Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO... JULY 2 0, 1971 Bryan Kenney won an International M X ra c e i n F rance , and was thusly rewarded with a spot on the co ver of Issue #2 7 . Along with his picture, a scene from the latest Inter-AMA MX event in Houston , T exas, al so appeared on the cover. The race was won by Czechoslovakian Vlast im il Valek (CZ), while the top American was Gary Jones (Yam) , who fin ish ed sixth .. . The AMA Grand Nati onal Championships held a road race in Kent, Washingto n, with Dick Mann (BSA) beating Kel Carruthers (Yam) when Carruthers ' tran sm issio n falt ered while he was leading on the last lap. The Lightweight race, however, was won by Carruthers... Larry Roeseler, the 14-yearold trailbike desert-racing whiz kid, led the Distr ict 37 Trail bike points standings over 323 other riders after about half the season was over. 20 YEARS AGO... J ULY 15, 1981 Terry Va nce (Suz) burn ed his tire for t he cover of Issue #27 after winning his LOth NMRA Pro Stock drag -race final in a row... Donnie Hansen (Hon ) won the 250 and 500cc Pro class es at the 14th annua l M am moth Mountai n Motocross, taking t he lion ' s share of the $12,000 purse with him. The 125cc Pro class was easily won by Ron Lechien (Yam) ... Marco Lucchinelli (Suz) won the Dutch 500cc GP and took over the poin ts lead as title rivals Randy Mamo la (Suz ) and Kenny Robert s (Yam) both recorded DNFs .. . Round six of th e 125 /500cc Nati onal Mot ocros s Championships was held in Buchanan , Michigan, and Mark Barnett (Suz) once again won both 125cc motos , while Chuck Sun (Hon) sp lit moto v ictori es with B r oc Glo ver (Yam ) for the overall 500cc victory. Glover continu ed to lead the points ... Gary Scot t (H-D ) won the Topeka Half Mile, and with t h e victo ry cam e t he Grand National Cha mp ionship points lead.. . T he a.s . Speedway Team missed out on qualifying for the final in England, and Sweden was a nonqualifier as well. The qualifying teams were Denmark and England. 10 YEARS AGO•.. JULY 17, 1991 After taking the pole positio n foll ow ing a c ras h, Sco tt Ru ssell won his second Superbik e National of t h e year in Charlotte, North Ca rolina , and h e gr ace d t he cover o f Issue 1/27 to celebrate h i s v i ctory . Honda' s Miguel DuHamel finished second by .042 of a second. However, DuHamel kept his perfect 600cc Supersport record intact by winning his fifth straight race in five rounds... Round four of the AMA 125/250cc National Motocross Champi onship took place at Red Bud in Bu ch an an , M ich igan , and Damo n Bra ds h aw (Ya m) and Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) took the 250 and 125cc wins , resp ect i vel y . With t he v icto ry , Kiedrowsk i moved into the points lead. Jean-Michel Bayle had 2-2 finishes in the 250 cc rank s for th ird overall - a strange occurrence, but Bradshaw went 3- 1 for the win, while Jeff Stanton went 1-3 for second.. . Steve Lamson ( Hon) too k hom e $8600 for his overall Pro win at the 24th annual Mammoth Mountain Motocross. He won the Open and 250cc Pro classes and fini shed third to Doug Dubach (Yam) and Ty Davis (Hon) in the 125cc Pro class . Damon Huffman (Kaw) won the 125 and 250cc Intermediate classes on the moun t ain .. . Kevin Schwantz ( Su z) p assed Wayne Rainey (Yam) on the last lap to win the Dutch 500cc Road Race GP after taking the pole for the event. I t' s the sam e for e v ery ra cer, f ro m Aprilia Cup to 500cc Grand Pr ix from scooter ra cing to World Superb ikes . E v e r y crash i s nasty , e ve r y i nj u r y pa infu l and costly. But t he inj u ry you reall y wa nt to avoid ( gi ve n that some don 't eve n bear th in k ing about) is to yo ur wrists. Because w ri st i nj u ri es , g en erally , are not bad enough to keep you o ut of action , bu t are bad enough to k ee p y o u from y o ur be st . S ometi m es fo r the rest of y o ur life. Racing h istory is littered w ith rid ers whose c ar eers were en ded b y bad w rists . J ust th ink of Fred d ie Sp encer and Ke v in Schwantz , f or st arters . I sa y all this not to depre ss Garr y M cC o y st ill fur ther a n d he w a s pretty gloom y l ast t i m e w e met. Likew ise , the hapless 250cc W orld Champi on Olivier J acque , whose move t o 500s ha s been completely wrecked b y ~ b roken w r is t b efo r e t he se ason . I sin c erel y hope that M cC oy ' s qu ick -fix su rg er y t o t h e dread ed scaphoid fractu re will prov e c om p let ely successful an d tha t h e will b e ba c k to full stren g t h in a ra ce or t wo. That has also happ en e d before . I mention th e topic be cause it is r e l a t e d to another r a c er ' s n ightmare. It's a d ifferent kind o f wrist n in g the wheel. A reflec t io n b oth of th e na ture of the t ires, and t he h eat of th e com pe titio n. McCoy - wh o iron i cal ly b r ought tail-steering bac k in to GPs - hoped to return at Ba rc el ona , bu t even he was do u b t f ul abo u t his prospects . T h a t d idn 't w ork , so he h o p e d for a f u ll re tu rn b y the Du tc h GP. Now he sa ys he's als o o ut for the upcoming round in En g land. Th ere wa s another c o m eb ac k at That's not the half of it, of cou rse . By far t he great est load o n t he wrists co me s u nd e r braking - tw o Gs o r more, if y ou have ca rb on b ra kes and a st ic k y fro nt sli ck - all w hi le modu lating lever p ressure and b lipping the t hrottle , as required . It's small wonder that wrists p la y up, and that inj u red w rists tend to sta y inj u red . Racer's Wrist seemed to be a th ing of t h e past. As Dean M ille r , team phy sio t o Kenny Roberts Jr. and a h os t of o thers w o rldwid e over m ore B arc el ona - a feast of new GP fou rst rok es, w ith Y am a h a' s new f our- than two decades, told m e, he simply st roke out and ru n n ing for th e fir st ti me. Honda 's a d ve n- Ult's a different kind of vurist probleln, vuith Inuch the saine e ffe c t as a frac ture - the syndrolne of R a c e r 's Wrist . " problem, with much the same effec t a s a f ra cture - t h e s yndr om e of Racer 's Wrist . T he phras e c over s two d is ti nct c on di t ion s. One is te n do nitis, where the sh eath s of the li g am ents p assi n g throug h the w r ist beco me i nfl a m e d ; th e o t her is a fo r m of c om p art m ent synd rom e, where the soft tissu es of the w r ist p ump up, quite literally . E ither way , all hand and w r ist movemen t is difficu lt and pa inful. They are rep et itiv e st rain inju ries , and y o u w i ll hardl y need r em i nding tha t a m ot orc y cl e m ay be steered by body weight, but it is operated ma inly by the right hand, at the same t ime as ha nging on, steadying the bike , and applying steer ing in puts. Nor will you n eed rem inding that t he fas ter the bike, t he harder you have to hang o n. hasn 't bee n treating as m uch Rac er ' s Wris t over the p a st severa l years until recently. Now it's back . He th inks he knows why , too . It's partly f o r t e c h n i c a l reasons , b u t mainly because of just how hard they are rid ing . Because nowaday s we ar e see in g a return to the o ld U .S. d irttra c k type o f riding - st eering b y spin - • • • • • Coming up in Cycle News c t uro us V - fi v e ma y sha de Yam aha ' s more p edestrian in li n e fo ur in terms of exciting design, b ut both ha v e s ome - th ing in c o m m o n al so wit h D uca ti 's proposed V- t w i n , i n - li n e S aub er 's t r ip le, and o th ers in the pipel in e . All h ave a n ove r abundance of h or sep o w er. Given that they 'll at le a st hav e to sta rt from where c hassis, sus pe nsion and tire technology is at th e m oment, this brings us back to t he situ at ion that preva iled in t he ' 8 0 s, when th er e w as so much horsepower tha t wheels p in and st eering wi t h the re ar \Oere the on ly way to r ide a GP b ike fa st. So t ha t if th is riding styl e is i n dee d th e c a u se o f increa sed Rac er ' s W rist problems, it' s on ly g o in g to g et w orse. Wris t p rob lem s are a n ightm are fo r all t he obv ious re aso ns - an d on e extra reason besides. Ra c ers serious racers - know only rac in g . To reach th e t op the y 've h ad to ded ica te the ir li v es to it; in c re asing ly so year b y year. A nd there' s n o t o ne among them w ho w ill ' not wi llfu lly co mp lica te th e inj u ry by trying t o c o me b ack too soon . The b est t r eatm ent would a l m o s t al ways b e eig h t o r 10 months of r est , e ve n after surg ery . But that's j u st n ot g o in g to happe n. So wh at does it all mean? Nothing , really - until some clever en gin eer i nv en t s powe r steering for motorcycles . In the m eantime, I sh all be hol d ing thumbs for McCo y , and all t he o t h er wri st sufferers . And ' if you think it w ill he lp, perhaps y ou might d o the sam e. eN Donington Road Race GP Laguna Seca AMA and World Superbike Du Quoin AMA Dirt Track Oregon AMA Hare Scrambles Italian World Trials ue I e n ... _ 50 • JULY 11 , 2001 119

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