Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Windham Gets His Points Back O n February lO a three-person appeal board, organized by AHA Pro Racing, overturned the 10-point deduction penalty assessed to Kevin Windham in the second round of the AMA Supercross Series in AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth said in a release in the days following the appeal board decision . ''All of the teams pres en t felt that rough riding was becoming a pro blem, and AHA Pro Racingwas asked to Phoenix, Arizona. take a harder line in th is area ove r concerns Windham had been docked 10 points by AMA Pro Racing MX/SX Series manage r Steve Wh itelock for an incident involving fellow rider David Vuillemin. In Wh itelock's opinion , Windham engaged in unsafe and unsportsmanlike rid ing by inte ntio nally making co ntact with Vuillemin on lap one of the main event . The contact resulted in Vuillemin's being pushed off the trac k and nearly collidingwith a photographer stand ing nearby. Vuillemin, who had the early lead in the race , re mo unted and worked his way back through the pack for an eventual that riders would be subject to increased injury if it went unchecked . In the past we have assessed monetary fines, but the team managers all agreed that this form of punishment was losing effect iveness with the r iders , some of whom are making hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and endorsements. The AHA Supercross rulebook has a provision that grants the race manager the option of deducting po ints for serio us rule infractio ns. The teams all agreed that we should begin invoking points penalties instead of fines In serious situations. Steve all the ride rs and team managers on several occasions. "Wind ham appealed the decision. Under current AMA rules governing the AMA Supe rcross Series , appeals (de pending on their nature) can be rejected, mediated by AHA Pro Racing's director of competition, or sent to an appeal board . Given the serious nature of th is particular infraction and the fact that there were po ints involved, we decided to grant Windham's appeal . Obviously, we think the appeal board made a mistake here. However, the appeal process is in place to rule o n major disputes , and we knew that by accepting the appeal in the first place, the chance existed that it could be overturned. We were comfortable with that possibility. It's Impo rta nt to remember that the original intention in all of this was to nature of the sport, and we accept that. It's blatantly dange rous or aggress ive riding that we're loo king to elim inate . "Some have asked us, 'What no w?' in terms of points pena lties, and I say that nothing has changed . Steve Whitelock and "Obviously, we think the appeal board made a mistake here." seventh-place finish. The appeal board found th at while po ints pe nalties are with merit and necessary. W indham's actions in this case did no t violate the AMA Supercross/Motocross rulebook. The appeal boa rd voted 2-1 in favor of Windham. " In a preseason meeting with managers of the major supe rcross teams, the notion of overly aggressive riding was brought up," Wh iteloc k infor med everyo ne at the riders' meetings that rough riding would n't be tolerated and that they wo uld be subject to points deductions if they e ngaged in it. At Phoen ix, wh en Kevin Windham collided with David Vuillemin, Steve felt that Windham had made an unsafe move, so a 10-point penalty was assesse d. We did, and still do , support Steve's decision. It was con sistent with the rulebook and what had been discussed with fo rce riders to think twice about their - Scott Hollingsworth his crew w ill cont inue to call the race as act ions on the trac k. We think that po int has been made. With a co uple of exceptions, the racing since the po ints deduction has been they see it with the goal being to creat e an environ men t whe re the best , safest, most mu ch cleaner wi thout any sacrifice in close- com pe titive racing can occ ur. In their ruling, ness and competitiveness. In fact, m ost agree that the racing is be tte r, because everyo ne is focusing on racing. Of course there' s going to stop ove rly aggressive riding is necessary and wit h meri t. That's ou r res po nsibility as to be a ce rta in amo unt of contact and bump ing in mo tocr oss and supercross - that' s the do o ur job with that mindset ." the appeals board stated that o ur prog ram a sanctio ning bod y, and we will continue to Triumph Set For Return The opening round of the 2004 World Supersport Championship at Valencia on February 29 will mark a significant milestone in British motorcycle history with the return of a works Triumph to the racetrack in a World Championship event for the first tim e in over three decades . As the first of what's planned to be as many as five wild card rides this season in preparation for a full world series campaign in 2005 , Britain's rising sta r Craig Jones will race at Valencia the Valmoto Triumph Dayto na 600 in its Union Jackbedecked livery, with which he finished third at Donington last September in the final round of the 2003 British Supersport series , currently Quicksilver Gold To D avis Two -time National Enduro Champ ion Ty Davis took top honors at the Q uicksilver National Enduro in Coalinga, Ca lifornia, February 15. Davis, o n the Montclair Y amahalZipTy Racing YZ2SO, edged o ut five-time champ AM-Pro's Randy Hawkins for the win, while the pre vious week's opening-ro und winner, KTM's David Lykke, finished third . KTMmounted Patrick Gar rah an finished fourth , wh ile Throttlehead.com/ Kawasaki Team Green's Steve Hatch rou nded out the top five overall . Sixth place went to Husqvarna's Fred Hoess, wh ile seventh place went to South African Elmer Symons , on a KTM. Defending champ Mike Lafferty did not compete. The KTM rider is sidelined with an injured knee. After tw o rounds. Lykke is still atop the series points standings with 51 , followed by Davis with 45. Hawkins with 43. and Hatch w ith 37. A «D OIIAOV')<; '){V'\A • r v r , 1& IUI&lAIC the most competi tive National 600 Supersport championship in the world. Hard work by the Valmoto team under the direction of team owner Jack Valentine has seen the performance of the Daytona 600 radically improved even since its upset Junior TT victo ry in the Isle of Man last June , when Kiwi Bruce Anstey registered Triumph's first win in the Island since 1975, and the final Production TT victory (of Iive, in total ) by the legendary 750 triple , "Slippe ry Sam:' which tragically perished in the Nat ional Motorcycle Museum 's fire last September. "We've found extra horsepower and improved acceleration for the Daytona engine: ' says Valentine, "and since we 'll be testing in Spain in the period before Valencia, we decided to stay on and race there to compare where we stand against the cream of the crop at world level. It'll also give Craig some good experience competing against the world's best in preparation for our local round at Silverstone in June. when we'll be hoping to get annong the points in front of Triumph's home crowd ." Triumph was always Britain's most sporting marque with Llnth Anniu.eI"C:::I ...I. production-based motorcycles, and by 1971 it had become a regular race -winner in international events with its 750 Trident triple or its sister ma rque BSA:s 750 Rocket 3, either in production guise. as when Percy Tait and Ray Pickrell won the Le Mans 24 Hours that year and Slippery Sam took the 10M Production TT, or else with the Rob North-framed F750 racer, with its distinctive letter-box fairing. This won the 1971 Daytona 200 in the hands of Dick Mann, as well as the F750 TT ridden by Tony Jefferies , and perhaps most famously allowed John Cooper to beat Agostini's 500 MVAgusta Grand Prix racer twice in the space of eight days, at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch in the autumn of 197 1. But at that very moment, the collapse of the BSA-Triumph Group meant that funding was withdrawn for factory-supported road racing, although some of the works bikes continued to appear, thanks to the unpaid efforts of the facto ry race mechanics . But these were not facto ry-suppo rt ed efforts as the Valmoto Triumph team is, so since 1971 no works Triumph racer has appeared on the international stage - until now, for the first time under the aegis of British property developer John Bloor's now nourishing rev ived company. Alan Cathcart

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