Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO•.. SEPTEMBER 1B, 1973 Bultaco rider Doug Grant railed a berm at Spillway Park for th e co ver of Issue #3 6 ... The undermanned U.S. team of Jim Pomeroy, John DeSoto and Mike Hartwig fi nis hed an impressive fourth at the Motocross des Nations in Switzerland behi nd the four-rider teams of Bel g ium ( DeCo ster, Gebo er s, Van Velth oven, Heeren), Sweden (An dersson , J on sson , Hammar gren, Pal m ) and the U.S.S.R. (Mandritchenko, Popenko, Efi mov, Botchk ov )... Bernie Sch reiber won the trials event in Reche Canyon, California... Honda ran a two-page ad titJed First our fir st year , as th e co m pany won th e 1973 AMA 2 5 0 cc Nat ional Moto cr oss Champi onship with its brand-n ew Honda 250 Elsinore in the hands of Gary Jones... Mit ch May es (Hus) to ppe d t he Stu mp Jum pers MC Hare & Houn d in Luc erne, California . n a single b old st rok e, the AMA Pro Racing B oard managed to incen se Newly crowned World 500 c c Road Rac in g Champ ion Freddie Spencer cornered his Honda for the cover of Issue #36. He clinched the championship after f i n i sh in g second t o Kenny Roberts (Yam) in the race to bea t Roberts by a mere two points for the title , 144· 142... For the th ird year in a row , Team USA won the Motocross des Nations, this time in Angreau, Belgium. The U.S. team of Broc Glover, Jeff Ward , David Bailey and Mark Barnett had less th an hal f the score of its nearest rival, Belgium , with a score of 15 to Belgium 's 32 ... Jimmy Filice (H-D ) won the Syracuse Mile .over Bubba Shobert (H -D) and Rod Farris ( H·D )... Wayne Rainey (Kaw) won round 12 of the AMA Sup erbik e Championshi p in Kent, Wash ington ... Mike Me lton ( Hus ) won round n ine of the AM A Nationa l Enduro Series in Winterset, Iowa. 10 YEARS AGO... SEPTEMBER 15, 1993 A quartet of cham "')_~I.IiiIII '" pion s was p laced on the cover of Issue #36, including Sam Er m a~ . 'S : .. le nko ( Worl d Sp eed :t .-==; ~) way Champion) , Ricky -~- -~ :ba mpions crownea' Gr aha m ( Gran d Na · tional Dirt Track Champ•; .f::. ~ . '~ ion) , Mike La Ro cco (500cc Nati on al MX Champ ion ) and Doug Henry ( 125cc National MX Champion ).,. Luca Cadalora won the Italian GP, but fellow Yamaha rider Wayne Rainey suffered a badly broken back in the event and was flown out, feared to be paralyzed. Michael Doohan (Hon) and Kevin Schwantz (Suz) finished second and third, and Schwantz took over the cham pionship lead... Ricky Graham (Hon) topped Steve Morehead (H·D) and Scott Parker (H-D) to win the Springfi eld Mile and wrap up the AMA Grand National Championship in the process... Robbie Reynard won the Steel City AMA 125cc National MX finale with a 6-) score over Jeff Emig (Yam) and Doug Henry (Hon) . The 16-year-old was elated ~ ..,....: . .. .~ --==. to win his first race. as was Henry to win his first titl e. • be e n d is c usse d , " Y a ma ha 's K e i th Ml adi n d o esn 't belie v e slo w in g the b ikes d own is a bad id ea, not with the M cCarty sa id . sa f e t y p robl ems at the majo r ity o f nearly th e entire AMA Superbik e pad - " A t th e [road race] advisory meet- d o c k , or at least those who put the in g, a majority of the advisory voting AMA tracks. B ut he , and m u c h of t he mem bers voted in fa vor of havi ng o ne res t of the f our - c yli nder cro w d , m ost in to ra c in g . set of ru l es for all b i k es runnin g in d o es n ' t see why th e V -twi ns sh ould Pro Ra cing B o ard went ab ou t ens u r- Su perbike," Yo sh imura Suzu ki' s Don be gi ve n an advantage . in g it . For 2004 , V -twins ge t a b reak Sak a k u ra sa i d . " I d on 't k no w w ho on ai r box es , throttle bodies , an d gear ma kes the rul es. It's li ke th e ad vi sory The iss ue was pa rity and h ow the sets, whil e th e four-c ylinders regress The argument c o u ld b e m ad e for i ncl u s i o n. Tw o yea r s a g o Yamaha had a Superbi k e, Kawasa ki had two , board . .. wh y are we goi ng to t h o se to stock air bo xes and th rottle bodies. m eetin g s?" Most o f th ose question ed in the pad - a n d Du cati su pp o rt ed t wo te a m s . Now Yamah a ' s g on e, n ot to return in K awa sak i 's M ike Preston sa id th e doc k w er e ada ma nt th at it would g iv e boa r d , " we re s ur p ris e d, b e c au s e slow in g d o wn th e four- c y linder s. The t here 's st u f f h a p p e n i n g , some w as ru les ev en caused Ho n d a t o reth in k 2 0 04 . Kawasak i hasn ' t said what it's mem be rs o f t he ro ad r ac e ad viso ry th e V-t win s an unfair ad van tag e wh ile di scussed , so me n ot disc us sed and its st rategy, according to team m anager Chuck Miller. If the four -y ear- old Hond a RC -5] is in the c o m p a n y 's m od el li n e u p f or 2 004 , it may 20 YEARS AGO.•. SEPTEMBER 21, 19B3 • Incense I Chicane HENNY RAY ABRAMS conti n ue to race it , he said, a p osi ti on n o o n e see m e d t o c onsider eve n a m onth a g o - n ot w ith th e im mi ne nt arriva l of th e n ew inli ne four. Th e rules were push ed thr o u gh w ith out di sc u s sio n , m ore o f a fi at than a d em ocratic discussion, w h ic h t he teams had b e en ac customed to an d expected. The si mp le quest io n is why? Wh y is th e AMA Pro Racin g B o ar d so in te res te d in gi v in g Du cati , and possi b ly Ho nda , an adva ntage? Be cau se that 's cle arly what they've d on e. At d oing , t hough it ' s hard to im ag ine it wo u l d n ' t m a r k et th e n e w ZX -] OR. A nd Du c at i is pl a y in g th e coque ttish ingen ue , fli rting with its suitors until th e com p lete oppos ite o f what p eople an ac ce ptab le gift is proffe red . T h at said ." w ou ld be th e ru les . So w hy b other? Ameri can Honda ' s Du cati Chu c k Mill er sa id the y 'd re q ue ste d manag em ent said as recently as th e AMA/ W orld Su p erbike b etter co m m u n ication b etw e en t h e rou nd a t L a gun a Sec a th at it w ould boa rds . co ns i der rac i n g i f th e rul e s w er e " B ec ause one thing I've lea rned in acceptable . W ith its sa les slu m p ing in my po sition , I don't always ag ree and t h e United Sta t e s an d t h e ne w 99 9 understand wh y th ings g o that w a y , n ot selli ng in Europe, it' s im p erati v e but w h en yo u find o u t all th e f acts , th a t Du cati mark ets its n ew est V-twi n sometimes it all makes a lot m ore by racing in AMA . But it coul d n' t do it sense: Miller said . " A n d we just don 't if th e c o sts were p rohib it ive , not with have all the facts a ll the t ime . And th e amount o f money it's pouring in to tha t fr ust rates us al l. " MotoGP. What the ru les have done is T he n ew ru les are aimed squ ar ely all ow the com pany to come in with- at one ride r, Yosh imura Suzu k i 's Mat o u t sp end in g too mu ch o r wo r ki n g Mlad in . If not fo r ti re pro b lem s a t a t oo hard. number o f ra c es , Ml adin cou ld have Had t he Pro Racing Boa rd left th e won nearly eve ry rac e si nce D ayt on a. r u l e s th e sam e for t h e twi ns wh il e Rac ing Bo ard m ember in atte nd ance Wh en th e r ul e s we r e c ha n ge d t o slo w in g t he fours , t he re w oul d h a ve w as Kev in Schwantz, and he in iti ally enco u r a g e part i c ipati on by ] OOO c c Vi rgi ni a In t ern at ion al Ra c ew ay t here w a s n o e a sy ans wer. Th e o n ly Pro argued and voted aga inst it. No o ther four-cylinders , Yosh em b race d it and b oard m ember sh owed up. N eith er th e i r r esu l ts ar e e vi de n t a t every d id AM A Pro Ra cing C E O S c ott m e et in g . A aron Yates h a s h a d h i s Holl in g sw o r t h , w ho was e x p ec t e d best yea r an d w i ll l i k e l y fini s h n o t he n c hanged h is plans. bee n less discontent. But t o give the twins po w er while tak ing it awa y from w o rse than se cond in th e champ - The d isagreemen t h ig hlights t he mak e thos e t echnical dec isions . o n the box a few ti m es and c h all eng e very few of wh om sp end much t ime tions t h e Pro Ra c i n g B o ard ha d t o able to put th e private Atta ck Suzuk i B o a rd , made up of i n d u st r y type s , On e t eam m an ag er w ho as ke d not to b e nam ed asked w hat q ua lifica- ions hip . J ason Pr id more has been disconnect between th e Pr o Ra c ing th e fou rs d efies logic. the factory Hond a s and Ducatis. " Sho w me o ne g uy that's helping you make those de c ision s tha t' s a fr ig gi n ' engineer that k no w s a ny v a l u a b l e th ing. T h ere isn 't an y. Is [AMA te ch- at superb ike ra c es , and th e road rac e All of the Japanese c ompani e s advisory b oard, a panel m ade up o f make a big bore four- cyli nder, and all re presen tatives of the major r a c e c o u l d have rac ed them, though not look at all th e bull sh it that he 's gotten t eam s . At VIR , th e road race b oard with the su ccess of Suzu k i. The GSX - into ." nical manager] Rob K in g an engin eer? He Is . If t hey co n su lt ed h im , was left to ' questi on it s o w n r el e - R] 000 is routin ely nam ed a s th e best Yamaha 's K eith M cC arty has the v ance. large sportbike in worldwide p olls. It 's last word . " If y ou to ok th e m on ey that " T he adv isory boa rd is nothing ce r t ai n l y th e b e st ra ce b ike . And ev ery com p a ny , that th e four major m ore tha n a room to ge t ev erybody Suzuki th inks enough o f it to se n d it com p an ie s, take it aw ay , tell m e what r i l ed u p i n a piss ing c o n t e st. Th ey up aga ins t th e all- powerfu l D ucatis in k ind o f racing yo u ' d h ave here? So d on ' t m a k e an y se nse a ny m ore W o rld Supe rbike , t he on ly Japanese for th em not t o pa y attention to t ha t be cause t he AMA d o es n't tak e wh at' s factory to do so . is reall y n ar ro w -m ind ed , I thi n k ." In an upcoming issue of Cycle News eN Troy National MX Finale Portuguese MotoGP Assen WSBK . Vernon AMA FlatTrack Pennsylvania GNCC cue I e n e _ S • S EPTEM BER 10, 2003 99

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