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a qualifier. We knew Gene rode one
qualifier. That's all he rode. "'He rodethat one up in Oregon. But as far as we
knew, you had to ride a bunch of these
qualifiers to qualify. Nobody told us
that all you had to do is ride one. If we
had known, we could have put a team
up there in Oregon that would have just
knocked their eyeballs out.
But we' didn't do it. Gene rode
another bike. Preston rode another bike.
We didn't have any of our guys on our
bikes. We didn't support them,
primarily because we- rfelt, heck, we
can't afford to get in all these qualifiers.
There's just no .way a small company
like ours can do it.
RON: Penton, though, has a smaller
company than yours and he has
managed to field a full team.
TED: Maybe he's got more money than
wehave.
RON: I would guess that this is also the
case with Yankee. They've had a team
in most of the qualifiers.
TED: Well, Penton's had a team in most
of the qualifiers. He's had all his boys
there. Taking a family to all these things
for experience is differen t from sending
riders· independently to all these events.
How is Gene Cannady going to get away
from the police departmen t to go to all
of these? How is Preston Petty going to
get away from his business to go? How
is Steve Hurd going to be able to leave
his business to go to all these qualifiers?
You see, here's two young boys that are
'being sponsored by their Dad, and then
maybe he can put a couple of guys
together from each section. He can do it
that way. We can't. I don't have boys
like that in my own family that I can
take around in my van and tour the
United States. We have to do it on a
(Co.ujnued pm,p0g64()).
different basis. 1-wo_or three of John'..
hiS own boys or one of them's
riders
his relative.
RON: He's got a few of them there that
aren't - Dick Burleson.
TED: Did he come out here?
RON: Yeah, Burleson was here.
Burleson has hit about five out of the
are
~en.
.
TED, Okay, he's serious. He's hit them
aIL But what about these guys that
didn.t hit them all? I really believe that
if a manufacturer is expected to give full
support to the tea m that he should be
able to pick his team a year in advance,
have it accepted, and then start
qualifying his guys on the bikes they're
going to ride. Take them through a
service department school, let them
learn how the bikes goes together, how
to keep it running. There's cert~ types
of riding that a guy should practice to
get himself used to the Six Days.
I know how I would train a team,
and I know what I'd do to prepare one,
but the thing is, I can't do it unless they
say "Okay, here, we're going to give you
the Vase "A" for Puch right now." right
after the Six Days this year; for
instance. They should come out and
say, "All righ t, we're going to try to
seriously field some teams,
professionally, the same as these other
countries do, on' the same level. Which
manufacturers are willing to take this
responsibility and this expense?" I'd
say, fine, I'd take it over. I'd take one
team or two, and I'd give it a full shot..
I'd pick the riders that I know can ride
our bikes. I think I'm better qualified to
pick riders to ride over there than the
AMA for several reasons. For one thing,
in the qualifiers a lot of times a guy can
be perfectly able and he has trouble. He
sClram6Dn' ar
by Maureen Lee
A couple of weelu ago, three Novices
had their bikes tom down at Ascot, and
the tech inspectors impounded part of
Danny Hockie's Ossa. Those of us
who've known Danny for years seeing
him come up through District scrambles
to a Number One plate, and then to
Ascot were more shook that he was. He
played it so cool it was beautiful. Seeing
as how when things like this happen,
you only get to read the bad stuff, the
happy end of the tale is that his bike
was declared legal by higher AMA
authorities. Danny' got his money for
that night and his points.
,
I know I'm addicted to mo tocross
but it's hard to stay away from that
Ascot half-mile even with all the great
action at Lions going on. The Ascot
Juniors have to be about the wildest
group we've had ou t there in years,
especially a couple of 'em. Word is out
now that officials are starting to wa teb
them, so watch out, boys. Get it out of
your systems now, before you turn
Expert, because if you pull some of that
stuff on the big boys you'll be in the
fence before you can say "Ooops". Not
that Experts ride dirty, but they can
teach you manners in a hurry. One more
thing on Ascot, the sheer power of
DeWayne Keeter's Harley. On a mile it
would be utterly ferocious.
The L..A. Times gave me a giggle
Sunday and chance to be sligh tly miffed
at them. In the "Home" ~ction they
showed needlepoint seat covers for
bikes.. Since I needlepoint myself I
could just see myself working a cover
for a motocross machine ...but, oh
boy ..the major newspapers! They'll run
an article on something dumb like
needlepoint seatcovers for motorcycles
bu t fail to give our big races full or
correct coverage. Still, they've run some
exce~nt articles by Joe Scalzo so
maybe we'll get there yet.
At the District level, with all the
hassle going on over this BLM thing, the
land use tax and other such garbage the
Dusters M.C. called last evening to say
they had gotten their permits and their
run will be on, bu t the paperwork
involved, not to men tion all the trips to
offices etc. was worse than, "getting
married, divorced, and enlisting in the
army all at the same time." Amen. If
you are planning a desert run, remember
what the BLM says, it wants to k.now
where you are going 80 days in advance,
so 0-37 recommends to all clubs, if you
are going to have a run in the ear1y part
of next year, get into action now! The
Dusters bond cost them $75 and the
insurance handled for $15 through a
very sympathetic insurance agent who
apparently knows where it's at. If you
are a District club, grab the nearest
Duster you see i.or '"" ,.them up and get •
call
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names and telephone numbers from
them. It could save you some ex tra leg
work.
A t their run they will also be
handling out supplemental rule sheets at
the riders meeting to clue (olks in who
haven't been keeping up with this
situation.
.
As a pitch for the District clubs, just
remember that every time you come off
the starting line, there are people who
have worked hard to get that run and
have done it for nothing. One thing for
sure, if you belong to a club and are
working a run, usually the loudest
compaliners are people who don't
belong to a club and the 'luckest way to
shut them off is to say, "What club do
you belong to, fella?" So, join a club,
we have a lot of them and many are
looking for new members.
As amateur racing is supposed to be
fun (Veach, I know sometimes it turns
in to all-ou t war and professional.) While
bench racing the other day with a friend
in another club, we started laughing
about the way entry blanks are filled in.
Many times the writing is just about
unintelligible, and that's how wrong
names get put in print in papers, but
some riders have some sense of humor.
One recently wrote, in the make of
machine "O-So-Slow".
C.H. Wheat always put his age as
being as old as Jim Hun ler, while
Hunter used to fib. But one of the best
was Eddie Mulder's desert ones. He just
used to write ME and leave it at that.
One guy riding one special brand (won't
mention it or the advertising manager
will get mad) always referred to his
scooter as a Lemon and another, Toad.
Two tips on the helmet this week.
One to Dick Mann for winning two
Nationals in a row. With two Grand
National Championships under his belt,
Homewood was the first mile he'd ever
won. He's certainly proved to the
teeny-bopper-aged riders that age isn't
anything when you're good and k.eep
yourself in shape. In fact, you don't fall
off so often! Then the other tip goes to
Bryan Kenney.
He's head of the AMX Team and
won an In ternational in France. Franceis Bryan's home ground. He's fluent in
the language and got his start riding
there with a French license, as at that
time, only a few short years ago, there
was no action in this country in
motocross. Most Americans didn't even
know what a motocross was, but Bryan
was riding them, Keep him on his toes,
"Hot Shoe" or bite him in the leg!
Latest off the Hot Line is that the
International Racing Radio Crew will be
involved with the Ontario 500. I think
that's great and it should certainly make
Joe Leonard happy knowing he has
p~l'lY. of, mp}.
