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/128354
,Briefly... Suzuki Announces 2005 Off-Road Team I Continued from poge 7 Stewart has won 17 Baja 5OOs, thr ee Baja 1000s and four Score Wo rld Cha mpio nships, Th e judging panel include s natio nal and California mo tors ports w riter s and track exe cutives. Eagle O ne is a division of the Valvoline Company, F o r the 2005 off-road racing season, Team Suzuki Off-Road will go with a four-man squad , one of whom is new to the yellow crew. Five-time Grand Nat ional Cross Country Champion Rodney Smith will return to defend his GNCC cro wn , and joining him out of the FMF Suzuki Off-Road team semi will be returning GNCC racer Fred Andrews and new comer Glen Kearney. Kearney hails from Australia and will, like his teammates, compete aboard a modified RM250 two-stroke. Mike Kiedrowski will return for another year, but the former outdoor National MX Champion will stay out west and focus his attention on the World Off-Road Championship Series (WORCS) aboard the RM-Z450 fourstroke. Kiedrowski earned the WORCS number-one plate in 2002 . Suzuki also mentioned that it's hopeful that it can come to some kind of agreement with Doug Blackwell for the GNCC series, but for now, Blackwell has not signed with Suzuki. Blackwell rece ived limited support from Suzuki in '04. PayStar Corporation, one of th e natio n's growing providers of stored value de bit card s and bank loading ce nters for prep aid ATM card s, has annou nced the signing of an MoU be tw ee n PayS tar's GLOBAL Cash division and b lairmx.com. The com pan ies will jointly market GLOBALCash's pre paid ATM de bit cards to blairmx.com race fans th rough website links and over 20 motocross racing venues nat ionw ide in Rodney Smith will go for GNCC title number six with Suzuki. MV Gets Big Bucks From Proton MV Agusta and Proton closed their agreement to Increase the Italian company's capital by $94 millio n last week, an amount entirely underw ritten and paid in full by the Malaysian gro up, acco rd ing to MY. Th e outco me of th e refinancing is that Proto n holds 57.75 perce nt of MV Agusta , while the Cast iglioni fannily retains 37.35 percent. Mr. Massimo Tamburini has 2 percent and Husqvarna AB holds 3 pe rcent. Castiglioni remains the CEO of MVAgusta , with responsibilities in the marketing and research and development sectors, whereas Proton will appoint a managing director in the near future, accord- ing to the company re lease . The other managers appointed by Proton have already been anno unced: Zaidi Bin Mohd Yusoff is production manager, and Johnson Uu Wen Jong is manager of th e finance area. Proton, listed o n the Kuala Lumpur stoc k exc hange, is one of Asia's leading car manufactu rers. O wner of Lotus , the group is pursuing an international market expansion strategy involving industri - al partnerships with prestigious co mpan ies in the automotive industry, including Volkswagen, according to the release . Its turnover last year was $2 billion, with $153 million in profits and a worldwide workforce of more than 9000, according to MVAgusta. AMA Superstock Champion Aaron Gobert w ill lead Team Yamaha again in 2005. No ting th e ben efits of worki ng with an experienced team, Graves said, 'After two years together, the tea m is pret ty tight and we all know wha t to ex pect fro m each o the r." Keith McCarty, Yamaha racing manager, adde d, "We had great res ults last year in both classes, and with a car bon co py of our team personne l fo r 2005, we expect to co ntinue ou r w inning way." Yamaha Makes It Official: It's the Same Nothing will change as far as the official Yamaha AMA road race team goes for 2005, w ith Aaro n Gobert , Jason DiSalvo, Damon Buckmaster and Jamie Hacking re turning to the fray for next season . Th e four will compet e in th e Superstock class aboard Graves Moto rspo rts- prepare d RIs and in Superspo rt o n facto ry Y amahaprepa red R6s. Acco rd ing to Chuck Grave s, Grave s Moto rsports team man ager, he is co nfiden t abo ut next year and adde d th at he fee ls tha t Y amaha has the bes t team and bike s in t he se rie s. Th e team rec en tly com pleted testing at Californ ia Speedw ay in Fontan a, California, and accor ding to McCa rty, the team has mad e some solid perfo rmance gains. "Th e RI was already fast, so we co nce ntrat ed o n improving handling," McCarty said, "The R6 recei ved some updates to the forks, bra kes and intake syste m, and th ey are making a big differen ce on the track ." www.cyclenews.com 2005, acco rding to PayStar. The collectable card w illfeature Daniel and Vincen t Blair . "GLO BALCash willreceive full sponsorship logo posit ioning on blairmx.com racing bikes, gear and eq uipmen t," said Daniel Blair, Vincent 's older brother, "Blairmx.co m has severai national spo nsors who will assist in th e marketing of th e blairmx.com collect able card." The card w ill retail at $19 .95, w ith GLOBALCash and BBRrevenuesharing initial sales and ongo ing mon thly cardholder transact ion fee revenu es , acco rding to the com pany. Thou sands of racing fans are expected to participate in this unique offering, "This niche marke ting oppo rtunity continues our nationwide retail card ex pansion program,' stated Williann D, Y ty, chairman and CEO, PayStar Co rpo ra ot tion. ':A.nd whe n co upled with ou r strategic alliances and joint-marketing with community banks and retai l cata log firms, th is BBR program w ill enhance the division's revenues in 2005." On One Wheel, the KeithCod e-owned wheelie schoo l, has announced its 2004-2005 schedule. It is as follows: December 10-12, Texas Motor Speedway (Dallas/Ft, Worth ); January 6-8, Lakeland, Florida (30 minutes north of Tarnpa); January 7-9, Solano County Fair (Northern Califfornia); February 18-20, Solano County Fair, Califomia; March 11- 13, Pomona Raceway, California(los Angeles area); April 1-3, Solano County Fair Califor, nia; May 20-22, Orange Coun ty Airport, New York(80 miles north of New Y City); June ork 3-5, Solano County Fair California June 10, : 12,Orange County Airport, New York; June 11- 13, Pomona Raceway California;July 22, 24, Orange County Airport, New York; July 22-24, Pomona Raceway Calif , ornia; August 12- 14, Solano County Fair Californi ; August , a 26-28, Orange County Airport, New York; September 9- 11 , Solano County Fair, California; October 7-9, Orange County Airport, New York:October 28-30, Solano Coun ty Fair, California; Octobe r 7-9, Pomona Raceway, California; Novem ber 18-20, Pomona Raceway, California; December 16- 18, Pomona Raceway, Califomla. The cost for the one-day schools is$495. For more information, visit www.ooonewhee l.com or call 8181957-7104 . Factory BaCking will be making its first appearance at th e Gold Cup Series in California on January 16 at Los Angeles County Raceway. "We will be tracks ide for riders nee ding prepri nted backgrou nds, chestCon tinued o n page " CYCLE NEWS • DECEMBER 15, 2004 9