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/128109
o o o Continuedfrom page 3 CJ S poka ne Yamaha and T ri u mph in Sp okane , Washington , is back in business after a fire destroyed the dealership back on April 5 , The owners have moved to a new building and are now o pe n fo r busine s s ag a in , The new addre ss is : 129 26 E, Indiana, Spokane , WA 99216, 509/924-7233 . o o o n Th ree -t ime W orld C hampio n Fred die Spencer wa s inducted into The Motorsport s Museum & Hall of Fame at th e Stat e Th eat re in D etro it , M ic higan, on June 6 . Spe ncer and the oth er inductees recei ved the Hall o f Fam e ' s prestig io us • Horsepower' awa rd - an original bro nze sta tuette crea ted by An n Arbo r, M ichigan, sc ulpto r M icha el C urtis . Sp enc er began his professional road-racing caree r at the age of 18, wi nning every race in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Road Race • Novi ce ' D ivisi o n en ro ute to winning the AMA National Championship . The following year, 197 9 , Spencer won the A MA 250cc G rand Prix Road Race ' Expert ' division N at io nal C ham p io ns hip , fin ish inq f irst place in every race except on e, whe re he took second. At 19 years of age, he signed with American Honda Motor Company to race in the A M A Su p e rb i k e National C hampio nship Series. In 19 81, Spenc er inked an agreement wi th HRC to rac e elected G rand Prix W o rld C hamp i- o o o n u '\ LJ .-, I --I r-.. I I -...J n onship even ts , and mos t imp orta ntly, to as sist in the research and development of the Honda NR 500 four-stroke mach ine. The fo llowing yea r , at the ag e of 20 , Spen cer stunned the racing world at the B elg ian Grand Pr ix on July 4 , 1982 , bec oming the youngest G rand Prix race w inner in hi st o ry . He went on to fi nish third overall in his first full yea r of 500cc Grand Pr ix W orld Champio nship riding H o nd a ' s t h ree -cyli nd e r , two -stro ke NS500. Spencer won the 500c c W orld C hamp io nship in 1993 , topping Ke nny Ro be rt s afte r a season-long battle . In 1985, Spencer becam e t he first per son in his tory to w in bot h the 250 and 50 0c c W o rld C hamp io nships in the same sea so n. Sp en c er curre ntly owns and ope rates the Fred die S penc er' s High Perfo rmance Ridi ng S ch o o l , located at Las Ve gas M ot o r Sp eedway. For those of you who figured you'd seen t he last o f Jaso n Pridmore on the racetracks of America, think again . Pridmore , who recently underwent surgery on his broken lower leg , says he'll be back as soon as he can. '1'11 be okay and I can come back , ' Prid m o re sa id from his ho me in Ventura, C aliforn ia. Pridmore's surgery was performed by noted surgeon D r. Art Ting in Northern California. Ting inserted three plates and 22 screws into I o o Aprilia Group Rumblings LJ o Since its acquis ition by Aprilia last Septembe r, the future of Italy' s Laverda has remained in limbo, while new owner Ivano Beggio focuses on the more pressi ng probl em of revivi ng Moto Guzzi. Conjecture that Ap rili a would use the Laverda name on some of its own projects has now been fulfill ed - but in a way that few enthusiasts of the historic m arque will relish. Aprilia has jus t announced the debut of the Laverda 150 Phoeni x (as in rising from the dead - ouch). a 150cc four stroke scooter which is not even m anufactured in Italy , but in Taiwan! For the Phoenix is being bought in ready -built from Sangy ang, then rebadged as a Lav erda, and has gone on sale in Italy in an effort to maintain awareness of the marque, much as ApriJia's riva l Piaggio has done with an even more illustrious name, Gilera. But at least all Gilera scooters have retained some disti nctio n, being Made in Ital y rather than in the Far East. rather than subjected to what Laverda enthusiasts are alr eady stamping as a cyn ical exam ple of badge engineering. Notwithstanding its commitments to relaunchi ng Mot o Guzzi and, later on. Laverda (co m pany boss Ivano Beggio has gone on record as predicting a three-year gap before the debut of a new fami ly of purpose-designed Laverda engines), Aprilia is set for further expansion into a sector which was once responsible for 100 percent of the company's motorcy- 8 g r) o r -.. It's Fast Brain time aga in . Cycle New has already awarded its first Fast Bra in Award o f 200 1 Ci t went t o M i n Olymp ics racer Broe Hep l e r ) , b u there are several more to be awa rde thi s summer. Rider s wh o perfo rm w ell in school and are planning to co nte st eithe t he NMA Grand Nat ion a l M ini c ycle Champ ion s h ip , Lorett a Lyn n ' s A M A Ama te ur Nationa l MX Champio nsh ip or A M A D irt Trac k Grand C hamp ion ship sho uld consider applying for the award, wh ich recog nize s rid ers who perform we ll on the tr ack and in t he classroom. To ent er, w rite the followi ng information on a piec e of paper: eve nt to be contested : ri de r's na m e , ad dress and p ho ne numb e r : rac ing n um ber : and classes entered. Send the pape r , along with a copy o f a recent re port card, to Cycle News Fast Brain, 3505-M Cadillac Ave .. C osta M esa , CA 92626 . Then hit the books and hit the track! J eff Tho m a s ( Hon) won the 540cc class in ro und fou r o f t he 2001 AMA National C hampionship Hillclimb Series in Freemansburg, Pennsylvania, on J une 10. Thomas beat David Watson (Ha n) with The Women's School of Motocross w ill ho ld off-road racing schools at C le Elum , Washington, on June 23 and June 30 . For more information, call 50 9/6741540. eN c1e production: the off-road market. An enthusiastic dirtbike rider himself in his younger days, Beggio focused his attention in Aprilia's early years as a motorcycle manufa ctur er on develop ing a range of Hiro- and Sachs-powered enduro and MX bi kes, suppla nted in due course by a range of Rotax engined two-stro ke and four -stroke models, which provided the basis for the Italian firm's futu re close collaboration with th e Canad ian-ow ned Austrian engine manufacturer. With Rotax power, Aprilia MX racers won several Italian titles in the 1980s , and the Tuareg range of enduro and rally bikes was also developed, spearheaded by a factory team contest in9 the Paris-Dakar on four -stroke singles. In due course, Aprilia also developed a ra nge of trials bikes, starting with the air -cooled 340 Trial develo ped in 1979 in conjunction with star rider Sammy Mille r, leading in 1990 to the world's flrst liquid-coo led prod uction tr ials bik e, the Rotax-powered 280R Climber which Finland' s Tommi Ahvala rode to clinch the 1991 World Trials Championship. But in 1994 Aprilia shut down man ufacture of its compet itio n dirtbikes, in preparation for the 100-perce nt focus on its new scooter range, which has of cou rse led to the company's ultra-healthy commercial position today . Now com es word in Italy is that Aprilia is set to return to the dirtbike sector, principally in order to gain overall market share in the USA, its key new export market, although the flourishing European off-ro ad sector will also be a factor in this decision . Sourc es claim that work has already begun on a range of Aprilia enduro bikes for which Rotax has started developing a family of new. lightweight four-stroke singlecylinder engines. However, the most fascinating rumor of all is that Aprilia is interested in acquiring Cannondale's new fuel-in jected four -stroke off-road dirtbike project as a shortcut to developing a leading-edge off -road product, which with .. the Italian company's developm ent expertise could be quick ly developed int o a competitive four -stroke MX contende r, with Rotax taking over manufacture of the mountain bike specialist's revers e-cylinder fou r-v alve eng ine. Watch this space... Aprilia is also apparently close to announ cing that it will join Honda's V5, MZ's V4 and Yamaha's in-line four in entering the GP1 four-stroke class next season - but reported ly wit h a th ree-cylinder in-line motor whic h will pursue rac e boss Jan Witt eveen's ideal of produ cing a small , light bike with a good power-to- weig ht ratio and agile handling, This is the reason that Aprllia's RSW500 V-t wtn conte nder which took pole position in its final GP in Australia last October is still being tested - ostensibly to provi de design clues for the 250 Aprili" GP contender, but in reality to provid e a basis for the chassis pack age housing the new GPI four-strok e tr iple motor. Th is will not , however, be the Sauber- Petrona s desi gn announced at the Japanes e GP earlier this year, but is understoo d to be an all- new dry- sump. fuel-injected 12-valve dohc design being develo ped for A prili a by Cos worth in Britain . which wili almost cert ainly featur e pneumatic valve operation, j ust li k e the Cosworth-built V-I 0 J ag uar Form ula 1 engine currently being raced by Eddie Irvine. Though Yamaha has reject ed pneumatic valv es on the grounds that they can make as much power from their engines as can be put comfortably to the ground under the control of the rider with out this extr a com plication, the much smalle r-ca pacity Aprilia-Cosworth engine will need to rev high to m ake the power needed to be competitive, say sources - hence the adoption of this technology which , while avantgarde in bike terms , is well proven on four wheels, and therefore dependable. To cast your vo te . log on to hllp:/ /www.cyclenew s.com. cyclenews.com reader poll question of the week Of the following s h:k-and-bal pro essional athletes, who wDu ld perform the best in a motorcycle race'?_ ....-- - - - - - A. Kobe Brya nt I NBA: L 5 An ales Lakers) C. Ken Ci riffey Jr. IMLB: Cincinna ti e 5 ':':':= =:; :: >=)10 0 U JUNE 2 0 , 2001 • cue • e n eVIl S Chad Disbennett (Tri) . Watson (Hon won the 800cc class , beating Thomas (H D> and John Hamilton Jr. (H -D>. Prid more's low er leg. ' He came in smil ing and said it all went we ll, ' Pridmore said. ' 1didn 't have to have surgery on my hand or my collarbon e. They can heal nat ura lly since the leg w ill ta ke a wh ile to heal. ' A s for the Road Atlanta accident that left him injured , Pridm ore said it had no thi ng to do with the fact tha t he wa s rid ing w ith a broken c olla rb on e - and everything to do with the fact that w ater was seeping up through a seam in the racetrack. 'I' m bummed because I think it cou ld have been avoid ed,' Pridm ore said. 'We weren' t to ld that there was a place on th e track wh ere water wa s comin g up. S o me o ne c o uld ha ve to ld us betwee n races. Anyway, I got caught out. Miguel [Du Hame l] and Kurtis [Roberts] crashed in the same spot in the race be fore - and guys just do n' t cras h t he re .' Pridmo re has come under so me fire for racing w ith the injured collarbone , but as he says, ' 1 co uld have been Hercules and no t saved that. It had nothing to do wi th the collarbone.' Pridmor e's A ttack Suzuki ride has been filled by Tom Kipp until the Califomian can retum to action . Favre I Fa:: Green ay Pacl(ers) akic INHL: Colorado Ava lanchel