Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. ·,r.,,~ INSIDE 125 Nat'l. MX Hot flash from the North 6 Marty Smith is o ff and running 8 Ascot % Mile Eklun d , McWhorter and 4,50 0 th round o f the ir Junior battle Belgium 750 Champ. . World Speedway ' 12 13 From aero ss the big waters Speedway Week 14 Everyone's getting the point CMC Road Race 16 Sm ashing tim e at Willo w Springs 0-37 Desert 18 Mayes m akes big win Jones MX'er 25 Mo to Islo revisited Evel in England 28 Opinion 38 Helmet Protest 40 Yamaha Women's Motorcycle Champ. . 41 Golden Oldies 42 COVER: This may be Gary . Scotts' year to win in the number one plate, after five years of playing second fiddle to Ken Roberts. Canon Fl photos by Richard Creed. Sharon Cayton. Publisher Robert L. Nor Yelle, General Manager Ed na Mcw ton, Secretary to Publisher. Advertising Linda Cark.. AdVC'rtisin g Manager. Chris Kolb er , Adverti sing Assistan t , Editorial Rich ard Creed. Senior Edi tor; Lane Campbell. Editor: Jeff Peck, Assistant Editor; Bobi Scott. Secretary and Calendar. Art ond Production Catherine Lampton. Art Director; Hector AgUilera. Lab Technician; Marion Hatashita, Typographer. Circulation Rheba Smith. Manager; Pam Hobbs and Ouis Andrews, Assistants. Accounting Gaylcnc Zaionz, Manager. Twil a Wheeler. Judy Fouts. Mike Klinger, J eanne Hammond, Assistants; Tom Hunter. Rhonda Van Doren, Credit Department. Services III Support Mike Colikas ; Bruce MacGregor; Bill Run yan ; Jeannie Dunivan . Recep tionist . We1t P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 9 0 80 I. (2 13\ 427· 7433 ; L.A. Line 6 36 ·8 844. East P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA 3 00 84. (4 04) 934-7850. Contral P.O. Box 13 24 5. Austin, TX 7871 1. (5 12) 444·754 8. Subscription One: year . seco nd class m ail S I 2.50 ; 2 ycan. second cla ss mail, S22.50 ; 3 yean. second class mail . $30 .0 0 ; Sin gle cnpv pri ce , 50 cen ts. (.;oPY rlJPlt l.yclt' :"0:('""" . Inc. 19 ; 5 . Trade ma r], regis te red C .S. Pat e n t O ffic e, .\ 11 rilfh t rese rved . Publ ished weekl y ex cept the first ..nd l.nl wee k of the: cale nd a r y ea r h y Cvci e :"('WI . 10\' .. P.O . Bo x 01 9 8. t ong Beach . Cali fo rnia . Sec ond d.tSS pcutage paid at Lo ng Beach , CA, F. i tori... d 1 stories . ca rl no ns. ph ot os. cote. are welcome. Addressed , sta mped en velope anures re turn tiC un purchurd editorial mat t er. Repr int ing in whole or put o nly by p ~m i u i n " o f the publishers. Advcrtisinl r,J,tes ..nd ('jn u l..I(1nn informa ncn will be Kn( u pon request. See S.R.D.S. ,' unfortunate death of a fine co m petit o r, Von Petersen . Someh o w th e two st ories just don ' t seem to go t ogeth er. A few spoil it for many Patricia Peralta didn't sleep well , I am told, on Sunday night the 2 2nd of June. Who is that you say an d what " o [ d care ? Well, Pat is a beautiful, 2Q-year old girl with dark eyes, dark hair and a cute little nose. Sh e lik es to watch big name motocrossers mix it up on a sunny Sunday afternoon. She now has an open gash in the m iddle of her back one and a half in ches wide and alm ost one-quarter of an inch deep, and 12 stitich es. Patricia and her bo yfriend and another couple were sitting next to my wife and [ at the Hang Te n U.S. Grand Prix last Sunday. Just be fore the beginning of th e sec on d 250 moto I started t o walk to the re fresh me nt stand (we were on the sid e of the track opposite the big down hill ), wh en [ heard t hat familiar sound of a skyrock et from the cliff abo ve me. I casua lly glanced in that d ire ction an d be sides the thousands of people, I saw a sm all wisp of smoke. Discounting it as a usual happening at races [ co ntin ue d on un t il [ heard a muffled explosion. Too low to be the sky ro cket. [ wh eeled aro un d in tim e to see a-large red glo w where I knew my wife was ! Whal I saw when I ran back was Patricia being car efully placed on a flat place in the dirt fac e down, blood gushing from her back, her tears mingling with the dust. Sharon had run past me in her haste to get away, instinctively grabbing our came ras and a blanket. She was terrified but okay. The skyrocket I had heard was in reality a military flare (illegal for civilian s to possess). It hit Patricia with such force that it knocked her down and gouged a piece of flesh from her back and [eft a gaping hole. Blood ran freely. Somebody quickly co vered the wound with a rag to slow the bleeding. My blanket was used to cover her. We did all we co uld for her. Then came the painful waiting. First the security police cam e to determine the seriousness and only then were th e ambulan ce attendan ts summoned. After what must hav e been a half-hour, she was finally flown to the hospital by helicopter. Apparently the flare had struck Pat first th en ignited next to my wife, setting a lawn chair on fire. Th is was th e red glo w I saw. Pat was lucky in a wa y, for had th e flar e been b urning when it hit her, the phospherous pay load wo uld have been im possib le to extinguish. No need to describe th e de ta ils. Am [ over reac t ing? May be so, but three things co mp el me to write th is. First, it was very close to ho me , it co uld have be en Sharon or wo rse it co uld have bc en fa ta l. Second if all you sq uids out the re who insist on brin gin g y o ur "play th ings" to these race s ar e made aware of th e co n seq uences and if o nly o ne is favorably influenced, t hi s is a step in th e righ t direction. At pr ac t icall y every b ig race you go to , esp ecially when you camp over night, somebody has a flare gun or cherry bomb or fir e cr ackers. Joseph Campbell, who fired the ro ck et. is [9 years old and in jail char ged with assault with a deadl y weapon, Thanks to some c o n c e r n e d spe ctators, his description was quickly given to the police and they arrested him shortly W r.t;"~"1f ·{fm .·lrtifl rfflf del ib erately sho o t her, but the fact remains that if he didn 't have t he weapon with him, it would not have happened. Thirdly , motorcycling in general and racing in particular are having enough trouble finding public ac cep ta nce without publicity like th is. The U.S. Grand Prix is a big race and this inciden t will receive more attention than if it happened at a smaller event. For instance, as t his is written the Santa Ana Register, a newspaper wi th a very large circu lati o n around Orange County, printed the st ory on the firs t page of the sports section and the results of the ra ce on page six ! The few inde ed spoil it for th e many !! LEE RAAB Lagu na Hills . Calif. Baja ripoff? For this race (Baja 500), as in all of the past Baja races, we have organized and manned gas p its for anyone riding bikes th at ne eded help down there. On the first half of th is race, our pit was lo cated at Che ck Two, Valle Trinidad. On th e sec o nd half of the rac e, we moved ab o ut 20 miles up the rac e course to pit h alfway betwe en Mike's Sky Ranch and Ch eck Seven. We were located on the end of a dry lake wh ere we could see the b ikes co m ing for about three miles, at this point they fun neled onto a short road and through a fence to go on to Check Seven. We were on the marked course. We were at this location about two hours before the first motorcycle, Roseler, came through. As each entry passed or stopped at our location, I wrote the position down on my pit tab sheet, which [ later gave to Chuck Clayton at the awards banquet. This tab sheet did not show bike 473 as coming by us at all. My partners at this pit were Don and Evelyn Wyllie of the Wheel Clinic in Stanton. Don wrote the number of each entry th at passed us on the back side of a big Pennzoil Banner. He didn't sho w a 473 either. The motorcycle simply didn't co me by us at th is p oi n t on th e marked co urse. Possibly we are blind, bu t so me one should also check with Susie Mann, of Motorcycle Weekly or with the pit o f Husky No. 477 who was also there on th e co urse with us. [ am ce rtain they will verify this fact. It may be he is j ust too fast , S.C.O.R.E.'s co m p u ter shows he cu t one section 15 minutes faster th an Roscler, Baker or an y other of the motorcycles, and he was co nsiste n tl y four to five m inutes faster in every other section of the race co urse. By the way, your ph oto of 473 shows clearly that the Beer Can "Chit" co n tainer is ta ped to the bars on the clutch side a good dis tance from th e air bottle which is in the cen ter of the bars, [ th ink he should get his stories st raight. Incidentally, because of this, the only stories the public saw from Associated Pres s International in the newspaper was of a motorcyclist I~ff' ." ' I though t yo u m ight b e in te rested in th e lat est in o bscen e n ew s from t he land of T ras k an d Bad Roc k. The city o f Milwaukie, Or egon recen tly ado pted a ne w o rd inance that stales all motorcyclist m ust ge t writ te n permission fr o m neighbors u p to 200 yards away , in order to ride bikes on th eir ou~ propert y. [f t hat isn 't en ough, bikers have to take that written O.K. down to th e lo cal Po lice Dep artment, fork over $5, and get an ap p licatio n to ride! If you don 't heed t he law , they can fine up to S I 00 and toss you in the jug fer 30 days. Let's ho pe st reet riders do n ' t have t o go door to doo r picking up written permission fro m eve rybo dy in town. Whate ver the case, it so unds like a n ice to wn to avoid. More goo d news: The co un ty of Multnomah (also in Ore gon) has an ordinance decl aring th at all mo torcyclist will be tre sp assin !! unless they get written permi ssion (what is this pen and paper plot?) from the landowners on whose [and th ey plan to ride on. The phantom ordinance makers have even sent flyers to all th e other counties in Oregon, su ggesting that they ado p t the same laws. Is this insanity and sudden passion for paper an in d icat io n of similar harassment t o come? [f so, we 'd better try to he ad off t hi s madness, or start carrying pens in our leathers. Sincerely yo urs , (ac tually more co ncern ed than sincere). GENE A. TRUMP Corvallis , Ore. Hey, you guys Every Sunday our club rides a District 3 7 race along with 600 or 700 other riders. At 50 ce nts a shot, this means th es e riders alo ne are spending at least $300 pe r we ek t o buy Cycle News West to read abo u t everything except District 37 desert races. On June 15 , ORA had a team race wh ich you had a nine paragraph, five picture article about - plus results. That same day, The Dustrnakers MIC had a District 37 race and your paper had absolutely nothing ab ou t it. Not even results. When you do manage an article, it is usually only two or three paragraphs and a picture if we are lucky. Come on now - we know you can find someone to do better in the future. BONNIE SCHUMACHER Riverside, Calif. The reason th e DRA gets better coverage, ois-a-ois, District 37 desert events is because someone in the DRA s t e p p e d forward to write and photograph eve nts. Dale Brown a DRA m ember, has provided desert coverage to Cyc le News for som e time. As of last week end, Assistant Ed itor Jef f Peck has been assigned to cover D-37 desert euen ts exclusively . .. Editor S.C.O.R. E. another one We of S.C.O.R. E. International wish to express our most sincere appreciation to you for "roughin g" Baja. Should you a t any time need informat ion th at we can provide, please let m e know. We will look forward to seeing you at S.C.O .R . E.' s "A C- De lc o World Championships" of off-road racing. COLLENE CAMPBELL EI Monte, Calif. The views ex pressed in this column and other colu mns app earing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cycle News. Inc. Qualified readers wishing fr ee and equal rebuttal space :mI nt "t'fJ: 1'1 m¥1 ~"," ', tt;iffftfi if', ...,

• Cover