Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o bragging rights as the fastest racer up the hill. Thompson blasted up the steep, 198foot hill aboard his Kawasaki in a time of 4.89 98 seconds. " I just got everything going right." the 34-year·old Thompson said. Almost 400 entries were po!ted for the event. which pitted riders of all ages and skill lev els against each other in a wide variety of classes on machines ranqing fro m 50cc and 85cc minicycles to 1000cc-plus Open-class bikes and fo urwheeled ATVs. AMA road race manager Ron Barrick drove up from his home outside of W ash· ington, D.C.. to take in the PACE race at Pocono Intemational Raceway on August 27. While there, Barrick said that the test at Virginia Intemational Raceway the previous week had gone well and all indications were that the facility wo uld be on the AMA calendar for 200 1, probably 'in the fall. Among the factory riders taking pa rt were Am e ri c an Ho nda ' s N icky Hayden and M iguel DuHamel , along with Kawasaki' s Doug Chandler and Eric Bostrom , Randy Renfro w , who also lives in the W ashington, D.C. area. rode during the test. He'd compe ted in a WERA race at the faci lity the previous weeke nd. " The riders liked it." Barrick said. "We tried the long course and the majority of the riders thought the long course was mo re fu n th an the sho rt course. but there are a lot of factors to consider before we decide which one to run. The track 's got cons iderat ions for cost and spectat or control. The television guys haven't been there to evaluate the facility for camera placement and cable runs and so forth . Same for us. We 'll have to look at our various expenses for running both and conside r spectator vantage po ints . I w ould say we ' re kind o f leaning toward the north course . which is the 2.25 [miles]. wh ich everyone else is using for competition so far." Barrick said the track was fun for the riders , but would be more difficult for racing and for passing, w ith a few sectio ns wh ere rid ers could get jammed up behind lappers. As f o r w he n an agree me nt might be announced, "We basically have a verbal ag ree ment wi th the track. W e haven't gotte n any docu ment s sig ned yet, but this sho uld co me th is week, so everything looks like it's going to be a go. " 8 o o o o o o 8 o o o o o o o o o o M ic hael W eb er is the execut ive v ic e pres ident fo r television and licensing at the SFX Motor Sports Group. That put him in charge of the television package at th e Formula USA Pocono even t and he said they 'd done all they co uld to make sure it was an entertaining package on CBS . Pace had bought the one-hour slot on October 1 to show the three·race packag e . the tw o Unlimited Superbike races and the Sport Bike Final. "Time buy is the term , " Weber said . t hough he wouldn't reveal what PACE paid for the o o o o ~o o. o OP ENED: L.A. Sleeve Co.' s home page on the World Wid e Web. The site can be found at: http :/ /www.lasleeveco.com. MARR IED: Jon Bland, of Rent hal America. to Heather Slattery , of Pit Pro Cycle , on July 15 in Valencia, California. . ......... .. .............................. 2 S EPT EMB ER 6 . 2000 · cue slot. "We retain the co mmercial rights . The race was a 10-camera shoot. six or seven being the norm for a Supercross and seven for an NFL game. There were two on -board cameras in each o f the classes, with a bit of luck falling their way. larry Pegram and John Hopkins had the cameras in Superbike and the two had a spirited fight in the first leg. with Pegram lead ing mo st of t he second leg . Lee Acree and Tony Me iring had the cameras in the Sport Bike race. with Acree taking th ir d and M eiring 10t h . " W e want to showcase the sport . not only the sport. bu t the rid ers , " Webe r said . " W e' ve done headshots of all the ride rs . It' s image en hancem ent for the product. " There woul d be some features. but the focus w ou ld be on racing , wi th some ex planatio n o f the spo rt f o r th e non enthusiast. There will be some entities for the true motorcycle enthusiast, the gearhead." Though they were trying to get all three races in the one-hour show, plus commercia ls, W e ber c onced ed th e re would be a few laps lost. " but if some thing of substance happens . we'll have it," he said. Because the series was late being put together, there wasn't time for a full television package. For 2001 W eber said they had every intention of bringing more than one race to television, poss ibly as many as four or five. Zlock Racing's Mich a el Ba rn e s ran as high as third in the first leg at Pocono before pulling out less than two laps from the end after dropping back a few more spots. The culprit was a perceived failing transm is sion , w hich, as it turned o ut, wasn 't as bad as Barnes as feared . "I t was jumping out of gear . " Barnes said afterwards. " It got too dangerous. I just wan ted to salvage some po ints in the second race . " Team owner Dan Zl ock wasn 't questioning his rider. "H e had a litt le bit of trouble with the shifting on it." Zlock said o f Barnes' Kaw asaki ZX -9 . The mach ine had been missing down shift s and Bames had heard noises. "H e w as afr aid to kee p rid ing bec ause he t hou ght it might loc k up. La ter o n he w ished he 'd backed off and kept it out there . But the last th ing yo u ca n do is seco nd-quess a rider. It turned out to be nothing." That put Barnes near the back of the field for the second race. where he finished 11th. High Octane has announce d that Seth Enslow will make his retum to jumping o n September 16 at the " High Oct ane Dunes " Freestyle Motocross jump co ntest in Anaheim. California, his first public jump sinc e attempting a world reco rd jump nine months ago. The event will be held in the Santa Ana riverbed just behind th e Stad ium Promenade complex and Ar rowh ead Pond arena. close to whe re the "Jet Jam" watercraft race was held severa l year s ago . Fo rmer Mot ocro ss Nat ional Champion M icky Dymond will design and build the course in the Santa Ana Rrverbed using existing materials. Ha rle y "Da vi d so n has announ c ed a $250,000 contribution to help build the National World W ar II Memorial in Washington, D .C . The ann ou nc e men t w as made at the culmination of a mot orcycle par ade led by a W o rld W ar ll-vintaqe Hartey-Davidson motorcycle. " On behalf of the compa ny and o ur many ve te ran employees and custo mers, we are proud to honor World War II vete rans by donating a quarte r of a million dollars to help build their lonq-deserved memorial," said n e vv s J im Z ieme r , p res ident o f the Harl eyDavidson Foundation and U.S. veteran . The V et erans of Foreign W ars. wh ich kicked off its 10 1st nationa l convention today in M ilwaukee. will match 50 cents for every dollar of Harley-Davidson's gift. Harley-Davidson has a long histo ry as a U.S . mil it ary supplier. The compa ny 's motorcycles were first used for dispatching and scouting during border skirmishes on the Mexican fro ntier in 1916. During the first year of U.S. military involvement in W orld Wa r I. approximately half of all the com pany 's production w ent to the military, D uring Wo rld W ar II. Harle y' Davidson produced approximately 90 ,000 WL milita ry model s. More than 14 per ce nt of Harley-Davidso n's U.S. employees are veterans of the U.S. military. and many of Ha rley -Dav idson 's cu st om ers also served, according to Harley. HarleyDavidson salutes the nation 's vet erans every year on Veteran' s Day by hosting special even ts at it s Kansas C ity , M issouri; Milwaukee. Wisconsin. and York, Pennsylvania facilities. The FIM issued a press release recently , outlin ing the lates t developments in the Noriyuki Haga S aga. "The Court of Arbitrat ion for Sport (CAS) announced that the hearing of the appeal lodged by Jap anese rider Noriyuk i Haga will tak e place on Octobe r 12 next in Lausanne (Swi tzerland)." the release st ates. " Mr. Haga had lodged this appeal against the decision of the FlM International Tribunal of Appea l mAl of June 30 . 2000. This decision notably prohibited him from taking part in any of the activities under FIM control for a period of three weeks as from June 30. 2000 . On July 6. the CAS had stayed the execution of the decision taken by the TIA. Following a doping control carried out at the Superbike W orld Championship rou nd in Kyalami (South Africa) on April 2. the urine samples (A and B) of Mr. Haga co ntained a quantity of ephedrine above the cut-off level. " A cco rd ing t o Cy cle Ne ws co ntribut o r Paolo Gozzi. the entire Noriyuki Haga affair has aroused the indignation of April ia. " Its an absurd situation: said the Axo Aprilia Superbike genera l manager Fabrizio G uidotti. " In t he nex t two races lA ssen, Holland - September 3; Osch ersleb en , Germany - September 1OJ. we wont know the points of our best adversaries. " That Haga affa ir has seen th e FIM suspend Haga for three wee ks and take aw ay the 45 points he earned in South Afric a after testing positive for the d rug ephedrin e . Yamaha . how ev er , appealed to the Court of Arb itration for Sport (CAS). a Swiss independent co urt that has overtumed the FIM's three·week ban. " So meo ne fro m FIM tol d us the decisio n w o n' t arrive on 12 Oc t o be r, before the last race at Brands Hatch. but later, because Yamaha want to put it off," Gu idotti said. " So the World Championship could be decided on the table, for the sentence of a Court." The Yamaha has a good pool of Dutch lawyers on his hand, who were able to gain time in order to put off the sentence to the end of the championship, according to Gozzi. So if the CAS con firm s the th ree-week suspension, Haga could take his penalty during the off -season . At this point, it is out of the FIM·s· hands with the CAS depriving the FIM of any jurisdiction. Many feel the Haga case could set a bad precedent as in the future . riders. teams or manufacturers w ill be able to call the same independent court to put of judgment s han ded dow n by the FIM . C urr e nt ly , Colin Edwards leads the Wo rld Superbike Series with 28 1 points; Troy Corser has 257 po ints · j us t one more tha n Haga. The re are currently 150 po int s avai lab le in the rema ining rac es . " The sport is injured from this." G uidott i said. "Aprilia won five races. more than anyone else at the half of the seaso n: we don 't want the W o rld Ch amp ionship at any price , we want o nly to run hone stl y . There is a cle ar regu lat io n on do ping ; Haga was out but he didn't pay. And then I guess how he could hurt another rider [private er Massimo De Silvestro] with a kick during the practices of the last race in England , makin g a c ras h tha t could have bad or fatal consequences. And no one from FIM said something on this. W e know only a few days ago lthatl the last race [October 15J won 't be at lrnola, but at Brands Hatch. And now this farce on the case of Haga. Now there are two bad facts for the image of the Superbike. The Aprilia believe very much in this wonderful cha mpionship. but it is not managed at the best. These episodes co uld conv ince the Aprilia to invest in other directions fo r the futu re." D anny W alker ' s Sup ercamp has announced some new classes , including two sessions in Southem California (September 1-2; 3-4). The Califom ian schools will take place at the Honda Rider Education Center in Co lton. Other upcoming events inc lude Sp o kane , W ashingt o n (September 22-23; 24-25); Santa Rosa. Ca liforn ia (October 13-14; 15-16) ; Harrington, Delaware (November 3-4; 5-6); Talladega. Alabama (N ovemb er 10-11 ; 12-13); and Honolulu, Hawaii (December 16-17) . For availability or more info rrnation, call 970 /669-4322. Marlboro Yamaha Team duo Max Biagg i and Carlos Checa stayed o n at Brno in the Czech Republic for two days o f testing after t he rece nt Grand Prix there. Aft er Biaggi's runaway victo ry in the Czech GP, the team worked on chassis performance and power delivery. Several rival teams also stayed on for testing and Biaggi left the circuit a happy man on W edn esday eveni ng . having clocke d equa l-fas test time of the week. Checa stayed until Thursday afternoon . worki ng with his crew to put himself back in the t it le hunt. " I' m very hap py. t he work we 've done has made the bike better, better than it was when I won last Sunday, " Biaggi said in a release from the team. " We've been trying to improve the chass is and make th e powe r de livery more linear. continui ng our wo rk on some hardware w e t est ed at Mu ge ll o last month. I feel confident about next week's race at Est oril [September 3J. but we 'll have to see how things go when we get there ." Marlboro Yamaha team manager Geoff Crust believes Biaggi is now ready for a strong end-of -season surge. fo llowing a mostly difficult 2000 campa ign . "We 've definitely taken a few steps fo rward . " said Crus t. " M ax told us he could've beaten everyone by 20 seconds last Sunday. not ju st six, if he'd race d with the latest modification s. I think it's lo o k ing good for Esto ril beca use th e base line se t-up there isn 't so di fferent from here, we shouldn't have to make too many changes . His bes t lap was n' t as fast as he manage d last weekend. but M ax di d the same time as [Ken ny] Roberts dUring the tests. running a bunch o f those t imes w ith worn tires . whi le - - - - - - - Continued on page 102

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