a constant contributor to the pages of Cycle News for over 30 years, covering dirt track , speedway and other motorcycle events wherever and whenever he could. Most recently, Spencer had announced events for longtime friend Gene Romero at Romero's West Coast Flat Track events. SFX President of Dirt Track Operations Chris Agajanian said that Spencer played a vital role in his and his family 's promotio ns over the years. " "Bill was a very close friend of our family," Agajanian said. "He actually worked with, us starting with my father [J.C. Agajani an) in the '60s. He was a staunch supporter of ours. He had an expertise in all forms of motorcycle racing - he was a walking almanac. And I think what was so special about Bill was that he really knew and loved all the racers themselves personally." To that end, Spencer will also be remembered as a man who happily gave his time and effort to helping several up-and-coming young racers from Northem California - most notably Doug Chandler and Chris Carr, two riders who went on to win AMA Superbike and Grand National Championships, respectively. "He gave me insight on what direction to go," Chandler said from his home. "He always knew a lot of peopl e and he made the introductions that helped us a lot. In fact, my first big adventure was with Bill , In 1978, he took me to Daytona to pick up my Ama teur award and to show me what Daytona was like. He took me a lot of places and did a lot for both me and Chris [Carr), He did a lot for a lot of racers up this way - he was behind everybody and was a big help. This is really a bad deal." Spencer is survived by two brothers. The latest word as of press time was that Spencer is to be cremated, with a party celebrating his life to be announced at a later date. prope r signatures on the sample, did figur e in t he bo ard ' s dec isio n to mod ify Spring steen's penalty . The board also felt that th e fuel vio lation d id not provide Spring steen with a sig nifican t pe rf ormance advantage . In considera tion of all the evidence , the board came to its decision to assess Sp ringsteen a $500 fine and a loss of half of th e champions hip points he originally eamed in the Houston round . The board cauti oned that future fuel violat ions wou ld result in disqualificati on. It further reco mmend ed that AMA Pro Racing officials take steps to ensure that fuel-sample handling procedures are beyond reproac h. It appears almost certain that bot h Yamaha and Kawa s ak i' s AM A S up e r bi k e tea ms w ill ta k e part in t h e Wor ld Superbike ro und at Laguna Seca in July, t houg h not wi thout some sti pula tions set in place by the FIM . W orried that th e AMA riders will gain an unfair advantage ove r the World Superb ike regulars because of the extra track ti me they will be getting by racing in both classes, the AM has laid down the law on a few things . " There are so me th ings we will have to adhere to ," said Kawasaki team manage r M ike Prest on . "They want to make sure that we have bikes designated for AM A and World Superbike, they wi ll probably cut some of our practice time ... just stuff to try to make it more fair. We should know by next week, but it seems like a go. We'll do it if we can. It's a weird deal , but it' s all und erst andable . They don 't w a nt any o n e ha v ing an u nfa i r adv antage." The FIM has gran te d th e AMA four wild card ent rie s. Yamaha is apparently already committed to the race and will enter both A nt h o ny Gobert and To m my H ayd e n . Kawasaki, meann e vv s wh i le , w ill fi eld Eric B o s t r o m and D oug Chandler. " Eric [Bost rom] really wan ts t o do it, " Pre ston said . "Th at' s what got it starte d. And we want to give the same opportunity to Doug (Chanc lerl. and he' s also sto ked and excited about it. I went to Sugo a month ago and I came awa y really impr es sed wi th how orqa nized things are in that series. Our focu s is obviously the AMA races , but if we can compete we w ill put 100 percent effort into the whole deal. W e've submitted our entries. " Accord ing t o SFX M o t o r Spo rt s , 2 001 S up erc r o s s Cha mp ion Ricky Carmichael has been nominated for GO magazine's M en of the Year awards in the Sports - Individual Ath lete category. Oth er nomin ee s in c lude tennis great And re Agassi, professional golfer Phil Mickelson, stoc k car racer Jeff Gordon, and Tour de France Champion Lance Arm strong. The magazine's editors select the nominees in each category, with fans determining the winners via online v oting at www.GO.com . The polling ends June 15. Kenny Roberts revealed fo r the first time that his team is prepared to build a fo ur-st ro ke Grand Prix race bike. " W e have o ne design ed , but, as o f ye t, we don't have a sponsor who's financi ally backed us to build it, " Robert s said during an interview in his team bus in Mug el1 the site of the Italian Grand Prix on 0, June 3. ·We have a t hree lcy lmderl at the moment. Straight, in-line three , very small: smaller than the Sauber. And that' s available for us if somebody wanted to do it right now . We just haven't found somebody who has come to us and has said they want to be in that type of environ ment. " Asked if the motor was an exist - ing desiqn , Roberts rep lied, "I can't say whose mot o r it is. It' s all theory . So to actually put to the ory you 'd have to rdve a co mpany th at w ant ed to do it, he n we 'd have to draw the motors our se-es. The basic theory of power pulse, weight,•. reliabi lity , crankshaft s, all t hese things consi dered , and the we ight limit. we think the three-cylinder is best. Now we 'd have to say, okay t he valve needs to be this big. These are the t hings you'd have to do to design it . The basic concept of it, we have w hat we want to build . I don 't think th at building it's a big cos t, no more than building a two- stroke. Maintaining it is a little more cost. " Roberts said that sponso rship is an ongo ing process , but t h at noth ing was f ort hcom ing at the moment . The lack of sponsorship means that the team can't begin the actual work o n the des ign and construction . It also means the team won 't have a four -stroke at the beginning of next yea r. " If Proton [the team 's current sponsorl wanted to say 'Okay, do we really want to get into this and transfer that into a street bike?' Then time wouldn 't make any diffe rence to us. Whether we ran the three for six mo nth s and t he n bro ught in the four stro ke, it wou ldn't really make any difference." As to how long it would take for Roberts to build the machine, he said, " It would n' t t ake us very long to actually ma ke it. Tw o month s de s ign ing , two mon t hs on so me pat ents wo rk, c rankshaft, yeah, they' re easie r t han a tw ostroke crank. You 're pro bably look ing at eig ht mont hs t o have o ne running. " I don't see us coming in the beginning of next year w it h a four-str oke . That win dow ' s already gone ," he said. Yamaha's all-new fou r-stroke G rand Prix prototype, th e YZR-M 1 , meanwhile. is

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