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/146690
eEVENT DayofCham~_ions _ ~ World Champion Wayne Rainey (third from left), Randy Mamola and Kenny Roberts (far right) pose with Riders for Health officials and Save The Children supporters during Day of Champions activities at Donington Park in England. Randy Mamola on a Harley? Yep, the GP racer rode American iron at Donington. Brit fund raiser By Bruce Scholten Photos by Martha Young-Schohen DONINGTON PARK, ENGLAND, ocr. 24ยท25 hat's better than a three ring circus? A three race course motorcycle extravaganza at Donington Park, that's what. That at least was the opinion of about 10,000 motorcyclists who paid a modest (by current Grand Prix standards) $13 to watch celebrity Harley-Davidson and GP bike parades and Anglo-French match races on the 1.96-mile main circuit, while "Moped Mayhem" reigned on the blocked-off Melbourne Loop, and Mini-Motos zipped around a paddock course during the 3rd Annual Day of Champions. If that sounds like a mouthful, we haven't even mentioned the trials match between a French team led by Bertrand Quartier and the United Kingdom team led by Steve Saunders, the beer tent, rock bands and - yes - marching bands. Every circus needs a ringmaster; at W Donington the first among equals was Randy Mamola, who began donating 20% of his race 'winnings to Save the Children in 1986. To boost that support, he and a few fast friends raised .$60,000 at the first Day of Champions at Brands Hatch in 1990. Last year the event moved to Donington and raised $91,000 for Save the Children Fund's project in Africa called Riders for Health. Mamola is grateful to all involved: "Donington Park helped - they were gonna charge $8500, but they gave us the gate last year. Hopefully it'll be bigger this year, because along with Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, Kenny Roberts and Kenny Jr., Niall Mackenzie and a lot of others are involved." Not that the weather gods cooperated. They picked this weekend to relieve the drought besetting the beautiful race park beside Castle Donington, not far south of Sl)erwood Forest. Autograph sessions and auctions in the exhibition hall helped folks dry out. And it gave them a chance to rub elbows with the stars in a relaxed, end-of-season atmosphere. Andrea Coleman, another prime organizer said, "Our great attempt is to draw together the community of motorcyclists from different countries - from road bikes to GPs - and show the general public: This is what motorcyclists are really like. And the accent is on fun." Fun with a purpose. Barry Coleman (known for the road race annual, Motocourse, and efforts to improve race track safety) explained how Riders for Heal th gets beyond do-gooderism. It's an important effort that might be impossible without real bikers behind it. The program was born after a 1988 trip to Somalia, where, said Coleman, he and Randy Mamola saw why the United Nations and health agencies repeatedly "tried to make motorcycles wOTk in Africa - but then decided they were useless." Why were the agencies' generous gifts doomed? Because they sent the wrong bikes (like Honda VF500 Interceptors and mopeds) for harsh terrain - arid then didn't train people to maintain them. About a year ago the Colemans, Mamola, Schwanu and friends started a program in Lesotho (a beautiful, rugged mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa), which is already seen as a model for projects in Botswana, Gambia, Malawi and Namibia. First of all, says fleet advisor Mike Gatton, they got the right bikes - "Agricultural-spec KLV 175cc Kawasakis designed for Australian sheep farmers." Gatton adds that Riders for Health is "working out much better than expected, .due to a team effort." Development workers from other African projects refuse to believe how well. Nevertheless, the Lesotho project has kept 27 bikes operational, without a serious breakdown. Key to it all is project leader Mohale Moshoeshoe. Moshoeshoe says their remarkable maintenance record is due to "sheer determination and hard work" in the 14 health service areas of Lesotho, where he and Gatton teach others to ride and maintain the Kawasakis. " 'Why do you have Motorcycles Save Lives on your T-shirt?' people ask. Then I explain wh.y it's true," grins Moshoeshoe. The bikes reach villages inaccessible to jeeps costing 10 times as much. Sam Theko, -an officer with the Lesotho ministry of health, says women are a big part of the program, "Nine out of 27 health riders are women, and so are a <;ouple of the five riding instructors. The low seat height of the Kawasakis helps riding in terrain suitable for a trials competition. But Theko says it's more important that "the women have no preconceived idea of failure. You tell them how to do it and they do it." Mahali Hlasa, one of the women who helps immunize children and improve sanitation, hit a huge boulder riding to one village, but carries on. "She nearly broke her foot," says Schwanu, now rustling up donations of boots, helmets, and other gear for Riders for Health. Before today, Moshoeshoe and Theko had never seen road racing much less in the rain. For them and everyone else it was fascinating to watch Kenny Roberts Sr. and Jr. and others in the Grand Prix parade. Afterward, Ron Haslam said he "quite enjoyed" the GP laps and compared his rotary Norton to the day's event, saying they were "well put together." In the Harley-Davidson "parade," Robin Kendall "beat" Ron Haslam after Randy Mamola pulled off. New York City's Nancy Delgado took eighth, ahead of Bernie Thornton from H-D's UK ad agency who says, "Harley racing has been a huge success - I'd say it's the best thing to' happen to British club racing." In Anglo-French match racing, the hosts outscored their guests about twoto-one. Jeremy McWilliams won the 750cc race on a Ducati; Kevin Mitchell beat McWilliams (both Yamaha) in 250cc; Michael Rutter won the Pro Twins race on a Ducati; Hondamounted Neil Hodgson bested FMSmounted Gerard Piegue in 125cc. Finally, and notwithstanding their fastest lap (1:25.33), the Dixon/Hetherington Padgett 500 sidecar team followed the winning Fowler/Whiteside Yamaha rig to the checkered flag. Of course, some folks thought t1)e real action was Moped Mayhem - 120 teams of 50cc bikes in six hours of slow motion madness, set off by a Le Mans start. If moped racing' doesn't save lives, it might save road racing for those on low budgets - and a few GP stars were impressed at what they saw. Organizer Cliff Moore says "The moped races have never had a serious injury." And that proved true again at this meet, featuring a jump for those bikes capable of enough speed. Team Sheep Squeezers' Stephen Cundall was undismayed when (this reporter and) the team retired at the three-hour point. "It's just a laugh," said Cundall, as teammate Austin Tomilty extricated bits of broken ring. Final results were not yet tabulated, but Team Peterborough Kawasaki, Team Snot, and Team Sennapod were front-runners. . Whatever your pleasure - even celebrity truck or car racing - the Day of Champions had it. (Kenny Jr. said his dad had offered no tips on cars, just, "Dad said I could drive because he didn't want to.") But the event was sweeter, knowing that motorcycles would save lives in far away places. Sam Theko summed it up: "Working on the project, and now seeing people here, puts the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together." m