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/128198
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Frenchman Richard Sainct (KTM)
claimed the third Dakar Rally victory of
his career on Sunday, January 19,
Sainct took the victory by more than
, -, seven minutes over fellow Frenchman
Cyril Despres (KTM), with defending
w race champion Fabrizio Meoni (KTM)
n
some 30 minutes behind in third place,
n Despite finishing second, Despres was
w never really a factor, as this Dakar Rally
was really between Sainct and Meoni,
Still, Despres took the runner-up spot
despite breaking his collarbone just four
weeks prior to the start of the rally,
Meoni had transmission problems as he
tried to win the final stage on January
19; his KTM stuck in third gear on the
high-speed run to the finish,
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Flat track and road race legend Dick Hammer, a well-respected Califomian who raced his way to national recognition in the '60s, died
in his San Clemente, California, home after a 15-year battie with
cancer. He was 63.
His friends remember Hammer as a naturally gifted athlete who
grew up in Southern California, fell in love with motorcycles and
began racing at the now-defunct Ascot Park in Gardena, Califomia,
with his lifelong pal, former factory Triumph TT star Skip Van
Leeuwen.
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LJ
"Hammer was an instant success at Ascot." Van Leeuwen
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recalled. "He was, hands down, the fastest guy at the racetrack for
eight or nine years. When he rode for the Triumph factory, they had
to redesign their road racers just for Hammer. He just had so much
bad luck. He was one of the toughest people that I have ever known
or met, and he was one of the most competitive people, too. But in
all the years that I knew him, and I met him when we were in the
fifth grade, I never saw him do one thing out of line or questionable.
He was a straight shooter, straight ahead. That's just how he was."
Hammer tumed professional in 1961 and would wind up ranked
fifth in the nation in TT and road race events. He scored his first and
only AMA Grand National victory in 1962, at the Peoria TT, on a
Harley-Davidson and went on to finish a career-best fifth in the AMA
Grand National points standings that season.
Although Hammer was widely recognized for his talents in all
racing disciplines, he was an especially effective road racer. Riding a
Harley-Davidson Sprint, he won the inaugural Intemational lightweight 100k road race at Daytona Intemational Speedway in 1963
and was a repeat winner at the event in 1964. He was a top com-
o
Adam Raga (G-G) won the fourth
~o
round of the World Indoor Trial Championship in Marseilles, France, on January
28, topping Dougie Lampkin (Man)
and Marc Freixa (Man), Lampkin now
leads the series by just a single point
over Raga, 71-70, with Albert Cabestany