Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Yukio Nukumi and Gaku Kamada, a pair of unheralded Japanese riders, copped the crown at the Suzuka 8 Hours and gave Honda its seventh successive victory in the prestigious Japanese endurance race. The pair inherited positions all day long as the top- 10 qualifiers found misfortune in all forms. Second went to Shinichi Nakatomi and Waturu Yoshikawa (Yamaha), one lap behind, while third went to Shinichi Ito and Takeshi Tsujimura (Honda), one more lap behind. Just missing the podium were fourth-place finishers Jason Pridmore, James Ellison and Jimmy Lindstrom of Whirley Phase One. "I wanted to finish top- 15," Pridmore said. "On a Super Production bike, that's all the more you can ask for. So to finish fourth is a big thing. I know there was a lot of attrition, but we kept our noses clean." Whirley Phase One cut their points deficit to championship leader Zongshen 1 from 34 to 14 points at Suzuka. The race opened with a heart-stopping multibike accident at the start of the second lap involving the fourth- through eighth-place riders. The accident was precipitated when the OVER Racing Yamaha R1 lost oil by the barrel at the start. Oil flags were displayed, but many of the frontrunners did not have time to react. Tadayuki Okada (Honda), Nicky Hayden (Honda), Atsushi Watanabe (Suzuki), Norihiko Fujiwara (Yamaha) and Tatsuya Yamaguchi (Honda) found the oil, with Okada, Hayden and Watanabe crashing heavily, and Fujiwara and Yamaguchi suffering lighter faUs. "It was unbelievable," said Hayden, shaking his head. "I never saw the oil flag because I was in the group and tucked in. Just as I tipped it in, I just barely saw the oil flag out of the corner of my eye. By then there was nothing I could do. Bam! I was down so quick. Anybody that rides knows what it's like when you hit dang oil like that. ' Hayden's team manager, Koji Nakajima, and Watanabe's team manager, Fujio Yoshimura, marched to the race officials and filed similar protests relating the management of race and fallen riders and then held court in the media center jointly to explain their extra- Joe Kopp (KTM) won the Foremost Insurance Houston Half Mile, round three of the F-USA K&N Pro Series, at Baytown, Texas' Houston Raceway Park on August 2. Kenny Coolbeth (KTM) finished second, and J.R. Schnabel (Yam) rounded out the top three, Bryan Smith (Hon), who finished sixth, still leads the points, with 92 over Coolbeth's 82 and Schnabel's 70 with six rounds yet to run, KTM's Shane Watts recorded his second win in a row at the fifth round of the World Off-Road Championship East Series in Waukon, Iowa, August 3. Two weeks earlier, Watts won his first race in almost two years at the Millville. Minnesota, WORCS round at Spring Creek MX Park. At that race, Watts came from behind to win, but this time, the KTM 450 EXC pilot pretty much led it from start to finish. At one point, Watts held a twominute lead, but a time-consuming crash on the last lap whittled that down to almost nothing. Watts ended up crossing the finish line 15 seconds ahead of series points leader Brian Garrahan (KTM). Overall, the finish was quite close after the two-hour-Iong race. as Garrahan was followed across the finish line by Yamaha-mounted Ty Davis. who was just 10 seconds back. Yamaha riders Jimmy Jarrett and Steve Leivan rounded out the top five, For an unprecedented second time this year Walter "Tiger" Strank Jr., rid. ing his Yamaha R1, and defending BOOcc National Champion Dave Watson. on his Honda. tied for the win with a time of 6,019 seconds, The AMA National Championship Hillclimb Series was visiting the White Rose Motorcycle Club in York. Pennsylvania. round six of the series. The win was awarded to Strank after using their second-best time as the tiebreaker. His win also moved him one point ahead of Watson in the race for the number-one plate. Watson blew open the 540cc race with his fifth win of the season on his Honda CBR, Watson ran the day's fastest ride, a 6.002, on his 540cc machine. Triumph riders Phil Libhart and Chad Disbennet rounded out the podium. ordinary action. "It was lucky that no rider had been seriously injured today, but we would strongly request to the organizer to improve safety measures," said Nakajima sternly. Their protests were disallowed, but the complaining raged on. Honda repaired the Hayden and Okada motorcycles and reentered the race over an hour after the accident, but both riders were black-flagged immediately since they had received outside assistance (crash truck). Okada gave the "up yours" salute in full view of the television cameras when he got off the motorcycle. Honda's Tohru Ukawa took the lead after the turn-one multicrash and rode off into the blue yonder effortlessly. But his teammate, Hitoyasu Izutsu, crashed in the Hairpin during his first stint, a mile ahead of the second-place Suzuki. Their H'onda suffered only minor exterior damage, but a major engine failure followed shortly thereafter. Suzuki's Keiichi Kitagawa and Katsuaki Fujiwara then looked unstoppable on their GSX-R1000 and had a minute-and-a-half lead at the seventh hour. Unfortunately, the motor refused to start after their last pit stop, ending their race then and there. The Corona Extra Suzuki team of Adam Fergusson and Anthony Gobert suffered their own engine failure during warm-up practice. Their replacement engine lacked. power but was good enough to c'arry them to eighth overall. One place behind was the sister team of Jordan Szoke and Paul Young. Szoke and Young had a strong race going until another bike knocked the taillight off at the hairpin and later when the headlight switch stayed open. Doug Polen was an impressive fifth at the end of the first hour. But the engine in his Honda blew up in the second hour when his Japanese teammate was aboard the bike. World Endurance championship leaders Zongshen 1 dropped out when the frame of their Suzuki cracked where the rear shock mounts. By an odd coincidence, the Zongshen 2 team was out of the race three hours later with the same failure. Geno Scali (Suz) scored his third win of the season in Pro Stock Bike and extended his points lead with a final-round victory over Andrew Hines (H-D) at the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, on August 3. Scali denied Harley-Davidson its first NHRA Pro Stock Bike victory for the second time this season. After beating GT Tonglet in St. Louis, Scali gladly turned back Tonglel's teammate. Hines. in Sonoma, with a wire-to-wire win of 7.177 seconds at 189.68 mph to Hines' losing 7,264 at 180.48 mph. Scali has pulled even with three-time and defending series champion Angelle Savoie in the season win column, and he now leads Savoie by 188 points. Former British Superbike Champion and II-time Isle of Man TT winner Steve "Hizzy" Hislop, 41, died in a helicopter accident in Scotland on July 30, Hislop's helicopter crashed in a remote farmland area near Teviothead, The Brit was understood to have been visiting friends living A Briefly.. news item that ran in the Cycle News coverage of the German Grand Prix that made reference to the AMA Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park being under threat of cancellation is erroneous. "The AMA race is definitely going off next month," said Bruno Event Team's Gene Hallman. "The surface will be resurfaced in October or November. but it will have no effect on the AMA race," Race Promotions Management (RPM) has announced it will promote a Supermoto event that will run alongside the other scheduled events at the CycleFest event that takes place in Copper Mountain, Colorado. August 22-24. Dubbed the Fay Myers Suzuki Supermoto Classic, the race will feature a doubleheader format with a main event on both Saturday and Sunday with riders competing in one 450cc class for an overall purse of $20.000. Along with the purse, the race will be aired on Speed Channel later this year, giving the event national exposure, according to RPM. This race replaces the AMA event that was originally scheduled as part of the AMAIRed Bull Supermoto Championship, which was cancelled due to environmental and logistical concerns. "We were definitely disappointed about losing the AMA round. but we felt that Supermoto would be such a strong addition to our CycieFest event that we kept at it and were able to secure a new location at Copper," says Cameron Gray of RPM. The race will now be held in the Alpine Lot in the East Village at Copper Mountain with a track designed by Danny Walker of American Supercamp, Many of the AMA series regulars are expected to attend and compete for the largest purse offered in a Supermoto race so far this year. as well as the title of Big Kahuna for the weekend, "We're stoked to bring Supermoto to Colorado; the enthusiastic response we got at the first AMA round at Laguna Seca confirmed that Supenmoto is back!" said Gray. "II's fan-friendly, action-packed motorcycle racing at its best." Riders interested in registering for the Big Kahuna Supermoto Classic should contact Kerri Gunderman of RPM at 303/377-3278. For more information on CycleFest, visit www.cyclefestco.com. in the area when the accident happened, according to a report from the BBC. Hislop was one of the true stars of British motorcycling, a rider with immense popularity in his homeland, Virgin Mobile Yamaha team boss Rob McElnea. who had worked and raced with Hislop for many years, said: "It's a complete tragedy. We work in a very hazardous environment with many risks associated with racing, so it therefore comes as an even greater shock when such a tragedy happens away from the racetrack. Yesterday we lost a British motorcycling legend. a passionate perfectionist who was totally unbeatable on his day, When 'Hizzy' was racing, he automatically set the benchmark for his fellow competitors because his outstanding natural talent made him the man to beat. I speak on behalf of Virgin Mobile and Yamaha - with whom he had been associated for several years - and I am sure I also speak on behalf of the world of motorcycle racing when I say he will be sorely missed." u!Ju@ @@DDl]@[lDDD@DD @[jj]@Do[;0[jJ@!Jft u!Ju[l@@71 illegal," said Sean Maher, AMA director of state affairs. "We will work closely with DMV officials to try to ensure that those motorcycles remain legal." The AMA is seeking a postponement in implementation of the directive because state officials gave motorcyclists no warning of this policy shift. The AMA is asking for tirne to get the word out to the motorcycling community and to deal with issues raised by this change of direction. Besides asking for that postponement, the AMA is also considering legislative remedies that would ensure the continued availability of dual-sport conversion registrations in California and in other states. "We have see.n other states impose prohibitions on allowing the conversion of off-highway motorcycles for dual-sport use," Maher said, "and we suspect still more are considering such measures. This could become a trend with major implications not only for trail riders, but for off-road racers as well." California riders can express their concerns to the California Department of Motor Vehicles by going to the StateWatch section of the. Rapid Response Center at the AMA's website, www.AMADi:· rectlink.com_ The AMA is asking the California Department of Motor Vehicles to postpone a new directive that no longer allows motorcyclists to convert off-highway motorcycles to on-highway or dual-sport use, according to the AMA_ In a memorandum dated July 23, Candy Wohlford, deputy director of the DMV Communications Program Division, informed all DMV field offices that they may no longer convert any off-road motorcycles made since 1978 for use on public roads. This represents a major change in policy for the agency, since the DMV's own registration manual and a California Highway Patrol bulletin, spell out procedures for legally making such conversions. The memo notes that this change in policy stems from California Air Resources Board emissions regulations for on-highway motorcycles that went into effect with 1978-year models. DMV officials contend that because off-highway motorcycles don't have an emission label indicating they are certified by the manufacturer to meet those emissions regulations, they can't be converted for on-highway or dual registration. Some riders convert their off-road motorcycles to on-road or dual-sport use so they can use public roads to connect trails. "As we read this memo, we're encouraged that nothing in it indicates that motorcycles converted prior to July 23 of this year will be G U G • e n eVIls • AUGUST 13, 2003 1

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