Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ IN THE WIND By Papa Wealey ~ will be at HOllda Northwest in Hilliard, Ohio, on Saturday, September 12, from II a.m. to I p.m. The Team Honda rider will sign autographs and conduct a question and answer session about off-road riding/racing on fourstroke motorcycles. For more info, call at 614/771-0771. in Brazil, the fastest part of the course. The injury forced Cardus to withdraw from the season-ending South African Grand Prix on September 6. The incident occurred during Friday morning's untimed practice session and Cardus filed a protest afterward, but to no avail. - Thanks to' incorrect information passed on to us from a WERA spokesperson, we incorrectly reported that road racer Christian Gardne·r escaped without injury from his crash at the Indianapolis Raceway Park round of the WERA Pro Series. Gardner, in fact, suffered two broken vertebra and two broken ribs in the incident. "The doctor in Indy said I'd be out three months, but I think Dr. (David) Kieffer will probably cut that in half," Gardner said in a recent phone conversation. ''I'm in a body cast now, and I've started to walk around a little bit. It was a weird deal. I hit the wall just right and I hit with a lot of force. I knew I'd screwed up." The Gold Hill Racing rider says he'll be at the final round of the AMA National Championship Road Race Series at Texas World Speedway on October 10. ''I'll be there, one way or another." The IRTA test, scheduled for the Thursday before official practice was to begin for the recent Brazilian GP, had to be canceled when the fuel failed to arrive at the track. The 20,000 liters had arrived by boat two weeks earlier, but an agent for Elf had never claimed it from the dock. It wasn't until Paul Gibson, who handles all the shipping for the World Championship Road Race Series, went down to retrieve it that practice was able to commence. The only team exempt from the fuel shortage was Cagiva who had fuel of their own from a local subsidiary. The Yamaha OWOl that Kevin Magee rode to two second place finishes in the Japanese round of the World Championship Superbike Series on August 30, was a little different than the one ridden in the entire series by Fabrizio Pirovano. Magee's Yamaha featured a different clutch, different swingarm and airbox. There we;e also rumors of it having a different crank, pistons, and altered wheelbase and a narrower fairing. Magee had a scary moment during qualifying when he slid out of the seat mid-turn: "I slipped off going into the first chicane," the Australian said. "I managed to hook my foot on it (the seat) as I fell off the other side and stayed on - just. But it was about as close to crashing without actually crashing. " Two-time 250cc World Champion Luca Cadalora has told Italian journalists that he's 90% sure that he'll be riding for the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha team in 1993 on a YZR500. Cadalora had earlier said that he had a contract with the Unlimited Jeans factory Aprilia team as Loris Reggiani's teammate, but the contract had an out clause in the event that he found a 500 ride. Should Cadalora move to the Roberts team, it would free up John Kocinski who hasn't had the best rapport with the team this year. One possible scenario has Kocinski moving to a Chesterfield-sponsored 500cc team, run under the Roberts umbrella and another has him going to Lucky Strike on the 500cc ride vacated by Doug Chandler. Kocinski, originally tipped to move back to the 250cc class on a factory Yamaha, told reporters following his win in the South African GP that he wants to stay on a 500. Wayne Rainey made no secret of the fact that he thought Doug Chandler would be a good choice for a teammate on the Marlboro Roberts squad, but Chandler's signing with Cagiva ends that possibility.. .2 The end of a miserable season came early for Sp~niard Carlos ~du~, the Repsol Honda rider re-breakIng hIS left collarbone after a close encounter with Frederic Protat on the front straightaway of the Interlagos circuit Sidecars were eliminated from the final two rounds of the World Championship in Brazil and South Africa when the money to pay the teams never materialized. The FIM, IRT A, and TWP1D0rna each put up 200,000 at the beginning of the season for sidecars allowing $75,000 for each of the eight races, even though the FIM rulebook states that $95,000 should be allotted. Hollywood, the sponsor of Rolf Biland's team, had agreed to fund the expenses for Brazil, but the guarantee wasn't available until after Donington and it became too late to arrange shipping. Instead, they'll race as part of the World Superbike round at Assen in Holland on September 13, with the possibility of another race later in the month. Team manager Rolf Steinhausen,.a two-time World Champion, said: "We can go to Assen for a .piece of bread or peanuts, but not to Brazil." If you are looking for places to ride and people to ride with in the north Georgia area, an organizational meeting is going to be held S~tember 24 at the Honda Rider Education Center in Alpharetta, Georgia, to form an off-road vehicle (ORV) club, which will also be represented at a land-use workshop, ovember 2-4, in Dahlonega, Georgia. The workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Motorcycle Industry Council, BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, is intended to teach forest managers how to layout and manage challenging ORV areas and rehabilitiate the Whissenhunt ORV riding area, located just 10 minutes west of Dahlonega. For more information, contact the Honda Rider Education Center at 404/442-2407. Lee Moselle, the executive director of SCRAMP (Spons Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula) for the past 13 years and a man well known by everyone involved with racing at Laguna Seca, died on September 2 after a brief illness. Moselle, 78, is survived by a son and daughter, Robert and Linda, and two gJandchildren. A memorial service was held for Moselle on Sunday, September -6, and the family is asking that donations be made to the donor's charity of choice in Moselle's name. Larry Schwarzbach, the Team Vance & Hines road racer who suffered fatal injuries at Mid-Ohio on August 2, will be remembered with a memorial scholarship fund at the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. The fund, established by Yamaha Raine~ wins his third straight title arlboro Roberts Yamaha's Wayne Rainey (right) parlayed his third l?la~e finis~ in ~he South African Grand Pnx Into hIS thud straight -500cc World Championship on September 6 in Kyalami. The Californian ended up topping season-long point leader Mich~el Doohan, sixth in South Africa, by four pomts after 13 rounds of the World Championship Road Race Series, 140-136. The race-was won by Rainey's teammate John Kocinski. The young Californian beat Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardnef by 2.935 seconds, in w~at was the Australian's final GP after earher announcing his retirement. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Doug Chandler finished fourth with his teamm~ite Kevin Schwantz rounding out the top fIve . finishers. French Canadian Miguel DuHamel finished ninth on the Banco "Xamaha; Budweiser Yamaha's Randy Mamola crashed out of the race on the openIng lap; and Cagiva's Eddie Lawson pulled out with mechan~cal p~oblems on lap 13. Doohan, in his second race back after badly breakIng hIS leg at the Dutch GP in June, bravely rode to a sixth place finish,. but i~ wasn't en~)Ugh .to prev~nt Rainey from taking the title. For Rainey, the thud straIght champIOnshIp matched the mark set by team owner and mentor Kenny Roberts, who won three straight .. . 500cc titles in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Rainey ended up taking the title from Doohan.. ~40-13.6. ~y wmnmg tJ:1e hn~l GP, Kocinski was able to move past Schwantz to hmsh thud In th~ chaml?lOns~lp point standings with 102 points. Schwantz ende~ the season WIth 99, Just ~ve points clear of his teammate Chandler, as Amencans took four of the top hve positions in the World Championship. The 250cc GP saw young sensation Massamiliano Biaggi take his first GP ,,:ictory. Biaggi, in his last ride aboard the factory Aprilia before ma.king the sWItch. t? Rothmans Honda, topped fellow Italians Loris Reggiani and Pler-Fr~n~esco~hlh. Rothmans Honda's two-time 250cc World Champion Luca Cadalora hmshed SIXth. Cadalora ended up winning the title by 44 points over Reggi3:ni, ~03-159. Third place went to Chili with 119, ahead of Helmut. Brad~'s 89 and ~lag~l's 78. The 125cc World Championship was- deCIded .l~ Kyalaml, WIth A~e~sandro Gramigni taking the title with his third place f~msh ~board ~~e, Apnha. ~he race itself was won by Honda-mounted Jorge MartInez WIth Apnha s Carlos Guo finishing second. Fausto Gresini's championship hopes were dashed by a seventh place finish. Gramigni topped Gresini, 134-118, in the title chase, with Ralf Waldmann finishing third with 112 points. M will provide one scholarship per year to the YamaPro elective program. Donations will be accepted in any amount and matched by Yamaha Motor Corporation USA. "We feel this scholarship will be a great tribute to Larry because of his love and dedication to motorcycles and road racing," said Jim Gentz, senior vice president of Yamaha's Motorsports Group. Students interested in applying for the scholarship should call MMI's Leah Motsinger at 800/528-7995. Recipients will be selected by Yamaha. The first scholarship will be awarded in January of 1993. Contributions may be made by check payable to the Larry Schwarzbach Fund and mailed to: The Larry Schwarzbach Memorial Fund, c/ o Yamaha Motor Corp., 6555 Katella Ave., Cypress, CA 90630, Atm: Robin Main. Jim O'Neal, president of O'Neal USA, is recovering from injuries suffered in the opening round of the 1992 CMC TransCaI MX Series at southern California's Glen Helen OHV Park on Sunday, September 6. O'Neal suffered broken ribs and internal injuries in a crash while competing in the Vet Masters class. Jim Ryan, the former Cycle News advertising salesman who is now the publisher of Petersen Publishing Company's Sport Truck magazine, found a unique way to spend his summer vacation. Col. Ryan, as Papa calls him, just returned from Israel where he attended a two-week HALO (high altitude/low opening - as in parachute jumping) school conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces. Ryan made 21 jumps, from as low as 1200 feet up to 14,000 feet, and he was the school's ~onor graduate. CORRECTION: In a recent Wind item regarding injured dirt tracker W.ill Davis, we listed an incorrect address to send cards and letters to. The correct address for Mother Fletcher's Nightclub is P.O. Box 3499, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578. BORN: Kaley Nichole Davis, daughter of Yamaha-Kawasaki-Polaris of Covina owners Karl and Kim Davis, on August 20 in Covina, California. RESIGNED: Bob Bitzer, from his position as distributor and export sales manager of O'Neal USA to join TecColor Craft of Covina, California. Bitzer can be reached at 818/339-9061. HIRED: Rex Staten and Ron Westlake, as customer reps for Paul Thede's Race Tech. Staten and Westlake will be concentrating their efforts on the introduction of new Race Tech products and dealing directly with riders. PROMOTED: Dave Westfall, from telemarketing representative and product development specialist for O'Neal USA, to race team/race promotions director. Westfall's new duties will include management of O'Neal's national and regional rider sponsorships, as well as providing promotional support for racing organizations and events nationwide. APPOINTED: Brian L. Fleck, by Dunlop to the position of motorcycle market analyst. Fleck will be responsible for motorcycle dealer development and' key market research, and he will conduct dealer seminars. He was previously it field service coordinator, and has been with Dunlop since July, 1987.

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