Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128628
By 40+2 GEOFF MEYER ~ . ,(JI~t:1X 30 YEARS AGO••• SEPTEMBER 15, 1970 Doug Gra nt graced the cover of Issue #3 4 after leading the South MX Team to a decis ive vic tory o ver the North MX Team at the North South MX Team Race in S ac r am en t o , Cali for nia... Rich Thorwaldson narro wly defeated Tom Poteet at the Dust ers MC hare scram bles in Adelanto, Californ ia. Gary Davies, who signed up in the 125cc Novice class on a Yamaha 125, unofficially finished in th e 11th position overall ... At the Sedalia Grand National in Sedalia, Missouri , Gene Rom ero (Tri ) ran away with the victory while defending champion Dick Mann had a colli sion with J im Ric e and Chuck Palmgren that resulted in a fract u re d l eg fo r Man n. .. CM C held a motocross event at Carlsbad Raceway in Car lsbad, Californ ia , and eve n t ho ugh th ere seemed to be a larg er-than-usual breakdown percentage amo ng the contestants. there was quite a large turnout. One ride r, who wasn't named in th e cover age, ran away with th e 250cc Novice vi ctory, but it was found out that he was a card carrying Expert in another local organization and he was promp tly disqualified: 20 YEARS AGO••• SEPTEMBER 3, 1980 Pho t o gra ph ed for th cover of Issue #34 was Wes Cooley. who won the Road Atl anta Su p er b i k e race and thus kept his champi· onship hopes aliv e. Points l ead er Ed die La w son (Ka w) , Mi k e B ald wi n ( Hon ) and Davi d Al d ana ( K aw) chased him across the finish line in vain... Roun d s 20 and 21 of t he AM A Gr an d National Champi onship Dirt Tr ack Series took place at the Indianapolis Mile in Indianapolis, Indiana. On Saturday (round 20) . Terry Poovey (H-D) won by a wheel over Randy Goss (H-D). On Sunday (round 21). Ricky Graham (H-D) made history by winning at an av erage o f 100.467 mph to mark the first-ever 100·mp h dirt-track race In AMA history. Wayne Rainey (H-D) won the trophy race on Sunday... Mark Barnett (Suz) and Chuck Sun (Hon) took the overall victori es in the 125 and 500cc classes. respect ively , at round seven of the AMA 125 / 5 0 0 cc Natio nal Cham p ion sh ip Motocross Series in Center Lisle, New York. to YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 29, 1990 Steve Morehead got the cover of Issue 134 , and a $10,000 payday, for his AMA Camel Pro Series Dirt Track win at the Hag erst own Ha lf Mile. Tea m Har ley Davidson's Scott Park er an d Ch r is Ca r r rounded out the podium... M ike LaRocco and newl y cro w ned 125cc M X Wo rl d Champion Donny Schm it traded moto wins on their Suzukis, with laRocco getting the nod in the second rnoto, and the overall, at ro u nd eig ht of the 125cc National MX Series. Round two of th e 500cc Nationa l series was won by Honda's Jeff Stant on. Stanton, a supposed Open-class specialist, was still searching out his first 500cc title... After losing the previous two rounds of the World Championship 500cc Road Race Series to rival. and fellow American. Kevin Schwant z (Suz) , Wayne Rainey (Yam) came out swinging in Sweden. Schwantz fell on the third lap and handed back all the points that he had gained on Rainey up to t hat p oin t . and th en some ... J er emy McGrat h (Kaw) edged out Ryan Hughes (Kaw) for the Motorcycle Grand National Championship title at a muddy Ponca City CN Grand Nationals. P ic k up just about an y America n or European motocross magazine these days , and cha nces are good you 'll fi nd a p ictu re of a Frenchman on the cover. N ever in the history of th e sport has this cou ntry boasted such a strong collec tion o f top riders. In the U .S . , yo u 've g o t D a v i d Vu ill emin , Seb astien T ort elli, Step h ane Ro n ca da an d Rod ri g T h a in all doi ng qu it e w ell. Vuillemin p lac ed a strong secon d in t he EA Sports Supercro ss Serie s, Roncad a is leading the 125cc ou tdoor po ints chase, an d T orte lli led m uch of th e 250cc MX Seri es. But not T ortell i of time spent under Vimond 's tutelage . " W e all cam e through together, and for everyone it was a g re at intro duction fo r w ha t we would face in G r a nd Pr ix racing . Vimond gave everyone th e c hance to le arn from hi s ex pe rience. It was ve ry im p ortant to le am as much as p o ssible from a form er World Ch am p io n . I lis tened to everythin g h e tol d me, for sure . He also hel pe d me ge t so me support f r om c lo t hi n g co mpanies , like Oxbow. " " I alway s had trouble with [the federation] : says Vimond. "They wanted to change my training and some other things; it would not have w orked fo r the ri de rs, o r fo r me. I d id not want to wa st e the ri d ers ' time, or m ine. " N o w , s i x years after V imo nd 's st ep pi n g down . one of t he re maini ng t wo e lem ents res ponsible for t h e re cent F ren c h strongho ld m a y be in jeo pa rdy , as the Fren c h f e d er a t i o n h as decided to ex cl u d e foreign riders from rac ing in the Fren ch Supercross all of th e fast F renc hies have for saken th e trad it ional GP sce ne. Fr ederic Bol l ey an d Mi cka el Pic hon are f i ght ing ov er t h is year's premier 250cc class t itle, and it lo o k s li ke this wi ll be the third ye ar in succession that a French r id er wins t hat crown (though a Bel gian and a South A fr ican are dominati ng t h e o ther two d iv isions, French 125cc Grand Prix rider Luig i S eguy has been imp ress ive i n th e t idd le r class ). And finally , wh ile the French ha v e n ever w on the prest ig ious MX des Nations, the country' s deep ta lent and the fact that the race will be he ld on Fren ch s o i l hav e c o m b i ne d to make them the favorite for 2000. The obvious question is : Why are the French , wh o cou ld not w in a World Motocross Champ ionsh ip during the sport's golden Eu ro pean era (f rom th e 1960s to the '8 0 s) , suddenly the talk of the p ro fessional MX wo rl d? The an sw er incl u des severa l ele- AMA 125cc MX poi nts lead er Stephane Ronc ada: one of many f ast Frenchmen. But not everyon e got along so w ell m ents, and th e fi rst one is Jean -Michel Bay le. Most of toda y 's top Fren ch rac ers grew up w at ch ing th is en igma win w it h V im ond , who , i n fac t , h as b ad fee li n gs towa rd T o rt elli fo r h is lea vi ng one each 12 5 an d 250cc World Cham pionshi p in Eu rope and a Superc ro ss title, a 250c c MX titl e and a 50 0 cc MX ti tle in th e St at es. The second reas on is the intro d ucti on of t he Fren ch Supercross Cham p ion sh ip , wh i c h h a s all o wed th e Fr ench to build their indoor skills, which they then transfer to th e out doo rs ( most European c o u n t rie s T o rt e ll i /Oxbo w re la t i o ns h i p i s a lso responsi ble fo r Ro n cada ' s b ad fee ling s towards Vimond (h e calls h im " a little tough ," an d " n o t a nice person don 't have such a series ) . T h e f ina l , C ha m pionsh ips fro m n ex t year o n. That will lo w er t he talent level in t he o nce - st ro n g se ries , wh i ch has a l so dwin dl ed to n othing m ore than a few r a c es , w ith m an y of t he t o p n ames long sinc e d ep art ed . " I th in k it w ill affec t th e fu t u r e o f o ur sport, " sai d Vuill em in , a former re g ul ar in th e seri es. "W hy does the French Fed erat ion think we have so m a n y good riders at th e mome nt? T he F r e n c h Supercross Champ i onshi p h as lost a lot of it s strength, and th at is sa d fo r French youth." Just a s the on ce -proud Belgian Tortelli his initial O x bow sponsorsh ip . most important, element in the French surge is Jacky Vimond 's serv in g for several years as the country 's you th coordinator, a post that saw h im work with Tortelli , Vu illemin , Ron cada , Yv es Demaria and Seguy as a gu id e an d coach for the tough world of profes sional motocross. A fo r me r world champi on in h i s o w n r ight, V imond is w id ely re c o g n i zed fo r th e role he pla y e d i n th e curre n t c rop of to p ri de rs, not only by outsiders , but b y m an y of h is p upils. " It w a s very com petitive," says Oxbow fo r No Fear wh en h e ca me t o A m er i ca (Vi mon d s ti ll w or k s with Ox bow) . A n d V imond feel s t hat t he to w o r k Wit h") , as t h e eld er French man passed over Ro n c ad a to hand At any rate, Vimond's relationship w ith the F r en c h motorcycle federa t ion also went sour, and w ith Vimond motocros s scene i s l o o ki n g for a y ou t h p ro g r am , t h e F rench are now scream ing for y o u n g r ide rs to join their r anks . With the French i n d o o r series suffering, and w ith Vimond no l o n g er in charg e of th e y outh p ro gram in Fran c e, the riders he helped boost to GP and U .S. glory cou ld be th e last o f th e great French era that h as ta ken hold of th e sport. A s Vimon d h im self p uts it, " I am scared for th e futu r e o f Fr en ch Motoc ro ss. " eN cl ai min g he could no lo nge r lis te n to t h e organization' s st rict an d ou t- d ate d id e as, he walked out on h is post in 1994 - j ust as h is pupils began th eir quest fo r Int em ati o n al stardom. Since V imond 's r e s i g n a t i o n , th e t al ent lev el in th e F ren ch j u nior ra n ks h a s dro p ped o ff, lea v ing j us t a few you ng ri ders to fight for the c ou nt ry ' s future (Steve Boneface and Antoi ne Le tellier are among them ) . Coming up in Cycle News c • • • • Bing hamton National Motocross Missouri AMA Dirt Track Fort Worth Formula USA Dirt Track Pennsylvania Formula USA Road Race ue ' e n e vv S • AUGUST 30 , 2 0 0 0 95