Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125798
Dirt in your Ear... Within which Alice talks about: the BLM, Dr. Magallon, a new van, the Dusters, discovering speedway and comparing Kookie and l.N.! by Alice Rhea I don't bdieve I am psychlogicaJJy sujted for the - great fluctuation of emotions that have been flooding us the past few months. I mean, I get myself all charged up to fight the system and Ron Sloan, Mike Henshaw et aJ trot up to Sacramento and get things squared away. It is like pushing with all your mjgh t on a door and suddenly having someone open it. The result being that you usually fall on your face. In case you haven't read it somewhere else already, here's what was accomplished in Sacramento. BLM has agreed that District 37 is a responsible organjzation ...Whoopee! We may have to put a performance bond in an amount up to $ 1000.00. It is now at the discretion of the district BLM manager, and based on the past performance of the club. Stump Jumpers informed me that BLM advised them they will not have to put a bond. Insurance has been waived un It:ss we ch arge adrrussion for spectators. Otherwise, anybody coming to watch a race or act as pit crew does so at their own risk. We do not have to furnish chemical toilets. but we do have to supply some sort of sanitary facilities. The two dollar or 10% use-fee rake off has temporarily been waived. I suppose that is the most important part. We were all ready to go to war over paying tribute. And, we do not have to f u roish notarized permissjon from landowners whose property we cross. We do have to give BLM a letter certifying that we have contacted or attempted to contact all land owners and that none of them refused permission to pass. We will also be reqllired to have first aid and ambulance services, but then we always do, don't we. Can we contemplate a race without Rescue 3? Doctor George Magallon, who has been writing those valuable articles on racing and your bod, is a real person. I met him out in the desert a few weeks ago and was fascinated to find a real honest-to-goodness M.D. racing a motorcycle. George is a member of 100's M.C., a practicing physician, and is associated with Endura Vitamins which are supposed to be formulated for athletic competition, Ijke racing. Dr. Magallon swears he is over 40 but looks to me like about 26. Perhaps he will give us his diet or whatever it is he uses to say young.looking. A close friend' of m;ne recently purchased a new van to use in his desert _cing adventures. He insisted that he must have one of those racks for carrying the spare tire on the back door. His indulgent spouse forked over the $20.00 and bought the contraption for him. Wouldn't you know that his very first official act after mounting said tire was to open the back door and break out the taillight? The Dusters M.C. may hold the record for fewest injuries at a desert race. Only eight persons injured. So few, in fact, that Rescue 3 came around after the race looking for more business. We were honored at Dusters M.C. race by the visit of Jack Hurley, president of District 37, and by Roy McElroy, Secre tary-Treasurer of the same outfit. Seems Jack and Roy felt they should attend one desert function, although neither raced this .one, so they wouldn't forget what desert is all ahout. Nice to know that our board members are interested in the sport. One well-known racer got a new frame for his motorcycle. He was installing the forks on the frame with a great deal of help from his 15 month-old son. Seems that he came up shorr three ball bearings and since he didn't have any spare quarter-inch ball beari\lgs in his spare parts box and it was well pasn dinner time, he decided to leave the job until he could go down to the place where he got the frame and get the rest of his parts. Next morning, father and son rose brigh t and early to get back to work and when father changed junior's pants, (Yes, some fathers do change pants.) 10 and behold, the missing bearings. This is a true story, sworn to me by the grandparents of the ball bearing eating future motorcyclist. * * * * * The Enduro Rules Committee held a meeting recently and I learned that those Enduro riders really gotta hustle to get any poin ts. Now in the desert, we pay poin ts to Experts in one column, move over two columns and pay poin ts to Amateurs, move one mOTe column and pay points to Novices. Enduros only use one column. That means that in a max poin ts run only 43 riders get points. They are changing it though, and will now pay "A" riders in the first column and move over two columns and pay points to "B" riders. They could move over another column and also pay "e" riders, but they only have A ani! B. What that means is that an additional 40 people will now earn points in Enduros. They also discussed the New England Interval System of keeping score, but that really got booed and hissed off the floor. Funny, but it seemed so much simpler to me. Perhaps because I have never tried to score an Enduro and don't know the old system all that well and would have nothing to forget, just something new to learn. We recently discovered a form of racing that has been around for a long time, but just managed to escape our attention. It Was one of those open weekends when we feel sort of loose ends.. .! means, what do people do when they aren't either racing, on their way to the desert or trying to recover from a race? Well, some of them go to Speedway races. It really is fascinating. Those guys really boogie around that track. No brakes, no suspension. Just lots of gu ts. It really looked like fun, flinging the bike sideways and 'sljding to slow down so they wouldn't crash into the wall. What really makes it exciting is that they don't always get it slowed down enough to miss the wall. A real blood and guts sport, if you like watching that sort of thing. It does happen a'little too fast. I would like to see them go, say, 10 laps instead of the . four or five they go now. Other activities notwithstanding, it was really good to get back to the desert and watch our heros popping wheelies down the pit road; the dust and heat; the chaos in the pits and the drooping bodies at the finish Ime. Does anybody know whether team members both have to ride as Expert if one rider is an Expert and the other Novice? I note that John McCowan is a Novice, while Kookje is an Expert. Of course Kookje is first dog a lot oftener than John is first Novice person, so he did transfer much faster. But don't the other Novices feel it is unfair competition to hav.e Kookie coaching John, as it were, sitting up there on the tank, telling him how to react to various situations. Now just think how much better all of you could ride if you had J. . riding along with you telling you, "O.K., now give her a little more gas." and hot tips of that sort. I don't want to be a trouble·maker, but then I don't want the rest of you Novices to be short-changed. M 1 M ~ (l) .D ~ ~ ~ ~ w d >U I , Cycle News bone jarring Motocross action in the Big 's infield on Saturday afternoon. See it all if you can. But don't miss the ig one...the one and only second annual hampion Spark Plug Motorcycle Classic. Where to buy tickets. Tickets fur all preinary race days (Wednesday, September 7, thru Saturday, September 30) may be urchased at the Speedway Box Oftice on e day of the race or weekdays from 9 am 5 pm, Saturdays, 10 am to 4 pm. Tickets for Saturday, September 30, and unday, October 1, may be purchased at: all Sears and Montgomery Ward stores all May Company and Broadway Ticketron tWns 0 all other Southern California icketron outlets 0 Ontario Motor Speedway. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Please send me the following tickets for the Champion Spark Plug Motorcycle Free Postel' Offer. Order prime $8 Reserved Central Conrourse seats by mail and receive a free bonus: a full· rolor Champion Spark Plug Motorcycle Qassic poster. Use the roupon and order today: (Limit, one poster per order. Offer expires September 15). • . Qassic on October I, 1972: _ _ _ Victory Circle @ $35 ea. Central Concourse Reserved @ $8 ea. Central Conrourse Reservedlrs. (15 & under) @ $4 ea. _ _ _ E/W Concourse Gen. Admission @ $6 ea. E/W Conrourse Gen. Admission lrs. (15 & under) @ $3 ea. Also send tickets for Saturday, Sept. 30: _ _ _ Gen. Admission @. $4 ea. Gen. Admission lrs. (15 & under) @ $2 ea. $ Total Remittance Name _ Address _ City Sl:ale Zip _ Telepllo.em.. Area Codel _ o Check enclosed. 0 _ BankAmericard. 0 Master Charge. Acct.No. ---::---:---::-===-=--:-:----::--:===-== 1972 CHAMPION SPARK PLUG MO'I'ORCYCLE CLASSICS SEP'I'. 27-ocr. I ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY Signature---, Mail mOntario MOlXlr Speedway, Ontario, Calif. 91764. For information, call (714) 984-2255. l