Cycle News

America's motorcycle newspaper Help in the d esert I would lik e to exp ress m y thanks to Jim Pil on a nd a ll th e District 37 Du a l-Sp ort volun teers for providin g me (a nd many others) w ith a lmost 500 miles of outstanding tra il riding. This is th e third year m y bro ther an d I have ridden LA- to -B-to · V a nd once agai n I a m o vercome with a m azemen t a t th e logisti cs needed to put o n a n even t of thi s nature. . Unfortunately, just befo re th e fourth chec kpoint (o u tside Searchligh t, Nevad a ) my brother, Peter, and his XT enc o u ntered a bu ried rock at ab out 55 mph. Th e XT survived with a bent fork leg bu t Peter fra ctured hi s shoulder. We rode double into th e next chec kpo in t a nd th e crew th ere im me d ia tely offered use o f th eir ca r so I co u ld drive him to th e hospita l in Las Vegas. No questions a ske d, no I.D .. just , " Hey, it 's ins ure d. Bring it back wh en you ca n ." The kind of ge ne ros i ty a nd con cern d isplayed by Marshall Lelco u rt a n d G eorge R och e rea ll y helped make a n unfo rtuna te situa - . tio n bearabl e. Than ks a lso to Bob with the Blazer wh o brought in the damaged XT on h is tra iler. Peop le like th is remind me o f why I enjo y the sport o f mot or cycling so much . . Volume XXV I Sharon Cl avron . Pu bl isher Mikl' Klin ger. Comptroller Skip J oh nson . Associate Publisher ! National Sa/r ,t M a 7lflg f'T J at:k Man gu s. Associate Pu blis herl Editor Rb eba Sm ith. Ci rcu lation M a 714f{ t'1 Caroli ne C endr v. Ex ecutive Secretary to th ,. Pub lisher Ed itorial J ack Man gu :-.. Edi tor Kil Pa lmer , Associate Editor Paul C.. nuthers. Associate Edi tor a Nate Raub" . Associate Editor Brian Ca ne rso n. A ssociate Edi to r Ken Fau g ht , Assista nt Ed itor Edw ina Mangu s, Calendar Edi tor Advertising Sk ip j ohnson•. N at'! Salt's Af/lflag eT Terr y P rall, Senior Sale s Ma rla gn Mark Thorne. We.t tnn Sa lt's i\·.fallagn Ron Da vid son . Western Salt's Alan agt.'t 'Thom as R. Con rer, W " .\It'1'tl -Sa lt'.~ M anaf{ t"T Mar k Mitch ell . Easte rn Salt's Mana gn G rt'g M ildwl1. Eastern StJI,.~ Mallager Joa n Rus sian , Wt stnn Ad Coordina tor C arta Borden . East ern Ad Coordi nator Grap hics an d Prod uc tion Ree j ohnson. Prod uction Superviso r Man d y 1.00 . Prod uctio n Ma naf{t'T Den nis Green e, La b. T rch, St'J(t·y Guest. Grap hic A nist jirnmie- 0 ' 0( '11 Cm ptiic Art i.~l . C.... rol yn Branham . T yp t'st'ttt't Accounting /Data Processing Donna Bryan . A cct .f U,.("t'itlabl,. Coordina to r Gt'IU'V<.l Re pa ss, As sistant Fran Hamwev. Credi t Circu lat ion Sar ah 'T a ylm . As sistant Alma Anguiano. A s,~i.~t anl Herlane Richmond . Assistant C'I Tl ,1 M ,, ~gi n . Assistant SCOTT GOODWIN Asso cia te Pub lisher Pe tersen P ubl ishing Co. Los Angeles, CA Dealer Sales Eric R('1"u M annger ·. Want Ad. 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All unsoli cit ed material will be handled with reason able ca n' , ho wever. Cycle News assume'S no r~ponsibililY for lilt' ~ leI Y . loss or damage to such material . Rt'primi n!{ in w hol e or pan o n ly b y permi saicn or rhe publislwJ. Adventst ng raIl'S a nd cirr u lat io n in fo rma tio n will be st'nt upon rrq ut'sl. St't" S.R .Il.S. . WBPA AUDITED CIRCULATION Co py rig ht 8 Cyc le News. Inc. 1 989 . Tra de · ma rk Cycle News regi ste red U.S . Patent Office. All ~ig h ts reserved . 4 On the tube On th e even in g of November 25, CN N tele cast a report on the impact B-to -V has on the desert tortoise, at w h ich tim e th ey showed numerous clips of the start. CNN seemed to try to do a fair job of rep resent ing both sides o f the issu e. Even so , we ca me off loo kin g Iike th e bad guys agai n. Why? Because one.of th e riders th ey in terv iewed had a uni qu e vi ew towards preservation of th e tortoise. H e suggested tha t th e tortoises · be rounded u p and bred in ca p tivity like th e " co ndo r. " This wa y we co uld be left a lo ne to " h ave fun in th e midd le _ of nowhere." Now th is g uy wa sn 't ju st some first- tim e novi ce who dreamed up this idea the nigh t before around the campfire. He is a factory-sponsor ed , pro-leve l motocross and desert ra cer. a representative o f a ll th is spo rt has to offer a rid er. Obviousl y this guy wasn 't born into this posit ion. It has tak en yea rs o f dedi cation, hard work, a nd kn ow ledge applied to get h im w here he is today. Why th en d id he no t use th is opportunity to promote our sid e of th e issue? Simply mentioning that th e start area was o n m ilita ry testing grounds or that the widt h of the course was o nly 25-feet or any of a nu m ber of other pertine n t facts wo u ld have gone a long way towards co nvi n c ing th e gene ra l pub li c tha t we 're n o t out there destroy ing the tortoise popu lation. Fort una tely , th e se cond rider in terviewed did menti on so me o f th es e fa ct s. h opefully , p arti ally o ffsetti ng th e rem arks of the first rider. The poin t is, we a ll have to be ed uca ted ab ou t the issues th at face us. The Sierra Club a nd all of their fri ends ar c. If we a ll' u na ble to · respond to th eir accu sa tio ns in an inr el lige n t mann er , our sport. is doomed . T he general public wi ll dismiss us as mindless a busers and stan d by as th e eco'ssh u t us o u t. GEORGE PEN NINGTON La Crescenta, CA BLM spo keswoman Barbara Max field to ld th e press tha t BLM officials wen t over the Bsto-V cou rse both before and after th e race and did not find a single torto ise . . . Editor. Same guy Th ought maybe som e of yo ur readership may ha ve wo nd ered if the. Aussie Peter Goddard who has been showing u p at. the top o f som e of th e in ter n at io n al Superbike road · race results, is th e same lad th at was in th e ,St.ates abo u t fou r years ago, try in g his lu ck at U .S. dirt track racin g. Peter was, a t th e time, th e Austral' ia n Nationa l Din Track Champion. His dad, T ed, a very close "mat e" of mine and Can-Am's Jeff Smith, asked if i t wou ld be okay for Peter to co me over and live with u s in order to co ntes t so me AMA National dirt track events as a j un io r. (So me of your readers may have met Ted, who a t the tender age of 40 or so was a factory Ca n-Am rider and a med al ist in three of h is ISDE rid es.) It was o ur extreme pl easure to h ost Peter, and h is stay was like o ur a dopting an Auss ie so n. P eter 's attack o n the American dirt tracks, unfo rt u nat el y, d idn' t hit wi th as big a ba ng as he h ad ho ped. Lack of proper funds, a " Dea r Joh n " from h is Aussie girlfriend, and though he wo u ld n't ad mi t i t, a strong case o f ho m esickn ess befuddled h is p la ns. After a sti nt a t working in Ca liforn ia wi th Mike Crow ther a t Engi ne Dynamics Co. , Peter decided to head back to Austra lia to successfu lly become the o nly th ree-tim es-in a-row winner of th e prestigious Six Hour Dirt Track Mara thon, as we ll as to get a sta rt in h is rea l lo ve o f road racin g. Bein g an excelle n t mech anic a nd tech nicia n a llowed Peter to spend so me time in Japan wi th Moriwaki as a tes t rider/technicia n where he s pe n t m egati rne a t t h e Suzu ka circuit. Now that yo u remember h im , let's a ll m enta lly cheer him o nto the World Championship GP circ u i t, which I have no doubt he will contest in th e near future. BO B MILLER Mi ller's Motorcycles / Sectio n O ne P ro ducts Sa n Luis Obispo, CA Godspeed, Ricky To all motocross fa m ilies,officia ls, AMA re ps a nd Mini Olympics friends, we ex tend our gratitude for th e prayers a nd love expressed o n o ur behalf. Ri ck y ha d a passio n fo r th e sport . o f motocross and o ver th e p ast two years mad e m any, many close friends t.hat will a lways be che ris he d. He · we nt to be wi th O ur Lord a n d Sav ior short ly a fler 3 o 'clock th is morning. H e left this wo rld doi ng what he loved 10 do - racing - an d we a re th an kful th at h e had the chance to meet h is goal, a first pl ace Min i Ol ympi cs trop hy which he earned on Tuesday. We encourage parents to lo ve their ch ild ren and ch erish every livin g m oment that they have with them , for ch ild ren are g ifts of God. We enco urage a ll of you riders to keep fit and stay away from d ru gs, alcohol and tob acco , because this wa s Ri cky 's lifestyle. Practice hard an d keep this sport a live. Ag ain , thank yo u to a ll. RICHARD & ELLIE JOSEPH Ohsweken , Ontario, Canada Ricky Jo seph died on No vemb er 25 as a result of injuries he sustain ed in a practice session crash at th e Florida Wint er National Olympics. Th e above lett er from his parent s was rea.d at th e even t's trophy presentation cerem on ies . . . Editor. King Kenny I wo uld like to see a special issue on th e grea tes t road rac er and dirt tracker ever, Kin g Kenn y Roberts. I've made many tr ips to Laguna Seca sin ce 1977 and by far he was th e best rider. Also, he started the U .S.A. on th e track to bei ng th e best in th e world today. It was grea t seeing and r eadi ng about th e . Ki ri g . taking Number One for th e U.S.A. which is sti ll going strong wi thout h im on th e track bu t th ere in spirit. J EFF MIEIR Buena Park, CA Kenny Roberts is more than just th ere in spirit as far as GP road racing is con cerned . We're p lanning sitting down wi th King Kenny in the very near future and wi ll p u blish the results of that in terview in an upcom ing issue. We have a lot of questions to ask h im abou t his 1990 GP road race team, and we're sure that as alw ays he'll have the answers . >. Editor. on Long enough T han k you fo r th e man y yea rs of enjoy me nt that we th e rea ders have golien o u t of yo ur p ub lica tion . Keep u p th e good work. . Abo ut a week ago I was loo king at m y 1989 Cycle News Ca lendar of C ha m pions to see what day the last day of No vember fell o n , a nd what did I notice? You peop le pu t 31 days in the month. Come on, winter is long enough up here in northern . Idaho withou t yo u g uys adding ex tra days . BUTCH P HARNES5 si. Maries, ID Published letters do .not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters are subject to condensation due to space limitations. Anonymous letters will not be published. Send letters to Voices, P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 -0498.

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