Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS ASO••• APIIIL 18, 1972 An animated motocrosser was placed on the cover of Issue 1/ 14, and the photo was accompanied by not even a headline... The first Ascot Half Mile of the year took place in Gardenia, California, and Gary Scott (Tri) was the rider of the night, as he won both the Trophy Dash and the 15-lap final. Gene Romero (Tri) and Keith Mashburn (Yam) rounded out the top three in the final... "Hangtown 3," as it was called, was held with a CMe sanction, promoted by Evel KnIevel (who Jumped at the event), and the main classes were won by Tom Rapp (125cc Senior), Brad Lackey (25OCc Senior), and Bob Grossi (Open Senior)... Larry Huber (H-D) was the only rider to go over the top of the Wiclowmaker Hillclimb, which won him the Exhibition class. The next closest to climbing the hill was second place in the Exhibition class, Jim True (H-D), who went 590 feet. 2D YEARS ASO••• APRIL 21, 1982 American Honda's Donnie Hansen Jumped his practice bike across the cover of Issue 1114, and inside we interviewed the star. Hansen reportedly started racing in TTs, but eventually he moved on to motocross, adapted quickly, and was an Expert in six months... Graeme Crosby (Yam) completed the sweep of "both 200s" by winning not only the Daytona 200 earlier in the year, but also the lmola 200. Marco Lucchlnelli (Hon) fmished second... Round one of the 500cc World Road Racing Championship Series in Argentina fell to Kenny Roberts (Yam) by a hair. Barry Sheene (Yam) finished second, while rookie Freddie Spencer (Hon) finished third... Terry Cunningham (Hus) topped round four of the AMA One-Day Qualifier Series in Maplesville, Alabama. His Husqvarna teammate Ed Lojak finished second ... Bryan Myerscough and Dan Ashcraft took turns beating up the competition at the Viewfinders MC Riverside Grand Prix, held at Riverside Intemational Raceway. 10 YEARS A6D..• APRIL 15, 1992 Team Honda's Jean-Michel Bayle graced the cover of Issue II14 as he led the 500cc U.S. GP field in one of the three motos that he won. He even won the second moto with a flat rear tire. Kawasaki's Jeff Matlasevich fmished second overall with 2-3-3 moto finishes, while American GP contender Billy Ules (Hon) fmished third... Mlck Doohan (Hon) won the series opening Suzuka 500cc RR GP. Suzuki teammates Doug Chandler and Kevin Schwantz rounded out the podium... Greg A1bertyn won his very first World Championship GP in the 125cc class at the opening round In Jerez, Spain... Scott Summers (Hon) continued his dominance of the GNCC Series with his third straight win at round three in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee ... Paul Krause (Kaw) won round three of the AMA District 37 Enduro Series in Red Mountain, California... The Devil's Ridge MX in Sanford, North Carolina, saw Matt Walker (Kaw) top the 65cc (7-11) class over Travis Pastrana (Suz). The Supermini class went to Robbie Horton (who won the 65cc 12-13 class as well), over Walker and Pastrana. Pastrana DNF'd the 65cc (7-11) class, though. HENNY RAY ABRAMS oday, we turn our attention to the ludicrous pit-stop regulations at Daytona and the AMA's whimsical enforcement of the rules. Though they'd rather it not be made publiC, the AMA fined all four Japanese Superbike teams for various pit-lane violations during the Daytona 200. American Honda was fined $500 when Dunlop's Jim Allen handled the delaminated rear tire that came off Kurtis Roberts' Erion Honda RC5l. Yoshimura Suzuki was fined $500 when a tire that was taken off the back of Jamie Hacking's GSX-R750 inadvertently ended up on the pit road. Yamaha was fined $500 because Tom Halverson was signaling where Anthony Gobert should stop. And Kawasaki was fined $1000 for having their jack-stand man operate from the cold side of the pit wall. That's the short version. The truth, as always, is more enlightening. First, a little background. Starting in 2001, the AMA mandated that, as a way of leveling the field between the factories and the privateers, they'd allow only four men over the wall during pit stops. They went even farther in 2002 by outlaWing pneumatic jack-stands. On closer scrutiny, the folly of this is apparent and, in fact, punitive toward the privateers. Because they have $30,000 quickchange forks and $12,000 quickchange swingarms, the factory teams can change front and rear tires and dump fuel in around 10-11 seconds. Without such equipment, privateers need more, not less, help to complete their stop. By adding two more men, the factory teams figure they could save 2 to 2 1/2 seconds per stop, five seconds over the course of the race. "That's cheaper than finding five seconds trying to buy parts off the Japanese manufacturers," one crew chief said. And, in the end, does it really matter to the privateers? Ground Zero Racing's Woody Deatherage rode well to finish seventh. But he was more than two laps down on American Honda's Nicky Hayden. Would he have been crest-fallen to finish two laps, and five seconds down? The eighth-place finisher, HSA of Stanford's Brian Livengood, was three-lapsplus down on Hayden. That's nearly six minutes. I'm guessing that five seconds more wouldn't have caused him much angst. Having more personnel over the wall would also be safer. Yoshimura Suzuki would have had someone to catch the tire, instead of watching it bounce away because the AMA pit monitor was in the way. "They happened to be standing against the wall when I flicked the wheel over to the wall [where a team member was waiting on the cold side to catch itl," Yoshimura Suzuki's Peter Doyle said. "We ended up getting fined." Honda was fined because Dunlop's Jim Allen grabbed the tire that was taken off Roberts' bike and handed it to a fellow Dunlop employee on the cold pit. ObViously, Dunlop wanted to hide T Chicaner the destroyed tire as quickly as possible. The fine was $500, which suggests one violation. But Allen says that he also handled Nicky Hayden's tire during at least one, if not both of his changes, and wasn't penalized. And why should Honda be fined for something Dunlop did? Anticipating the AMA's reaction, Allen checked with them prior to the race and was told that he would not be counted as one of the four team members over the wall. And yet, the fine was assessed. Allen offered to pay the fine, but Honda declined. Yamaha was the first to get fined. After signaling where Anthony Gobert should stop feor his first pit stop, but not touching the YZF- 750, Yamaha's Tom Halverson noUced he was being scrutinized by an AMA official. Halverson pulled him aside before the second pit stop and asked if anything was wrong. "Oh yeah," he was told, "you've already got a Code 2 violation." Told that the rulebook allows a fifth member over the wall for signaling, the AMA rep replied, "I don't really want to discuss that now, but you definitely have a violation and you'll have another one if you do it again." The rulebook says that four crewmembers are allowed over the pit wall for servicing. A fifth can man the fire extinguisher. The rulebook also states: Any other crewmembers on the track side of the pit wall above the maximum of five involved with the motorcycle are allowed to perform timing/signaling duties only" - which is what Halverson was doing. Knowing how the AMA operates, Halverson and team manager Keith McCarty had clarified the rule with AMA officials prior to the race and were assured it was legal. Afterward, the AMA's response was that, sure it says that, but by the supplemental regulations you can only signal in the area after the International Horseshoe, which is an entirely separate issue. The AMA kind of blended the two regulations together as a means to fine Yamaha $500. Kawasaki was fined $1000 and it was the best $1000 they spent in Florida. Prior to Daytona, Suzuki was told by AMA road race manager Ron Barrick . that they could use as many people as they wanted on the cold side of the pit wall, as long as there were only four on the hot side. The team built stands and made preparations to have the jack man on the cold side of the pit wall. A week before they left to go to the race, the day before they were loading the truck, they were told by Barrick that no one was allowed to work from the cold side of the pit wall. During the rider's briefing at Daytona, they were told that a fifth person over the wall would bring a $500 fine and a loss of five championship points. Barrick said $500 doesn't affect the factory teams, but five points does. And five points doesn't affect the privateer teams but $500 does. It gets everybody. The points are the issue. Since the Japanese Superbike teams spend well cue' e clear of $60,000 for Daytona, the teams would gladly pay $1000 to save time. It's the points that hurt. Kawasaki had used a fifth man from the cold side of the pit wall at Virginia International Raceway last year, so they knew how to do it. At the road race advisory board meeting before Daytona, the issue was raised and the AMA's response was that Kawasaki knew it wasn't legal. Yet they did it for both of Eric Bostrom's pit stops and were told they'd be fined $1000. No mention was made of points, nor have points been assessed according to the standings on the AMA Pro Racing Web site. They got away with one. "They're loose cannons," Yoshimura Suzuki's Peter Doyle said. "They pick and choose who they want to slap fines on and what the amounts are and do it at will." I asked Kawasaki's Mike Preston about it at the recent Superbike test at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Preston, who it must be said has always been forthcoming and helpful, wouldn't discuss it. Not only would he not discuss it, he wouldn't say why he wouldn't discuss it. He was polite, but unyielding. The AMA's Ron Barrick was less cheerful. When Paul Carruthers, the editor of Cycle News, called for clarification of the violations, Barrick questioned the news value of it and refused to discuss specifics. Instead, Barrick suggested Cycle News should instead write about the safety changes at Sears Point, which instantly exposed him as a nonCN Web-head. On March 22, editor Carruthers posted Nicky Hayden's glowing review of the Sonoma facility on cyclenews.com under the headline, "Hayden Likes Sears, Goes Dirt Tracking." What Barrick would say was that some of the teams were fined $500 for having too many men on the hot pit during pit stops in the 200, though one team was fined $1000 for "having a person from the cold pit lane actuating the jack." He also said Honda was fined $500 "when Dunlop tire technician Jim Allen "assisted" them. It's easy to understand why Barrick would dissemble. He's the one who said the violations would incur points and he's the one who should dock Kawasaki, unless he spoke to Preston beforehand and told him that he would be fined but not penalized. Technically, Kawasaki didn't have five people over the wall. But, in practice, they're the only ones who demonstrated a clear disregard for the spirit of the rule, if not the actual rule itself. Kawasaki's slippery escape has the other teams understandably seething. Their violations were all incurred without any attempt to gain an advantage. As one team member said, "You expect incompetence in a group like that, that big, but you don't expect to be bullshitted to." eN n • _. • APRIL 10, 2002 95

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