Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125623
between youtll and the establishment.
We're really cooceraedaboutourlddsl
Just tile otber day another youth told
me, "the reason the kids are all turning
on and getting higb all the time Is because
there's nothing to do." I'm not passing
judgement on pot or anything else, but
when a kid is riding his motorcycle he
isn't doing a lot of other things that the
adult society pretends to think are a
lot worse.
It Isn't just motorcycles, though that is
what we are concerned with. Therearea
lot of things the kids want to do that are
reasonable and proper but which interfere with or disagree with the adult
American system of values. And It seems
to me that the adult system of values
most generallY used In this country interferes with the living of life and the
enjoyment thereof. Maybe it Is time to
take another look at that system of values.
National TT To Wirth & Aldana ~
IT
NATIONAL TIME ON WEST
COAST
One of the strongest fields in history
of the event is fast taking shape for the
annual 50-lap National Steeplechase
Championship at Ascot Park in Gardena
Saturday nigbt, JulY 12.
The entry list indicates a virtual who'S
who of the two-wheeled racing sport
which will challenge the victor's spot
monopolized by Skip Van Leeuwen in
recent years.
Managing Director J.C. Agajanian has
posted prize money of $7500 for the
evenf, making it among the more attractive cycle racing purses of the year.
»There will be a full flat- track card
Friday night, July 11, preceding the
Nationals. This is a departure from
former years, when the novices held sway
on Friday. The thinking is that the riders
and fans would enjoy seeing the big names
of the sport in action on the half-mile
before the Nationals.
Skip, the handsome veteran, IJ; always
the rider to beat on the interesfIng fiveeighths-mile course with Its left and
right turns and big jump in front of the
grandstand. Skip's job in trying to repeat
will be tougber than ever before.
Gary Nixon, National Number One, will
be on deck to head the invaders. Nixon Is
one of the all-time cycle greats. So ls
another veteran wbo'll participate, Bart
Markel, the point leader in the 1969
battlings on the national tour.
Eddie Mulder is a former National
Steeplechase Champion and he is well
acqua.lnted with the Ascot course. So Is
Dan Haaby, who has been more successful on the flats than over the jumps In
Ascot action.
Mert Lawwill of San Francisco has
entered. He was the early leader in the
1969 National standings. Cal Rayborn of
San Diego, winner early this year of the
biggest race in motorcycling, the Daytona 200- mile Nationals, has thrown his
entry in the box.
Others set to date include Gregg Morris, RalPh White, Bob BaIley, Jim Corpe,
Jim Burres, Mark Williams, always
tough Dusty Coppage, Dick Mann and
Lloyd Houchins.
The Ascot 50-lapper figures to be one
of the more competitive races of the
entire year .
!Ai~e
(70k) Matthews had the haulinest 2·
stroke at tne TT.
BY Chuck Clayton
Dave Aldana wired the Amateur feature.
This weekend found your roving reporter at Santa Fe Speedway in the south
side Chicago suburb of Hinsdale, Illinois
for the ~5,laP AMA TT National Championship Jon Friday night. Most of the top
rlders ;:trom around the nation met to do
bat£Ce, 'with the notable exception of Skip
Van Leeuwen, Mr. TT himself. Too bad.
SkiP would have loved the high-speed,
half-mile turns and the dense, twisty
Infield capped by a beautiful Ascot-type
jump.
On hand to rescue the glory for the
West, however, was Eddie Wirth who
rode his Harold Sellers-tuned BSA twin
to his first National Championship victory with a large lead on the rest of the
snarling pack. "My shifter was digging
iHto, the ground," Ed remarked after the
dusty race. He'd raised the pedal after
geWng off in practice, but the 25-yearold, 175 pOUD