Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Back To Daytona Briefly... he new Honda CBRI ocoan continued to be the class of the Superbike field in the extraordinary AMA-organized twoday tire test at Daytona International Speedway, but it was the new Vamaha RI of Jason DiSalvo that was the star of the show. Not only was DiSalvo the fastest of the Superstock set , but he consistently hounded the Superbikes whenever he caught whiff. So co ncerned was Ben Bostrom about catching him that he crashed heavily entering the chicane While in pursuit just after I p.m. on Monday, January 26. It ended the day for both Bostrom and one of the two Honda I COOs. Bostrom's left side , forearm and elbow took the brunt of the impact , though he walked into the team transporter under his Charlie " T he Edge" Venegas prov ed he stillhad w hat it ta kes by winning his first Int ernat ional Cham pionship Events ice race T own power. "I got really greedy," Bostrom said. "I was catching [jason] DiSalvo pretty fast. I said, 'I bet you I can pull out another 48, and I knew I had 10 laps on the tires. And I came in, and like a total moron, I went in really deep, but if I can just suck him up in the chicane , I'm going to get this big draft and slingshot, and it's going to look impressive. I just got really greedy and crashed." Before he crashed , Bostrom had set the fastest time of the day on a race tire , a lap of I:48.S6. It was a dramatic improvement on the I:49.29 he'd turned on Sunday, the first day of the test, when he said he was out of sorts. None of the remaining Superbike riders improved the ir times . American Honda's Miguel Duhamel , who'd done a 1:47.70 on a qualifier on Sunday, was working on endurance runs, putting 18 laps on two different tires with times mostly in the I:SOS, w ith the occasional dip into the 49s . Because the three Honda riders were sharing two bikes , Erion Honda's Jake Zemke didn't get seat time until well into the afternoon. Zemke had set the fastest lap time on a race tire on Sunday and hoped to improve before the test ended on Monday afternoon. The test had been organized to give the tire companies more track time after Dunlop had failures at its two previous tests. Taking part were American Honda, Ducati Austin, Kawasaki, Vamaha, Valvoline EMGO Suzuki and Pirelli, whose tires were stuck in customs until Monday. The improvement in the Dunlop product was clear, according to Duhamel 's crew chief AI Ludington. "They do seem to last better; they do seem to run cooler," Ludington said, adding othe r vehicle's violating the motorcyclist's right-of-way. For more than a year, the AMA has been involved in a campaign called Motorcy clists Matter that focuses att ention on the dangers faced by motorcyclists and o ther vulnera ble roa d users, including bicyclists and pedestrians, as a result of d rivers wh o violate their right-of-way. The Association is also campaigning in Washington, D.C.. fo r funding for a new study into the causes of motorcycle accidents - the first in more tha n two decades. since sustaining serious injuri es in St. Loui s tw o seasons ago wh en he won the Inte rnational Champio nship Events/ICE-prese nted round three of the 28th annual World Championship ICE Racing Series at Budweiser Events Cen ter in Love land, Colorado, on January 22. Ronny Kemp finished a strong second. Defending World Champion James Mann was third . Mann holds a slim IO-point lead over Kemp in the series standings with three roun ds remaining. Miguel Duhamel (17) leads Jason DiSalvo (40) through the International Horseshoe at Daytona. that the tires "ran remarkably cool for Miguel. I think they got something they can come back here with." Duhamel fell off just after noon, a lowspeed, front -end tuck in the first horseshoe. Ben's brother Eric managed to improve his times, though the Ducati Austin team and Michelin mostly concentrated on longer runs . One run was interrupted when Eric chunked a rear tire . Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec also had a rear tire failure, though neither of the Michelins lost air. Haskovec crashed on Sunday in the second horseshoe when a new glove got snagged on the brake leve r. DiSalvo had the measure of the Superbike riders at various stints. Because Dunlop only has one rear race tire in 17 inch, DiSalvo could spend time on both setup and endurance. It was only when he fitted a soft race tire on Monday that he lap ped at I:48.6, over a second better than he'd gone on Sunday afternoon. Mostly he was needling the Superbike riders , the RI the equal of the best of the breed, with DiSalvo going to school on the much more experienced riders he was chasing. At one time or another he hooked up with both Bostrom brothers and Duhamel . "I like to give the Superbike guys a hard time when I'm out there just because they 're on Superbikes," DiSalvo said. "It' s surprising that these guys aren't just blowing my doors off on the banking, but the Yamaha likes to stay right with them. I passed Miguel, and I passed Eric. I'd say those are the two fastest guys here. And 1 Haga Back To World Superbike Po pular Japanese road racer Noriyuki Haga signed a contract on Monday, January 26 that will see him re -join the World Supe rbike Championship as a mem ber of the British Renegade Ducati team. Haga will team with Brit Leon Haslam on the two-man team. The 28-year-old Haga, who has I I World Superbike victories to his cred it, w ill test his Ducati 999 RS fo r the first time at the drafted past both those guys." DiSalvo passed Duhamel entering the chicane and drove by the inside of Eric Bostrom in the tri-oval. Duhamel was in the middle of an 18-lap run and didn't appreciate the company. "He came out after I did about seven laps, six laps." Duhamel said. "It' s kind of easy to follow somebody when they have the ir tire used up afte r six, seven laps. The tire's really good for maybe three or four laps into it." The performance was impressive for a number of reasons. First was that it proved the res ilient New Vorker suffered no scars from the rear tire failure he'd had in early December. DiSalvo was the on ly Vamaha ride r willing to test at Daytona. "We've got to race here, so I might as well be ready," he said. Second, the R I wasn't unive rsally admired at the December tire test. "I th ink it was more just the shock of a big bike at Daytona ," DiSalvo said. 'J\JI they do is spin, and you just have to cope with it. And once you learn to deal with it, it's all right. And you have to set the bike up for it. Vou know it's going to be sideways ; you know you're going to be smoking the rear tire . That's just how it is." How good is the bike? "I think this bike would be a contender for the 200 if we could race it." he said. Henny Ray Abrams Ricardo Torma Circuit in Valencia, Spain, Februa ry 2-3. The signing of Haga, co ming only weeks after the signing of Austra lia's Garry McCoy with the Caracchi NCR Ducati team, gives the World Superbike Cha mpions hip a muchneeded shot in the arm and some more com- petition to the Ducati Fila team of James Toseland and France 's Regis Laconi. "I am really happy to be returning to the Superbike World Cham pionship and to be riding a Ducati for the first time in 10 years ," www.cyclenews.com The AHA has announce d that John Hoover will join its sen ior staff as chief operating officer on March I. In his role w ith the AMA, Hoove r will ove rsee day-to day operatio ns, working with the Assoc iation's profess ional staff to grow the orga nization. He'll report to AMA pres ident Rob ert Rasor. Hoover brings 30 years ' expe rience in business management, sales and marketing to his new position. Fo r th e last 20 years he worked in sales, marketing and prod uct management for Kawasaki Moto rs Corp, USA, most rece ntly as dire ctor of pro duct manageme nt. He's also a form er member of the AMA board of directors, having se rved as a corpo rat e member for I I years. "Jo hn has a we alth of know ledge to con tribute to the Association, bot h from his industry experience and from his service o n the AHA bo ard," said Rasor. "The fact that he's familiar with the AHA is very important - that, combined with his lifelong enthusiasm for motorcycling, will make John a great addition to our team." Hoove r is a Navy veteran and a graduate of Graceland University in Iowa, where he earned a B.A. in Educat ion while excelling in both academics and ath letics. FIMhonorary president Nicolas Schmit passed away on Sunday, January 18, in Luxem bourg, at the age of 8S. Schmit was elected FIM president at the Congress in Benalmadena, Spain, in October, 1983, as the successor of Don Nicolas Rodil del Valle, and the n was re -elected in 1986 at the Co ngre ss of Palermo (Italy) for a second thre e -yea r mandate . He re tired in 1989 at th e Co ngress of Maastricht. Schm it en tered the FIM at the 1966 Con gress in Warsaw, as a mem be r of the Commission Internationale de Tourisme Motocycliste. At the Co ngress in Ljubljana in 1969, he beca me treasure r of the FIM , a function he woul d kee p until his elect io n as FIM pre side nt in 19B3. He was also preside nt of the Moto r Union of Luxembourg for seve ral years . Over the co urse of four days, hockey 's Stanley Cup and Keeper of the Cu p (the tro phy's official bodyguard) will travel acr oss the state of Minnesota aboard a spe ciallydesigned Polaris Frontier Touring snowmobile to celeb rate the start of 2004 N HL All-Star Week in St. Paul and Minneap olis. according to a release from Polaris. The Stanley Cup will be transported from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. O ntario, to Minnesota, where its first CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 4,2004 7

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