All the News that Didn't Fit

AMA Updates
On May 11, Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer vetoed Arizona: House Bill 2475 which would have authorized a one-year experiment to allow and study lane splitting in Maricopa County (the Phoenix metropolitian area). The bill was unanimously passed by the House and had a substantial Senate majority.

South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the Myrtle Beach, S.C. helmet law. The helmet law was among several rules passed by that city to restrict motorcyclists' access to Myrtle Beach. "We find that the City Helmet Ordinance fails under implied field preemption due to the need for statewide uniformity and therefore issue a declaratory judgment invalidating the ordinance." Ed Moreland, the AMA senior vice president for government relations, said, "We're pleased that the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the Myrtle Beach law, sending a clear message to all jurisdictions that discriminatory laws against motorcyclists are unacceptable."

Racing Action
Valentino Rossi is out with "a displaced and exposed fracture of his right tibia," suffered when he crashed his Fiat Yamaha M1 in a practice round of the for the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello. For the next 6 months, Rossi is out of the MotoGP picture. Yamaha is still in good position for the series, though. Jorge Lorenzo came in 2nd in the Mugello round and added to his championship lead with two wins and two seconds for the season. Honda's Dani Pedrosa won the event while Lorenzo battled it out for 2nd with Andrea Dovizioso. Lorenzo is 25 points ahead of Pedrosa and Rossi is in 3rd place for the series title.

On the 2nd day of the series at Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin), Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) pulled off his his second career AMA Pro SuperBike win. Hayden beat Josh Hayes (Team Graves Yamaha), Day 1's winner, by the 0.178 of a second. Hayes holds a one point lead over Hayden in the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike series. Also at Road America, Danny Eslick opened the new AMA Pro Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series with a win over Jake Holden in the debut on June 6.

Joe Kopp (Lloyd Brothers Ducati Motorsports Team) handed Ducati it's first AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship win at the Budweiser Arizona Mile. It was an eventful day for flat tracking, since it was the first ever win for Ducati, the first BMW entry since 1954, and the first Kawasaki to make a main event since 1975. Sammy Halbert looked like a winner early on, but he ended up in a battle with Chris Carr, Kenny Coolbeth. and Jake Johnson for 2nd. Bryan Smith (Kawasaki) came in 17th and Matt Wait (BMW) finished 18th. Luke Gough (10th) and Chad Cose (15th) were riding for Suzuki and the rest of the field was all Harley.

Bryan Smith (Monster Energy Kawasaki/Werner Springsteen Racing) and pulled off Kawasaki's first-ever AMA Pro Grand National Twins Championship podium place (2nd) on Sunday at the historic Springfield TT on his Kawasaki Ninja 650R Jake Johnson won the event on his XR750 Harley Davidson. Henry Wiles (Monster Energy Kawasaki/ Jones Racing) rode his Kawasaki KX450F to a first place in the AMA Pro Grand National Singles Championship race.

Ryan Dungey took both motos on his Suzuki fuel-injected RM-Z450 at the AMA High Point Motocross National, making it 4-in-a-row for him and putting him solidly in the lead for the 450 class. Andrew Short and Bruce Metcalfe (both on Hondas) finished out the podium for the Pennsylvania event.

The first event of the American TTXGP series was held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif and Shawn Higbee (Team Zero Agni) took 1st in the US's first all electric superbike race. Ten competitors were at the start of the race and eight finished the 11-lap event. Michael Barnes (Lightning Motorcycles) was in the lead for much of the first 8 laps, but when his "power management safety override" tripped, he was sidelined for 45 seconds waiting for the system to reset. Barnes came in 2nd, 18 seconds behind Higbee. Near the end of the race, Higbee had some electronic and battery problems of his own to manage. Thad Wolff (Team Electra) finished 3rd. Higbee's best qualifying time for the 2.28 mile track averaged speed about 77 mph. The AMA Superbikes that weekend were averaging 87 mph on the same course.

Mathias Kiwanuka Gives It Up
After his brother was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash, New York Giants defensive end, Mathias Kiwanuka, has decided motorcycling is too dangerous for him. Benedict Kiwanuka, 32-years old, was in critical condition after a motorcycle crash left him with internal injuries and several broken bones.