Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2000 06 28

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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o ,........ U American S uzuk i Motor Corporat ion issued a press release last week. announcing that it has ceas ed all relations with M otocro ss Action M agazine. wh ich is pub lished by Hi-Torque Publicatio ns. based upon wh at Suzuki is calli ng unfa ir joumalistic practic es. According to Suzuki V ice Presid ent o f Sales and Marketing Mel H arris . S uz uki ha s attempted to resolve its prob lems with MXA with rrttle su ccess. " Among othe r th ings. the rol e of a moto rcycl e mag azine should be to fai rly and object ively evaluate a product and re port on its fi ndings. " Harris said. " W e r ecog n ize a nd we lcome that process . Ho w e ver. f or t o o lo ng no w . Motoc ro s s Act ion ha s g on e b eyo nd . obj ective product testing and chosen to unfa irly attack Suzuki as a company. it s marketing d irect io n. its racing tearnt s) and even it s employees. We fee l th is is beyond purview of Motocross Act ion . and we object. The decisio n to ce ase 'relatio ns with the magaz ine is based sole,Iy on the no tion that we will not support biased jouma lism. " Suzu ki said that it wi ll ~iscontinue providing Motocross Actio n with products and product information as well as suspend all advertising . " It is our ho pe th at Hi -Torque w ill recognize t he p rob lems they are havi ng with Motocro ss Ac t ion a nd proact ively add ress t he issue.' Ha rris sa id . "If and when Motocross A ctio n begins fair . objective jo um alism w e wi ll re-evalu ate our decision . A dditionally. we have no q ua rrel w ith o the r maga zines published by HiTorq ue . and we will continu e to recognize those publications. " A c c o r d i ng t o PACE M o t o r S p o rt s . Supercross Radio wi ll retum to th e EA S po rts S upe rc ro s s S e ri e s for t he 200 1 season . FM B ro adcast ing o f EA S port s S up e rcro ss S e rie s events was imp le me nt ed du ri ng the 2000 season . allowing fans to b ring the ir personal headphone system or radio to the venues and tun e in on an FM frequ ency to hear the play -by-play of ann o unc ers Terry Boyd . Erv Brau n and Ja ime Uttle. "Being able to hea r the annou ncers was th e single larg est concem o f ou r fans w hen they attende d o ur se rie s events. ' said Todd Jend ro. Director of Supercross fo r PACE Motor Sports. ' W e will pair thi s technology wi th the electronic scoring system that we introduced last season. That technology was received by most people as the best enhancemen t to the live Superc ross show that has eve r been produced. In related PACE Motor Spo rts news. the pro moter of the C hampionship C up -The rumored scrapping of plans to introduce a price-limited number of kit parts to the World Superbike Championship next year has become reality. as expected. due to opposition from certain facto ries and most importantly. SBK International itself. Th e officia l press release from the FIM mentions that the intro ducti on will be postponed for one year. but it is widely ack nowledged that the idea is as good as dead. . The official FlM Press Release. re-worded after com plaints from SBK that the original was m isleading . said that the FlM Management coun cil (which met in Geneva for an extraoidinary session on Saturday) had approved a proposal from the lnt ernational Technical Panel. The decision. coming one day after a meeting between the FlM Tech panel . SBK and the main factory teams . was arrived at after much lobbying and discussion by the SBK faction. who believe that the "kit regulations would negatively affect the sporting. technical and commercial growth of World Superbike." The unwritten word being that in the face of a possible onslaught of super-trick GP four strokes. World Superbike does not want to be a further im poverished relation. Honda and Yamaha objected to the idea, (hence the change to the wording in the FlM release. which originally read "all parties were in agreement") having put time and effort into their plans to go ' kit' racing next year. Laurens Klein Koerkamp. Yamaha Motorsports Manager. made the comment that: "We are ready to go. We signed an agreement Series motorcycle road racing program technical sec tions. such as long straight· aways with a Single jump in an effort to produce fas ter racing. For variety. plans also incl ud e th e int rod uc t io n of more technic al track sections to s low d own racin g speeds. " We really wanted to bring a mix of old and new into the track designs for 2001 .' sa id To dd Jend ro. D irec to r of Supe rc ro ss for PA CE M o to r S po rt s . - Hav ing a t echnical t rack one week and having a fast and simple track th e n ext w ill k e e p ri d ers. te a m s . an d spectators guessing as to wha t they might see on Saturday night. • announced that CCS is having a record year in event entries and licensed rae ers/ members . PACE acquired CCS prior to the start of the 2000 season . " The 2000 sea so n is clearly a banner year fo r CCS. " CCS Road Race M anager Kevin Elliott said. • O ur membe rs hip is up 1 1 pe rcent from last year. and the average rider entries per event is up 12 to 15 per cent across the board. - As an example. PACE c it ed a rec en t CCS event that d rew 702 en t ries. w ith t wo other nonCCS events taking place within a 300 mile rad ius . -We had racers drive past o ther racetracks to come to Carolina.Ellio tt said . " It seems clear that CCS is the favored program for a lot of racers. - With 25 companies offering ca sh or certificate awa rds in Championship Cup Series compe tition. racers are bene fit ing handsome ly . Th rou g h t he f ir s t 24 race s in the co mbined CCS/CMRA rac ing sch edu le o f 68 even t s . CCS and CMRA racers have al re a d y earn e d $175.485 in awards reported to parti ci pating sponsors. according to CCS. With a recent announcement by Aprilia that it is expand ing RS250 award s to inclu d e Amateur and Expert lig htweig ht S uperbike classes. total c o ntingency postings on the season are over three million do llars ($3 .203.045). Every CCS and CMRA racer gets a shot at the mo ney. Awards are o ffered in all of CCS's 35 classes. So far. 566 racers have earned awa rds. Just under 4000 (3953) individual awards have been reported to spo nsors . " Everyone appreciates how much it takes to go racing. - CCS Road Rac e Manager Kevin Elliott commented. '1 know tha t a lot o f our racers could n ' t do it withou t this sponsor support. O u r g rat itude a nd respec t fo r those companies' participation is beyond explan ation . " PACE Motor Sports also have plans for n e w track deSIgns for the 2001 EA Sports Supercros season. Track builders D i rt W u rx has proposed a series of cha nges that will present many new challenge s to the riders as well as treating specta tors to a new mix of trac k obstacle s . according to a press release issued b y PACE . Some o f t he c ha nges w i ll incl ude utirlZing the over-and-under bridge at as many as six events. (It was us ed four t im es in th is y ear' s series J N ew track designs will also feature fast. less that we would go racing with kit parts in 200 1. We insisted that the FlM change their press release because there was not a unanimous decision to postpone the k it part regulations. Ours elves and one oth er facto ry were the only ones who wanted to carry on." "Yam aha especially were upset because their Belgarda production facility in Ital y (the racin g division of which has been runn ing Vitto Guareschi on a ki t bike all year) will m iss out on the mon ey they would receive for building the kit parts. Other factor ies on the other hand. will see it as something of a relief. • Giu seppe Bernic chia , from Aprilia , gave ' som e of his personal N ine-time AMA G rand National C hamp ion Scott Parke r is set to take his firs t ride of the yea r at the lima. Oh io. round of the AMAiProg ressive Ins urance U .S . Flat Track C hamp io nships o n J une 24 . "I' m pumped . - Park e r said .• I' ve just been kicking bac k and enjoying not having to go to all the race s. but it's time to come out and have some fun. I usually do good there . so l' m really looking forwa rd to gettin' back with Bill LWemer! and gettin' it on . " When asked if he though t tha t he would still be able to fit in his leathers. Pa rk e r replied : ' N o probl e m. I' ve o nly gained abou t 20 pounds." o pinions. "I think that the adoptio n of four strokes into GPs has been infl u- ential in some ways: he said. "Since the decision to introduce kit parts (in 1998) a lot of things have changed in the sport. It is not very good for the spectators in World Superbike to see the machines go slower next year than they have been in the past. It would also be very expensive. especi ally for a factory like ours . to produce so many kits each time we made an improvement in the machine. It would probably be even more expensive to make 30 kits and therefore more expens ive to buy them than it woul d be to make a small number and then supply them to private teams. Right now the priva teer machines in the championship are quite competitive. so anyone who has the budget can buy a competitive bike.' Gordon Ritchie The Fifth Annual Classic Japanese Motorcyc le Show and S wap at S q ua w Valley S k i Resort n e ar Lake Tahoe. Ca lifornia. is sch edu led for August 5 and 6. The first day will include a sunset ride and barbecue from 5 to 9 p.m. The sec o nd day w ill fea t ure the show an d swap from g a.m . to 3 p .m . For more info rm ati on . ca ll 530/546-7661. o r visit www.squawclassicja panes e .com on th e World Wide W eb . Nationa l MX and Supercross champion Jeff Stanton will be on hand. To reach the rider education cen ter. take 1 -75 to Troy exit 74 . Take State Route 4 1 W est . Tum left on S tanfield Rd . Tum left at the second Honda entrance sign . then tu m left aga in into the small parking lot . APPOINTED: M acon. Georgia's Capitol C ycl e Company. Inc. as the ne west KTM dealer for the state of G eo rg ia . C C C is loca ted at 4950 M ercer U niversity D r.. and its phone number is 91 2/4 75-57 11. OPENED: Works End uro Rider' s website on the World Wide W e b . T he s ite can be re ach e d at th e fo llowi ng a d d r e s s : http://www.w erp roducts.com. OPENED: An all-new A M website on the W orld Wide W eb . The RESIGNED: Beverly St. Clair. as V ICe Presiden t, Communications. for the M o to rcycle Industry Council (MIC ). to pursue other career op portunities. APPOINTED: Jason McCormick. as mo tocross tea m manager fo r Spy Optic. replacing Bob M oore who left Spy in May to pu rsue a career in athlete manage ment. McCormick wi ll attend all Motocross Nationals as well as all amateu r N at io nals and wi ll continue to handle the Spy amateur te am in add ition to his new duties wi th the Pros. U nit ed Enduro Association patriarch Ed M ld ButtW Butler . 62, died on M ay O 20 . A fixt ure in the clu b for over 20 yea rs. Butler was active in the preparat ion and part icipation of desert and enduro event s. He wa s a founding member of the FRA . wh ich put on family endu ros in the late ' 80s. He was also the AMA D ist ric t 37 Enduro Steward for a few years. coordinating the Bes t of the West Series. He wa s vo ted D istrict 3 7 Spo rt sma n of the site can be reach ed at the fo llowing add ress: http://www.fim.ch. AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: A t the Troy Honda Rider Education C enter in Troy. O hio. on Friday . July 2 1. From 6 :30 p.m. to 7:30 p .m. Te am Honda ri d e rs Ezra L usk . K e v i n W indh am an d S e bas t ie n Torte lli, an d former Tea m Honda rider and A MA AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: A t C o mpet it io n A c ce s so ries in Springfield. O hio . on J uly 21 -22 . M otocrosser's M ike laRocco and Chris Go sselaar will be o n hand on July 21 from 5 to 7 p.m.. with the Kawasaki motocross racing teams schedu led to appear on July 22 from noon to 1 p.m. - - -- - - - Gm tinued on page 96 c u e ... n .. _ s • JUNE 2 8. 2000 3 o o o o o o o o o o ~ o o o o o o G n u ~ [] o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 8 ~ o

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