Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Cycle News 1966 05 12

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VOLUME III NUMBER 18 WEEK OF MAY 12 through MAY 18,1966 AMA Suspends Van Leeuwen License • .. • -s • No lag at the I lag. Louis , Hammond, T anner and White start Trophy Dash. Hectic Night At Ascot • • W or dry , hard or s oft a nd it 's et s till Sammy Tanner, no matt er what ty pe of track for the Friday ni ght a ction a t As cot. Kin gpin Tanner cam e back from three defeats th e . week before to sc ore thr e e stra ight win s in the he at , dash and final, runn in g his total to tw e lv e wins for t he season. A re c ord entry of 71 a ma te urs a nd e xpe rt s added a heat ra c e to each of the t wo c lasses and a lso mad e it much more di ffi cult to mak e th e main eve nts . Spills Aplenty The hard, dry track caus e d a reco rd number of s pi lls and crashes for ' 66. Amat eur point leader P ete Bod e tt e went do wn ha rd i n pr a cti c e an d was out of the pr ogram wit h fa ci a l c uts and a broke n coll a rbo ne . Bi gge st s pill of the ni ght c a me in the ex pe rt da sh whe n Eddi e Hammon d lost hi s bi ke right in front of Ralph White . Whit e hit th e mach in e and s a iled hi gh int o th e air and la nded up agains t th e sout h tu rn wall. A few hours lat er he was re leased fro m Gardena Hospital wit h no inj uries but man y brui s e s. Hammond c a me up wit h a brok en le g and will be out of action fo r about two months . Another s tre a k we nt by th e boa rds when Da n Haaby unloaded late in the mai n e ve nt. T his was Haaby's first spill in Ascot-half mile comp etition ov er a span of thre e and on e half years! Haaby walked away and was prono unc ed ready for this Friday. T he duel in the feature wa s for thi rd plac e between teacher Me rt L a wwill and pupil Ch ri s Draay er , T he pupil won out. GUy L oui s was second to the front- running Tann er. T he amateur main was wid e open with Bodet te out , 'lnd bot h Tim Ha rris and J oh n Carter wat ching from t he sid elines due to s pills in t heir heat races . The fi e ld jockeyed ba ck a nd fo rth befo re Ber t Er s hi g too k c omma nd to win hi s s econd ma in e ve nt of th e ye ar. Ma rty Ma c Don al d cam e up from th e middl e of t he novic e pack to cap(Conti nued nn pa ge 8) '~m':J 'H :J"38 9N01 .. U 9NION3d SI S3UH 39USOd SS"1:J ONO:J3S 1" .1 1 01 NOIU:Jl1dd" "'" T.J. TO LA'PAZ Skip Van L e e u w e n, Nati onal Number 59, ha s been ind efinitely s us pende d from profe s s ion al A.M.A . compe tit ion! The Triumph -spon s or ed T .T . a c e is fi rst to fee l th e brunt of a new ruling for 1966 which stat e s that profe s sional A.M.A . rid ers may not c ompe te in sportsman 's c ra mble s , s ho rt track or hillclim bs. Van L eeuwen , winner of the rece nt Tri-State Ben efit Scramble s held at Sprocket s Park in Bakersfi eld , wa s prot e sted for his actio n and th e suspen sion follow ed by mail from Columbus. Although still retaining hi s A.M.A. m emb er ship , (whi ch a ll ows him to compete in sportsman e ve nt s ) , Van L eeuwen i s barred" indefinit e ly " from t he money e ve nts he rid e s so well. He plans a RECORD BROKEN By Ca rol Sims Monday e ve ning , May 2nd a t 9 :10 p. m., four well-kn own South ern Cali" fomi a rid e rs se t out to break th e e xis t ing Tij uana (Mex ico) to La P a z re cord est a blis he d by Honda in 1963 . T o get the whole s to ry , we spoke di rectly to one of the partici pants , EDDIE MULDER, a nd this is t he s ubstance of t ha t int er vi e w: CYCLE NEWS: Well, did you have a hall on the La Paz run? EDDIE MULDER: What a bummer thin~ that was. CN: Really? Who all went and what did you ride? MULDER: Dave Ekins, Bud Ekins, Cli U Coleman and me. We rode the same bikes (Tri umphs) they used in the Six Days Trial. : CN: Was there any special preparation of the machines? MULDER: Not reall y. We took air bottles and all that sturr for Oats. CN: W else did you carry? hat MULDER: W ater, a spare gall on of gas , inner tubes , light bulbs , one hamburger and some Tootsie Rolls. CN: Did you have any trouble en route? MULDER: W had trouhle before we e started. On the way to Tijuana the truck that me and Cliff were in broke down on the Long Beach Free way. Fuel pump. W e had to unload the bikes and Barbour suits and boots and helmets and eve rything in the fast lane next to the fence, and GO ! CN: Ynu mean you rode the bikes to Tijuana set up for the rough stuff? M ULDER: Yeah. We only had a couple of hours to get there for the s tart. CN: How did the bikes do on the pavement? M ULDER: Not too good. They' d only run about 75 and that's it. CN: But you made it on time? MULDER: Fifteen minutes to spare when we got there. Threw down a s teak and Bud and those guys sa id " let's go." I couldn't believe it. CN: How far did you go? M ULDER: Bud' s speedo s howed 1,014, ours s howed l ,l1 4-so we rode 100 miles e xtra. CN: Any troubl e on the trip? MULDER: W all got off on the pavement e about 30 miles after we started. CN: Wha t? How did that happen? M ULDER: Well, there' s a tunnel going into Ensen ada and just entering the tunnel is where it happened. Dave ,Elkins was leading, hit an oil slic k, crashed, Sports Committee Meet By Maureen Le e La s t Thursday, Di st. 37 Sport s C ommit t e e Me et in g had the lo ngest di s cus sion of the ev eni ng on th e newly enforced ruling t hat Cl a s s C Amat eurs and Expe rt s a re not al lowed to co mpete in Sp ort sm an eve nts. (T his doe s not in clud e deser t .) ·T he local Board of Direc t ors is prot est ing this e nfo rce ment s tro ngly and ne gations a re und e r way to change th e ruling. If it is re vok ed it won 't be don e until next ye a r. Sport s Commi t te e Pre sident J ean Ca rt e r a sked A.M.A . C ompetiti on Com mitte e memb er E ar l Fland ers to clarify th e s it ua tion and a nswe r qu estion s from the c l ubs ' repre s entatives. A repre s en tati ve asked how this ruling is t o be e nforced . Is it up to the c lubs to chec k on all rid ers c ompeting in th eir e ve nts? It would be almos t impos s ible to c he c k on a ll th e profe s s ional s . The a nswe r was that it is not th e clubs ' re(Continued on page 8) o TITANS SO - MILE HARE SCRAMBLES By Bob Gooding Scene 01 the crime-Van Le euwen's vi ct orIous ri de at Bakersfi eld beneIII scrambles. prot e s t (na tura ll y), and th e results of t his initial "tes t case " will have nationwide i mpac t on th e rap idl ychanging amateur vs. profe s sional s cene . Bud hit It, cras hed, and I had to throw my scooter down to mis s hitt ing Bud. And Cliff Cole man just skidded to a s top, laughing . It was terri ble. It was at ni ght, you know - s parks and the whole route. It broke all the primary cases on me and Bud' s bikes , and broke David' ~ headli ght. Wow . I couldn't believe it. CN: W is right. Well , when you got off ow the pavement, what was the terrain like ? MULDER: Ju st all desert, habe, and rocks. Really . I was waiting for one of them damn handito guys to jump out any minute. Every 100 miles or so there was a house. That's what they call a town. A hous e and a gasoline pump. And an old man and lady and a bout 20 kids and a bunch of cows . CN: Howdid tha t M can gasoli ne work? exi M ULDER: W all had to retard the s park e in our motors . CN: Did you all s tay together? MULDER: Cliff Cole man was going to take a 7D-mile s hortcut and we didn' t s ee him for 27 bours , when we met in La Paz. CN: Did you have a follow-up t.ruck behind you? MULDER: Nothin g. All al one. It was sc ary. Rea lly was . CN: How long did the trip ta ke? MULDER: We had it figured for 30 hours , but it took 39. CN: W that 39 hours straight? as M ULDER: Straight through. CN: W ell, did you break the record? M ULDER: Yes , by eig ht minutes . You see, we had to push Bud the las t 15 (Continued on pa ee 8) Ar kie Gunn , promine nt Refer e e of Di strict 37-A (Sa n Die go a nd Imper ial Cou nt i es ) believes in t he old ti me sm ash- ban g ty pe of riding. He, a lo ng wit h oth e r Titans , Niles Ussery and Ron At ti g, pres e nt ed a May Day P a ra de to end a ll pa ra des. The route chosen wa s j ust ove r t wo mil es lon g, but after t went y laps of loos e rocks , powde r, loos e rocks , dropoff s , loos e rocks, hill-climbs and loose roc ks , all partici pants were eit he r s epara t ed from th e ir bi ke s, brok en down co mpl et ely , or all wailed out physically . T he lightweights had it all their own way wi th Harry Hay es in the le a d. from t he startin g fla g to the fini sh flag , on a CZ . Harry rod e U banzai" all the way. and that's pu tting it mildly. The location of th e meet was th e popular a rea , Mira mar Me s a , ju s t off Highway 10 1 at L a J olla Junction, situated near e nough to San Die go a nd suburban areas to bring ou t man y spectators. Whil e on th e subj ec t of spectators, 1 fee l comp elled to s ay something about th os e who rid e their street bik es out for a day of fun and sun , but after watchin g th e e xperts make it lo ok so easy , fe el com pelled to get out and " get with it . " T hi s is wher e the beginne r learns a very expensive le s s on - or worse, Ope n Expert Niles Usser y does a n outstandi ng jo b of patrolling t he course , he lping t rouble d rid e rs , returnin g los t pa rts a nd di scouraging .. c heaters ," but he a nd his loyal T itan s cannot do ev er ything : spe ctators s ho uld us e their c ommon se nse to co ntrol "litt er-bugs" and " pit ra c e rs ." (A men t) (Results on page 16)

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