Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 5, 2014 P23 in moto one relegated him to second overall for the day. A 3-2 gave French rider Dylan Ferrandis, on the CLS Kawa- saki Monster Energy KX250F, third overall. Husqvarna's Romain Febvre (4-4) and Honda Gariboldi's Tim Gajser (8-6) completed the top five overall. Jeffrey Herlings, who is side- lined with a broken leg, still leads the MX2 championship point standings over Tixier, 594- 537. In the MXGP class, Cairoli holds a commanding lead over Jeremy Van Horebeek (eighth at Lommel) and could clinch the title at the next round. continued on next page Briefly... Daytona Date Set Daytona International Speedway has announced that the 74th Day- tona 200 will be held on Saturday, March 14 of 2015 and, as reported earlier, will feature a return to Su- perbikes instead of the Daytona SportBike class that has made up the 200 since 2005. The season- opening race will feature 69 laps on the 2.91-mile short course and not 57 laps of the 3.51-mile long course, according to Daytona. Red Bull And Honda Red Bull has long been a part of HRC's racing sponsorship with Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden first wearing the company's logo on their helmets in 2006. Next year the Red Bull presence in the team will be larger with the logo set to be on the Repsol Honda RC213Vs for the first time as Red Bull becomes the official energy drink partner of the team through the end of 2016. "We are delighted to have the opportu- nity to grow our partnership with Red Bull," said Shuhei Nakamoto, HRC's executive vice president. "It is an iconic global brand with whom we've worked alongside for nine years, so this was the logical next step. I'm sure that this new partner- ship will increase our visibility, not only as Honda, but also MotoGP on a whole to a wider global audi- ence, which can only be good for the sport." Helmet Laws A new recommendation for univer- sal motorcycle helmet laws by a task force of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based on faulty reasoning, accord- ing to the AMA. The Community Preventive Services Task Force rec- ommendation is based on studies of U.S. states and foreign countries that require all riders to wear hel- mets, those that require only minors to wear helmets and those that have no helmet requirement, according to the AMA. The CDC task force produced no study of its own and cited no detailed analysis of crashes and fatalities to adequately assess the role of helmet laws in preventing serious injury or death in crashes. Instead, task force members merely looked at other studies and drew a generalized conclusion, the AMA says. The AMA has long advocated the voluntary use of helmets, but opposes mandates because hel- mets do nothing to reduce the likeli- hood of a crash. Not So Happy Jack Federal authorities in Arizona are warning off-highway-vehicle riders to be wary of booby-trapped trails in the Coconino National Forest near Happy Jack. Recently, trail rid- ers reported the tires of their ATVs and off-highway motorcycles were punctured by rebar spikes that were sharpened and partially buried in trails heavily used by responsible enthusiasts and their families. To date, no injuries have been report- ed. But the sabotage endangers riders, hikers and even animals, ac- cording to the release. Learn From Blake Blake Wharton will hold a moto- cross school at Blue Diamond MX in New Castle, Delaware, on August 7. For more information, visit blake- whartonmxschool.com. CRUTCHLOW TO LCR HONDA D espite telling Ducatisti and the world two weeks ago that he would be staying on the factory Ducati MotoGP team for the duration of his two-year con- tract, everything changed for Cal Crutchlow last week. Now the Brit will indeed leave the Italian team to take over Stefan Bradl's spot on the factory spec RC213V for the LCR team in 2015. "Ducati Corse announced today that it has reached an agreement with its factory rider Cal Crutchlow to terminate, ahead of time, the contract that ties the British rider to the Ital- ian team in MotoGP for the next

• Cover