Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128244
o o'\X/ o lID G'Q)ce o o W orld Champio n Dougie Lampkin (Mon) took the lead in the Indoor W orld Trials Championship by taking the victo - Am erican Honda announced on November 26 that Ricky Canmichael. the defending AMA 250 Superc ross and AMA 250 National Motocross Champion, sustained a knee injury while preseason testing for the 2004 season that will likely take him out of the entire AMA SupercrossSeries. Canmichael was examined by his doctor on November 26 with the results showing a torn ACL. Carmich ael was slate d to hav e ry in M o nza. It aly . on Nov embe r 29 . o o o Lampkin top p ed Adam Raga and Takeshi Fujinami to score the open ing-round win. surgery and is facing a recover y time of four months. according to Honda. "Ricky and the team were prepar ed and look ing forward to defending the Supercross t itl e: said Chuck Miller, the Honda race team manager. "Now Ricky is anxious to get the surgery taken care M a tt Bon i led a Kawasaki charge at o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o t he 2003 Thor/ Parts Unlimit ed W inter Nation al O lympics , presented by Pro Circuit. in Gainesvil le, Florida, over the Tha nk s g iVing weeken d: faking the event' s highest honor - th~~ Pro •.- 1 uit Circ _ Plat inum Pipe - with seven class win s. After a wee k of racing , Kawasaki had ~ of so he can start his training for the National Motocross series." The Carmichael injury is a blow to th e 2003 ·2004 THQ Wo rld Supercross GP/THQ AMA Supercross Series that is slated to begin on Sa tu rday . Dece m be r 6. in Seville . Spa in. as one of its to p draws will not be in the lineup. "We at Clea r Channel Ente rt ain m ent send o ut our get -well wishes to Ricky an d Urs ula [Carmichael' s wife). first and fore- rack ed up 30 c lass wi ns in both t he mot ocro ss and superc ross eve nts and swe p t th ro ugh t he aw ar d s ce re mo ny wit h Boni also taki ng the Scott Gold en Goggle Award , Teddy Maier received the D unlop Silver Tire, which is awarde d to th e highest -fini sh ing Expert in bo th discipline s. Ryan V illopoto was the most," said Charlie Mancuso, pres- ident of Clear Channel Entertain - rider to beat in t he 85 cc classes . winning six tit les on his way to earning the Fox Bronze Boot Award. Proton team member Nobuatsu Aoki on the tw o-rider squad. J ust a few days after wo rd came ou t that Ricky Carmichae l had been injured (see new s box) , t he r e were A c c o rd ing to his manager. S t e v e D ic terow . MotoG P Rookie of the Year N ick y H ayden ha d surgery on Novem ber 26 to rep air an injury to his thum b. The surgery w as perf ormed by noted surgeon D r. Art hur Ting in N orth ern C alifo rn ia. " A t V alen cia !th e final Grand Prix] he [Hayd en! hyperexte nded his thumb. and a littl e piece of the bone appare nt ly tore off . " Di c t ero w sa id . " This past weekend he was riding w ith Tommy [HaydenJ. and the thum b swe lled up. They did some X-rays. and as it turns out, there was a small problem with the rumors that Chad Reed had also hurt himsel f. Those rumors ende d up be ing tru e as co nfirmed by Yamaha on M o nday. December 1, when it issued the follow ing pres s re lease : " Team Ya mah a Fact ory rider and current W orld Supercros s Champion Chad Reed injur ed his shou lder in an off -the-t rack accident this past w ee ke nd . Aft e r vi si tin g w it h his doc tor, Reed was diagnosed wit h a dislocated shoulder and is scheduled for o rt ho scop ic surg ery early t his we ek . ~ o o o o o o t humb , so he had s urgery w it h T ing today. He 'll be out a few we eks, but it' s fairly minor. " Hayden was scheduled to test the Repsol Honda the first week in Reed will be unable to compete in eithe r of th e W orl d Sup erc ro ss races begi nning this weekend in Europ e . Reed w ill be rehabilitating his shoulder in the com - December in Valen cia. Spain. The injury will force him to miss that test. ing we eks and ho pes to return to Anaheim , site of his first AMA 250cc w in. for t he o p e n ing r ound o f t he AMA Supercro ss series on J anuary 3, 2004 ." Stay tuned. Team Suzuki' s John Hopkins and factory tester Kosuko A kio shi co mple te d t hree day s of tire test s at t he Sepang Circuit in Malay sia on November 30 . the team's firs t run on the Bridgestone tires that the MotoGP team will use for next year's W o rld C hamp ionship cam paign . Hopkins not only pra ised the tires fo r th eir perf ormance and consist ency , but he also improved o n the bes t race lap ti me se t by a Suzuki G SV-R M ot oGP machine , at thi s year's M alaysian G P. According to a press release . " I didn't know w hat t o ex pect ." said Hopkin s , who faced bo th we t and dry co nditions at the Sepang circuit. " So I was pre tty pleased to find out the tires work really goo d . It gives us all a positive feeling to go into the w inte r break , afte r do ubt s abo ut w hat to ex pect. " Team S uzuk i announced only a few day s be fore the t e st t hat t hey had decid ed t o sw itc h It now appears almost ce rtai n that Kurtis Roberts wi ll jo in his fath er' s Proton o o o o o te a m f o r t he 20 0 4 M ot oG P seas o n, ac c o rd ing to h is man ager S t ev e Dicterow . " Unless something else po ps up. he [Robert s] will be on a Proton next year, " Dicterow said today. " So meone w ro t e tod ay th at Kurtis w as push ing J eremy M cW illiams out of the team. but t hat' s not t he case . M cWill iam s loo ks like he's headed to t he Ap rilia team, and that 's his cho ice . It' s not t hat we didn't wa nt him." Kurti s Robert s w ill not only be joinin g his father in t he se ries , but o o o o o also his bro ther. Kenny Roberts J r., as the two brot hers will go head to head in the MotoG P W orld Championship. Kurtis Robert s is expecte d to jo in curre nt o ment - Motor Sports. "Ricky' s injury is tragic . and we wish him a speedy recovery. We all know how much he was looking forward to racing Chad Reed and the Other superstars of supercross this season. Ricky is a true champion. and we look forward to seeing him recover fully and winning races again as soon as possible." 2 D EC EM BER 10, 2 0 03 ' cue I e n eVIl'S from M ichelin to jo in forces with Bridgesto ne for 200 4. O ne advantage is geograp hic and c ultural - bot h co mpan ies are based in Japan, and their develop men t eng in ee rs w ill be able to work closely. accordi ng to S uzu ki. A not her strengt h is the rapid developm ent of the Bridge stone tires durtnq 200 3. com peting fo r pole posi tio ns and rostrum finishes in only their second year in the premie r c la s s . Su zu k i says. " I w as impressed from the first laps, " said Hopkins. "Tires are so import ant, so I have to admit I was a litt le co nce rned about wh at I might find . Righ t aw ay t he grip was go od, and when we starte d racki ng up mor e laps , the tires were co nsistent. I was able to get to lap tim es definitely co mpetit ive w ith what we had earlier in the year . It 's going to be real interesting t o wo rk w it h the se gu ys . " The t est s were run usi ng t he 2003 G SV - R M ot o GP rac e r in the spec ifica tio n in which it finished the season, allow inq a direct co mp ariso n of perfo rman ce. A t t he same t ime, S uzu k i facto ry rac e departm ent engineers were hard at wor k on next ye ar's dev e lo p m en t of t he 990cc V-fo ur four-s troke racer. Two -time M ot oc ro ss W orld Ch ampion Frederic Bolley has Signed wit h Aprilia to race in the W orld FIM Supermot o series in 2004 . It's not determined yet if he will contest the S 1 or the S2 class, according to co nt ribut or M ario M arini. Ap rilia was suppose d to co ntest the final FIM W orld Champion ship on November 30 in Benidorm , Spain, but t he facto ry o p te d t o skip th e t rip and ge t rea dy ins tea d w it h a two-rider t eam for t he upco ming Bologna M otor Show . Reigning 250cc W orld Champion Manuel Poggiali and 125cc ro ad rac ing ru nner-up Alex de Angelis will ride the new V -twin Apri lia SXV 4.5 in Italy. New Aprilia recru it Shane Byrne had his f ir st ride on th e Ap ril ia RSC ube M ot oG P bike last week. The Brit came away impressed. " I was riding at 12.000 [rpm , and I was thin king that the bike was incredibly fast ." Byrne said in an Aprilia release . "Then I realized that I had extra I 4500 rpm at my disposal. I ope ned the gas, and I discovered that the Cube has much mo re pow er and an in c red ib le pot ent ial in power, torqu e and acceleratio n. That' s amazing - this bike is really fast !.. ) ,r '~ Cl ear C hann el Ent ert ainment ' s Mot or Sport s division has announced that Evel T Knievel wil l make appea rances at the b Dallas/ Fo rt W orth BikeFest & Expo in co njunct ion with the M iller lit e National Arenac ro ss Ser ies at t he Wi ll Rogers M emorial C enter in Fort W orth, Texas. J anu ary 2 -4 . The D all a s/Fo r t W o rt h BikeFest & Expo will be held in conjun t ion with the 20 t h annual ar ena cross race with professional racing Friday and Saturday night s and the amate ur champio nships Sunday afterno o n. The expo wi ll feature the 2004 lineup of moto rcycles . A TV s . and sc o ot er s fro m most major manufact urer s alon g with a wide va rie ty of high-perf ormanc e and afte rmarket pro duc t s. " This wi ll be a huge we ekend for fans to have t he opportu nity to meet Evel Knieve l. who is without a doubt the greates t daredevil of all time." said M ike Kid d , vice presi den t of Are - nacro ss, C lear Ch annel Ent ert ainment. " W e are honored to have Evel be part of our motorcycl e weekend that has something for the entire family. " Knievel will make appearance s all th ree days of the Dallas/ Fort W orth BikeFest & Expo that will show his Rocket Powered Skycycle use d for the Snake River Canyon jump along wit h his XR-750cc Harley -Davidson used to make his final three jumps