Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

o o o bike Championsh ip traveled to the fulllength circuit last s e a s o n , H islop smashed the lap record set by World S u p e r b i k e fact o ry H ond a star Colin Edwards. " The team , the bike and the rider are all up for the chance to get out there and rid e agains t t he best in the w o rld ," Hislop said . · W e know o ur bike is a m atch for mu ch o f t h e factory machinery out there - this is go ing to be an incredible w eek end . " Th e fir st -ever o ffi cia l FIM W o man's W orld C up and Trial des Nations will be he ld in Sev a, S pain , the sa me v e nue as the men ' s Trial des Nation s. The women will compete o n September 9 with the men tak ing over on September 10. The off icial U .S . wo men' s te am is as fol lows: D ebbie Evans Leavi tt (Gas Gas) and Pam DeB ruin (H RC /Montesa), America's top tw o fi nish e rs last year in t he tea m ' s third-plac e finish beh ind N orway and Italy . The forma t for th is year will see . each team send its two bes t riders rather than the three the team sent last year. On August 19, meanwhile , women from around t he world will compete in the 2000 Pro-Clean Ladi es Motocross Invitational at the Elsw ort h G rand Prix Trac k near Cambridge in England . This event was created to provide Intemation al venues fo r women motocro ss rac e rs abroad, according to event promoters . It al igns it s e lf with the U . S . Women's M otoc ro ss League's CWMU Intemational Cup to be held on O ct ober 1 at Pe rris Rac ew ay in Perris, Cali fomia. Nearly 100 women racers, including Swede n, Japan, New Zealand , England , Au stralia, Franc e, Italy, Ca nada and the U.S. are signed up to co mpete in England . American riders will inclu de Augie A ugusto and Tam i H aas e from Ca li forn ia wi th Chri stine D o novan and Gl ad Lim baugh rep resent ing the sta te of C o lorado. For mo re information , call 909/520 -0948. J u st in case th e Brit ish D em on Vi nto H onda Superb ik e te am was n't hav ing enough bad luc k, word of mo re has just c om e f r om the t e a m . W it h D ay t o na 250cc G rand Prix winner John McGuiness fractu rinq his right hip two we eks ago, the team has bee n furt her set bac k by the a similar injury to James Toseland. Fo llowing the accident at Oul to n Park involvi ng M cGu inn e s s , To se la nd suffe red an almost ident ical injury at Ca d- c o o o o Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards (pictured while leading during the first hour) each crashed once, without notable injury. Rossi's crash came early in his ride as the youn g Italian went down in the Hairpin while leading. Edward s tum bled three hours lat er while in eighth place trying to make up laps. Their Castrol Honda RC-51 was retired after Edwards went down. Edward s complained of a severe headache after his crash. The doctor at the loc al hospita l has advis ed Edwards to delay his trip from Jap an to England for the Brands Hatch World Superbike race from Monday, July 31 to Tuesday, A ugust 1. Edwards was unava il able for comment on the severity of his injury . though his team did release the followi ng quote: "My mo tivetio n was dented a little when Valentino [Rossi] crashed, but I got going again in my second session. I don't know what happened Ito cause the crash]. The front of the machine j ust slid away from me. I suffered a little bit of a burn on my back from slidi ng but apart fro m that I' m okay . I'm disappointed because Valentino and myself could have won ." Tohru Uk awa and Daijiro Kato rode a perfect race to win the 23rd Suzuka 8 Hours, round four of the FlM World Endurance Champi onship, on J uly 30 . Th eir Hond a RC-5 I was flawless in a rac e marred with numerous crashes in the rank s of facto ry riders and privateers alike . Thi s year's race earned the unfortun ate distinction as being the fir st Suzuka 8 Hours to have a rid er fatally injured. Forty- seven year-o ld Mamoru Yamakawa , riding a Kawasaki ZX-7R in the X-F ormu la support class, ran straight into the padded Armco at the 130R comer at the end of the back straight. Yamakawa died on the way to the hospital and he was pronounced dead at 4 p.m . local time . Second place honors went to the Suzuki fact ory team of A ki ra Ryo and Keiichi Kita gaw a. Th eir GSX-R750 com pleted 214 laps, one lap off the new distance record set by Ukawa and Kato . Attri tion of factory bikes cleared the way for Kawasaki's Tama ki Serizawa and Peter Goddard to finish in third place. Th e X-Form u la sup po rt cl ass victo ry wen t to Yo shi m u ra Hayabusa for the second year running. Th is year's riders of the big Suzuki were Osamu Deguchi and Shawn Giles. The pole position Yamaha went out in the first hour when Waturu Yoshikawa fell in the 130R comer on lap 16. Yoshikawa's crash denied lead rider Nor iyuki Haga's determ ined quest for a second 8 Hours victo ry. Th e second facto ry Yamaha of Takeshi Tsujimura and Simon Crafar lost their opportunity for a respectable fini sh when the drive chain came off on course and jam med. Kawasaki's top team was elimin ated an hour and a half from the end when Hitoyasu Izutsu tuck ed the front wheel in the esses, His teammate, Akira Yanagawa . now has com peted in nin e Suzuka 8 Hour races without a victory . Th e satell ite Honda team of Makoto Tamada and Al ex Barros, riding a year -old RC-45 , crashed out of the lead group when Tarnada was on the bik e. Suzuki also lost one of their two factory teams to accidents with Yukio Kagayama anothe r victim of the fast 130R turn. Honda, meanwhile, lost Tadayuki Okada prior to the race when he crashed in moming practice and sustained a minor concussion. Honda test rider Manabu Kamada took Okada 's place as teammate for Shini ch i Ito . Th eir RC-5 1 pitted three times for mechanical repairs, yet managed to come home eighth overall. Tra cy Hagen M xe rs for Jesus, the Kevin Cozadd well Park on July 27 that w ill likely knock him out of act ion for the rest of the seaso n. The 19 -year-o ld Brit ish Superbik e Se rie s r id er wa s h igh s id ed f ro m h is Honda RC -51 and was airlifted to Lincoln C oun ty Hospit al where he underwent a five -hour operation to repa ir the damag ed hip and femur. Yam aha M otor C orp . and V int ag e Iron are o rga nizing a Yamaha Race o f BMW has annou nced that the Industrial C hampions (YROCHSpeedvision vi ewi ng party on Tuesday , August 8 at A new motocros s /S u pe rcross t e am is lookin g t o be formed for the the Na tio nal Sports G rill in Orange , Cali fomia . The airing of the inaug ural YROC ev en t wi ll be b roa dcas t at 9 p .m .. b ut Speedvision's Tuesday night mo to rcy cle prog ramm ing w ill run fr o m 7 to 11 p.m . YRO C compet itors like Mi ke Bell , Bro c G lover and Gary Jon es w ill be o n hand . 2001 A MAlEA Sp orts Supercro ss Series and AMAICh evy Trucks Outdoo r Na tio nal M oto cro ss Series. Fo r Supercro ss, the l eam will co nsist of one fulltim e 250cc rider and 2 125cc W est C oast riders . For the natio nals, the team w ill suppo rt those t hree riders , in thei r respective classes , fo r the w ho le series . The tea m is curre ntly seeking interested marketing part ners and prospective riders. Interes ted parties should c o nt a c t them a t t heir e- m ail address : mxteam2001 @go .c om. eN D e s ign e r s S o c ie t y of America has bes towed its top ho nor - the Gold award on the BMW K 1200 LT in the transporta tion category. Ch oo sing fro m over 1000 en tries , t he socie ty ju ry hon o r e d 40 design s with the Gold aw ard. This is the second year in a row that a BMW moto rcycle has w o n as th e R 1200 C to ok ho me the Gold awa rd in 1999. BM W has also annou nced that it has broken its pre vious record fo r sales in the second quarte r by fi nishing t his term w it h sa les of 3683 units - an increase of over 14 percen t over record -setting 1999 . To date, BMW has so ld 6008 units - a 16 percent increase over last year. There is now a letter-generating website dev oted to the United States Forest Service and the o ff -hig hw ay veh icle dilemma . The current comments will be forwarded fo r the S ierra Nevada framework tha t is due by Augu st 11. Check it out at www.gold enstat ecycle .com . Mini stries, will be on hand at the Loretta Lynn ' s moto cros s event w it h se rv ic e times to be announced during the week. For mo re information , call 256 /538-1686. A Brad Lackey Motocross Clinic w ill be held on September 2-3 in C entre , A laba ma, ho st ed by John Garmon . The cl inic will feat ure a Europ ean-styl e track laid out on 90 acres of grass, according to the promoters. For more info rma tio n, call 256 /92 7-2436 . Th e AMAjProg ressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championships round scheduled for Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, on Ju ly 29 was rained out, with the tearns packing up and heading for home, as the for ecast favored even more rain on the following day. The rainout means that the AMA Series will be on hiatus until the Peoria IT, as AMA Dirt Trac k Series Manager confi rmed th at the Lak e Odessa, Michi gan , round of the AMA /Progressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championships round scheduled for August 5 has also been cancelled. Th e Lake Odessa date will not be rescheduled for later in the season. "We regret losing that area," Bober said, "Michigan has always supplied us with top dirt-track stars. We're definitely goi ng to try to keep a date in Michigan [in 2001] because the state is very im por tant to us." Whil e Bober decli ned to co m me nt on the natu re of the Lak e Odessa cancellation, other sources have claimed that it is because the facility is in foreclosure. Bober did say that he has not given up on the prospect of rescheduling the date, possibly for September or October. OPENED: Yamaha Belgarda Motors port's home p age o n th e World Wide Web . The site can be found at http:/ /www.yamaha-racing .it. "We're try ing to get Eldora back on the schedule: Bober said. "We would really like to run our event on the same weekend as one of their big sprint car events: The cancellations have certai nly proved to be a reversal of fortun e for Fasthog.com rider Will Davis, who has continued to make a rapid recovery from his soft ball game acci dent, whi ch Davis now admits was one inch away from being fatal. Now, North Carolinan is gearing up to ma ke a return to AMA competition at the Peoria IT on Aug ust 13, the next race on the schedule. He is only eight points behind series leader Chris Carr. "I'm going to be all right now: Davis said. "My face is worki ng again. For a while there, my eye wouldn't blink right and was always watering, and my face was numb, but that has all gotten 100 percent better in the last four days. With all these lost races, its like I've been on vacataion. I can't feel anything but fortuna te. This all hap pened for a reason, though I don't know exactly what it is." cue I e PROMOTED : D e rek Bro oks , t o m o t orcyc le p rod uct m an ag er for Yam aha M otor C orporati on , U .S .A. Bro o ks was formerly in the product planning division at Yamaha. A P P OINTED: Helen V asilevski, to the ne w posit io n of new bu sin e ss developme nt and spec ial proje ct s for Ducati North A merica. e _ s • AUG U S T 9 . 2 000 3 8 o 8 o o o .o o . ........ .................................... .......... . . . . . . . ......... n o o o o o o o ©@[jfJ@@DD@7Jil@[jfJ~ [?@@{)J §j[fj]§j @ilru 7J[?@@{)J ~@DD@@[Jj]D@ o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

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