Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... Lange Cashes In at Rockford Arenacross D ar cy Lange , once again, dominated the National Arenacross ro und in Rockford, Illinois, December 3 -4. For the second round in a ro w, the Tea m Richmond Racing/Pro Circu it/Kawasaki rider w o n e verything in sight, includ ing all four ma in events and the two Das h For Cas h races. Th ings go t sta rt ed wi t h Lange sweeping Frid ay night's ra cing. In the 125cc main , Honda rider Shane Bess got on the podi um again with a secondplace finish, while fellow Honda pilot Brad Hagseth slipped in there as w ell w ith a th ird-place ride. In Friday night 's 250cc ma in, Shogun Yam aha's Ch ad Johnso n finished second to Lange , while Lange's team mate Jeff Northrop took t hird . Branden [essernen, now back on (Left to rig ht) Bronden Jesseme n, Do rey Lange and Jeff No rth ro p celebrote on Suzuki's aga in as a member of the the Arenocross pod ium in Rockford , Illino is. M otoworldRacing.com team , go t in t he m ix o f t hings Satu rd ay night . Jessem en , t he forme r 125c c Supercro ss C ham pion , followed Lange across th e finish line in seco nd place , w hile No rth rop aga in took th ird . In th e final race of t he w eeke nd , Bess put his Ho nda back on the podium with a se co nd- p lace finish, while Jes se men ste ppe d back a no tch in th ird . As the se rie s reaches the halfway po int, Lange e njoys a co mmanding po ints lead over N orthrop. Standing Up Inside The 2005 Indo o r Trial World Cham pio nship has be e n an nounced, with the series slated to co nsist of 12 rou nds . Th e series sc hedule is as fo llows : January 8 Sheffield, England January 21 Marseille, France January 28 Toulouse, France February 4 Granada , Spain February 6 Barcelona, Spain February 12 SI. Petersburg, Russia February 19 Milan,i1aly February 26 Lisboa, Portugal (to be confirmed) Donington Park Set for Upgrade March 5 Rome, i1aly March 12 Buenos Aires, Argentina T he hom e o f th e British Motorcycle Gra nd Prix will have a $ 7.75 m illion Iacelift over t he next year and a half, acco rding to reports from Britain. The facelift will be the sec o nd phase of Doningt o n Park circuit 's redevelopme nt to imp rove t he pad doc k facilities, which were o riginally co nstructed in the I970s. Last year the Cinzano British Gra nd Prix attracted a rec ord weeke nd crowd of nearly 130,000 , w ith 82,000 fans packing the 2.5-mile circuit on race day. To he lp ease the tra ffic now in and out of the circuit. which is situated just o il the M I ne xt to the East Midlands Airport , a $77 ,000 t raffic im pact stu dy has also been inst igated . Donington has t he co nt ract to stage the British Grand Prix unt il 2009 and last yea r resurfaced the track at a March 19 Belf , Ireland ast March 26 Gelsenkircl1en, Germany cost of $1 .9 million . Th e second phase o f redevelopm ent w ill sta r t in October of next year w ith the dem olit io n of th e ex ist ing pit garages and Race Control building. Plans for the nec e ssary planning pe rmission w ill be subm itted in the ne xt couple of w ee ks by Clear Cha nnel Entertainm ent, the lessees of the circuit, for the co nst ruct ion of 38 pit- lane ga rag es , a ne w Race Control building, ne w media cent er, e xtension o f padd oc k on e , and resurfacing and drainage impro ve me nts in both pad doc ks. Wo rk w ill be corn pleted in t ime for the British Gr and Prix in 2006. Impro vem ents to spectat or facilities will also be im plemen ted be for e the British Grand Prix ne xt year on June 19. Millions See MotoGP TV Some 5226 million te levisio n viewers tuned in to th e 16 MotoGP Grands Prix this season , acco rd ing to event promo te rs. That was an increase of 121 million viewe rs from last seaso n. Th e average number of view ers pe r Grand Prix inc reased by 2 1/2 percent to 327 million. MotoGP was watched in 208 countries and alm ost half o f th at total, 148 m illion, watc he d the races live in 185 countr ies, thr oug h 47 terrestrial an d pan- co nt inental broadcasters. Broadcast ho urs also increased by 4 percent to 3729 ho urs . Improved exposure from free -to-air broadcasters boosted these figures , w hile 270 million homes were reached by cable or satellite . www.cyclenews.com . Compromise may be the key to resolving the Riverside County (Califo rnia) issue of residents not be ing able to rid e motorcycles on private property. According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, a compromise that might put off-road riders and rural homeowners on the same page may come down to noise . For more than three hours on Wedn esday, November I, motocross enthusiasts, habitat advoca tes and rural homeowne rs told Riverside County Planning Commissioners why they favored or opposed an ordinanc e that regulates oil-highway ve hid es. "We are a family-oriented spo rt ," resident Dan Burke told commissioners . Others , howeve r, said renegade riders rev t heir mo tors just for fun and out of malice , wh ile wreak ing havoc throughout environmentally sens it ive habitat. "They do doughnuts aro und my hous e to spook my horses," said Wood· crest res ident Samantha Dempster, the PressEnterprise re ported . The county's ordinance proposes to set rules for off-highway vehicle use on private property, establishes no ise limits and restricts the hours that motocross and oth er similar all-te rra in vehicles cou ld operate, the new spaper re po rted . To help reach a co mpromise, a co mmitt ee of oil-road enthusiasts, rural hom eo wne rs, stall, sheriffs and othe rs will mee t next month to suggest addition s o r revisions to the curre nt draft or dinance. Still, bo th sides did agree that more off-highwa y parks are needed close enough fo r mo tocross ent husiasts to use for an after noon of riding. The ordinance is e xpec ted to unde rgo significant changes in coming months. As first introd uced , the ordinance proposed to : prohibit oil-road riding on private property that is smaller than S acres; establish a 2S0-foot buffer between the outer border of an oil-highway riding area and any nearby res idence; limit to two the number of off-highway veh icles that can be ridden at one time ; restrict hours of operation of those veh icles to between lOam. and 4 p.m. and prohibit riding on Thanksgiving, Ch ristmas and New Year's Day; and establ ish a 6Sdec ibel noise limit. J.e. Agajanian, John Fo rce , Je r emy McGra th, Roger Penske and Ivan Stewart have been nominated for the sixth annual Eagl e One - S ha v Glick Award . Presented by the appearance care prod ucts company, t he award recognizes disti nguished con trib ution to motorsports in California . Previou s winners we re Dan Gurney, Wally Parks, Parn elli Jone s, Ric k Mea rs and Les Richte r. Na me d in hon or of the lon gtim e motors ports wri ter for the Los Angeles Times, a recent inductee into the Motorsports Hall o f Fame , t he award will be pre sented du ring pre-race ce remonies at the NASCAR Auto Cl ub 500 , Febru ary 27, at California Speedway in Fon ta na, C aliforn ia. Agajanian was o nce a premier promoter of motor raci ng in Southern California, operating Ascot Park for 25 years un til it closed . He also owned Indy 500 winning cars driven by Parnell i Jo nes and Troy Ruttman. Force, the mos t successful d rag racer of all t ime , has won 13 NHRA funny car cham pionships and was American Dr iver of the Year in 1996 . McGra th is a seven-t ime Supe rcro ss Ch ampio nship. Pen ske built and operated California Spe ed wa y be fore seiling it to Internatio nal Spe edway C o rp . Continued on page 9 CYCLE N EWS • DECEMBER 15,2004 7

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