Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

TI,t1 Evans Bags ACA 'J' Plate By Bu zz Bat y RIVERSIDE , CAL. , Dec . 12, 1971 Th e b ig story t oday, of course, has t o b e th e Pat Eva n s story. T oday 's ra ce at Ri verside International Ra ceway was th e climax to the AC A's R oad Racing season. It was a gra nd climax for the entire Evans clan as Pat fin ished th e Pat Evans, No .1 and richer. ~' season w ith en ough points to b e th e AC A ch am pion in five cla sses. Pat will carry th e c ove ted Numb er One next y ear. Despite losin g some fo ur m onths o f th e season due t o a bro ken wris t , Pat st ill t ook firs t pl ace m ore th an 150 times durin g th e seas on. J ust t o add a little fr o sti n g to th e cake, Pat p icked up $60 00 of Kawasa ki con ti nge ncy m oney fo r b ein g numb er one o n a Kaw asa ki in th e 2 50 a nd 350 Production classes. The name Evans is a hard n ame t o ge t away fr om wh en you ta lk ab out ACA Road Racin g even ts b eca use you run into it every time you lo ok at a r esult sh eet. Young Jimmy Evans, n o rela tion to Pat , did a really o ut-o f-sight job th is year, winning his share, but eve n when he didn 't win he impressed everyone with h is ability and d ed icati on and it. p aid o ff. The AMA h as given Jim his Am ateur license an d Mel Dennison of Dennison Yamaha will provide the equipment and b acking for th e 197 2 Road Ra cing season. Congratulations to th e ACA as a wh ole for a marvelous season, to Bev Cooley for a fantastic job o n th e scoring • and results, and in getting th ose results to us lazy , ph otographer/reporters. And most o f all, congratula tion s a nd a th an k you to all of the ACA rider s for many excit ing and entertaining hours through out the season. I didn't wan t to end this report on an unhapp y n ote and n ow I d on 't h ave to. I just finished ta lking to the fo lks at R iv ers id e C ommunity H ospital concerning Jon Ciener. J on h it t he wa ll en teri ng tu m n in e during th e running of th e Sen io r Open Even t. He lo oked to b e in pretty b ad shape, but th e h ospital report is th at Jon is in go od sha pe, n o broken b ones, n o internal injuries and is under observation after repair s fo r knee an d face inju ries . From the way folks a t the hospital talked, Jon will b e b ack riding before Santa st arts his trip . But th at particular Kawasaki HI-R th at h e was ridin g is a to tal loss as nothing was left in one pice, n ot even the engine. No-Pointer Has Fine .Show By Clark Kent • PALM SPRINGS, CAL., Dec. 5,1971 Sunny skies and beautiful weather were on hand to greet the Desert riders , both loc al and from the District. As this was the first of .th e Open Sunday's "meaning we don't have to ride for points" so off we go to ride for fun. Temperature stay ing in the 70's, the riding gear was leather pants , tee shirts and sweat shirts. The co urse was five miles long, demanding y et enjoyable, with up hills and down hills - sandwashes and ra zor b acks and an oc cas ional rock or two, j ust to keep you on your t oes, finishing w ith a san dy downhill into the pits , giving a good view of the entire c o urse from on top. The IOOcc class was on the lin e a t 10 sharp and left at the same time. With one hour to go, J im Francis took an earl y lead o ver Norm Benham and Rich Wald en . Benham, after bending h is motorcycle , engine and head, retired leaving Walden to pursue big Jim. Walden, with four straight wins on h is 100cc Honda , was determined to co ntin ue h is winning streak. Pu shing Fran cis all the wa y, swa p pin g the lead in th e p it s down th e sand hill and out through the whoop-d e-d o's on the last lap . Seven minutes later big Jim appeared on the h og-backs out in fr ont again , Rich still th ere but in sec ond position. Down the hill to the checkered Do n Wat kins Jr. e njo ys the weath er. flag - Fran cis (Ka w ) fo r the win with Walden (Hon) second. The 125 cc clas s lined up next and was off at 11:10. Jim Makos, lo cal dominator of the 125 class , had his work cut out for him, with Bob Kulek on his mother's Penton. Kulek took the lead immediately while Jim, last off the line, was just getting started. Three laps later Kulek was still out front, Makos in second and that's how it went. When Makos would get close !!og would twist mother's throttle to keep a safe lead while getting slowed down, easy on mom 's b ike flashes from father Joe. More on him later. Bob Kulek (p enl took first and Jim Makos (DKW second. The 175cc clas s was given a separate race and were next up and off. Ri ch ard Bower led o ff the line an d all th e way fo r four laps, then the upse t . This is h ow t hey finished : first Charles Wheeler (Kawl and second Jerry Re ynolds (Kaw. Jim Bringhurst (H us) from San Dimas, Cali f. , took the lead in the 250cc class and led all the wa y . J im Fran cis 100cc class winner an d again Kawasaki mounted tried very but to no 0 no avail and endoed on the last lap and dropped to fifth place. Meanwhile Dennis Hamilton (H us), holding a co nsist en t third, moved up and finished second. Richard Heinrich (Hus) finish ed third, making it three of three for Husky. Last race of the day, the Open class was off and developed into a very in terest in g y et touchy situation. Joe Kulek (Hus) was leading all the troops including Bobby Kul ek (Hus); y o u guess it right, father and so n and they wer e having at it. With 20 riders ch asin g th em, father was showing so n how he st ill c o uld do it. Son p asses father - father passes b ack, boy that WIll make for in teresti ng st ories at th e dinner tab le . Meanwhile, Ron Dugan (H us) was also push in g all the w ay and took sec ond o n lap fo ur wh ile Bob Kul ek d ropped o u t with b roken rear shocks. J oe st ay ed in the lead six laps th en fo uled a plug in th e p its an d d ropped o u t. Both Kul e ks o u t an d n ow things . are b ack to no rmal. takes the checker flag Du gan fo llowed b y J oh n R ogers (S uz), Rob ert Gre en (H us) , an d Da ve Vick (Hus], - (Re su lts o n p age 48) .COST Of RACING '" Q> assump tions in their case. The ro ad rall y b oys get off easi est : they have n o maj or m odification to their ma chines for t he specific p urpose o f comp etitio n. REP AIRS : Repair estim ates are subject to fantastic variat io n. We' ve a ll met th e klutz wh o can spend more keepin g a cas ual ly used st reet bik e running th at Joh n DeS o t o could sp endon motocr oss bi ke he used all year. Still we had to ma ke so m e sort o f estimate a nd we d id. Bef ore y o u holler, consider th e things th at just plain wear out on b ikes that are used seriously: tires, ch ains, p ist ons, rin gs, shock ab so rbers, ca bles, air cleane r elements, brak e linings , cl u tches, etc . Only in the case o f TT riders did we figu re o n splittin g cases: th at was b ecause TT riders are notori o usly hard on gear box es. We fig ure d o n fou r upper en d j obs (p iston an d base) for seri ous moto cross rid ers, tw o fo r play riders, two for serious enduro and d esert riders, o ne for pl ay riders in those categories. Don't forget, the serious riders d o t heir o wn , though . PERSONAL GEAR: This catego ry was fairly easy. We assu m ed that p lay rider s usu w ear what they " ally do which is ab out as little as th e promoter will let th em get away with . Serious rid ers buy pretty exp ensive helmets an d leathers. They need several pairs o f goggles and glo ves and boots d uring a ye ar. Seri ous en d uro and trials riders need Barbour suits . Trials riders don't (shudder) we ar helmets. The play rider is all owed to sp lit the cost of his gear ov er tw o years, but th e serious rid er wears all of hi s o u t in one year with th e exc ep tio n of helme t and Barbour suit. T RANSPO RT ATION : T his w as anoth er subject wh ich could present quite a problem, because there 's so much variati o n. Some guys can get a lo ng wi th an old pick-up ; others ne ed a m otor coach with a t rail er a t tached . We finally de cided t o cal c ulate our estimate just on the basis of approximate mileage, allo w ing serious r iders '8 cents per mile and play riders 6 cen ts a mil e on the basis that serious riders h ave generally managed t o get hold of a van o r ca mper o r a good trailer while pl ay r iders 0 ften rent trailers, go with someone else o r throw their bikes in th e b ack o f th e old VW. . TRAVEL EXPENSES : This includes meals and lodging (when required) for two p eople on the assumption th at (Cont'd·fTompage 31) eith er a wi fe o r fri end go es alo ng as pit crew . If a reader always goes alon e, o r alway s takes six kids h e must adjust accord ingly . Desert an d end u ro gu ys are assumed to cam p o ut ; most other ca tegories o nly stay o vernigh t ra rely and when th ey d o , it 's ass um ed th ey stay in mo tels . DUES, ASSOCIATION FEES, ENTRY FEES AND S UCH : Her e we made the assump tio n th at the rider only jo ined enough as socia ti o ns to get th e number o f ri des required. So the seri o us enduro rider must b el on g to b oth the CERA and th e A.\IA . The play rider only h as to join th e A MA. Serious rid ers are assum ed to belong t o a cl ub, p lay riders are n ot. Pla y rider s skip expensive events. A FEW OTHER PROBL EMS: Quite oft en serio us motocr oss rid ers will ride two or three eve n ts a da y . Sometimes this is ne cessary in ord er t o get enough riding in to d evel op an y skill. Expenses naturally skyrocke t , but if y ou're co n side ring getting serious abou t motocross, this is something to take into account. We've said n othing abou t insurance or th e cost of ge t ti n g hurt, but it's a real ex pense ; there 's ju st no reasonable way to write it in. Anyone wh o rides seriously can figure o n getting hurt once in a while. He ca n figure on ge tti ng hurt quite fr eq uently in motocross an d TT , sometimes in deser t racing, occasio nally in enduros, and trials, a nd infrequently in road ra cing. In the last one, h owever, if h e d oes get hurt it can get pretty serious. As we said in the beginning, .it's p ossible to quarrel with an y of the figures presented here. But be fore yo u d o, ad d up y our o wn expen ses if y o u 're already racing. Th e to tal will b e much higher than y o u think, guaranteed. And if y o u think w e overest imate d the ex pe nse in so me ca teg ories, please co nsi d er th at we were co nserva tive to the p oint of naivt ee in others. In Repair and Modificati on for instance, we allo w ed for only definable it ems; blow your engine, ruin a set of forks, tweak a frame or decide to re d esign a fram e and all bets are o ff. Conclusions? Draw your o wn. But don 't sh ow this ar ticl e to y our wife or parents. They mi ght want y o u to switch to something ch eaper ,like polo o r yacht racing! COMPARATIVE COSTS OF MOTORCYCLE COMPETITION ,,<' ,," ... 0 0'" 0" ~ Machine cost/per y ear Modifications Perso nal Gear Transportation Due & Ass 'ns. Entry Fees Repairs & Main. Travel Exp. Total Expfl Yr . SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR SR PR $3 13 170 125 250 300 117 360 72 35 25 245 60 670 330 350 120 2398 1144 .... "f; <:)" $3 13 170 125 250 300 117 840 216 17 17 147 50 670 330 525 180 293 7 1330 ..... ..... $252 170 300 150 300 125 560 72 17 17 147 50 720 200 350 120 2646 904 ~(; 0" ,§ 4,><;-'IS $252 170 125 25 300 90 1230 216 23 17 210 70 700 200 400 120 3240 908 .:;;." .... ' < 5249 237 75 75 150 45 640 72 15 15 105 40 150 50 350 120 1734 654 ?>

• Cover