Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

II III • ~ E lQ and othe r firm s invo lve d in strip m in in g, o ffshore oil drilling and timber cutting. TH Resolving Inland Speedway's sanctioning hassle may have also paved the way for SRA/AMA un ification. A study group has been formed to determ ine the feasibility of a " n ati o nal sanction body" for Speedway, by January, 1976. r- - At the same time that Speedway is considering going truly national, a group of Eastern investors are said to be developing an all-American four-valve speedway engine. O'l ~ C'l ..... '" :s eo :s How do we go-go ed itors stay awake on those all·night drives back from races ? The Lame Camel pops Ex- Lax. " Su re keeps you running ," he says. ~ Didn't realize there was so much money to be made in Hogs. Jerry Branch says he shi pped more l\Iikuni carburetors than Sudco and several other distributors co mbined last year - all to Harley dealers. There will be a public hearing on the "California Transportation Plan" (they have one?) at 9 a.m. Thursday, August 28, Rm . 211 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. Copies of the plan (ought to be heavy) can be had by w rit ing California Dept. of Transportation, ,Dist. 7 Office, 120 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, Ca. 90012. Michell Combes, factory rider for Mo ntesa, has clinched the French motocross championship on a 360cc prototype which, according to our sources, may be available in the U.S . during 1976. At Anderstorp, Sweden (site of the Swedish TT) they have a computerized timing system that spits out the complete race results along with laps completed, time behind leader, and fastest lap for each rider. Trick. When Walter Villa's contract with Har ley-Davidson runs ou t this season, he may begin riding for the family firm . Having gotten a mo tocro sser in to p roducti on for the U.S. market with a Class C tracker so o n to follow, their e ffor ts return to their first love, road racing. In th e works - twin s and mul tis (two stro ke ) from 250 to 750cc, a wa te rcooled cylinder for the 250/360 sing le th at may ap pear first on a sho rt tr acker, and a twin-car b , tw in pip e road race cy linder for the sin gle. BLM has acknowledged with thanks the help of ORA and the SoCaI MC in setting up environmental test plots to determine recovery rates and rehabilitation methods for terrain damaged by off· road vehicles. After w inning everythi ng in sight after his Superbowl victory, John Smith has had a bit of bad luck. During a CMC race at Carlsbad Jo h n crashed a n d b ro k e his foot . Unfortunately this happened just days before he was to do some bike testing for U.S. Suzuki. Too bad John, get well soon. Mikkola for the second place position. With only four motos left in the 1975 season Wolsink needs a first and a second to tie for second place or two firsts to take it. CMC motocross at Irwindale, Ca. will return to a $400 guaranteed purse during August. HosPITal Stop: Popular Div. III speedway rider took out at least four feet of Inland Raceway fence, suffered a concussion, dislocated his shoulder, and underwent two hours surgery for a broken ankle. Mike Manley No. 217 is recove ring in Rm. 7307 at Lorna Unda Hospital - Also recove ring, but slowly, is Mike Renslow. inju red critically at the Sacramento Mile. Credit Ed Meager of Nat'l Motorcycle Patrol for saving Mike's life by stopping blood flow from a severed artery. Send cards to Sacramento Medical Center. 2315 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, Ca. 95817. Len Vestal, lo ng a p illar of Distr ic t 3 6 is dead at age 58 of a heart attack. CLUC K, BURP, AND RING-DING DEPT: The AMA National Motocross circuit has picked up three new sp onsors - Pepsi Cola is backing the August 24 125cc National at San Antonio. Texas, Popeye's Fried Chicken will support both 125cc and 500cc Nationals at New Orleans September 1, and the August 24 500cc National at Ravenna, Ohio will be the "CZ 500." Dangling about Ken Roberts' rear axle is one very expensive sprocket. Fracture occurred all the way around at once, during heat at Ascot IT. Steve Droste has an identical one. This test-p lotting is a good sign : as the BLM and others are willing to admit that nobody really knows how critical ORV damage is to the desert ecology. The only thing that's certain at this ti me is that the visual scars of ORV activity set the Sierra Clubbers' emotions on edge. Kawasaki had Yvon DuHamel testing their "foobar" (parallelogram) suspension sys te m on a water-cooled 750 at Riverside Raceway July 29 . Stopwatch watchers say "Super Frog"went faster around Riverside than he's ever go ne before. We know the bike works, but when Kawasaki will first race it re mains a mystery. to test before Laguna Seca. After turning faster lap t imes than other makes of racers at the track, the motorcycle seized, rider Ron Pierce crashed into the Tum Nine wall . and Cameron hauled away the pieces . " Th e next time we set wheel on asphalt will be at Ontario," Cameron sighed afterwards. Inspired by the Jerry Lewis Telethon an d thinking '" could do something to raise money for crippled kids," AMA Expert Carroll Ray will ride 500 lap s of the Clackamas, Oregon Sidewinders'TI course o n August 17 fo r Muscu lar Dystrophy. The AMA is getting behind his effort, so if you want to support it, send donations c/o the AMA to "TI fo r MD." We note that the famous (o r infamo us) blunt-nosed leopard lizard got mentioned again, this t ime in a slam against ORV activity in Ballinger Canyon printed by the Santa Barbara paper. Pacific Qualifiers for the Can-Am series will be August 24 at Argyll Park. Dixon. Calif. August 31 at Carlsbad Raceway, Carlsbad, Calif. and Sept. 14, Puyallup Raceway Park, Puyallup, Wash. AFM's recent $1500 purse road race was so successful that some club offic ials are seriously considering offering purses at all AFM Los Angeles chapter races. When asked why he does not use air/oil front forks , Nils Nilsson of Team Husqvarna replied, "Springs do n't leak." David Aldana's Suzu ki shifts o n th e right. When he went to try out Pat Henn en 's bi ke at a Riverside Raceway tes t sessio n, he co uldn't ge t it started because he kep t trying to p u t it in gear with the brake lever. 2 Famed tuner Kevin Cameron brought h is Boston Cycles TZ 750 to Riverside If you send 25 C to WD40 Company, 1061 Cudahy Place, San Diego, Calif. 92110 they will return to you a 1.5 ounce sample of WD40. The 25c is to cover postage and handling. What buggers Papa is that at Saddleback Par k, wh ich has to rate as some kind of disaster area, lizards, roden ts, birds and other fo ragi ng fauna a re su per-abundan t. Could that be because predator losse s far o ut weig h the loss of habitat an d other da mage clai med against m o t o r c y cl e s , and the m o to r c y cl e s dr ive off p redator s? Wonder wh en all th e self-styl e d experts will develop so me pe rspective abo u t this thing. Ever wonder where the Sierra Cub gets most of the money they use to chase us around the desert? They invest in co mpanies like Exxon, General Motors Gerrit Wolsink scored a 1-2 to win the 500cc Netherlands Motocross GP. The Team Suzuki . rider is now only 13 po ints behind Husqvama's Heikki Remember the controversy over the Ellis Ho nda th at was though t to h ave wo n the re cen t Baj a 400 an d th en disqualified? Well, p ho togra phs take n at the start an d th e fini sh seem to reveal th at two bikes were u sed. On ly the wri nkles in th e st ick-on numbers were differen t. J im Manning is planning a moto rcycle tour of Lion Country Safari in Southern California. That's where the signs say "Trespassers will be eaten." A MOTORCYCLE tour? Sign on a van at the- races : "Welcome! Keep Out!"

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