Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

s"'!'es a p,urpose in discouraging these mmor claIms that are easier to ignore than go to court over. If a person does sue, he must prove that his injury was caused by the negligence of the promoter... Ed. Barstow to V8g11S ... , ....6 Yay. cars (sort of)! The world's biggest motorcycle race After an off-road race involving both 4·wheel vehkles and motorycles, have you ever heard the bikers say anything good like, ..... the cars let me pass them quite easily." Not too often righ t? Even though their classes differ, the 4·wheel vehicle drivers seem to delight in giving the hikers a hard time on the course. A sense of unfairness can be seen here. Just how much leeway and help will a car driver give the biker? In regards to Friday, November 9, 1973, the day before the "Big River 500" held in Parker, Arizona, I, and many other persons would like to express our sincerest thanks to Mickey Thompson, a well known 4-wheel vehicle driver. Rick Owen, 18, of the motorcycle team of Rkk Owen and Danny Davis, was out pre-running his half of the 500 mile course on that specific Friday. At 2 :30 p.m. a private plane flew over our group who was awa;ting Rick's return. A note was dropped reading. "Injured man on motorcycle, .follow me!" Five miles down the course we found Rick with a broken right leg. After our successful efforts to splin t his leg and load !tim in to our van, we then drove about 35 miles to the Parker Commucity Hospital. Rick needed immed;ate hospitalization. Here is where alot of our thanks come in. Mr. Thompson then volunteered to fly Rick in !tis plan, that had alerted us of his injury, to El Monte, Calif. where an ambulance to the San Gabriel Valley Hospital, and a bone specjafut would be awa;ting !tis arrival. The trip took one hour as compared to about 4 hours by car, had we decided to drive the distance. Rick is now resting comfortably in the hospital after surgery on Saturday, November 10, 1973. Here we have a great example of "help from a 4-wheel vehicle driver," when it was greatly needed! Again, we express our deepest thanks to Mickey Thompson. Maybe a biker will tum out to be a great help to you someday. , PAMELA JANE DAVIS Bullhead City, Ariz. Get This Straight To be released I was up at a CMC race last month at Carlsbad and there were two official loolting guys arguing over whether or not one of your reporters said in print that their liability releases were not worth the paper they were prin ted on. What is going on? DAVID P. RICHARDSON San Diego, Calif. We never said that. Our reporter went out to a new track to cover a race and asked about ins..trance coverage for the racers. The promoter told him that he only carried liability coverage, because he felt that if a racer was hurt very badly he would sue the track anyway. Our man wasn't too happy about this, because he saw racers signing liability releases, and so thought they could not get any money if they crashed, unless they had a very tricky klwyer and a lot of bucks to pay him with. Wh eon we discovered that one promoter had misread the article and was spreading rumors to the effect that we said his releases were not any good, we wondered why. Could it be that the releases weren't any good, and he was paranoid that aU the racers would find out the truth? We checked it out, and the answer came in from our legal eagles the same day we got your letter. The courts have held that a person cannot sign away liability. No matter what you sign in the way of a waiver of liability, you can come back at a later date and state that you either didn't understand what you were signing or that you signed under duress: In this case the duress would be that the promoter told you that you couldn't ride unless you signed the document. Because of this, the courts have taken the position that a person cannot sign away his rights to seek restitution if, he is harmed by another's negligence. This court decision sparked the saying "Not worth the paper it is written on. " Most of the promoters of anything that might be considered dangerous wiU attempt to get persons to sign waivers, even though the promoters are fully aware that the waiver won't stand up in court. The reason for this is that a klrge number of persons are ignorant of the court decisions and will not initiate a suit, thinking they signed away the right to sue. Many promoters who have medical insumnce for their racers are required by their insurance companies to get liability releases from racers. If they didn '/ get them, the cost of insurance would be considerably higher and the participants would have to pay the increase through increased entry fees. Although this may not be a bad idea in itself, one must also consider all of the "minor claims" of the cry·baby category (sprained fingers, band aid type scratches, aches and pains) that insumnce companies and promoters would be faced with. All of these would drive insurance rates up. The waiver INSIDE Please let me correct a statemen t in your "Latest Poop" column in your November 20 issue. Papa Wealey has gotten his facts confused about the FIM noise regulations. At the recent FIM Co,ngress the technical committee of which I am a member passed regula tions requiring silencers for motocross machines as of, January I, 1974 and for dirt track mach.ines as of January I, 1975. It is true that future ISDT's will be run with an 84 decibel limit, but this is not based on the fact that every machine in the American Six Days was below this limit. In fact, not many were down to this limit, but there was such an improvement over previous years that the FIM felt that establis!ting the limit would encourage further muffler development. This 84 dbA limit for ISDT events will probably go into effect with the 50th ISDT. There have been no provjsions for putting muffiers on Formula 750 machines within the FlM. Therefore, the statement that all Formula 750 events in the U.S. next year will have to be run with mufflers is not true. Also, the FIM has not made a final decision to hold the ISOT in Italy. It is ,very likely that this will be the case, but there are a few details to iron out before it is announced. ED YOUNGBLOOD Acting Executive Director Wealey cklims that the information was obtained from Mr. Youngblood. What we got here is failure to communicate... Ed. Test 12 Horsepower up to bagoozie SOCal .... J5.22.32.34,36 The starts of some things big 16 Trials If you dab, you get your socks wet News 18 What they're doing to you North 20 Splash Trans-Am .' _. 26 Welcome to California 30 Personality DeCoster: What's the fastest dude like? 37 Results The best in the West COVER: If 82 BHP isn't enough, Yoshimura can fix you up with a 96 horsepower Z-I, like they did for Yvon DuHamel. You might find that Yvon adds something special to it. Photo hy Art Friedman. Sharon Clayton; I'uhlbihcr Tom Culp; Gl'm'raJ l\lanuKcr Edu Mewton; St'nClary 10 Publish~r Catherine Lampton; :\rl Diret'wr Tad Rafferty; ~1.naKinK Editor Art Friedman; Editor John D. Ulrich; :\ssQt'jale Edilor Wendy BI.nton; .'\dYcrtisinj( Assislanl Rhebi Smith; Cirt'ula lion l\lana~cr Pam Hobbs; Cirt'ulalion Assistanl Cheryl Steinberg; Cin'ulalic)n :\ssislanl Nancy Gray; l)rl)uUt,tinn Assistant Hector Aguilera; Lah 'I'c~·hni<.:ian Marion Hatashita; TYPOJ(fapher Melvin Phelps; l\ssisLanl 'I'ypoRrahcr Gaye' Zaionz; AtTOunting ~lanaK'rr Twil. Wheeler; An.:ounlioJt Assislanl Chris Koibet; An:ounlin,R "s~iSlant Roaemary Chand.r; Ac"('ountinR Assislant Jim Squi....; Collection l\lanaRcr Chtit Hom; Servi('es " Support Michael Colikas; Servke, & Support Dav Pauli; Scrvi 'es &- Support Bill Runy. . ; Scrvi(:es & 'upport .fe8nnie Dunivan; RC('cptioni:H National Adywtising Director; 'I'om Culp West: P.O. Box 498. Lonl Buch, CA 90801. (213) 427·7433: LA 636-8844. Telex No. 673-474. East-Dixie: P.O. Box 80, Tucker Georgi•. (404) 934·-'850 ' Central: P.O. Box 13245, Austin, Texas 78711. (512)444-7,48 Subscription One yev. second class mail. 112.50 2 ycars. $econd class mail. 122.50 3 ycars. second class mail, 130.00 Single copy price, 50 t I'uhlishl'd wl'ckly l'sccpt for Ihe rirsl and I-aSI week or the ('oalenc:br year by Cyde New.., Inc.. POSI Orrin- Rox 498, Long Rcal'h, Califomia, ScC'ond d,u, postage poaid oJl Long Reac'h. (;1\, ":ditori.i1 sioricli. "arluunJ. phulClli. etc.', are wek~. ,\cklrc:iSt."d. "uolmpcd en\'c1ulk a ,.ures relurn of edilorial matter N.eprinlina: in whole or jJoJrl only by pcnnission of Ihe publishers. ,\d\'t"rlisillg (oJlt.·:t and ,'in·ul.uion infunn:uion will Ix "l'nl upun rcquClJI, Sec S,R.D.S, Copyrighl Crd~' New... Int.. 1973. ,\11 righu (C·Sl'J'\'t'd. 3

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