Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Jeff Thomas overcame the weather and three-time 800cc National Champion James U Jammer" Large (H·D) to sweep the 540 and 800cc classes in round 10 of the AMA National Championship Hillclimb Series in Danville. New York. Thomas (Hon) was the first rider in the 540cc class. and he ran a 9.516 that ultimately would give him the win over Chad Disbennett (Tril and James Wolfe (Hon). Rain hit the event after the first round of the 540cc class, but Thomas (Yam) set the day's fastest time of 9.353 to overtake early leader Large. Tiger Strank Jr. (Yam) rounded out the top three. Billy Martin (Rtx) won the Open Pro class during round 10 of Gene Romero's E-Moola.com West Coast Flat Track Series at Placerville Speedway in Placerville. California, on August 18. Lonnie Pauley (W-R) was second, and Don Howard (Rtx) was third. Rod Spencer (Yam) beat Robert Cunnington (Yam) to win the Open Vintage class, and Chris Canepa (Yam) won the 250cc Novice class. Both Cunnington an.d Canepa clinched their respective class championships at Placerville. Peter Fonda. the writer, producer and star of the classic 1969 film" Easy Rider." has been named Grand Marshal of the K&N Filters Del Mar Weekend, October 6-7, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds near San Diego. The Golden Globe-winning actor will participate in a parade lap and the opening ceremonies of Sunday's Formula USA/Drag Specialties National Dirt Track season finale. Fonda will meet and greet fans throughout the weekend's festivities, including an appearance at Saturday's Formula USA Pro Singles championship short track. Fonda. who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in 1997' s "Ulee' s Gold: appeared in the 1993 documentary" Harley-Davidson: The American Motorcycle" and hosted 1999's" Motorcycles: Born to be Wild." The 62-year-old thespian is an avid motorcycle enthusiast who rides regularly in his spare time. Speedway motorcycle racing will be making its debut in the middle of Nascar country when Cape Fear Harley-Davidson presents speedway at Hammer Down Raceway in Fayetteville, North Carolina, August 31 -September 1. Practice on the fifth-mile oval will be held on August 31, with the race scheduled for September 1. There will be a $2500 pro purse. For more information. call 919/380-9720. or email: kempronny@hotmail.com. Qualifying for the 2001 Yamaha New South Wales Road Racing Championships at Oran Park in Sydney, Aus- Nothing exceptional happened on the final day of testing at Virginia International Raceway for Yoshimura Suzuki on August 16, and to team manager Don Sakakura, that was good thing. There'd been enough travail earlier in the fourday test - both Jamie Hacking and Aaron Yates had crashed, and Hacking and Mat Mladin had suffered engine problems that a day of nothing but track time was both welcome and productive. "Aaron [Yates] had a crash yesterday pretty early on in the morning: Sakakura said on Thursday evening from Danville. "We just wanted to get him back on the bike again and just get some time on the seat again.» Sakakura sald that too much throttle had caused Yates to highside in the slow-speed right-hand turn one. Yates hit his head and was bruised up, but he didn't injure the wrist he'd broken at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca last month. The wrist is back at 1DO-percent strength. "I think he bruised his ankle a little bit: Sakakura said. "He was fine today. He was hobbling around a bit. It was good to get him back on the bike again. Got going fairly well today, again, so it's good." Hacking's spill came earlier in the test and he was unhurt. Yates' best time was a ]:27.1-minute lap, about half a second behind the ] :26.5 tumed in by teammate Hacking, and a second off the 1:26 flat that M1adin turned on August 15. Sakakura said that Yates and Hacking both rode their Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbikes exclusively on Thursday. They'd ridden their GSX-R600s on Wednesday. Yates' best on the 600 was a ] :29.4, with Hacking's best a 1:29.6. M1adin didn'l take part in the final day of the test, leaving Thursday morning for Colorado Springs to prepare for next week's round 12 of the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship at Pike's Peak International Raceway. The only thing that slowed Mladin down was a top-end problem. Both he and Hacking had engine problems, though neither was related to the clutch or piston problems M1adin's had in recent races. "There's some revisions to the components already for the next race: Sakakura said. "The clutch got resolved. We found the problem there: he said, referring to the plston problem which caused an engine failure on the last lap at Mid-Ohio, "and they sent us the new parts and we ran them for the three days and didn't have a problem at all with it. We're just going through trying to conserve on the compo' nents and I think we found the limits of how far we can actually run these pieces. Obviously, we're going to have to tralia, was disrupted after an incident during the opening Sidecar qualifying session on August 18 claimed the life of passenger Russell White. Taking part in the first qualifying session for the opening round of the Australian Sidecar two sidecar outfits were involved in an incident at the end of Oran Park's main big screens to entertain everyone on Saturday night: Barrick's email states. "VIR is a great facility and the management is working very hard to promote this first-time event. If you have experience and would like to help make this a safe and exciting event, or want more information. contact: Ron Barrick, 703/250-3034, 703/250-3152 (fax) or e-mail at rbanrick@ama-cycle.org. straight. As a result of the incident, White was killed. Driver Robin McGregor escaped uninjured. but was treated by medical staff for shock. The driver Dan Watson, the father of injured hillclimber David Watson. contacted Cycle News on August 17 with good news about his son's condition. As of August 17. Watson' s condition had vast- and passenger on the second outfit were transported to the hospital with the driver Warren Bruce suffering a fractured arm and ribs. while passenger Mark Patterson suffered a broken hand. The circumstances relating to the acci- ly improved from earlier in the week when he was listed in critical condition following a motocross accident on August 12. According to Dan Watson, David was up out of bed for a while and was in a jovial and joking mood. Watson still had a tube in his chest to help keep fluids from building up, and will remain in the hospital for another week. Cards and letters can be sent to Watson Racing, c/o Dan Watson, Alden St .. Ludlow, MA.Ol056. dent are currently under investigation. according to event promoters. AMA Pro Racing is recruiting corner marshals to work at the season finale AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship event at Virginia International Raceway, September 28-30. according to an e-mail from road racing manager Ron Barrick. Barrick says that workers will be paid $50 per day and lunches will be provided. Event admission. special area camping and an event T-shirt are free for all workers, he says. "In addition to what should be some Scott Russell will make his return to the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship at Pikes Peak International Raceway, August 24-26. but only during practice. The Georgian, who's still recovering from injuries suffered in a great racing. VIR management is planning to show classic racing movies on replace them a little more often. We're fortunate to have it happen here rather than Pike's Peak. It seems like towards the end of the season there's always something. A full year of abuse to the engine, they're starting to show the weak points, I think." Mladin is famously hard on engines. The team knows to build in a certain amount of overrev, but revving to 16,000 rpm takes it toll. "He's pretty hard on them, but, knock on wood again, we've been pretty fortunate, for the races anyway" Sakakura said. StiJI, Mladin was the fastest and most consistent at the test. After lapping at a hand-timed best of 1:26.45 on Tuesday, August 14, Mladin dropped nearly half a second to a best of 26-flat the next day. "We made a bunch of improvements," M1adin said. "The track got to about'S] degrees ICelsius - 128 degrees Fahrenheit) track temperature, so it was pretty warm. I could still pretty much consistently run mid-sixes, so I'm pretty happy." The rider coming closest to his time was American Honda's Nicky Hayden, who lapped at a best of 1:26.3, but who also lapped consistently in the 26s. "For the most part yesterday [Tuesday) I was just barely in the 26s, and today I got in a pretty string of them." Hayden said. "For the most part we're pretty happy." What made Hayden the happiest was simply riding. American Honda tested two days last week and two more this week, those four days being the first time they've tested the Superbike since Daytona in March. "It was a really good opportunity for us." Hayden said. "We went through a lot of stuff that Japan's had that we've had the last week, at Brainerd and a few places. that we never had time to really try. We had some different links for the chassis. More than anything I was just excited to be able to ride. I got to do a lot of riding over the four days. I was happy to get a lot of good track time in and learn the track and work on belng smooth." Though M1adin's and Hayden's days were productive and uneventful, the same can't be said for a number of others. "Aaron [Yates] got off, Kurtis [Roberts) got off today. Anthony [Gobert) got off the 600," Mladin said. "A few of the lads got off. I'm not sure what it was. The track was better today than it was yesterday as far as grip goes." Hayden said it was a, "little bit better this week. The track was a little bit greasy in the mornings the first day. Some guys seemed to think the track was better last week, but actually I think the track was better this week. Last week it was really hot. It was three digits in the afternoon. So as soon as the track would heat up last week, it was greasy." Hayden praised the layout, though he said that passing would be a problem. "I like it. It's tight and it's going to be tough to pass on, but I don't think it'll be any harder to pass here than it is at Loudon. It's good. j'm kind of excited about it just because it's a new track. It'll be something different. Mladin found a few areas of concern that he said track management was willing to address. "There were a couple of little things that I asked the people at the track to take a look- at, and if they can take care of it before the race it would be good. One of them was some Armco where Jamle Hacking crashed on the 600 and made it to the Armco. The Armco there is protruding into our space, I suppose, you could say, and they're very keen on moving it. And there was another one of the curbings that you could hook your knee on pretty easy and they're going to fix that up before the race, and other than that I really couldn't tell any problems." The 2.25-mile. ]7·turn track has some of the same characteristics as Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, flat and banked turns, elevation changes, and the Roller Coaster, a kindred spirit of the Monterey Corkscrew. "It was nice to be on a little road course: Mladin said. "Everyone said that it's tiny and short; we should be running the long course, [The North Course] is the same lap time as Laguna Seca so I can't see how it's that short. Same lap time as Laguna Seca, Colorado Springs is 55 seconds, Loudon is a minute-] 0, so it's obviously not that short." Some riders were lobbying for the 3.27 -mile Full Course and Mladin could see why after a short spin. "I done a few laps on the big course because Miguel [DuHamel) brought up the point that we should be racing on the big course," Mladin said. "And after racing on the big course I can totally understand why he wanted to race on it. It's got a straight that's about 20 miles long. Same old story. Anybody that rides a ] 000 would love to ride on a track with a straight that long." Hayden concurred: "It was a lot more open and stuff. I think the long course would probably suit our bike better just because it's got a big straightaway and stuff. We seem to lately have the fastest bikes. Every man for themselves. 1f I had my pick, I'd say run the long course just because of that. The small course I think should be fun too. The small track is definitely a lot more technical." Henny Ray Abrams cycle n e _ s AUGUST 29,2001 1 CJ o o o o o o 8 J o ] CJ ] l U 1\ -J 'I o J 3 CJ o o 8 o o

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