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/128128
By 30 YEARS ABO••• IIOVEMBER 9, '971 A photo of Terry Dorsch on a faux TV screen was placed on the cover of Issue *43 in honor of Dorsch being cast in the ABC movie "Race of Champions·... Also on the cover was the announcement that the 1973 ISDT would be held in the United States. The honor of hosting the ISDT had previously belonged to the defending champs, but, with communist countries seemingly unbeatable, the FlM was exploring other options... After publishing in our race coverage of the Ontario 250 that Kenny Roberts retired with a fuel-starved engine after not pittin9 for gas, Don Vesco wrote in to Cycle News to point out that Roberts had more than half a gallon of gas left when his engine quit due to a blown cylinder base gasket with about half a lap to go ... Ten days after Evel KnieveJ set a new indoor jump record of 14 cars, young Joe Einhom jumped 130 feet, the equivalent of about 20 cars, on a Triumph Bonneville in San Jose. 20 YEARS ABO... IIOVEMBER 4, 1981 Kawasaki's new Uni-Trak GPz550 was photographed as one of the manufacturer's early release models for 1982. The new features on the bike included the aforementioned Uni- Trak suspension, new carbs and a new airbox... We covered the 68th Paris Motorcycle Show, and among the attention grabbers was Yamaha's 1982 XJ 650 Turbo, which was reportedly quite fast, but may have looked even faster... We published a couple of pages of photo outtakes from the Italian ISDE. Among them was a picture of Larry Roeseler carrying the American flag down a street in front of dozens of American riders... We rode the brand-new Mike Hallwood Replica Ducati goOR. Although impressed by the performance, we were less so by the $8000 price tag... At a .motocross race at Orange County Intemational Raceway, the 125cc Intermediates and 125cc Pros were run together, because of a short turnout of racers for each class. The surprise of the night occurred when Team Green 125cc Intermediate Taylor Marcell beat Team Kawasaki's Jeff Ward heads up in both motos. '0 YEARS ABO... IIOVE.BER 6, 1991 Team Honda's Jean-Michel Bayle graced the cover of Issue #43, our 1991 MX Season Review Issue. Bayle won the 1991 250cc Supercross, 250cc National Motocross and 500cc National Motocross Championships - the first and only person ever to do so in a single season. We interviewed Bayle about his season and his thenupcoming switch to road racing after defending his titles and he said he is a person who always needs a new challenge... Amateur road racer Colin Edwards won a record five crowns during the AMA/CCS Race of Champions at Daytona. He won Amateur Solo GTO by 40 seconds over Jamie Bowman, Amateur Heavyweight Superbike by 26 seconds, Amateur Middleweight GP, Amateur Heavyweight Supersport and Amateur Ughtweight GP... Jean-Michel Bayle won round one of the Masters of Motocross Series in France by winning two of the three motos. The other moto was won by second- place man Stefan Everts (Suzl ... Doug Henry, Ron Tichenor and Gene Naumec topped the 125, 250 and 500cc Pro classes at the Kawasaki Race of Champions, respectively. ord of advi.ce: Never get into a racing battle with a chubby guy during a stadium race. I learned this lesson firsthand during the MaxxisfBBR Editors' Challenge that was held in conjunction with the THQ U.S. Open in Las Vegas, Nevada's MGM Grand Garden Arena, the day after the headline event. During the journalist competition, I was involved in a multi-lap, midpack tussle with Dirt Bike magazine's Tim Tolleson, whose ample girth has earned him the nickname "Lumpy.' As soon as I hooked on to my portly rival, who was sporting pumpkin-orange Moose gear in honor of Halloween, the crowd started getting involved, and they definitely weren't rooting for the tall, skinny guy with glasses (though also adorned in orange gear, I was more reminiscent of a carrot than a pumpkin). I first got the call a couple of months ago from Clear Channel's Denny Hartwig, who was checking around with the various motorcycling publications to gauge the interest in such an event. It seems tire-maker Maxxis and noted chassis-builder BBR (Brown Brothers Racing) were interested in teaming up to showcase their high-performance products in the hands of a carefully selected group of talentless hacks, and to raise some money for charity. Red flags went up immediately upon receiving the invitation: The choice was completely mine, and racing such trick, expensive minibikes on a stadium track was truly a tantalizing, once-in-a-Iifetime opportunity, but the potential for humiliation was obvious. And since I recognized that answering in the affirmative would commit BBR to considerable expense in preparing a machine, there was no possibility of my backing out (although a few other nameless scribes ultimately proved to share no such qualms). After a few moments of deliberation, I accepted the offer, vowing to myself that I would spend every free moment until race day training and practicing to ensure only a minimum of mortification when the big day came (the editors' race would be filmed for television, and would take place in front of the Sunday crowd for the amateur arenacross finals). I was all too aware that several of my colleagues are impressively quick, and despite Hartwig's promises to the contrary, I assumed that at least one or two "designated hitters" would end up competing as well. W FINAL MOTO CHRIS JONNUM perimeter frame, along with such trickery as the triple clamp, fuel tank and exhaust system. And of course, they're shod with Maxxis' new Maxxcross IT tires. Obviously, the bikes aren't cheap, yet the brothers Brown can't seem to make them fast enough (our race bikes were displayed in the pits all weekend long and were sold long before our Sunday race). To begin said race, I emulated my hero Jeremy McGrath (whose number two my bike shared) by lining up on the far outside of the start gate, as he had done all weekend long. Like McGrath, I got pinched out in the first turn and exited nearly dead last, but that's about where the similarities ended. Whereas McGrath had shredded through the pack with apparent ease, I proceeded to get passed on the first straightaway by the only two bikes that were behind me - a pair of Yamaha YZ250F -powered monsterminis piloted by BBR employees (who had kindly allowed the pack to depart ahead of them, but who lacked the patience to await me further). My race took a turn for the better when a couple of my faster rivals literally took a turn for the worse, hitting turf in a corner near the stadium's exit. That allowed me to overtake them and gave me the inspiration to put a legitimate pass on another editor - at least I wouldn't be finishing last. I moved up one more position when another rider took a spill, and the next racer in my crosshairs as I began lap four was the popular Lump. Time was quickly running out in the six-lap race (the leaders were already threatening to lap me), but I figured I could zap Lumpster over the step-up finish-line jump, about the only obstacle on the track over which I was getting air. He had noted my presence, however, and much to my amazement, Lumpy pinned it and leapt, making it to the top much more easily than I had been doing, despite my 70-pound advantage. This move drew a roar of approval from the crowd, and when the powerto-weight ratio finally proved too much for Lumpy to overcome, I proved that although I might not be the fastest motorcycle rider in the world, I am most assuredly a fast learner: My pass on the Lump took place in the tunnel - away from the view of the crowd. CN For more information on BBR, log on to www.bbrmotorsports.com. Predictably, the constraints of a weekly deadline thwarted my best intensions, and when my wife and I made our drive out to Vegas, I had only a couple of days on full-sized motocrossers under my belt - and not a single minute on my race steed. Imagine my concern, therefore, when a perusal of the weekend's schedule revealed that I would get only 10 such minutes prior to the starting gate dropping on the Editors' Challenge, as that was the amount of time allotted to our practice session (and as there was only a baker's dozen of us competing, no qualifying heats would be necessary). Thus it was that I found myself studying the track during Friday and Saturday's Pro races, when I should have been diligently taking notes for my race report. Despite the intensity of my scrutiny, however, I came away with little in the way of useful information, as the levels of rider-talent and bike-power were exponentially higher than what I would have to work with. The author chases glory and the Lump during the MlIXIlislBBR Edito...• Challenge. During the 10-minute Sunday-morning practice session, I had just enough time to learn three things: 1) The track - thank God - had been tamed down considerably, via the removal of a whoop section and a rhythm section; 2) I was still going to get my butt handed to me; and 3) I wanted one of those motorcycles for myself. Washington-based BBR begins with a Yamaha TTR125 and a Honda CR80, and then proceeds to tear them apart and toss the majority of the parts on the dust heap. The TTR motor is retained (but only after being bored out to 150cc), as are the wheels, suspension components, and plastic from the CR. BBR hand-fabricates the CR250-style aluminum Coming up in Cycle News • 2002 WR426F • Indiana GNCC Finale • lWMC Enduro Due •• n e _ so • OCTOBER 31, 2001 107