Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2003 02 12

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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30 YEARS ABO•.. FEBRUARY 20, 1973 Kenny Roberts, Brad Lackey and Pierre Karsmakers were all featured on the cover of Issue 116 in 1973. Roberts had won the Yamaha Silver Cup Short Track at Madison Square Garden for the honor, and Lackey and Karsmakers battled over the lead at a Florida Winter-AMA Series event, with Karsmakers eventually taking the win. .. At the short track, Rick Hocking, the National Indoor Champion, finished second, while Mike Kidd rode a Bultaco to third place... At the motocross event, Karsmakers and Lackey actually tied on points, but Karsmakers got the win due to his better second-mota finish. Tim Hart finished third overall when Jimmy Weinert's shock failed with one lap to go ... David Czerwinski (Mai) won the 250cc Expert class at Spillway MX in Santa Maria, California. The Open Expert class was won by Joe Cushaway (CZ), and Vince Clark (Suz) won the 125cc Expert class. F oggy Petronas is all go - and that munching sound is the eating of the words of those who predicted that this maverick racing venture would once again fail to make the cutoff date for homologation of the first 75 road bike units at the end of January. Personally I avoided making any such predictions, at least in print, but I have to admit that in the final analysis, I'd have been equally surprised if: A - Somebody had come up with a photograph of 75 completed FP1 s, or: B - The FIM had actually failed to homologate the new bike. These are not different ways of saying the same thing. "A" would be unlikely. Homologation requires Petronas to show only key components for 75 machines. Actually having 75 completed bikes is not neces- 20 YEARS ABO... FEBRUARY 23, 19B3 CYCLE lilWS -.- . et='.. .•... ~~-. ---'1 " ; .1. . . t' Honda-mounted Bob Hannah jumped across the cover of Issue 116 on his way to the win at the Seattle Supercross. He won both nights of racing for the 22nd and 23rd supercross wins of his career. David Bailey (Han) and Jeff Ward (Kaw) rounded out the podium on night one, while Bailey and Johnny O'Mara made it an all-Honda podium on night two ... We rode the all-new Yamaha lT490K and found it to be a tantalizing treat for big-bore enduro fans. It retailed for $2249... Scott Brown won the Mini Combo class at the D-37 Short Track at Perris Raceway over Dustin Evans (Yam). Ron Wood (Yam) won the 250cc Novice class, while Roger Thompson won both the 250 and 500cc Money classes... At Indian Dunes CRC motocross, Joel Tokarsky (Kaw) beat Moose Wine (Yam) and Damon Huffman (Kaw) for the 60cc Stock Novice-class win. sary. Be nice, though. And rather a surprise. In the case of "B": As you can imagine, the same aspect of the rules gives a certain amount of latitude to an inspector who is not disposed to be overly pedantic. And, unless he is confronted with a room completely empty of anything except the smoke and mirrors to be expected at any such inspection, he is likely to use that latitude for the good of the sport. Given that Benelli was shooed in with what was supposedly a modified production bike but actually amounted to a prototype with only a handful actually made, and in spite of recent promises to the contrary, the FIM inspectors have a reputation for cutting a lot of slack for the Superbikes. And since this, from time to time, suits all the manufacturers, nobody 10 YEARS ABO... FEBRUARY 17, 1993 European Editor Alan Cathcart cornered the new Honda RS250R across the cover of Issue #6. Cathcart found the bike to be the closest Honda had come in a decade to replicating a works machine and offering it for sale... Rookie Jeremy McGrath (Han) won his third straight 250cc main event in San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, round five of the AMA/Camel Supercross Series, while round-one winner Mike LaRocco (Kaw) broke his wrist again while sitting third in the points, Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) and Jeff Stanton (Han) rounded out the top three. Racing for no points, Frenchman Mickael Pichon (Han) won the 125cc main event and then exclaimed he was going to Disneyland. Jimmy Gaddis (Kaw) and Phil Lawrence (Suz) rounded out the top three ... We predicted that Doug Polen would win the AMA Superbike Championship in 1993. He was the World Superbike Champion in 1992 and 1991. really minds too much. (It might have been different if Benelli had kicked any butts on the track, but that never arose. And it might be different if Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha were still there with full factory teams and Team Foggy kicked their butts, too, next year.) The fact of the matter is that in 2003, the World Superbike Series is desperate for high-level entries. The withdrawal of the Japanese factories has left the grids the thinnest ever; the departure of the two most recent champions (plus Noriyuki Haga) has removed a great deal of riding strength. of homologation at the end of July. British fans will still have plenty to keep their interest, as title favorite Neil Hodgson now comes under considerable pressure from old British Superbike rival Chris Walker, and Then there's achieving reliability and speed from an all-new design. Not to mention developing a road bike off the racer. One day, perhaps, they'll be able to get around to racing it. They must all be looking forward to that as much as we are ... James Toseland is also ready to play a serious part in proceedings. To the rest of the world, already less than overcome with excitement for World Superbike, this year is even more underwhelming. Especially in a season when the MotoGP class has no fewer than nine former World Champions on the grid... more than a third On to MotoGP, and we find that lap times from the Malaysian tests prefigured an epic coming battle between Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. To remind you, Max slashed some two seconds off Sepang's record; then of the 24-strong entry, using seven different makes and types of motor- Rossi promptly went out and took another two-tenths off that. cycle. There are signs the World Superbike malaise may be only temporary. Now they have their tech rules in place to open the class to 1000cc fours to stop it from being a Ducati cup, the Japanese factories may easily return for 2004. Suzuki has already started serious work on its GSX-R Superbike, while Honda and Yamaha are said to be planning Rather implausibly, Rossi denied that he'd done it in response to Biaggi. Now a fuller story emerges. It seems Rossi had already taken his leathers off and the mechanics were packing the bike away when Max posted his time then cruised ostentatiously past Rossi's pit, smirking. "Right," said Rossi. "Get that bike out again." And he quickly dressed for his final squelcher. image-building World Superbike race efforts for their new Fireblade and R1, respectively. In other words, they could be back in strength, to a series without many pretensions left to be anything much more than a souped-up productionbike shootout ... and there's nothing wrong with that. Anyway, this homologation is only the first hurdle for Team Foggy No surprise that his effort should have been driven by Biaggi or that he should pretend otherwise. They are deadly rivals, after all. Each drives the other. So consider this: Rossi's favorite color is yellow (as you may have noticed). Biaggi's new Pons team has just acquired sponsorship from Camel. Camel's branded color is Petronas, racing boss Carl Fogarty, and riders Troy Corser and James Haydon. The next is the second round yellow. So Max will be wearing yellow leathers. Ha, ha, ha. In next week's Cyt:Ie News cu san Diego Supercross cl • n • _ S • FEBRUARY 12, 2003 67

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