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/128157
G ., 30 YEARS AGO••• JUNE 13, 1972 Harley-Davidson's Brelsford brothers dominated the Louisville Half Mile, with Scott winning the Junior main and Mark winning the 20-lap National. Dave Sehl (H-D) finished second in the National, while Gary Scott ruined the potential Harley sweep by finishing third on his Triumph ... We interviewed new privateer dirt tracker Dave Aldana about life without a factory ride. He said that he wouldn't make all the races because he didn't have the money to travel, even though he was National number three in 1971. Aldana was one of six factory riders left without rides when BSA and Triumph were forced to let them go due to financial difficulties... Saddleback Park in Southern California hosted a hillclimb, and Jeff Ward (Bon) topped the 60-100cc class. Neal Mackel (Trl) won the overall with the fastest time up the hill... At the San Bernardino Valley MC TT Scrambles, Eddie Lawson (Suz) came away with the 50cc win. 20 YEARS AGO••. JUNE 16, 1982 Uving legend Feets Minert graced the cover of Issue #22. Minert reportedly rode his first desert race in 1947, and in 1982 - 35 years later - he was still racing in various disci- plines... Scott Pearson made history by becoming the first Honda rider ever to win an AMA Half Mile event in Lousville, Kentucky. Harley-Davidsons had won the race the previous 15 years. Tun Mertens (H-D) and Gary Scott (H-D) rounded out the podium... The Larry Roeseler/Chuck MiDer team (Yam) won round three of the SCORE/Pernod Off-Road Series In Ensenada, Baja Califomia, Mexico. They won the 450-mile race by four minutes ... Donnie Hansen (Hon) won round seven of the 250cc National MX Series in Braselton, Georgia, with a perfect 1-1 score. Rick Johnson (Yam) finished seventh but still led the points by 20 with one race left. DarreD Shultz (Hon) won the 500cc class with a 2-1 score and led the points after three events. 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 10, 1992 Scott Russell and Doug Polen were both ~;;.:J:J.j:Jj placed on the cover of Issue #22 for our 'Super Superbike Issue.· Russell (Kaw) went 3-9 in two legs of racing at the Belgium WSBK event. while Polen (Duc) went 5-1... Russell also competed in an AM Superbike National in Texas the follOWing week and fmished fifth. Freddie Spencer (Hon) won the event... Jeff Ward announced that he had signed a deal to drive Indy Ughts in the 1993 series for Pacific Investors Group Racing. Ward finished 11 th in the last supercross of his career in Irving, Texas. He wanted to get his shoulder repaired for the outdoor nationals and would have to sit out the last two supercross events... Damon Bradshaw (Yam) won the 250cc main in Texas and trailed Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon) by three in the championship with two races left. Jeff Stanton (Hon) was only another three points behind Bradshaw after the event. The 125cc class was won for the fifth time that year by Jeremy McGrath (Hon), ahead of Ryan Hughes (Kaw) and Jeff Dement (Suz). ~ -- -- arry McCoy will have his feet up this week. Not because he is feeling relaxed. Quite the reverse, one might be sure, after being forced to vacate his Red Bull Yamaha 500 to so famous a replacement as JeanMichel Bayle. It was doubtless to avoid just such an eventuality that the gutsy little Australian got back on-board the thing for the first three GPs of this year, in spite of still being semi-crippled after breaking both bones in his lower right leg in preseason testing at Estoril. By then, Bayle had already tested the bike, which is doubtless why, when he was called in "unexpectedly" on the second day of practice for his home French GP, he already had a perfectly tailored set of Red Bull leathers ready and waiting. It is not this aspect of McCoy's plight that arouses the most sympathy, however. It is in the nature of riders who reach GP-winning level to be deeply psychotic, and to risk all sorts of increased injury when already suffering to defend their championship position, or even just their job. If they were not like this, they wouldn't be able to ride GP bikes in the wet, would they? McCoy's courage and commitment is awe-inspiring. His double leg fracture was pinned, and he came back for the first race barely five weeks later. Smiling through unimaginable pain, he rode in Japan with a screw G coming loose and almost projecting through the skin. He carried on in South Africa and Spain with the injury getting worse rather than better. In France for the fourth round, fresh Xrays revealed that another of the screws attaching the pin had bent and maybe even broken, from the considerable stress McCoy was putting on it as he forced his weight onto the footrests in his efforts to get his Yamaha up to speed. The worrying aspect is that McCoy was allowed to ride at all. While his bravery was conspicuous, his results were dire - barely able to outqualify rookie teammate John Hopkins, and failing to score points at Suzuka (where he fell off twice), though he ran well at Welkom until succumbing to the pain and scraped in at the back of the field at Jerez. This was pitiful for a three-time 500cc GP winner, whose crazy style fires the imagination, who ushered in the new era of 16.5-inch rear tires, and provided proof of a hitherto imagined truth... that spinning up the tire actually allows it run cooler, since it only heats the surface, while full grip heats the whole carcase. The question is not why he continued to ride when patently in no condition to do so, but why he was allowed to. And in the dock are not only his doctor and team manager, but even more so the official medical director and the sport of GP racing. CDming Up in Cycle News [01001 ~ His doctor, to be fair, has the job of trying to make him fit, and some overconfidence in his own treatment is understandable. In this case, it was an Austrian specialist rather than paddock medico Claudio Costa, though Costa is a notorious patch-'em-up merchant, with a number of ex-patients (Kevin Schwantz springs to mind) who now wonder about the wisdom of the short-term repairs they were happy to accept when they were racing. To be fair to Costa, he only gives the riders what they want at the time, as the queues outside his Clinica Mobile attest. Team manager Peter Clifford might be a better target, since it would certainly be in the long-term interests of the team and sponsors to wait until the rider is fully fit - you only get TV time and general kudos when you're up at the front, after all. Again, he is between a rock and a hard place and subject to forceful arguments from the riders. Hindsight may give clear vision, but is of little value. Sadly, the real villain is the thoroughly charming medical director, Dr. Mattioli, with whom I have a personal history as the only paddock doctor who took a real interest when I was myself suffering from a lengthy and troublesome non-union fracture, whose bedside manner is beyond reproach, and who I hate to criticize, especially in print. The truth is that you don't need an optimistic doctor, and his bedside manner should be several shades beyond gruff and bullying. The FIM should appoint one who would insist that McCoy should hop for 20 yards on his bad leg, that people with injured wrists should do 20 push-ups, and that riders who have been concussed should be forced to learn and recite a William Blake poem before they are allowed anywhere near a racing motorbike. The only problem is that the grids might get smaller. And with only 20 riders on the MotoGP grid, you can't see Doma allowing that, can you? eN • Mugello MotoGP • Pike's Peak AMA SBK • Hagentown AMA Dirt Track • UrlchsvllIe GICC Due I e n e _ s • JUNE 5. 2002 115