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/128142
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Peden's Country Motors Trailer Sales will
be a new sponsor for Johnny Murphree
and the Coziahr team in 2002 as they pursue the AMAIProgressive Insurance U.S.
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Flat Track Championship. Country Motors
Trailers Sales will provide a 30-foot,
Freightliner-based specialty race hauler for
the teams travel to races across the coun( ' try. Murphree, who finished sixth in the
L, 2001 AMA series, is excited to have
Country Motors Trailer Sales on board
the race team.
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Road racer Gary Fisher will be coming
out of retirement to ride the very same
Krause Honda CR750 he raced in the
Daytona 200 back in 1971 . Fisher will ride
the worldmotorcycles.com-backed bike
on March 4-5 during AHRMA Vintage
Days at Daytona International Speedway.
L.' I addition, Dave Rosno will be racing
worldmotorcycles.com's blue and white
Honda CR750 in AHRMA's F-750 and FVintage classes at Daytona.
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GSE Racing is to partner Ducati U. K. in
the running of the 2002 Monster S4
Challenge, according to GSE. The organization behind the HM Plant Ducati
World Superbike team will act as the sole
race preparation service for the new addition to the British Superbike calendar.
Managing Director of Ducati UK, and creator of the Monster S4 Challenge, Piero
Guidi commented: ·We are extremely
pleased to be working with GSE Racing
on this project. The S4 Challenge is
something very close to my own heart
and to have such a well-respected team
involved is a key element in the organization. Their involvement makes me confident that this exciting series will be a huge
success." Thirty of the 916-engined Monster S4s will be identically prepared using
a range of Ducati Performance products.
The bikes will then be shipped to the circuit ready for the competitors. Each bike
will be prepared for racing by the same
technicians and the machines will then be
randomly allocated before each round in
order to ensure that races will be won
purely on the basis of rider skill.
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Sunday, February 17 from 7:30 to 9 a.m.
at the Hyatt Regency Downtown in Indianapolis, Indiana. Guest speakers will
include motocross chaplain Steve Hudgson with music from Throttle Jockey's
Matt Davis and band.
tard Challenge Series. They will pay riders who are on 2001 or newer Husqvarna bikes at each of the events in the
Premier Supermotard class only, according to the event promoter. For more
information, call 920/912-3009.
The annual Racer X Indy Ice Hockey Tournament will also be held again
during the Indy Trade Show in Indianapolis. Four teams from the motorcycle
industry will compete at the Pan-Am Ice
Center across the street from the RCA
Dome and Convention Center.
Finnish motorcyclist Anssi Vanjoki
has been hit with what could be the
world's biggest speeding fine for doing
75 kph (46 mph) in a 50 kph (31 mph)
zone. Vanjoki has had to sign a check
eqUivalent to $103,638 after being
caught speeding in Helsinki, according
to reports by Reuters. Finnish laws dictate that the fine is means-tested and
since Vanjoki is a senior Nokia executive
on a rather large salary, his payment
was set at the top end of the scale.
Unfortunately for Vanjoki, had he been
riding at just 3 mph less, he would have
only received a relatively tiny fixedpenalty fine. Vanjoki is refusing to discuss the incident, according to the
report.
The AMA has announced that its disaster-relief fundraising campaign,
which was created to help those affected by the tragic events of September
11, 2001, raised a total of $22,678. The
money will be divided evenly between
the- Uniformed Firefighter's Association's ·Widows' and Children's Fund"
and the New York State Fraternal Order
of Police Foundation's "World Trade
Center Police Disaster Fund." The
AMA, which launched the fund raiser on
September 19, collected the net proceeds from the sale of T-shirts bearing a
large American flag, along with the
words, "American Motorcyclists, United
in Remembrance. The 2002 J. Wood & Co. Daytona
Antique & Classic Motorcycle
Auction will take place on Saturday,
March 9 at 1 p.m. at the Edmunds Center in DeLand, Florida. Wood's swap
meet and trade show will be held March
6-9 and his Burroughs Cycle Shop
Estate Auction will take place on Friday.
March 8 at 1 p.m. For more information,
call 352/795-8895.
Off-road racer Kelly Yancey has
signed with KTM to contest the National
Hare & Hound Series and the WORCs
Series, along with the Big 6 Grand Prix
Series, according to a release from
Yancey. He will race a KTM MXC fourstroke.
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Donald Ernald Smith, 65, died on
September 29, 2001. The former dirt
tracker, who wore national number 53,
was one of the original Richmond [Californial Ramblers, racing for the likes of Don
Rossi and Charlie West from 1955 to
1960.
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Former National and Supercross Champion Donnie Hansen will be conducting
schools in Texas and Louisiana prior to
the GNC and Lake Whitney Nationals.
He will be at Mosier Valley on February
21-22, Freestone County Raceway on
February 23-24 and Down South MX on
February 28 and March 1. For information
and registration contact DHMA at
719/495-2624 or visit wwwDHMA.com.
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SuperBikers2 LLC has announced a
contingency program for its mid west
supermotard races. Husqvarna will post
The annual Christian Motorcycle
a total of $4150 to riders competing in
Fellowship Breakfast will be held on
the 2002 SuperBikers2, LLC SuperMon •
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76 FEBRUARY 20, 2002' c u e I e
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According to a report on espn.com ..
Chip Ganassi Racing has confirmed it is
in the process of starting a full-time Indy
Racing League team that would most
likely include Jeff Ward as its driver on
the 15-race schedule. "Jeff is a very talented guy and he deserves an opportunity to drive in that series," Mike Hull,
managing director of Target/Chip
Ganassi Racing, told espn.com. "He has
certainly proven his worth there. We are
a team that wants to win and he has
proven he can do that. That's why his
name is up there."
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Sears Point Raceway has sold out
of its new corporate luxury suites that
are being built above the new permanent
grandstand at start-finish on the road
course for the 2002 racing season, track
officials announced. The 16 suites will
feature an indoor-outdoor design, as
well as upgraded furniture, telephones,
wet bars, padded outdoor seats, air conditioning and private restrooms. Some
extra amenities include Internet access
and a menu of fine Sonoma and Napa
valley wines. The suites are being built
directly above pit road on the road
course.
The AMA has announced its 1D-tour
2002-2003 AMA Tours schedule,
spotlighting two brand-new excursions:
the" Raising Route 66" Tour and the Ireland Tour. The" Raising Route 66" Tour,
scheduled for May 18-31, retraces "The
Mother Road" from Chicago, Illinois to
Santa Monica, California. While scouting
this trip, AMA Tours located and meticulously mapped out over 80 percent of
the original - and often hard-to-find roadway. The tour focuses not only on
Route 66 itself, but also on the roadside
attractions that still survive from the
road's glory days. "Some of the first
long-distance motorcycle trips on pavement followed Route 66," said Frank
Covucci, Director of AMA Travel &
Tours. "Our new Route 66 excursion
helps celebrate long-distance motorcycle travel on the actual road that started
it all.· The Ireland Tour is scheduled for
May 17-30. Although the AMA has hosted tours through the British Isles for
many years, this new-for-2002 excursion
is the first to highlight Ireland. Starting in
London, the Ireland Tour takes in the
annual British Motorcycle Federation
Show in England, before traveling
through Wales and crossing over to Ireland. Several days in Ireland will include
prime motorcycling destinations and Irish
history. "We created the Ireland Tour in
response to requests from many of our
previous tour guests,· said Covucci.
" After sampling most of our other excur·
sions, they convinced us that this should
be the next place to visit with AMA
Tours. "
The Virginia City Motorcycle club has
announced that it will host the The
Grand Prix at Virginia City, April
27-28. According to the promoters, The
Grand Prix at Virginia City will be a
throw back to the old days of racing
when you could ride through the streets
of town. The start, finish and pit area will
be right in the center of town and the
riders will race for three and a half hours
for Expert/Amateurs and two and a half
hours for Novices on a 25·mile loop. It
will be a two-day race with all Novice
racing on Saturday, April 27 and
Expert/Amateur racing on Sunday, April
28. For more information, call 775/8475224.
The Southern California Flat Track
Association will return to the Del Mar
Horse Arena in 2002 with a vintage race
on Sunday, November 5. For more information, email b-sanford@san.rr.com.
Talk about a motorcycling adventure! We
recently received an e-mail from a group
that claims to be organizing an event
called Enduro India, a seven-day ride
on 350cc Royal Enfields across Kerala
and Tamil Nadu in southern India in February of 2003. The trip Is supposed to
raise money for charities including
Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and
MacMillan Cancer Relief. For more information, log on to www.enduroindia.com.
Speaking of motorcycling adventures, if
you enjoyed Chris Jonnum' s coverage
of the recent Dakar Rally, log on to
www.acerbis.com. where Jonnum has
another story posted, along with some
additional photos.
Motorcyclists have picked up support
from U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter (RIdaho) for their campaign to keep the
federal government out of the business
of regulating motorcycle apparel,
according to the AMA. During a hearing
Thursday before the U.S. House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, Otter
spoke out against a federal proposal to
report clothing defects to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSAl. During the hearing, Otter told
NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey Runge
that "It was never the intent of Congress to regulate motorcyclists clothing
under the TREAD