Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRIEFLY••• According to Yamaha racing boss Keith McCarty, Yamaha will soon announce a new team manager for its motocross/supercross racing program. succeeding interim team manager Steve Butler, "We'll announce the position in early September, after the final National," McCarty said, As for the makeup of the crew, McCarty said, ''I'm sure there'll be some changes, beginning with a new mechanic for Chad Reed," With Butler moving on to Yama· ha's motocross test department, word in the pits is that Jim Perry, from the Pro Circuit team, is the frontrunner for the Yama· ha job, Heavy rain forced the cancelation of Saturday's practice, and if there's one thing that Ricky Carmichaei doesn't want right now, it's rain, While it was pouring outside the Honda hauler on Satur· day, Carmichael was holding court with a few people in the mechanic's area, Somebody asked him if the rain made him nero vous, and he answered, "Heck yeah," Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada injured his ankle during a practice session in California during the week and did not attend the Broome-Tioga race, and he'll sit out the Steel City finale as well, Also, a source close to Roncada said that his rumored Suzuki deal is, "Almost done: they're just dotting the i's," The AMA's Duke Finch has been named as the Clerk of Course for the upcoming Motocross des Nations at Competition Park in California, The AMA [and Finch] will handle all of the pre· and post·race tech inspections and act as a general overseer of the race. The race director for the event will be the FIM's Dave Nicoll, who acts as the race director for the GP series, In the past, it's actually been Finch that has acted as the race director (jnternationally), whereas now he'll actually work in more of an operations position than a management position, As far as the race itself, Finch said this about the AMA's position on this year's Motocross des Nations: "Perhaps the initial selection of the event location and so on wasn't what the AMA would have chose, but now that it's going to happen, we'll [the AMAJ do everything in our power to make it a successful event. " No Fear's mega film/digital video project is winding up, and it's time for director Troy Adamitis to loek himself into a production room and crank out the final product, aptly titled MThe Great Outdoors.M Adamitis and his partner, Bradley Warden, will sift through 200-plus hours of digital video and more than 400 minutes of film - working 20-hour days for the next two months - to produce what is being called the ultimate look at the Outdoor Nationals, "If you take a person to a race for their first time, you always find that they're completely into it," said Adamitis, "This documentary shows why the sport of motocross is so addicting," Cernic's/PC Worldwide KTM rider John Dowd says he's "pretty sure" he won't be racing supercross next year, However, that doesn't mean the team will be garaged, "We're looking for some sponsors right now, trying to get the team out there to race supercross, - Dowd said, "But everything's up in the air right now." Dunlop's Brian Fleck said the traction conditions after a solid day of rain Saturday at Binghamton were going to be very "unique" for Sunday's Nationals, "It's really, really hard under all that mud," said Fleck on Saturday aftemoon, "When it dries out a bit, tires will have a problem packing up and they'll spin. This isn't mud like High Point, so you really won't have to run a mud tire here," Fleck was recommending the Dunlop 756s, Also notewor· thy was that Fleck said riders don't want a mud tire on concrete starts because they don't come off the cement as well, The rags-to-riches story of Sean Hamblin will contain a couple more chapters, as he'll be riding for Suzuki's 125cc program next year, "Basically, it's a done deal," said Hamblin, "I'll sign next week," So Suzuki's 125cc program will consists of Hamblin, Branden Jesseman, Danny Smith, and possibly one more rider, Where's your sled, eh?: Defending Winter X Games snoeross gold medalist, Blair Morgan was on hand with the Blackfoot Honda team to race his first National of the year at Binghamton, Morgan recently was sitting out a practice session at a race in Quebec (due to rain) when he got the bright idea to run his snowmobile across the muddy track, "It was actually faster than the lap times the bikes had," said Morgan, who finished second to Jean-Sebastien Roy in the Canadian National MX Series this summer. Oakley's Anthony Paggio and his wife, Rachel, are the proud new parents of a baby girl, who amved earlier in the week, Nobody in the Kawasaki pits knew how to spell the baby's name, so mechanic Randy Lawrence took a shot. "It's Mikala," Lawrence said, "I know because a girl in my daughter's school spells it that way," It's on! According to Asterisk's Tom Carson, the much-anticipated Asterisk Mobile Motocross/Supercross Hospital is this close to being done, "I go to Elkhart [Indiana] on Tuesday to finalize all the plans," said Carson, The ultra-sano Asterik Mobile Hospital will contain an X-ray machine, taping tables, laceration stitching capabilities, ice, and tons of supplies and such for guys who go "Bonkl" Dr, John Bodnar will be in charge, according to Carson, and there will most likely be a trainer on staff as well, Pit Humor:Yamaha's Brian Kinney, who tunes Tim Ferry's VZ426F, was asked if he works on his own motocross bike at home, "Mechanics' bikes are the most neglected bikes out there," said Kinney with a laugh, "The last thing we want to do when we get home is work on our bikes... Former World champ Bob Moore has signed up to race the annual Yamaha Race Of Champions next year at Glen Helen, Moore, who won the world 125cc title in 1994 aboard a VZ, will be racing the YROC for the first time, ESPN announcer Cameron Steele showed up at Binghamton sporting a fingers-to-elbow cast on his left arm, courtesy of a midweek crash at Saddleback MX Park, ''I've got a full S-turn in my anm," he said of the break, On a side note, the much-anticipated battle between Steele and ESPN colorman Davey Coombs will have to be rescheduled for after the Crossover Challenge at Anaheim 1, The Women's Motocross League braved Saturday's quagmire and ran a one-moto, double-points race through the slop on a partial course at Binghamton, Coming out on top was Michigan's Sarah Whitmore CYamaha/AGP/FMFl, Several of the riders got together on Saturday night. went to the mall in Johnson City and picked up some hoop shoes, then cruised over to a health club called Court Jester and ran a friendly game of hoops, Honda's Nathan Ramsey teamed up with Suzuki's Danny Smith and topped the three-man team of Ernesto Fonseca, Shane Bess and Buddy Antunez, Said Ramsey of the oneman disadvantage his team was up against: "I told those guys after the game, all they had to do was pass it around some more, find the open man," Ramsey and Smith won 13·11, "For how much that ride cost. you think I'd have at least been able to look out the window," said KTM rider Grant Langston (rightJ of his "precautionary" Mad Flight ride from Millville to the neanby Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Langston, as it turned out, was checked out and deemed okay after his hard get-off at Millville, though he still took the day off, It was certainly one of the more unusual sites. if not comical. on the motocross tour this year, Team Pro Circuit/Kawasaki/ Chevy Trucks' Matt Walker got off the beaten path in the second 125cc moto and wound up in a big pile of mud that had been scraped off the track earlier in the morning, And it was a big pile of mud, Walker was stuck big-time. With the bike sticking straight up, Walker was frantically sending a rainbow of roost behind him trying to bust loose - only to make things worse, Track workers, the Pro Circuit guys, even the Michelin guy dived into the mud to help out. A couple of laps later, Walker was back on his way, with mechanics and track workers walking back to their posts in their socks after having their shoes swallowed by the Binghamton mud pile, Could Yamaha and Nick Wey reunite? Word in the pits is that Yamaha's Keith McCarty may be talking to Moto XXX's Nick Wey about next year, Wey had the best supercross season out of any privateer and currently sits in a respectable 12th place overall in the outdoor series. Nathan Ramsey was already thinking ahead about next week's final round at Steel City, "Steel City's technical and has a highspeed side," he said, "It kind of combines motocross and supercross, So, with the Honda CRF450R being fast on the kind of dirt that Steel City has, I really feel confident that I can do well and hopefully run up there with Ricky a bit. I know it's fun to win, but I think it'd be more fun for Ricky if he had somebody to race with, " Privateer Bruce Stratton got more press than anybody all week, That's because on Friday he did the local-athlete mediatour gig with the AMA's Larry Lawrence, scoring some airtime on the Binghamton NBC and ABC affiliates, Not bad for a full-time engineer who's Winnebago's refrigerator was on the blink, Stratton, who had crashed earlier in the week, was glad to make it through both motos unscathed, "Coming off a neck injury Thursday, I worked with Dr, Steve Augustine and a chiropractor and was able to get through the day," Stratton said. AMA/Chevy Trucks 125cc U,S, Motocross Championship Series Round 11: Broome-Tioga Sports Center BUBBA BECOMES THE YOUNGEST MX CHAMP EVER By PATRICK SMITH PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN BINGHAMTON, NY, AUG, 25 n an overall sense, the 125cc race at Broome-Tioga Sports Center was more of a formality than a race, Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's James "Bubba" Stewart Jr, needed only to score a 14th place or better in the first moto to wrap up the 2002 125cc National Championship, and for a rider who's already won eight National rounds prior to the Binghamton I . race, a 14th-place finish wasn't too much to ask for. At least Fox didn't have to worry about the risk of printing up victory T-shirts for their new superstar to hand out afterward, Yes, Stewart had no problems finishing 14th or better to clinch his first National title, In fact, he didn't have too many problems nabbing his ninth overall victory, though series rival Chad Reed did give him a little bit of a battle, Despite haVing the title all but wrapped up, Stewart wasn't about to hang back. Instead, Stewart went out and battled for the lead early in the first moto, Stewart chased holeshottaker Ernesto Fonseca and found out quickly that Chad Reed, Stewart's main rival throughout the year, was determined to give the soon-to-be champ a fight. The Australian caught and passed Stewart on the first lap and painted the pursuing Kawasaki rider from head to toe with New York mud, Undaunted, Stewart hung with Reed and pressured him into making a mistake that resulted in a spectacular Due I e crash on the top of Parts Unlimited Hill. "He [Reed] got crossed up and spit over the handlebars," Reed's Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing team's manager Phil Alderton said, "The crash broke the front-brake lever off and he had to pull into the mechanics' area and have them cut off the entire [front brake] master cylinder." With Reed out of the picture in the first moto, Stewart railed to another dominating victory, following it up with an equally impressive showing to catch Reed and again dominate n _ _ 'IS • SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 11

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