Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

We$t Coast Road Race Motocross Hack Nat'l Looming In Seattle lurch and we went around the bend on two wheels with me on the floor hope- By Dewitt Thuett A $15,000 Na tional Road Race scheduled for Nor thern California's Sears Point raceway on Apr U 19th has been cancelled and the AMA has given that date to a half-mUe race with a $6000 purse In Palmetto, Georgia. As a result the new national road race at Seattle lnternational Raceway on AprU 4th and 5th will be the only National road race in the Wes t this year. The Seattle race will be the third stop on the National ctrcutt and the first s ince the Daytona 200. The track, located in Kent, Washlngton 15 a complete opposite of the Daytona track and Is i rider's course fr om start to f101sh. The Raceway lays within a heavUy wooded area and Is full of up and down hUl turns and corners. Featured race on the two day program will be the 125 mUe Nationalfor Experts on their Daytona machines. In addition, there will be a combined 250cc race for Experts and Amateurs, an Amateur big bike race and a Novice 250Cc eve nt. This will be. the first time a National road race has ever run in the Nor thwes t an area that has hosted National mUe and TT racing In the past, but never a ma jor road race of any type. A few years ago the track sanctioned a local race and some of the better known professionals were on hand. It was their unanimous op1o1on that the Seattle course was the best they had ever r idden. The AMA 125mUer will be run on the same course that hosted the USAc Indy cars last fall. All of the various factory teams are expected to enter the Aprll 4-5 races s ince it 15 on the national POintcalendar• Riders and fans may obtain complete detaus by contacting Seattle international Raceway In Kent, Washlngton. Former Los Angeles area sportswriter BW Doner 15 the track manager who plans on making the AMA' National two day meeting an annual event. Ace Of Clubs Licks City Hall Cl1max1ng a two year running battle with the lnternal Revenue Service, the Ace of Clubs Motorcycle Club f1nal]y won the deciston . which exempts the m from the feder al corporation tax. During the process which was handled by the club'S tax representative, R.O. Fee, appeals from the Initial dlsquallflcation wer e carried clear to the ms's National Offlce in Washlngton. "Deallng with the Exempt Organizations Section of the IRS Is a very dellcate matter," sald Mr. Fee, " As they have a language all of their own. Commonly accepted meanings have llttle or no relationship to the regulations that these people rule by. In some cases mere communication with the ms defeats the appllcation. The Ace of Club'S trouble started with the Callfornla Fr anchis e Tax Board. Following a series of club address changes, the FTB could not communicate directly and their letters were not reaching the club's secretary. When one f1nally did get through, it bor e the startllng news that the Callfornia Tax Exemption had been revoked. The California exemption, Issued when the club firs t incorporated as a soctal group, 15 worth $100 annually. That 15 the minimum tax any corporation must pay, regardless of profit, a lesser tax llahWty or even 1nact1v1ty• "The California problem wasn't too bad," Fee related, "It only took a half hour'S horn time to Sacramento to get the revocation rescinded, But they kept asking ' What' s your status with theIRS?' ironically, everyone in the club belleved the group to be exempt, but the papers were m15s ing. Investigation revealed that the IRS had no knowledge of the club . That didn't make anyone too happy as the ms · wanted back taxes. Using their own peculiar reasoning, the ms turned down the Ace of Club's appllcation for exemption which led to several appeals and eventually the exemption letter. " The club could have taken the easy route and given up with the first defeat," said Fee, "but the members thought that they were rightfully exempt, stood up to one of the most powerful bureaucracies in our county, and won- not only for the Ace of Clubs, but for other motorcycle clubs as well. During one of the local . conferences, the exam1ner mentioned that s ever al exempt appllcations from other groups were to hinge on the outcome of the Ace of Club's case." lessly wedged between the grab bar and the fender . I groped around for something to pull myself out by to no avall. F1nally, after a llttle hollering and a lot of laughing I got Kelvin to roll off the-throttle, but we had to come to a complete stop before I could un-pin myself by roll1ng hells over hea d onto the ground. Soon, we decided we should learn to walk before trying to run and we forsake the bouncy motocross course for the smoother but faster TT track. Here we started to get the hang of it. Most of the turns were to left so the passenger spent a lot of time hanging out of the chair. Every once in awhile the inside of a turn had a course marker post or dirt bank that had to be dodged. As sure as the passenger moved in enough to allow a prudent margin the wheel would 11ft and send the rip; to the outside or toward the gully depending on how hairy things were. On the right turns we'd scramble up behind Kelvin and put weight on the driving tire . The action of the passenger Is very cr1t1cal. ("Passenger", that's a nice name for the more common term "moneky" . I'd often wondered how that name came about. After a day of sldehacking I found that it's quite approprlate.) If, for Instance, the rear wheel 15 sp1nn1ng and the passenger hops up behind the rider and gears the knobble to the track, watch out. The front wheel comes up and any thoughts about steering around a corner are forgotten. • Steering the rig can only vaguely be compared to driving on lee. At first it seems much worse. The attitude of the handlebars 15 almost unrelated to the direction of travel. On -the other hand, the throttle ' acts llke a rudder and you can sort of herd it along with the twtstgrip. With a hack there are right turns and there are left turns. The two man- .... CI> (Continued from Page 17) euvers have nothing whatsoever in commono Well, after picking up the rudiments of how to make it go around the track we began to put things togeth er. Soon we were slldIng through the faste r turns and even got airborne over the jump a fe w times although it never felt quite right. It was great sport. As Kelvin and I gained mutual confidence weput together what seemed to be pretty speedy ' laps. It was also hard work . My arms ached and my wind was getting short. As I tired it took me longer to change position and that didn't help the stabWty. Kelvin said his wr15ts felt ten feet around. "One more lap ?" he asked. When I Just hung out my tongue in answer he agreed, " Yeah, I'm tired. We've done OK so far I'd hat to make a m15take now." ~ PO NDERO A INCREASES TROPHY S SI ZE The monthly 27 mUe hare scrambles at the Ponderosa Inn nowfeatures larger trophies to 40% of the entries. Contingency awards Include professional ' model helmets donated bi McHal to high point riders In each class for weekend, Fast fuel additive to first 12 in each class from B111 Stroppe, Bardahl racing oU to first 12 In each class from Bardahl OU Corp., and racing T-shirts fr om Pie Enterprises. Races will be held the flrst Saturday and Sunday of each month with all classes riding for trophies each ' day and the above contingency awards featured. Standby ambulance 15 provided with course coverage by International Racing Radio Crew. See llsting in Calendar of Events. M Plwerful OSI Pe nto n - Hod aka Ya maha - BSA Husqvarna Norton 1223 A ve. I L.1nc,st., rl 05) 942·9624 MAI·CO West of MI ssl sslp pl BesI Handl· Ing Cooper Molors 2115 w Olive, Bur"'nk,Cal . THIS IS THE ONE' ALL THE TALK'S ABOUT... By Maureen Lee As we were covering the scrambles at Saddleback on Sunday we only had one chance to pop on over to the motocross ctrcuit and watch what the Huntingto n Beach M.C. wer e up to with their event. It looked Impr es sive . Following District rules they were using the lottery sy stem before each r ound for starting pos ition and this really ell minates all that scrambllng around (no pun intended) to get a good starting pos ition. W15h all the d1ffer ent organizations would use it. We st1ll have to watch a motoc ross us ing the new method of all the r ider s holding onto a r ope s tretched above their hea ds with their clutch hands becaus e we hear this works out extremely well and 15 now being used quite widely in England. ' Cour s e. it won' t find too much favor with s ome of the riders who have found out some of ine llttle tricks to gain a llttle over the starter such as what Jeff Smith says about starting about as far away from him on the llne as you can get, " that way there's a chance he won't see you don't have your hand on the helmet 11 you keep your head low enough." There's another trick we noted being used a couple of weeks ago that in interest of safety should be closely watched for and that's the gimmick of holding the clutch in with your elbow, Sure, your paw 15 on your helmet, you're all bent forward looking innocent and awaiting the flag .to drop but your clutch 15 in tucked under your arm with you revving the engine. We'll leave it to your Imagination as to what would happen just as you bllp ped the throttle 11 your sl eeve sllpped off the clutch lever l YahooI Starts with hands on the number plate make it pretty tricky to pull that stunt too. We don't know how many times we've written thls only to have it bomb out one way or another and the actual detai15 must r emain class1lled lnformation but there's a darn good chance that there actually will be a replica of Prado Park buflt; The people involVed have the know how and want to use the orig1nal spectrfcattons, WhUe on the subject of real high speed tracks, don't miss one trip to Adelanto this spring . Mrs. Reddin about inundated the place with wild flo wer seeds last year and it should be just beautiful. We are st1ll getting comments about the conduct of spectators at the Elsinor e _ Grand Prix. Well, llke everyone else, I've no Idea how the hec k you con control that many people on a course running through a town. The turns wer e pretty well policed but other sections weren't. That back straight wher e Malcolm got his was bad. You could spot the people crossing who had so me s marts about the m but other s didn' t s eem to have any Idea at all of just how fas t those bikes were travell ng and a r ider only has so much control. It' s almost " TT in Tucson" ti me again. The ir last race which wUl be the Ar izona State Championshi p 15 the f1rs t Sunday in AprU . We' ve written about that race many times and don't want to keep repeating ourselves but the track 15 out of sight and the natives are mor e than frlendly l Hope as many as possible of you wUl make the trip. We know It' s a long one but the riding you'll get in Is worth it. Just ask people like Dave Aldana and Keith Mashburn how they llked it, It's a gas l • • 1.1 The New SST We c laim it' s the l inest. best ma de. bes t powered min i bike in the world . . • produce d by the Shin San Tong Industrial Company, ltd.. Taiwan. BIG CLAI M ? Okay , do like we sa id. exa mine it ca refully . . . if you 're a mec han ic, take it apart . .. note the strength whe re it need s strength ..• no te the toleranc es . . . chec k the brake system. the shocks •• . try the powe r of the 50 c.c. engin e •.• and then ride it up a loug h. rough hill .. . then swi ng it along a smooth . winding road. Tha t' s atl. We ca n say no more. DISTR IBUTOR / DEALER InquirlfnJ Iml/IfK1 IOT. F_ Rem am lng 7f1'rtl/O " fI'S 1551 . SAN TONG s.o UTH FI GU ERO ... ST RE:ET • GARDEN.... C"'LM'. • PHONE C :t131 S32-1T80 CO., INC. ~ ee Q." ~ Col ~ Col t:3 ~ U

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