VOL. 50 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 5, 2013
23
Briefly...
Mousse Again
At Le Touquet
Several hundred thousand
fans braved cold temperatures and strong winds on
the French coast of Le
Touquet to watch Jean
Claude Mousse win the
beach race for a second
year in a row and for the
fourth time in his career.
The Yamaha YZF450mounted
Frenchman
topped Milko Potisek and
Adrien Van Beveran in a
Yamaha sweep of the top
three spots.
Lane-Splitting Help
The California Highway
Patrol has recently issued a lane-splitting guide
and plans to start a public
awareness campaign to
educate riders and drivers
about the long-accepted
practice. The guide can
be viewed at: http://www.
chp.ca.gov/programs/
lanesplitguide.html.
Helping Johnson
Valley
Riders trying to save California's Johnson Valley
off-highway vehicle area
from a military base expansion have reached
the
25,000-signature
threshold set by the White
House to require its formal
response to a petition, according to the AMA. The
petition asks the White
House to deny any request by the military to
annex land from the Johnson Valley OHV area for
base expansion. The title
of the petition specifically
requests the White House
to: "Save the Johnson
Valley OHV Area. Be fiscally responsible. Stop
29 Palms Marine base
expansion. Keep public
lands open." The petition
drive will continue until
the February 14 deadline,
despite already reaching
the required amount of
signatures. The full petition is at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
petition/save-johnsonvalley -ohv -area-befiscally -responsiblestop-29-palms-marinebase-expansion-keeppublic/5r0C7Xw4
Solis To M4
Young road racer Benny
Solis has inked a deal to
ride a Team M4 Honda
CBR600RR in the 2013
AMA Daytona SportBike
Series. Solis, who won
the 2008 Red Bull Rookies Cup Championship
with five wins in the ninerace series, competed for
the first time in the Daytona SportBike class last
year. He ended the year
with three top-10 finishes
en route to finishing 15th
in the series point standings. "I'm really excited
and motivated about this
coming season," said the
18-year-old Solis in a team
release. "Being back on a
Honda CBR600RR and
signing with Team Hammer gives me a lot of confidence because I already
know the bike and I have
a great team behind me.
This is a big opportunity
for me and I'm really looking forward to having a lot
of fun racing the M4 Honda in 2013."
DeCoster And KTM
Roger DeCoster had a
contract with KTM that
would have taken him
through the current Supercross and motocrossracing season, but the
factory and the Belgian
team manager have extended that deal to 2016.
Pit Beirer, the head
of KTM Motorsports,
brought DeCoster into the
KTM fold in 2011 to manage the company's U.S.
factory team. A year later,
DeCoster brought Ryan
Dungey into the team and
the rest is history. The
team then celebrated its
first victory in Supercross
at the Phoenix round last
year and then went on to
win the AMA Motocross
National Championship.
"Roger had a valid contract from KTM, but it was
the wish on both sides
to extend it before it was
due to secure stability in
the coming years," Beirer
said. "The contracts with
all other team members
were also extended as
well as new infrastructure, workshops and team
truck."
Higher Ape Hangers?
Florida state representative Ritch Workman
(Republican-Melbourne)
is sponsoring House Bill
4015 that would eliminate
the current motorcycle
handlebar height restriction of no higher than
the top of the shoulders of
the person operating the
motorcycle while properly
seated on the bike.
Polaris Elections
Polaris Industries Inc. announced last week that its
Board of Directors voted
to elect Scott Wine, Polaris' Chief Executive Officer, as Chairman of the
Board. Wine succeeds
Greg Palen, who has been
Chairman for 11 years and
has nearly 20 years of service on the Board.
Mammoth MX Joins
AMA Schedule
For 2013, the June 21-30
Mammoth Motocross
joins the AMA amateur
motocross schedule and
will feature the AMA King
of the West title. "We're
excited to partner with
such a well-established
and professional promoter," said AMA Vice
President of Operations
Jeff Massey. "AMA-sanccontinued on page 26
