Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1973 10 23

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Page 3 October 23,1973 A 12 oz. glass full of ice 2 oz. of Vodka I Y, oz. of 151 proof Rum I oz. Squirt . . . I oz. pink pineapple grapefruit JUICe AZUNGAs should only be mixed in a well ventilated rOom away from open flames. The resul ting beverage is just the thing to put the will to live back in you after than ninth overall or whell your week old megabuck wonderlizard stalits making the SI 00 noise. It's also good for gout, athlete's foot and gangrene. When used as a gas add; tive it will make your old Hastevarna pull like the Sllirit of America. Drink three of these thmgs and you'll think you ARE MX Cat. The nex t day your friends will s till be talking about how you pulled t~at ~lock long wheelie on your dad s ndmg mower. If you drink more than three, your liver wiu seize. Remember, you were warned. BILL RIDOUT P'hoenix, Ariz. There are other fru its Ron & Ken & Marie & AI With regard to Richard Cre.ed's article "ISDT REVISITED", a couple of corrections are in order. Rider No. 207 is club team member Ken Maahs (Hus) who was unfortunate to retire on the fifth day with engjne failure. RonBohn's riding number was 229. The' a'djacent photo is captioned "AI Eames, the man who did it." It should read "AI and Marie Eames, the people who did it." I know AI would join m.e in suggesting that wife Marie get credl.t.for doing half the job. As a team, they dId a fan tastic job in making this the best ISDT ever. "THOMAS McGEACHIN ISDT Support Crew Santa Monica, Calif. We lacked proper identification for the' photos, and, though we assumed th.e lady was Mrs. Eames, we chose to omit the name rather than make a wrong guess. (If the lady hadn't been Mrs. Eames Al would have been in enough troubl~ anyway.) Sorry, Marie... Ed. Road racing plan The superiority of two-strokes in road racing is now so pronounced that some form of handicapping to restore a balance between two- and four-stroke engines must be in order for rules committees this winter. Proposals for raising the four-stroke limit to 1000cc's have some merit certainly, but I feel very strongly that the whole answer. lies with type of fuel and/or fuel capaClttes without altering present displacement limits. . I suggest that simply reverting to the mandatory use of methyl alcohol coupled with dead-engine fueling stops with only the rider permitted to restart the machine would instan tly brmg the problem into perspective and yield several additional benefits to racing. Obviously such a fuel change would increase power by 20% to 40% but consumption would rise dramatically, perhaps 'as high as 100% in the case of the - stronger two-strokes. 'Some intelligent adjustments to f~el tank capacities would then be suffICIent to gain the desired race equality. Further, the use of methanol gives a longe.r-lived, cooler-running engine needing less main tenance, an aspect especially helpful to the already hard-pressed independent rider. Beyond these technical considerations is the matter of the sport's public relations. A change to t!'e use of this clean, safe, fuel synethettc, therefore expendable in ecological terms, would forestall one inevitable and potentially final objection in the arsenal of racing's critics. Of course the same benefits would also apply in automobile racing but their major oil company sponsorship is so essential. a part of the existing fabric that Its sudden loss would precipitate near financial collapse.. If we are to be deprived of the sound of racing, let us at least resto.r~ the traditional smell of racing: a legItlmate high quite unknown to many younger enthusiasts. A. TEMPERLEY Santa Barbara, ·Calif. Roxy pays some dues Since the Ontario road races I have received many fine compliments about the announcing job. Road races·- "!e more difficult to announce than dllt races. Ontario especially is most difficult due to the large amount of ground the track covers and the total number of turns (21). Therefore I think that it is important to give credit where credit is due. For the past two Ontario Nationals I have built a hand picked crew that I rank second to none. Ralph White, former national road race winner, relayed the pit information on gas stops and why riders dropped out of the race. Bob Selden has been my chief scorer at many major races such as Ontario, Houston and Daytona. Ken Luehmann was the sPotter with the glasses and Norm Lee was his assistant. The grand old man of motorcycling, Dud Perkins, Sr., was the timer who fed the time gaps between the leaders and other riders coming up from the back. I would also like to point out another behind-the-scene item that deserves mention in your publication. A year ago Dan Burns, a member of the AMA Executive Committee, was appoin ted to obtain the I,,:p priz~ money for the Ontario race. I aSSisted hIm. Thls year Dan changed jobs before the Ontario race and moved to Kansas. Between my job at Triumph and my weekend announcing ac.tivities I could not find the time to contact the various companies. Until just a few short weeks before Ontario it appeared that there would not be an addi tional $50 per lap to the leading rider in the 78 lap race. Then road racer Ron Gran t heard of our pligh t and volunteered to help. I must say he did a better job than .any of us have ever done in thhe past. In less than a' week- he had covered ail of the hps and even came up ",ith lap money from Gary Njxon Ent~'rprises and AMA officials, Duke Pennell and Charlie Watson. We don't have a "Salesman of the Year" award within the AMA but if we did my. vote would go to Ron Gr{ill t who by the way also turned in another good job on the track. .. My thanks to all the companIes and individuals who jumped on the last minute bandwagon for the lap money. I hope you heard your company name mentioned before, during and after the event. Once again it was my pleasure to / announce the Ontario event. I hope it will be bigger and better .for the Champion Spark Plug people m .1974. ROCKY ROCKWOOD Gardena, Calif. AZUNGAI (Hie.) OK California may have Motocross Cat b~t we have his drink. It's a charming little concoction we lovingly call an AZUNGA as an enduring monumtnt to everybody's favorite_ superpuss. The AZUNGA has really caught on locally and can be found m' several of the better pubs in the Phoenix area. We believe that anything this good deserves national recognhion. The formula is as follows; Is your editorial staff .aware .th~t there are many kinds of pmk frult m existence today? The grapefruit is only one of them. -The Ameri~an Society of Pink Fruits Los Angeles, Calif. Green Sticker Green . As d'irector of the department responsible for the management of the Off-Highway Vehicle Fund, I am acutely aware of the low level of OHV registration through the "green sticker" program. In the first 15 mon ths of the program, 125,(:)00 vehicles have been registered, out of a total vehlcle population variously estimated as between I and 2 million. Off-roaders and dirt bike enthusiasts have protested that there is little incentive to register, since they have not yet seen any new areas or facilities which the State has produced from the money contributed to the OHV fund. This situation will soon come to an e,nd, as the department's OHV study tea:m completes its work and ISsues .ts recommendations for State action. A number of fine areas will be recommended for State acquisition. In ad.dition, the department's first matching grants to cities and counties for the developmen t of local OHV facilities will be announced within a month. With our study and plan completed, the only ~thing that will keep us back will be the lack of money in the OHV fund. The off-highway vehicle users who fail to get their green sticker not only deny the fund the $6 share of their fee, they. also deny the fund the tax money paid on gasoline which they burn off-the-road. As a result of the Chappie-Gregorio Off-Highway Gas Tax Act of 1972, tax paid on the estimated amount of- gasoline used off-road by registered (green-stickered) OHV's is automatically .!tansferred to the OHV fund. For the first year of this gas tax transfer $200,0.00 was identifjed and transfe';'ed to tne Off-Highway Vehicle fund. This may not be a great deal 'of money per vehicle, but the contribution of OHV" registered vehicles, taken together, constitutes. a signific.ant addition to the Off-HIghway Vehlcle Fund. Were all the off-highway vehicles registered this transfer would have been about $2:000,000. Unlicensed vehicles do not get counted in the gas tax transfer study. The gas tax is paid and goes into the produc~on of ~urfaced highways when the vehIcle IS unlicensed. Be'cause of the benefits that will soon begin to accrue to the OHV recreationists from the OHV fund, I would like to urge them to contribute to the program through the Ilurchase of a green sticker for each vehIcle that IS not street-licensed. Owners of OHV's which are not presently registered will be able to get a bargain at the first of next year. All registrations made after January I will be valid through July I, 1976. Thus, new registrants can get up to 30 months of registration for their $15. - The OHV recreationist has already seen position action by this departmen t without use of the OHV fund, as an Continued on next page INSIDE Poop.... Trans-AMA . 5 6 Bill Bower Enduro 8 Pucker Bunny So Cal Dirt Ascot Trials 9, 10, 13, 18 11 12 Second round to Whaley Political 14 BLM vs. EI Cajon Opinion Road Racing North Speedway. . . . Personality 15.35 16 20 . ..22 26 John Lancione Test 29 TT on a triple? Desert 30,32 Chasin' them checks AMA Stuff 34 The Competition Congress Results Calendar . : . . : . 35 39 ceVER: The 'g;';'d- tiiDes roD to a bumpy stop for this Kaw.asaki pilot',on the tricky Tral1sAMA course in Indiana. Gary Van Voorhis photos. Published weekly except for the [jJ;S~ and last week of the calendar year by Cycle. News. Inc., Post OWec Box 498, Long Beach Ca1tfom'ia. Second class posl,age paid al L~ng Beach,. CA. Editorial stories, cartoons, pbotos. etc. arc welcome. Add('(:ssed. stamped. enveloJX assures return of editorial matter. Reprinting jn whole or part only by pennissi.on of, the. publish 7rs. Advertising rates and cU'culaoon mfonnahon will be sent upon request. See S.R.p.S. Copyright Cycle News. Inc .• 1973. All rights reserved. Sharon Clayton; l·ublishc'T Tom Culp; General Manage... Edna Mewton; Secretary to Pub.lisher Tod Rafferty; Managing Editor Catherine Lampton; Art Director Art Friedman; Editor John D. Ulrich; Calendar & Controversy Howie Fowler; Advertising Manager Wendy Blanton; Advertising Assistant Rheba Smith; Circulation Manager Cheryl Steinberg; Circulation Assista!1t Nancy Gray; ltroduction Assistant Hector Aguilera; Lab 'rechnil'ian Marion Hatashita; Typographer Melvin Phelps; l\ssistant Typograph«::'T Grace Camp; Accounting l\lanager Twila Wheeler; Accounting Assistant Chris Kolbet; Accounting Assistant Chris Hom; Services & SuPPOrt . Michael Col"ii<.3s; Servil:es &; Support Dav Pauli; Servi(.'es & Support Jeannie Dunivan; Receptionist National Advertising Director; Tom Culp West: P.O. Box .498. Long Beaeh. CA 90801. (213) 427·7433; LA 636-8844. Telex No. 673-474. East-Dixie: 4190 First Ave.• Tucker. Georgia. (404) 934·7850. Central: 1118 West 6th St.. Austin. Texas. (512) 476-7571 Subscription One year. second class maiJ, S 12.50 2 years, second class mail, $22.50 3 years, second class mail, $30.00 Single copy price, 5.0 q. ..\mcri~a"s No. I Weekly f\lolOrcydc NCW5papcr

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