Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By CHICANERY HENNY RAY ABRAMS 30 YEARS ABO••• SEPTEMBER 21, 11171 Issue #36's cover featured newly crowned Southern California Speedway Champion Mike Bast on his way to the title in Bakersfield, California. The 19-year-old speedway ace won swept all five of his races... Cal Rayborn (H-D) was also featured on the cover after becomln'g the sixth different winner in six rounds of the Yamaha Gold Cup in Arlington Heights, nlinois. Ronnie RaB (Tn) and Chuck Palmgren (Yam) rounded out the top three ... We previewed the very first OnItecl States Grand Prix of Motocross, which was scheduled to take place on September 19, 1971 at Carlsbad Raceway in Califomla on 500cc machines. Then-current points leader Roger DeCoster (Suz) led the list of riders who were making the trek over the Atlantic and was favored to win ... Buena Park, California's Tom Rapp was scheduled to receive an experimental 323cc Bultaco motocrosser to race in the AMA 500cc National Motocross Championship. 20 YEARS ABO••• SEPTEMBER 16, 1f1B1 A piece of art featuring a classic MotoGuzzi was used for the cover of Issue #36, and inside we showed a glimpse of the new 1982 Moto-Guzzi 850 LeMa ns III... The sixth annual AMA Youth MX National Championship, in Reidsville, North Carolina, ran through the rain with a capacity 429-entry turnout. The big winners were Hank Moree Jr. (51 cC), Ronnie Tichenor (65cc, 85cc Modified 7-11), WDtlam Surratt (85cc Stock 7-11), Ron techien (100cc Schoolboy 12-15) and Keith Bowen (125cc Schoolboy 12-15). An interesting note: Davey Coombs (Kaw) finished third in the 100cc Schoolboy (12-15l and fourth in the 125cc Schoolboy (12-15 classes... Mike Baker topped the 175 and 250cc Expert classes back to back at the 23rd annual Dirt Diggers GP in Valencia, California. Jimmy Weinert tumed 30 and promptly won his first Vet Expert race at the event... Niles, Michigan, played host to the AMA Youth/Amateur National Short Track Championship Final, and the 50cc <:I11SS felltured three of today's current lind former stars, The class was won by Larry Pegram (Yam), Mike Hale (Yam) fmished second and Jess Roeder (Itj) was third. 10 YEARS ABO••• SEPTEMBER 1B, 111111 Scott Russel zipped across the cover of Issue #36 on the way to his third superbike win pf the sellson, this one coming at Heartland Pllrk, Topekll. Freddie Spencer and Steve Crevier chllsed him home in second and third, respectively. MIguel DuHamel scored his first-ever pole position in the Superbike class at the event and won the 600cc Supersport event... Raymond Roche (Duc) ended a one-year dry spell by winning both legs of the World Superbike event in Malaysia. Points leader Doug Polen (Duc) finished fourth and fifth in the two legs but retained a massive 281289 points lead over Rob Pblllis after only nine rounds... We rode the Honda's all-new 1992 CR250 and raved about the usual Honda horsepower, but the 1992 machine had a chassis to handle the power, unlike the 1991. The asking price? $4149... We gave a glimpse of Harley-Davidson's two newest models for 1992 - the FXDB Daytona and the Dyna GIlde Custom. The Daytona had an MsRP of $12,120, while the Dyna retailed for $11 ,599. The following column was written by Henny Ray Abrams in January of 1994, after watching the Harley-Davidson VR1000's first test session at Daytona International Speedway. Given the fact that Harley recently pulled the plug on the program, we thought it was fitting to rerun Abrams' thoughts on the program back then... am sitting in the east grandstands at Daytona International Speedway on a brisk winter day and I am watching a pickup truck tow Miguel DuHamel and his Harley-Davidson VR 1000 lessthan-super bike back to the pits for the second time in about an hour, and I am trying to remember when the last time a motorcycle that was towed back to the pits twice, against traffic, won the Daytona 200 by Arai, or by anyone for that matter. And I am stumped. Though, judging from how things are going on the track, it doesn't appear that I'm the most stumped guy at the track this day. The Daytona 200 is 82 days away as I watch, and if I were a betting man, I would bet that Miguel DuHamel need not worry about smuggling the winner's trophy back to Canada at this point, eh. I would also bet that the Harley will not be on the starting grid when the race starts, not because - as some might fear - it won't be able to qualify for the 80-rider field or will be bringing up the rear of the Harley parade or will have its appeal to field a second rider with a pickup truck denied, but because Harley-Davidson, true to their word, will not introduce it until it can complete more than three laps of a racetrack without the aid of a tow rope. And I am not the only doubter at the track this crisp December day. In the grandstands is a fellow motorhead who has brought a radio to monitor the chatter of various track personnel. "He's not going to make it," an anonymous voice says as DuHamel goes out late in the afternoon. He makes one lap and pits, making a liar out of the disembodied voice, though not for long. Soon afterwards he returns to the track on the semifa ired very secret Harley. "He'll be back," the voice with no name says and, sure enough, he comes to a coasting halt in front of a tour van in the West End Horseshoe. Inside the van, one can only imagine what the tour guide is saying. "Ladies and gentlemen, to our left you will see Daytona's famed banking and on our right you will see Miguel DuHamel hitching a ride back to the pits after his alternator just alternated between working and not working. Anybody hungry?" Surely there's an explanation for stopping stone cold a mile from the pits. Would you believe low-speed plug chop? That's the best we motorheads could come up with. We would l like to have asked a spokesperson for an on-the-recqrd comment, but today did not much seem like a record day for the orange and black, unless, of course, they were trying to set a record for amount of assisted returns to the paddock in one afternoon test session. After some fiddling, testing continues and twitching fingers grasp digital watches hoping to quantify the ability of the ultra-secret black beast that a group of tourists from Anywhere, USA has just had a pretty good gander at. There is more at which to gawk. Fritz Kling is riding an equally secret white beast, though with somewhat more success. He hasn't been towed back to the pits at all, though he did make a U-turn once in the International Horseshoe to return to the pits. You ask: "Has anyone ever won the Daytona 200 by making a U-turn in the horseshoe?" Exactly! DuHamel's best flying lap is a 1:57.5, a time that sends the pundits rushing for the reference books, which must be misplaced because all the experts can find is a cooler full of beer and some cameras. The reference books will be later referenced. Hmmm, a 57.5 would put him, let's see, second-fastest 250. Certainly if DuHamel had more time to sort out the suspension, gearing, and tires, his times would drop. Then again, so would Harley's profits. They're spending about $3500 per day for the track, and by the time he's sorted everything out, they'll have spent more money fixing . this thing than NASA spent correcting the stigmatism of the Hubble telescope, which, by the way, has yet to complete a lap of Daytona. Lest you think that I am being unduly harsh about this project, let me attempt to dissuade you, the reading public, Harley has a proud history of building great race bikes, and they win nearly every dirt track that Ricky Graham doesn't. Not only that, but they won every H-D 883 TwinSports race as well as every H-D 883 Dirt Track event, not to mention the HarleyDavidson Continental Cup Championship. Every damned one. Looked it up myself. We know they're serious about winning the AMA Superbike Championship because if they weren't, why would this All-American company, this company that's as American as preservative-enhanced apple pie, liposuction, and drive-by shootings, go out and hire a French Canadian to ride it? Answer me that, ya hoser. The ink on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is barely dry and already it impacts Superbikes, NAFTA, not the ink. And you thought Ross Perot was kidding when he said all the good jobs would go across the border. Wrong border Roscoe. That giant sucking sound Perot spoke of, c U a •• n _ that's DuHamel's accountants vacuuming out the Harley till. There exists a rumor that the good folks in Milwaukee were sensitive to hiring a non-U.S. citizen, or the more politically correct "green card-challenged." The rumor has one of the sticking points in his contract being H-D's insistence that Miguel DuHamel change his name to Mike Hammer. Did anyone ask Stacy Keach about this? Remember, this is just a rumor that I'm trying to start. Send your cards and letters to each other. More likely, they wanted the best rider available because the last thing they'd want to do is put the entire hopes and dreams of Milwaukee on someone that wasn't up to the challenge of greater heights. And DuHamel is an inspired choice. After all, what other former Grand Prix rider can claim to having put a million-dollar YZR500 Yamaha in a tree? And not a little tree, but a Malaysian tree of. many rings, a tall woody plant that you could build a tree house in that could shelter Delaware. Last year, aboard a very competitive Muzzy Kawasaki, DuHamel managed to stay out of the forest and seemed to gain confidence with every race. (I'm being serious now, in case you hadn't noticed.) His finest was the last of the year, a stirring heads-up win over AMA Superbike Champion Doug Polen on the dangerous bends of Sears Point. It had taken him nearly the entire season to get over his year of racing a Grand Prix bike for a team that's as organized as a food fight. If he brings that confidence and momentum to his new home, DuHamel will bring an excitement to racing heretofore unseen. If not, he'll have found somewhere new to tree-park his bike. If I may get serious for a minute, and just a minute, I will admit to hoping the best for the VRlOOO for a number of reasons. The first is the name. Harley-Davidson knows a thing or two about creating brand loyalty, and their mystique is unmatched in American motoring. Having that attached to the highest level of American road racing has got to be a plus, regardless of its success. Secondly, it will force the rules-makers to treat Harley like it would any other V-twin, say Duc:ati. Unless, of course, they exempt Harley from the weight rules and apply them only to V-twins or four-cylinder machines that end in a vowel. The multitude of whiners who claim the AMA is Harley-friendly will have a field day keeping all parties honest, assuming, of course, the whiners don't get a life before the season starts. And, finally, like the ill-fated NRHonda, the initialized VR will spawn a torrent of opprobrium. Very Repairable, Velvet Rattler, Vega Racer, Velocity Reluctant, Vibrating Rock. Let the games begin. eN vv S • SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 123

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