Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Continuedfrom page 3 L At the final t ripleheader of t he 2000 FIM World Championship Motocross season in Folkendange. Luxembourg . August 12-13. defending 250cc champion Frederic Bolley took over the points lead with a 2- 1 overall win . The Pamo Honda rider has tailed fell ow Frenchman Mickael Pichon for most of the year. but Pichon's recent shoulder injury gave Bolley the opening he needed to make a bid for the title with two rounds remaining. (Pichon was also banned from competing when his father struck a medic . but is racing while his appeal is considered.) Pichon. fastest in the free-practice session (Yves Demaria was fastest in the qualify ing practice). was fighti ng for third in mota one until his Corona Suzuki experienced rear-suspension problems and he dropped out (Italian Yamaha ri der Claudio Federici won that rnoto), Pichon finished third in the second mota. and trails Belley in the standings. 370-352. "The goal for me now is to finish every race in front of Mickael," said Bailey. In the 125cc class. American Mike Brown won both motos on his Caterpillar Honda. but Grant Langston's steady 2-2 placings keep his KTM in the points lead, 438-376 over teammate James Dobb. In the 500cc division . which has already been clinched by KTM's Joel Srnets, Yamaha rider Mamicq Bervoets got a rare win. Smets won the first rnoto in typical fashion, but followed that up with an uncharacteristic sixth -place finish in moto two. The 3- 1 tally of Belgian Bervoets was good enough for the overall. . his previously held positions as chairman o f the board of directors . president o f Ducati North America and chief executive officer o f Ducati.com S .p .A .. D ucat i' s recently launched intemet division . C C) Triumph's 2000 model year print advertising campaign has been awarded a Silver W orldmeda l in the New York Fest ivals. acco rd ing to Triump h . This year t he show attracted 16.00 0 ent ries fr om 64 countries . o o o o It won 't be long before you' ll be able to do a li ttle betting o n yo ur fa v orit e mot orcycle race - at least if that event is sanc ti on ed by th e FIM . In a re lea se issued rece ntly, the FIM had the follow ing to say about its plans to allow gambling fo r its ev ent s. " The FIM and th e Italian co mpany S ISAL S .p .A. ente red int o an excl usive gl ob al agreement to plan, manage and market betting on FIM W orld Ch ampion ship events such as the 125cc . 250cc . and 500cc Grand Prix. S upe r b i ke . M o t o c r o s s . S up erc ro s s . Sp eed w ay and Tr ial. This agreement supe rsedes t he agreemen t previou s ly signed wit h the co mpa ny V elve t Go ldm ine . Th e FIM and SISAL expect t o achieve ambitious sporting and business results together through the introduction of betting on motorcycling . The FIM will develop its role as supervisor and coord inator o f all international sporting activities . focus ing particula rly on compet itions . wh ile SISAL. with an eye toward s con solidating its own co re business. will bring to the vent ure its 50 years of expe- ~ o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o . '1 rience in managing game s and betting in Italy and. as of the beginni ng of the year, abroad . Spec ifically, SISAL will co ordinate the develop ment , mar keti ng and promotion of bett ing in Italy and throughout th e world with all the belting rights from the FIM . such as the name , trade name and logo. wit hout any geographic limitat ion . The FIM now operates through its aff iliated Federations in 80 countries . organized into six continental unio ns . If the necessary ministerial aut horiza tions are grant ed in time. belting on motorcycling could begin in Italy as soon as the next mot or cycl ing W orld C hamp ionship, scheduled for Ma rch 2001. In the meantime. t he FIM is examining th e feasibility • New Trumpet A new model scheduled t o debut - somewhat unexpecte dly - at t h e Bo log na Show is a comp letely rev ised version of the Triumph 955i D ay t o n a, the British marque's fuel- injected sports triple which entered product ion four years ago, marking John Bloor's born-again company as a serious player on th e world stage with its Honda CBR900-challenging performance. T ri um p h has progess ively updated the bike since then - but now news is lea king out of the Hinckley facto ry of a complete makeover. which will allow t he distinctively engineered 955cc triple with Sagem EF I to compete once again with the latest CBR , as well as with the RI and ZX -9R introduced since its launch. After intensive development b y Triumph's team of engineers, together with outside help from the consultants they work with in Britain 's Formu la 1 rac ecar industry such as IImor or Lotu s, the new Daytona is understood to produce 145 horsepow- of sc heduling W orld C hampion ships in d iff erent motorcyc l ing disc i pli ne s thro ughout th e y ear to ma xim ize fan app ea l. In add ition, SISAL wi ll co ntac t every country in the world interested in introduc ing betting in complianc e wit h dome st ic legi slations. using local op era tors where necessary . Today SISA L has 18 .000 ag e nci es con necte d o n -lin e thr oughout Italy: in 1999 betting turn over exceeded 7.5 trillion lire ($3.75 million). In Italy. SISAL manages SuperEnalotto . Totip- and . as o f April 2000 . together wi t h ano th e r ope rato r. Form ula 10 1, based on Fo rmu la O n e raci ng, f r o m whic h SISAL co llects 80 % o f the takings . The M atch Point network of 146 spo rting er at the crank - a 17 -horsepower hike on the p resent 128-horsep o w er mod el - and has had its weight slashed too , by around 2 7 po un ds from t he cu rr en t bike's 436 po unds to the new version's 409. Rad ical new sty ling with a very distinctive face w ill n ot only remove the slight pipe-smoking image of th e present bike, it will also deliver a narrower an d more ae ro dynamic profile. which together wi th the extra power , wi ll increase top speed to close to 180 mph. Though using th e sam e alloy spaceframe as the existing model, the new Daytona will have a lighter, shorter tw in -sided swingarm , r eplacing t h e sing le-sided Ducati-type one us ed at pres ent - helping deliver a shorter wheelbase for m ore agile handling. There will also be deta il mechanical im pro vem ents, including the smoother, sweeter new six-speed gearbox fitted to the cu rrent Sprint STIRS m odels. In fact, a detuned version of the new three- cy lind er Triumph engi ne will appear first in the up-rated Tiger Tarmac Trailie being lau nched in 9 55c c guise at Intermot, but its main pu r pose is to allow Triumph 's flagsh ip Daytona model - of which 17 ,000 bikes have been built t o date. making it one of the British firm's most successful products to compete effectively once aga in for the sportbike customer dollar. And b y launch ing it at Bologna, just > U n cyclenews.com reader poll question of the week the coolest nam 96 A U GUST 2 3 , 2000 · cue I e n e VII" s . and horse r ac in g be tti ng agencies is linked to SISA L and is the largest Italian agent for spo rt ing bets . As of 1 J anuary 2000 . SISAL began operations in German y , whe re the lo c al ho r s e r ac i ng authorit ies auth orized it to create from scratch a network of 2.500 points of sale to accept bets on horseracing . It also re cently opened an offic e in B ueno s A ires for the purpose of estab lish in g games and betting activities in Argentina .· FIM Pre s id ent Francesco Zerb i declared: " I believe this is an extremely posi tive agreement for the FIM . that will contribute to a better promoti on and diffusio n of the motorcycling sport." I:N before pr oduction begins in January , Triumph hopes to avoid th e debut o f the n ew D aytona being oversh ad owed b y t he adv ent o f the much -trumpeted (so rry!) n ew B onn evi ll e twin -c y linder retro -c ru iser. w hich will be the focus of the Br it ish m arq ue' s sta nd at Intermot, and again later on at No vember's NEC Show at Birming ham, on h ome ground. •

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