Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By STEVE COX • e 30 YEARS AGO... JUNE 29, 1971 Issue 1124. boasting to be the biggest Cycle News issue ever at 56 pages. was covered by a photograph of Ameri ca 's top motocrossers, led by J im West . racing down one of Indian Dunes' many straightaways on the eve of the Europea n invasion ... We ran a Consu mer Report on the Rickm an 250 MX after four months of riding and racing the machine. Although we had ple nty of "wishes' for future development of the machine . the Mon tesa powerpla nt offered plenty of power. and the light weight {reported to be 203 Ibs .} made it quite a capable MX machine. Among ot her lightweight products. the handlebars were actually made of tit anium ... Ventura and Bake rsfield. Cali fornia . played host to speedway events, and Mike and St eve Bast finished one-t wo in th e Ventura Scra tc h main, while Rick Woods went undefeated in Bakersfield. the Scratch main among his victories. 2 0 YEARS AGO••• J UNE 24, 1981 Team Suzuki' s Kent Howerto n j um ped ac ross the cover o f Is sue 11 2 4 after suc cessfull y defending his Nationa l 2 50c c Motocro ss Cha mp i onsh ip by winn ing 13 of th e 16 m o t os h e entered. Bo b Han nah {Yam} won the overall on the day. Yama ha's Brae Glover won his fourth overall in four tr ies in th e 500cc Nationa l cl ass... Hank Scott nipped Randy Goss at the finish to win the Indy Mile Grand Nation al Dirt Track event in Indiana. Points leader Jay Springsteen didn't qualify for the final due to food poisoning, but when the dust settled, he sti ll led the champio nship by 13... Team Suzuki's Frank St acy won the sixth and final round of the AMA Two-Day Qual ifier Series in Livingston, Tennessee. It was Stacy's fifth win of the series". George s J obe ( Suz) st aye d unstopp abl e in t he 250cc World Motocross Championships as he won both motos of the Italian MX GP. Jobe held a 50 -po int lead { 101- 51} over second-pla ce man Neil Hudson after only four rounds. 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 26, 1991 T eam Gree n Kaw asak i' s Greg Z it terkopf graced the cover of Issue 11 24 afte r hi s team - also consisting of Garth Sweetland. Paul Krause and Larry Roeseier - won the SCORE International Baj a 500. Zitterkopf rode most of the first section with a broke n leg before being relieved by Roeseler.. . One week after finishing second in both World Superbike legs in Brainerd, Minnesota, Scott Russell (Kaw) dominated the AMA Superbike round in Loudon, New Hampshire. by earning the pole position and then racing to a 28.75-second victory over Honda 's Miguel DuHamel in the race... At the San Jose Supercross, the penultimate round of the 18-round Camel Supercross Series, race leader Jeff Matiasevic h (Kaw) and second- place charger Guy Coope r (Suz) collided on the last lap as Cooper tried to pass for the win, sending both riders to the ground . Team Yamaha 's Doug Duba ch inheri te d the win , by less tha n a bike length over his teammate and la st-place starter Damon Bradshaw. The 125cc main was won by Yamaha 's Jeff Em ig , whil e Jeremy McGrath (Hon) rode with a braced broken fibula (leg) in a one-size-Iarger boot than he normally wears to a ninthplace finish, good enough to cli nch his first I 25cc Supercross Championship. LCI} comparison to a Winston Cup stock car. but we 've already moved well into the era of haulers in SX/MX . Why not cover the haulers in a color other than Honda red or Kawasaki green, custom -design unifo rms to fit the sponsors , and change the colors of the motorcycles to suit as well? There are very few NASCAR fans who don't know who drives a Chevy Monte Ca rlo , Ford Taurus , Pontiac Grand Prix or Dodge Intrepid. It would be no However. many wonder if SX/MX has d ifferent in SX/MX. T h e announcer the proper ingredients to become NASCAR -sized . wou ld just say . " Ric k y Carmichael Le t 's look at the m ain difshoves his Disney Hon da u nder Mc Grath's Gil lette fe rence s b etw e en SX / M X Ya ma ha" - eve n th ou gh and N A SCAR as I see th em . T h e first t hi ng yo u mu s t Ca rmichael's Honda mig ht be understand if you a ren 't a purple and b lue , while McGrath 's Yamaha might be NASCAR fan is that pretty silver. I only see that the much every NASCAR fan m an ufactu re rs wou ld m ak e has at lea st one favorite driver. Th is is the driver whose m ore money. because t hey 'd sell just as m an y bikes (i f not n umber is plac ard ed on the NASCAR drivers and teams leaving back of t h e i r family c ar or truck . more), b u t then they could sell th e for North Caro lin a. When a N A SCA R whose u su ally colorful T- sh irt is worn Carm icha el signatu re bike for $ 250 (along w it h a matchin g ba seb all cap) fan sees that C ircu it City is th e official o r so more . What could b e wron g wi th th at? B esi d es. th e fan s who are electronics reta il er of N ASCA R, th ey wh en ever said fan is ou t sh opping o n sh o p there. They wa sh th eir c lothes in th e m ark et for a d irt bi k e w ill k no w t he wee kends , an d w ho m sai d fan w ho r ides wh ic h bra nd o f motorcycle c he er s o n for th ree- pl u s hours. 3 5 or with Tide. Th ey drink B udwe is er. If they're involved in co nstruc ti on. th ey no m att er wh at . so Sundays a year. I k no w from ex p e use Caterpillar eq ui p m ent. They drive rie nce that, if a favorit e dri ve r drop s T h e last w a y in w hi c h SX /MX John Deere lawn m owers. They sh op ou t of a r ace for so m e re as on (or needs to be j u st like NASCAR is the doesn't rac e a t all ) , t he fa n s of that at Ho m e Depot. Th ey p ut Interstate ma i ns t r e am accept ance fro m t h e media . Th i s is s o mething t h a t' s b a tter i e s i n their cars . The y li kel y d r iv er ma n y t i me s ge t o n w ith t h e y ard work because the y have no on e drive a Ford , Ch evrol et . Po ntia c o r i m p ro vi n g every ye ar ( at lea st i n to c hee r fo r a ny m o re . I superc ro ss ) . More and more myself had been che er in g fo r lo c a l n ews prog ra ms a re co v e r ing t he rac e s when the same driver e very week if you've ever been to a t he y'r e in tow n. T hey ' v e en d si nce I w as a littl e b o y . eve n start ed g iv in g a bri ef b ut he was k ill ed du r in g the NASCAR race, you leno"" that Day ton a 5 00 th is y ear. an d I SX/MX fans are far better-look- syn op si s of th e w e ek end ' s h a v e l a c k ed inte r e st in t he SX/MX event on RPM 2Night ing, in general, than NASCAR o n ESP N2 . W e ' r e m o v ing sport eve r si n ce . fans - ""bicb doesn't burt. righ t al ong i n t h a t a sp ect , W ha t I' m try in g to sa y is bu t w e'v e o bvio usl y g o t a tha t , to be like N A SCA R. you must first h ave the person ali lon g way to go. ties in vo lved to whom fans can relate. Dodge vehicl e (and ha te the other The b e st thing SX/MX has going Many N A SCAR drivers have 20 - to three) . They u se Unocal 76 fuel. for it, though . is that it is much more 30 -year careers in which to earn a When they take n o t ice t hat almost exciting to watch than NASCAR fa n following. w hile most every drive r and crewme m ber on pa rti ally because the races are n't camera is wearing Oakley sunglassmotocrossers are only around in three hours long , and partially national competition for two to 15 es , they buy Oakley sunglasses . because there 's jumps and endless NASCAR fans are some of the most years, on the h igh side. It's harder for track variables in SX/MX. With that, brand-loyal people in the world . laymen fans to find a particular rider some big -time sponsors of factory Because of this loyalty . sponsors get teams . more fans and mainstream to cheer for. Believe it or not. most NASCAR out more than the considerable media coverage. we could be on our change they put into the sport. Tide way . Plus , if you've ever been to a fans don't actually race cars . nor do hasn 't sponsored a car for well over a NASCAR ra ce. you know that SX/MX they know many people who do. But in SX /MX. it seems that all the harddecade because they think a brightfans are far better-looking, in general , yellow -and-orange racecar is pretty ; than NAS CAR fans - which doesn 't core fan s either ride or race themse lves. o r they are close friends or they do it because people buy Tide hurt. family members of someone who due to it. Now if only we cou ld get the riders There's obvious ly little room to to race until they're 40 . I'm rooting does. And it's the hard-core fans that advertise on a motorcycle and rider in for you. John Dowd! eN generally have favorite riders outside T h ese days. any domestic motorsport gets compared in some shape or form to NASCAR. The IRL. C ART , World of Outlaws, SCCA Trans-Am and all the re st seem to look to NASCAR for id ea s to make their own series better. The EA Sp orts Supercross and Chevy Trucks National Motocross series (which for the purposes of this column will be united as SX/MX) are n o exception . of whoever's the fastest at the time . because they've ridden with them on practice day at Perris Raceway or Glen Helen , met them o r just read a lot about them . It's the personalities that people need to be able grab a hold of. Now for the money end of it. which is also entirely fan-based. After the Cal ifornia 500 ended . I was stand ing in my front ya rd , washing a motorcy cle , when I noticed Learjet after Learjet flying out of Ontario International Airport. It took me a second , but I soon realized that they were the Because of this loyalty, sponsors get out Inore than the considerable change they put into the s p o rt. Coming up in Cycle News • Budds Creek National MX • catalunya GP Road Race • Loudon AMA Road Race cue I e n e _ S • J UN E 20. 2 0 01 103

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