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Road Briggs Crashes In Australia By Peter White SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Feb. 28, 1970Four times world speedway champion Barry Briggs was Injured In a spectacullar crash at the Liverpool Raceway, near Sydney, last night. Briggs suffered a broken collarbone, a thumb Injury and concussion. Accident occurred on the first corner of the first race when Ted Llndskog(Sweden) overslld and sprawled across the track. Br iggs clipped Lindskog's bike and fell. Then Scottish ace Bill Landels became entangled In the melee. Itseemed as U Landel's bike touched Briggs as the maestro lay prostrate on the track. Briggs was rushed to the hosp ital but was released later the same evening atter treatment. Meeting was his final booking In Australia this summer. In two previous outings on the Liverpool -:Ircult he had been overshadowed by current world champ, Ivan Mauger. Briggs, however, had been hampered by machlne trouble which he claimed he had remedied for this evening. Although groggy this morning, Barry was not unduly dlstrubed by his injuries and stated he Intended to stick to his schedule. ThIs Involved flying out to America this Monday (March 2) to prepare for his booking a fortnight hence at Daytona. Despite everything, Briggs. wUl not hear of mis s ing Daytona. " I am quick to heal" he said. Of such stuff champions are made. Rider Action Notes By H. J . Eble That particular time of the year has arrived when enthusiastic riders hit the " old as phalt" again. The cold gr ip of winter has started to lose Its hold, " old Sol" has begun to warm the air, the grass and shrubbery are starting to sho w their color , and the pulse of the road r ider has s tarted beating faster . The year started off with the SCMA Installation Dance In Downey at the American Legi on Hall complete with fog and a chilly night. In spite of these deterrents a sizeable group assembled for the activities and everyone seemed to let It " all hang out" .and enjoyed themselves Immensely. Next In the chain of events was the Installation dance of the R.R.C. at the Anaheim , Bowl In Anaheim. As usual a good sized group vibrated their bodies to the musical strains produced by Johnny Campbell and his group of fine musicians. The dance was preceeded with a dinner attended by close to 100 riders and friends. One of the , many pleasant moments of the evening was the apperance of Johnny George of the Ace of Clubs. Although sporting a cast one one arm he seemed fit and chipper. On Feb. 8th 'with a stretch of good weather preceeding a warm and balmy week, the Majestics started the "balI" rolling with their Poker Run. With everyone tiring of " bench racing" and polishIng the chrome during the winter months the ti me had come to hit the asphalt. There were somewhere In the vicinity of 800 riders at this event with about 500 entered. I was able to make It up to Bakersfield and visit the Red Tops at their clubhouse. They had a rather unusual activity going for them that evening unlike the normal run of activities encounte red among clubs . When was the last time that you attended a wedding at a genuine motorcycle function ?? The br ide and groom were In full uniform surrounded by fellow members and visiting clubs In full uniform along with guest outriders. In all It was quite different and It was all summed up by the groom whoremarked, "It is . the best wedding I' ve ever had" • Thanks to the courtesy of the Red Tops , I was able to hit the r oad the next morning and ' tool my way up to Manteca to the Golden Bears clubhouse where I joined quite a group signing up for a Poker Run that morning, about 360 strong. ThIs set a new record for the north country for a one day run, with everyone raring to go on the first run of the year. It was an old fashioned Poker Run complete with a limed course, check points with sealed cards, and scenery that was quite unlIke anything avallable In Southern Califor nia . The day warmed up pleasantly, th~cour se was enjoyabl e and well plann ed. 1 found a lot of Interest fr om a number of individuals and clubs In so me of the events planned In the Southlan d. For tunately I brought some calendar of events with me both for the R.R.C. events and also the S.C.M,A. On the calendar of the R.R .C. there ts a correction to be made. 1 have been Informed by the Ace of Clubs that they are vacating their date of May 30 & 31st and ....i ll have' their run on the 6th & 7th of June Instead. The reason given Is that the city father s at Lone Pine cannot handle the crowd along with the expected Memorial Day tratflc, both In town and on the highway through town. Be sure to make this notation on your calendars. Things seem to be picking up for the S.C.M.A. these days. The last I heard the membership stood at around 800 and things were looking better than In the past. Doug Berger, S.C.M.A . president, recently attended a Valley Council meetIng In district 36 In response to an invitation by V.C. for further Information on the S.C,M.A . activities. Since I do not receive too much Information from the S,C.M.A. I do not plan to stick my neck out at this time with too many conjectures. However the possibility of an affiliation of the S.C.M.A. with the Valley Council would seem to be a distinct possibility• It seems that there Is some confused opinions on the R,R.C. Blood Bank among some of the outriders these days. Now while It may be true that It Is restricted to participating R.R.C. clubs, It Is also available to any outrider that wishes to donate. All that Is required Is that on the next Blood Bank night just show up (May 18th) and have a chat with Darrell Steen who Is the Blood Bank chairman and will be there. Any outrider can participate, and he and his Immediate tamUy wUl be e1lglble U for any reason It Is needed. It really does not hur t one and Is a very good form of Insurance. In the same vein of thought, there wUl be another change seen this year. Most everyone Is familiar with the 29 Palms Run which Is put on by the R.R,C . and the proceeds being donate d to the City of Hope. However this year there will not be a 29 Palms Run. By unanimou s vote of the R.R.C . the location of this popular event has bee n changed to Ridgecrest. ThIs Is up around the China Lake area about 12 miles due east of highway 395 (8 miles east of Inyokern). Mark this on your calendar of must runs for theyear. Quite a bit of the local spadework on this event Is being handled by the newly formed HI-Desert Riders, a newly sanctioned A.M.A. club and the lastest club to Join the R.R .C. By Maureen Lee For those of you Who don't belong to a club or hang out In a shop ~hlch posts the DIstrict bulletin on the wall, we think It's a good Idea to pass along a bit of information you may never have thought about and that's the ambulance fee. That 25~ you pay Is for stand-by ouly and doesn't Include the ride to the hospital should you require one, (and we hope you don't!) Some time ago Perris was using an am bulance service that would haul your poor wounded carcase away to the hospital for free and at other times other tracks and desert runs have been able to provide you with this service. So, It you require attention you'd better inquire just what the deal Is before you take that ride, unless of course you're In the condition where you must go Immediately and to hell with the expense. But there have been some misunderstandings lately when a rider was presented with a $60 ambulance bill and thought that his 25 ~ had covered that. scram rounir By the time this column Is printed Elsinore will be over with and frankly, we can 't walt for this weekend to get here. The scramblers always do well there against the desert brigade where as at some of the big events they get eaten alive. We have a hunch that it's because a scrambler can go taster on fire roads and asphalt than a lot of the desert riders and can control those skids better. The Idea the Grlpsters have about no results being given out unW the trophy presentation may not sit too well with a lot of riders but It will give the Grlpsters som e breathing space and they're the guys who are doing the work. It stops the hoardes uf riders rushing up to the poor officials at the end of along hard day saying, "Where did I finish where did I finish ?" And It stops something else that ALWA YS happens; the guy who thinks he won It or came In second or third just because his relatives were keeping lap charts on hi m. We can 't mention names In this case but there are a couple of chaps whO've been provoked Into arguments because mummle said they were leading when actually the oftlclal lap charts sho....ed they'd been passed. With tons of riders on a circuit someone can sneak by you and you don't even know you'v e bee n hadl But all kidding aside, It' s not a bad .Idea to have a buddy keep an eye on your position, scorers are not infallible although the Grlpsters are using video tape and It you think a camera can pick up a wrong number, there ai n't no wayl After the Elsinore we have some more big ones to look forward too. The Viewfinders Grand Prix scrambles at Bay Mare, entries are now open for that and It you wonder why Bay Mare and not Westlake, well, you haven 't have time to check this out . yet. However, last time some of the horse and cattle people got pretty up-tight with certain yo-yo's finding their way onto the property betore race day and tearfng around and you can't blame them. A couple of Idiots can ruin things for all of us and this Is one reason that the rules are so strict In Elsinore this year. For mer District President Ron Sloans' quote of " We' r e our own worst enemy" Is very appropriate. Then In June the DIrt Diggers are planni ng a two-day super goodie . Would you believe two days of racing for both the little ' uns and the big ' uns ? On two tracks yet? Keep you posted on that one.