Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO•.. NOVEMBER 3, 1970 World 250cc Moto· cross Cham pion Joel Robert graced th e cov er of Issu e #42 after making his long· a waite d a ppearanc e in th e Tr an s ·AMA series in Delta, Ohio. Rid in g a prototype 370cc Suzuki, Robert took the victory in the Heavyweight Feature ahead of Dave Nicoll (BSA) and Jeff Smith {B SA).,. Arne Kring (Hus) too k t he win in the Inte r-Am motocross in Oklahoma. The top Arnerican was Mike Runyard (Mon), who took fourth overall, beating fellow American John DeSoto (CZ) by one position and an off-form Roger DeCoster (CZ), who had injured his leg at the previous round... At the Costa Mesa Speedway in Costa Mesa, California, Bert Harkins , Barry Briggs and Rick Woods took victories in the thr ee races of the Anglo-Arnertcan Gold Cup Speedway Series . 20 YEARS AGO.•• OCTOBER 29, 19aO Bo O 'B rochta s to od by his tru s ty steed for the cover of Issue 4/42. O'Brochta was photographed for his To p F ue l dr e q rac ing wins at three straight events . His latest triumph was at the NHRA/N MRA Winston World Finals in On ta rio , Ca lifornia... Ronnie Lechien do minate d the Mini Stock and Modified Expert classes at Barona Oaks Raceway in San Diego, California. Mike Fisher chase d him home in both classes... Mugen-mounted J ohnny 0 ' Mara took the win at the DeAnza $1500 motocross in Sunnymead, .California... Steve Morehead (H-D) raced away to victory at the final regular-seaso n flat track of the year at Ascot in Gardena , California. Other notables included Mike Hale , who finis hed third in the Novice main: J im Filice who finished third in the Junior main; and road race instructor and Cycle News test rider J eff Haney, who finished eighth in the Expert main. 10 YEARS AGO..• OCTOBER 24, 1990 America's 1990 500cc a nd 12 5cc National Champions Jeff Ward (Kaw) and Guy Cooper (Suz) were p ict ure d at speed for the cover of Issue #42 in celebretion for clinching their re spect ive o utdoor mot oc ross championships. Coo per e ntere d the fina l round of the series behind by one point to Mike Kiedrows ki and promptly fell in both motos. But Cooper's 1-2 moto finishes handed him the title over Kied rowski by one point, by virtue of Kied rowsk i's 3-1 moto finishes. In 500cc ac ti on, Ward entered the seco nd moto with a 2 1-point lead over Honda's Jeff Stanton, but Stan ton 's teammate Rick Johnson stole the glory for the overall on the day with his 2- 1 moto finishes ... Mike Faria won the U.S. Nationa l Speedway Championsh ip in a runoff over Alan Christian at Costa Mesa Speedway. Faria won the championshi p after no less than 12 years of trying... Fabrizio Pirovano (Yam) dominated the Monza round of the World Championship Superbike Series. Duca ti-mo unted Raymond Roche held a commanding 63- point lead after rou nd 10... Randy Hawkins (Suz) won round seven of the eight-event AMA National Championship Enduro Series in Louisiana. CN R a c ing is d a n g e rou s . If you race m oto cro s s , the q ues tion isn ' t whether or not yo u will get hu rt , bu t wh en . As I wr ite th is , I have a n ice pack on my left knee following a spill I took today. Some non -race rs are of the opinio n that ra cers have a death wish or an appetite for pa in. Au con tra ire, Pierre . Racers s imp ly live life to t he fullest and are willing to pay th e co nsequences that come with participating in the world 's most demanding sport. I am fond of the expression , If you want to play, then you 've go t to pay, but I'm not referring our sport's considerable financial expense . What I'm ta lking a bo ut is the issue - whic h old er racers confront mo re often tha n others - of how much pai n are we willing to endure in order to continu e rac ing . I h a ve d e al t wi th lo we r ba c k pa in s ince Fe brua ry of 1981 , when I was invo lved in an a c cid ent on a Kentu ck y highway . I tried racing in May , after the accide nt, but it was to o mu c h tr aum a t o m y al re ady stre ssed ba c k, and I retired. People a s k what possessed me to get ba c k into rac ing . The be s t answer I ca n come u p with is my 1986 m ove to the same state that has t ra cks lik e Ca rlsbad Ra c e wa y , Ascot and Mammoth. Living in O hio, I never d re ame d I wou ld get to ride on the t racks I had seen o n ABC and read about in the magazines. While getting out of the shower on a S a turda y m orn ing in Ju ly, 19 96 , as I w as p repa ring to blast down to Carlsbad, I noticed that my ba c k felt like it was o ut . I debated wh a t to do, but drove the two ho urs to the tra ck , and by the time I got there , my back was so stiff that I had to ask my good friend and racing buddy Bob Sullivan if he could carry my gear ba g from my car to hi s van - so stiff that I couldn't bend over enough to pu ll my raci ng pants up . But being an eterna l optomist, I s ui ted up (with Bob 's he lp) and hoped that practice would loosen my back up. Yea h, right. Pra ctice was uneventful , so I lined up for the first moto and went for it. After a Racing En terprises 20 -minute moto on the most histo ric track in the country, my ba c k was toast. As soon as I got to ou r p its, I made my only s mart de cis ion of the day and put the b ike o n the traile r a nd fo rgot about ra c ing t h e seco nd m o to . T h e p a in s tarted getting worse, so I headed no rth, back to ward He rmosa Beach , a nd d ro ve for a bout an ho ur before I had to p ull over to stretch my le gs. Actually, it was more a matter of sirnpl y tr ying to wa lk tha n of s tretc h ing anyt hin g . I co u ld o n ly ta k e s m all ste ps a n d was n o t movin g ve ry qu ickly . Th ree s im ila r stops la te r, I fina lly a rriv ed h om e , a nd a ft e r m y roo m m a te helped me unl oad , I showe red a nd pa rked m yself o n th e sofa for the re m a inder of the even ing . I o pened my eye s the ne xt m orning and was immediate ly nauseous from the pai n. I hadn't felt great last night, but this was hurting full-on , so I got up and drove over to Torranc e Mem or ial and hobbled into Ernergency Car e . When they saw h ow j a c k e d -u p I was , they st rongly encouraged m e to have an MRI done to d etermi ne th e c a u se of m y di s c omfort - soon. "I have spent this enjoying traction of a different sort on my inversion table." With m y sc hedule, soon turned out to be a year la t e r, with (of cou rse) mo re racing in b e t we en , a n d the lo ng -aw ai ted MRI re s ul t s s ho we d a bulging L5S 1, which is ju st below th e be lt line . Options were ch irop ractic o r an injectio n to b a s ic all y nu mb t h e ne rve to th e po int that I couldn't fee l it; I went th e ch iropractic rou te a nd got traction therapy th a t - along with an inversion table that I received as a Christmas present from my family he lped im mensely in s lowing t h e effects of the bulging disc. However, my left knee was starti ng to bother me , an d I made the decision to have it cleaned up in January of this year, and I did n' t get on my b ike for two months as a resu lt. My new joint's maiden voyage to Glen Helen was fu n - for fo ur laps , after which my b a c k s h ifted upon landing fro m a jump . It was not a good th ing. I was in denia l, but after riding for three more laps at a s lightly reduced pace, I pulled in, put my bike o n the tr ail e r , a nd we n t home t o e ndu re a nother epi sode very si mila r to the Ca rlsbad story. I was in agony for four days a nd a ctua lly d idn 't stop h urt in g for t hree weeks , and if I hadn 't sti ll bee n in possession of a few pai n pills left over from m y knee s u rge ry, I would h a ve had to m a ke return visit to the ICU. Now, ne a rly four months ha ve passed without m y riding , a s m y ba ck ha s no t fe lt up to the ta s k . I have spent th is e njo ying traction of a d iffere nt sort o n my in vers io n ta b le , and ha v e al so d o n e s o m e sw imm ing . I'm p lan ning to go for a n e va lua tio n ride to d eterm ine whether or not I c a n retu rn to ra ci ng , or if I need more time off. Of cou rse , m y progres s may be slowed by the a fo rementio ned spill that has me icing my knee. Said fall also tweaked my lower back as my right leg went flying out from under me. In addition, I hit m y left kne e as I landed on my rear e nd with my left leg bent back. Arrest ing th e fa ll taxe d t h e right wr ist th a t I ha ve s p ra ined twice in th e la st n ine month s. About the o nly thing I ca n be than kful for is t hat onl y tw o s p ec t ato rs wi t ne ss ed the tumble . Aga in, given m y c urrent sta te, a non -rid e r wou ld q ue stion m y sanity for ev en conside ring remoun ting a m a c hine tha t cou ld ca use m e s o mu ch p a in , but co nside r t he fo llowing : My m ost recent spill to ok place not at one of these gre a t tracks he re in Southern Ca liforn ia, b ut in t he gi rls' be droom of my condo , a nd th e two s pe cta to rs were my girlfriend 's da ughters Sabrina and Summer, ages th re e a nd two, respe c tively . The digger came courtesy no t of a motoc ross bike , but of Sa brina 's little red "Barb ie 's Co nve rtibl e " car, which was on the floor, rig ht whe re I hap pened to be p la cing my righ t foot as I ma de my way toward the movie rew inder . Intent on backing up th e Disney tape Annie, I was looking too far up the tra ck , and I fa iled to cons ider closer obstacles when making my line selection . Summer is n ' t talki ng mu ch ye t, but she seemed to enjoy my impromp tu performa nce . Sa b rina abs olute ly loved my falli ng and was laug hing her pretty little head off, yelling, "Get up Michael , get up Mich a e l. " I couldn 't im m e d ia t e ly oblige, as I was conducting a systems check that turned up one throbbing le ft knee a nd a strong state of s hock, as I hadn't expected to be doing a ny acrobatics at least until my plan ned test ride on Saturday. Speaki ng of which , the mis h ap actually ai ded m e in m y decis ion as to whether or not to try a co m e bac k. Ass uming my ba c k checks out oka y , I'm go ing ra c ing . It ca n 't be m o re da ngero u s th a n ba bys itt ing . eN • Daytona F-USA Road Race Finale Coming up in Cycle News • 2001 250cc MX Shootout • First Ride: Ducati 750 Sport cycle n e _ 50 • OCTOBER 2 5, 2000 107

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