Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1975 09 16

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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E ~HE LATEST ~ • t I i Weslake, happy with the success of their 500cc four-valve speedway single, plans to .double up and create a 1000cc V-twin for grasstrack and road racing sidehacks. Reason th is is becoming a viable 'pro p osit io n is that all the old J.A.P. and V incent engines in current use are f inally dry ing up, blowing up, or runn ing out of spare parts. P a.n BY PAPA WEALEY A s cot '5 September 17 in San Francisco the U.S. Forest Serv ice has scheduled a public hearing from 9 to 5 at the Bank of America Bldg., 555 California Street to hear comments on planning the na tion's renewable resources. Anyone pla nning to attend should be fam iliar w ith draft reports recently released. ORVs aren't men tioned specifically, the session is a bro ad-brush discussion of whether recreat ion of all kinds shou ld be restricted or allowed to expand. Maybe I'm being a little uncharitable towards our nation's capital. Actually, D.C. used to be a pretty neat place, back when the entire Federal budget was the size of the present year's deficit. Professional Motorcycle Ice Racing m akes its West Coast debut Sept. 19 at 8 p .rn . insi de the Lo ng Beach Arena. Twenty four of the Nation 's top M IA National ri ders will ga the r to comp ete in "chilling" co mpetitio n on th e eigh th mile ice oval track. Ticke ts are available at all Sears/Ticketrons, WaIlich s and Libe rty Agencies, Mu tu al Agen cies and the Lo ng Beach Arena Box Offi ce. Ole Olsen has another World Speedway C h a m p i o n s h ip , accordi ng to vibes coming across the water fro m the Wor ld Individual Finals at Wembley, England. MXers from allover are invited to race the 1976 Wintemational Series in Flor ida. Start ing January 25 at Homosassa Springs, there'll be six meets with $2,400 purse plus contingencies at each. Gear for deep sand and gassit! Contact National MIC League, 1179 S.W. 1st Way, Deefield Beach, Florida 33441 for entry. Phone (305) 421-3232. AFM will ru n th eir September 2 1 road race at Ontario co unterclockwise, the same way as th e Champio n Spark Plug Classic to be hel d two weeks later. Ron Pierce and Steve McLaughlin have already entered. Art Baumann will test Yvon DuHamel's 750cc "foe-bar" racer for Kawasaki in AFM's September 21 Ontario race. If the race proves that recent development work has made the paralle logram-suspended motorcycle fast enough , Yvon will ride it in the Champion Spark Plug Motorcycle Classic two weeks later. Besides Baumann in Open GP , Kawasaki will en ter Ron Pierce in 250 GP. The research struggle to beat the do min ating Yamahas goes on. "It's absurd. None of the AMA board members compete, and they're making all the decisions." Steve McLaughlin said it , in explaining why he should be elected to the board. 2 T he Ca l ifornia Coasta l Zo ne Conservat ion Commissio n, in its mas ter pl a n for the state's coastl ine , has adopted an ORV ban on all be aches ex cept Pismo Beach, which is bei ng deve lo ped specifically as an O RV rec reation area. sent out Word filt ers back from that malignant growth on th e Potomac that the DOTies have -extended the helme t law penalty deadline un ti l December I. Sounds like the prelude to a series of public hearing de lays desig n ed · 10 c o n f u s e a nd co nfo und th e bikers who h ad p lan ne d to attend. Wan t to be t o n it ? The top 24 Juniors in the West were invited to run in a special $500 Sam Arena H·D Junior Invitati o nal Mile, to be run in conjunction with the San Jose National September 21. Yamaha will introduce a three-cylinder, air-cooled, shaft drive four stroke this week. has While on the subject of Ascot, announcer Roxy Rockwood says the Gardena oval will decide Number One . If you count Ontario as a foregone conclusion , he could be right. Saturday nigh t m o tocr oss is cancelled at Fremon t Raceway un til t he track can arrange better lighting. The car racers are st ill ru nn in g at n igh t - they're h alf blind anyway. The AMA has m ad e up a compl e te info package on th e proposed 10 -race West Coas t Superbowl MX Qualifier Series for 1976. As planned, Washin gton ' and Ore gon wo uld get two eve n ts ea ch, and Cali fo rn ia the other six. Interes te d promoter s should co n tac t AMA Pro Moto cr oss Man ager Mike DiPre te in Westervill e. m an agemen t invitations to top No vices and Juniors from the Eastern and Cen tral A.:\IA regi ons t o c o m pe t e du ring the September series of pro half miles. Grasping at straws Dept: Formula One car constructor Lord Hesketh said to be considering the production of an all-new British "Superbike" to ' co mpete head-to-head with the Japanese. Why does th is Yamaha look like a SOHC 500 Victo r? Tall, da rk an d (h ope fully) reliable as a n ine -pound hammer , th e TT 500 engin e has a co up le of touc he s we 've seen before, li ke th e exhaust-valve co mpre ssion release (you can see its lever just above th e exhaust flan ge) and th at h umongous tal l, square barrel. Cam ap p are n tly rides on roll ers, as would m ost o f th e lo wer en d , if m ost cu rre n t Japanese engineering practices hold. Cran kcase splits verticall y. Th e exhaust is not quite as much of a monstrosity as th e Hon da XL350, but it's cl ose. See more of th e TT 500 thumper o n p age 14 . Some of the riders who have already confirmed for the Champion Spark Plug Classics are Wa lter Villa, Johnny Cecco to, Barry Sheene, Teuvo Lansivuori, and ,Jo hn Boote. The recent ruling of the F I M to give full international sanction to the race has sparked this flood of entries. After havin g it out at Spillway Park in San ta Maria, ri ders co mpeting in the Can-Am Amateur Motocross Series will be heading for Puyallup Raceway near Kent, Washington. Greg Sassaman's broken right arm was pinned recently, and Greg hopes to ride the Junior race at Ontario in October. He needs one more race to make Expert in road rac ing . AMA 's John Amidon and Rob Rasor will cond u ct evening seminars on political action October 2 and 3 at the Aspe n c a de rally in Ruidoso, New Mexico . Meetings are open to all riders whether they are AMA members or not, are admission is free . However, tickets must be ob tained in ad vance by writin g the A~IA Legislative Depart me nt, P.O. Box 141 , Westerv ille , Ohio. 4308 I. A g roup called Columbia·Willarnette Recreation and Resource Coalition has formed in Oregon to bring user-groups together on l an d-u se hassles. Ken Carlson, of Portland, current president of Western Recreat ional Vehicle Environmental Council, heads up the new group. High School. MX is starting its second year at Coro na Raceway. Th e te ams are organized in to leagues accordi ng to th e size of the school. All compe ti tion leads up to th e pl ay -o ffs which decides who the league champ io n is. Ge t your team together and con tact Dale at Corona Raceway . Circle the month of May in 1976 because that 's when " Supe r Joe" Einhorn is going to jump Niagara Falls on a rocket powered motorcycle. This may sound familiar to you, but he says th at he is really going to use a motorcycle. Oh, by the way there is no admission. National number 80 Tom White found co wtrailing to be more dangerous than the National trail. At Saddleback Par k he got hit head-on by a squid going full bo re on a narrow trail. It really lu nch ed his left arm but he's usi ng th e extra ti me off to shape up h is n ew shop . As originator of mo dificat io n s for the m onosh oc ker s he 's go ne o ut o n his own and can be found , massive ar m cas t and all at To m Wh it e Cycle Speci alties in Gar den Grove. The BLM up in Oregon has closed a 16D-acre patch off State Hwy. 205 south of Bums in Harney County to preserve a rare plant species. The area is fenced and posted. Morb idel li, the furniture-maker turned GP bike co nstructor, is preparing a brace of 250's fo r the 1976 season. Afte r wr ap p ing up the 3 50 cc World Champio nship , ro adracin g's wu nderkind J o hn ny Cecotto m et with Yamaha officials in Amste rdam to dis cuss a full 19 76 con tr ac t . Another that Yamaha is looking at to re gain los t p restige on the Eur o -eircuit is It alian Ote llo Buscherini to ri de 125 and 25 0 classes. Maybe by 1976 there will be a "900 Desmo" Ducati available in the U.S. to meet Federal left-shift rules. With an actual displacement of 863cc (86 x 74mm), discs front and rear, and a claimed top end of 140-plus, the Super Duck was shown recently at the Earls Court Show in England. After bei ng promised fo r over a year. the Ric kman chassis fo r XL Ho nda single s was also revealed at Earls Court. Valvoline is taking a good, long, hard look at motocross racing in America. An Ash land Oil racing effort may be forthcom ing . Utah Gove rnor Calvin L. Ram pton and AMA 's Rob Raso r p resen ted the case agai nst the he lmet law at the D.O .T. pe na lty hearing in D.C. Thursday , while badass chopper types held a p eace ful vigil de monstration o utside th e federal offices. Where were th e A~ IA-Iype de monstrators? Gene Romero would like to take the chicane out of Daytona and the corkscrew out of Laguna Seca. " I think it's stupid," Gene recently said of the corkscrew. "You have to slow down too much." Tri als stalwart Tom Burman made th e Mik e Douglas show last wee k to demonstrate wh a t he do es fo r a livin g creat ing facial m ak eup " speci al effec ts." Latest e ffo r t was for "The Devil 's Rain ." Or was it "B eyond th e Green Door?" Getting h ar d to kee p up with Hollywoo d these days.

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