Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO••• OCTOBER 9, 1973 A snafu picture of a bike t est th at we hadn't written yet was run fo r the cover of Issue *39, just because th e issue had a color cove r and it was a nic e color pi ct ure. We 've come a long way since then... Polish rider Jerzy Szcz aki el became the first rider from the country ever to win the World Speedway Championship after the final race of the series in Chorzow, Poland... We featured a pretty unbelievable photo sequence of Kenny Robert s crashing his Yamaha dirt tracker at the Golden Gate Mile. At first people thought he just overcooked it going into the tum , but the photos showed that his rear wheel actually j ust came off, with the chain being the only thing that held it on through the crash... Marc Peters won the 250cc Intermediate class in Sunnyvale, California. 20 YEARS AGO••• OCTOBER 12, 1983 Rand y Go ss sl id across the c over of ~3l:J ill:.1J Issue Jl39 as he was poised t o gr ab his second AM A Gran d National Championship with a 27 -poi nt lead over his Harley team mate Jay Springsteen late i n the series. "I hav e the m on t hei r knees: he said in the interview inside... Ricky Graham won the Springfield Mile for his third tim e, with Jim Filice and Jay Springsteen rounding out the top three. In fifth was Randy Goss, who held a 20·point lead over Graham at the event's conclu sion... Brae Glover (Yam) beat teammate Ron Lechien (Yam) to win the first-ever non-AMA-sanctioned Supercross as round two of the CMC Trans-Cal Series was held in the Cal-Expo Arena in Sacra mento. J eff Hi cks (Han ) finished third... Mike Pascarella (SOl) won the eocc Intermediate (9-1 1) class at round one of the CMC Trans-Cal series in Santa Maria, California. Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) won the eocc Interm ediate ( 12- 16) event, Mouse McCoy won th e Mini Exp ert class , and although Kit Palmer got the holeshot in the 25 0cc Interme diate class , it was Mike Pryor (Cag) who got the win. 10 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 6, 1993 A plethora of champions gr aced the cove r of Issue *39. includ ing Scott Summers, Danny Hamel , Sc ott Park er and Dave Roper. Also, Damon Br adsha w sat above the Cycle News logo in announ-cement that he had ca ll ed it quits. The 21 -year-old supersta r said. '1'11 be back when I feel I can earn my pa ychec k and not a second before."... Carr was on the cover for win- ning the Sacramento Mile. Scott Park er and Ted Taylor rounded out the top three after Taylor beat Parker to win their heat race .. . Doug Toland was crow ned the World Endurance Road Race Champion at the final round, the Bol d'Or in Le Castellet, France... Roper was on the cover after winning a road race class at the AHRMA Vintage Festival in Steamboa t Spring s, Colorado... Hamel teamed with Larry Roeseier to win the Tonopah 300 desert race... Summers won the Hardrock GNCC over Fred Andrews (Yam) and Terry Cunningham (Kaw). e A Chicane HENNY RAY ABRAMS h i 9 h - s t a k e s g a m e o f po k e r i s being play ed at th e highest lev els of the A M A and Amer i can Suzu k i with the fin al hand lik el y to determ in e th e look of AMA roa d racing in 2004. The AMA Pro Rac in g board rec ently issu ed te chn i cal rules for the Superbike class th at m an y fee l fa vor th e ag ing V -tw ins at th e ex p ense o f the new inl in e fours. Th e vitriol was im m edi ate and fo rceful, w ith m ost of th e Sup erb i k e tea m managers i n c en se d that th eir voice s w eren 't heard and hoping fo r a change. Now Suzuki's done someth ing about it. In a st ro ng ly worded letter to AMA preside nt Rob Rasor, American Suzuki v ice pr esid ent fo r m oto rc ycl es and ATVs , Mel Harris , has threatened , mildly in hi s words, to pull o ut of the Superbi k e c l ass . " Suzu ki feels th at und er t he new p ropose d rul es that th er e is n ot p a ri t y , n ot a n e ven playi ng fie ld ," Harris to ld Cycl e New s editor Paul Carruthers. This isn't Harris talk ing . He c o ul d n' t have issued the letter without the explicit appro val o f th e h i gh est l ev e ls o f co rp orate Suzuki. Spec ifi cally he 's referring t o the rule mandating stoc k throttle bodies and airboxes for the four-cylinders , while allowing the V-twins an alternat e set. W ha t also bothe red Ha rris wa s th at with the elimination of the 750cc Su perst ock cl ass, t radi t ionally the showc ase for Su zuk i' s GSX -R750 , there may be nowhere for Suzu k i to sho wcase it s new GS X -R750 si nce th ere 's ta lk of ba nn ing 750s fro m the 1000cc Super stock class. Do e s h e hav e a p oint? Th at depend s on you r poi nt of view . Will th e AMA b end and c h a n ge th e ru les? T h at ' s t he mul ti m illion- dollar q ue stion . "If I wa s the AMA , I 'd call his bluff, " a vete ran of the race scene said . The beli ef throughout most of the paddock is that Suzuk i has no cho ice bu t to race what is un q uesti o na b l y t h e b e st sportbike line in motorcyc le h ist o r y . Th at it wou ld c ho ose no t to r a c e , and a dve rtise , M at Ml ad in 's un prec ed ented fou rth num ber -one p la te in the p rem ier Supe r b ik e c l ass i s a n o t i on man y f in d laughab le , especially w he n it's announced it s withdrawa l from W o rl d Superb ik e and the Moto GP te am run s at the back of the field . W i t h the baron s of Worl d Su perbike trying to kill that series , the AMA / Che vy T ruck s U.S. Superbike Cham p ionship could be th e pre -eminent pr oduction bike seri es in th e world , and Suzuk i is not going to allow a pretender to stea l it s thunder. e Kawasaki, Honda and Yamah a will all ha ve new 1000s next y ear. Ya m aha 's co m m itted to Super stock and is li ke ly to develop the Superb ike with a n eye toward racing i t l ate in th e season. Honda will run it s new bi k e in Sup er bik e and likely Super stock , under the Er io n Ho nda tent , though no decisions have been made. It may c ontinue to ra ce the RC -5 1, th ough you c a n bet the crew wants some t hi n g n ew er a nd w ith more ups id e potentia l. Kawasak i remain s on t h e fence awaiting fi nal ru les but will ing t o a b i d e by what 's alr ea dy b e en o r de r ed. T eam m a n ag er M ike Pr esto n: " T he prob le m is , I'm hea r i ng so me other m anufacturer s and manag em ent are c ry i n g t h e blues that they cou ld n ' t g et w ha t th ey wa nted and are threatening ." Much of th e worry is be ing fed by t he specu la tion that Ducati Co rs e is coming with a full factory effo rt , WSB runner- u p Rub en Xaus, and t he best of the M ich elin s. T ha t blue sky comb ination, given the rules d iscrepancy. would be poten t and more than eno ugh to g ive the Suzuki crew a few sleep less n ights, i f Xaus cured his penchant for crashing . It's one th ing t o sp ill on the wide expanses of an FIM -homo logat ed t rack , quite another to hit a tree or sc affold or wall o r bank in g at any n umber of t he co nsidera bly more dangerous, yet so mehow app ro ved, AMA tracks. The D uc ati Desmo V-tw in is nearin g the end of its comp etitiv e life cy cle, wi th a V -4 bas ed on th e M otoGP-w inning D esm osed ici lik el y o n the hor iz on for 2005 . Ducati was n' t co m pe t i t i v e this y e ar, but it wasn't t he m otorc ycle , it w as t he rid er. Anthon y Gobert, Du c ati Austin 's fi rst rid er , was as ke d t o lea ve aft er Road Americ a . Gi ovann i B ussei, his genia l repla cement, ada pted to AMA tr acks li ttl e by li ttle but was never a consistent threat. Nor we re the V-twin H ondas a consiste nt t h r e a t after sw eeping D a y t o n a , th o u g h Kurtis Robe rts w a s b etter th an h e ' s eve r been and shou ld on ly get bet t er . if he sticks ar ound . M ladin and Aaron Yat e s r ul ed bec ause Yosh imura made t he sm art decis i o n t o tak e advantag e of th e rules for '03. Mladin makes the point t ha t when he arrived in Daytona for t he 200, he had on e m oto rcycl e. "I w a s t old at Daytona . ' D o n ' t c r a sh i t, bec a us e if y o u d o , yo u ' r e going to be ridi ng a prod uction bik e, full stop. ?' he said . Not ra ce ready for Daytona, Yosh reb ounded in th e next round at Californ ia Speedway with Mladin doing th e d ouble , a n d t hey d idn't st o p wi nni ng o r adverti sing. In an upcoming Issue of Cycle News Whe n word of the lette r first leaked o ut, the rumor was t ha t Suzuki was go ing to pu ll all of its support fo r all cl asse s and support t eams . Harri s ' comments to Cycle News (see In the Wind ) are vague on the issue. but he seems to suggest th at it would ab andon Sup erbi ke s t o co nce n t r at e on Superstock . Th ere are a f ew reas on s Suzuki w on 't abandon Sup erbik e s ; first among them is co st. Many of the bott om-l in e numbers - r ider salarie s , trave l , testing - are f ixe d . If y o u'r e going to th e track, those costs don 't c h an ge. C e r t a i n l y i t c os ts less to d e v e l op a nd ra ce a Superstock machine rather than a Su perbike, but the ret urn is equ all y d iminished . A nd though it'd be subst an tially less work at D aytona , y ou 'd sti ll have to pay th os e us u r io us h o t e l ra te s fo r t h e w eek minimum. But t he real reason this wo n't hap pen is simple: televis ion. . T her e is no greater marketing tool than winning races on live television , something Su zu k i ' s done v ery well this y ea r. Mlad in won 10 races and teammate Aaron Yat es another three. Superst ock racing w ill not be on live television in '04. and it won't be the feature class, no matter who races in it. Do es Suzu k i want everyone hu ddled around the TV on T uesday n ight wa tc hi ng the ride rs they' re pay ing so handsomely race each ot he r? ( T he re's an un s ett l ed q u es t i on abo ut who would be allowe d to race in th e cl ass. One pr o posal would ban factory -paid Superbik e riders fr om th e c lass , t ho ug h t he va g ue ne ss of th e ear ly wording invites liber al inte r pr etation . M ladin wi ll tell y o u he rides for Yo sh imura Suzu ki , not th e fac tory team , and th erefore he isn 't a factory rider. Others might beg to d iff er. ) T he question rem ains, is the AMA going to .flip -flop on the Superbike ru les? N ot if y ou listen to AMA Pro Racing CEO Sc ott Hollingswo rth : "Everybody is go ing to have some aspect o f the rules that t hey don ' t li k e, so yo u ca n't go cha sing you r tail an d tr y to pl eas e everybo dy because you are never goin g to do it. " So wh ere does that leave Suzuki? Sti ll with a champ i onsh ip -w inning m otorc ycle and t he best rid er in the fi eld , fo r the f o u r th ti m e , a n d the de si re to l et th e res t of t h e wor ld k now it. "May be th i s team 's got the b es t rider , and they 've defini tely got t he best crew. n o doubt ab out that, " M lad in says . But will th ey b e o n th e Superbike g ri d wh en th e se a so n opens next y ear at Da yt on a? Onl y if i t ' s eN o n t elev ision . Springfield AMA Dirt Track Finale Imola WSBK Polish World Speedway Sachsenring World Supermoto cue I e n e _ S • O CTO BER 1 , 2003 111

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