Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

With defending series champion Ricky Carm ichael sidelined with his kn ee injury, the Supercross Series went on wit hout hi m on Satu rday, December 6, in Spain. On Frida y , Decemb er 5, how ev er, we cau ght up with Carmichael, and he fill ed us in on his inju ry. "Well, I blew m y AtL out act uall y in September - I didn't even crash, I was ridin g th e 250, just t estin g unleaded fuel, thi s and tha t, and came around a tum and the dirt caught m y toe and ripped it outwards and tore my ACL," Carm ichael said. "I rod e the whole rest of the week with no prob lem s, but I knew I'd to re something, just because th e pain was excruciating for a couple minutes, then it went away . I just kind of ignored it the whole rest of the week, and when I got home, I had an MRI, and they said m y ACL was blown , so that was September. I had th e Motocross des Nati ons coming up and I didn 't want to turn that down, and I knew I co uld get by. I j ust k ind of tried to put it in th e back of m y mind, and I went over there and had a co uple episodes of my k nee popping out, and it j ust gradually was gett ing wors e and worse . ·It popped out on me at the U.S. Op en in practice, and after that I had no problem with it until a coup le of weeks ago. ·1 was just riding, and I squeezed th e gas tank in the mid die of the air , and m y kn ee popped out in midai r, and I just figur ed it was t ime to get her fixe d. "But a lot of peop le had heard that I crashed and th is and that, and they th ought I did it on the 450, which I didn 't . I didn't do any thi ng on th e 450 , you know? I'd blown it on m y 250, but I jus t hap pened to be riding the 4 50 when it poppe d out in the middle of the air. I ju st said to m yself , 'Well, it' s ti me to get it fixe d.' This way, I can co me out and try to be ] 10 percent for outdoors." "I was up there [at th e Castillo Ranchj, testi ng, j ust to try to ride it at a different track. I had ridden it in Corona, and with Hon da, we all went up th ere, and I was rid inq in the mom ing, getting used to the tr ack, and like I said, squeezing th e gas tank in t he middl e of the air , and it just popp ed out . Usually, it would pop out and hurt for a coupl e minutes and"th en just go away, like it did at the des Nations, but when the pain went away th is time, I went to step on it and I couldn' t put any weigh t on it at all. So , I j ust figured I had to get her taken care of. "It wasn't th e 450 that did me in - a lot of people said that, but Bria n Brown and David Pearson team ed up t o wi n the Las Vegas 200 on D ec em be r 6, but thei r Kaw asaki teamma t e s Destry Abbo t t and S h a ne Esposito w rappe d up t he B est in t he De sert Silver State Series Champions hip wi th a seco nd-p lace f in ish . T he Ho nda team of Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld went into the race just one poi nt b ehind Ab b ott and Esp o s it o and ended up third . Hengeveld wa s forced to ride t h e who le way by himself, since Ca mpbell was sidelined with a sprained thum b . Hon da-m o unt ed C h r istopher B lais finis he d fourth , fo llowed by the KTM du o o f Cl int B r aun and D a r y l Fo lks . Canad ian Darcy Lange (Kaw) was the big winner at round three of the National A renac ro s s Series in Roc kford , Illi no is , Dec em b er 5-6 . Lan ge won three of the four ma in events, wi th his on ly loss com ing in Frid ay ' s 250cc main , whic h was wo n by poi nts leade r Jos h D e m u t h (Yam) . Lange fin ished second in the main he did n 't win , w hile Demuth finished second in the th ree he did n't w in. The weekend c losed th e poi nt s gap between Lange and D e m u t h to 14 wi t h nine rou nd s (or 36 mai n events) remaining . Ad am Raga (G -G) won the s e c o nd round o f the World Indoo r Trial Champi onshi p in H on g Kong o n D e c e m be r 5 . Raga t opped Doug ie Lamp k in (Mon) , and the pa ir are now tied atop the W orld C hampionsh ip . Albert C a b es t a n y (Bet a) finished third . AMA Pro Racing ha s appo inted Steve Wh itelock as its Super cro ss/M ot oc ro ss series manager. W hite loc k , wh o w ill be based in A MA Pro Racing' s West Coast o ffice, w ill be re sp on sibl e fo r the overall man ag em ent of th e AMA Supercro s s Seri e s and A MA Ch evro le t M o t oc ro s s Championship in the newly crea ted positi on , accord in g to AMA P r o Ra cing . Whi t elock leav es his position as FIM tech ni c al dire ctor fo r th e W orld S up erb ik e Championship and w ill assume duties with AMA Pro Rac ing immediat ely . Whi telo ck' s it's not true. It said I crashed on the press release [from Hondaj, and I didn 't cras h. I just wanted you to know tha t. I've neve r cras hed fro m th is - every tim e it 's pop ped out, I've never crashed or anything. It's weird ." Look for a complete inte rvi ew with Carmicha el in Issue # ] of Cycle News, whi ch will go on sale on January 7. Steve Cox tech nical expe rience in profess iona l mo torcycle sports is vast. Addit iona lly, his bac kground is diverse, incl uding pos itions managing World C hampionship teams as well as in the FIM governing body. " By creating series-manage r positions fo r eac h o f the raci ng disciplines that AMA Pr o Racin g oversees and hiring someone of S teve's caliber, we're dramatically re-thinking how we manage A MA championship racing," sa id AMA P r o Ra c in g CEO Scott Hollin gsw o rt h in an AMA press release . "The series-manager ro le will be vital and take into account the needs of our riders, teams. promoters, spo nso rs and anyone else wh o has a relatio nsh ip with AMA Pro Rac ing . T h e series manager wil l be responsible for the 'big -picture' handling of the series and w ill be supported by a crew that include s a race director, as well as a technical and administrative staff. Steve is ideally suited to this position , and we have ex t reme ly high expectations fo r him . " Holl ing sworth added that the addi tion of Whitelock is a continuation o f AMA Pro positions w ithin the organization . Clearly. this broad-based experience wi ll benefit Steve in his new role ." Not lim iting him se lf to one form o f mo torcycle competiti on has al lowed Whi telock to form an expan sive view of the sport . " M y invo lvemen t with motocross rac ing. G rand Prix road racing , and .ev en my roots in AMA raci ng as Yvon Du hamel's mec hanic, has given me the c han ce to see mo t o rcycl e racing fro m v irt ua lly every perspec tive possible ," sa id Whi te lock. " A dd it io nally , I've enjoyed the past eight years with the FIM and treasure the experience it has afforded me . I see my new ro le with AMA Pro Racing as a logical progression o f my career and am eagerly awa it ing the A MA Supercross Series t o begin in A naheim ." De fe nding AMA Superb ike Champion M at M la din was looking forward to getting back t o ac tion as the Dunlop tire test at Daytona Int e rnat ional Speedway was set to st ar t on Monday, D ec e m b e r 8 . " T h is i s th e open ing week of t he Yosh imura Suzuk i' s testing prog ram fo r next year, and I am loo king forw ard to it in that respect." said Mladin in a statement. " The team has been wo rking extremely hard sinc e the end of the season, and I' m fee ling refre shed and ready to go . 2003 proved to be a good yea r for us , and at this poi nt , I can not see any reason why we shou ld no t be able to rep roduce the same form in 2004 . We hav e a lot o f w ork to do before the season co mmences in March. The A M A has modified the rules in the Su perbike class, and we have to now get the best o ut of o ur bi ke , in accorda nce wi t h the rules . Anot her area in w hich we have t o work hard wi ll be tires , and that's where we wi ll sta rt this week. We had a tough time with ti res here last year, so it will be interesting to ~ ee w hat D unlop has for us this week." Rac ing 's strategy of hiring high-leve l indus try tale nt as we ll as expanding the company 's presence o n the Wes t Coast. "We've made it clea r that we wa nt to be more accessible to the major tea ms and O EMs , so p lac ing S t e v e in ou r West Coast o ffice enables us to fu rt her t hat goal ," said Holl ing sw orth . Whi teloc k is highly regarded in motorcycl ing , and his mo st rece nt po s ition as FIM technical direct or for World Superbike eamed him a grea t dea l of respect amo ng riders, team s and the factori e s. " In add ition to overseeing the technica l aspects of the World Superbike Championship for the past eight yea rs, Whi te lock has a deep founda tion in o ff- ro ad ra cing ," s a id H oll in g sw o r t h . "Steve was employed by HRC from 198 2 thro ugh 199 1 and at one point directed the company's motocross efforts , re sulting in six World C hampionships with suc h racing greats as J ean-Mi c hel Bayl e, Andre M alherbe and Eric G eboers . Steve wa s also involved w ith HR C 's Grand Prix road -racing effort s , holding a va ri ety o f seni or Th e Uni ted States got its first look at Honda's new 1000c c AMA Superb ik e at Daytona Intem ational Speedway on Monday , December 8 , ju st prior to th e start of t he three-day Dunl op tire tests. Hond a personnel turned away photograph ers as they converged on the bik e, but we were able to get a shot taken from outside th e garage. No RC5 ] s were seen in th e gar age , a tell ta le sign th at Hond a plans on using the 1000cc inlin e four as its prima ry weapon in AMA Superbi ke th is com ing season. Ben Bostrom was the fi rst to try th e new bi ke at Dayto na on Decemb er 8, and after gett ing off the bike, he had this to say: "My first two thoughts were, 'This is the scar iest thing I' ve ever ridden' and 'Th is is the funn est thi ng I've ever rld den."' Bostrom said . "The power is just unbelievable. I could spin the rear tire the enti re way around the banking . It' s definitely go ing to take a steady thr ottl e hand to ride a bi ke wit h so mu ch power on tap." Bostrom ran mos tly 1:5 2s, once dipping into the hig h 1:5 J range as recorded on handheld stopwatches duri ng his Monday morni ng stint on the Honda . Many observe rs seeing the bike for the first time described it as looking tall compared to most of the other racing bikes at Daytona th is week . It was difficult to get a good perspe ctive, however , sin ce the bike is sporting unpainted, flat -black carbon -fiber bodywork. Bostrom did confirm the bike felt a little tall when co mpared to the RC5 !. "But a lot of times tall bi kes tum in well," he added . A MA Sup er sto ck Champion J o s h Hayes has inked a contract that wil l see him aboard Attack Kawasa kis for th e 2004 A MA s eas o n. Hay e s signed the deal prior to leaving for Day to na, w here he w ill join the team for the D unlop tire test. Hayes w on the Supe rstock tit le last yea r, riding an Attack Suzu ki. Jun e Brig gs , the wife of mu lti t ime W orld Speedway Champion Barry B riggs, Bostrom said they naturall y have a long way to go in sorting out the h andli n g , but he w as happy w ith his in iti al rid e. Ano the r CBR 1OOORR is being shippe d t o Dayt ona via airf reight and was . expecte d to arr ive at the track on Tueda y. Larry Lawrence C II c I EO n EO vv S • JANUARY 7 , 2004 1

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