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/128214
LOOK/Nfl ~.I)lIIIa~f:!I> 30 YEARS AGO••• MAY 22,1973 A hilltop view of the Lucerne Valley duro ing a desert race was placed on the cover of Issue #19. Tom Brooks (DKW) won the event, wh ile Mitch Mayes (Hus) and Tom Smith (Yam) rounded out the top three overall ... Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) won the Hialeah, Florida, 500cc National Motocross after fouling a plug off of the start of the first mota and still charging from a lap and a half behind to finish fourth. He won the other two motos easily. Gary Semlcs (Hus) and Peter Lamppu (Kaw) rounded out the top three. Gary Jones (Han) won the 250ccNationai over Marty Tripes (Hon) and Bob Grossi (Hus) ... Dave Aldana (Nor) led the Ascot Half·Mile until his bike went sour, aBowing Dewayne Keeter (H·O) to take the lead and the win. Tom Horton (Tri) and Tom White (Tri) rounded out the podium. 20 'YEARS AGO••• MAY 25,1983 The new 1983 Honda V45 Interceptor VF750F wheelied to· ward the camera for the cover of Issue #19. We concluded that the bike was the best of the Sportbike genre, and it retailed for $3498 ... David Bailey (Han) won the Washington, D.C., Supercross, round 15 of the Wrangler Super Series, over Bob Hannah (Han), Mark Barnett (Suz) and early leader Jeff Ward (Kaw). Ward had never won a supercross... Ricky Graham (H·D) topped the Springfield Mile for the second year in a row. Randy Goss (H· D) and Hank Scott (Hon) chased him home... John Martin (C·A) topped the Redneck National Enduro, round five of the, series... Hakan Carlqvist (Yam) won the Austrian 500cc MX GP, but it was Graham Noyce (Han) who took over the points lead. Georges Jobe (SOl) won the French 250cc MX GP, and Eric Geboers won back·to· back 125cc GPs in Belgium and France. s of this writing, I haven't seen it on television yet, but judging by the talk around the CN offices on the Monday following the Las Vegas Supercross, Team Kawasaki's James "Bubba" Stewart Jr. is lucky to have survived a "big one." If you have ever raced motorcycles or watched other people race them, then you know full well what I'm talking about - and no, it has nothing to do with the anatomy of the pit tootsies that line the tracks and cruise the paddocks at your favorite race place. The "big ones" I'm talking about are crashes that inflict biblical carnage on man and machine. They are the gnarly crashes that are brought up time and time again at hardcore bench-racing sessions. Practically an entire genre of motorracing videos has been spawned to document these "big ones," and I'm sure that Stewart's Vegas bona fide bonecruncher is bound to be atop the list for inclusion in the next crashtacular to be released. When relating Stewart's gigantic midair get-off, CN off-road editor Kit Palmer told me that Stewart is lucky that he isn't "seriously f&#$ed up." Unlike associate editor Blake Conner, who drops more F bombs around our office than the U.S. military dropped real ones in Iraq, Palmer doesn't usually punctuate his speech with the ultimate adjective unless it is really warranted. In this case, he assures me that it is. "There was the finish-line jumps, but this was more of a triple than anything, which led into two other jumps," Palmer said with an almost sickening tone in his voice. "Techni· cally, it was five jumps, but guys A were triple-doubling them all night. The deal was that you would land on the flat on the way out off the double and then have just enough room to set up for the next turn, since the track crossed the start straight right there. Bubba was doubling out of the second set - which he had been flatlanding all day - when the back end kicked up in the air. He was at the top of his arc when it did, and you could just tell he knew he was in trouble, and he was trying to save it, but then he decided that it wasn't going to work, and he jumped away from the bike. His feet hung up on the bars as he tried to step over them, and he just augered in, totally pile-driven into the ground, and he was out cold. The first part of his body to hit the ground had to have been his head and right shoulder. He just rag-dolled to a stop right in front of the mechanics' area, and all they did was move the Tuff Blox onto the track around him. You couldn't see him after that." Of course, as I said, crash talk is like the proverbial Lays potato chip: You can't just talk about one and not the others. Assistant off-road editor Steve Cox immediately recalled another crash that the Stewart crash would immediately bring to mind. "Jason Upshaw, at the L.A. Coliseum, in like, '86 or '87 probably," Cox said. "He was coming down the peristyle, and he started to get out of shape and then hit the double at the bottom. He was already on the verge of crashing, but when he hit the double, he basically highsided like a road racer, only he was about 20 feet in the air when he did it. He was already upside-down when he left the bike, and then he just completed the flip and landed on his ass. Whatever hap- -Anything by Greg Albertyn in Orlando anything, anywhere -Pretty much by Guy Cooper -Ricky Carmichael getting knocked out cold on his first ride on the Honda at the 2002 Anaheim opener -Sebastien Tortelli at the 1999 Motocross des Nations in France -David Pingree's bike-splitting stuff into the triple at the 2002 Phoenix SX 10 YEARS AGO••• MAY 19, 1993 All of the Japanese 125cc motocrossers flew in formation across the cover of Issue #19, announcing the arri· val of our 125cc MX Shoolout. Every one of our testers said they Uked the Suzuki RJI'l125 the best, which means it won the shootout... Chris Carr (H·D) won the Pomona Half· Mile, round four of the AMA Grand National Championship Series. Scott Parker (HD) and RickY Graham (Han) rounded out the top three... Kevin Schwantz (Suz) got the pole and the win at the Spanish RR GP in Jerez, topping Wayne Rainey (Yam), Alex Criville (Hon), Mick Doohan (Hon) and Luca Cadalora on his way to victory... Gordon Ward (Hus) won the White Bros. Four-Stroke World Championship at Perris Raceway in Southern CalifomJa. Willie Surratt (Hus), Buddy Antunez (Suz), Willie Musgrave (Ave) and Greg Zitterkopf (~TM) rounded out the top five. pened to that guy anyway?" Who knows? Yet thanks to the "big one," Jason Upshaw has a place in motocross lore. And Palmer brought up still another that has to stand out as an all-time "big one," that being Doug Henry's launch off the top of the dropoff at Budds Creek, Maryland, in the early '90s. "It's this big dropoff, and most guys just kind of blip the throttle and skim over the top of it and land on the downslope," Palmer said. "But this was in the heat of battle, and Henry's throttle arm cramped up or something just as he was getting set to go over the dropoff. Instead of just scooting over the top, he just hit the face and pretty much launched himself into outer space. He was just so high up, and when he hit the ground, he just stopped, and the impact broke his back. He was out for a long time after that. It's a wonder that he came back at all, but to win the 250 title in ' '98, that was awesome." Both Palmer and Cox agree that there are other candidates for the alltime "big one." We couldn't name them all, but they include: Looking back on these incidents, it's a wonder that some of the aforementioned riders weren't injured worse - and yes, we're well aware that countless others have been, many times in crashes that have appeared to be far less serious. "Big ones" are an unfortunate part of motorcycle racing. When it's all over, it's just nice to be able to recall that sometimes, as violent a sport as supercross/motocross can be, more often than not, they do walk away. eN Team Honda's Nathan Ramsey knows what the "big one" feels like. In an upcoming issue III Cycle News Glen Helen National MX Opener Jerez MotoGP Pennsylvania GNCC Missouri Hare SCrambles cue I e n e _ S • MAY 14, 2003 115