Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

8WE]w--=_=··.-=S::v:.=-1 o D e f e n d i ng 540cc National Hillclimb Champion Ted Wilkins (Rtx) claimed his first win of the season at the All-Star C hallenge National Hillcl imb in Norton Shores . Michigan. Phil Libhart (Tri) held the 540 cc lead most of the day. but he ended up second. Round eight of the series had Tim Frazier (H-D) winning t he 800cc event, though he later broke his hip du ring the money ro und . Glen Petty Jr. an d Bobby Temp leton made it an all-Harley podium. O O O O O o o o o o o Steve Crevier (l-ion) won the fourth round o f t he Part s C anada Supe rbike Ch ampions hip at Atl antic Motorsport Par k in Shube na cad ie , Nov ia S co ti a. Can ada on August 6 . Crev ier pa s sed Jeff Williams (Kaw) two comers from the finish to take the win . Frank Trom· bino (Yam) fini shed third. The win gives Crevier a 44 -point lead ov er fe llow Honda rider Jordan Szoke in the Parts Can ada Su p erb ik e po int st and ings . 223 -179 . Szok e crashed out of the race and wa s transported to hos pita l with a mild concu ss ion , Trombin o w on the Open Sport Bike final over Owen Weichel (Kaw) and Michael Taylor ( Kaw) w hile C revier won his first Yo shim ura 600 Sport Bike feat ure of the seaso n on his Honda CBR600F4 , beating We ichel and Szoke. o ·0 o o o o D o o o o Seven-time Supercro ss C hampion J eremy McGrath announced via live chat on his own website t hat he has Signed a two-year contract with Yamaha, where he will be the own er of his team and be pit ted out of his own semi. He will be reunited w ith his former tun er at Honda Skip Norfolk, w ho replaces Randy Lawrence. M cGrat h also sai d t hat Lar ry B ro oks , who is currently the team manager for Chaparral, will stay on as his team manager. A title spons or for McGrath's team has not yet name d. but he has signed on Vans as a new sponsor. from a press release issued by the FIM on Friday, August 4: " During the seco nd heat of the 250 Motocross World C hamp ionship round held in Grobb endo nk CBelgium) on July 30 last, French rider Mickael Pichon was injured following a crash . and was unde r care of the medical service when he and his father had an attitude co nsidered unacc eptable by t he lnt ernat ional Ju ry [verb al abuse of the medical pe rsonnel by th e rider and his fat her, unpr ov oked use of phy sical v io lence by the father against a member of the medical serv icel. Consequ ently, the Inte rnat ional J ury , ac co rding t o Art . 032 .5.4 of t he M otocros s Rules I" a ride r may be held responsible for the actions of his team members " J and Art . 3.1.3 of the Disciplinary and Arb itration Code. took the following sanctions against rider Mickael Pichon: fine of C HF 5000 [Swiss Francsl , inte mational suspension of 30 days. that would prohibit him from taking part of any event under FIM co ntro l until Aug ust 28 next. The FIM has today received an appeal in due form from Mr. Pichon against the decision o f the International Jury of J uly 30. According to the dispo sitions of th e FIM Disciplinary and Arb itration Code. the prohibition of M r. Pichon to participate in FIM events is from now on suspended until the dec ision of the Inte rnational D isciplinary Court (C DIl . The CD I will convene at the RM headquarters in M ies, Switzerland, on August 15 next, to deal with this appeal. " Suzuki 's World Motocross tea'm also issued a press release announcing t hat Pich o n has formally appealed said suspe nsion. " W hilst C or ona Suzuk i do not co ndone the alleged actions of A lain Pichon, father of M ickael. against a rnedical officia l, they feel that the ban imposed on Mickael Pichon is unfair as the incident oc c urred o ut side o f th e race trac k and involv ed a third party . w ho 's actions Mickae l co uld not be hel d res po ns ib le o r acco untable for . Corona Suzuki does not tolerate or agree w ith any form of abuse or viol ence whether it be physical, verbally or otherw ise against any person . There· for e the fine of 5000 Swis s Francs wa s paid immediately to the FIM followin g the o o Mickael Pichon . the lead er of the 250cc World M otocross Champion ship, has been suspended for 30 days by th e FIM for his father' s action s at last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. The following is 8 report of this incident," the Suzuki press release stat ed. The team inte nds to enter co mpetition w hile awaiting a decision on the appeal and he was expected to be in action on Au gus t 6 in Namur.Belgium • round 13 of the 16-race series , acco rding to Suzuki. (Editor's note: Pichon did co mpete at Nam ur. See W ind box " Smets Wi ns Fourth Title " for the latest update). This is a re-sche duled venue following the cancellation of the Polish Grand Prix that had been schedu led to take place at Gyd nia. Corona Suzuk i's Team M anager Sylvain Geboers said, ' W' e have formally appealed to the suspension placed upon M ickael, we feel that he has been unjustly pen ali zed . Corona Suz uk i are currently enjoyi ng a 19-po int lead in t he World Championsh ip and whilst M ickael's physical cond itio n is not 100 %. we feel that it is important to be seen back in action and co ntinue our racing campaign to win the 250 cc World title for Suzuki. I hope that for the next few wee ks w e can put thi s matte r behind us, allow Mick ael to focus on the job at hand. and allow him to carry out his obligations to the team and sport as a professional motocross athlete.' The 25t h r unning o f t he NMA G ran d Nati onal C hamp ion sh ips at Ponca City , Oklahoma, came to a successful co nclusion on Saturday , A ugust 5. According to the NMA' s Ron Henrickson , 1640 entries were filled out for the four -d ay event , and. of cou rse . many titles were handed out. Among those who came away wi th multiple class championsh ips w a s J r. Cycle C hampion Mike A lessi , w ho won four classes and every moto he competed in. Alessi topped the J r. Cycle 60 cc St o c k and M o di fi e d ( 9- 1 1) classes (aboa rd a pair of KTM s). and t he 80 cc St o c k and M o di fie d (g . 11 ) classes (aboard a pair of Yarnahas) . Thirty-on eye ar-old Chris Young (Suz) won bot h 250 cc Stock and Modified Pro cla sse s. wh ile Jacob Martin (S uz) won both 125cc Sto ck and M odified Pro cla sses. Jesse Casillas (Yam) aced the 125cc Open Non -Pro class . Dylan Lord (Suz) came away w ith two w in s in the 80 cc Sto c k and Modified ( 14- 16) c la s ses . 8fBfJiJD@7J0 15!ltJ[JiJ0 [ft@(If][J('lfD 7JtJ7JD@ With two rounds still to run, Belgian rider Joel Sm ets wrapped up his fourth FlM World Champio nship 500cc MX title after winning both 500cc motos at the famous La Citadelle circuit in Namur. Belgium , August 6. For KTM it was the company's second such title. Having won all four GPs held in Belgium this year, Smets said, "The other three [Belgian rounds) were just GPs which were held in Belgium , this is the real Belgian GP, and I am so proud to have won it at last, as well as my fourth title ." On hand to congrat ulate Sm ets was five -t ime 500cc World Champion and seven-time La Citadelle winner Roger DeCoster. The champi onship title and Namur win was even further sweetened for KTM by Peter Johansson who finished second overall. Johans son went 3-2 on the day, edging out third plac e fini sher, Yamaha's Andr ea Bartolini's 2-3. Rounding out the top five overall were Honda's Jocke Karlsson (5-4) and Husqvama's Darryll King (4 -5). Yamaha's Mami cq Bervoets slipped from second to third in the series points. In the first moto, Bervoets stall ed his Yamaha on the start line and couldn't get the bike restarted before the gate dropped. He would eventually get the bike start ed and work his way up to 14 th place. In the second moto, Bervoets suffered a hard get-off and was unable to finish out the mote. Smets currently holds 489 points, with I I wins, followed by Johansson with 346 points and Bervoets with 336 points. The 13th round of the FIM World Champi onship 250c c MX Series was also held at Namur on the same day , and Yamaha's Yves Demari a ca me away with the overall win. D O D D O O O O O O O O C 2 A U G U S T 16, 2000 ' cu e • e n e _ s Joshua Lich tle ( Suz) an d Kyl Chisholm (Kaw) shared w ins in th 80cc Stock and M od ified 02-13) class es, with Lichtle w inning t he Stoc k clas and C h i s ho lm the Mod if ie d c las s . Jimmy Nelson (Yam) capped off th 80cc class w ith a win in th e Supe r M ini CThru-16) class . There w ere fou r differen winners in the fou r 125 and 250cc Intermediate divisions: Justin Smith (Kaw wo n the 125c c S t o c k class , Steve Mertens Jr. won the 125cc M odified class , Paul Perebino (Yam) w on th ' 250cc Stock cl ass . and Turbo Rei (Hon) wo n the 250 cc M odifi ed class . Craig Decker (Yam) turned in a perfe 1-1 performance at ro und seven of the AMA Mot oworld o f EI C aj on -Yamah a We st ern Fo ur-St r ok e N ational i n Spokane , W ash ington , on Au gust 6. It was Decker' s seco nd consecutive overall win . Second in Spo kane w as Jimmy LaMastus (Yam) w ho w ent 2-2 on the day . Nathan Woods rounded out the top three w ith 3-3 moto finishes. Series leader Spud W alters did not ride due to an arm injury . W alters still has a comfortable points lead over Gordon W ard, 28919 2 . Third is LaM ast us wit h 189 , and ~ fou rth is Decker with 160. Tennessee officials have banned the off-road use of motorized vehicles in all state fo rests under emergency rules an nounced Ju ly 20 , accordi ng to t he A M A . Under the new rules , announ ced joi ntly by the sta te 's Agriculture Department . D epart ment o f Envi ronm ent and C o nserv at io n, and W ildlife Re sources Age ncy, all motorized vehicl es are banned from sta te fores ts ex ce pt on sp ecified roads . • Personal mot orized vehicles may trave l o n paved roads w he re t hey're licensed to do so and on all gravel roads maintained by [the Division of) Forestry. " the announ cemen t said. ' They may also be used on ce rtain dirt roads if designated by signs. They are not allowed off roads at any time." Violato rs face fines of up to $2,500 and a 'year in jail. State offi cials said a perm anent rule-making proce ss to cont rol off- highway vehi cles (OHVs) w~1 Demaria won the first moto over Kawasaki 's Pit Beirer, I' Honda' s Gordon Crock ard and Suzuki's Josh Cop pins. Demaria scored the win again in the second moto, this time over Crockard, Honda's Frederic Bolley, Beirer and Yamaha's Claudio Federici. Series leader Mickael Pichon competed in Belgium but did not score any points. Pichon appealed his 30-day riding ban imposed as a result of his father's alleged assault on a' medical officer and verbal abuse against a medical staff> member the previous week following Pichon's crashed at the • Grobbendonk GP. Pichon separated his shoulder in the fall and, in Pichon's words, the shoulder was "not strong enough" at Namur. The Suzuki rider pulled out of the first moto after" 38 m inutes. :l Pichon still leads the points race but not by much . His lead has shrunk to just four points over Belle y. 337-333. Beirer is third with 276 _ In Berghem, Holland, August 6. the 13th round of the FlM World Championship 125c c MX Series was held, and KTM's Grant Langston pulled off the overall win. The South African finish ed second to fellow KTM rider Kenneth Gundersen in the first moto but came back to win the second moto , taking the overall with a 2-1. Gundersen ended up second overall with a 1· 2. Third overall went to pr evious round winn er James Dobb (3-5), mak ing it a KTM 1-2· 3 sweep. Honda's Mike Brown went 14-6 on the day. With t hree ro und s left in t he 125c c ser ies , Langston enjoys a comfortable lead over Dobb, 404 -361 . Brown is a distant third with 299 .

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