Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

September 11, 1973 Page 16 GREEVES for 1974 380cc MX Johnston Wins Ponderosa By John Ulrich 44HP LANCASTER, CAL., SEPT. 2 Monte Lee today came within one fouled spark plug of 51 overall wins in the 87 Ponderosa Hare Scrambles held since June of 1966. The fouled plug in his Yamaha 125 and one Mike Johnston thwarted a All metal clutch Superior Ride and Handling, r,250cc MX ___~. 30HP ~" Ceriani ct' 2271bs. Wide Ratio Gear Box 250cc Desert 30HP Ceriani Wide Ratio Gear Box 225lbs. 175cc 1901bs. bid for two in a row, too, since Lee won the overall honors last month on the eight mile course run in three loops. "How come you let me by?" Johnston asked Lee at the finish. '" didn't," replied a confident Lee, "You're just lucky I had plug trouble." Johnston, who finished the race without a rear brake after his Yamah lost it's brake arm pin on the third loop, was surprised;. "I didn't even get tired out the,re this time." His overall win was as much influenced by the quitting of a CZ rider named Richardson as it was by Lee's fouled plug. Richards!>n's CZ was well out in front and seemed to be. a no-con test winner on the first two loops, but the bike pulled in and ended th'e day propped against a yucca after spitting off its rider on a series of quick whoop-de-doos. Johnston was the right man in the righ t place at the righ t time today. Fourteen-year-old Denise Nuckles, the only girl entered, finished in front of a whole bunch of dudes in spite of crashing, fouling a plug', throwing a chain, and getting lost. "It's a good track for crashing on. 1 hate wiping out. Motocross is better," the y~)Ung beauty said after finishing. Jack Ross and the Gre'yhounds M.C. who have promoted the race since it first started, were the' first people to promote a non-sanctioned race. Ove~ the years the every-first-Sunday event has been the training ground for most of the names now associated with desert Winning, and a few mOJ'e besides. The Brooks Brothers, "J. N. Roberts, Terry Clark, Dave Ekins, Steve McQueen, and Tim P'oteet have all ridden the course that Ross describes as having "no. bottlenecks, pIen ty of wide trails, no rocks... it's a safe cou'rse." Noted for its WRITIN~ AROUND Test Ride At NICK NICHOLSON MOTORS INC. 11573 VANOWEN STREET NORTH HOLLYWOOD. CALIF. 91605 By Charles Clayton U.S. DISTRIBUTOR Racing Since '46 - 2·Strokes Since '54 All Parts ,I n Stock - Same Day Service TEMPLE CITY KAWASAKI for Kawasaki Norton A.J.S. Ossa DKW Monark Penton Mota Guzzi Steens CZ Jawa 5300 Nort Rosemead Blvd. Temple City, Ca 91780 (213) 287-6167 FACTORY OUTLEr FOR PREMIER HELMETS STREET...., DESERT - MX DYNo-YUNING PREMIER YAMAHA 19721 BEACH BLVD. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA. 714 536-7555 TheAMA Five - Altruism gets you fired What bothers me most about the scandalous inside-ripoffs is that five very good people have been wounded in the reputation by the lies and misunderstandings put forth by the perpetrators of the AMA intrigue. Nat enough has been told about the inner workings of the AMA offices to explain why such bright, dedicated, motorcy<;le-Ioving young men as Jim Manning, Chet Winter, Don Woods, Ben Harrol and Mike Vapcil were subJect to underserved bad-mouthing and dismissal by the AMA administration. You have to understand that the AMA is a true association. That is, the membership owns and con trois it. Operating a thing as big and busY' as the AMA would take a lot of spare time and attention, so we members prefer to hire full-time administrators, rather than iun it ourselves. After all, the purpose of having an 'association is to make motorcycle riding more fun and less hassle, so why work on dull insurance formulae, lease options and ,?udgets for tl}e association when we could be at the races? Despite its, loose, non-profit nature, AMA handles big' money - some $31', C ! -- ,_.~._--~ CZ rider Richardson looked unbeatable in his quest for overall winner until he pulled off and parked on the second loop. continuous whoops, the course is regularly used as a testing ground for Curnu tt Shoc ks. When it first started, the mon thly Ponderosa race drew up to 400 riders. Today' the riders numbered sixty, but it was kind of nice that way, Teal casual. After the race everybody gathered around in the nearby bar for trophy presentation and a drawing for a helmet donated by McHal Helmets. People came up to relate to others the fact that Tom Willis and his wife Vena have been at every Ponderosa race; her scoring, him checking. Others told of how Ross has the longest reCord of any successful California desert race promoter, and watched Monte Lee help up a little girl who crashed her Yamaha in the camp area..at a blazing three miles per hour. Denise just smiled. That was the best part of all. • million to $5 million (depending on who you believe) a year. That kind of cash is tempting to dishonest people. At the same time, the hired belp is traditionally underpaid for the size of the business they manage. AMA's chief administrator is paid $25,000 to $35,000 a year for a job which starts at $50,000 in businesses of the same category. Who could blame the administrator if he wen t rotten, got greedy, and helped himself to the AMA's money by means of complicated scheme which may have even been legal, considering how loose his employers were. An association, like a 'nation, is only as honest as its peoplt: force it to be. Vital departments were being bled for their legitimate budgets and incompeten t cohorts were added to the AMA payroll. Without knowing what was really happening, some of the innocen t enthusiasts on the staff began asking embarassing questions of their chief. Jim Manning, a racing insurance specialist, saw that the AMA account was being curously handled by its agent. He presented the information to his boss, Russell March, and was criticized, demoted and exiled. Chet Winter, Mike Vancil and Ben Han:ol also made waves in the smooth, ripple-less ripoff that "Rustlin' Russ" was engineering and they all were fired and discredited. This went on for over a year, until Don Woods, the number three man on the staff, noticed some glaring discrepancies between ·the reports of his Competition Department that he submitted and the figures his boss passed on to the members. Suspicions led to confirm.ations and Woods, realizing that Rustlin' Russ was a crook, went directly to the Executive Board members with the information. falsification that Don Woods presen ted, the Board members began carefully to investigate. But the slo"(Iless of their progress alarmed Woods, who saw large sums disappearing day' by day, while important programs went without. Finally, in desperation, Woods turned to the motorcycle press. He knew that Sharon Clayton, an AMA trustee-member and publisher of Cycle News, could be trusted not to misuse the information. She investigated the charges on her own and found evidence which caught Russ March re,d handed. A week later the self-serving chief employee was fired and the Executive Board asked his assistant, Ed Youngblood to take the job temporarily .. Youngblood had not been in cahoots with March, nor had he any curiosity, apparently, about the strange things that were happening to the AMA office. He closed his eyes, plugged his ears and kept his mouth shut. That was the way to get ahead in AMA' headquarters. . In personnel matters at least, Ed Youngblood showed that he is a chip off his old boss's block. Sensing that Woods was the hero who had saved the AMA from bankruptcy in the nick of time, and fearing that might elevate Woods over himself, Youngblood fired Woods and attempted to discredit him. March had trained Youngblood well. So far that's five good men fired and lied about. Their only fault was that they believed in trying to make the association petter for motorcycling. , don't care about the money, but' do deplore the way these five men were treated by the "insiders" of the AMA staff and the others who believe their lies abou t the five_ Winter, Vancil., Manning, Harrol and Woods deserve the admiration and the thanks of American motorcyclists for their altruism, honesty and dedication and sacrifice to the cause. • How Don Woods saved the AMA F aced with the evidence of

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