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/487891
IN THE WIND P46 REGAL STANDS OUT AT AUSTIN ARENACROSS T he AMSOIL Arenacross, fea- turing Ricky Carmichael's Road to Supercross visited Aus- tin's Frank Erwin Center, March 28, where Husqvarna TiLUBE TUF Racing's Kyle Regal came away with the hard-fought win. And with the victory, Regal moves back into the points lead in the Race to the Championship. In the two feature races, Regal went 1-3, edging out Jacob Hayes who went 3-2. Bobby Kiniry was third overall with a 2-4 tally. Kawasaki rider Chris Blose won the second moto, but had no chance of winning the overall after crashing out of contention with another rider in the first race. Blose also won the Head 2 Head Challenge over Regal and Hayes. Two rounds into the six-round "play-off" portion of the Aren- across series, Regal now leads Blose by just four points. Hayes is right there, just two points be- hind Blose, and Kiniry is fourth, one point behind Hayes. Rounding out the top five is Matt Goerke who is three points behind Kiniry. Georke went 6-11 in Austin. Motosport.com/Haeseker Rac- ing KTM rider Daniel Blair won the Western Regional Arenacross Li- tes main event. He had a relatively easy time of it, extending his lead in the championship. Dave Ginolfi and Scott Zont rounded out the top three, respectively. After six of 10 rounds, Blair holds a comfortable 35-point lead over Cody VanBuskirk. Kyle Regal came away with a hard- fought win at the Austin Arenacross. WALT FAULK, TUNER FOR CAL RAYBORN, DIES AT 76 W alter "Walt" Faulk, the chief technician, tuner and owner of the Harley-Davidson XR750TT that Cal Rayborn famously rode to victories in the 1972 Transatlantic Match Races, died on Sunday, March 22, 2015. Faulk was laid to rest on March 27 at Prairie Home Cem- etery in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was 76. Faulk worked as a mechanic for a Harley-Davidson dealer- ship in Daytona Beach, Florida, for years and was contracted to work with the Motor Company's racing team each March during Bike Week. That eventually led to him being hired by Harley's racing department. In 1972 Rayborn was invited to represent the U.S. in the Transatlantic Match Races, but Harley-Davidson declined to support the effort. Rayborn decided to accept the invitation anyway and enlisted the help of Faulk to let him use his outdated iron-barreled XR750TT and went along with Rayborn to England to serve as his mechanic. By 1972 Harley's road racing machines were considered un- competitive, especially the iron- barrel version, which had the propensity to overheat. Faulk figured rightly that the cooler British weather would keep that from happening and he was the man who tuned the XR750TT that enabled Rayborn to pull off shocking wins on circuits he'd never ridden before. Those victories proved seminal and opened the eyes of the Europeans to the talent of American road racers. Faulk later encouraged Harley-Davidson's racing chief Dick O'Brien to give a young mechanic he supervised named Bill Werner a chance to become a racetrack mechanic. Werner went on to become the all-time leading mechanic in AMA Grand National history and he points to Faulk's influence as a major reason for his success. Larry Lawrence