Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

letters 10 lhe editor shcold be senllo Voke" Cyc New" POBox 5084, Cost Me"" le e CA 92628-5084; foxed 1 714-751-6685 0< emoiled 1 ed;lor@cycienewuom _Published 0 0 leiters do notnecessarily reRect the position of Cycle News, Inc. leners shouJd not exceed200 words, and all ore subject to editing. Anonymous Jelters will not be considered for publication. Allle"ersshould contain the writer's nome, address and daytime phone number... Editor. And The Corner Worker Says... I just received my copy of Cycle News (June 16, 2004), and I must comment on Mr. Hacking's criticism (page 19, "My Own Race") of the corner wo rking during his crash during the second lap of the Repsol Superstock race at Road America . I believe I am quite qualified to make these comments, as I am the corner worker Mr. Hacking refers to as "the cor ner worker across the track who didn't want to get out of the stand: ' To begin with , as corn er wo rkers , we have several rules that we wo rk under. Safety is the most important. Ou r own safety, the safety of the other wo rkers , the safety of the racers still racing and the safety of the downed ride r. That day my assignment was as primary flagger for Corner 2 and communication for both turns I and 2. As the primary flagger, and the only person wo rking co rne r 2, the number-one rule after safety is that the flagger cannot leave the corn er stat ion while there is racing on the track. The flagger 's job is to make sure that they are rea dy to display the appropr iate flag(s) instantly should an incident occur. In the case of Mr. Hacking's crash, first of ali i comme nd Mr. Hacking on the great job he did riding thro ugh the pea gravel as far as he did. When he did ultimatel y cras h, I immed iately rep orted the incident to race control. I asked for the turn I safety work e r to make his way to Mr. Hacking. He did do t hat, only to be verbally abused by Mr. Hacking. I cons istently kept race control informed as to the actions Mr. Hacking was taking, which included throwing his bike do wn and wa lking away from it seve ral times. T he AMA and SCCA stewards were wa tching the incide nt on Road America's camera syste m the entir e time . The stewards made the callas to whe n to send the safety truck, not eithe r of us corner workers. It was not that I did not wa nt to cross the track to help Mr. Hacking, it was that my assignment for the day was as flagger for Turn 2, and I could not leave my station wh ile racing continued. Had there been fire o r some othe r kind of e mer ge ncy, we would have mo re than likely stopp ed the race so the situatio n could have bee n appro priately dealt with, but that was not the case. We had a rider up, appare ntly uninjured and trying to get his bike out of the pea garvel. It was not a situation that warra nte d stopping the race to get safe ty veh icles on course. Whe n my colleague was able to get to Mr. Hacking, had Jamie listened to him, he would have been out of the gravel sooner than he was, but it appeare d that Jamie let his 6 "You better live it, breathe it and want it because you are racing for second place. Long live the King." temper get the better of him, and rather than listen, he threw pea grave l at us both. Due to staffing constraints we were just not able to have corner workers placed in every conceivable spo t. Sadly, other than having more worke rs in different places, tlhere was noth ing else I could do to help Mr. Hacking. I communicated his every move to race control , and that was all I could do . I would also add that the corner wor kers at Road America are there on a volunteer basis because we love racing. We do not get com pensated for our time and in fact take vacation from our regular jobs just to be the re. I do wish that we had been able to have workers mor e strateg icallyplaced to be able to help Mr. Hacking more quickly, Ou r goal is to make sure that racing is safe for all of the rider s and all of the corner workers. Putting crash truc ks on a hot track as was don e to help Jamie endangers all those involved, the work e rs and the racers. It is not a decision that is made lightly. Lastly I would say to Mr. Hacking that , swear ing at workers and t hro w ing pea gravel at us will not make things go any faste r or smoother, but staying out of the pea gravel altogether will make us all happier. Lina Fanning La Crescent. MN JUL 7, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Y Godspeed, KXSOO I just found out the KX500 is no longer go ing to be produced . Let's have a mom e nt of silence in its passing. Go ne are the days of rippling the crust off the eart h, setti ng off Richte r scales on both coasts , children chee ring, women cry ing and com petitors cowe ring in the chea p seats. The EPA is glad. No more random erosion due to reckless displays of acceleration, in any gear I might add. The rear tire man ufacturers as we ll as c hain and sprockets folks may go bankrupt . Eme rgen cy rooms across the cou ntry are celeb rating tlhe mighty KX's passing. No more "blunt trauma" injuries due to flyi ng rocks and dirt clods. Consider the past and how we got he re . The first KX500 was an evil assembly of poo r forks, a co nfused rear suspen sion with truly flawed erg onomics surrou nding a motor that was n't sure if it should detonate, make ho rsepowe r or explode . The sinister air-coo led bike did more to scare people away from horsepowe r than you could shake a stick at. When you bought an air-co oled KX500, the local dealer ofte n asked , "Yo u want a six pack of pistons to go w ith that?" Many of the riders who tried to ta me the beast end ed up as "poster children" for trauma centers and the rapy clinics across this great land. The only bike to boast to having injured more ride rs in a shorte r period of time was the death-defying Suzuki TM400 Cyclone . The brochure for this monst er highlighted its 125-sized frame with an open-class works-type motor. The footnote read , "Casts and bandages we re sold se parately in the accessory dep artment." As evolution progressed , the aircooled "dial-a-deto nation-failure" motor was repl aced with a sta te-of-the-art powe r-valved water-cooled motor that actually work ed. Over the years the forks actually started to com press, and the rear e nd began to soak up bumps with surprisingly good quality. As time we nt on , the raspy jett ing, being slightly ove rw eight, and dated plastic all graced the mighty KX, none of which made much diff erence. What was produced was the finest assembly of parts that ever travele d in a straight line at what are still co nside red "way too fast" speeds. Untou chable in the dese rt and Baja, the KX500 has found a true place in history and in the hearts and souls of anyone who has ever thrown a leg ove r one . It will be missed. " Dyno" Doug Haas Decatur. IN Rich Thorwarldson, R.I.P. On June 20, Richard Thorwaldson passed away as a result of injuries he sustained while doing what he loved. With his passing, I lost a friend, and the motorcycle industry and com munity has suffered a loss, the likes of which we will not see again soon . I never met a person wh o was as passionate about all types of mot orcy cling as was Richard . Ove r the last seve n years , I had the good fortu ne to road race with Richard, and the memo ries of competing with him on the tra ck and bench racing in the paddock are pr iceless to me . The visions of watching him adopt his dirt bike riding style to road racing will always bring a smile to my face. He was always on the gas, both on the track and in his persona l life, and he will be an inspiratio n to me foreve r. He'll be missed by many. }Imm Groshong via the Internet The Fab Four I'm 55 years old and have followed road racing for most of my adult life . As such I got to see so me of "our" most exciting road racers in action - Roberts, Spencer, Mamola, Rainey, Schwantz , and I was 40th Anniversary even at the U.S. GP in 1988 at Laguna Seca and saw Lawson pull off a spectacular win on his Yamaha and then throw his riding gear into the cro wd at the Corkscrew on the cool-off lap (I just missed a glove). In my opinion, and it's just that, an op inion, I take exception to Kevin Schwantz's state ment that not only could he beat Valent ino Rossi, but that the oth e r members of the "Fab Four " - Rainey , Dooh an and Criville would also beat him in a heads -up race. Criville beat Rossi? Give me a break! I think that Schwantz, whom I have a great deal of respect for, must have been suffe ring from jet lag or from the more com mon probl em among retired racers "the older I get, the faster I was!" Rossi wo n the 125cc World Champ ionship in his seco nd year, the 250cc title in his second year, the 500cc title in his second year, and eve ry MotoGP title. Year to date , he has a class-leading thre e wins o n a bike that could only manage a pod ium finish in the last three seaso ns. The "Fab Four" was an interesting article, and the pictures were a nice trip down me mory lane, but if there had been a podium in that mee ting of riders, the top step would belong to Rossi. Rainey and Lawson might have a chance against Rossi in their go-karts, but after Rossi's Ferrari tes t it looks like they would be in trouble the re , too . Kent Sheldon via the Internet Ricky The Great Having just watched the telecast of Ricky Car michael at Southwick and learning of his IOOth caree r win at Budds Creek, I felt com pelled to share my thoughts on the achievements of this gladiator. This kid is unreal. He's neve r lost a national championship, he has ove rco me his supercross demons and has beco me the most dominant ride r the sport has eve r seen . The intestinal fortit ude and drive this rider displays eve ry time he takes the track is unmatched. He will find you and beat you - that' s all he does! He is and always will be the best in my mind. As long as Mr. Carmichael decides to continue his profession, competit o rs beware you better live it, breathe it and wa nt it beca use you are racing for second place. Long live the Ki ng. Congratulations to Roge r DeCo ste r and Team Suzuki. What was the rest of the industry thinking by not giving RC the keys to the sto re? Michael Eberly Hummelstown. PA

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