Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

not man y guys can speak an d ge t a 25 -year ec ho. What Ho rky said about AMA dirt track th en (25 years la te r, they 're paying five -fig u re p urses) ap plies t o So uthern Cal ifornia motocross to day. What applies to SoCai m o toc ross to day will probably co me to roost on the rest of the coun try three to five years hence, for better or worse . For people who do n 't want to see motocross stagnate, it's an idea whose time has come. Lane Campbell Ou r Be llows syringe, a Petro-chem exclusive . Inj ects FORK San Marcos High School: Fastest in Santa Barbara LIFE d irectly int o the f orks. Pre - vides antt-tcam, -rust, ·o xida t io n c ha racte ris t ics. Honda ...com· m ends ATf fluid. Avai lable in 10 t hru 40 SAE. Ca p g ra d ua ted in CC' s for accurate fills . Fill s pe cs By Bob Sloan SANTA BARBARA, CAL., MA Y 26 on ba c k of can. Time for club alliance ......... Ashland Chemica l Com pany :.iiliiilii Ash .iin~d. Olvlsion of Ashland Oil, Inc . ... Santa F. Springs. Ca 90670 What Sou thern California needs now IS an allian ce of alphabetsoup motocross clubs. Most of our so-called "clubs" are t h i n l y disguised promoters, or fronts for the track management. On any Sunday, (often on Saturday and Friday nights as well) you can find And we'll send you our 1974 an -new, 200 pal t Mo to rcyc ll ~ 1 b lalDI, the most complete mall order catalDI of parts, accessories, performance equipment, tools. and clothing for custom, street . competition, and dirt bikes. Onyour first order of $15.00 or more, we'll Clve JOU back your dollar. In addition to over 10,000 accessories, we have Included several " Ho To" articles that will really w help you understand your bike better . The 1974 Motorcyclist 's Cata lol Is Just the very best mall order catalol avallable anywhere. Order urs toda ! Yes! $lad lie 1IIe 1974 MOlllrcyclisf s cat· alai. I enclose $1.00, undelSlaadial tlaat you'll return m $1.00 oa my lilSt onler 01 y at least $15.00. CNW WlBA PROBLEM . . . . DRIVES, IT'S 10UR PROBIIM. i6i{UNKliR IVER- - -- - - - - - H 3i I BOX 2345 I B OC~V II.I}:. MAI{YI"\ND 2()8'>2 I I I I I War'll 1000 MJmC1luntz. 0I00ur m y prohkm I J>traM'wll mr how rlM' I can hdp I I I I I I Mv ROIIIW' . I I Add r" " 28 l, CJlV I Sl.'!!.l'"= ===~r-=-=-=-=-j ra ces going at five or more lo cations in and around Los Angeles. That much is good; there's probabl y no other pl ace in the country with such concentrated activity at so many diverse loc ations. But say this weekend we've got ABC club running at the Dunes, XYZ club running at Saddleback , QRS club at Rawhide, HIJ club at Escape Country, NO P club at Valley, et cetera. Ea ch o utfit runs its own p rogram in three or m o re ski ll divisions, all classes, minis, pow d er p uff, old t imers, paying ro ughly 30% to 40% trop h ies plus a " Sen ior " or "Pro" p urse that ca n ra nge fro m $300 to (on special occasions) well over $1 ,00 0. To run through the wh ol e gan tle t of classes ta kes fr om 7 a. m. to 7 p.m, Should you come in on this melee in the m id dl e, you won 't kn o w what's hap pening (let's see . . . is this the 125 J unior/In te rmediate second m o to or the 25 0 Expert/O ld Ti m er third m o t o or . . . ?). Unless it's a particularly well organized, tightly ru n show th e rid e rs often d o n ' t know what's happening either. For spectators, it's boring. Still, th e system works. It has achieved a sort of equilibri um, by whic h each cl ub/promoter can draw enoug h rid ers to run a full p rogram at a profit without cu tting anothe r promoter's throat. What's m o re, it's evolved without some organization like th e AMA st uffing its system down the p ro moters' throats. The syste m's m ajor weakness is that th e riders still pay m os t of t he freigh t. None of the regular weekend shows can ho ld the attentio n of spectators. All the old overworked cliches apply : too lo ng, too ma n y classes, too m uch con fusio n, too many nam eless, fac eless guys par ad in g around the t rac k sing le file with no way fo r the casual sp ec t at or to know who they are or wh at they're doing . No lo cal promoter is going to turn h is back o n his Novice/Intermediate/ Amate ur/what-have-you riders in a play to draw spectators. His show w ould n ' t last long enough to build the crowd poten tial . Yet by turning its ba ck on spectator support, the leagues remain fo rever bush. Let's take another look a t the same weekend through ro se-tinted spectacles. This time QRS club at Rawhide is running an all-p ro show, inviting Senior riders from all the other clubs in a 250 and Open class feature program paying (say ) $2500 plus contingencies plus points fund. Figure in a support class, 125 Senior/Junior or 250/0pen Junior or wh atever. Rider pool, publicity m oney, promotional talent comes fr om the e n tire six club alli ance. The show i ncl ud es a top-cal ibre professional announcer and programs. Meanwhile, all the o th er clubs are run ni ng a Beginner/Novice/Intermediate program on the same o ld basis, except instead of the trophy riders paying part of the pro riders' purse, all th eir money goe s into their own program. They can ride more motos and/or longer motes, yet still get done before dark. OK, next weekend , eve rybody j um ps. Now ABC club at the D unes has the pro show, and everybody else runs Beginner/Novice, etc. Week following, the pro ci rcus m ay m o ve to Saddleb ack , and so on ar ound the circui L What all t his do es is ta ke the sam e bunch of rid ers and r e-distributes the action to e very b ody's adv an tage. It' s no t a new idea. District 3 7 d id so mething similar 10 years ago and i t wo rked. The ad van tages are: I ) Yo u're still run nin g system -wide, five skill classes (Begin ner , Novice , Intermediate, J unior, Sen ior ) w ith out the organizatio nal nightmare o f running them all in one place on one program, bori ng everybody to d ea th . 2) I nstead o f each cl ub ru nning the same 25-3 0 Sen ior riders wee k in, we ek out, the sys te m-wi de Se n io r rider p oo l becomes (say) 80 to 100 riders who can race anywh ere on the local circui t for d ecen t m on e y . 3) With sys tem -wide p ublicity an d promo tional resources, there should be a good sp ect ato r gate at any of the pr o races. The alliance could be a 'cush ion' to p rotect indivi dual promoters fro m losses due to the occasional ' b ad ' weeken d . On ce th e program is generating its full potential in spectator income, some revenue should trickle d own to help support the clubs' basically amateur o r semi -pro ra ces. CMC seems to be m o vin g in t his directio n on it s own . T his is a p retty good indication of how big CMC has grown, lately . No other outfit seems to have the horsepower. Regardless of h ow it happens - one big club reaching some cri tical mass o r all the lit tl e outfits getting together on it, the system will change. I can ' t help co m p arin g the ch ange to the early 1950's w hen . Jules Horky slapped a white -pants dr ess code on track personnel and m ech an ics a t AMA Nationals. He to ok a lot o f c ra p about it th en , and had a sim p le answer : "We have one of th e best sh ows, but fail to take advantage of it. " Few people appreciated Horky in h is heyday, but San Marcos High now holds the tit le of the fastest school in Sant a Barb ara d espite the devious efforts of San ta Barbara High. San Marcos' Mark Gametta (Bul) was without a do ub t the most impressive rider of the day as he grand slammed both the 125 and 250 Expert classes. Mark winged his Bultaco a rou nd the Starters track so fast that he almost doubled his lead with eve ry lap. As h e took o n th e 125s he won the first r ace over teammate Alan De Large (Y Z) , then in t he second race Mark took th e lead over Stu Lilly (Pen ) of Santa Yn ez High and T o m McAllister (Suz) of Do s Pueblos High. De Large, victim o f a poor sta rt was st ill able to com e fr om b eh ind and bump McAllister for third. In th e th ird race the cr owd 's attention focused on De Large and McAllister as th ey diced it out for the second and t h ird positions. De Large re igned. Someon e o n ce said that it's cons istenc y th at killed the 'crosser. How true as in the 250 Novice class Luis Cruz (Hus) of Santa Barbara High, unnoticed in all three races got three fourths and took the Overall win over Ron Cardoza (Hon) of San Marcos and Conrad Brooks of Carpenteria Hig h. Grand slammer was Lionel Isa (Hon) of San ta Barbara High in the 125 Div. l Junior class. In the firs t race it w as Isa, fo llowed by Bob Wayne (B ul) o f San Mar co s Hi gh. In the second race Wayn e had good position un til he go t ca ught in tr affic ove r the drop off a n d kill ed h is bi ke. Skee ter Marks (S uz) of Santa Barbar a High to o k h is place in second under Isa. In the final mo t o Wa yne p ulled in a strong secon d b ut co ul d n't pull enoug h points to beat o u t Marks as Isa won, Marks second, an d Wayne th ird . T he Starters MC sponsors of the race, eve n had a teachers race. T here was talk about lettin g alumni run in nex t year's event. O verall t he d a y was one of the best that the Starters eve r had, with a go od turno ut of riders fro m local hig h schools and a good crowd of students, teachers, parents and class mates to support their schools. San Marcos is number one! • Resul ts in t he Res ults Se ction. Mark Gambretta won all th ree motos of both the 125 and 250 Ex pert classes to imp ress a big turnout of high school motocross fa ns. 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