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RACE WATCH
Musical bikes
Australian Troy Corser, who won the 1994 AMA Superbike Championship and promptly announced plans to move on to World Superbike Ducatis for 1995, will have some familiar paddock-mates when he arrives in Europe. Yamaha sources confirm that Colin Edwards II, who seemed to find his form toward the end of last year's AMA Superbike season, will run in World Superbikes on a Yamaha factory team that will field YZF750SPs. Yamaha has not yet announced who Edwards’ teammate will be.
Tom Kipp, last seen aboard Yoshimura Suzukis-he won the 1994 AMA 750 Supersport championship for Suzuki-was signed to replace Edwards. He'll join Jamie James on the Vanee & Hines squad, which will race 600 Supersport and Superbike only.
Former Corser teammate Pascal Picotte. meanwhile, also is deserting his 1994 team, but he’s staying closer to home to do it. He's leaving the Fast by Ferracci Ducati team to run next year for Rob Muzzy aboard a Kawasaki Superbike. His teammate at Muzzy's will be Canadian Steve Crevier. Fred Merkel, who held that seat for the 1994 season, has signed a two-year deal to pilot a Yoshimura Suzuki Superbike. His Yosh {eammates are Thomas Stevens and Donald Jacks.
Eraldo Ferracci. who signed Mike Smith as half his two-man team, isn't ready to name Picotte's replacement on the Fast by Ferracci Ducati. He said, “My associates tell me, don't say nothing yet. but he’s young, a nice guy, and has 500 experience." Ferracci said Picotte wasn't re-signed because he failed to seize the opportunities presented him in 1994. He said of Picotte, “If he couldn't beat the Kawasaki on the Ducati. how is he going to beat the Ducati on the Kawasaki?" Ferracci said he'd retire his 888-based Superbikes in favor of 916s for the '95 season.
Over at Harley-Davidson, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that flat-track standout Chris Carr signed with Harley-Davidson to do a full road-race season and selected flat-track events. The bad news is that Miguel Duhamel is outta there, having signed to ride a Smokin’ Joe's Honda for 1995. Harley hasn't yet found a replacement for the hard-riding French-Canadian.
Smokin' Joe’s Racing boss Martin Adams, however, is a happy man. He noted that at his team’s last Daytona 200 victory, which came in 1991. Duhamel was his pilot. “I’m mighty thrilled.” Adams said, “Miguel is simply the work ethic personified.” Adams said Duhamel will race 600 Supersport and Superbikes. Joining Duhamel on the Honda squad is Mike Hale, a returnee from last season.
Foggy crowned World Superbike champ
Britain's Carl Fogarty, runner-up to Scott Russell in last year's World Superbike championship, turned the tables this year, seizing his first WSB championship at the final race of the series, held at Philip Island, Australia.
The championship was Fogarty's to win. and that's just what he did, with solid performances in both motos of the Aussie event, finishing first, ahead of Russell, in the first moto, and second, behind Australian sensation Anthony Oobert, 19. in the second. Russell finished a distant l 7th in the second moto. the victim of a pitstop to replace a disintegrating tire.
Fogarty’s championship was the icing on the cake for Ducati, which already had claimed the Superbike manufacturer's championship prior to this final event of the season.
WERA Finals: Something for everyone
The world’s biggest club race? That can only be the WERA Finals at Road Atlanta. Proven, among other things, was that Dale Quarterley remains one of the country’s most talented independent riders. Quarterley supplied that proof by taking the win in the Formula USA final aboard his Team Mirage Kawasaki, beating Suzuki-mounted Michael Martin for the honors. Quarterley's win here vaulted him into second place in the final points standings.
David Sadowski, aboard a Team Labelle Honda, had by now won five of the six previous F-USA rounds, and in doing so, wrapped up the championship at the Portland round, immediately prior to the finals. Good thing, too, as Sadowski crashed out of the f irst moto of the Atlanta round, and succumbed to mechanical problems in the second.
Other 1994 WERA champions include Mark McDaniel, Suzuki 1100 National Cup; James Randolph. Suzuki 750 National Cup; Yamaha-mounted Rich Oliver, F -11 ; and Chris Rogers, also on a Yamaha, in F-III.
Titles in the trees for Smith and Plessinger
Rodney Smith ended his second full year on the National Hare Scrambles circuit in style. He rode his Suzuki RMX250 to his first championship in the series. Posting wins at three of the nine rounds, Smith finished second in every round he didn't win.
KTM-mounted Scott Plessinger’s competitive urges were on fire at the end of the Grand National Cross Country Series, taking wins in three rounds of the series. His closest competition came from Fred Andrews, last year's series champion. Plessinger rode hard with good reason. Up to the last round of the series, held near B row n s v i 11 e, Pen n sy 1 van i a. A n d re w s was in the championship points lead. He won this final event, but Plessinger sneaked by him to take the title by finishing in second place. A rider’s best nine of 12 races counted for the overall, allowing Plessinger to nip Andrews by one point-155 to 154.
AMA and SX promoters reconciled
Nearly a year after Supercross promoters announced they were breaking away from the AMA to form their own SX sanctioning body and run their own racing series, those same promoters inked a deal that ended the breakaway.
Talks between AMA and the three promoters-Pace, SRO and MTEG, who formed American/lnternational Racing, or AIR-had been at a standstill. Then C'ary Agajanian, chairman of the board ofParadama, the AM As for-profit, proracing arm, took over negotiations, according to Tom Mueller, president of AMA Pro Racing. Once Agajanian became involved, he said, a five-year agreement was arrived at. Mueller said promoters were under pressure from motorcycle manufacturers, and from ESPN, which is contracted to televise SX events, to conclude an arrangement with the AMA.
Danny Thompson, president of MTEG, said of the deal, “It’s nice to have this done. I just don’t think the industry is big enough to split it down the middle. It's better for the sport to do it this way.”
Hamel wins in U.S. and Mexico
Danny Hamel remains nearly unstoppable in the desert. He proved it again by taking his fourth straight National Hare & Hound title this year, grabbing wins in five of the series’ six rounds. The only other rider to win a round was Ty Davis, and that win came when Hamel’s Kawasaki KX500 lost its ignition. Davis finished second in the series.
South of the border, meanwhile, Hamel teamed with Davis and Larry Roeseler for the Baja 1000, winning in relatively easy fashion. The only slowing came when the team’s KX500 stuttered its way through an ignition problem. The second-placers Ted Hunnicutt, Paul Krause and Craig Smith, also KX500-mounted, might have had a shot at benefiting from this ignitionoriented misfortune, but their KX500 experienced the same problem shortly after Hamel’s bike did. Third and fourth also came to Kawasaki, with fifth spot being the highest finish for arch-rival Honda.
