Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

quietly back to see if tim e will bring better desert coverage. It seems invariably when so meone writes a letter of complaint about the lack of desert news the stock answer is gettin g s om eone to " vo lun teer " information; photos, etc. so you can publish such articles, Doesn 't it make sense to "hire" a legitimate journalist that can cover the desert each wee k and pay hi m a legitimate salary as it should be, rather than depend on " vo lun te er" articles. I have be en riding desert for approxim ately six years and for the majority o f those three hundred some odd we eks purchased your newspaper. We, as desert riders, h ave endured price r aise s ( u n d e rs t a n d a b l e). B .L.I\!. ( p r o ba b l e), a n d Si erra Cl ub [indefinitely] . But, through it all, we still are not ge tti n g the coverage we deserve. DALE COATS 86 X Cactus Cats of Corona M.C . INSIDE DIy-bowl 6 Jim my Ellis for Mom and ap ple pie Canad ian 125 GP 8 Dus ty de cisi on to De Roover 10 Tiernan On e m ore in to the b reach Speedway CMC Mile . _. _ 12 14 Th e bi g ones return t o Sacramen to Furrin tarmac 16 Phil Read sh ines in Bel gium Local dirt 19 Dez • •. . . . • .•• • •• •• ••• 21 Preview 26 Gu ess who 's co ming to Laguna Seca ? North 28 Clean air 31 Vile e m issio ns as C.A.R.B . vote s co n t ro ls for 197 8 Opinion U.S. Trials 36 42 Rathmell pads poin ts lead at Wagner Cup ON T HE FRONT PAGE : J immy Elli s superimposed on the symbol of hi s Superbowl victory. From a ph ot o by Rich ard Creed. Flabbergasted In regard to the article in Cycle News abo ut th e Yamaha Womens Motorcycle National C ha mpionships, I was flabbergasted about th e statement that Lori Watson s h o w e d good sportsmanship . A woman o ver 3 5 that would ride a 125cc or 126cc in a 2 5 0cc class doesn' t show good sportsmanship. Instead o f being a good example to other riders, she is showing t he m how to find unfair advan tages. She is an ex cell ent rider. I can ' t understand wh y she would resort to this type of t acti cs. In my personal opinion Lori Watson didn't fulfill the requiremen t o f good sportsmanship for the Super Bowl. Kasey Ro gers deserves a p at o n th e ba ck for th e effort an d t im e sh e sp en t on this even t. May nex t year 's National race be bigger and bette r. PAL MIRA BICKMORE San ta Barbara, Cali f. Sharon O ayton , Publisher Robert I.- Nor Velle , General Manager Edna Mewton , Secretary to Publisher. Adve rtising Linda auk, Advertising Manager. O1ris Kclbet, Adve rtising Assistant. /low do es Ms. Watso n's age en ter in to all th is. Certainly, if Ms. Watson did n ot m eet th e requirements and rules of th e organizers she would n ot ha ve been allo wed to co mpete . . . Ed. Editorial Richard Creed. Senior Editor; Lane Campbell . Editor; Jeff Peck, Ass istant Editor; Bobi Scott. Secretary and Calendar. Art and Production Catherine Lam pton. Art Director; Aguilera, Lab Tec hnician; Hector Marion Hatashita, Ty pographer. Circulation Rheba Smith, Manager; Pam Hobbs and O1ris Andrews. Assistan ts. Accountin g Caylene Zai on z, Man ager; TwiJa Wheeler. Judy Fouts. Mike Klinger. Jeanne Hammond. Assistan ts ; Tom Hunter. Rh onda Van Doren. Credit Department. Service s & Support Mike Colikas: Bruce: MacGrcgor ; Bill Runyan : J eannie: Dunivan. Receptionist . West P.O. Box 498, Long Beach. CA 9080 I. (2 13 1 4 2 7·74 33: L.A. Line 636·8844. East P.O. Box 80 5 , Tu cker. GA 30084 . (4 04 ) 934·78 50 . Centr al P.O. Box 13 24 5 , Austin. TX 787 11. (512) 444·7548. Subscription One year. second class mail 11 2. 50 ; 2 years . sec o nd class mail, 122.50 ; 3 years, second class mail, $30.00 ; Single copv pri ce . SO cents. (;o p yr lght L.yd~ :'tl ~ws . Inc.• 19 75 . Tude m..r k regi st elTd L:.S . Palen! Orrin·..\11 r ilithl reserved . Published we.. kly e xce pt th e first ..ud I.u t wee k o r th e coale .u y ea r by Cy rle Xewi . In.'. • r .o : nd 80" 49 8. Lo nR: Be ach. Cal if o rn ia . Sec on d d .lSS po st age paid a t Lo ng Bea ch . C A. Ed itoriJ. ! sto ries , car to o ns. ph o to s. et c. ,UT we lcome . Addre ucd . s ta m ped e nvelo pe aSSU re ruru u f rTS unpurchased ed ito rial matt er . Rep rinti ng III whole o r p ut o nly by p ermi ssion or th e' p Ublish~rs. Adv(' r l ising u l n and d r.'ul.. ti u ll mform <1tion will be sen t up on request . See 4 S.R.D.S. Thanks t o Kasey I wo uld like t o personally thank 1\Is. Kasey Rogers fo r her efforts and time at this years Wornens National. Kasey has d onated many dollars and ho urs to give wo mens ra cing a boost. She is a ve ry gracious lady and a beautifu l person and I hope she knows how m uch we all appreciate all she 's done in st arting us on the ro ad up . Thank you Kasey from all of us . NANCY T HO MA S Ben d, Or e. We've come a long way Kasey Rogers d eserves a b ig thank y ou for getting to gether the Womens Nationals. She de voted a lot of time and work to make them a succes s. There we re a few problems th at were be yond her con tr o l and s h e trie d to d eal with them in a fair manner. She has always been an avid p romoter of women's racing. A few y ears ago it was unthinkab le that you co uld have a Women 's National or take part in the Superbowl. Women 's racing has come a lo ng way. IRENE ACRES Santa Barbara, Calif. 1\IARGEPAYNE Burbank, Calif. took my 250 Production bike and started 51st in the 3 50 Production ra ce an d finished I Ith overall. 2. A friend who has spent m ore than 40 hours a week helping not only me , but other racers who co mp e te against him when they didn 't have time or co uldn ' t m ake a ra ce be cause of their bike . 3. A guy who is so dedica ted to hi s sport that he'd sac rifice a good time at the be ach or other sports to wor k on his bikes. 4. A m echanic who knows h is bike ins ide out a nd can te ar it apart an d put it back to gether blindfolded and who knows every p art in the parts book be tter th an the guy be hi n d th e co un te r. One would have remainin g a shy six teen year old who is des tined to succeed in his e ndeavo r o f beco ming a p ro fe ssio nal ro ad racer, who when tal kin g abo ut moto rcy cle s can carry o n more of a n intelligent co nve rsa tio n th an so me jealo us road ra cers who can 't believ e he has a re al ta len t in ro ad raci ng, but are go o d a t finding fault with his personal life. It is true that his father sponsors him and that he has the fastest machine on the west co ast, but hi s ability m at ches his moto rcycle and in ra cin g that's all th at co un ts. GLENN BILLINGS AFM No. 4 1 Newport Beach, Calif. Mr. Billings letter is in rep ly to th e letter of Mr. George R och e wh ich appeared in th e Ju ly 15 issu e of Cycle News . .. Ed. Regarding helmets and the AMA Not to nit-pick , but your art icle a bou t th e helmet rall y in the July 8th issue co n t ain s a co m m ent th at I think is perh aps m isle ading. You state th at th e AMA remained al o o f. This implies that th e organization is in d iffe re n t to the problem, or a t least di stant in its interest and feeling. I think y o u 'll agre e with me th at this just isn 't so. To the co n tr ary , I ad dresse d an edito rial specifically to th e problem, and in doing th at publi ci zed the rall y well in ad vance t o our 140,000 m embers. Certainly , my thesis was th a t w e pr e f er l e t t e r w r i t i n g t o d emonstr ating , but these re commendations in th emselves I think are tes timony to our ac ti ve efforts to abo lish mandatory helme t law s on a state-by-state basis. Your re aders m ay want to know that there was n o t someone from the ho me office a t the Los An geles rally on J u ne 29th. but I think it would be unfair to lead any of them to believe that the Am eri can Motorcycle Association is no t very much involved in the problem . v Klinzmann defended I am writing in reference to the las t edi t o rial on Harry Klin zmann. Since my name wasn't in the article I feel I h ave the right to my opinion. If one were to ad d each of the following: I. A rider who set a lap record at a track he'd never seen before and who , ~ ;" , ED YO UNGBLOOD . Gen eral Manager American Motorcycle Association As t ime goes by Week a fte r week I fork over 50 cents for your newspaper and each week I sit ;:1 t jJ. ~ J;'" ~ Iii i J , I ~ First, Dale, whe n we say " volunteer", we d on't m ean "give free ", Cycle News pays f or every st ory su bm itte d by a contributor or correspondent. In th e c o m m ercial sense, th en , legitim ate journalists are cooering th e desert. But, th eir main in te rest is in enjoy ing desert competition eve n ts. A staff m ember, Jef f Peck, is in th e desert covering or lending a hand with corresp onden t coverage of desert even ts every week. If you ha ve bun riding the desert f or six y ears you are aware of many new p roblems, aspects, an d in te rest in th e m ot orcy cling sport. All of th ese crowd in fo r th e at te ntion of - the cy cling en thusiast, all of th em, or at least as m any as possible, must be cov ere d by Cycle N ews. The backbone of desert coverage has always been th e en thu siast wh o wants to write, make a little money by doing it, and satisfy his ego with his acco mplishment . . . Ed. Questions and confusion First, so me facts fro m the two days of ra cing - Lorie Watson, en tered and won first place overall in the 125cc Expert cla ss. She entered the 250cc Expert class with a 126cc bike (which was legal per race rules) an d came in second overall National Champion. Now , fo r the questions and confusion that co m e to mind: I. Why was Mrs. Watson exclude d fro m the Superbo wl of Motocross ' 75 ? 2. Isn ' t it curious th at as th e secon d overall champion of 1974, she was only me n tioned in the p ro gram for the above referenced event in the listin g of riders (obviously a necessity l] an d a small picture wi th her n am e under it . 3 . At the finish of the final 25 0cc m oto, Mrs. Watson stopped to congratulate the first place winner, at which time she was curtly told by Ms. Kasey Rogers to move out of the way so photographers could take shots of the winner. However, it was noted that Ms. Rogers did not ask other finishers to move on. Why ? 4. Mrs. Watson finished ahead of the national c ham p ion when they were riding the sa me "cc" size bikes and missed being overall champion by o nly one point. The only c on clu sio n we can arrive at is the fact of rider treat ment was determined by those in charge of the event. Was Mrs. Watson's exclusion from the Superbowl a "politically" m o tivated acti o n ? Surely, with wo men seeking equal rights, they m ust learn to put aside the personal pettiness that so me see m to carry as a trait and learn to ju dge a person o n their ability's and not their personality or q ual ities wh ich cause e nvy . MA RIL YN VOYER Co st a Mesa , Calif. . The views ex pre ssed in this column and other colu m ns appearing on the following pages are so lely those of th e authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cycle News, Inc. Qu alified readers wishing fr ee and equal reb uttal space should contact th e itor. : 4l lllit. s • • ~ t: " e ~ : l

• Cover