Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO..• NOVEMBER 13, 19 73 The Bureau of Land Management released its long-awaited desert plan, and that map was featured in full color on the cover of Issue '44. Basically, the all -white areas (whic h are few and far betw een ) are the unrestr icted riding areas ... Dave Hansen won the Oakland. Cali fornia. AMA Indoor Flat Track Series opener. while Rick Hocking fin ished second , and Bill Morgan finished third ... A photo at a local enduro featured mo torcyclists riding around a sign thai said, "Tractor Way, Not Suitable For Wheeled Traffic ." Th e caption underneath said, "Despite the sign, most finished."... In his first race back from inj ury , John DeSoto (CZ) dominated both Open Expert motos at an Indian Dunes MX. Kendall Wat son (Mai) finished second. 20 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 16, 19 8 3 Ron Lechien and Ed die La ws on co m p rised t he cover of Issue ' 44. Lechien was on there for winning the San Diego Supercross, while Lawson won The Superbikers ... The San Diego Super cross was the fi nal ro und of the CMC Trans-Cal Series, and Lech i en ( Yam) beat out Rick John son (Yam) and David Bailey (Hon) for the win. Lechien won the championship... Lawson beat out Danny Chandler (Han) and Broc Glover (Yam) to win the Superbik ers. It was the first time in the event's five- year history that a nonmotocr oss rid er had won... Mik e Melto n ( Hus) won the fi nal rou nd of th e AMA Nationa l Enduro Series in Delaware over John Mart in (C -A ) and Kevin Hi nes ( Hus) .. . The two Da ns, Sm i th and Ashcraft, dom inated the Baja 1000, winning not only the bike class, but the over'all. 10 YEARS AGO.•• NOVEMBER 10, 1993 A slew of AMA /CCS racers tore toward Daytona's turn one dur ing the Race of Champ ions. A aro n Yat es (Han) won the Exp ert M iddlewe ight Sup ers port eve nt. .. Danny Hamel ( Kaw) completed his sweep of the AM A Na tional Champion ship Hare f, Hound Series with his wire-to-wire win in Lu c ern e Valley, California. Ty Davis (Kaw), Ted Hunn icutt (Kaw) and Larry Roeseler (Kaw) com pleted the Kawasaki top-four sweep... Scott Summers (Hon) won round eight of the AMA National Hare Scrambles Series in Flat River, Missouri, over Scott Plessinger (KTM) and Jan Hrehor (Yam). Hrehor led the championship by 9 over Plessinger, who had another 5 on Summ ers, with one round remaining ... Kevin Windham (Kaw) won the Schoolboy and 125c c Pro classes at the AMA Fall Classic Series race at Muddy Creek Raceway . He beat Ezra Lusk (Suz) and Mik e Brown (Hon) to win the 125cc Pro event. Jeff Gibson won the 60cc class, and Brock Sellards won the Senior Mini and Supermi ni classes on day two, while Shae Bentl ey beat him to win the Senior Mini class on day one. t' s n o d iffer ent fo r ra cers tha n for gu ys wh o ride o n the street. Unless you are particularl y humble, you w ill feel th e same wa y - anyone who is slower than you is a b it of a tosser; anyon e f a st er is a dangerous i d io t heading for a big crash . T his truism ho lds good all the way to t he Grand Prix level. Or it used to, anyway . T h e MotoGP fo ur -strokes have ch an ged the g round rules. So g reat is t he d iff eren c e be tween t he good bikes an d the bad that people at t h e back of the gri d ca n justi fi a bly turn the e quatio n up sid e d o wn . A s Garry M cC o y said at Moteg i: " O n th e SODs, it didn 't matter so much wh at ki n d of b ik e you were ri ding . Now if you're not o n a H o n d a o r a Du c a ti , you h av en 't got a chance." Th e likes of former World Champi on Kenny Roberts Jr. and GP-winner and slide-master McCoy can comfortably look down on riders who th ey used to beat quite easi ly on two st rokes, and who now do th e same to them because they are on Hondas. Sete Gibernau. four times a winner th is y ear , is a favorite target. " I never used to reg ard him in the same ca tegory as m yself as a rider , " sa id McCoy ; while Roberts is a little more charitable: "Wh en we were teammates last yea r, we were competitive . Now I on ly see him w hen he comes by." It 's a bit of a puzzle as to why th e gap is so huge . On the Suzuki , Rob ert s has achieved so mething if he ge ts i nto the po in ts . Mc Coy's K awasak i is even further o ff the p ac e. He is h appy wh en he isn ' t lapped . Ca n you imagin e h o w tha t fe el s t o th e Ki ng of Sli de? Bot h of these riders have beaten Valentino Rossi in the past , when o n more e q u al terms. H ow ca n this be? Suzuki is a h ighl y resp ect ed co m p a ny , bu ild er of the excellent G SX- R 1000, with a distinguished racing history. It is not short of experience , eng ineers and designers or talent. K a w a sa k i doesn 't have the same racing history , but it had its turn at domination in the 250 /350cc clas s befo re it quit GPs. and I a catalog ue o f fin e ro ad m ach in es. It has something els e over Suz uk i: It is pa rt of a m assi ve h ea v y in d ustria l group. It is not short of resourc es. A nd Yam ah a, too . It's close to th e mark but perenn ia ll y unable to tak e the c rucial next step. Only Du c at i has come in, rema rka bly in its first year, as a ser ious c hallenger to the m ight of Honda. There is a pattern here, however. Ho n d a goes r a c in g un de r the auspic es of HRC , the Ho n da Racing Corporation . Ducati does it in a similar way: with Ducati Corse. Wh o le indep en d en t o rg a ni zat io ns w hose o n ly focus is racing . Likewise, by th e way , Proton KR , w hose r ate o f improve ment to its ow n first-ever four- str ok e is pretty damne d impressive - in only its sev enth four-stroke race i t beat the Kawasakis and posed a strong t hreat to the Suzukis . Yamaha , Suzuki and Kawasaki do it differently . The r ac in g depart ment i s simply a part of the compa n y. C ould this be th e crucial d iffer en ce ? It ' s a matter of focus . dedication, speed of decision-making, and priori ties. When racing is just one activity. to be c on sidered alongside marketing and manufac turing problems , staff issues and so on , then t h e results clearly suffer. Thus racing becomes something more ( o r possibly less) than what it should be : a bu nch of talented nutters playing a lunatic ga me o f l -ean -go faster-than -you-can. In next week's Cycl News e Right now , bo ard room effi ci enc y is m o re i m port a nt t h an ri di n g ta lent. And that's j ust c razy. It 's proved , howev er , b y Suzuk i's r ecent round o f i m p r ov e m e n t s at Motegi. They came after a manage ment reshuffle put a new guy in charge of racing . The success of th e team will henceforth be closely linked to the internal political clout of the new b oss. Aga in, the Kawasaki situation is different. McCoy: " We have meetings afte r e ve ry day of riding , an d they take lots of notes. But we don 't see any new part s. T hey m u st have a big she lf f ull of no tes b y now ." T hen again, racing at W o rld Cha mpio nsh ip leve l is a bu s in ess , and so it is no surprise that it is won by more efficient business practices . There is one more irony, however. The riders remain the heroes. Perhaps we should readj ust our view . Instead of fet ing Valentino Ross i as an all -t im e ra cing great, we should instead have p ictures o n the work shop wall o f HRC b oss Suguru Kanazawa . Instead o f c elebrati n g the g ifts and courag e o f Lo r is Capirossi and Tr o y Ba yl is s , w e should be adm iring Ducati Co rs e c hi ef Claudio Domen icali. Somehow, I don 't think it's go ing to work that way . B ecause in the end , even the riders at the back are still takin g huge personal risks , and t h a t is what we admire . T h e biggest risk a manage r ever takes is with somebody else 's m on ey . O r turning at a m eet in g without a spare pencil. CN • Valencia MotoGP Finale • British World Supennoto cue I ... n ... _ s • N O V EM B ER 5, 2003 91

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