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/128349
Privateer V-Twin Wins NHRA Las Vegas National ompeting in just his third NHRA Pro Stock Bike race , Chip Ellis made history at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when he rode the GSquaredlS&S Buell to a victory at the AC Delco Las Vegas Natio nals on October 3 I. Ellis gave Buell its first NHRA title when he rode to a 7. 19 to 7.25 victory over U.S. Army Suzuki's Angelle Savoie in the final rou nd. No other Pro Stock Bike rookie has C Ellis qualified second with a 7. 131 , just onethousandth of a second behind the Scream in' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley Davidson of current points won a race so quickly. leader "I never would have believed we 'd win so fast," said Ellis, a former AMA Pro Star champion who began riding the George Bryce-tun ed entry just two month s ago. "This is only my third race, but with all the Hines . testing we've done , I've got about 38 runs on the bike and I'm start ing to feel comfortable . Hopefully, th is is just the start of bigger and better things." Ellis could easily have won either of his first two starts, but parts breakage took him out of competition both times. Ellis qualified number one in his debut at the U.S. Nat ionals in Indianapolis but broke a throttle cable and never made it to the staging lanes for the opening round . Three weeks later in Reading, Pennsylvania, Ellis again had one of the field's quickest bikes, Andrew Ellis made the quickest run of the opening round , w ith a 7.17 against fellow rookie Chip Hunter. Antran Brown's chances of catch ing Hines for the championship took a hit in round two when he lost to Ellis, 7.17 to 7.25. Ellis completed his drive to the final with a win over former Las Vegas winner Shawn Gann in the semifinals. but this time broke a transmission in the first round . Savoie, who has won three of the last five events, made it to the final round for the 54th time in her career with wins over "We knew that once we got our reliability problems fixed , we 'd have a bike that would be competitive and would w in some rounds," Ellis said. In Las Vegas, where the altitude tends to favor the larger displacement V-twin bikes, Michael Phillips, Mike Berry and GT Tonglet. The three-time NHRA champ got the jump on Ellis in the final, but he quicklyrod e by her to take the w in 7. 19 to 7.25. "I had a little problem when I was staging and blinked the lights on and off," Savoie Milan Date Pushed Back Bimota and all the other European manufacturers planning new products for the 2006 model year will have a little extra time to concoct them , t hanks to the decision announce d at Intermot 2004 to pull Italy's biennial EICMA Show in Milan back from the mid-September period it has occu pied for the past decade or so, to its former traditional date in mid-November. The 63rd edi tion of the Milan Motorcycle Show will be held from November 15-20, 2005, and moreover will no longer take place in the crowded, disjointed and haphazard ly laid out co nfines of the existing Milan Fiera on the edge of the northern Italian inner-city. Instead, it will be in the all-new and considerably more spacious dedicated ex hibition comp lex currently being constructed at Pero, on the outer west side of M ilan's Tangenziale ring road. What's more, the bicycle and motorcycle elements of the exhibition, which hitherto have always been combined in a single 8 show, will be separated. The bicycle exhibition will retain the September dates and thus provide a convenient dry run for its much larger motorcycle counterpart two months later. This should ensure that any prob lems wi th the new venue are addressed before the arrival of the powered two-wheelers. Germany's Intermot and Italy's EICMA have trad itionally been held in alternate years, and each is always the biggest show of the year in the world , outranking anything in the USA or Japan, or anywhere else in Europe . But Milanof late has had to contend with the smaller, but still significant, Paris Show, usually held 10 days after it, at the end of September. It'll be interesting to see if the change of dates in Italy encourages more non- Italian manufacturers to place added importance on the Paris Salon, especiallythe Japanese big four. Alan Cath cart NOVEMBER 10,2004 • CYCLE NEWS said. "It didn't hurt my reaction time , but I did short-shift the bike in a co uple of gears. That hurt our performance some, but I'm not sure we could have run quick enough to beat Chip anyway," By reach ing the final round , Savoie is just four points behind her teammate Brown for second place in the points standings. Although he lost in the opening round when he blew an engine, Hines needs only to qualify for the final event in Pomona , California, in order to clinch his first NHRA Privateer Y-twin rider Chip Ellis won the NHRA AC Delco Las Yega s Nationals. Championship . "I had a chance to clinch the title here , but I didn't get it done ," Hines said. "I was a nervous wreck until Antron lost. Now, all I've got to do is qualifyin Pomona and it will be a done deal. That takes a lot of the pressure off our tearn . Hopefu lly we can end , the year on a strong note. " Kevin M cKenna Lange Nearly Perfect in Arenacross Opener in Iowa The 2004 -2005 Nat ional Arenacross season began October 30 in Des Moines, Iowa, and de fend ing champ ion Darcy Lange and his Kawasaki Team Green squad picked up right w here they left off by winning three out of the four main events over the course of the 2S0cc main event. After battling with Shogun Factory Yamaha rider Josh Demuth and Jesseman , Lange finished up in third with Jessemen ta king the win, followed by Demuth in second . While Lange was having a great night in weekend. Lange also took home the lion's Des Moines , there was some bad news com - share of the money. as he took the w ins in ing out of the ope ner as quite a few riders left the event injured. Two of the injured riders were Colton Facciotti and Brad Hagseth . The both of the Dash For Cash races , which were held each night between main events . In the first 125cc main event on Saturday night, Lange too k the win, followe d by Chad Johnson and Kawasaki te ammate Jeff Northrop. The 250cc main event that follow ed looked much the same , wit h Lange on top again. But the next two positions saw different riders: TU F/H ond a ride r Brande n Jesseman took second, while Teddy Maier follow ed him across the line in third. During the second night of racing, Lange found himself in the lead again in the 125cc main, with Jesseman finishing second and KevinJohnson third. Howe ver, Lange's domination came to a halt w hen it was time for the 40th Anniversary Motoworld.com Suzuki team had the worst luck of all with both of their riders, Tommy Hofmaster and Justin Brayton, getting hurt . Hofmaster reportedly suffered a ruptured spleen , broken hand and was briefly knocked unconscious, while Brayton broke his foot . The re is no w ord yet on whe n either rider will return to action or if the team has any replacement riders lined up. As the series heads into the next weekend in Albany, New Y ork, Lange sits on top of the points chase , with Jesse man in second, just 12 points beh ind, and Johnson in third.