Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Cycle News 1966 03 24

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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3 own lobby ist, by writin g to hi s state , co unty .ad c ity representative and making his demands k now n . What you may also be MHlderin g is "why don't we hav e an effec tive organ ization working to secure our rights ?" At present, such an organization is out of the ..esuon on a national scale , There may be some hope for organized ac ti on in the s tate of Ca li forn ia. howev er. Ca li forn ia boas ts the larges t motorcyc le re gistration in th e nation , the onl y weekly n ew s pa per co vering the t wowheel ed s por t, and most of the lar ge distri butors are headquartered here . By our reckon in g there must be nearly one million motorcycle enthus iasts of voting age in Cal iforn ia. Each of us can be our own lohbyist by writing to ci ty . state and county politi cians and te ll ing them what we want. Our demands ar e s imple: We waht portion s of government -o wned land set aside primarily for the use of motorcycl e s and other off-road vehicle s . We want co nti nue d .ad improved cooperation from government as we pursue our happiness on public or private property . State and lo cal governments s tan d to benefit by he eding our demands . Not onl y would t ax revenue increase . but the health and happiness 01 all c it i ze n s would. improve thereby. W have shaped up our own sport su fe ficiently to merit some help from our representatives in Sacramento. Your local newspaper can tell you th e names and addres s of your el ecte d oflicial s. see page 6 for a further suggestion . HI BOOTS SCRAMBLES • by Carl Bartlett Th e fiercly slldin g ope n expe rt class put on a s how at the Hi Boots Dehes a Scrambles on Sunday t hat may not be s urpassed th is season. Travis petton. with a left leg hurt from a first-turn centerpunch the previous week came back determined to win. While a crowd of over 900 watcbed. be proceeded to ride with an abaadoned style that belled his injury and won the first two moto cross beats by a good lead , outdistancing some tough competition. In the third beat. with another long lead build up Pelton appeared to have It sacked Then his Trimnph dropped Its primary c"aln . ending the ride. Vern Gillihan was now in first place In the he at and overall points as lon g as he could hold his pos ition. whicb he did, although Leo St. Germaine moved up through the pack t o take third over all. and fin ished just a few yards back of Gillihan . Th e 250cc expert cl ass lacked the drama of the open class , but made up for it with close . hard riding. With a field of 11 entries , the whizzing 250's look ed and sounded like a lot more as Dick Mills and Harry Hayes elbowed their way to fir st and second places. MiUs en ded the day with t wo firsts and a second on his Bultaco , an d c·z moun ted Hay es had two seconds an d a first. The 2$8c c amateurs rivaled the experts for racing action and Jeff Wills on a Greeves ended up the main event winner. Largest class was the novice 250 with 117 entries. Th e first heat must have been the rou ghes t with the eventual maln eve nt winne r , Bos coe .Bums. and runnersup Ri ch ard W oods and Gord on J ohnson, all In it. second heat winne r Sam Gray was fourth in th e main . Se mi-wi nners wer e J ohn Harris on and popular Rex McC ombs . M ombs tried too har d and feU of in the cC main breaking his leg to rack up th e onl y injury of the day. Two Hondas and a Bultaco battled it out as the only 200cc entries in motocro ss heats. So 200cc racers, if you like lots of el bow room. Dehesa is the pl ac ", to ride. Eventual Class winn er was Harold Mathew s on a Honda. T wo Zundapps took top honors in the 90cc class with s ty Ilsh Chuck Bak er running away in the motocross heats. with Warren Rams ey second. The powder-puff was the day's last event with five girls /i0lng to the line and began wi~h a big crash on the starting line. Undetered, they all re-st arted. and ail five finished the program with very close racing and MR rl'ha Whitten the winne r. (Re sults on page 12) and s e cond position challl:ing no te"" tIIan 143 times !! inter s, a fi rst yea r Arkan s as ' s Bobby W expe rt , as trid e one of th e orrici al Ya maha racin g team e ntries , fin ally wrapped up his lir st big win with less than two laps to go. W ter s , J ohn Buckn er and Ralph in Whi te wer e the thr ee that put on the ne verto-be-Iorzorten duel with an assist from early cha l te naer», Dick Hammer , ' Iert LawwiJI and Ro ger Re iman . Whit e ope ne d as the le ader with a new ai l ti me Urst la p rec ord of l26:760 ! Not two miles s lower than the new bi g bik e record . Ra l ph held off repeated challenges by many rid er s to le ad every la p until Lawwi ll too k over to le ad laps nin e and ten. Buckner the n moved up to grab the money on laps eleven and twelve with Winters l ead in g acr os s the lin e on laps 13 and 14. Lawwlll dropped out of the race on lap eleven . DAYTONA REPORT Contini" On front , . on 12. It was Nixon again on lap 13 lind 14 with Rayborn heading for the pits and out of the rac e on lap 15. Three-time winn er Ro ger Reiman then became the next challen ger . Th e lead chan ged hands no less than 23 times in the fir s t 13 laps . Early 4th place rid er Tony Murguia retir ed to the pits on lap 16 as the rec ord pace started to ta ke i ts toli on a cle ar , warm afternoon. Nixon started to puU aw ay from Re iman on the 15th lap and soon he ld a fi ve second le ad by the end of lap 21. Mert Law wlll headed for the pits for good on lap 25, runn ing in 4th place . Rei man ende d the duel on the 29t h lap when he wen t out with a de ad engi ne . Now It was Elmore's turn to e nter the picture a... he was lapping one to two seconds a lap faster than the leader. Elmore made a fast pit s to p for gas on lap 2S and then took the l ead fron: Nixon at the fini sh lin e on lap 3 2. Th e two T riumph ' s wer e now runn ing one- two, well ahead of the res t of the field. Both machines we re prepared at the Tr iumph eastern headquarters in Baltimore COOLIES by master tun ers Rod Coates and ellff Guild . HOPE GOES FLAT Lap 45 was the end of hope for Nixon as his rear tire went flat whil e he was full tilt down the back chute at 140mph. He coaste d in much later to the pits and W811 out three full laps for a change of wheels . Elmor e crui sed it the res t of the way in the 53 la p grind. Th e only lat e l ap hite bat tl e was for t hi rd bet we en Ra lp h W and Ohio' s Gary HaU. T hese two swappe d the show s pot 37 times with Hall ac ross the fin ish li ne fi rst by four le ngths . It was the s econd 200 mil e win for the Tr iumph brand. Th e lirst was in 196 2 with Don Burnett in th e s ad dle. Th e s inging T riumphs of Elmore , Nixon and Hammer wer e equa l in s peed this year to the potent H-D's that hav e lon g held a wid e ed ge at th e speedway. 250cc-IOO MILE CHAMPIONSHIP Th e front runn ing three then t ook off on their Yamaha's to run fa r ahead of the rest of th e 80 rider s t arting field . F or the second straight year the Yamah a brand too k eight of the first ten places to conti nue the i r s wee p at the beach city. Th e second place po sition was not decided until the rider s cros s ed the finish Iln e with Buck ner ed gi ng White. Winters was also one of the front runn ers in ' 65 but dropped out an d took 58th place . He was a last min ut e replac ement this year for Buddy P ar riott who got orr in practice and was out with a crac ke d shoulder bone . A fie ld of ove r 125 rid ers were s pli t into two heat ra ces wit h the fas t est 40 from each riding in th e 100 mile national 250cc final. Nixon on a Yamaha won the first five-lapper with an av erage speed of 98:820 mph. Harl ey-mounted George Roeder won the second with a s peed average of 94:875 mph. Th e gre ates t racing duel to e ver tak e pl ace at Daytona ran the entire 27 lap distance with the lead chan ging 42 times COLUMN Many peopl e , as well as ourse lve s , ha ve been looking desperately for a piec e of land cl ose enough to t he met ropolitan Los Angeles a rea and yet far enough out that we would not both er the gene ral pub lt c, wher e a cycle pa rk could be o btaine d . There is a possiblllty that we ha ve found th e location. It now depends on how succ essful our initial eve nt is and how coope rative the motorcy cl e fan s ar e with re gard to some basic requirements of the prop erty owne rs. Th e location is on the Santa Ana Can yon road, approximately ten mil es west of the ci ty of Corona. It is located on the old Sycamore Park proper ty. T he first ev ent held there will be on April 3rd and it will be a Motocros s even t open to all classes. All c ompetition riders are invited to participate in this first eve nt. It is a true Europe_ IIC.-bles over grass y fields , sand pits .ad hard ground. The course Is unimproved and knobby tires are recommended. The course will be laid out similar to a true European Motocross and wll1 he conducted under F .I.M. rul es . Three numbe r plates ar e requi red for all ent ries an d no pi e pl ates or paper pl ates wlll be accepted. Rid ers mus t be ful ly le athered and helmet ed, an d co ntrary to belief, fold in g foot pegs ar e not requ ir ed. If any one has any questions co ncerning rul es or e quipment r equi~e- WINNER WAS A REPLACEMENT I , .v . I, ,," ments , they may co ntact t he A.C.A. offl ce at 141 B Whiting St . , Fuller ton , Calif. Th e co urse is laid out ove r a small Vailey , using a riverbed on the far eastern comer and running parallel to the Santa Ana riv er on t he north. Th er e is a tremend ous amount of grass and large oak tr ees . It is ve ry fast and rou gh and should tax th e rid e r' s ablllty to his utmost. W hop e th is eve nt is successful e so we can persuade th e own ers of the property to grant permission for add itional eve nts in the near future. You who are Inte rested in road racing, remember the date of May 22nd lor the United States National Open road rac e to be held at Riverside International Rac ew ay . Th is is an F .I .M. s anc ti oned event and a F .I.M. license must be obtai ned before you will be allowed to - ,Iclpate in this e vetK. F~ . . , be olltallle4 by cOtKac:ting lill Y M.l.C. U.S. member club. sucb as the A.C.A. Also, our particul ar congratulations go to a co uple of Sout hern California riders who did well at Day ton a this past we ek en d. W t Fulto n. Jr., winn er of the al 250cc novice event and John Buckner, second pla ce in the 100 mil e ama te ur expe rt event. Th es e ar e two homet own boys who l earned to road rac e in So . California. and 1 think the peopl e her e s hould be very proud of th em and th eir achievements. AMATEUR 100 MILE RACE Seven different rid er s le ad the amateur big bike chase before San Francisco's Kenny Ridder aboard a Dud Perkins H-D came th rough to wrap up the win . T exan s and Californl an s ba ttled all the way before Ridder came through. Di ck Hay es ran a s trong 6th place. Hay e s and P e te Bodett e both qualified for the five front row s tarting positions . J erry seguin le d two laps midway in t he rac e be fore dropp in g out. Ridd er just missed setting a new track record af ter worki ng his way from 12th place In t he early laps and over a half a mlJe bac k of the leader s . THE 18 MILE NOVICE RACE Eighteen year-old Wait Fulton Jr. was the boss of th e novice field that boasted 180 entrie s. Th e Young Suzu ki ace rode like a veteran to gi ve the fans one of the wildest races ever put on pav ement. Fult on was the novi ce member of the four ri der team that include d Dick Mann, Dan Haaby and Dick Hammer. alt W breez ed through the 250c c sportsman races to win going away on Wednesday af tern oon for his first AMA victory . The money race found three elimination heats being run to scale down to the 7:1 fastest riders. Again It was Fulton with ease in the warmup event. (Contl nu. d on pac. 14) ABOVE, LE FT: A pl.n.d partltlpant In th. Powd.r Puff tUIII •• RIGHT: Sp.ttators found a Sunday In th. sun at D.~ ..a. BELDW: Harry Hay .., a San DI.go Lion , Iuds th. way. S - nSiNORE st Ria THE EXPERTS CHOICE TRY ONE AND YOU BUY ONE .- -. :. '.- ,,0 - _ VI.S of Racing Experience 20 Eleven ye.s selling Lightweights Sf see us • VOII' Greeves Dealer NICK NICHOLSON MOTORS 11S29 Van Owen S1reet, NIItb H.IlYWNd TRACK 250 EXPERT MAIN MALCOLM SMITH D••I.rs ~ Allied Cytl. AIII.d Cycl. Jadt Baldwin House of Yamaha Hodtl.. Steve Hurd K& N Bill Krause Lamor.aux Ro"'rt II. Law lIason Motors IIlsslon Hills Sh.1I Motors TIItIIp'. Cll)' Honda Tracy's IIIC • • • • - No. Hollywood N.whall Santa Monlta W Los An,.,.s ..t Tarrant. Mont. ...1l0 Rivers ide Inclewood Sunland Anah.'m P..adena Sepulveda Lyawood TIItIIp'. Cll)' Burbank

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