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/128325
Briefly... Kyle Petty Ride A Success Yuasa Battery Inc. recently earned Yamaha's highest award for 2003 fo r sup plie r excellence. according to Yuasa. Nobyua Hidesh irna, president of Yamaha Motor ManufactUring Corporation of America, presented the award at Yamaha's supplier meeting on April I. The award recognizes consistent high quality. IOO-percent on -time delivery, and cost reductions. Yuasa Battery, headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania. has been manufacturing batteries in the United States for the powersports indust ry since 1979 and is the leading manufacturer of batteries used in motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , snowmobiles. scooters, personal watercraft. and riding mowers, according to Yuasa. N ea rly 300 motorcyclists enjoyed a w indy, sunny and memorable ride across America on the 10th annual C hick-fiI -A Kyle Petty Charity Ride . May I-B, co ve ring 3 IBB m iles be twee n Palm De sert, Cali fornia. and t he Vict ory ju nction Ga ng C a mp in Randl e man, No rt h C a ro lina. The cam p was founded by NASCAR racer Kyle Pe tty and his w ife, Pattie, in honor of their late son Adam . and is schedu led to ope n ju ne 20 . After the riders arrived at the ca mp and e njoyed to urs of the facilities on May B. they took part in an auct io n that raised more than $200.000 for t he cam p. When the auctioneer shouted "Sold!" for the final tim e that nigh t, one bidder becam e the proud ow ne r of Six WERA Sportsman Series regions, the National Challenge Series and the Dun10pIWERA Na tional Endurance Series will head to Virginia International Raceway for Cycle Jam, May 20-23. For fo ur days, the 2.2S-mile North Course will be home to over 500 racers. Following a full day of practice on T hursda y, May 20 , the WERA National End urance Series will have its third race of the season on Friday. The four -hour race begins at 12:30 and fea tu res five classes of bikes. Vesrah Suzuki won the rainy e ndurance race at Virginia International Raceway in 2003 , but the team is st ill trying to catc h up in po ints after a crash d uring the season opener at Jennings GP.Army of the most ex pensive Victory motorcycle ever purchased - t he 2004 Arlen Ness Signature Series mod el w ith spec ial KPCR graphics, raising $80 .000 at the a uction . Th e buyer bid $4 0.000 and a fellow ride partlc ipant matched the selling price w ith a contribution of $40,000 for th e cam p. Kyle Petty rode the auct io n bike o n se ve ra l legs of the 2004 charity ride. alternating between the special Ness bike and his 2004 To uring Crui ser. The bike was do nated by Vict ory and Bruce Rossmeyer (owner of the Arle n Ness Victory dealership in Dayton a Beach. Florida). and it included spe cial accessories con tributed by Victory sty ling partners Arlen and Cory N ess. In its first 10 years , the ride has logged over 27 .000 miles and has invo lved more than 32S0 riders . Darkness is currentty the series points leader, and they will be trying to repeat the w in they earned at the start of the year. On Saturday, the WERA Sportsman Series races w illstart at noon. The 16 six-lap races all award double po ints to riders, which apply to each of WERA's six Central and Eastern regio ns. Round three of the WERA National Challenge Series will bring the weekend to a close on Sunday. For more info rmat io n, visit www.wera.com or call BBBlRACE099. Richard and Kyle Petty po se with th e 2004 Arle n Ness Signoture SerIes thot helped ro ise over $80,000 in the 10th annua l Cftick·fiI·A Kyl e Petty Charity RiCle . $20,000 Raised In MX Golf Tourney According to the Road 2 Recovery Foundation, its fifth annual "Slo ts of Golf Tournament." held at the Badland s Go lf C lub in las Vegas, Nevada, raised $20.000. The proceeds fro m the tournament, and all of the fund raising efforts. allow Road 2 Recovery to provide funds for Motor Racing Outreach (MRO ) and allow mo ney to be donated to privateers in supercross and mo tocross, according to Road 2 Reco very. last yea r the foundation created The Privateer Award for the ride r w ho foug ht t he hardest. had th e most heart a nd at te nded the T HQ Worl d Supercro ss GP seri es . The re cipient for the 2004 Privateer Award was Ted C ampbell. who received $1000 fro m the foundation. In addition. the fo undat io n will contribute $4000 to Wonder Warthog Racing's Team Warthog Privateer Support Program fo r the ir 2004 O utdoo r National "Private e r of the We e k" program. "We feel that w ith w hat Wonder Warthog Racing is do ing for the privat eers that it w en t w ith o ur Privat eer Award Program: ' said R2R chairman Bob Moore . "So instead of competing w ith them, we felt it was be st to support WWR and the privateers ." Soo n to be announc ed du ring th e AMA Ch evrolet Motocross C hampion ships a re other Foundation aw ar enes s pr omotional events. For more information , visit www.roa d2rec overy. co m. Hillclimb Under Way last fall C had Disbennett suffe red a bro ken back at Th e Gos hen Iron Ho rsemen Motorcycle Club 's ISO· foot hill. Things w en t a little be tter this year fo r Disbennett , at the opening rou nd of the 2004 AMA National C ham pionship Hillclimb Series, pr esen ted by Pace Ame rican . Disbe nnett was th e dom inan t rider. ta king second in t he S40cc class and claiming his first -ever BOOcc w in wit h a 2.9-second pass. Defe nding 540 and BOO Natio nal C hampion Dave Watso n (Ho n) put togethe r a great ride o n his last pas s in the 540cc class to edge Disbe nne tt 3.01 B to 3. 103. Gary Baue r (Ho n), Walter "Tige r " Stra nk Jr. (Yam) and last fall's 540-c1ass win ner Phil l.ibhart (Tri) ro unded ou t the top five , In t he BOOcc class Disbe nnett on ly needed o ne run to set t he day's faste st time of 2.940. Ubh art suffered a co ncussion last year after his w inning 540 ride , and he had ano ther hard cras h on his final BOOcc ride on th e Yamaha RI this year. libhart landed ove r the doub le jump , and th e R I w heel ied past t he tim ers in 2.970 seco nds for se con d place, befo re the b ike looped o ut . th ro wing him back down the hill. He was tak en to th e ho spital afte r experiencing dizzi ness a short t ime late r. Wats on (Ho n) took th ird ahead of Ge rry Benn ett (H-D) and rooki e john Bun ner o n the Jeff Thomas-built Yama ha xsaoo twin. www.cyclenews.com American Suzuki Motor Corporat ion has announced its Suzuki Sales P.R.O. (Professional Reta il Outlet) was awarded " Most Creative/Best Use of New Technology in a Kiosk Application" at the celebrated third annual KioskCom 2004 Interactive Kiosk Excellence Awa rds. o rganized by KioskComLLC. ASMC and Suzuki Sales P.R.O . were honored at the KioskCom 2004 award s ceremony and reception in las Vegas , Ne vada. on Ap ril 27. Th e e vent is th e prem ier conferenc e and exhibi tion on interactive self-service technology, according to Suzuki. "It is awesome to be recog nized by the kiosk community." said ASMe's deal er network manager Ste ve Bo rtolamed i. "Winnin g th is award just shows how im pressive the Suzuki Sales P.R.O. really is. One of the key factors for Suzuki w inning the award is return on investment. The cost vs, potential sales increases to the dealer really puts the Suzuki Sales P.R.O. on top." According to KioskComLLC, finalists were selected based upon a written appl ication and onsite usability testing done at KioskCom. Said ASMe's marketing manager Rod Lopusnak , "Winning th is award confirms the fact that Suzuki is on the right track to im proving product knowledge, increasing profitability and e nhancing the selling process at the dealer level . It also reaffirms Suzuk i as an industry leader." CYCLE NEWS • MAY 26, 2004 9