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/128222
By 30 YEARS AGO•.. JULY 17, 1973 Marty Tripes (right) stood on the cover of Issue -#27 responding to shouts of encouragement during the opening ceremonies at the MICHAEL SCO" urT IN TJ ~r ke he Proton's debut at Assen, racing's sternest academy, was rem- iniscent in some ways of Honda's NR500 four-stroke at Silverstone many years ago, when Mick Grant fell second running of the Superbowl of Motocross at the L.A. Coliseum. Apparently the encouragement worked, as Tripes won the event for the second year running with a 1-2-2 score, while Jim Pomeroy (Bul) finished second overall and Antonin Baborovsky (Cl) rounded out the podium in front of 38,808 fans ... With the Grand National Championship looming, Ken Roberts (Yam) made a late-lap charge past Rex Beauchamp (H-D) to win the Colorado Mile. Scott Brelsford (H-D) finished third... The U.S. Army's Seventh Cavalry, a motorcycle-mounted group, were featured aboard their Suzuki 185s in Fort Hood, Texas. They were wearing aviation helmets, and the Suzukis were camouflaged, off at the first corner in his own of course. that it was lucky the bike didn't go up 20 YEARS AGO•.. JULY 20, 1983 good and proper. A gang of Grand Prix road racers sat on the grid for the cover of Issue -#27, including Kenny Roberts (Yam), Freddie Spencer (Han), Eddie Lawson (Yam), Randy Mamola (Yam) and Takazumi Katayama (Han). Roberts won the race in Belgium over Spencer, Mamola, Katayama and Lawson, although Spencer led the points (105- 100) over Roberts ... The original Bubba, Bubba Shobert, won the Syracuse Mile over Ricky Graham and Scott Parker... Broc Glover (Yam) won the Pittsburgh Supercross, round 22 of the Grand National Championship. David Bailey (Hon) finished second over Warren Reid (Yam). Mark Barnett (Suz) finished sixth but led the championship over Bailey (695-668) ... Kinney Jones was photographed jumping his big-bore XR on his way to second place in the Open Intermediate class at Corona Raceway. 10 YEARS AGO... JULY 14, 1993 Team Kawasaki's Mike Kiedrowski flew across the cover of Issue 1127 on his way to winning the 250cc National MX at Red Bud Track 'n' Trail. Also celebrating his victory on this week's cover was Ricky Graham, who won the Michigan Half Mile... At Red Bud, Kiedrowski swept both motos over Mike laRocco (Kaw) and Jeff Stanton (Han). Jeff Emig (Yam) swept both 125cc motos, while Honda teammates Jeremy McGrath and Doug Henry rounded out the top three... The AMA Dirt Track saw Scott Parker (H-D) and Steve Morehead (H-D) file in behind Graham, while the 883 National was won by Jay Springsteen, over Graham and Jason Fletcher... Kevin Schwantz (Suz) was victorious at the Dutch 500cc GP after qualifying second behind Mick Doohan (Han). Doohan finished second in the race over Alex CrivilIe (Han), Doug Chandler (Cag) and Wayne Rainey (Yam). spilled oil, and the bike caught fire. Something similarly undignified happened to Nobuatsu Aoki - also in front of the grandstands and pits, though mercifully only in practice. In this case, an oil filter O-ring blew as he entered the pit straight, and the bike erupted in a plume of thick smoke. He coasted to a stop, only then noticing that the exhaust had ignited some oil, and the bike was flaming up nicely. He sensibly abandoned ship, and laggardly Dutch fire marshals took so long to get there Embarrassingly public, but the sort Unspecified hardware and software unlimited budget and serious factory of thing Kenny Roberts and his guys changes and maybe different cam commitment have yielded little more knew could happen when they com- profiles liberated more power by so far than a puzzle as to why the mitted to develop a brand-spanking- extending the rev range by an equally regular riders Andrew Pitt and GP new design out in front of the grand- unspecified amount. (This much was winner Garry McCoy are so easily stands and TV cameras rather than certain!) outpaced by test rider and wild card behind closed doors. The team went The upgrade, the first of note in through a number of engines at the bike's life, was forced by the The gulf between fastest and slow- Assen, with crankshaft failures lead- threat from the powerful though still est is very wide, more in lap times ing a long list of oil pressure and somewhat wayward Ducati. But just than top speed. But not so wide that leakage problems that led Roberts to to underline the basic it couldn't get a lot wider. It is impos- quip in the pits: "We have a clutch oil urgency, Valentino Rossi rode the sible to believe that Honda doesn't seal that leaks, but only when the noisy new bike in practice then have a wedge of revs and horsepower lack of Alex Hofmann. engine is running. So we've improved switched back to his older slow bike in hand. And it freely admits to hav- on Triumph and BSA." anyway, on the grounds that the qui- ing computer simulations of alterna- All this notwithstanding, the radical balance-shaft V-five with the beguiling howl has made a pretty impressive start, considering the headlong rush of development. And the state of the competition. eter exhaust was more comfortable and less distracting. Bless it. tive engine designs up and running, so to speak, on the cybertracks of Anyway, that's the sort of position CAD world. Honda is in. How about the others? Yamaha is close, but no cigar, because it's been close for so long At the same weekend, but at the without seeming to have any idea of other end of the time sheets, Honda how to get closer. Other than by fulfilled a long-held prediction: that if sacking Max Biaggi, its best rider. its dominant RCV211 V-five came Suzuki is somehow wilfully even under any sort of pressure, it would further away than last year, with an just turn up the wick a Uttle bit to pre- all-singing serve the gap. After all, its current behaves as if it has a computer virus. high-tech bike that It's all a long way away from the broken crankshafts and spewing oil down at Proton, but that's just a stage that a brand-new design has to go through. Even Honda has to do the grubby stuff. It's just if it has a crankshaft that needs an urgent redesign, it has several of its own foundries to call upon to produce it by next bike is not especially high tech and Aprilia is impressive enough for only revs to about 15,000 rpm, while making steady progress but still the Red Duke is rumored to be nudg- Wednesday, rather than next a month awaits anything that might be called ing a more racer-like 18,000 at from Wednesday. Money and resources win racing, and usually in that order. Now and a breakthrough. And Kawasaki has generated little then, somebody else gets it all so HRC's power-up showed nothing interest, especially when its GP bike right for a while that the order is more than an extra tailpipe, so that battled to be as quick around Assen upset. It's seldom for long. But it's the outer cylinder pairs front and as an injured Chris Walker was a year possible enough to keep them all try- back are two-into-one, and the rogue ago on its 750cc Superbike, itself no ing, no matter how hopeless it might middle front cylinder breathes alone. longer competitive. An apparently look at the moment. times. In an upcoming issue of Cycle News eN Red Bud National MX Pennsylvania AMA DT Swedish MX GP eye I e n e _ S • JULY 9.2003 111