Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ Q> go ... N .... '" a;j Cl :0 < ~ W Z W ...J U >- U , g~m~it~ The views expressed in this column and other columns appearing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cyde News West or C & S Publishing Co. Qualified readers wishing free and 'eQual rebuttal space should contact the Managing Editor, John Bethea, by mail or phone stating your position on these matters. Picking the ideal American ISDT team on paper is difficult enough; selecting people to ride and finding rides for them is often close to impossible. Personalities and politics are invaribly a part of the process because the money to send the teams to Europe has to come: from the manufacturers. This year' Don Woods, the newly hired Director of Competition for the AMA fell beir to the job a scan t three months ago. Woods brought quite a bit of judgment but very little e"perience to the job. Some of what lie did borders on genius bu t there are some fairly serious blunders as well. Let's do some Monday-morning quarterbacking. The Trophy team is about as one would expect (and hope for) with one exception. Carl Cranke· is a fine motocross rider who is very in teres ted in ISDT. He may make a truly exceptional ISDT rider. But as yet, he has virtually no experience. He· has ridden only one qualifying round, and he did not ride the ISDT last year. The Vase "A" ·team also seeins t6 have only one weak spot and that is desert ace J.N. Roberts. J.N. has no equal in dry cross-country racing, but his experience in mud and such is minimal. He didn't bother to enter any of the qualifying rounds and only won a Silver Medal at last year's ISDT. One wonders why Lars Larsson, who has many golds from both qualifying rounds and the ISDT itself, and who normally rides a Husky, is not on the "AU team. These two selections though, if not the best, certainly do not portend disaster. The same cannot be said of the Vase uB" team. On this team though, The ISDT: Selection, Rejection, Joy and Bitterness. By Ron Schneiders the problem is not with the riders, all of whom are excellent, but with the machine chosen. Puchs have a record in ISDT type competition that is almost unmatched in mediocrity. There were no Puch finishers at the Bad Rock Trial, or the St. Louis Trial, and only one at the Berkshire. Another problem WIth the J:'uch selection is that none of the riders assigned to them normally ride Puch. Larsson and Stover both ride big Huskies normally. Tom CLark has heen riding a Rokon and Bob Grodzinki has been riding a Penton. Not only will the riders be on bikes that they don't know but for the most part they will be riding machines which are vastly differen tin· size from those to which they are accustomed. To the question of why this particular machine of such proven incompetence and unsuitability was chosen for the riders of our Number 3 team, Don Woods replied that they really had little choice, only Yankees and Puchs were offered for the Vase uR" team. If so, it is a sorry reflection on the distributors of other makes in this country. The Yankee Manufacturer's team offers another cause for concern. Yankee undoubtedly has one of the finest teams of riders to be found (Cutler, Eames, Vincent and Lathem) but Yankee is suffering from a split personality. They market Ossa in this country but they are also trying to sell their own Yankee motorcycle. Their team - on the Ossas - has done superbly, both in the qualifiers and in the Six Days, where they collected .two HOT DOG! eyeleNews HOT HATS ALL NEW! Only75cent. Cycle News Dept. CNP P.O. Box 498 Long Beach, 90801 ca. H.nd Woshable ~ ~ Stay Soft Othman Distributing Co. 18227 Ludlow SI. Northridge, Ca. 91324 • Riding • Racing golds and a silver. But then Yankee decided that they wanted to push the Yankee motorcycle and started their team riding the Y anke~s in the qualifiers. Bu t their margin of success was so slender, they realized that it was foolhardy to try riding them in the Six Days. According to rumor, two and perhaps all of the team threatened to resign unless they were permitted to ride the proven Ossa in the Six Days. Instead of bowing to the good judgment of the team, Yankee persisted, so we now have a situation where Barry Higgins, a motocross rider with no particular ISDT qualifications is riding a Yankee (Which is a totally unfamiliar machine to him.) in company with Dav~ Eames and Charlie Vincent. Dave Lathem, who on the strict basis of .performance, is one of our top ten ISDT riders, has no ride at all and Don Cutler is riding an Ossa on a minor club team. The only redeeming factor in this sorry triumph of money over princip'le is that this team does give us an entry 10 the big bike class where the only serious competition is BMW with its team of giants. Surely though, if the Yankees must be ridden, it should be Cutler and Lathem on them, not only because they know better than anyone else, bu t hecause they worked so hard to qualify them. Believe me, without the tremendous dedication of these two, there is no way in this world that the Yankees would even be considered for the ISDT. The other teams in the lineup offer only small cause for commen t. One migh t wonder for instance wh y Bill Kain, who has ridden no qualifiers, is oil the team. Don Woods told me that Kain has won seven National Championship enduros in a row and has virtually sewed up the Championship with the season only half over. If correct, that's certainly an adequate qualification. Leroy Winters has won many medals and in addition is a continual source of encouragement and morale to the other riders. But he is a bit past his prime and one would think that one of these days he would accept a management position. Joe Carson and Bob Fielding have both participated in the qualifying rounds arid done moderately well. One would not question their righ t to places on -the team except for the fact there are only a limited number of spots and some eminently more qualified riders have heen denied rides. Jeff Heininger is in a class by himself. He entered one qualifier, did not finish, has no particular distinction in any phase of the sport, and has not participated in the ISDT previously. He has about the same qualifications that I do, and we would be equally deserving of a spot on the team - if there were room for about II 00 entries. One concludes that he is on the team because his father's name is Tom Heininger and that is the price for Webco/MIC support. That kind of nonsense makes a mockery of the qualifying system. We have already mentioned two serious omissions, Lathem and Webster. There are more. Dave Ekins, who has won several medals in the ISDT and who won a gold. and a silver in the qualifying rounds, was not offered a spot. Dave could not only bring riding skill to the effort, but invaluable knowledge of the techniques of winning that are not related to riding as well. And last but certainly not least, Bultaco was not granted a team. Bultaco has a far better record than Puch but they are not represented by even a single motorcycle on the American team. This, in spite of the fact that they moun'ted two full teams efforts and did rather well in. the two Oregon Trials. The reason for this given me by Woods was that he spoke to the manager of Bultaco's Eastern organization and was told that Bultaco did not want to enter a team. Even if this were the case, it would seem that the presence of the two teams in the Oregon Trials should have prompted him to inquire further. This, of cou.rse, is not to excuse the lac'k of communication between the Bultaco Eastern and Western organizations. I t seems to be an all-round foul-up that should, if possible, be rectified. On the positive side, the AMA did several very commendable things. We have an extremely strong Manufacturer's Team sponsored by Jawa: Preston Petty, Steve Hurd and Gene Cannady. Preston's had some bad luck lately, but if he breaks out of it, this team migh t well do the Europeans in the eye. Dave Mungenast, Buck Walsworth and LeRoy Winters are another slrong team. Possihly the most imaginative selection was that of Don Stover of Northern California. Don did extremely well (fourth overall) in both Oregon Trials and was invited back East to participate in the Ohio round. He did·so and was well on his way to winning a gold in that event when his Husky gearbox locked up. Don Woods made it possible for him to participate in that Trial so that the eastern establishment could have a look at him. I t worked and he is on a Vase Team. The FIM did not state ex.actly how many riders we would be allowed to enter, but it hinted that about 30 would be accepted. Notice that there are 36 stated to ride. Don submitted those entries and toLd the FIM if they had to cut America's entry, they should start with the Jawa team! This was a play worthy of Bobby Fischer. It would be very poor politics to cut a Jawa team when the Trials is being held in Czechloslovakia. Of course if they do we're going to lose one of our strongest teams. Basically we have a very good team lineup but a few changes seem in order. Don Woods says that the lineup cannot be changed once it is submitted to the FIM, but those who have been around longer know better. Last year we came in fourth in the ISDT. This year we'd like to do better. We need our very best on bikes that are the best available. Any effort that fails in this goal would seem to be inadequate . ·S..... GLOVES FREE MOUNTING WITH TIRE PURCHASE Dealer Inquiries Invited (213) 363-6230 motorcycle ACCESSORIES Bike Back Bag reg. $2.95 I FREE with 1 Year Subscription while supply lasts Fill out subscription blank on page 8. Enclose it with check or money order (sorry. no billings on this order) AND this coupon. We will ship you this bag of a thousand uses by return mail... FREE. check here 0 Enclosed is my subscription blank and $10.00 for a year's subsaiptiori to Cycle News. Please rush my free Bike Back Bag to: Name Address CitY. State ~ ,..L 4\ ,..L " •. J, J .. ".L.) MAIL ORDER WITH 50% DEPOSIT WRITE FOR MORE INFO _ _ Zip _ ~---_-----~--------J It,. 1....... ~. UNL • •••••••• _ ..... M·F 12-8. Sat. 9-6. Sun:1D-2 (213) 429-5961 4136 Woodruff, at Carson Lakewood

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