Cycle News

Cycle News 1992 Issue 10 Mar 18

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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~ INTHEWIND By Papa Wealey . ~ T he Fri day ni ght, March 6, Daytona 600cc National Championship Short Track was rained out. Dennis Hawthorne (Kaw) a nd Jason Edwards (Kaw) scored the 125 and 250cc Expert class wins, respectively, at the Grand Na tion alCham pio ns hip (G NC) Internat ion al MX Final at Lake Wh itney Cycle Ran ch in La ke Whitney , Texas, March 6-8. In the 125cc class, Edwards to ppe d the cha rts followed by Terry Tinney (Hon) and Hawthorne, an d in the 250cc d ivi si on it was H a wthorn e scoring the win ahea d of Edwa rds and Ray Crumb (Kaw). The top Interm ediate riders were Robbie Reynard (Kaw), who scored wins in five classes, incl uding the 125 and 250cc Open classes , an d Craig Decker (Kaw). T he to p Mini (80cc) class riders were Ricky Carmichael (Kaw), Kevin Windham (Kaw), ��R ob bie Skaggs and Jacob Martin (Suz). Steve Childress (Suz) swep t the 125 and .250m Pro classes at the March 8 openi ng ro und of the AMA Sou theas tern R egion al MX Champio ns h i p MegaSeries at Muddy Creek Raceway in Blountvill e, T ennessee. Jim Chester (Suz) fi n ished second in bot h classes, whi le Damien Plotts (Hon) was th ird in the 125cc Pro class and Billy Cox (Yam) third in the 250cc di vision. Mo tocrosser Mike Brown broke a toe and pu lled mu scles and tendons in hi s ankle wh en he cras hed while leading a n AMA 125cc Ea st ern R egi onal Ch am pi on shi p heat race at the March 7 Da ytona Supercross . T he Peak Anti freeze/ Pro Circuit Honda rider drove 10 hours from Flor ida to Blountville, Tennessee, in order to com pe te in the AMA Sou theas tern Region al MX Ch ampionship opener at Muddy Creek the next day, but with d rew from the event after the first pract ice sessio n. " It didn' t hurt that bad ," said Brown, " bu t I didn 't wa n t to inj ure it any ' mor e." Brown expects to be back in action a t th e March 14 Charlo tte Supercross. New York- ba sed Ghost Motorcycles had th ree bikes stolen o n Friday, March 7, from the Dayton a Intern ati on al S peedway ga rage area. T hieves bro ke into ,Gh ost 's truck, d rove it away from the speed way and then unload ed a 1992 Ducati 900SS, a '92 Du cati 851 an d a '9 1 Ducati Raymond Roche mod el. Pol ice found the emp ty truc k two miles from the speedway . G host is offeri ng a $10,000 reward for th e return of the mo torcycles. They can be reach ed a t 5 16/883 5300. ' A ' fund-ra isin g breakfast in Daytona Beach on Sa turday morning, March 7, raised $12,300 for th e Motorcycle Heritage Museum. Another $1600 was raised at an auctio n of vintage memorabilia. Hank Scott gave us a call rega rding our rating of the top 10 dirt trackers (Rating the slide rs, March 4 issue). In th at article, we said that Scott was Steve Morehead 's eng ine builder, and Morehead said he was down o n hor sepower on the mile ova ls last year. " I built two mo tors for Steve last winter, bu t F&S maintained them all last season," said Scot t. "Steve sa id he was down on hor sep ower, but I know as a Iact that the engi nes I bu ilt were pumping o ut mor e horsepower th an anyo ne else's. He went to new fram es last year and I think th e bikes wo uldn't turn left." Sco tt is still working on moving from Oh io to the Cha rlo tte, North Carolina, area to wor k in the stock car raci ng field. " I came close, very close. to inking a dea l with a top team , bu t we were a han dful of doll ars apart." T wo-ti me World Cha mp ion Wayne Rainey arrived at Daytona Intern atio na l Speed way on Sa turday to watch hi s Otsuka Electronics-backed team of Kenny Robert s, Jr. and Ri ch Oliver do battl e in th e Interna tional Li gh tweig ht lOOk. As reported elsewhere in this sectio n, Rainey is' recovering fro m the injuries he su ffered earlie r in the week whi le testing at the Catalu nya circui t in Spa in. In addi tio n to the ear lie r rep orted broken foot an d am puta ted left little finger - whi ch was removed a t the seco nd knuckl e, Rain ey su ffered a broken bone in his left ha n d. R ain ey sa id th e cras h occurred in a th ird- gear chicane, and he was high-sided from the Yamaha YZR500 after ru nn ing off the race track. " T he leg (wh ich Rain ey broke during a testin g cra sh last Octob er ) isn 't reall y stro ng enoug h a nd I couldn' t pus h hard eno ugh on the peg Rainey Jnjured in S~~ain wo-time World Champio n Wayne Rain ey, on th e comeback trai l after h e sustai ned serio us leg in juries at the end of last year's Worl d Cha mpionsh ip Road Race Series. cras hed aga in in ~pr i va te team tests in Spai n on Monday, March 2. Rain ey inj ur ed hi s left hand - the tip of his littl e fin ger was amputa ted, and also brok e a sma ll bon e in ' hi s rig h t foot. But the Tea m Marl boro Roberts rider was able to wa lk, and vowed the injury wo uld be no setback for the sta rt of the '92 Grand Pri x roa d race seaso n o n Mar ch 29 in Japan . T he crash happen ed at th e new Ca talunya circui t near Barcelona, the ven ue of the GP of Europe o n May 3 1. Rainey ha d alrea dy been engi ne testin g o n the first of a pl anned two-d ay test, but he fell on hi s th ird lap on a differently set up bik e. . " I gu ess I didn 't gi ve th e tires eno ug h tim e to warm up ," he said. " It shows I'm still learning." Rainey flew straig ht back to the U.S., leavin g teammate J ohn Kocinski to cont inue the second day of testin g alo ne. Rainey was alrea dy facin g questions concern ing hi s fitn ess for his second titl e defen se, after th e serio us rig ht leg and knee injuries he susta ined last Sep tember in private tests in Malaysi a proved slower to heal than he had hoped. But in spite of difficulty at earl ier test sessio ns, Rain ey set the fastest lap tim e at the officia l IRTA tests at J erez th e weekend befor e, with a new un offi cial lap record at the Spanish circu it. T 2 _ .Fieldhear toconsiderd tbills ing eser he Sena te Subcommittee on Publ ic La nds, Na tio na l Parks and For ests has schedu led a field hearing to consi der .Sen . Alan Crans ton 's Sena te Bill 21, the controversial Ca lifornia Desert Pro tection Act, along with ot her legislation concerning the man agement of publ ic land in the desert . T he hearin g will take place on April "4 at the Palm Desert H igh Schoo l gymnasium, 43-570 Ph ylli s J ackson Lan e, Pal m Desert , Ca lifo rn ia, from 8:30 a.rn. to 6:00 p.m. In addition 10 {he Cra ns ton bill, the pan el will also be consi dering Rep . Mel Levine's (D-CA) House Resolution 2929, wh ich recen tly passed the U .S. Hous e of Representat ives. Both measures, wh ich are opposed by the AMA, MIC and o ther multipl e use advoca tes, wo uld lock o u t all mo tor veh icles, includin g motorcycles, fro m some 7 million acres of th e desert - an area larger tha n the ent ire sta te o f Massach usett s. A number of wi tnesses repr esentin g a cross-section of views and organizations will be in vited to testify during the heari ng . In additio n, time will be set aside fo r o thers to mak e bri ef.one-minute stateme n ts. T he not ice of th e upcoming hearing made reference on ly to S2l and HR2929. H owever, considerab le testimon y is likely to come from suppo rters of HR3066, introduced by Rep . Je rry Lewis and supported by th e Bush Ad ministra tio n and th e Bureau of La nd Man agement. T he Lewis bill would designa te only 2.3 million acres as wild ern ess, consis tent with the current BLM desert man agement plan. T hose wishi ng to make a sta temen t at th e hearing or submi t a wri tten comment . shou ld cont act Mark Sha ffer or Co lleen Ada mso n at Sen. J ohn Seymo ur's Sacra mento office, 916/557-2733, or Karen Finney at Sen. Ala n Cra ns ton's office, 9 16/2 15-2186, by March 20. T to ge t it tu rn ed ," .the Californian exp lained. Most of Rainey's inj uries occurred whe n he slam med into an unprotected concrete wa ll. Desp ite th e injuries, Rainey will take part in th e opening round of th e World Ch am pionship Road Ra ce Series in Suzuka, J apan o n March 29. "No p robl em ," Rainey said. " I' ll just do my best and see if we can run up fron t wit h 'em. " ��� Fo ur-ti me Dayton a Supercross By Honda winner Jeff Stanton dedicated hi s victory o n Sa tur day, March 7. to hi s eig h t-year-old brother Jason. T he younger Stanton was celebrating his birthday. " All he wante d for his birthday was a Dayton a win and I was able to gi ve it to him ," Stanton said. Pat Murphy was wear in g a different hat than usual a t th e Dayt on a Supercross. Murphy, wh o handles marketing and public relati on s for the AMA/ CCS races, was drumming up in terest for th e Hawaiian International Supercross o n June 27 in Aloh a Stadi um in Honolulu. Form er rnot ocrosse r John DeSoto, now a city counci lma n in Hon olulu. is part of the Mo torSpo r ts H a wa i i prom ot ion s group that 's promoting the event, no w in its fourth year. Murph y is looking to sign up riders and will al so be seeki ng a corpora te spo nsor for the race. Bob Hannah, wh ose record of three Dayton a Supercross win s was broken by J eff Stanton, was sang uine abou t losin g the record. " At least it' s not .costing me any mo ney, " Hannah sa id. ��� Defendin g Dayton a 200 cham p io n Miguel DuHamel was in Dayton a , but on ly as a spectator. The Fren chCanadian secured a 5()Occ G P ride with Sonauto Yamah a during the off-season and has been t esting in Spain for the up coming G rand Pr ix season -ope ner March 27 at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan . . AMA President Ed Youngblood sai d at Daytona thattheAMA had no pl ans to appl y for another World Superbike da te. " We basically have tak en th e position with th em th at we don't intend to app ly for a future da y until th ey tr eat a ll h o st o rga n iza tio ns eq ua lly. It 's not a European export th at they can turn in for a price. Until somethi ng cha nges, we're going to focu s o n o u r Nati onal program." Youngbl ood said ' that the problem arose after th e sched ule was set a t the fall FIM meeting in Christchurch. New Zealand. " After the calendar was se tt led in Chris tch urch, th e CCR (Road Race) bu reau decided that travel cos ts - pr eviou sly han dled by the Flammini Group (the WSB promoters) would be handled by the organizers. We figured it wo uld cost Brainerd $ 100,000. They said it wasn 't feasibl e." Ed Youngblood also addressed the issue of Gra nd Prix roa d racing in America. " Basicall y, I don 't kn ow how serious n egotiations were betw een Bernie Ecclestone a n d Lee Moselle. Ecclestone said he wanted $ 1 million for a clean circu it and $1.5 mill io n to leave the sig nage up. We were never serio us ly involved in the negoti ati on. I spoke with Moselle aft er Christchurch and there were a coup le of issues. T here was the pri ce, and they wanted to give him a date later in the year. Lee sai d th at was th e dealbreak er. H e wants a sp ring dat e. Kenny Roberts has been quoted in th e press as saying there are other organ izati ons interested in a Grand Prix. Frankly, I do n 't kno w ano ther circuit ow ner serio us ly int erested in th e deal." Not only did AMA Super bike Nati onal Champion Thomas Stevens crash during the first T win 50 on Frid ay, March 6, at Dayton a International Speedway, but he a lso go t chase d by a goose after p icking him self up from the melee. " It chase d me," Stevens said. " I was running for my life, running as fast as I could run and it was right on me. It was th e Killer Goo se From Hell." Jimmy Adamo, the 'ru nner-up in the Daytona Su p erT wi ns rac e, hasn't decided if he'll conte st the class for the ent ire seaso n . The AMA' s decision to prohibit Twins rid ers from using the same bike for Superbike and SuperTwins impacted hi s decision. " I didn't want to build two bikes. When they changed the rules 1 decided to go to Superbike because it 's the more difficu lt class. If 1can win it o ne more time , 1 would." ' Ge orge T okoro, one of the biggest television stars in J apan, fulfilled a lifelong dream by bringing a team to Daytona. Bridgestone Tires test er Katsuyashi Kozono was the rider

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