Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126010
A birdseye view of roadraclng · "Mountain High Racing "-West wood Park in British Columbia. impossib le to find and if y o u co ul d it would cost you over $6 a quart. Can a di an racin g has m an y attrac ti o ns and the biggest one is something th e ro ad racing club has go in g with th e own er o f Westwood. For a flat $ 25 membership and $1 5 per year the track is available to motorcyclists every Wednesday and Saturday free of charge. Th e ra ce co urse itself is in th e hills, surrounded by den se fo re st. It h as a nice pit area and co ncessio n stand. The tr ack surface is in good condition and measures 1.8 mile s aro un d with its eight turns. It isn 't as fast as Kent the gearing would be ab out th at of Riverside. It is a very ch allengi ng and also quite dan gerous co urse . There is no "Armco" any whe re , but th e tr ees act as ex cellent b o un daries. There are very few pl ace s y o u can lea ve the track safely . I saw three separate acci de n ts in one comer alo ne . Canadian MIC Asso ci ation license ($ I 7) is require d and can be purchased \ at the tr ack. En try fee is $ 1 I plus $4 for each addi tio nal bi ke enter ed. The racing is not as well organized as it was a t K ent. Comer workers are the volunteer type and the am bu lan ce driver needs instru cti on as to which sid e of the track to driv e on. Th ey run two ten -lap heats for e ach class. No trophies are given - only money . Both of th ese things should be incorporated into our local club racin g. Purses are alway s at least $500. They o nly pay the G.P. classes (three cheers l], p aying through third place. Rocky fmished with two fourth s which somehow added up to a third overall, and he collec ted $3 0 . St eve Baker often shows up and we all know how well he goes (2nd 250, 3rd 750 at Laguna). Jim Dunn is another regular with his factory H·D's. (Would you believe 38mm carbs on his 250?) Ken Botham, Bruce Lind, Ron Kirkham , and Steve Souter also go very hard at both Kent and Westwood. Note : Steve Souter was involved in that fatal accident at Laguna Seca during th e Novice heat. There are always at least 500·600 paying spectators that come ou t on a n y given Sunday. During their two-day National points events they will get a co up le thousand. This is a definite plus. I wonder how they do it! Did you ever notice how everyone can 't wait to pack up and leave after their race is over at local A. F.M. or C.M.C . road races? Dig this - when the ra c i ng is over at Westwood, everyone he ads for tum three which is aptly call ed th e clubhouse tum, so named because there is a big hexagonal club house there. There are Cases of beer, a supe r-fri en dl y atm osp he re , and everyone going out of his way to make you feel at h ome. When the p riz e money is given ou t and your nam e is cal le d, _eve ryone cla ps, cheers , yell s, and for th e first time y o u feel like you're ge tting so me re co gnition. With the racing over and a lon g drive facin g us, we op te d fo r an interesting side trip (Of almost 200 miles) th at to ok us to the Oly mpic Na tio n al Park Rain Forest. Th e p ark covers 1,400 square miles stretch ing a lo ng th e seacoast for over fifty straigh t m iles. Mt, Olympus is 7,96 5 fee t hi gh an d we coul d see it clearly earlier o n o ur tri p wh ile to ur ing Orcas Island. Th ere are some sixty glac iers and smal l lakes. The rain fores ts h ave a yearly p reci pi tation excee ding 140 inch es - three ti mes th at of Portland (an d it ra ins a lot in Portlan d ). Som e species o f tree s grow as much in fo r ty ye ars as the same species growing elsewhe re ta ke 20 0 years to grow. It could almost be a scene f rom the A ustrian or West German Grand Prix. Ther e is one more race at Westwood, October 19 , and a full season will soon be sch eduled both ther e and at Kent. Quite a few Southern California ri ders are making plan s . If y o u need a d d i t i o n a l information you can call m e at (21 3) 430-2852. Don 't forget abo u t the strict production rules. All the guys trying to play cat ch on their TZ 3 50 's will be elated to know there is a p ay ing 500 G.P. cla ss at Westwood. Organ ize your trip carefully. Mak e a vacation o f it. Don't try to see every th ing. Leave th e slicks at home. Brin g a fri end an d plan on ha vin g a gre at t ime racin g in the great Pacific No rth wes t. 1'- 'QJ' " ..0 o -l-' U o By Elizabeth E. Rotsel (the bird ) Allan Engel's personal pit crew What would a girl know abou t it all? Well, wh at girl you kn ow can tell th e difference between an E-57 plug and an N-57G, or what 20mm ou t o f the head pipe of an expansion cha mber will do ? Or can yo ur girl friend or wife clean and reassemble a TZ 700 carburetor, making sure all 16 pa rts are properl y ins tal led and in goo d shape? Fem ale involvem ent is charact eristic o f motorcycle road racin g, an d is one of several resp ects in which this dif fers from most o the r sports. A golfe r's or ball pl ayer's wife may be present at every even t wh ere her hu sband parti cip at es an d be involved in th e sta te-to -sta te travel and even th e p re-event ten sion . But then she can sit back an d wat ch th e hap pening, whereas at thi s poin t the roa d racer's wife is usu ally bus y cleaning windscree ns and face shields, ta king accurate lap tim es, and keeping an eye on the competit ion - at the very least. Someh ow I always seem to get even mo re invo lved and end up with grease under my fingerna ils and so me sort o f non- rem ovable sta in on my favorite bl ou se. Be it geari ng or tire o r ca rburetor ch anges, or ta king apart the who le bloody engine, Allan and I work togeth er - and I follo w his instruc tio ns to th e letter. Though I ask him to chec k m ost everything I do , he rarely looks up . As he goes ou t to practice my mind goe s back over every thing I've do ne to be sure nothin g was left out or ove rlooked. I'm mentally biting my finge rn ails! An d the n th ere are wives like Jim Allen's Carol wh o are so vitall y import an t to the racin g pro gram th at they wo uld never be left at h om e. T he last I heard, Carol was getting a back carrier for the new baby so she would not even miss one race a fte r it was born. Anoth er di ffe ren ce fro m o ther sports is in the publi c indi fference toward road racin g. I have yet to meet one person not co nnec te d with motor cycling wh o has heard of to p riders like Kenny Roberts or Gary Scot t, Even many so-called motorcycl e en thusiasts don't really kn ow wha t road racing is. In spite o f th e to tal involvemen t and dedi cati on o f th ese at hlete s, the y enjoy little recognition . A third wa y roa d racin g diffe rs fro m most sports is in the dan ger factor. A golfe r's wife can follo w him aro und the golf co urse while the road racer' s wife must wait th at minute and forty-two seconds for a short glimpse each lap . When th e I :4 2 bec om es 1:47 the anxi ety mounts by leap s and bounds. "He mu st have run out of gas. No , we just added some. Maybe something- h as gone wron g with th e bike." The possibility th at the rider has come o ff and is hurt is the last th ought allow ed to en ter the mind - being suppressed up to th e last poss ible m oment. I've even gone out in th e crash truck, my heart pounding th ree tim es its normal rate, talking about how I hop ed "the bike " was all right. An app ro aching road race alw ays means a change in th e normal ro un ti ne o f life when it's d on e semi -professionally (or, rather, when you are forced to hold d own a j ob in addition to your number-one love ). Th at ap p roaching dat e , means endless hours o f preparati on squ eezed in to an already tight schedule. For us it also means getting leaves of absence from our jobs and renting ou t the apartment. It means arranging rides and airline reservati ons as well as getting all organized and packed. The mou nting excitem en t is held back only by worries abo ut preparati ons th at may n ot allow us to go at all and ab out how th e bike will run. Like th at August when we left Los Angeles for the National Road Races at Talladega, Alabama and Charl otte, North Carolina and drove cross-cou n try in my lit tle VW, pulling a Ll-Haul trailer full of bikes, tools, spares, an d luggage - every thing we need ed to live for a month . We had had to miss Dayton a (and I missed the Atlan ta -Lou do n trip) so now tha t all the preliminary details were tended to and we were armed with credit cards for gas and had eno ugh money saved for gene ral living ex pens es, not even the prospect of day and night driving acro ss the 25