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RACE WATCH

Doohan again, and again

Can't anyone stop this man?

"This man" is of course Michael Doohan, who is stamping his name as firmly on 1995's early GP races as he did on the 1994 season.

Doohan won the series-opening Australian Grand Prix, leading from start to finish aboard his Repsol-sponsored Honda at Eastern Creek. His margin of victory over second-placer Daryl Beattie was 13 seconds, with Doohan teammate Alex Criville third.

Kevin Schwant/ botched his start by stalling his bike. He recovered to finish fifth behind Yamaha-mounted Luca G adalora.

Things weren’t terribly different at the Malaysian GP, held at Shah Alain.

Winner? Doohan. Second? Beattie. Fourth, behind Criville? Schwant/.

So the question is. how to beat Doohan. Make him start from the hack row? Make him run his bike on three cylinders? Make him ride a scooter? .lust a thought....

Take the money and race

Martin Adams, the guiding light behind Commonwealth Racing, thinks he's got a better idea.

Adams' team, run for the first time this year as a Honda factory effort, is the only factory team on the AVIA Supcrbike/600 Supersport circuit that relies on outside sponsorship. That is provided by tobacco giant Camel, which uses the cartoon camel Smokin' Joe as its mascot.

Adams says. "The teams could benefit so much from outside investmcnt—from Budweiser. Kellomi or Valvoline, for instance. But the manufacturers don't want to give up their oreen bikes, or their red ones, for someone to come up with 25 or 35 percent of their budgets. You mean if they painted the bike red and white it wouldn't still be a Kawasaki?''

The answer to that question is no, according to Rob Muzzy, the front man for Kawasaki's roadracing effort.

He said. “Someone would have to pay a great deal of our expenses for it to not be a Kawasaki team. If (with sponsorship) Kawasaki is picking up 75 percent of our costs, it's a Kawasaki racing team. There's a reward to that which offsets the costs.”

Those costs. Adams says, run at least $2 million per year, and it is precisely the nature of the reward which Adams questions. Trying to sell racing, and through racing, motorcycles, to race fans is like preaching to the converted, he contends.

Adams says, “It’s like standing up in church and asking who believes in Jesus. Everybody is going to raise their hands. We should be out on the streetcorner looking for converts.”

That proselytizing is exactly what Adams says sponsorships would accomplish because, he says, sponsorships would expand the marketing potential of racing and of individual motorcycle marques.

So far, nobody is listening to Adams’ message. Except the folks at Honda. And Camel. They’ve got to like what they hear. And see.

Damon doubles back

It was in September of 1993 that motocross standout Damon Bradshaw surprised the sport, and his Yamaha team, by announcing his retirement.

“I'll be back when I can earn my paycheck, and not one second before,” he said in a press release announcing his decision, whereupon he left the sport to raise horses and build custom Harleys.

And now, Bradshaw apparently is set to return to his Yamaha roots. He’s been spotted testing at various Southern California locations with the Yamaha factory and Noleen/Sizzler teams.

Yamaha spokesman Bob Starr told Cycle World. “I’ve heard lie’s going well, and lie's looking very fit. If his abilities are such that he can be at the top of his form, he'll try to make a comeback. It would be great to have him back on a Yamaha.” E3