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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125488
'NO SAY, NO PAY !'-So. Cal. Tells A.M.A.
..
s or AN OPIN LIT'I'D '1'0 'lRB IXSftlCT S7
SPOR'I'S m.lftBB
TIlere 18 . . old PIOverb aboat letting
dolB lie. llaDe of 118 UI.iDk &be
A.ILA. baa been IJiri& loag eooagb.
DaIiDg !he five years that I bave been
COID1Dc to sPOrts conm1ttee meeuncs, I
lave Been Anb Lellard once. All fOl"
BIIId Andre.. DacI1ey PerklDs aDd lbe
rest of oar lIO"Called represematlves I
1IOulda't !mow ..,. one of lbem it be
walked lIP and kicked me ID tbe shins.
Dar1Dc tbe atoremenUOIled fhe years,
to tbe best of my 1r:Dow1edp. Earl ~
era bas been bere every meet1q, do1Dc
p1eDb' of llstenmc. voiciDa: .. OCC·SI~
al oplnion, aDd ID ..,. esdmatlOJl, at DO
time AUl!IIIPt1Dc to lmpose bis will 01" the
will of the A.M.A. uPOn os. Even tbDagb
_ don't alWIl,YS see eye to eye. It is
patU)tnc tbat we 'bave oae rePlell8lllathe who will ao back to the A.M.A.
_,.,alB and bUIc bis bead alll1Dst a
IItoDe wall.
_
it rlnally becanes obvious to
lmIQOIIe ber.. that for a laIp fairly
well orpnlzed PlUP we are cett1Dc veo'
IIl:tIe reDreseatatlon, Jean carter coes
back to see wIIat can be done. ADd they
bar him troIII tile oae real policy mak1JI&
aeetiJl& they bold. Personally, I lb1Dt
eelllliJlc carter ap1DSt that bDDcb waa
l1Ile send1Dg a mackeral to stral.cbteD
0lIt a scIIool of sbarks.
So. u tbe cost of approDnately
$t4IO.OO we bave &CCOIIIpJisbed wba&? We
NCeived a sanctl.on for tbe Na&ional
C1IaJDIIlClll8ll1P Hare and BODDd and the
rllllt to pStltioo tbe A.M.A. As to &be
e:-r. it 1011 will recall ID 1963 after
tile tIuco in Utsb whicb they called the
RatIoaa1 CllamPl.oosbiP. the A.M.A.
PlOIII1sed Dlstrict 37, not in writ1DC of
coarse. tbal lbe Nuional would be
awarded to us from DOW on. Now three
, . . . later we are toid tIIat lbe Ruby
Rlders of Elko, Nev. were to beawarded
~
lbe anctloa. But. it we really, really
want it. Well, ok. I for one lb1Dt lbe
Ruby Riders sound like a rllllllent of the
collective Imag''w11008 f1 the gauu1
COlDICil of tbe A.M.A. EVen &lI81IIII1Dc
lbey do en.. wIIat qualitications do
lbey bave for beiJlg granted lb1s Sa.DCtion?
As far as being granted tbe ricbt to
petition, everyone bere bas lhe ricbt to
petition any of &beir elected officials
lIP to and iJlc1udiDc tbe President of &be
Uniled states. Now. lbe A.M.A. bas exleIIded to us tbat same prhilep. Pe~
haPs tbe key word bere is - elected" as
we lave never bad the ript to elect our
representatives to tbe A.M.A. and as
tar as I can see, never will.
Most of us bere ID District 37 ride
motofC7cles for tbe fUn of it. we aren't
iDterested or IDvolved ID selliJlg Harler
DavidllOns, imProv1D& conditions on the
PeansylvaDis Turnpike, or taueDlDg &be
'II81Ieta of promoters. W1at we are con_ d abOUt is losing track after tlaCk,
befJIc driven fartber and farther out into
&be desert and laviJlg mae and more
artIUrary laws and recnlat10ns psssed
c:oncerDiac our SIlOrt. ADd all tbe while
lbJ8 lag, tat. IBtional organization sits
back and tells us tbey cannot become
IDvolved in local problems. All they can
do 18 accept our money, band down rules
uu1 PeDa1ties from on hip. and i _ ,
it yOu'll pardon &be expression, sanetillll8. r d be haPPY to issue tOOse sanetioae mys~lr uu1 do it for a lot less
money.
Everytime tbis subject is broupt lIP
on &be noor we nm out of time, or SOllIeone is loinl to look SOIIIetbiDg lIP, or a
committee will investigate or SOIIIetb1Dg
else comes lIP. so we keep sweeping it
UDder &be rug montb after mon&b. This
dese"es some full scale discussion.
1JbeD are we goIDg to have il?
A. JAY DRAPER. President
DYll&'"lllites II.C.
12359 Felipe St.
El Monte, Calif.
REPORT of the DIST. 31 COMPo COMMa MEETING
In a surprise move prompted by
the reading of an Open Letter to
District 37 from the Dyna-mitesM.C••
the attending clubs at Thursday
nights District 37 Sports Committee
meeting voted to stop sending money
back to the National office.
The letter above. read by Jay
Draper, President of the Dyna-mites
stated among other things that every
rime we ask for something in this
District it is tabled for one reason
or another including that of - flJ11.her
stndy" aDd no satisfaction is ever
given. Coasidecable diSCl1ssion took
place over this, with Jean Carter
presiding over the con troversy that
was considerably more orderly than
previous discussions oa the same
subject. Finally. a roll call vote
was taken. The motion called for
was tbat until all problems are settled to the complete satisfaction of
the District, uo more sanction fees
will be sent back to the National
off1ce. Fees for the first quarter of
1967 have already been paid, so the
ban goes into effect starting with
the secoud quarter of the year.
Durin g the ensuing discussion, a
point was made that despite Earl
Flanders efforts to make the wishes
known o{ our District at the National meeting, and the {act the District
paid {or its President to go back,
just about everything the District
asked {or was either over-ridden or
just di ed for lack o{ support on the
vote. The feeling was that although
our money continually goes back to
Columbus we are not allowed to make
any decisions or vote {or our representatives.
The tally on the roll call vote
showed that it passed 43 for with
13 representatives againsL
Tbe number one plate in their
respective divisions were awarded
to the foUowinl with tbe District
absorbial &be cost of same as a
token of esteem. Heavy-weicbt Endoro Jack Krizman, Heavy-weilbt
Desert Reed Price. Licbt"weicbt
Desert Bob Belt, Trail Bike Jack
Morpa, Sideback Pilot Mike Parti
aod PauNler Gary Weber. Tbe
number one plates for the two scrambles divisions were Dot awarded as
no inronnation to tbeir bolders was
on lbe bead table.
One important notice was given
ouL Darwin Ballard's phone number
is listed incorrectly on the 1967
applications. It should read 5231504, and everyone was asked to
.make note o{ this.
President Jean Carter also said
that in 1967 there wi 11 be astrict
enforcing o{ safety regulations as
to baIl-end levers and absolutely no
side or center stands allowed on
machines.
-By Maoreen Lee
HORKY SAYS CLUBS CAN BY"
PASS SPORTS COIIIIITTEE
Contacted Tuesday by Cycle News.
AMA headquarters iD Columbus, Ohio
informed us that head-boncbo Bill Berry
was out of town. Competition Director
Jules Horky, when asked for a statement
on the Dist. 37 SPOrts Commi~ee' s refusal to pay sanctioD fees until some
local prohiems are settled. said tbat
Berry and his new assistant Garry Payne
will probably attend tbe February meetiDg of the Committee to discuss Deeded
chaDges.
Asked wbat the AMA would do if
sanction rees were in (act not paid,
Horky repli~ &bey wouldn't get lbe
sanction." And DO records of lbe event
would be kept by the AMA.
'ClubsiD District 37 could still apply
directly to the AMA for sanctioDs," cootinued Horky. "We have a recent case of
just such a thing in District 6 (South
Jersey aDd parts of Pennsylvania). The
local clubs were fed up with a sports
committee they didn't feel was helping
them, and so they bypassed the sports
committee and got their sanctioDs direct.
AMA rules permit this."
SUZOKlIlARAGEllDIT CHANGES
.cComact Gm., -N8&Dti&tiD1
Jo••• , Get ••••t O.t.f
Se&d._&'"
Jack MCCormack's toprllcbt management grouP is on its way out of U.S.
Suzuki Motor Co. this week. General
IlaDager MCCormack and Advertising
Director Walt Berk bave already lett the
company. Remaining members of the
IIl&IBgemenl grollP are still at the multimillion dollar Santa Fe Springs headquarters carrying out &be transfer of resPOnsibility to an all-JlIPanese management. pend.iDg negotiation of COD tract
settlements.
By Bill Blakeslee
Cyde ews Readers may recall &be receat article _ OlD gi vinl aD Englishman's view of American desert racing,
wrium by lbe subject of lhis story,
Maurice Arden. Arden is also lbe Drigt"
Dator of famous -Big JobD" lOueb-raciDg
boota. _cb be manwaewres, among
bls other claims to rame.
U you bave ever smasbed your toes
on a big rock or SPent bours pickiDg
cactus needles out of yOUI shins. theD
you'll like this guy. I have and I sure do.
His name isn't reslly Big John. its
Maurice Arden. its his boots tbat are
called Big John. That's how I met him.
One nipl after a Hare and Hound I was
picltiDg those same needles out of my
sbiDs and wondering if there wasn't a
better way to go, when I tbought of pictures I bad seen of English riders wearing some heavy looking boots. You
know the b1>e. with the buckles down
the sides. Well. tbat night I began
writing ietters. Much later I Il.nally
learned tbat what I wanled came from a
plsce called "Little Bumby", direct from
&be guy tbat made them. Thats all the
address tbere was, LiWe Humby "near"
a city called Grantbam Lincs. Eo.gland.
I ngured that anybody tbat lived iD a
town called LiWe Bumby bad to be
some sort of a kook. The repiy he sent
me seemed to prove it. seems he couldn't
find any boots be liked either. so he
made his own. TIley became Popular so
he and his wife decided to -bave a bit
of a gO- at it. I knew then that I bad to
bave a pair of those boots. The name he
picked came from a pOpular SODg at the
time. about a tough cosl miner named
Big John. Also be bad a friend ...ho ...as
.a top scrambler ...earing them and his
nick-name was Big John (Burton). See
wbst I mean? Kooky.
I got the boots and after I wore them
a...hile my admiratioD for tbis "kook"
began to grow. We contiDued to write
,\\1'1 6
. ,'6 10'1'
. Photos by Bill BlaI