Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

;; IKlI -= ~ Q Clyde Reese & the West Coast Invitational Scrambles Back In what used to be called the "good old days" of scrambles w e used to look forw ard to East-West contests. Even ABC's Wide World of Sp orts thought· o ne championship was important enough to cover at Perris. If your scramblin' only goes back a couple of ye ars or so, it doesn 't sound like the same world, does it ? We~ye hashed and re -hascd those days in previous articles along with some of the possible causes for the declining popularity of scrambles. For instance, the Powder Puff Association has canceled its Mother's Day scrambles because of lack of membership. Plenty of help has always been available to the gals but this yea r m embership is just a bou t nil. But, things arc startin g to look up. Th e District has some new blood, o r a t least a warm body who 's trying to rectify the situation. Ultra-and lightweight steward, O yde Re ese , is reall y a desert rider, but when ele cted to the Competition Committee he ended ap with one of the scrambles :te war d sh ip s and is doing a lot of work o boost scrambles participati on. 1 kn o w , I've heard the little gripes bo ut our scram bles ste wards, one go es . 0 desert races, the other to motocrosses and not to the scrambles events, but, let's face facts. If you wan t a full time scram bler to be come th e scrambles steward, then he 11 have to be elected from the floor of the sports co m m ittee. So give Oyde a break. So far this year he's done a tremendous amoun t of work for us. Including the first honest-to-God contest between our District and other Districts in years. So ge t out your calendars and read this. 'The date is October 18th. The event is the West Coast In vit ation al Scrambles at Tulare Fairground, and it's A.M.A. app ro ve d. Riders from District 3 5 , 3 6 , 37 and 38 will be competing in an Expert's only event. Classes a re 12 5, 250, 35 0 and Open . Who will be invited to represent o u r District? That will be up to y ou r two stewards, Clyde an d Diane C? ,:,noll y, the keeper o f heavyweight p o in ts, but they plan on taking th e t op 10 high-point riders from each class. I dis cussed with O yde the fact th at the minis weren 't invited. Well, it seems th at they have hordes of them up north and it would make the program too long. Well, auntie here says it wouldn't hurt the program one bit to include the minis even if the steward from each District was allowed to send only hi s top fi~e. That would be 20 riders; put them In two heats of 10 for X number of laps, a semi and a main. I'm su re th at they 'd settle for a little less track t ime then their bigge r brothers if allo we d to co~p etc . ] . w~t . to see OU T minis go agai ns t th eir mmis and if th e A.M .A. in clu des th e tiddlers in the Asc ot Pilot Program I think it would be nea t to include th em in the In vi tational sc ra m bles . It 's up to yo u mini rid ers. If you wan t to go , tal k to Clyde and let m e know to o . Juniors an d Novi ces, your chance will com e. In previ ous events of this kin d it 's always been the Experts th at represented eac h District or region so if you're a Junior close to transfer time. go like hell and m ake th ose p o ints befo re October ! I mi ght add, th at if this thing works, and there's no reason it sho uldn 't, there 's talk of organizing the East-W est bash again . For a while the A.M.A. forgot those type of events so let Oyde know you appreciate the work he 's done on getting this thing started. These events are always fun. We m ade several trips to Bakersfield moons ago when our co n tingen t would go up to, hopefully, "sic 'e m " and a week or so la ter they'd drive down to one of o ur tracks to " sic 'us. " TI,e rivalry between District 36 and 3 7 was especially strong and even went on at Ascot. We11 ke ep y o u posted as the plans for this firm u p. Th e closest big event n ow, of co u rse, is the Sec ond Annual Dir t Di ~ers Din o saur race , May 4th . Rid ers still talk abo u t las t year 's fun and this year it will be even better. If you have 'hopes o f be com ing a movie star, as Gerry Burton announced at th e Grip sters race , th e eve n t will be filmed. Th e Holl ywood people were at the Gripsters race in full force and t he Pre z o f the Dirt Diggers , Sam Crooks, c on firmed it. Talking t o riders, a lot of them are begging and borrowing four-strokes to ride and man y sent their entries in the wee k th e first Dirt Diggers' adve rtise men t hit this paper, so it will be a bi g o ne. Better get there early if you want to spectate. Perris is only so big. Old evil mind here can't wait to see what happens when some of the riders ge t on honest-to-God motorcycles and race 'em for the first time in their lives! Four-strokes forever! Greg Schweers is already tuning up that neat C~eney-Beezer of his while his buddy, RIch Kouns, a dyed in the wool Bultaco f~n, has wheedled a strong Ho nda to ride, And they haven 't con vin ced him as o f this writing, but the Diggers are talkin g to Jim Hunter. Make him an o ff e r he can't refuse! Hop efully , we 11 see yo u at b oth o f th ese even ts. The year lo o ks be tte r al ready! Maureen Lee BRIGGO ON SPEEDWAY The view fro III the other side No excuses, no te ar s ... defeat for the Rest of th e World team against America was hard to swallow but we 've got to admi t that th e better side w on the series two-one . We were di sappointed that the deciding match at Irwindale had t o be st opped because of rain with four he ats to go, but we accep ted that the result should stand. Aft er our victory in Houston, when we fielded one of the strongest six m an te ams ever put to geth er , most people in Englan d expected us to win the series ea sily . But it's a ve ry different story at the small t ra c ks and without t he inj u red Anders I\Iich anek we struggled at Costa Mesa . Bo th Ole Olsen and John Louis, ri ding at the cir cu it for the first time, co uld n't get to grips writh the track and John still insists that it isn 't even 180 yards round the tight little bowl. Then we lost young John Davis with an arm injury and that just about put paid to our chances. I'm su re we would do better if we raced against America again. Experience me ans a lot and both John and Ole will prove harder to beat next time. On the o th er hand we won 't underestimate the opposition and I must sa y that the strength of speedway in the USA is at a new peak just now. A few years ago there weren't so many good ride rs as there are now. The two Bast brothers, Mike and Steve, Bill Co dy , Rick Woods, Sonny Nutter a n d J eff Sexton rep resent a very usefu l side an d one th at co uld t ake on a ny co u n try in Cali fo rnia. . I ~ould lik e t o see th e American boys m oving furt her a fiel d , to co u n t ries like Australia, New Zealand and Eng lan d. I understand that plans are goi ng ahead for a USA side to tour New Zealand early next y ear and th is would be a tr emendous step forward not just for the sport in America b u t right ac ro ss the world . The more countries that can compete at international level the better. Last yea r England rul ed the w aves, hammering Sweden, Pol and and the USS R before winning th e World Team Cup in Poland. With ride rs like Peter Collins, John Louis , Dave J essup, Terry Betts , Ray Wilson and Malcolm Simmons to cho ose from it 's no wonder that they are on top of the world. A~d there are pl enty of young Eng lish boys coming al o ng to maintain th at position. The Pol es ar e not as go o d as they were but Ze no n PIech and Ed war d J an carz, who rode in the States last y ear, are still world class riders. The Soviet Union has also slipped b ut they see m to have some promising riders in the p ipeline and they may tum out to be a majo r power in the near future . Australia is in a healthy position with J ohn Boulger , Billy Sanders, Bob Val entine, Garry Middleton and the b rillian t y ou ng Ph il Crump . Phil Herne is also a no th er exciti ng prospect. Sw eden als o has a str ong side, led by world c hampi o n An ders Mich anek, and they are probably number two in t he world at the m oment. And what about New Zealand? We are a bit we ak just no w, but both Ivan and I are hoping th at one or two of the y ou n g Kiwis ra cing in En gland wi ll m ak e it t o th e to p. I t i s time we produced a n o t her cham pi o n after Ronni e Moore, Ivan and m ysel f. My own t eam in En gland, the famous Wim bledon Dons, have signed a bo y from Christchurch - my home town - th is seas on and I shal l be taking a sp ecial in terest in him . And, as I say , Am erica has a te am to be re ckoned writh, Bu t it 's a different scene ra cing in En gland and your boys would find it very hard over here at first. Wimbledon was keen to sign Mike Bast and Oxford wa nted Jeff Sexton a nd both would b en efit aft er a spell in En gland. It wouldn 't m ake them better racers round Costa Mesa but it would help if they really want t o ge t on in events like the world championship. If yo u race in Europe you get used to t ackling tracks that ca n vary in size by two or three h undred yards. And if, like the top boys, you make weekend trips to ride in West Germany, Denmark, Austria or Italy then it's nothing to switch to a 1,000 ya rd ci rc uit a day or so af te r appearing at Wimbledon, which is about 340 yards. It's no eas y life over here, either. The st an d a rd in the British League is very hi gh an d even the j un iors at most tracks ca n give y ou a run for y ou r money if they get ou t ahead from the gate. Even those just startin g out seem to be riding b ra n d n ew Jawas, wh ich is much different from when 1 firs t rode in En gland in 19 52. I was glad to ge t ho ld of anything th at went, but the k id s of today have shining bikes, the very latest in leathers a nd all the r i gh t g e ar. I'm not complaining, it's good for the sport, but it makes y ou wonder whether some of them don't have it a bit too easy. If Mike or Jeff did decide to race in England, they'd get a few shocks. Riders they have probably never heard of would give them a beating, and it would be a test of their characters to see whether they could stick it out. Scott Autrey did and it does you no harm to swallow yo ur pride now and then. You've got to have the guts and determination to bounce back, to learn and realize that in th e long run you're going to be a better rider through the experience of eating dirt now and agai n. ~ We had to do j ust th at in California. Getting beaten still bugs me and Ivan 's just the same. It 's not a feeling 1 intend gettin g used to so there will be a few scores to settle next time we me et. Barry Briggs t >n r--. O'l .. \D >- ~ ~ • 37 (

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