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/128640
00_ ~U) ' O[b{BEJ ....-:-l ... .. . ' O'\ Xl. .....LL..J.. c D. Off ! o Continued from page 3 will host a four- st rok e-onl y mo t oc ro ss sc hoo l at Glen Helen on December 10. The class w ill be limited to 20 riders, with the sess ion cos ti ng $100 per rider. The cost includes the schoo l. an air filter and catalog fr om Whi t e Br ot her s and lunch. For more in for ma tio n . ca ll Mo ore a t 909 /943-29BO. info rm ati on, v is it wvvw.rpmra cing .org . O O O o o o Gordon J ennings, 69 . died on Satu rday. Novemb er 11 in Paso Robles. Californ ia. afte r a bout wit h cancer. Jennings w as the long-tim e technical writer for the now defun ct Cycle magazine. ~o M Xers fo r Jesus , a.k.a Kev in Cozadd Mini st ries . Inc .. w ill be o n hand at th e Florida Winter O lympics th is yea r. S ervice ti mes w ill be annou nced during the week . For mo re in forma tion, call 256 /53B-16B6. o o o o Ducat i Revs Americ a will be held in Las Vegas , Nevada, October 26-28 - the 2001 versio n of the World Ducati Weekends that have been held in M isano, Italy, for the past two years . For more information, see your local Ducati deale r. 8 o ,........ I :=::, at Progressive S usp e nsio n will spons or Edge Promotions Speedway Serie s at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino , Cali fornia, on November 11, 18 and 25. In addition, the November 1B race w ill be ..Progressive Suspen sion Night" wi th Progressive Suspension on hand to give out a nu mber o f good ie s inc ludi ng T·shirts , tire-repair kits and a comp lete set of motorcycle suspension to a fan. A s of M onday. Novem ber 6, the Sout h Centra l W E R A a ffi l ia te was purcha sed by Al an Blair o f MIC Technical Services. Blair has been a regional track announcer for a number of years and is a former road racer. Ret ained w ithin RPM is new president, Tom Shields. The new aff ili at e i s nam ed Racing Performan ce Motor cyclists. Inc. . Aft er one yea r as " Roadracing Performance M ot or cyclist s " as a 501(c)(3) co rpo ra tion, the new RPM will be a for-profit corpo ration opening the door to new financial opportun ities and suppo rt. For more o o o o o o webs ite The FIM has announced th e fina l 200 1 calen dar for t he Indoor T r ia l World C hampionsh ip. The schedule is as follows: January 6 - She ffield. England; January 1 - D ubai, Unit ed Arab Emit rate s; January 13 - Kob lenz, Ge rmany; January 2 1 - Torino, Italy ; Janu ary 27 - Gen eva, S w it ze rl an d ; Febru ary 4 - Barc elon a, Sp ain ; February 10 - li sb o a, Po rtu qal : February 16 - Wi en, Austria; February 17 - Paris. France; M arch 3 - Bremen, Germany; M arch 17 - Madrid, Spain. O o t he The 2001 Tecate H are Scrambles , sch edu led f o r Janu a ry 2 1, 20 0 1, in . • Norton, Part II Last week, we hinted at CCM assisting Norton back into the marketpl ace. This week we've got more details to share, After the debacle of the AI Melling -designed VB Nemesis, and the effect ive collapse of the U.S.-based NMI company owning the rights to the Norton name in the USA and Great Britain. the ongoing saga of the once mighty Norton marque is about to t ake a slightly more optimistic upswing, with the revelation that its form er German importer J oe Seifert. who holds th e ri ght s to the Norton name throughout m ost of West ern Euro p e, is on th e verge o f forging a deal with Britain's second-largest motorcycle manufacturer to put the John Keogh-designed Norton Combat sports single (unveiled at Intermot 2000) into product ion. That co mpa ny is Blackburn- base d of f- ro ad specialist CCM, a part-owner in which is Carl Fogarty's wife MiChaela (the recently retired World Superbike legend's family home is around the comer from the CCM factory , and with Ducati no longer pro ducing off-road bikes, Foggy does it in the dirt aboard a CCM,· or did so before suffering the shoulder injury that brought his competition career to a close). CCM current ly builds around 1000 specialist enduro, MX and Superrnotard sing les eac h yea r, powered by the neo -vintage air - Tecate, Baja Californ ia. Mexico, will now incl ude the Acerbi s Pro Challenge . For more information. call Jerry De Berry at 619 / 2B1-1400 or J im Tripp at 760 /63 22576 . Ge ne Rome ro Promo tio ns h as released its 2001 W est Coast Flat Track Series schedule, which has been expanded beyond the nine date s t hat were held in 2000 . The current schedule includes 11 concrete date s. w ith one TBA. and a new twi st in the fo rm of a season-opening TT at Kings Speedway in Hanford, California, on M arch 3 1. " W e 're stil l putting so me thing s together. but I'm really excited that we are able to announce our schedule so early " Ro mero said. " We have a great netw ork of venues now ; several of them re -bo o ke d sho ws as far back as f iv e mont hs ago . It is gratifying to see t hat they' re approac hing us about being part of the series now . instead of the other way around . " Rom ero also anno unced t hat Ame r ican Suzuki has signed on to be come the class sponsor for the 250cc Novice division that was int roduced during the 200 0 season . The class allows riders to com pete aboard minimally modified motocro ss and off-road mot orcycle s. the intent being to bridge a gap betw een motorcycle manufact urers and th e spo rt of dirt t rack racin g. Suzuki has rece ntly received conside rab le ex pos ure for its involvement in the sport , with TL-powere d 1000 cc prod uction-based SuperTracker s cooled SOHC Rotax four-stroke motor for which it is the Austr ian firm's largest existing customer , and under man aging director Peter Swift has built up a healthy clientele in export markets like the USA and Australia, as well as, of course, in the UK. But Rotax also builds the quite different four-valve engine that has equipp ed t he BMW F650 since its birth - the very same motor that powers the Norton Combat, under an agreement Seifert has ju st reconfirmed with BMW management, for supplies of the liquid -cooled DOHC engine Rotax builds excl u siv ely for the Germa n manufact urer. This does not , however, encompass the fuel-injected Series Two version Iltted to the new F650GS launched earlier this year, but the older carburetted type it replaced, which has effectively the same bottom end and fiv e- speed gearbox , but a different cyli nder- head design. BMW still has sufficient stocks of this to supply Norton/ CCM with enough engines for a producti on run well into four figures, states Seifert - but the problem is in actually manufacturing the Combat. · We've had so much inte rest in th e bike after Intermot that I recog nize it must be volume-pr oduced, rather than hand-bu ilt in limited numbers li ke the earlier classic-styled International: he says. ·CCM has the capacity to handle this, with the added benefit that the bikes would be built in Britain, as I think any Norton should be." However, the terms of Seifert's control of the Norton name won't permit the Combat to be sold there badged as a Norton - in which case it's reasonable to conject (but Seifert refuses to confirm) that it would carry the CCM logo on the tank when in the UK home market and the USA, where the Briti sh off- road manufacturer is already well establishe d, with the dominating that class at the AMA National level, w hile Joe Kop p rode a Suzuki to a Formula USA National victory and multiple podium fini shes in the W ren che ad.com N ati o nal D irt Track S eries . The 200 1 We st C oast Flat Track Serie s is as fo llows: M arch 3 1 - Kings Speedw ay, Hanford, Cal iforni a; Ap ril 21 - Bakersfi eld Spe edway. Bakersf ield. California; M ay 19 - Kings Speedw ay, Hanford. California; June 9 - Paso Robles Fairgrounds , Paso Robles, California; J une 30 - Perris A uto S pe edw ay . Perri s , Califo rnia ; July 7 W atsonville Speedway, Wa tsonville, Californ ia; J uly 2B - Silver Dollar Speedway , Chico , Califomia: Aug ust 11 - Placerville Speedway, Placerville. Ca lifo rnia: A ugust 25 - TBA; September B - Ve ntura Raceway , Ve ntura, Ca lifornl a: Septem ber 21 Fast Fridays Speedw ay A uburn , California; September 29 - K ings Speedw ay . Hanford, Calif ornia . Acc lai m M ax S p o rt s . a div is ion of Acclaim Entert ainment . has released it s F re e s t s t y l e Motoc ross: McGrath vs . Pastra na for the Sony PlayStation . The game was developed by Z -Axis, the dev el op er of t he po pu lar D av e M ir ra Freestyle BM X video game . " I am really pumped that my first video game will be i n stores s oon ." P a s t r ana said i n a relea se from Acclaim. " I know freesty le fans w ill enjoy pull in g o ff so me o f the same stunts I used to win t his year's X eN Games. " option that customers can alw ay s 'Nortonize' it later on. There's no chance that the BMW engine will find its way into CCM's dual-purpose range, though - the. German company wouldn't take kindly to sharing its benchmark single-cylinder engine design with even a m uch -sm all er specialist rival's products. Just the thing for Mrs.Fogarty to tak e for a Sunday morning spin alongside hubby's Ducati S4 Monster.... ~ 1. 6% To cas t your vote. log on to http://www.cyclenews.com . 18 .8 % 13.3 % 5_8 % cyclenews.com reader poll question of the week If you had a vote for Cycle News would you vote for'?- - - - - - - - - - - .... u o o 80 C:. Joe Kopp A. Ricky Carmichael D. Jeremy McGrath G. Kenny Roberts r, NOVEMBER 2 2 , 2000 ' cue . f ravi s Pastrana- - - -I. Shane Watts I e n e vv s 5.1% 5.0% ~ .8 % 0.7%