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/128403
Briefly•.. WoodsWORCS weeks. And at week six, I was already riding my bicycle. I'm doing pretty good. I'm not quite back on a motorcycle yet, but I put in 1000 miies on my bicycle. Will you be ready for the Daytona tire test (December 10-12)? Eric Bostrom; In fact, we'll be on the bike before then. We'll be riding at California on November 22 and 23. Is that why you weren't at the Yamaha test at Daytona last week? Eric Bostrom: Yeah, I just wasn't fit enough to do that. The team was working through the Formula Xtreme, the new 600 and Formula Xtreme. As much as I would have liked to have been there, I feel confident they got done what they wanted to get done. What is this business opportunity that Ben alluded to? Eric Bostrom: That's coming down the pike here pretty quick. Unfortunately, I can't say that much about it. It's obviously performance-driven, but it's lifestyle-driven, too. It's exhaust systems for sportbikes. There will be some other stuff coming down the line as well, with apparel and whatnot. All the exhaust systems on the market right now are race-oriented and performance-driven, which is great, but it's also fairly easy to achieve. I think everyone's in kind of the same performance cat- egory. We're going to be in the same performance category, too, but we're going to be different by the feel and the look. That, I'm really looking forward to. It's a neat project. I'm getting a huge education on everything right now. We're really excited to get things going and hopefully get some apparel that matches the iifestyle of the company. Is this a new company that you're forming or are you working with some- one else? Eric Bostrom: No, it's a new company that we're forming. It's the Boz Brothers. We're not sure every avenue we want to take it right now, but right now we kind of feel there's a hole in the market that's kind of youthful and hip. What's your relationship with Red Bull this year? Eric Bostrom: Same as it ever was. It would be a great loss to lose somebody like that. They're so behind all their athletes. I'm just pumped that they're back on board with me. One time, there was rumor they were going to have a presence on the bike. Eric Bostrom: That would've been really cool, and there was some discussion with that. It just didn't quite work out. I'm still happy they're on my helmet, and they'll be on my leathers as well. It would have been great to have a Red Bull Yamaha. It didn't happen this year. Maybe it'll happen in the future. Henny Roy Abrams Champ Again N athan Woods wrapped up the 2005 World Off-Road Championship title with his fifth win of the year at the Oak Hill MX Park in Decatur, Texas, on October 30. Even though there's still a round remaining on the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORC5 schedule, the Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing-backed rider clinched his second WORC5 title with room to spare, just like he did last year. "I didn't care about winning, I just wanted to lock the championship up," Woods said. "But I was in a position to win and I just made it happen. I did it here last year, and I'm glad to do it here again." Woods put his Yamaha YZ450F into the lead at the halfway point of lap one and never looked back. Even newly crowned GNCC champ Juha Salminen couldn't match the pace that Woods was setting and, with two laps remaining, yielded his position to his KTM teammate Kurt Caselli. But Caselli, who was the only person left with a mathematical chance of dethroning Woods, ran out of gas on the final lap and then passed out from exhaustion while attempting to push the bike to the finish. After being treated, Caselli quickly recovered but was visibly disappointed. He was credited with 13th place. w "It sucks that I didn't even a: get to finish and had to get an 8 ::; 1\(" Caselli said. "But Nathan z did what he had to do to win I the championship, and he t----r-'ln'--UJ Tacon1D rode really well, so congrats to him. He had a good year. I a. I'll just do what I can to get ready for next year." After working his way up from a so-so start, Suzuki's Mike Kiedrowski finished third on his FMF/ Dunlop/O'Neal-backed RMZ450. Montclair YamahalZipTy Racing/Moose teammates Ty Davis and Russ Pearson rounded out the top five. Shan Moore '" 5 Nathan Woods clinched the 2005 WORCS Championship with a win in Texas. Johnson Sweeps Albany Arenacross The opening round of the 2005-06 Toyota AMA National Arenacross Series was all Yamaha's "Rad Chad" Johnson. In Albany, New York, October 29-30, johnson walked away with the premier Arenacross-c1ass (formerly 250cc-c1ass) win on Friday night, as well as getting the decision over Honda rider Brock Sellards in Saturday night's action. johnson was easily the fastest racer on the track at the AMA Arenacross opener. Johnson's leads in both main events were never in doubt. "I did do a bit better than I expected," johnson said. "I felt great coming in but had set my goal to just make the podium. Winning both main events was great." Sellards provided the best battle for johnson all weekend. ''I'm not really used to racing Arenacross again - [I] did my best," said Sellards, who went 3-2 in the main events. "I rode consistently, but not on the edge like I'd have liked to. Chad's pretty fast - fast in the whoops. He's a notch ahead of me right now." Albany was Sellards' first Arenacross in 10 years. Rounding out the top three overall on the weekend was Moose Racing/Suzuki's john Dowd. Despite a knee injury, the 40-year-old fan favorite rode aggressively and made the podium on both nights, going 2-3. Pat Schutte Chad Johnson won both nights at the AMA National Arenacross in Albany, New York. British road racer James Haydon will campaign a Rizla Suzuki GSX-R I000 in the 2006 British Superbike Championship after signing a contract with the team last week. Haydon joined the team midway through the 200S season and played a key role in developing the GSX-Rlooo race bike. He will put that experience to good use dUring an extensive winter testing program and with a view to challenging for top honors next year. "I am thrilled and excited to be staying with Rizla Suzuki," Haydon said in a team release. "To know that I will be racing on the best bike, with the support of the best team behind me, is a dream come true. Staying with the team gives us continuity, and we will be aiming to capitalize on the good work and strong end-of-season results from 2005. We finished this year in good shape, and now we will build on that confidence and competitiveness through the winter. I'm over the moon. Thank you to Rizla and Suzuki for their faith in me, and I can't wait to get racing again and repaying that loyalty with the podium finishes the team deserves!" Haydon scored his best result of the 2005 season at the final round of the championship at Brands Hatch with a pole position and third-place finish. Gary Nixon, Chris Carr, Valentino Rossi, Michael Jordan, Vincent Haskovec, Mat Mladin and 59 world-dass racers from MotoGp, AMA Superbike, AMA Supersport, AMA Superstock and AMA Flat Track have joined forces to help stamp out cystic fibrosis. The racers participating in this fund raiser have rallied around the idea of raising money in support of 7-year-old Josh Serne. Despite the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis at the age of 2 in early 2000, Serne has been steadfast in his accomplishments as an amateur rider and has stayed the course in becoming a professional at the earliest age possible. $orne's friends presented him with a racing portrait of his very own just before the 2005 Laguna Seca MotoGP race, which he attended. One custom print of that painting has been produced with the sole purpose of gathering the signatures of motorcycle racers past and present. This print will be sold on e-Bay in November. The print includes photographs of authenticity for each signature. The print has been signed at Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, and the DuQuoin Mile. All of the money raised from this sale will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the name of joshua Seme. If you are unable to make a bid on the picture but would like to make a donation in joshua's name, piease visit www.cff.org and donate under Team 6S. Team Yoshimura Suzuki's Kousuke Akiyoshi raced to his first career win and the team's first of the season at the final round of the All japan Superbike Championship event at Motegi on October 30. The factory MotoGP development rider started the IB-Iap race in second position, behind teammate Atsushi Watanabe, and moved to the front on lap three before pulling out a three-second lead. Honda's Shinichi Ito ended up second, ahead of teammate Tatsuya Yamaguchi. Yamaha's Shinichi Nakatomi finished fourth. Ito ended up winning the title, easily besting Yamaguchi, 140-1 I I. Continued on page r, CYCLE NEWS • NOVEMBER 9, 2005 9