Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Brown (Kaw) took the overall 'n at round two of the AMA National hampionship Hare & Hound Series in urphy, Idaho, March 24. After swapping eads with Ty Davis (Yam) for much of he 100-mile race, Brown pulled away, king the checkers by almost a minute ver Davis (who took first in the Vet lass). Russ Pearson (Yam) finished a lose third, first 250, and Shane sposito (Kaw) and David Pearson Kaw) rounded out the top five overall. efending H&H Champion and first-round 'nner Destry Abbott was a no-show. bbott is still recuperating from a disloated shoulder suffered the previous eek at the WORCS race in Lake Havau City, Arizona. arcy Lange (Kaw) was a two-class inner at the final round of the Speed tick National Arenacross Series in Tacoa, Washington, March 23-24. Lange on Friday's 125cc Pro main, topping rad Hagseth (Suz) and Phil awrence (Suz). Recently crowned hamp Josh Demuth (Yam) scored a 'n in the 250cc final. finishing ahead of ange and Gavin Gracyk (Kaw>' emuth and Lange split wins on Satury, with Demuth capturing a 125cc win ver Lange and Tom Kelley. Lange, agseth and Demuth went 1-2-3 in the 50cc main event. ccording to AMA Pro Racing, the arley-Davidson factory dirt track eam has withdrawn its appeal of the our-race suspension that was served fter team rider Rich King was found to ave an over-sized engine at the BarNille, Florida, Hot Shoe National event n March 6. King will keep the points that e earned at both Municipal Stadium vents in Daytona while the issue was nder appeal, but the four-race suspenion will now include both AMAIProgres- sive Insurance U.S. Flat Track rounds scheduled at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Memorial Day Weekend. Thus the penalty ultimately becomes more severe in the sense that - since it was to include both Hot Shoe and U.S. Flat Track events - King's suspenSion is spread over four Grand Nationals instead of just three (the traditional Friday night Municipal Stadium Short Track is a Hot Shoe event>. King will be eligible for competition again at the Hagerstown Half Mile on June 1. Repsol Honda factory team riders Valentino Rossi and Tohru Ukawa ended the two-day HRC Suzuka test session in Japan on a high note on March 20, with both men slashing over a second off their best times of day one, according to HRC. But. in the end, it was Fortuna Honda Gresini rider Daijiro Katoh - on his two-stroke NSR500 - who emerged from the test with the best lap times. Katoh, the non-defending 250cc World Champion, lapped at 2:04.44 around the 3.63-mile Suzuka Circuit - just a tick above Loris Capirossi's pole position time for last year's Japanese Grand Prix. Valentino Rossi, meanwhile, ripped off a 2:04.53 on the V-five. "Today was a good day for us, testing was much better than yesterday. Here at Suzuka, there seems to be little difference between the four-stroke RCV and the NSR twostroke. But I'm happy with my machine as we found better settings than we tried on the first day, particularly on the suspension. Now I'm looking forward to the final test here, just before the Grand Prix. I'm sure what we learned here will help improve the RCV still further." Ukawa, meanwhile, lapped at 2:05.10. "I'm happy with the results of the two-day test. We worked quite hard on testing many tires, then tire and suspenSion combinations. We did so many laps today and the results were positive. The RCV develop- ment is definitely going in the right direction, but there is little between the RCV and NSR, the two machines are well-balanced here at Suzuka." Well-balanced enough that Katoh was the qUickest of the three on his NSR500. "My NSR500 was really good today. like everybody else at the test, we concentrated on tires and suspenSion to get the bike set up before trying for fast times. My team did a good job for me and I'm very satisfied. I could not have gone faster with the settings we used. I'm still learning about the 500, but it's not easy, and we will test here again before the Grand Prix. I'm ready for that. " The AMA has strongly denounced a proposal by the European Union to slap Harley-Davidson motorcycles with a stiff tariH in a trade war with the United States over steel. according to a release Issued by the AMA. To retaliate against tariffs recently placed on imported steel by the United States, Pascal Lamy, trade commissioner of the 15-nation European Union, is assembling a list of American goods that could be subject to heavy European tariffs. The list includes HarleyDavidson motorcycles, Tropicana orange juice, textiles and steel products. If the proposal is approved by the European Union, Harleys could be hit with the tariff in about a year. "There is no reason for motorcycles to be caught up in this trade war," said Edward Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations. "Tariffs would not only be detrimental to the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, but could make Harleys too expenSive for European enthUSiasts. Harley-DaVidson is being made a pawn in a high-stakes international chess match. " The AMA plans to work with European motorcycling groups to convince the European Union to drop the idea of tariffs on Harleys. This isn't the first time that motorcycles have been Reigning 400cc Four-Stroke World Champion Stefan Merriman c1airned overall victory at the second round of the Enduro World Championship in OUveira do Hospital, Portugal, on March 24 with outright wins on days one and two. With dry-and-dusty conditions replacing the wet-and-muddy trails of the opening round of the championship, the 29-year-old factory Husqvama rider from Australia finished 20 seconds ahead of Finn Juha Salminen (KTM) on day one, and 17.5 seconds ahead of Husqvarna teammate Samuli Aro on day two. In the 125cc class, Finn Petteri Silvan rode his CH Racing Husqvarna to two class wins ahead of Swede Richard Larsson on both days. Silvan's teammate and fellow countryman Samuli Aro claimed victory in the 250cc class with wins on days one and two while TM rider Simon Wilk took second on day one with round-one winner David Knight (UFO Corse Yamaha) claiming second on day two, Former AMA National Hare Scrambles Champion Paul Edmondson (pictured) claimed the overall win in the 250cc four-stroke class with a winning performance on day one, followed by a runner-up spot to Swede Pater Bergvall on day two. Claiming overall victory as well as topping the 400cc FourStroke class, Merriman finished ahead of Juha Salminen (KTM) on day one and ahead of former GP motocross rider Matts Andreasson (UFO Corse Yamaha) on day two. Finn Marko Tarkkala (Husaberg) finished third on day one and fourth on day two_ Claiming Husqvarna's fourth overall class win was Swede Anders Eriksson in the 500cc Four-Stroke division. Taking the class win on both days, ahead of Bjome Carlsson (Husaberg) and Mika Ahola (Vor) on day one and then Ahola and Carlsson on day two, the fivetime World Champion now sits comfortably at the top of the halfliter four-stroke World Championship. Jontl Edmunds cucla caught up in a trade war between the United States and Europe. Several years ago, U.S. trade officials threatened to impose a 100-percent import duty on certain European motorcycles sold in the United States, which would have essentially doubled their price. Those import duties were being proposed in retaliation for the European Union's ban on the importation of hormone-treated American beef. U.S. officials drew up a list of products that would be subject to a l00-percent import duty, including European motorcycles ranging from 51 cc to 500cc in engine displacement. Thanks to the efforts of the AMA, its members and the motorcycle industry, U.S. trade officials deCided against imposing the 100-percent import duty on the European motorcycles, according to the AMA. His Royal Highness The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, visited the fire-damaged Triumph motorcycle factory in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, on March 21 in his role as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. according to a release issued by Triumph. He met with company represen· tatives and staff at the factory on Jacknell Road, which had part of one of the manufacturing facilities damaged by fire last Friday. The Duke's activities in this new role will be in support of British Trade Intemational CBn>, the government body set up to support U.K. companies trading internationally and encourage foreign investment. Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Aaron Gobert, who was seriously injured in a crash during the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race at Daytona on March 8, flew home to Lake Elsinore, Califomia, on March 22, according to Yamaha's Tom Halverson. "Aaron is flying home today, actually gets home late tonight." Halverson, Anthony Gobert's crew chief, said on March 22. "He had his final surgery there a couple of days ago to have a skin graft on his shoulder. He looks good, he feels good. his spirits are high. He was really excited to be flying home." Because Gobert suffered collapsed lungs caused by broken ribs in the crash. along with a broken right leg. broken right ankle, broken right collarbone and shoulder blade, there was some question about whether he would be able to fly commercially or would need a chartered jet. Halverson said he wasn't certain how Gobert was flying home. As for when he would return to racing, Halverson said, "He's actually aiming for California Speedway, but I think it's very. very optimistic. It's good that he's thinking that way. Realistically we're looking at Sears Point, which would be really, really great. We'll see how healing process goes. He's raring to go. That's half the battle." Halverson had just finished loading the truck for next week's three-day test at Laguna Seca, which he didn't believe Aaron Gobert would attend, even to spectate. "It's too soon for him to be getting around like that. " n a_51; • APRIL 3, 2002 1 ] ] ,...... J r'\ o 8 J o 8 " =< J J J o o ~ ] J J J CJ o o

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