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McGrath and Huffman win their wars

Good thing Jeremy McGrath and Damon Huffman found the way to San Jose for that city’s supercross round, the next-to-last in the series. Both riders clinched championships in their respective divisions.

McGrath entered the San Jose round needing just four points to tie up the supercross title, his second straight 250 Supercross championship.

He obtained his quartet of points by finishing the main event in second place after a bumper-cars incident with arch-rival Jeff Emig, who was in the lead. Both fell, and that allowed eventual winner Mike LaRocco to sneak past for the win.

McGrath had gone three supercross events without a victory. He won 10 events on the way to last year’s title and brought this year’s total to nine with an easy win in the Las Vegas finale.

Huffman, meanwhile, entered the San Jose round aboard his 125 Suzuki in search of 10 points-the number needed to clinch his championship. He got them by finishing third behind Pedro Gonzalez and Craig Decker. >

AMA decision weighs down Ducati

In the wake of an AMA appeals board ruling that the Ducati 955 Superbike meets all homologation requirements for AMA Superbike racing, the AMA Race Advisory Committee boosted the minimum weight of all two-cylinder Superbikes.

The appeals board ruled on an appeal of a protest that claimed AMA Superbike Ducatis are illegally assembled from kits, instead of being production motorcycles. The board ruled that such kits are permitted by AMA rules. Having dodged one bullet, Ducati soon was hit by a much more considerable broadside.

The AMA, which for the 1994 season adjusted Twins minimum weight upward from 309 pounds to 335 pounds, raised the limit again, this time to 355 pounds, the same as the minimum weight for Fours.

AMA Director of Professional Racing Roy Janson said the change was appropriate because the rules allowing Twins a weight advantage were written when BMWs and Moto Guzzis were the only Twins racing. He cited Pascal Picotte’s runaway win aboard a Fast by Ferracci Ducati 955 at the Laguna Seca round of the AMA Superbike series as evidence of the need for change.

Larry Ferracci, who with his father, Eraldo, operates the FBF AMA Superbike team, disagrees.

Ferracci speculated that lowering the minimum weight of multi-cylinder machines, instead of raising the Twins minimum, might have made more sense. “Then the Fours would be able to stop better, and also accelerate better,” he said.

He said FBF added the necessary weight to its racebikes by filling a steel cylinder with lead and affixing that to the engine cases between the two cylinders. He said the bikes’ hollow swingarm pivot bolt also now is filled with lead.

Cagiva North America, Ducati’s American importer, blasted the AMA’s decision, calling it “...against the spirit of fair play and sporting competition,” and suggested that it will pressure all Ducati-mounted competitors to not participate in AMA Superbike racing next year unless, it said, “a satisfactory solution regarding this rule adjustment is quickly reached.” □