Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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TULARE MESS Continued the black and white shirt. 2. Officials had neglected to include Sammy Tanner among the participants in the main event . 3. The worst di splay of irresponsibility and lack of efficient organization in volved the chain of events preced ing and following the accident w hic h fatally inj ured George Pritchard. Imm ediately after the Nicholson incident, the Amateur semi was fined u p for th e start. Then it began . One rider would jump, then another . Hands would raise, engines would stall. The starter had done quite well u p until thi s point but he could do no thing w ith these riders. They too were a t fault . F inally after seem ingly several minutes of false starts and verbal exch anges between starter and riders and after engines were melting, clutch es slipping, and tempers boilin g, the white flag fell, and the start, ragged though it was, finally came off. Two laps later a rider back in the pack who said he ''was riding like hell because of the way they started the race" went down in the North turn. Right behind were Nicholson and George Pritchard. Nicholson threw his bike into a slide around the outside and rode the wall for 25 feet before regaining the track and continuing. He missed the fallen rider by inches. Pritchard abo swerved to the outside but hit the wall head on and fell to the track motionless. The original rider was uninjured and got up; he immediately saw that Pritchard was hurt and began frantically to wave for the ambulance. He ran to and fro waving arms and eventually his leather shirt high above his head. At the same time the nagger waved for the ambulance and the entire grandstand frantically screamed and booed in hopes that someone would stop the race and send out the ambulance. Competition rider Mike Van Ness personally ran from the scene of the crash to the ambulance and to ld the mver to get over there. F inally, after what must have been comple te lack £If knowledge of the situation or too much red tape (get the race stopped, clear the track, determine whether an ambulance is necessary, etc.), the vehicle took the long w ay arou nd the half m ile to ai d t he fa llen Pritchard. Most w itnesses estimate that it was a fu ll five minutes from the t ime Pritchard crashed until the ai d re ached him. No less than three, possibly four laps of fu ll bore racing con tinued while Pritchard lay on the track. Efficien t offi ciating and adequate flagging could have stop ped the race in one lap and en abled the am- THE NEW "The Voice of California" 1185 Eo 19th Street. Long Beach. Calif. 591-2088 Published by C & S Publishing Company Charles Cla yton Editor Sharon Clayton Bu siness Manager Gil Brown Advertising Manager David Shaw Competition Ed itor Dale Boller Chief Photographer Rick Hutchins Staff Reporter 1M Mototcyd. Jou mll i, puti liahed every Thunday in long' Beach. Californ ia. Any part of this n.w~per may be Nf"'Odueed without wr itten con..nt of thit publiaher . provided cred it i. g iven . Editor ial contributions Ihould be rNiiled '0: The New Motorcyce Journal.. P.O. Box 68, Hunti ngt on Park, Califo rnia. The New Motorcyd. Jovmel w ill not be respons ib le for un solic ited materi.l, unless accompanied b y posta ge. next week @)Y@aa 100 for R!Jaw~ bulance to reach the injured rider in no more than 90 seconds. Tulare has had serious accidents the last four years of its running. The only way to remedy this situation is by improving the lighting, flagging, and officiating. It is hoped the above story of news and comment will bring to bear the situation as it is and help initiate corrective action . World Trails Continued en chain wh ile running well on noon of the third day. The Greeves factory team, like its Amertcan counterparts, met with failure. One member, Lloyd Lingel- Motorcycle Journal Expert desert rider Max Switzer rode well in trials de spite rain, fog ba ugh, cau ght the fl u and d idn 't even make it to the starting line. Nick Nicholson an d Max Switzer r ode, w ithout losing a po in t the first tw o days . but fou l weather, bo g-like terra in and mech anical t rou bl es sidelined them. Americans were no t the only ri ders to succumb to the foul weather and rugged te rrain. Of the 77 English riders starting the event, on ly nine finished. All 20 American en trants failed to finish. In contrast w ith last year, when 121 gold medals were awarded, only 18 were given out th is year . Steen's comments seemed to sum up the attitude of many competitors -American and ' foreign alike. "Everything was so lousy you had to ride 70 or 80 miles an hour to make up for lost time," Steen said. "And with the rain and fog, you couldn't see where you w ere going I just wasn't about to try that. I ride because I love it, not because I' m crazy." Now Doing Business in Our New Larger Location HARRY FOSTER MOTORCYCLES ~ J> n o 10425 SO. VERMONT AVE. 754- 2 811