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/128390
Briefly••. Continued from page 9 and also for Rinaldi." Bartolini said that he enjoyed racing at Shawano. "For me it was a surprise because I see many, many riders who are fast. For me, it was difficult because I use Me~ler, and I start to develop new tires with Metzeler. I have good tires for the race but not so much for practice. I had to come from in behind to finish in ninth, but it was good for me." T ohru Ukawa and Ryuichi Kyonari won the Suzuka Eight Hours on july 31 as their Seven Stars-sponsored Honda led a Honda sweep of the top six placings. The duo completed 204 The AMA has announced the riders who will represent the USA in the Trials des Nations held September 24-25, 2OOS, in Sestriere, ' Italy. Cody Webb, Geoff Aaron, Keith Wineland and Chris Florin will comprise the men's team, while Sarah Duke, Louise Forsley and Nicole Bradford were selected for the women's team. Ted Gansberger will serve as team manager and Kip Webb as team captain. In addition to competing in the Trials des Nations, the U.S. women's team will compete in the Women's Trials World Championship, held on September 23 in conjunction with the Trials des Nations. The AMA is offering a landonly travel package to the Trials des Nations that includes car rental, accommodations, and breakfast and dinner daily. For more information, visit www.amadirectlink.com. laps, three more than their nearest rivals. The pair's superlative performance netted Ukawa the alltime Eight Hours win record of five, and it was Honda's ninth consecutive victory and 20th victory total in 28 Suzuka Eight Hours. "I did it'" screamed Ukawa in japanese from the top of the podium. The race was one of deja vu as Uka't/a and Kyonari sped away from 69 other teams right from the start and were never challenged. In 2004, Ukawa and teammate Hitoyasu Izutsu did exactly the same for trouncing triumph. Chris Vermeulen and Katsuaki a Fujiwara finished second on the sister Seven Stars Honda. The World round of pits stops. The rain steadily Superbike stars were unremarkable in grew in intensity until the Suzuka Circuit qualifying and had just squeaked into the top 10 when it started raining at the two-hour mark. The Michelin rain tires used by the Seven Stars teams were considerably better than the other brands, and the Michelin-shod riders collected the scalps of their rivals at will. requested the riders to turn on their headlights as the bikes plowed through water. The rain stopped two hours later and the racing line slowly dried for the remainder of the race. Eight teams competed in the Eight Hours as part of the World Endurance Championship. The Castrol Suzuki team fared the best, with riders Keiichi Kitagawa, Vincent Philippe and Matthieu Lagrive finishing seventh overall despite two crashes on the day. The team left Suzuka with 74 points after three races in the fIVe race series for a 28-point lead over the second-placed team in the championship, Yamaha Austria Racing Team, who finished the Eight Hours in ninth. Tracy Hagen The result was Fujiwara's best since his third place in 1995. The race marked Vermeulen's debut in Suzuka Eight Hours. Underdogs Haruchika Aoki and Takeishi Yasuda scored a popular third place by avoiding the dangers that ruined the race for many faster teams. The race started under overcast skies in front of 72,000 spectators. A light rain developed just after the second The parents of the late Kirk McCarthy have established an award program to assist young riders in contesting future Australian Superbike Championship seasons, according to Motorcycling Australia. Each year, one rider will be selected to receive the Kirk McCarthy Memorial Award, which will be in the form of financial and product support to contest the following year's ASC. The award is open to riders in all ASC classes. "We appreciate how tough it is when you are first starting out," said Kirk's father, Alan. "We saw it firsthand with Kirk, and now we'd like to help some other young guns reach their full potential. Kirk showed many fine qualities dUring his racing career, and this is a great way of continuing on his legacy." Full details of the Kirk McCarthy Memorial Award, cosponsored by Alan and Margaret McCarthy, Suzuki Australia, Monza Imports and Motorcycling Australia, will be made available soon. McCarthy, 35, died following an incident in the penultimate round of the ASC at Queensland Raceway on August IS, 2004. The Melbournian enjoyed a distinguished national and international racing career, which included stints in both the 500cc GP and Superbike World Championships following his crowning as 1995 Australian Superbike Champion. The Northern California Suzuki dealers group and American Suzuki will be giving away a new 2005 Suzuki RM-Z450 to a Supermoto USA racer at the final event of the 2005 Nor-Cal season. The new bike will be on display at round nine at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, on August 14. The winner of the bike will also receive a full compliment of Works Connection factory hardware as well as a Leo Vince X3 exhaust system, already installed. Racers receive one entry in to the drawing for each race they enter in 2005. For more information, visit www.supermotousa.com. California Supermoto Schools will be hosting an Invitational Mini Motard race at Infineon Raceway, August 13-14. The event will take place during round nine of the Supermoto USA Nor-Cal series races. All participants will compete on identically prepared Honda XRI20s set up for Supermoto. Expected riders will include Brad Lackey, Rodney Smith, Alex jorgensen and others. For more information, call Brok McAllister at 916/408-0758. Polaris Industries is the II th and latest ATV manufacturer to join the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, according to the SVIA, a notfor-profit trade association funded by all of the leading manufacturers and distributors of ATVs, including A1phaSports, Arctic Cat, Bombardier, Bush Hog, Honda, john Deere, Kawasaki, Patriot, Suzuki and Yamaha Since 1983, the SViA has provided information on ATV standards and has promoted model state legislation on ATV riding. It also serves as a liaison with state and federal agencies on ATV training and environmental issues. ''As Polaris has been a leading maker of ATVs with a big customer base and far-reaching dealer network, its membership will bolster the ongoing efforts of the SVIA," said 11m Buche, SVIA president. "SVIA staff and our long-standing member-partners welcome Polaris and look forward to collaborative efforts that will benefit ATV riders and strengthen our ability to get the word out about the right way to ride." Polaris builds a full range of sport and utility ATVs, from a 49cc youth model to a 760cc parallel twin EFI. The firm began with snowmobiles in 1954 and became the first American company to build an ATV in 1985. Last year, on its 50th anniversary, Polaris saw the two-millionth four-wheeler roll off the company assembly line. Currently, Polaris employs over 3800 employees and manufactures ATVs in three U.S. production plants. "Polaris is looking forward to participating in'the SVIA," said Bennett Morgan, president and chief operating officer of Polaris. "There are a number of important issues facing the industry right now, including improving rider safety and protecting and establishing a sustainable trail system. Working as an entire industry on these issues will be very important to our success." MX Sports and DMXS Radio will team up to provide Internet coverage of the Air Nautiques AHA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn's. DMXS Radio, an Internet motocross radio show, will broadcast MX Sports Radio live each night live from the Loretta Lynn's announcer's tower. MX Sports Radio recaps the day's events and features interviews with guest stars from the motocross world. And each morning at I I am. (Eastern), MXSports.com will broadcast a special 20minute video recap of the previous day's events, including race clips, interviews, profiles and humor. "This is an unheard of level of internet coverage for a motocross event," MX Sports director Tim Cotter says. "Streaming audio from the MX Sports Radio Show will keep everyone on top of the latest race results from the ranch, as well as interviews with the biggest names in the industry. And the MX SportsCenter video feed each morning will bring the visuals of the ranch to people allover the world." "We've been dreaming of this for fIVe years," DXMS Radio's Kevin Kelly says. "Loretta Lynn's is the core of motocross, and we want everyone to hear and see it. The Continued on page 13 CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 10,2005 11