Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125981
Mert Lawwill is truly into product deve lopmen t. He's in the process of building 20 frames that will wo rk for XR·750 tr ackers or Sportster-base d cafe racers. St ill stinging from the Dye fiasco backlash , Missouri Motorcycle As soc iat ion has posted a $2500 performance bond and agreed to post $16,000 prize money two weeks before their November 2 Trans-AMA date at St. Peters, Missouri . (MMA made cash refunds on advance t ickets for last year's Edison Dye rainout.) Whil e our government is fra ntically p us h i ng mand atory helm ets, the govern me n t of Singapore is banning the f u ll · face variety. Th ey provide too convenien t a mask for bank rob bers and deflect bill y clubs. Look for H-D to market the SS250 street version on this side of the pond soon. San J ose Nat ional Mile tickets go on sale in about tw o weeks. The Troy Durham Fund, after a TV benefit drawing in the Bay area, is up over $3000. Outstanding Vene zuelan roadracer J ohn ny Cecotto is 18 yea rs old, spe aks no English, di dn 't un derstand the "on e-minute rule " at last wee k's Day t ona 200 miler. J oh nn y arrived on t he starting grid as th e last wave go t underway. th us didn 't have t o sit th ere fo r a minu te cooking his clutch, as t he ot her Yama ha riders did (excep t possibly Gene R o mero, who won). Cecotto finish ed third (ahead of Ago) in his first Daytona roce. Outstanding! Gen e Rom ero will race in the AlitA Region al TT at Asco t this Sunday. Nat ional Champion Kenny Roberts ha s ente red the Pro IT at Ascot on the 23 of March. Speedway Mo t o r cvcle League has reach ed a preJiminary agreeme n t with th e Co lga t c - Pa l m o l i ve Comp any BY P P WEALEY AA Robe rts , Rom ero and Castro will be l eav i ng for Eng la nd and the Anglo-American wars in th e next 10 days. Th ey will be at Bran ds Hat ch on the 28 : Mallo ry Park, Mar ch 30: and Oulton Par k, March 3 1. Chris Pusey will be giving a Speedway school on Saturday the 22nd of March from 9 :30 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Irwindale. Cost is $25. This includes rider insurance. T h e p r op ose d b ike park in North Redondo Beach. California isn't op en, ye t. as ther e 's a snag in zoning tha t will have to be changed be fo re the land can be used. Th e ra ilro ad that owns th e la nd has agree d to lease the land to th e city for SI, and th e Parks and Recreat ion Depart ment has mo ney set aside to TUn i t. T om Downs , o n the ci tize ns' co mmittee boosting the pa rk . nee ds hell" push ing the zone chan ge. Call h im at (2 13) 542·2685. Coming out of CMS Frames soon is a Jack Lancaster-created rough track frame for the XL350 Honda. The On ta rio mot ocros s scheduled for March 23 has been cancelled du e to slow rider pre -entry, rai n washing out t h e tr ack , an d oth er out-of-control factors. Ontario Spee dway an d Torrance Cy cle Par ts, co -sponso rs of the event . look forw ard to try ing it again at so me fu ture date. Mean while. they will be re tu rni ng pre-entry m on ey with in the wee k. 2 Billing itse lf as "First annual Bicycle National Motocro ss and Tri-State Championsh ips," March 29 and 30, pedal-pushers go off at Phoenix and Tucson, Ar izona. More than SOO entries are already posted, mainly from California. For infonnation call Ernie Alexander, (8051 255-7397. whereby Colgate-Palmolive will make an annual award to the Most Valuable SM L ride r. The world's second largest soap company will also sp onso r a speedway leag ue adver t ising and promotional campa ign includ ing TV, radio, and print media. Colgate-Palmolive Company sponsors some sports team s which h ave nicknames closely resembling the names of its products. Thus we have the Long Beach Tide of the World Basketball Assn ., the Co unty Comets and the San Fernando Sty le. Colgate·Palmolive is said to be interested in backing a team that will let itself be called "Irish Mist." Maybe the Hibernian Hockey Assn. of San Francisco will oblige. Speedway Mo torcy cle League was the first new sp orts league in a long time no t to anno unce its tea ms' nick name s in thei r first pre ss release . If anyone still wonders why Americans aren't buying 1975 cars, just drive one. The moment you sit in a new car it squawks, beeps and buzzes at you like a sadistic warden. It stubbornly refuses to work at all until you bind yourself to its satisfaction, then runs badly, handles worse, and won't release its victim until you work yourself loose. Still it buzzes because you did something wrong. It needs rare, expensive unleaded gas and the tank filler is tinier than that of a Hodaka 90. 1975 cars would be depressing enough if the government issued them, and they expect consumers to buy the damn th ings? Tom Heininger, a Webco owner. decid ed not to sell ou t to a co nglo mera te wh ich had ma de "a very attractive o ffer" fo r th e acce sso r y d is t ri b u t i o n and man ufact u ring firm . Gla d yo u 're still with us, T.lI . Dolores Monington, of Wedded Wheels MC, District 36, was voted Typical Female Rider of the year at AMA's Daytona awards night March 6. That's an honor, we think. Baja California 's Lieuten an t Govern or Francisco Sant ana Peralta anno unced last week that S.C.O .R.E. will be the sole recognized race san ctioning body in Baja. The "AC·Delco Baja 500" is on for June 12·14. and the 1000 of th e sa me n ame is s et for Oc tober 3 0 · N o v e mb er I. Drawing for start pos itions in th e 50 0 will be Apri l 5 in Santa Paul a. California. Califom ia City will be wide open to bikers the May 3-4 weekend of the ORA Califom ia City GP. It 's billed as the last of the old ti me Califomia GPs. Write or ca ll for flyer and entry blank: ORA, Box 2605, Califomia City, California 93505. (714) 373-4647. Bri tish pr ess reports Yamaha ready to use cantilever susp ension on their works 250s for the H!\I cha mpio nsh ip road races . Phil Rcad said recently o f the 50 0s . " Th e se Y am ah as are qu ite harmless whcn y ou get to understand t hem." He 'll be sp or tin g a heavily -en closed rear end an d testing small air foils on his works MV th is year. Got the urge to build trails? The U.S. Forest Service is accepting applicatio ns until April 15 for the 600 op enings availab le in Youth Co nservation Corps. It 's an eight-week pro gram for ages 15· 19 , pay is about S360 for the eight weeks and some ca mps offer high sch ool or college cre d its. They need some bikers in the wo o ds. Sacr amento County Parks and Recreation is looking for volunteers go volunteer to build a bike park or something. Number to call is (9 16 ) 454-5511. Sweden 's Thore Evert son showed at the Spanish trials round on a 3 10c c works Ossa with moved up shocks. Martin Lampkin and Yrjo Vesterinen swept th at r ound f or Bultaco . Malcol m Rathmell (Mon) and Mick Andrews (Yam ) were the next two finis he rs. Lampkin now h as a seven poin t lead in the cha m pionship. Hiroyuki Kawasaki, who rides for Yamaha, has a tuner named Suzuki. Now if they could just get a guy named Honda on the crew ... Unofficial AMA Gran d National/Camel Pro Seri es f'0 ints after Day to na : I. Mark William s (Tri) 198 , 2. Gene Romero (Yam ) 195, 3. Ken ny Rob er ts (Yam) 172. 4. Da r ry l Hurst (Yam) 16 5, 5. Steve Bak er (Yam) 156. 6. Gary Scott (11.0) 132 , 7. Dave Han sen 132, 8 . St e ve McLaughlin ( Yam) 130, 9. Randy Cleek (Yam) 120, 10. Ron Pierce 104. HosPITal Stop: Barry Sheene, operated on March 7 for broken vertabrae and left leg, is in sat isfactory condition , Can-Am riders Gary Jones (MX) and Bob Fishe r (end uro l both ou t with broken legs in Daytona-week inc idents. The t wo l e a d e rs in th e AMA Na t i o n a l j Camel Pro Seri es will be com ing to Ascot on the 23 rd o f th is m o n th . Gen e R om er o an d Mark William s will be ba tt ling eac h o th er in a regional TT event. Honda has recently released in Europe an updated vers ion of the 25OCR . The biggest changes are moved-up shocks, and an upswept pipe. Honda claims a dry weight of 214 lbs. and a horsepower rating of 34 bhp at 8,000 rpm. Ex - Kawasaki rider Rich Sunter has joined the Montesa trials effort in England. Did yo u n otice something missing fro m our Daytona 200 res ul ts last week? No four th place. r igh t? Our ap ologies to Ago and all his fans. TI,e AMA's 197 5 ISDT tour t o the Isle o f Man will leave o n Oc tober 6 and return October 20. Round trip airfar e from New York, acc omm oda tions on th e Isle and assorte d other co nveniences comp le te for $6 29. Contact Executive Travel . 17 20 Peachtree Street , Suite 4 24. Atlanta. Georgia 3 03 09 . Hope you didn't plow through the snowdrifts to make the Grizzly Bear One Day Trial on March 9 . It's been rescheduled to April 20. Meanwhile, the Forest Service has added 30 miles of new trail in the area, and these will be cranked into the 110 mile loop. Sneak photos out of Bultaco's experimental shop show a cantilever Pursang with auxiliary dampers (s p ringless) in a more conventional moved-up pos it ion. Have the British paparazzi discovered something, or is Bultaco trying to psych somebody? Have y ou no ticed th at U.S. Suzuki is kickin g out a ll th e j ams in a Det roit-sty le rebate program? Industry sources have it that for an encore. they p lan a dealer network expansion and possibly a deal with an existing Midwest firm to op en a domestic assembly plant. Desert pe ople are bas ically good people. but there are a few wh o might be better in changing their type of motorcy cle racing . Espe ciall y the one wh o to ok John McKown's pe t sheep . If any one sees some one eating mutton chop s ou t in the desert in th e ne ar futur e. tell the Invade rs, as John and Kooki e hav e. so me th ing to settle with th e person wh o to o k their sh eep with th e pink rib bon in it s hair. Take a look at the current Gentlemen's Quarterly, a sort of "Harper's" for men, and peruse their sPecial on "Wheels." Thou~ they know a minimum about bikes, be ing pre -occupied with the clothes that go with them, /they ' ve copped a first - a definitive statement on the style and elegance of a new vehide mix: small cars, bicycles, and motorcycles. Notice a new name on the masthead? (What's a masthead?) Jeff "Hunt'n" Peck comes to us from Lake Tahoe, a dirt rider who favors MX, enduros and desert. What's he look like? Well, picture a guy in a blonde Afro who could pack a Sportster out of the woods on h is shoulders . .. Looking for someth ing to boost cycle a warene ss? Sou th ern Ca liforn ia Mo t orc y cl e Assn. (SCMA) will be dist ributing "Eye That Cycle" materials an d PR goodies at Cart er 's Hall . 121 5 7 East Spraul Street, Norwalk, at 8 p .m, April 7. Jeff Steele did get that Yosh imura contingency for his 750cc Production finish at AFM's Riverside race . It will be Yoshimura's policy to wait until all the dust has settled in scoring the races before making the awards.