Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 18, 1970 Mike and Steve Bast graced the cover of Iss ue 1t31 durin g sp eedw ay acti on a t Costa Mesa Speedway in Costa Mesa . California . Mike won th e Sc ratch main. while Steve had just inked a deal to become a member of the Wimberly Uons Speedway racing team in England... We ran a review of the new Harley-Davidson XR750 dirt track "super racer.' In the bike's premiere year. it had serious problems lasting for a whole race. and when it had lasted. it hadn't been near the front. We found that the bike had plenty of promise. but just needed a lot of refining and tender, loving care to be made competitive with the bikes of the time... We visited the United States' biggest small town Sturgis, South Dakota. We observed the weeklong rally activities, which included motoc ross and dirt track racing. as well as a hillclimb competition. Many of the factory teams were on hand, including BSA, Heriey-Devldson and Yamaha. > 20 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 13, 1980 Kenny Roberts leads fe llow Yamaha man Freddie S pencer in Formula One road race action at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey , California , on the cover of Issue 1t31 , as they whee lie to a 1-2 finish. Although Roberts won both legs by more than 12 seconds, the second leg saw him lap every rider on the track. except Spencer... Hinsdale and Peoria , Illinois, hosted AMA Grand Natio na l Che rnpi onship rounds two days apa rt. with Scott Parker (H·D) winning the dirt track on Friday and Scott Pearson (Yam) winning the TT on Su nday .. . Ame rican Wes Cooley and his teammate, New Zealander Graeme Crosby (Suz), won the Suzuka Eight Hours by a mere 40 seconds over the team of Eddie Lawson and Gregg Hansford (Kaw), who . in turn , had thr ee laps over third pla ce ... Micky Dymond (Ha n) won the 125cc Intermediate class at Orange County Intern ation al Raceway motocross in Irvine. California... Rick Johnson (Yam), Ron Sun (Han) and James McKenna (Mai) won the 125. 250 and 50 0cc Pro classes in McMinnville . Oregon , during AMA Pro Regional Qualifi er Motocross. 10 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 8, 1990 Team Honda 's Jeff Stanton covered Issue 1 31 after winn ing his secon d consec utive 250cc National~ Championship in Troy, Ohio, by seven points over series rival Jerf Ward (Kaw). who won the overall. The 125cc class was won by Tea m Honda man (and po ints leader) Jean-Michel Bayle with 1-3 showings. The Frenchman extended his points lead to 14 with six rounds left... Bimota released an artist' s im pression of its new Grand Prix road race machine, which was expected to make its deb ut before the 1990 season was out. According to Bimota, they would be building the engine, which would be a first for the Italian man ufacturer. Among man y ot he r ra dica l feat ures . the bike would reportedly feature a front swingarm instead of traditional forks... Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwant z won round l Oaf the World Championship Road Race Series in Le Mans. France, ahead of Wayne Gardne r (Hon) a nd Wayne Ra iney (Yam ). Raine y still he ld a 3D-p oint lea d over S chw antz... Young 18 -year -o ld Team Green phenom J eremy McGrath stormed " O n e Ke n n y Ro be rts. Th er e ' s o nly one Kenny Robe rts .' It's a s o c c e r chant, but it works just a s well when you st ick in the na me of th e curr e nt 5 00 cc World Charnp io ns hi p lea de r. O r in d e e d Micha el Dooh an , Kevin Schwantz , o r, to b e right up to d ate , "One Valentino .' The na m e a ctu a lly do es n't m atte r. It 's t h e ido la t ry that co u n ts . A s though one pe rson c ould bu oy up an e nt ire tea m . Unlik e ly a s this m a y sou nd in th e c a se o f a m oto rc ycl e ra c ing t e a m , whe re succe s s d epe nds as much o n mach in e d esi gn a n d m e ch an ic a l integrity a s it do es on th e rider , th e re are p lenty of rec ent his tor ical pre ce dents to suggest it is tru e . Roberts Jr. is a case in point. He 's rid ing high , winning races for Suzu ki for the first t ime s inc e 19 9 5 , th e year S chwantz retired after ta king Suzu ki's la s t ch ampionsh ip in 1993 . In fa ct , the last S uzuki GP winne r was Da ryl Beattie , who fin ishe d second overall to Doohan in '9 5 , be fo re h is c aree r flo undered in a term inal loss of confldenc e a fte r a he ad injury . Po int is , it has bee n o ne g uy - one Kenn y Roberts J r. (al o ng wit h h is e n g ine e ri ng gu ru War ren Will ing ) who has turn ed th e fo rt unes of th e team right around . Si nc e Be a tt ie , th e y'd gotten nowhe re im po rtant with Scott Rus s ell a n d An thon y Gobert , a n d we re re d uced to fin d ing cau s e -for c e lebration merely if th e y finished in th e top 10 . When Roberts J r. claimed his first GP victory at t he o pe ni ng round in Malaysia last year, S uzuki had been in a full 52 GPs with out a win . Th is year, Roberts has been th rough more than half the season as th e only gu y to win more than one race, with th ree wins. It wa s only in the 10th round, in Germany , that Alex Barros ma na ged to add a second to his tall y. Suzuki is fa r from alone . Th e re wa s , likew ise, on ly on e Wayne Raine y. He c rashed out of racing in 199 3 , whil e le ading the title that Schwantz eventu ally won. It could ha ve been the Ca liforn ian 's fourt h - str ai ght cha mp ion sh ip, but while his Ma rlboro -Yamaha teammate Luc a Cada lora went on to win the race that ended his ca reer, it was the start of a long drou ght for the fac t o ry Yam ah a team, and fo r top s po nsor Marlboro as well. Yamaha sol d iere d o n ov e r t h e e nsui ng ye ars with just a handful of wins - two in 19 94 and two m o re in 1995, both fo r Cadalora ; followed by o ne e ac h for No ric k Abe and Loris C ap iro s si a t ea c h e nd of the 19 9 6 season. Th en c ame a lon g d rought of th e ir ow n, a s c a t a s t ro p hi c a s S uzuk i's , g iven their la rger nu mber of rid ers , with an inte rva l of 22 races un til Simon Cr af ar luc ked into a lo ne Britis h GP win in 199 8 . Marlboro , m e anwh ile , embra c ed the ir o wn fallow pe riod . b ec om in g disillu s ion ed with Yam aha 's po or pe rforma nce s o whe n Ke n n y Ro berts o ffe re d the m th e chance of buying into his dream of m aking a J a p -be a ting , t hree -c yli n de r a lt e rn a t iv e , the Mode nas , th ey wer e ready . T ha t cost t hem two yea rs, during whi ch th e y did ha ve t he good fortun e to have a si de dea l with Max Biaggi , who claim ed a couple of wins on his s a te llite -tea m Honda in 1998 . the po ints lead with Roberts e ar lier on . In th e middl e pa rt o f the year , howe ver, he s ta rte d m iss ing the bu s , and se t the s ea l on his declin e with a massive c ra s h in German y. Biaggi ha s don e the opposite of com ing up to ex pecta tio ns , with a ser ies of poo r races , s illy c rashes and bum res ults . Th e way his year 's be en go ing m a y b e ga u ged fro m th e re act io n of his team aft er he crashed out o n th e last la p of th e Italian GP, after slam mi ng h is fro nt b ra k e on against win n e r Capiross i's re a r whe e l. "At least : s ai d a tea m m an , far more p le a sed a t th is o utco me than you m ight expect , "he was try ing to win th e race .' So wh at of Honda, post Mick? You m ig ht th ink the y have a voided th is s yndrome . Criville won th e title la s t year; this ye a r th e b ig H started off badly, but has now cla imed five race wi n s , ag a in s t Su zu k i' s th re e an d Yam a ha 's two , catching a nd pa ssing MV Agusta 's pre viou s class record of 13 9 wins (it to ok MV 24 years , and Hon da 34 ). The s lump is a pparent. however, if you lo ok only a t th e ir c o re Repsol team . Criville has won on ce , bu t by a nd la rge he 's be e n p retty poo r, with only o ne ot her rostru m fin ish up to Ger many , where he crashed out for a fourth tim e so far , his title defe ns e in t a tters . Lik e wis e h is Repsol t e am ma t es Tada yuk i Okada a n d S et e Gibernau , all at sea with thei r bike s . It wa s th e Hond a Pons r ide rs , Ca p iros s i a nd th e transformed Alex Barros , who saved Ho nd a 's ea rly part of the season. And then c ame Rossi his b ike fettered by Doohan 's ex-c rew chief Jerry Burgess , the rider merci fu lly unfettered by pre c on c eptions a bout the bik e or him self. It took Rossi e ight ra ces and three prangs before he was ready to win his firs t 500c c -cl a ss race , bri lliantly, in Eng land . Two weeks on in Ge rman y he was even more br illian t. Not onl y d id he d e f y t h e conv en ti o n t h a t nobody can overtake at the S a c hsenring by m oving from 16 th on la p one to take a br ie f lead, finishing second, it was more s ignifica nt to see how he now seems th e com ple te master of a 500. Just like Schw antz, he treats the bik e with abandon , hurl ing it ar ou nd , s tee ring with the fro nt whe e l in th e air , bending it to his will. In short , tha nks to o ne br illiant ind ivid ua l, it does n 't look as thou g h Hond a' s post-Mick pr o b lem s a re goi ng to la st ve ry long at a ll. Th e re ' s only one Va lentino . eN Mar lboro rejoined with Yamaha in 1999 , in wh a t looked like a stron g pa ckage , especially in the year that Doohan ducked out. Biagg i was with th e team , and Carlos Ch ec a . Yam aha hed g e d th e ir bets with two satelli te tea m s - one in Red Bu ll colors and ano th e r in Span is h Antena 3 live ry. Marlbo ro Ya m a ha won only one race, Biagg i's la st win in South Afric a , in a yea r of growing d is illus ionme nt ; the o ther Yamah a w in went to Abe in Brazil. And the championship to Alex Criville , who - just to emphasize how the bigg est spon sors in th e bu s ines s co uld n't seem to do anyth ing right had ca rried private Marlboro s ponsorship unti l the end of th e pre viou s ye a r. Marlboro's luck has contin ue d into thi s season. Ch e ca d id seem to have achieved consistency , a fte r a re cord 25 crashe s la st year, and even sha red Coming up in Cycle News from a seventh- row start to win the m a in ev e nt at ro und s ev e n of th e Mic ke y eN Thompson Ultracross series. c • Brands Hatch World Superbike • Portland Formula USA Road Race • World MX GP Tripleheader from Grobbendonk, Belgium ue I e n e _ S • A UGUST 9 , 2000 83

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