Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ward Does Daytona technical in the infield, which I leel a little more comlortable at. They said it's a tough place to learn, but I seem to be doing all right, having lun. I just want to keep it that way right now." Ward's fastest lap was a I:51.547, done on one of the Dunlop dual-compound tires, notorious for their lack of grip on the hard left side. using an older bike," said Ward, who rode a 2004 model. "I don't need a brand-new bike. It's not going to improve my times. If it's underhorsepowered, it doesn't really matter. I will just try to get to a comlortable I:50 or I:49 lap time. If I could ride that all day, I'd be happy. I haven't got there - my I:51 in 20 laps, that's all I've done." The point of the exercise is to give him "It stood me up over try the bike, and Troy Lee wants to put something together, but first he wants to know whether I want to do it," Ward said. "Not coming here would be a big if. There's a lot of effort that's going to go into putting something together like this. I want to go there to learn and better myself for Supermoto basically. "The guys in Europe on supermoto have a lot of road race background. I have no knowledge about setup and tire management, so I'm hoping maybe I'll learn something from here. When I went into car racing, I knew nothing. I was clueless. I started learning, and I got a lot better at it. That's the only way I can better at riding the pave- here," Ward said about the exit of turn one. "The chicane here, tum one, the left there, did the big step-out, threw me up to the bars. So yeah, it doesn't have the grip. I think this is last year's race tire, so I don't know if this year is any better or not. It's a big difference." The time was well within the 112-percent qualifying standard of I:S7.033, based on Y ears past his championship days, Jeff Ward resurrected his motorcycle career with an AMA Supermoto Championship in 2004. Now he's gone one step lurther, eliminating the dirt altogether with a successful pavement audition in his first-ever road race ride. On the high banks 01 Daytona International Speedway, the 43- year-old multi~time motocross/supercross champion adapted so quickly to the Erion Honda CBR600RR that he would easily have qualified lor the 200S Daytona 200, based on the quickest Formula Xtreme time during the three-day tire test. "It's pretty fun to a certain point where you get comfortable, then to step it up you've got to try different things and push it a little bit," Ward said alter wearing road race leathers, boots, gloves, and a lull lace motorcycle helmet lor the first time. He added that he was "staying at my comlort level, just putting laps in, then kind 01 seeing where it goes from there." the fastest Formula Xtreme lap of the test, a I:44.053 turned in by Miguel Duhamel on Tuesday. Ward has more tasting planned and will probably attend the Freddie Spencer School When he rolled down pit lane on a sunny ment is to get on it." pare for the Daytona 200. If Ward feels he's up to the challenge, and the deal is finalized, he'll race a Troy Lee-backed Erion Honda CBR600RR for the Daytona 200 only. "The bike's a big issue the only times he'd been on a street bike. He said he was given street bikes when he rode lor Kawasaki, but he rarely rode them and usually sold them. "It's totally something different," Ward said. "It's a motorcycle, but it reacts different than my supermoto bike or anything I've ever ridden belore. It's last and just pretty on getting one built or Land Closures in California A Federal Court in San Francisco has issued an injunction prohibiting The Court ruled the injunction will remain in place until the FWS oIl-highway vehicle (OHV) use in wash zones within 571,000 acres 01 public lands in the Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert region 01 court's ruling. FWS Ventura field office supervisor Diane Noda esti- the California Desert to protect the threatened desert tortoise, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The areas alfected are public lands administered by the BLM within designated desert wiidlife management areas (DWMAs) in Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The order, issued December 30, 2004, partially grants a motion filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and others alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act. In the same ruling, the Court denied the Center's requests to close the DWMAs to iivestock grazing and to restrict the public Irom parking or stopping larther than 15 feet from the centerline on 2000 miles of routes. The Court further denied the Center's request to overturn BlM's land use plan decisions lor the Northern and Eastern Colorado and Mojave Desert regions, issued after extensive public participation in 2002, and lelt intact the U.5. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) issuance to BLM of "incidental take" authority lor the plans under the Endangered Species Act. 8 "It's real nice to come here and race and late this month to pre- Wednesday morning. it was the first time he'd been on a road race track and one of more experience on pavement for the faster supermoto tracks. JANUARY 19, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS prepares and issues a new biological opinion in compliance with the mates that the new biological opinion, already under way, will be issued by the last week in February 200S. BLM Desert district manager Linda Hansen emphasized that the public stili has OHV access to more than 1700 miles of designated open routes within the two DWMAs (Chemehuevi and Chuckwalla), covering 1.7 million acres 01 public lands. The court's ruling is available online at www.ca.blm.gov/pdls/caso_pdls/liston.ruling.12.30.04.pdf. The injunction is part of a lawsuit fiied in 2003 challenging the FWS's biological opinion on the plans, issued in 2002. In August 2004, the Court overturned the biological opinion based on a legal determination involving the regulatory definition of "adverse modification" of critical habitat for the desert tortoise. Hansen said BLM will immediately begin steps to implement the injunction, including issuance of a closure order. She said BlM will focus on public education efforts, posting public notices and making personal contacts by BLM personnel, including BLM's desert rangers. Sea Otter To Draw a Crowd Road racers Ben Spies, Josh Hayes, Jamie Hacking and Kevin Schwantz will race in the Sea Ouer Classic. a bicycle event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey. California. Various disciplines are fea- tured, both on· and oIl-road, and downhill. The race is slat- ed lor April 14-17, the week before the second round of the AMA Championship Motor-spons Park at Superbike Barber

• Cover