Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ IN THE WIND By Pap_a_eal---L-ey W ~ Team America's Michael Barnes and Ray Yoder(Hon) teamed up to win the three-hour EBC Endurance Challenge at Road America, completing 72 laps with a winning margin of 59.759 seconds. Gold Hill Racing's Christian Gardner and LinDley Clark (Yam) finished second after an unscheduled stop late in the race. Third went to Northstar Racing's Gary Lemzmeier and John Jacob (Yam). Fastline/MCM Racing's Tommy Lynch and Jeff Heino led most of the race, but an unplanned stop to replace front· brake pads dropped them to sixth. Still, they lead the championship with 121 points. Team America remains second with 118. The GTU class win went to the Canadian trio of Bill Hornblower, Owen Weichel, and Jon Cornwell of Hornblower Racing (Hon). The team completed 69 laps to give Hornblower their first win in eight years of competing in AMA/CCS endurance racing. Second went to Moto Liberty/Nankai's Danny Walker and Doug Carmichael (Yam). Team Hansen's Stephen Hansen and Pablo Real (Yam) finished third. Moto Liberty/Nankai leads the GTU championship with 104 points. 00 ~ ~ ~ • Rodney Smith (Suz) was the overall winner at round six of the AMA ational Championship Reliability Enduro Series held in McMinnville, Oregon, June 27-28. Jan Hrehor (Suz) finished second, while Kurt Hough (Kaw), Larry Roeseler (Kaw) and three-time National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins (Suz) rounded out the top five. Class winners were Jon King (Suz) in the 125cc division; Smith in the 250cc class, National Hare & Hound Champion Danny Hamel (Kaw) in the Open class; Hrehor in the 350cc Four-Stroke class, aI.1d Curt Wilcox (Hon) in the 500cc Four-Stroke division. The event marked the final round of the qualifying segment for the August 25-30 _--!...-.- International Six .Days Enduro In Australia. Thirty-four riders will be selected to represent the U.S. at the ISDE. Steve Lamson (Suz) was the big winner at the 25th running of the 'Mammoth Mountain MX in Mammoth Lakes, California, June 25-28. Larnson scored wins in both the. 250 and 500cc Expert classes, finished second in the 125cc Expert division, and walked away with the $5000 prize for being the top overall Expert finisher. Ryan Hughes (Kaw) scored the 125cc Expert class win, while Jeremy McGrath (Hon) was the runner-up in both the 250 and 500cc Expert ranks. Casey Johnson (Kaw) earned the Mini Expert class victory, while Joe Waddington (Yam) topped the Vet Expert division. Kyle Lewis (Hus) topped the field at the third round of the Motolink Pro Four-Stroke MX Series, held in conjunction with the June 26 leg of the Mammoth Mountain MX. Todd DeHoop (Hbg) was the runner-up, and Rex Staten (ATK) finished third. Italian Giancarlo Falappa (Due) won both legs of the World Championship Superbike Series round held at the Osterreichring in Austria, June 28. Falappa beat Rob Phillis (Kaw) and Doug Polen (Due) to win the first leg, and then topped Stephane Mertens (Due) and Raymond Roche (Due) in the second race. Phillis leads Polen in the championship point standings, 178-167. Roche is third with 145 points. According to AMA National Tech Manager Merrill Vanderslice, James Leslie was disqualified from the Harley-Davidson Twin Sports final at New Hampshire International Speedway on June 21 for .illegal cylinder head modifications. Vanderslice said that when the heads were removed Green Sticker fund faces cutback alifornia's Off-Highway Vehicle Fund, the largest self-funded motorized recreation program in the country, could be left crippled by the state's budget problems, reports the AMA. , The AMA has learp.ed that the fund, popularly known as the Green Sticker program, faces a cutback of $9.7 million in funding in a fiscal year 1992/'93 budget proposal currently under consideration in the state Legislature. If passed, that proposal would slash some 40%of the program's annual budget. The proposal came out of a joint committee of the state assembly and Senate charged with finding ways to offset an anticipated $ll billion deficit in the state's budget for the next fiscal year. The budget is expected to move quickly through the approval process, since the Legislature faces a June 30 deadline to complete its work before the fiscal year begins. Although that deadline' will likely pass without a budget agreement, lawmakers are expected to make budget-related issues the highest priority in the next few weeks. The budget cutback would be the second blow to the Green Sticker program in recent months. Earlier this year, state legislators voted to borrow $15.4 million from the fund's operating reserves to help balance the budget for the state's Department of Parks and Recreation. Similar forced loans in past years have never been repaid to the fund. "These repeated attacks are particularly frustrating," noted Eric Lundquist, AMA legislative affairs specialist, "because the Green Sticker program has not contributed in any way to the state's budgetary problems. The program is funded entirely by registration fees and gasoline taxes paid by off-highway vehicle users." Legislative leaders say they are not dipping into that funding source in diverting this money from the Green Sticker program. They claim that the nearly $10 million to be taken from the fund comes as a result of a "surplus gas tax windfall" created by a 5-cent increase in fuel taxes to keep pace with road construction costs. "The legislation that created this fund calls for all money generated from gasoline sales for off-highway vehicles to go into a trust fund for motorized recreation," said Lundquist. "The budget proposal erodes the basis of that trust fund." California motorcyclists are urged to contact their legislators in the final days before this budget plan is passed, asking them to restore the money to the Green Sticker program. "Obviously," said Lundquist, "the state of California faces very serious budget problems. But this successful program actually helps the state's economy by creating tourism opportunities. It should not be sacrificed to feed money into programs that have helped drag the state into its current deficit." C 2 _ Cnville wins, man~ hurt in Dutch GP C ampsa Honda's Alex Criville made history at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, Holland, on June 27, becoming the first Spaniard to ever win a 500cc GP. The meeting was marred, though, by the injuries suffered to many of the top riders during both qualifying and the GP itself. The race began without championship leader Michael Doohan and his Rothmans Honda. The Australian crashed during qualifying and broke his lower right leg, putting him out of action until at least. the July 19 French round at MagnyCours. But his championship rivals failed to take advantage of his misfortune. Defending World Champion Wayne Rainey flew home to California on Friday, June 26, his injured hand still too painful to race; and Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz crashed with Cagiva's Eddie Lawson while disputing the lead early in the GP. While Lawson escaped uninjured, Schwantz suffered a broken left arm and a dislocated hip. "The break was by my wrist and it's been plated. It should be okay in 10 days to two weeks," said Schwantz in a phone call to the Dutch hospital where he was operated on. "Dr. Costas says the hip will be the biggest problem. I'll be going to his house in Italy this week to have him examine me and to see how long I'll be off." Doug Chandler, Schwantz's teammate who lies fourth in the championship point standings, also failed to finish after crashing out of the race uninjured on lap two. With the top four riders in the series point standings failing to score points, the race had little bearing on the title chase. Instead it was three young upstarts battling to the finish with Criville topping Marlboro Yamaha's John Kocinski by.762-of-a-second, with Cagiva's Alex Barros only another 10th of a second behind. Ducados Yamaha's Juan Garriga and Budweiser Yamaha's Randy Mamola rounded out the top five finishers. Miguel DuHamel on the Banco-backed Yamaha finished sixth, a career best for the French Canadian. Doohan leads the championship over Schwantz, 130-77, with Rainey holding down third with 65 points. Chandler is fourth with 57, ahead of Kocinski's 51 and Criville's 49. Italian Pier-Francesco Chili gave Aprilia its second straight win in the 250cc GP as he topped Rothmans Honda's Luca Cadalora and Aprilia's Loris Reggiani. Cadalora, though, still holds a large lead in the championship over Reggiani, 135-82. The 125cc GP was won by Semprucci Honda's Ezio Gianola over Marlboro Honda's Fausto Gresini and Aprilia's Alessandro Gramigni. The Swiss pairing of Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg won the Sidecar GP, beating British World Champion Steve Webster and Gavin Simmons. from Leslie's Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster, the AMA found "obvious cutter marks on the cylinder head gasket surfaces." The surfaces had been cut .00l5-of-an-inch. Leslie did not appeal the decision. When Freddie Spencer and his broken Honda RC30 stopped on the backside of Road America's four-mile road course during qualifying for the AMA Superbike National on June 26, the three-time World Champion ended up climbing a mountain before finally getting a ride back to the pits with a famil y in a van. "I've been calling them the Brady Bunch," Spencer said. "The kids were screaming in the van and the wife was yelling at the dad to hurry up so I could get back." He got back in time for more practice, but unfortunately the RC30 didn't show up until the end of the session. Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell says it's likely that the team will have a test session at Seattle International Raceway sometime prior to the next round of the AMA Superbike National Championship on August 1-2 at Mid• Ohio. "It's been a long, hard year," said Russell, who leads the championship, after finishing second at Road America on June 28. "It's been a struggle from the time we unload the bikes to the time we load 'em." DAK Racing (Suz) completed 212 laps of the two-mile Grattan Raceway in Grattan, Michigan, on June 27 to win the WERA Vanson/PM National Endurance Series round. Virginia Breeze Racing (Yam) finished second, two laps behind DAK, with R.A. Racing (Suz) finishing third. Defending champions Team Suzuki Endurance (Suz) suffered a broken crankshaft halfway through the sixhour race and did not finish. The Swedish round of the World Championship Superbike Series, which Mis to have taken place at Anderstorp on September 27, has been canceled. In making the announcement, the FIM gave no reason for the cancellation. A new toll-free 800 number is now available for callers inquiring about the fund-raising Ride for Kids events. The number is 800/673-7220. The Honda-sponsored rides are being staged in states coast-to-coast over eight months of 1992. Participants raise money for research into pediatric brain tumors, the nation's leading killer of children by disease. At Black Hawk Farms Raceway, an AMA/CCS Midwest Region meet will take place on Silturday and Sunday, July 25-26. On Saturday evenin!?, the 6th Annual Wegman Benefit Auction will be conducted. The auction raises money for road racers who have been seriously injured in racing accidents. The fourth round of the 1992 Motorcycle Asphalt Racing Series (MARS) will take place at Southside , Speedway in Richmond, Virginia, on I Wednesday, July 15, with the running I of the $8000 Virginia State Championship Short Track. Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing getting underway at 8 p.m. Richmond's own Rusty I Rogers, the defending MARS Cham- ' pion, will compete, and yes, the Hooters girls will be there. Former National MX Champion Jimmy Weinert will be handling the announcing chores at a new racing facility, Lembo Lake Park, in Modena, New York. With the cooperation of a local apple farmer, Ray Malley has built a stadium-style MX I

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