Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. Ha ve so me Cherry Elsin ore. " I co u ld n't bel ieve my eyes, so I ran bac k to my truc k to ge t m y cam era so I co uld ta ke the pi cture wh ich is enclosed with th is le tter. DAROLD B. CUMMINGS Inglewo o d, Calif. BINSIDE ~ t Terre Haute 6 Mike quits Kidding ar ound MX National 8, 9 Karsmakers is th e Mo te -master in New York National Climb 10 up, up and away-y-y ! Speedway . . . . . . . . , . . . .12 Ascot . . •. .. . . . . .. . . . . 13 Santa Fe Nat'l. 14 Hank Scott sh ell-shocker Dez • • • • ••• ••• • • • • • • • •16 Mo re of eve ry thing Hotline Opinion 18 23 Freedom 's last blas t? Results North The Gang 24 28 31 Over th e Hill do esn't m ean wh at you th in k Calendar Road rage 32 O N THE FRONT PA GE: Two Camel Pro MfA Nationals in one jam-pac ked wee kend. Ph o tos by Bob Lenk, Sharon C.yton, Publisher Robert L Nor Velie , Gen eral Manager Edn a Mewton, Secretary to Publisher. Advertising Lind. C ar k. Adve rtising Manager. a ..is Ke lber, Advertising Assistant . Editorial O1arles C ay ton . Editor-in-01ief: Lane Camp bell, J eff Peck, and Bob i Scott Editon . Art and Production Catherine Lamp ton , Art Direc tor : Paul Bu tl e r , La h " Tech nician ; Mari on Hatashit a, Ty po grap her. Circula1ion Rheb a Smith, Man ager : Pam Hobbs and a llis Andrew , Assistants. Accounting Caylene Zaionz. Mana ger: Judy Fou ts, Mike Klin ger, Jeanne Hammond, Assistants: Tom Hunter, Rh on da Van Doren , Credit Dcp ar onen t, Services & Support Bill Rooyan, Tom Luehmann ; Jeannie Duniv an , RcccptionisL West P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90 80 I. (213\ 427-7433 ; L.A. Line 6 36-8844. East P.O. Box 805. Tucker. GA 30084. (404) 934-7850. Cen tr al P.O. Box 13245, Aust in , TX 7871 \. (512) 444-7548. Subscription On e: ve ar, second class mail $ 12.50 ; 2 years, seco nd class mail . S22 .50 ; 3 years. second class mail . S30.00 ; Single ce pv price . 50 cents. Copyright t;ycle New s, Inc. 19 75 . Tra de mar k regtste red U.S . Patent Office . All cigh t reser ved . Pub lished wee klv except th e first an d lall wee k of the' calend ar y ear by Cycle ;\jews. Inc .. P.O . Box 49 8. Lo ng Beach. Califo rn ia. Seco nd c1.m po stage p;ai at Lo ng BeOlch . CA . Edit or !..l d sto ries , cart oo ns. ph o to s. er e. are welco me . Addressed . st amped en velope assure s ret urn o f unpurchased ed ito ria l ma t tee. Rep ri n tin g in wh ole o r part o nly b y permission o f th e pu bli shers. I\ d veort ising rat es and cir cul ati o n information will be sent upon request. See 4 S.R.O.S. Open letter to Terry Rezek I jus t returned fro m th e 'National Ro ad Races' at Laguna Seca, and I am an guished at th e n um er ous adverse in cid ents th at oc cu rred. Mel Par khurst is the ty pe of A.'\IA official th at turns professional an d amate ur co m petito rs agai nst th e M IA. You ge t th e distinct impression that he co uldn ' t car e less abo ut yo ur pr o blems or those th at ro ad racing or an y kin d of motorcycle racing is facin g. To him the riders and th e races are j ust another fo rm o f personal irritation. The tragic accide n t du ring the Novice heat was a terrible thi ng, bu t an additional ac cide nt could have occurred fr o m th e indecision to im mediately st op the race - or co n t inue it . The red flag to halt the event was shown to the leaders, then was wi thdrawn seconds after. Harry K1inzm ann had been battling fo r th e lead, saw the red nag, and di d the proper thing by slo wing to a stop. Because th e n ag was with drawn after he had p assed it, he dropp ed man y places bac k o u t of co nten ti o n. Th is cannot be cal led anything but in compet ence an d stupi dity on th e part of th e officials. It was a miracle someone was n o t run up the ba c k. Qiff Alliso n is a Novice ri der fro m Arizona who wa s also in t hat same heat. When th e h eat was over he did not re turn to th e p its . His wife app roached th e offi cials on th e start/fi nish line .and th ey co uld n o t o r wo uld no t offer any hel p . Not o ne of the officials a t th e lin e knew th e nam e or number of wh o h ad gone to the hospital or wh o had fallen . T h e y m ust have t h ou gh t t h e he ad phones they were wearing wer e stric tly for ornamen tation. J ust prior to the Novi ce fin al, the sidecars h ad a p ract ice sessio n an d drop p ed a lot of oil on the tr ack. On e Novice asked an offi cial on the start lin e wh ere the o il was an d the official t old the ride r , "Shu t the F... up . " Concernin g side car racing: it is to tally unpro fessional in th e U.S. Peo pl e watch fo r a muse ment, n o t e nte rtain men t. It is a waste of every o ne 's ti me. Un til they can p rovi de a bette r show, th ey should be eli mi nated fro m the program . The same goe s for th e 35 0 Pro d u ct ion race. No o ne has any interest in the class except the riders th emselves. Eliminate th e ' Novice race, 350 Product ion and sidecar races an d you will get rid of a lot of headaches, provide an ade q uate amo un t o f practice and a more p rofession al pro gram. An othe r illumin ating point ab o ut the rep u tatio n of bik ers in gene ral: my mechanic, girlfrie n d and I stayed in a cam p groun d at th e Monter ey Penins ula Colle ge an d th e attendan t tol d us th at th is was the last ye ar he wo uld ope n th e college to bikers (and would co m p le tely close it down fo r race weekend). It's a sh ame b ut I can' t blam e him . Ou t o f abo ut 500 or so bikers th ere we re only a . few ma kin g it difficult fo r everyo ne else by revvin g their Z-ones to eigh t grand at six a.m , and leavin g a p ile of trash for so meone else to pic k up .' Than ks fo r your lovely effort in waking pe op le to th e Kern Plat eau ar ea hap p enings. Yo u en ticed us in to goi ng to th e Kennedy Meadows area, Oanuary 7, ar ticle) an d now we will help in th e st ruggle (july 29 , article) to keep th e area open for all motorcycle riders to en joy . J UDY & DO N MERRITT Sy lmar, Calif. ALLAN ENGEL Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. Robin who? We keep reading about this gu y Ro bin To lleso n who is winn ing kids clas s in California tr ials. Why don 't y o u prin t a pic ture of him so us kids up here in Washington can see wh at he loo ks like? Otherwise Cycle News is the greates t. WILLI CLINE Seattle, Wash. lYe may get one fo r you at the next A TA K id s ' Championship August 24 _. . Editor A personal testimony Because I re ad it in Cycle News, I learned ab out those great people do wn at Go leta Cycle, wh o reb uil t my Fernsa (Bul ) u nit fo r $30 - th at was a savings of $ 12 0 ove r dealer 's estimate (parts only) ! PHIL DARLING Rich mond, Calif. Poor planning It is in excusabl e for a pr ofessional rac ing organ ization to pu t on an eve n t o f the cali ber shown o n Au gust 2nd at th e Laguna Seca National. Starting with th e acciden t in th e second heat wh en th e red flag was display ed and withdrawn, and ending with th e running o f th e Novice Main with oil o n th e tr ac k fro m sidecars, the day 's eve n ts were a sad comedy o f errors . These are only my op in ions, but th ey are well earned. Do I thin k I co uld h ave done better? No , I know it ! 1 was responsib le for the plannin g an d runnin g of an AFM road race at thi s same tr ack 10 m onths earlier. Fo r wh at was billed as a Na tio nal Road Race, th ere is no excuse fo r th e lack of plann in g, cos t cutting and co n fus io n shown on August 2nd. Emergencies at a race sho uld always be pl anned for, they alway s exis t. MARK HEMMEN DINGER San Fran cisco, Calif . Cherry Elsinore I h ave been re adi ng wan t ad s in yo ur newsp aper for quite so me time no w th a t h ave read some thing like , " Cherry Elsin o re , $ 75 0 ," and h ave be en pu zzled at jus t wh at " Ch erry Elsin o re" re ferred to. Well, m y problem has been so lve d! At the last DR A race I was walking to th e p o rtacan when I cam e across a mem be r of th e Ap ocalyp se Mo torcy cle Club lying n at out beside a p ucker bu sh , so I stopped to sec if he was in ill heal th . To m y surprise. he li fted him sel f up and handed me a bot ti c and said, Vote for Steve! Wi t h th e Ame rican Mo torcycle Association's annual Boar d of T rustee s election me et in g in th e o ffering , I would lik e all AMA ca rd-carrying members in the Western Sta tes to kn o w that I in ten d to run for electi on to the Boar d as th e Clas s "Aft repre senta t ive fo r their area. As the " people 's re presentative" for th e Weste rn U.S. I t hin k I can do a great de al to make th e views of the ordin ary ran k and file m em bers known to t he Board, as distinct from the tr ade interests which are so prevalent at present . Balloting fo rm s for the ele ction will be published in th e nex t " AMA Report " newsletter and I wo uld respectfull y soli cit the support o f th e aver age me m bers as the ir representative to the MfA. I would ask those people who do feel in clined to vo te fo r me t o en ter m y name on th eir bal lo t slip an d re turn it to t he A.'\f A offices as soon as possibl e. This is th e primary ballot from wh ich five "sh or t list " can di dates will be chosen. I do feel strongl y th at the regular AMA mem ber need s to be ab le to make his vo ice he ard amongst t he ot her factio ns represen ted and wo uld welco m e the chan ce to act as a spokesm an fo r "M r. Average. " . STEV E Mc LAU GH LIN Santa Ana, Calif. The views expressed in th is colu m n and colu mns appearing on th e fo llowing pages are solely th ose of th e au thors and do no t necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cycl e News, In c. Qualified readers wishing fre e an d equal rebuttal space should con tact th e Editor. o t li e r

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