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/128174
Return of the Superbikers By D. PHOTOS BY track, meaning that the dirt had to be cut out. The organizers promised to fix the problem for Sunday's race, but it meant that Saturday's tarmac-only event played straight into the hands of the road-race guys. Sure enough, at the start of the first SuperBikers2/Motomaster USA Orange Rotor Pro race, Mike Smith stormed off the line and put on an incredible display of rear-wheel steer- LIPPETI D&W IMAGES ELKHART LAKE, WI, SEPT. 7-8 A re you old enough to remember .LJ\ 1977 and the Superbiker event on ABC's Wide World of Sports? Who can forget the concept that threw together biking hotshoes from different disciplines in a head-to-head confrontation on a hybrid dirt/asphalt track to find the ultimate two-wheeled hero. The events held in the early '80s featured such luminaries as Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Dave Aldana, Kent Howerton, and many more. Garry Dipietro remembers the Superbikers - he was a combatant in the first-ever event. Last week, at the age of 53 years young, he dusted off his leathers and got out on the track again to show the young guns how to do it for real at the event's reincarnation, the SuperBikers2/Motomaster USA Orange Rotor. Held at Road America, deep in Wisconsin's lush green rolling countryside, the event was a prelude to what the organizers hope will quickly become a national series. A huge phenomenon in Europe, spawned from the ashes of the ABC event, the Euros (primarily the French) took the Superbikers concept (after U.S. TV discarded it) and refined it into what has today become known as Supermotard, (or Supermoto). Closing the circle, U.S. promoters Paul Brent of Motomaster USA, and Glenn Curtiss of SuperBikers2 LLC got together to bring the spectacle back to American shores and let loose those crazies that like to mix up dirt bikes, 17-inch sticky tires, asphalt, dust, brake rotors the size of dinner plates, and a healthy infusion of moto skills. Supermotard is an underground cult in the U.S. that is just itching to bust big. Drawing together competitors from the several race series currently held on the west cost, northwest and the east coast, Superbikers2 had a smattering of Euros and some big-name road racers to fill out the program. Names like Scott Russell, Mike Smith, Aaron Yates and Mark Miller mixed it up with the local heroes, with some surprising results. Practice showed a problem with the dirt section, sending billowing clouds of dust across the adjacent car 42 OCTOBER 2, 2002' cue I ing his 610 Husqvarna, balanced on his knee asphalt-style! Hounding him throughout the entire race was his brother-in-law (and former World Superbike champ!) Scott Russell. Russell put on a charge at the end of the race that took him right to Smith's rear fender as they crossed the finish line. Rounding out the top • n • _ s three, and glvmg Husqvarna and HMC racing a lock on the podium, was 17 -year-old local hotshoe Benny Carlson. Carlson, in his first year of motard racing, displayed incredible maturity, and his analytical approach added to the helpful advice of his senior teammates saw him just get faster with every single lap that he pounded around the tricky, off-camber raceway. West coast SuperTT series leader Leo "Pucho" Bagnis put his Carmichael Honda CRF450R into fourth place, ahead of Suzuki roadrace star Aaron Yates, on a trick DRZ450, and imported British Supermoto champ KTM's Ady Smith rounded out the top six after a firstlap crash with Vertemati-mounted cameraman Mark Miller. Remounting swiftly, Smith charged his way through the throng of sideways lunatics, impressing the locals as he ground away the chassis parts of his Canadian Team Deliverance KTM, changing gears with his heel after losing the tip of his shifter in the crash. With the chasing pack tighter together than a colony of ants, the reinclusion of the dirt on Sunday would surely lead to a shake-up of the results in the pros. Away from the Pro class, the premier and USA challenge races were just as wild. Indeed, the Challenge class was the setting for an intense two-race wheel-to-wheel duel between Pucho Bagnis and local boy Carlson. In one of the highlights of the weekend, the two riders separated each time by barely the width of a tire at the checkered flag. Pucho just took the honors in both races as the two riders celebrated stylishly with mondo stand-up wheelies. Chasing them home to take third overall in the Challenge was Californian Casey Yarrow, sideways everywhere on his Roseville Cycles Honda CRF450R; Yarrow was one of the most spectacular and entertaining riders of the entire weekend.