Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.lil' ~_. ~ LESS SOUND_...... IL N :;; - ~ ,. o Z ~ w Z w oJ U > U (Cont'd. from page 23) Larry Welch on Routt's almost hundred inches of Triumph "first runs on Friday, little doubt was in went to the,Laidlaw-sponsored team of anyone's mind about the possibilities of Joe Smith and Jim Cook. Jim took the the track. seven th position and his boss got left in Any doubt that was left disappeared the bump spot: eighth. Their times: just after Danny Johnson turned a 9.187-167.59 and 9.195-165.13, sub-record 8.713 second run in the respectively. quarter-mile. His miles per hour were a Some notable non-qualifers were fast 172.41. On this run, the motor's Boris Murray, with clutch problems: 107 d. were coughing and spitting all Bob Abels; Bill Chambers on a new 114 the way. d. Harley; Jerry "Crash" Cox; and a lot Another twin-motored bike bagged of other people. the Number Two qualifying position Two of the qualifiers were back from with an 8.911 at a slow 162.74 mph. recent injuries at Indy: Sonny Raslawski This was the twin Norton of T.C. and Joe Smith. The Raz lost half of his Christianson. fingers and, in a low speed wobble, Joe After a bad accident at Indy, the Smith broke several ribs and punctured great Sonny Raslawski, on about his a lung. - nin th run, came up with a super quick Eliminations have to start somewhere 9.070-166.66. The flying Polack lost and where better than with top qualifer. half of the rmgers on his left hand and Darmy Johnson on his huge Harley came to the line to meet Larry Welch's still is able to work the throttle. This was Sonny's best run to date. 99-inch Triumph" Both bikes staged The little Iowa potato farmer, Leo and, as the lights flashed, Welch left and Payne, made a quick qualifying pass at Danny coughed out of the hole and 9.101, although is MPH were down to died! A familiar thing in drag racing 155.70. happened; the No. 1 broke. Larry The fifth spot went to Easterner stayed on the throttle and came up with Larry Welch on the twin Triumph of a 9.07 at 167.591. Sonny Routt. Welch's time: 9.108, just The next pair was Jim Cook vs. seven hundredths from Payne. Although Sonny Raslawski. Both bikes did their Larry Welch does own his· own bike, a tire-warming burnout. Cook, at against a Harley, he likes to ride the quicker and car, did a nice, hot tire scorcher. Sonny faster nearly-tOO-inch twin. With lost fire just off the starting line and had another rider on Welch's bike, the to be restarted. After a short little spin, motor went to the Big Pit in the Sky as the racers went to the line. The lights the entire top end, heads, barrels, came down and both bikes went off. pinons, and everything else Unfortunately, the Raz locked up his disintegrated. motor and Cook had a cake walk with Dave Campos, the likeable little racer an easy 9.26-167.300. from Albuquerque filled in the sixth Christianson, with his eight-second spot. After having trouble in the two Norton, and Dave Campos paired up for days of qualifying, he finally came up a duel and it was T.C. Christianson with with a 9.158-167.97. a phenominal 8.59-169.172. Campos The final spots in the eight bike field got off a run that would normally have _ _ _ _ Continued from page 17 MAYBl JOlt BUGS, J.N., SYlYAIN AND DlCOSTlR KNOW AflW THINGS YOU DON'T ... --• 1 ~.t=~':'tlt-r. .. zI ilia RAGING FORK OIL _ o.6rtilIfOl.-...c.r fJI .:tJ' .......::=:;.....- LUBRI-TECH .M-13 PRODUCTS, Inc. 7106 Barry AVe]'lue Rosemol'lt, Illinois 60018 motorcycling (For what it's worth, didn't vote for either Nixon or McGovern, but for one of the other seven candidates on the Califomia ballot). Had I been writing for the Dairy Farmer Gazette, it would have been my duty to judge the candidates on the basis of their attitudes towards dairy farming. Surreptitious advocacy of interests alien to the professed subject of a specialized-eoverage journal- is n.othing more than propagan dizing. . Allowing the advocates of alien viewpoints to capture the pages of motorcycle.magazines is fraudulent and, more seriously, it is terribly counter-productive. The motorcycIe press can prosper no more th an motorcycling in general, and any activity which allows its own communications media to become forums for other, sometimes countervailing, interest groups is doomed to be swallowed up eventually by those other interests. Motorcycle publications are certainly the place to examine highway safety from the viewpoint of the motorcycle community, but they are no place to propagandize the sectarian interests of government bureaucrats, "safety· crusaders", or insurance companies. Motorcycle publications are certainly the place to examine foreign trade policy from the viewpoint of the motorcycle community, but they are no place to propagandize the sectarian .. ....... .. - .- ....... ... ~ .. interests of the Federal Reserve Board, labor unions, the U.S. Treasury, or customs oeficials. So it goes with every issue. A specialized-eoverage medium which wanders outside its field of expertise undermines its effectiveness and viability. Too many motprcyclists have allowed themselves to be beaten down to the point where they actually doubt their right to exist and to pursue their ' own h ap pmess m' the'" own way . Too ~ 'sts have been m a ny motorcycll brainwashed into accepting the notion that they must humbly prostrate themselves at the feet of whatever "crusader" wraps his factional interests · m the mantle of some popular cause . ' Too many motorcycllS ts have been browbeaten into believing that their own in terests and happiness -must always corne last. Thi. i. nonsense. Motorcyclists have as much right to ride as skiers have to ski, as conservationists have to conserve, as politicians have to politick, as dairy farmers have to husband their livestock. I refuse to accept the claim that motorcyclists have_ less right to pursue their vision of happiness than do skiers, conservationists, politicians, cattlemen, or anybody else. It is time for motorcyclists to discover the simple but awesome fact they they are not inferior to power-seeking ideologues who would have "mankind" or "humanity" or "nature" or "soci~ty" - or some similar abstraction - but always at the price of immolating motorcyclists. If anything twin. won any meet: 9.01 and 167.28, The little man, Leo Payne, came out to race Joe Smith. Both were Harley mounted; both, experienced. From the startingJine on, itwas Payne's race. Leo led a good distance but was in the lead only by inches. This resulted in almost identical times of 9.15 by Leo with the slower 9.15 by Smith. Although the times look and, in reality, are the same, Leo Payne left just a little quicker and got the win by thousandths of a second. Semi-final round action is were the screws start to tighten and this race was not an exception. Up first were Larry Welch and Jim Cook. Welch, the heavy favorite, breezed through this one with an 8.92-167.278 to Cook's slower 9.26-167 MPH. T.C. Christianson vs. Leo Payne were in the next half of the Semi. T.C., having just cut the sub-record 8.59, was really out for bear. Leo was having handling problems. At the midway, mark, Payne had to shut down as a wobble had started and the Norton got the win light with an 8.97 at 163.24 MPH run. Final round pitted Atco, New Jersey Champ Christianson against many times winner Welch. Both bikes left together but, at the big end, T.C. smashed the records and won a super-quick race with an 8.52 run. Larry couldn't reach down into his bag for more horsepower and lost out with a fine 9.00 flat. At the end of a perfect day, or so the song goes - That was the way the rest of the day, or night, went for T.C. The little dude on the big Norton could end up with as much $3500 for less than a minute's riding. What a way to make a living. _ as takes precedence, I suggest that the fulfilling and self-actualizing human values of motorcycling must rate higher on the scale of morality than demagoguery, propaganda, and the lust for power. In small but numerous ways, however, the motorcycle press seems to believe th..t it has a duty to manipulate, propagandize, and tranquilize the motorcycling community ...probably because the editors themselves tacitly accept a posture of social inferiority, as has sO long been hamme.red in by the mass media and by self-serving factions outside the cycling sphere, For example, "More sound _ less ground." is a true, though unfortunate, description of fact. But "Less sound, more ground" is pure manipulative propaganda, and it can serve only to anesthetize motorcyclists into believing that if they all mount mufflers, .more riding room will somehow become available. Where is the stone tablet that carries that guarantee? Vehicle standards, equipment requirements, clothing requirements, land use, insurance, pollution, and a score of other iSsues involve pressure groups which would cheerfully destory motorcycling in order to gain their special objectives, well- or ill-founded as these may be. The motorcycle press should examine these issues from the viewpoint of what is best for the sport. If it allows itself to be used as a propaganda organ for the interests of alien blocs, it is engage!! in its own self-destruction.

• Cover