Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By Th e annual Dirt Digger's Classic was held in Hopetawn. Californ ia , and unidentified sidehack competitors were pho- tographed for the cov er of Issue #44 . Sidehacks were plentiful at the eve nt . Pr es to n Petty (Mai) took the Intermediate Pro-Am victory ... The team of Mike Patrick- and Phil Bowers took the motorcycle victory in the Mexican 1000, although they finished behind seven cars in eighth overall. Finishing second of the motorcycles was the team of Malcolm Smith and Whitey Mart ino.. . Tr ans -AMA Motocross races were held in Dallas, Texas, and Team Suzuki's Joel Robert took another seemingly easy victory over Ole Pett ersson, who was also Suzuki -mounted. The top American was Brad Lackey, who took seventh on his CZ... Don Erode showed up with his Yamahas at Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, Califomia, to win the 250 and 350cc classes. Ron Pierce took his Kawasaki to the victory in the 500cc class, while Pat Evans took the victory in the 200cc class. 20 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 12, 19 aO Team Honda motoSteve In The Ta es ze 30 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 17, 1970 crosser SCOTT ROUSSEAU Wis e graced the cover of Issue #44 after winning the second annual Superb ikers event at Carlsbad Raceway. Second place went to 500cc Motocross World Champion Andre Ma l herbe (Hon), while Eddie Lawson (Kaw), representing the road racers, finished third. Randy Goss raced a Harley XR750 twin in the event and. giving up a lot of weight and handling, finished as the top dirt tracker in eighth place while, due mostly to lack of preparation, none of the Speedway racers made the finaL. We tested the Husqvama 420 Automatic Enduro, which was reported to be quite an enduro machine, with plenty of torque and no fear of killing the engine in tight trails . It was a four-speed motorcycle, with four centrifugal clutches ... Ronnie Lechlen won the Mini Expert and 100cc Intermediate classes at the CRC San Diego Amateur Supercross, held the Sunday after the first-ever -San Diego Supercross... Local motocrosser Rick Johnson (Yam) won the 250cc Pro class at Saddleback Cycle Park in Orange, Califomia. Ron Tumer (Suz) won the 500 cc Pro class, while Micky Dymond placed third on the open machines. 10 YEARS AGO.•. NOVEMBER 7, 1990 When we reviewed the 1990 motocross and Supercross seasons for Issue #44, Jeff Matiasevich (Kaw) took the cover due, in part, to his surprising performance in th e Supercross series. He led the vast majority of the ser ies. even though the only win he recorded was at the Las Vegas event. He eventually succumbed to the Hondasof champion Jeff Stanton and Jean-Michel Bayle to finish third in the series. The 125cc Westem Regional Supercross Series was won by Ty Davis with seven points to spare over Jeremy McGrath, while the East Series was won by Denny Stephenson over veteran Mike Jones. Stanton also took the 250cc National Championship, while Jeff Ward beat him to the crown in the SOOcc class. Guy Cooper collected his first National Champion ship by on e poi nt ov er Mike KIedrowski... Englishtown, New Jersey, played host to the Kawasaki Race of Champions, and the Kawasaki-mounted duo of Matiasevich and John Dowd took the 500- and 250cc-c1ass championships, respectively. Ron Tichenor kept the Kawasaki s honest by winning the 125cc class on his Suzuki... Randy Hawkins wrapped up his third consecutive AMA National Enduro Championship in Califomia. CN I think th at m ost people will ag ree with m e that the 2000 edition of the di rt track scene will likely go down as one of the m ost interesti ng in yea rs. Th ere was a lot of stuff to see in Y2K . The emergenc e of a second national sanctioning body in F ormul a U SA dou bled the amo unt of national races and the amount of money tha t was up for gr abs for di rt track's elite, a gang w ho could ba sic a ll y sta r in a m oto rcycl e version of The Road Warrior. Uke any othe r, the season also had its low points . Th ere were rainouts , crashes that side lined riders for m uch or all of the season ; t he Ste ve Beatti e Sp r ing fi el d (A M A) an d T ro y Rose/R o b M ill er (FUSA ) cras hes imm e d i a t el y come to mind . Th er e was th e usu al amo unt of co ntro ve rsy with regard to rul es, equip m ent and tr ac k safety . Away fro m the Fo rm ula USA Nationals and AMA Grand Nationals, the absolute bottom came with the death of prom ising up -and-comer Dusty Fau lds at an outla w event in Iow a. Yet , de sp ite all of this, profession al dirt tra ck racing roared through a pr etty t u r b u le nt seaso n to pr od u c e w ha t I beli ev e to be a series of hig hli ghts that m ad e the 2000 seaso n one of t he most m emor abl e ever. Here, in no particular or de r, is my tak e on some of th e good stuff that we go t to see: 12. S FX goes dirt track raci ng . SFX offered a 50 ,000 series poi nts fund and a b unch of races t hat pa id 0 ,000 to the winner. Th e money was nic e, but SF X's real com petitive advantag e was in its atte mpts to gi ve the sport a fresh face throug h renova tions in q ualifying procedure , th e racing program and cla ss st ruc tu res. Th e bad stuff? T rac k prep , track prep , tr ack prep... But compet ition bre eds exce llence , and if noth ing else, SFX and the AMA were com peti ti ve . 11. Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Ser ies No nation al series , no big -bu cks payoff at th e end of th e year , but th e fo rme r Grand Nati on al Champ i on' s min or l eagu e se r i es pull ed o ff som e m aj or league accom plis hm ents in its third yea r of existe nce - eno ugh so th at both of the bi gg er seri es k ept a cl os e eye on what Romer o w as doin g . Bu o yed by a titl e sp on sorsh ip f ro m i n t ern et c omp an y e- moola .co rn , th e nine-ra ce seri es raced in California and Arizon a, offe red decent purses to its pro s, was a big pl ayer in vintage raci ng , and offered firs t-timers a pai nfully easy way to start rac ing via his 250 c c Novice class, whic h fo llow ed reva m ped DTX -styl e ru les. Prompt pr o grams ru n o n perfectly groomed surfaces , it was the best "good 01' Sat urday night rac in g " in the country, bar none. 10 . Hacker takes Charlotte A ft er almost six ye ars worth of chasing, m y good b uddy Hack finally scored his fir st Grand National wi n. It was good to see not so much beca use he finall y won a race , bu t beca use he earned it. W ith hi s cus hy deal o n th e Mor on ey ' s squad a fad ing m emory , Hack er hooked up w ith J ohnny Goad on the Sadd lem en Racing T eam on go t down to bu sin ess, st st tr ain ing his ass off and focusing like he never had before . T here is no qu est ion in m y m ind that Hac k er will be on to p of th e box aga in soon . And more often . 9 . Chris Carr goe s F -USA It might see m like a low li g ht f ro m certain p erspectives, b ut t he fact t hat th e reigning AMA Ch ampion elected to stand up and take a cha nce on the Fo rmula USA Series, believing that it repr esented a shot for the futu re of di rt track raci ng , m akes him worthy o f honor in my book . Ca rr figured that he h ad an o uts ide chance to bag both titles, wh ich might have been a bit o pt imist ic , but he ultima te ly won t he i na ug u ra l Wr en c head .c om Nati ona l Ch amp ion sh ip and co llected the $50,000 th at we nt with it . He also became one of Formula USA's bi ggest c rit ic s, publicly c hast is ing th e o rga niza tion for the obv io us ly abysm al tr ack pr ep t hat was found at the m aj or ity of th e tra cks on the sched ule . 8 . AMA tunes up W ith the looming threat of the SF X ve n t ure into na t ional - leve l d i rt tra ck raci ng , the sport's trad it ion al san c tio ning body quickly beg an fi ndi ng w ays to kick its ve nerabie Grand N at ion a l pro gram up a notch . It signed a deal wit h Pr o gres siv e In suran c e , g ua ra nteei ng both a $ 100,000 series po ints fun d and some much -needed te lev ision da tes . But the AMA's bes t move came when it hired Steve Morehea d to ove rsee t he tra ck prep at eac h roun d. T h e 2 0 0 0 series boaste d the best t rack s that AMA rac ing had seen in ye ars, allowing t he ride rs to pro v i d e the t yp e of close fo ug ht racing for wh ich the spo rt is best known . St ill , M or eh ead wasn ' t perf ect. He n ev er did q u ite f ig u re o ut h ow t o pr ep ar e a surface that wa s under water. 7. Sc ot t Par k er wins Sp rin gf ield Th e fa ct tha t the n in e -t im e AMA c ha m p ba si c a lly got o ff th e co uc h t o co me to Springfield and troun c e th e rest of 'em for win number 94 m er ely added ano ther cha pter to his lege nd . And ho w he go t that win , snookerin g Kopp , Kin g and D av is by running pr acticall y again st th e inside armco do wn th e front st raig htaway, m ak es fo r a gr eat footnot e. 6 . Nic ky Hayden wi ns Spring f ield N o , it wasn ' t a w in on th e greates t mile in the spo rt, bu t Hayden 's Sp ring fie ld Sh o rt T rac k win w as ar gua bly a highlight of th e great est race of the year. The Kentu ck y whiz kid proved him self as a true superstar once agai n by taking on one of t he be st sho rt- tracke rs in t he game, Will Dav is, mano a mano. Hayden gra bbed the lead late in the race, lost it , and th en showed a lot of heart by fig hting h is wa y back to th e fron t. It was a spe c t acu la r d is play b y tw o g reat warriors, with yo uthful ex uberance winn in g o ut over age and experience this tim e, and Hayden taking a crucial step in his march toward a poss ible Gra nd Slam. 5 . Will Davis w ins Sp ringfield It was a lon g t ime c oming , but W ill Davis fin ally showe d that he had what it took to win a mile Grand Nation al, and he wai ted for the richest race of the year Coming up in Cycle News to do it. That coveted fi rst m ile vic tory came at the Sp rin g fi e ld Hall of Fa me G r and Nati o n a l , wh i c h actually paid natio nal poi nts for the first ti me as part of th e big tripleheader week end where Hayden and Park er got thei r wi ns as well. 4. The return of Kevin Atherton The po pular ve teran's return to racing for the first ti me in m o re th an a yea r rep resented a victory on multi pl e levels. For A therton, it was a victo ry ove r the near crippli ng inj uries su stain ed in th e cras h that cost the sport one of its sta rs on th e rise in Dav ey Camlin . For the dirt-track c ommu nit y , Ath e rt on's re t u rn als o m arked a t rium ph for th e sp irit, provid ing a br ight sp ot on th e horiz on of that tragic Sunday in Jul y . It taught us a ll that time c an heal wound s. Of co urse, the horrifying nature of Atherton 's get-off in th e Hall of Fam e m ain threate ned to cas t an oth er sha do w . But , e v e r the sho w m a n , A t he rto n mad e the crowd eru pt wh en he direct ed the ambulance to st op o n th e f ro nt st r ai g h t a w ay a n d , almost defiantl y , hopped out in full vi ew of the m ain grandstand . It was damned near the coolest th ing I'v e ever seen. 3 . Jay S pri ng st een wins Sp ring fi eld He had ne ver wo n it. He said tha t he wanted to win it. He wo n it . He is dirttrack ra c ing's e q u iva l en t t o Go d t he Father almigh ty . Enoug h said. 2 . Formula U SA Pro Singles It may have been the best " new th ing" to appear in di rt track racing since th e d em i se of th e Junio r clas s . SFX ' s approach to increasing brand particip ation while leveling the playing field with its 400cc- 670 c c form ula p aid o ff big , produ c ing bl an k et -c over d ash es with m ultipl e winne rs among we ll - res pected nat ion al na m es and stars of the fu ture on se ve ral di ffer ent brands. Without it , we may have never heard of Kenny Noyes who won th e titl e on a Husaberg - Bryan Smith or Jenn ifer Snyder. 1. K opp d om inates w it hou t dom inating. I th ink that anyone wh o sugg ests that th e rain out in Du Qu o in m eant that the tit le was j ust handed over to Kopp is seil ing both hi m and th e gre at season that the AMA had far , far sho rt. He ma y have only eamed one victory, but his str ing of podium finishes in th e second half of the seas on was nothi ng sho rt o f amazing. B esides th at , he ba c k ed it u p w ith a re pe at ti tl e in the Su p erTrapp SuperTracker Series and an AMA National Hot Shoe c ro wn . On the Formula USA side, he gave the Suzuk i T LI 000 it s fi rst big win against the mighty Harley XRs. Kopp m ay not have exhibited the "in yo ur face " type of performances that former cham pions Parker, Carr and the late Ricky Gra ham did in thei r crown que sts , but look at his recor d and it is hard to deny that he was everyw here in 2000. I look fo rward to our upcom ing intervi ew for Cycle News issue #50 so that we can give Kop p his due. He showed a lot of heart this season . Co me to t hin k o f it , m ayb e fo r th e fi rst t im e in a lot of yea rs, so d id the spo rt of d irt track racin g . eN • Bere, Supereross • We ride Mickael Pichon's Works Corona Suzuki RM250 • Riding Impression: 2001 Yamaha rz426F eye I e n e vv s N OVEM BER 8 , 2000 75

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