Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO... JUNE 30, 1970 The third an nu al Mammo t h Motoc ross was held at Mammoth Mountain . Ca liforn ia. with a lot of close racing ta ki ng p la c e throughout the tw o days . Tom Rapp (Bul) gra ced th e c over of Issue #24 for winnin g the 125cc Senior class at the yearly event. Jim Wilson (Gre) took ho me t he vic to ry in th e 250cc Ex per t class , while Bob Gr ossi won the 500cc Senior class... In Class A Speedway action from Cost a Mesa, California , J eff Ward (Hon) won the Min ibik e class over Guy Erickson on a B ri ggs £, Stra tton . The Handic ap mai n was won by Rick Blake (JAP), while the Scratch main was won by Rich Woods (Jaw) ... Sweden's Arne Kring ex te nded h is lead in th e 500c c Wo rl d Motocro ss Champions hip by winn ing the Czechoslo vak i an Gra nd Pri x by eig ht t enths of a second. Reigning cham pion and second- pl ace m an in point s Beng t A berg finished second overall. Motocross Grands Prix ove rall winners were determin ed by aggregate tim e in 1970. 2 0 YEARS AGO•.. JUNE 25, 1980 Ger r i t Wol si n k graced the cover of our 500 cc U.S. Motocross Gr and Prix previ ew issue. Wolsink had won half o f th e GPs eve r held at Carlsbad Raceway . Ou r best predi cti ons (and hopes) had B rad Lacke y winning th e USGP in 19 7 0 . .. Th e AMA 250/500cc Nati ona l Charnpi onship MX Series visited Lakewood, Colorado, and Todd " Goat " Breke r (K aw ) used a perfect 1-1 score to net the 500cc overall win , th e first of his career. Kent Howert on (Suz) used his 1-3 scores to win the 250cc class and extend his points lead to 3 7 over Mike Bell (Yam ) . A y ou nd David Bailey finished 18th overall via 14DNF placi ngs on his KawasakI... Loudon, New Hampshire, p layed host to round l 0 of t he AMA Gran d Nationa l Ch am p i onshipjWinston Pro Road Race Series, with Rich Schlacter (Yam) taking the victory In the National class. In Superbike, Hondamounted Freddie Spencer to ok the win over Yoshimura Suzuki's Wes Cooley and points leader Eddie Lawson (Kaw). 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 20, 1990 Th e cover of Issue #24 foc u sed o n th e Oklahoma City Supercro ss. as Larry Ward (Su z) , J ef f St ant on (Hon) and Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon) fought for t he ho leshot in the main event . In what turned out to be one of th e hardes t ·foug ht races in Supercross history, Stanton, Bayle and Suzuki's Guy Cooper swapped the top th ree positions for most of the mai n. Cooper was the only rider to jump all the way over a triple step-up jump, whic h gained him lot s o f ti me , bu t a fall cost h im a chance at victory. Stanton beat Bayle and Mike Kiedrow ski for a Honda sweep of the podium . J eff Emig (Kaw) won the 125cc main ... Ed Lojak (Yam) won round five of the AMA Grand Nationa l Cross Country series in Brownsville, Pen-n sylvani a. Tim Shepherd (Yam) st ill led the points over Lojak , 83 -73 ... Round six of t he Wo rl d Champi onshi p Sup erb ike Seri es ran at Brain erd , Mi nn esot a , wi t h Ste p hane Mertens (Hon) winning the most points on the day with } ·2 fini shes. Doug Chandler (Kaw) was the fastest America n, winning the second leg. Raymond Roche (Duc) left CN Minnesota with the points lead. N ev er mind that c u rre nt GP ra cing is the closest in livi ng m emory, and Superb ik es likewise. Never m ind th at th e FIM , t he am ate u r fe de r ation , has ru n b ik e ra cing for alm o st a full c entury . And never m ind th e specta tors , who currentl y enj oy th e best of two World Championship series . Fou r-stro k e GP r ac i n g is n o w unsto p p able. The factories are the winners , an d th e fat -cat businessmen who bought int o rac ing over t he pa st decade. Th e lo sers are the two -strokes tha t we are likely . t o love more in their absenc e than now , an d t he b la zer- an d- ar m band m en of t he federation, li kel y to be obliterated in the cross-fire . And th e en d result is w ha t m any of us h ave bee n saying ever since t he pro p o sal to return fou r-strokes to GP raci n g first surfaced t hree y ears ago. It is now only a matter of time be fore the Su perbike and GP cham p ionsh ips . In o ther w ord s , yes, t he re w i ll b e th e ot her, an d all t he d irty o il poured down t he d r a in at every four -stroke servi c e in between . Ne ver m ind . We're d e a li n g h ere with w ha t a p pears to make se nse , an d wh en th e ma n ufac t urer s t al k , y o u 're pretty much o blige d to smile and n od . Th at's wh at GP rights own ers Dorna a nd t he F IM d id . In the ca se of th e fo rm er , t h is now seems far -sigh te d ; for the latter, suicidal. The fed erat ion must h ave realized this ea r ly on, b e c ause it has been twisting and t u rn i n g for some t i me. Hence ~e delay from 2001 to 2002, the current targ et d at e. A t t he t ime of writing, th e rules ha ve still not b een ratified and the fed er ati on is st ill p lay ing f o r t i m e . .. . b ut , acco r di ng to Dorna and the manufacturers , they may now be runn ing out o f it. tw i ns , if t he ma nu fac tu rer s want twi ns . For wh at is and w hat is no t a p rototy p e? A cu rre nt Su p erbike , for ins ta nce, b ut w it h magnes ium en gine c a ses and spec i ally m a de c y li nde r heads and electronics , i s sure l y a prototype. Especiall y if it has a spe ci al racin g chassis . This is mod ern raci ng. As a resu lt , the politics are more im p ortant t h an th e techn icalities. And t hese are powerful indeed . Superbi ke r ights are c u rrentl y le ased to Octagon, in t u rn owned by Inter pu bli c, a tru ly gian t com p any, a m o ng whose business i nte r ests i s sports d evelopment and p romotion . GP righ t s are wi th D o rna, o wned by CVC , a vent ur e-capital co m pany allied to a bank , whose b usi ness is buying and selling companies . This is of cruc ia l i m port a n c e, for it su rel y means th at in the end , CVC will sell are ama lgamated, the two promoters finding a c o m me rc i a l solu ti on betwe en themsel v es , and devi l t ake th e rest. the GPs to Octagon . T he y 're not re ad y to sell y et , arid are rumored to have refu sed one offer so far ( D o ma deni es that there h a s been such an offer ). What th ey w ant I' m no g reat be l ie v er in t he to ld you -s o s chool o f jo u rna l is m , a nd while I have lost count of th e number o f t imes I've advo cated th is so lution , I' v e also ad vocated all so rt s o f other th in gs that have turned out to be non sen se, so no self -cong ratu lat ion. O n e su ch was to greet th e return o f the VB M oto Guzzi , or its m od ern successor but I now believe th is wa s pure wish- is t o ha v e t he fo u r-s trokes be m ore th an j us t a propo sal befo r e t hey' re ready to sell. M ean while O ctago n has t h re atened leg al ac ti o n agains t th e F IM , on the grou nd s t ha t it h as a contr act fo r the o n ly four -stroke Wo r ld Ch ampionsh ip ser ies. This claim see ms a bit thin , if you look at the number of t imes M Y Agust a h a s w on th e 500cc t itle with ful thinking . The rul es m ay be open t o such a magnific ent monster, but . sh ee r expense - p lu s the ex ce ll ence o f n ea r-produ ction b i kes - mean it w i ll b e a long time com in g , if ev er. What we 'll get for t he fo reseea b le futu r e i s g lo r ified p r odu c ti on - b i k e racing under the nam e of GPs. Which is both a good and a ba d thing. Not to f our -stro ke b ik es , but do es sug gest th at the FIM is in d an ge r of being not Kenny Rob erts Jr.: Four-stroke bound? so m uch in bree ch o f contrac t but and wa cky machinery . It i s, and ha s a l w a ys been, t he J ap an ese fa ctories forc in g th e p ac e, and for some very mud d led re asons. It started si m p ly b ec au se it was gett ing harder and h ard er to justify t h e c o st of ra c i ng ( and Hon d a, Suz u k i O n e key m o v e from th e F IM, late last yea r , wa s to p ropo se a min im um of three cy lin d ers for th e four -s troke GP " p ro to typ es." Th is was to p rotect t h e Supe rb ike serie s, alre ady m aking be ll iger en t n oise s aga in st wh at wa s c le ar ly a threa t to F la m m ini 's p reva lenc e with the only fo ur-stroke World C ha m p io n shi p . T h e sol u t io n t o this s u gges t i o n r e v eals bo t h th e unst opp abl e m om entum of th e four - strok e GP and Yam aha love r a c ing ) wh en th e top cl ass w as two- stro k e, an d all p ro duction bi k es four-stroke . There are m o vement. and th e d epth of c y ni cism of the m anufacture r s . It w a s co n tai ne d in a clearl y fac e -savi ng st ate - many people in both m otorcycl e an d car industries who b el i ev e that t he tw o - st r ok e is far from finished , and furthe rmo re tha t e ve n the curren t tw o - st ro k es ma y act ually mak e les s h a ving m ade a dea l ~ po n which it ca nnot deliver. It is in serious danger m en t from the F IM. i s s u e d with d eta ils of the proposed new techn ica l r egula tions early t his season. T h e m anufactur ers had ag reed that twins w ould not be admitted to the se ries . they said, unl ess th ey c oul d con v ince t he FIM t hat suc h t wi ns r eall y were prototypes . mention a traged y fo r lovers of w ild pollution overall , w he n you t ak e int o acco unt the total eq ua tion , in cl ud ing m an ufactu re at o ne end , sc rapping at Coming up in Cy News cle • • • • o f being d est roy ed. Doma and Octag on m ay skirm is h fo r a while, but b usiness is busin ess, and sooner o r l ater th ey w ill r e ach ag ree me n t. G iv en th e ir respe ct ive lines of bus ln e ss . CVC w i ll t ake its pro f it , and Oc tagon will take t he series. The on ly W orld Championship se ries . And sinc e th e GPs h av e one great advantag e ov er Sup erb ik es , nam el y a h i story of half a c ent u ry , th at will be the on e that is n omin ally preserved, ev en if th e equipment will be more like th at run in th e Superb ik e cl ass . T here is, how ever , a crumb o f comfort. T hey ma y call th e GP bikes p rototypes, but th ey are li kel y t o b e closel y relat ed to ro ad bikes , with a substantial c ross-over. So sta nd by for some awesom e 990cc roa d bikes. CN 600cc Sport Bike Shootout Budds Creek National MX Misano World Superbike Japanese World Trials cue. e n e _ so • JUNE 21 • 2 000 99

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