Monday News
Teenage phenom dirt tracker turned roadracer and a kid many considered to be one of this country's best hopes for racing on a world level in the 2000s, Toby Jorgensen, died FRIDAY night at a Texas hospital. Jorgensen was seriously injured in the Dallas dirt track race and tried valiantly to cheat death from his incredibly serious injuries for weeks.
Jorgensen was 17 years old and life-long racer, and had a career best finish on the dirt at Peoria this year when he finished on the podium behind the Prince of Peoria, Chris Carr. He also had been a fixture at the Lodi Cycle Bowl and beat a huge number of "name" riders on stealth XR100s, including John Kocinski, Chris Carr and Rich Oliver. Jorgensen had ridden a variety of roadrace machines in his brief pavement career including a RS125, and more recently a GSX-R750 for John Ulrich.Anthony Gobert wore his Vance and Hines Ducati leathers all weekend at Phillip Island. Gobert's weekend at the Grand Prix ended when he was punted off the racetrack on the second lap. He has been invited to keep riding the MuZ bike at several more Grand Prixs this year and seems keen to do it. Gobert bit his tongue in the crash (ironic, eh?) but will survive to ride another day.
Nicky Hayden finished fourth at the dirt track race held last weekend at Las Vegas. The race was won by Will Davis. There's rumors of a rider upheaval at the upcoming Del Mar dirt track race. It's been a bad year: Two riders have died this year in Grand National dirt track racing, and they still don't know if Atherton's leg is going to stay connected to his body. Some feel certain promoters can do more to prepare the facilities and make them safe.
Radiation clouds worry riders: Many of the World Superbike teams were close to withdrawing from Sunday's 13th and final round of the series at the Sugo circuit in the north of Japan on Sunday.
Radiation fall-out scares following last week's leak from the Tokaimura nuclear plant gave many teams concerns over the dangers to their staff.
Reassurances from leading nuclear experts in Europe and America were offered before the teams agreed to travel to the Japanese event.
The Tokaimura site is 70 miles north of Tokyo, near the Motegi circuit. It is also situated just 10 miles from the main railway line which many of the World Superbike teams will use to get to Sugo.British Kawasaki rider Chris Walker is having talks with Aprilia about a possible move to its World Superbike team, alongside Peter Goddard.
Walker is known to have impressed many team managers with his wild card ride at Assen in Holland last month where he qualified on the second row and finished 10th in both races.
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