Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BW []DJd] o o o Ya maha 's Jean De letang , Fabien Foret and Mark Willis combi ned to tum 80 1 laps of the M agny Cours circui t in France on S eptember 17 to w in the 2000 Bol d'Or 24-h o u r en du ra nce race . Another Yamaha team finished second w ith the squad con sisting of Bert rand S e b i ll e a u . Ig o r J e r man an d L udov ic Ho lon . The Ho n d a t e am o f W i lli am Costes, Sebastien Ch arpentier and Karl Mu ggeridge finished third on an RCS1. 7l@[j{J@DDIJ \!ll/J[fi)[;S [JJ@[;SfJ@[?@[;S[;Sg !1iJ@@[?@fJlJu o o o o '[ftl®GD[j{J1Ju Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli , fresh off his victory in the 250cc ,c1ass at the Motocross des Nations, won the Fastcross International, held in Italy on September 17. To rtelli led hom e fellow Honda rid er s Mike LaRocco and Ryan Hughes. J eremy McGrath, meanwhile, made his return to racing after a four-m onth layoff and finished fourth, just ahead of New Zealand's Josh Coppins. While Tortelli was in awesome form, it was also the results of World 125cc Motocross Champion Grant Langston that caught th e attention of the 30 ,OOO-some spectat ors. Langston led home McGrath in the semi-fi nal, then backed that up by beating the Supercross legend again in a Dash for Cash race. Langston eventually crashed out of the Final after holding a mid-field position. For Tortelli it was a great win in very humid condit ions. " It' s great to win here: To rtelli said. "This place is very im port ant in European motocross history. Many good riders have won here; I'm very happy with this result ." As for McGrath, he wasn't too worried about missing out on the podium . "I knew coming in that I would be off the pace: McGrath said. "It doesn't m atter; I'll be ready in a few weeks, when the World Supercross Championships begin. I know none of these guy can race with me when I'm fit." Vesrah Racing (Suz) won the W ERA Nat ional Endurance 24 Hours at Will ow Springs Racew ay in Rosamond. California, on September 17 after a tight , 23hour-lo ng ba ttle with Attack Racing (Ya m) . The le ad ch anged a number of times with the margin of the ove rall lead never exceeding more than six laps, with the two leading bikes ofte n on the same lap in t he hourly po st ing s . W ith bare ly ov er an hour to go in the race, and the A ttac k t eam havinq momenta rily pulling back into the lead, Attack Racing parked the ir Yamaha Rl for go od due to overheat ing. W it h approximately 40 minute s remaining in the race , Vesrah Racing had t he event wo n on t hei r S uzu ki G SX R7S0 , fi nis hing th e 24 -hour ev ent w it h 884 laps , j ust two short of the all-time reco rd . C lass Wi nners incl ud e Ves rah Racing (Heavyweight Superbike): EBSCO Suzuki (Heavyweight Superstock): Team M ission Yamaha (M ed iumweig ht Superbike ): moto-heave n.co m (Mediumweight Supersto c k): Half-A- Bus a (Lig htweight Superblke). 8 o 8 o o o Cl ub hill to take th e S40cc class w in in the AMA National Hillclirnb C hampionship round in M idd lebury on S eptem ber 17. Phil Libhart ITri) finished seco nd with Alan Hoskins (Hon) taking third place. Bobby Templeton ( H -D) w on t he 800cc clas s, topping Glen Petty Jr. (H-D) , who broke his leg after crashing at the to p of the hill. Phil Libhart (BSA) ended up third. o Keith Johnson ( KTM) w o n the 10th round of the AMA We st ern Four-Stroke Series in Lakew ood, Co lo rado , on Septe mber 17 . J ohn son po sted a 3-2 mo to tally to cap ture the overall. Craig Deck er (Ya m) f inis hed se cond wit h Do ug Dubach (Yam) taking thi rd. David Watson (Hon) finally conqu ered t he Go shen Iron Ho rsemen M ot or cycle O 8rB{f)(fJ /JrJD r5!ltJrJD[;J o W D@D 0 o O O O O O D D D D @@0 [JD@(lD [fiJ0 @ Led by Montesa-mounted Marc Colomer, Team Spain walked off with the gold at the Trials des Nations held in Seva, Spain, Novemb er 10. Colom er and teammates Alb ert Cabestany (Beta), Marc Freixe (Gas Gas) and Marcel Justribo (Montesa) dropped a total of 44 points, finishing 2 1 points ahead of the next -best team from Japan. Only thr ee points behind J apan trailed the defending champs from Great Britain, Italy finished fourth , followed by Finland, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Belgium and Germany. The top individual rider was Great Brita in's DOu,gie Lampk in (Montesa) who accumu, lated j ust nine points, three points better than Colomer, Spain's top rider. In the Intemationai Trophy , Team USA pull ed off a close win over The Netherlands. Geoff Aaron (Gas Gas), Jess Kempkes (Gas Gas), Raymond Peters (Sherco) and Cory Pincock (Gas Gas) finished out the trial ju st three points ahead of the Dutch team, 26-29. Third place went to Australia, followed by Ireland, Norway, Andorra , SWitzerland, Austria, Poland and Canada. Not only did Team USA win the International class, but Aaron was the top rider, finishing one point ahead of The Netherlands' Peter Van der Sluls, 7-8. Spain also won the FlM Ladies Cup division, finishing ju st one point ahead of France, 43-44 . Germany took third with 56 points, while t he U.S. squad pulled up the rear in 10th place. Laia Sanz (Gas Gas) topped the Individual Ladies FIM Cup, while Debbie Evans-Leavitt (Gas Gas) was USA' s top rider in 15th place. Americans Kerrie Brokaw (Mont esa), Pam deBruin (Montesa) and Laura Bussing (Gas Gas) finished 23rd through 25th place. respectively, 80 (!J[ll)[JXB . oo-[?I - D o o D o o 2 SEPTEMBER 27. 2000' cue I e n e vv s Noriyuki Haga cou ld po s s ib ly be aboa rd a factory Ducati 9 96 in t he 200 1 W orld Superb ike C hampionship, according to sources in Europe. Tho se so urces say tha t the J apanese rider is the first choice for the Ita lian constructor in t he current "ride r marke t ." Negotiations are moving forward, with many of the details al rea dy .in p lac e, re ports Cycle News cont ribut or Paolo Gozzi. A lt hough Haga w ill like ly not race on the off icial Info stra da Ducat i tea m, he wo uld instea d get his ow n team - allowinq him to use Dunlop t ires . Repo rt s in d ic at e th at Hag a w ill bri ng h is c ur re nt t eam, manag ed by Davide Brivio , and he will race as a satellite squad - bu t w it h a v ery" o ffi c ial st ruct ure. The budget wi ll come from a tobacco co mpany , and reportedl y t hat co mpany is Marlboro. Reportedly , Haga has been o ffered $2 mill ion t o d o t he D ucat i d eal. If Hag a goe s t o Du ca t i , so urces say that Yamaha w ill not field a factory W o rld Superbike tea m in 2001 , b ut wi ll inst e ad g ive fa ctory b ike s t o sate llite tea ms, such as Belgarda (Italy) o r A lphat echnic (Germa ny) . Bel garda, meanwhile, w ou ld like t o have t he services o f Ant hony G o b e rt ne x t ye ar. Nobody at Du cat i w ill co nfirm the Haga negotiat ion s , howeve r.• Haga is a t op rid er , we as k to hav e a to p ri d er f o r 200 1, for sure we w ill talk with him," said C laudi o D omenic ali , th e D ucat i Corse top manager . " But at the moment I cannot confi rm noth ing, apart from the fact the Ducati have four or five top riders on our 2001 pref erred list. " The Ducati factory tea m is st ill waiting for Carl FogartY to figure out if he will race aga in or no t . Tro y Bay liss . meanw hile , has already signed on the dotted line for next year. If Noriyuki Haga ends up getting his own team that wo uld allow Ducati - - - to field two mo re riders. If Fogarty elec ts to retire the y w ill repo rt edly go w ith a young gun to replace him. The man at the t op of t hat li st is 2 2- ye ar-o ld Ruben Xaus, w ho is cu rrent iy racing a factory Ducat i in W orld Supersport . According to Ben Bostrom 's manager, Fred Bramblett , Bostrom has received an offer fro m D ucat i for next year' s W orld S uperbike Ch am p ion sh ip. Sp eaking at t he Honda de aler sh ow in Las V egas, Nevada, Bramblett said he'd rece ived the offer fro m D uc at i t he d ay be fore . A lthough he had litt le to offer in the way of deta ils. he did hint that Bo st rom - if he agrees to the deal - w ill likely be in a team se para t e f r o m the factory s q u ad . Bo strom started this season on the fact ory D ucat i C o rse squa d , b ut w a s late r switched over to t he NC R team: Ni ne-time A MA Grand Nat ional Champion Scott Parker has electe d to co me out and play one last time in 20 00 . The fa ctory Harley-Davidson rid er has been co nfi rmed as an entry for the K&N Filters Del Mar Mile , the final round of the Formula USA W renc head. com Nat ional Dirt Trac k Series. Parker has won the event five of t he six years that it has been held. The S ept ember 23 round o f the AMA National Hare & Hound Series has be en moved fro m Jackpot, Nevada, to Well s , N evad a, 70 mile s south of t he original sta rt site. The dat e of t he W ellsto-We ndover race ( fo r merl y J ac kpot ) rema ins t he sam e. The ev en t in W ells marks the ret um of the popular W ells-toW e nd o v er (W 2W ) lOS-m ile, po in t -to poin t race . A s fa r as t he Jac kp ot race: "W e plan on hosting a Nati onal Hare and Ho un d t here [Jackpotl in 200 1, · says W ild Ro c kie s di rec t o r Ron D il lon . For - -

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