Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Gregg Trude of Aprilia USA has announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 4th Congressional District of Florida. Trude has .:' worked in the motorcycle industry for r I several years and has worked for Aprilia USA for over a year. For more information, call 904/249-5471. vices relating to the high-performance motorcyclist/racer in a single one-stop format on the Intemet. The team will have a second rider in the PACE Series - Alexander's fiance, Lynda Innocenzi. Yoshimura R&D of America will hold a Yoshimura Racers Club (YRC) event at Jim Walker Honda/Suzuki/ Yamaha in South Daytona, Florida on March 10. All current members and sportbike and dirt bike enthusiasts are welcome. For more information, call 904/761-2411. The High Court in London, England ruled in favor of Aprilia in its lawsuit with the Spice Girls last week. The Spice Girls were suing Aprilia based on a sponsorship contract the Italian motorcycle company had with the pop group. When the Spice Girls lost Gen Halliwell (Ginger Spice) to a singles career, Aprilia felt that the endorsement contract was no longer worth the 500,000 British Pounds as part of the deal had included the launch of the Spice Scooters, featuring all five girls. Without Ginger Spice, Aprilia claimed that the advertisin9 deal and the promotions were a flop, and that they had lost 1.6 million Pounds in profits. The judge threw out the Spice Girls claims for unpaid fees and instead said the band must pay Aprilia compensation. L Yamaha will again hold its Weekend of Champions at Daytona during Bike Week. Yamaha will host road race champions Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, Randy Mamola, Don Emde, Rich Oliver, Jamie James and Thomas Stevens as well as motocross champions Bob Hannah, Broc Glover, Mike Bell, Ernesto Fonseca, Gary Jones, Doug Henry and Jeremy McGrath. Acclaim Sports has announced that Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 for the Nintendo 64 has been shipped to retail outlets nationwide. The game will also be released for Game Boy Color, Playstation , Sega Dreamcast and in PC format later this spring. The game is the follow up to the Jeremy McGrath Supercross '98. Road racer Richard Alexander Jr. has secured title sponsorship for the 2000 road-racing season. The team will be called HVR/Shogun Motorsports and will be competing in both the AMA and PACE Series. HVR (Hudson Valley Racing) is a Suzuki/Kawasaki dealership in Millwood, New York, owned by Richard Alexander Sr. Shogun Motorsports is a company dedicated to integrating the sales and ser- C o o Can website polls make a difference? Let's hope so. On Thursday, Febru- • Doi DUCATI • )ucat1i'las been forced to oong forward the holding of the r:omoany "econd olenn.ill World Ducatl Weekend at the ary 24, Clark Collins of the Blue Ribbon Coalition advised us that the MSNBC site was featuring a reader-opinion poll on President Bill Clinton's plan to designate nearly one-third of the Sequoia National Forest a national monument. At the time, with apprOXimately 4500 having voted, 46 percent were in favor, with 53 percent against and one percent undecided. We immediately posted an alert on our website, with a link to the MSNBC page. As we went to press on Monday, February 28, 9939 votes had been cast. with 55 percent opposed to the bill. 45 percent in favor and less than one percent undecided. Race results from this year's Adelanto Grand Prix are now available on the Desert Vipers M.C. web site. Sign on to www.desertvipersmc.com and see how you faired this year at the biggest little race in the west. According to Trials & Motocross News in England, Frenchman Richard Sainct, winner of the past two Dakar rallies, will soon graduate to BMW's twin-cylinder Boxer. Sainct's most recent victory came on a single, while American Jimmy Lewis finished third on the twin. The publication also reports that Honda is planning to reenter the intemational off-road wars, perhaps with Juan Roma. The Spaniard led much of the Dakar rally aboard a KTM. Dirt tracker Dan Stanley phoned Cycle News to announce that he would be fighting-fit and ready to race at the dirt track events scheduled for Daytona Bike Misano race circuit, rom the original June 23-25 dates. to June 9-1 J. This means that the festival of V-twin desmodromics (which includes visit to the Bologna factory 70 miles away) will be held the week before the San Manno round of the World Superbike Championship at the same circuit on June J6-18. rather than the week after it, as was originally planned. This will therefore 'till allow ducaUsti from all over the world, such as the thousands who attended the maiden event held to celebrate the company's 50th anniver sary in 1998. to combine WDW 2000 with worshipping at the court 01 I{ing Car and his new Yankee teammate Ben Bostrom. a they seek to maimal Ducat,', nome supremacy against the rival V-twins from Honda.....prilla and loca-·ivals Bimota. T e hange in the WOW 2000 schedule was caused by the reschedUling 01 the openmg World Superbike round n Valencia rom March 2 to June 25 due to the recentlyannounced Spanish general election For lurther details. ~on tact your ocal Ducat! dealer visit the company website at yww.ducat.. ~om or c-mail the Ducati Special Events orgarlllers at strikeag@:tm.tt Ducati is on a roll sales-wise across the board. with the enUre 2000 production of the Pierre Terblanche-de51gned /'<1H90Qe iimlted-edition showblk sold almost nstantaneou~ly. as buyers around the wor/d logged on soon after the chimes of midnight heralded the start of the new millennium on January 1. and Ducati began receiving orde" .for the new model, whIch was oniy available for purchase via the internet. Week. "It was a last-minute deal: Stanley said. - [Former Brett Landes mechaniel Rick Canode called me up and told me that they had originally planned to have Ronnie Jones ride for them, but that fell through.· Any question as to whether or not Stanley, who suffered paralYZing injuries last October after a crash at the Sacramento Mile, would be ready for competition were laid to rest over the weekend of February 26-27. "I rode the first round of the Northwest Hare Scrambles Series and finished fourth in the A Class. - Stanley said. "I rode for three hours .in the pouring rain, and I nearly collapsed at the end because I was so tired. but I couldn't bring myself to quit. I think that I'll be ready to go around a little or short track." Dirt-tracker Kevin Atherton underwent a ninth surgery on Thursday, February 24, as doctors removed the halo from his right leg. which was damaged at the '99 Du Quoin Mile. Atherton reported that healing has been steady. "The doctors were surprised to see that the bone that was taken from below the knee has almost completely been replaced and solidified.· Atherton said. "Now we just have to go back next week and decide when to put a pin in the tibia.· Atherton had reportedly been making noises about returning to ride this season but, when pressed on the issue. took a more con~ervative view. "I really want to," he said. "But this is one time where we really have to listen to what the doctor says." eN ..\ t the other end of 'ts model range 'he Italian company,s putting the finishing touches- co the even smaller-volume. still more exclUSive bikes '~hlch 'Tlake up It, 2000 model-year r:ustomer-racing ranqe. fhese comprise I total of 10 996 Corsa RS2000 desmc i-tw,n Superbik"" close leplicas of Carl Fogartv's triple-m!ector 999 Worle Superb,ke Chtlmpion retailin~ for abou <;75, 00) ana 35 examples of ,he 48R-S, & Il\tJeprintecl 'ace ve"ion of the new 748R street >'1K.e. built 'n r.he BOICiCJna actory's rac~ "hop ,0 the same dentical sperificattoll 1 the ~iKes will m"ke their ~ay·o Japan where 'he upersport ":Jass js finally taking 'if), Bntam \ whe-re /01' the first time 750cc twins are oeing allowed. 0 run to he !3ritisn Supersport ChampIonShip) and the USA, 'vhere 748 !)ucatis dominated the \ 999 AMA Pro Thunder series, running as a support das to the American Super/,ike Championsh,p. To CBst your vote, log on to http://www.cyclenews.com. 7.8% 7_7% 7.5% l.J t1 ~ o o o 68 MARCH 8. 2000' cue 1 e n e _ s

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