Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IN THE PADDOCK Dangerous Or ot? By 30 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 23, 1973 ~lill :J.J:J4 A Ka wasaki r ider t o ok a spill on t he co ver of Issue #4 1 as h e was racin g in a n Indiana Trans AJIIA MX event. Willi Bauer (Mai) won t he even t with a 4 -1 score over Hak an A ndersson (Yam) and J im Weinert ( Kaw) . Bryar Holcomb ( Bul) won the 250cc Support class over Rich Eierstedt (Hon) and Bill Gros si ( Kaw) ... CRC held a t wo- l o op enduro in Red Mountain. California. and It was supposedly the first ever to incorporate an easy first loop so that all the amateurs could make it, followed by a moredifficult second loop for the experts. It was a rousing success... Tracy Oswell (Hon) domin ated the 250cc Expert class at Indian Dun es i n Val en c i a, Californ ia . He clinched the AME's number-one plate. M MICHAEL Scon o to rc y cl e raci n g is dan g erous , and rather irres po nsi b le . That ' s w h a t it says o n t h e bo x . T h at' s t h e w ay w e lik e it. K ind of. B ec ause th e li n e bet ween B rav e an d D an g erou s is ver y na rr o w , a n d as l on g as th e co u rage doesn't stray to o far to th e w ro ng si de of t h at lin e too o fte n, th en you c an be sure t hat yo u are ge tt in g t he b e st of t he brave ry . A nd , foo l h ardy o r n o t , it is a no ble as pect of humanity . All t his is tru e , bu t r a c i n g f an s wo u ld be bl oo dthirsty in th e ex tre me if th ey d idn 't al so tend to ward an ot her p oi n t o f vi ew . Nobody w ants t o see a ny bo d y b a d l y hurt, an y fa m il i e s Mike Melt on (Hus), the States' top finisher in the Wales ISDE, was phot ogr aph ed on hi s way to ninth overall in the 500 cc class for the cover of Issue #4 I . The U.S. team - cons isti ng of Melton, Larry RoeseI er , Dre w S m ith , Frank Stac y, Ed Lojak and Mark Hyde - finished 10th overall. The Swedes dominated... Team Tamm's Chris Hel sse r went 1-2 to win th e 125cc Pro class at round 4 of th e CMC T ransCal Ser ies i n Br entwo o d, Californ i a, ove r Georg e Holland (Suz) and Bryan Manley (Yam ). Team Tamm's Jeff Hicks (Hon) sw ep t the 25 0 cc Pro c las s, and J ohn Whelchel (Yam ) won the Open Pro event... Kelly Moran took the U.S. National Speedway Championship in Costa Mesa, California, over Mike Faria and Dubb Ferrell. It' s a h a r d c a l l , a nd a rg u m en ts m an ent injury . W e w ant ra cing to b e 20 YEARS AGO•.• OCTOBER 26, 1983 be rea ved or an y liv es ru in ed b y p er - co nt in ue d lat e into the ni ght. T hese safe as well as d anger ous . rid er s a re n ot ma de o f co tt o n woo l , Roberts J r. t o o k o u t h is te a m m ate Ricky Graham (Hon) slid across the cover of Issue #41 after winning hi s 12 t h rac e of t he year at the Pom o na Half Mile . Stev e Mor ehe ad and Will Dav i s ro un d ed ou t t he t o p three, Gr aha m als o won the 883 Nat ional, and Ben Bost rom was a notable finisher in eighth... Scott Russell (Kaw) swept both ,legs of round 12 of the World Cham pionship Superbike Series at Donin gton Park . Carl Fog arty (Due) fin ished second in the fir st leg but crashed out of the second whil e leading. He was o ver 30 points behind Russell with only two rounds remaini ng... Scott Summe rs (Hon) won round 10 of the AJIIA National GNCC championship in West Virginia over Doug Blackwell (Kaw) and Fred Andr ews (Yam)... Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) won the Open class at round two of the AJIIA Fall Classic Series in Englishtown, New Jersey, over John Dowd (Kaw) and Keit h Johnson (KTM). Tim Ferry (Yam) won the 125c c class over Barry Carst en (Suz) and Todd DeHoop (Hon). T am a da 's o u t b r a k i n g ba ttle w a s You c an ' t , of cou rse , h ave it both and t h e y a r e go i n g f or t h e Wo rld a lso o p en t o qu est ion. H e did c lo ut w ays . But th e dra c o ni an p en alt i e s Championsh ip. Like th o se wh o race G ibern au , and p ic tures showed th e handed ou t at th e Mo tegi Grand Pr ix o n t h e Is le of Man , th e y kno w t he Ja p anese r id er was co m ing across on for tw o ca ses j u d ged as irrespons ible ridi ng seemed to t ip th e balance to o far t oward th e H e a l th - a n d - S a f e t y cam p .: a tendenc y that many in th e p addo ck felt might just ru in to p -lev el racing completely . T he cases inv o lv ed Mak o to T arn a da , w ho was disqual ifi ed f or an risk s going in . An d th ey are, further - a co llis ion co urse at th e time . Bu t m ore, gro wn -ups (a part f ro m a raft o f Giberna u d id h av e ro om to g et out of th e wa y , if he'd c h o sen to c ed e th e tee na ge 125cc riders). co rn er. And these o utbra k ing battl es On th e o the r hand , as B utler said, t he se Mot oGP b ik e s are h e av y a nd are p art and p arcel of ra c ing . Ther e ar e lo ts m ore examples; an d d a n ge r o u s , a nd h e se e m ed r ath er g lad o f th e opport u n it y to rem in d th e admitted ly extremely t ough o vertak - rid ers of th is fac t. A s w ell as remind - i n g m o v e on Se t e G ibern au on th e last lap o f the M ot oG P race; and John ards ' coll ect ive aut horit y . a ll of the m , or a lm o st a ll of t h e m , we nt unpunished . in g eve ry b o dy o f h is and th e st ew - Hop k in s , who w as disqualified from the next race in M al ay sia fo r a head- It is th e suddenn ess and th e severity o f t he se p en alti es t hat su r p r ises. I w ish I k n ew wh ere I stood o n t h is D isqu ali f i cati on i s an e xtrem ely hea vy pe nalt y for o ffe nses t h at o c c ur quest ion , but I'm no t en t irely sure . on a regul ar ba sis, and ge nerally go lon g p lunge in to th e fi rst co m er o f th e It' s hard to say t ha t bo th these rid- first lap, at a frankly ridiculou s spe ed . ers d idn't des erve some sort of ce n - Ev en he admitte d he " w as a b ig idiot " 10 YEARS AGO••• OCTOBER 20, 1993 Hopk in s at M u gell o? su re, and even som e sort of a ra p on afte r knoc k in g h imself , Carl o s Checa the k nuckles . an d Troy B ay li ss out of th e ra ce and It is the element o f o fficia l fle x ing But nob ody had a ny tro uble rem em b erin g any n umber o f sim i lar He apo logized pro f u sely , and ev ery - fi rst -corner chaos attacks - especi ally rac ing incident - u ntil th e rac e d ir ecto r , Pau l Butler, decided it wa s "riding in an irresponsi b le m an n er , c ausing da n ge r t o other rid ers. " Bu t ler ' s decisions were bac k ed u p by th e FIM stewards . Th ere was cl ea r ly a p ol ic y decision he re . T h ey h ad d ec ide d to m ak e an ex am p le of these cases th ere h ave been ti m e p en alt ies, or fine s. putting Co li n Edward s into th e d i rt. one w rot e it off as a far -from -unique unremarked, t hough in som e se ve re of m u scl es t hat is the most an noyi ng and d i stas tefu l, b e ca u se it de mo n- i n th e small er c lasses . T he r e c a n strates an arrogance o f inc onsistency t hat tre a t s t h e rid ers and everyo ne hardly be a single ri d er who ha sn ' t else in the sport wi th a serious la ck o f d on e some t hing ex c essive in such respect. ci r c u m st an c e s at l eas t o n c e i n his career. B ut p erh aps I m y self am bei ng too severe. Perh aps B utl er and h is goons How about South Africa this yea r , will p rove m e w ro ng . Per haps Moteg i when Edwards to o k out h imse lf an d marked the start of a n ew era , of Jer emy M c W i lliam s aft e r l o sin g st rict r ig id it y , and o f in st an t di squali fi - r id er s, fo r t he lonq -terrn g o od o f all control off th e sta rt lin e? Ho w about c at io n aw aiti n g an ybod y who st ic ks co ncern ed . O r was it j u st a kn ee-j erk Catalu nya , when Andrew Pitt' s first - h is n ec k out. react ion , on a weekend wh en D aij iro lap e n t h usi a s m t o o k out h im sel f , Kato's fa ta l ac cident at Suzuka sev en M cWill iams ( a g ai n ) and hi s o w n th e way most of t hes e people ri de , by months ag o wa s rep e atedly rem em - Kaw asaki teammate Akira Ya nagawa, the ti m e w e g et to th e en d o f the sea- b ered , bo t h with forma l c ere moni es wh o s u f fe re d re aso na bly se r io u s so n , th e r e wo n ' t b e a ny o ne left t o and in p riv ate? inju rie s as a result? O r wh en K enny ra ce . In an upcoming Issue of Cycle News It's a bit o f a worry, tha t, bec au se eN Maxxis U.S. Open Malaysian MotoGP French World Supermoto cue I e n eo vv s O C T O B ER 15, 2 0 03 95

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