Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Are you ready? BINSIDE ~ E What industries are willing t o defend the sport th at supports and feeds them? We wan t a head co un t fro m th e sm all neighborhood accesso ry sh op up to and including the lar ge manufactu rers. It is high t im e we k new wh ere th ese businessm en stand . If t he d e al er, distributor, manufa cturer, etc. would d isp lay a written receipt (Sa n Gabriel Valley MC is ac kn o wled ging all co n tri butio ns in writ ing ) or cancelled che ck in clear view in their place o f busin ess, it would enable his customers to see j us t w hat his business represents. Wri te it off as a busin ess expense if you wish, but let us see y ou are willing t o help. Trans-AMA .•••... . ... ••6 Belgians one-two at Unadilla Speedway . . . • ... . . . . . . . 8 Sonny lets it all hang o u t Four stroke MX •..•.••.10 Gnarly 01' b ikes on gnarl y 01' gro und 00 C\l I-< Q) ..0 o ..... u o Rap with Rex ••••.. .••• 14 Dez •••.•••• • •••.•••• . 16 Central 18 Can-Am Finals fr om Kansas Tu ff 'Nuff •• ... ..... .•22 K. BLANT O N Lakewood, Calif. Back on the 0.37 Enduro circui t Hotline ..•• •.. . ... • . . .24 North ••• •• •• ••. . , .. ..30 Opin ion .• . . . . . ..... , .36 More ideas Who runs the AMA ? Results • •• ••• .•• . . . .. .40 Can-Am 2505 •.. ... . ...42 Calendar • . .. . .. .. .. . . .46 Mini Champ . •• .. • •. . . .50 ON TIlE FRONT PAG E: A do wn -ho me welcome to Weisel's Disci ples - take th at Gr an t Wood! Sharon Day to n . Pu bli sher Robert I.. No r Ve lle, Ge nera l Man age r Ed na Mewton , Secre tary to Publisher. Advertising Lin da Clark, Advertising Manage r. Ch ris Ko lber , Ad vertising Assistant. Editorial Charles L lay lo n . Ed ito r-in-Chie f; Lane Ca mpbe ll, Se n io r Edi tor, Bo lli Sco tt Editor & Da le Brown. Ass ' t. Edi to r, Art and Produ·etion Ca therine Lampton, Art Directo r ; Bar bara Mizuno, Ad ver tising Art Director; Paul Butler , Lab Te chn ic ian ; Mari on Hatash ita, Typo gra phe r. Circul at ion Rhc ba Smi th . Man ager ; Pam Hohbs and C hris An dre ws. As sistan ts . Accounting . Gaytene Z..io na, Man ager ; Judy Fouts. Ha mmond , Mike Klinger . J eanne Assistan ts; Tom Hun ter . Rh onda Van Doren, Credit De p ar tme n t. Serv ice< & Support Bill Ru nyan . Tom Lu e hma nn . J uan ita Ulan ton. receptionist . West P.O. Box 498. Lo ng Beach, CA 908 0 1. (2 13) 42 7-7433 : I_A. Line 636- 8844. (Te lex 6 56.3 30 ) East r.o. Uox 80 5 . Tu c ker . GA 30084. (4 04) 934-7850. (Telex 542· 777) Su bscrip tion On e year . second dass m ail 5 12.50: 2 years. secon d CblSS mai l, 522.5 0 ; 3 ye ars . second c lass mail. 530.00 ; Singh: co p y pri ce. 50 cents. Copyrigh t Cycle News. Inc. 19 75. Trade m ark regi stered U.S. Patent Office. All rights rese rve d. Publi sh ed week ly e xc ep t the first a nd last wcek o f th e calen da r year by Cycl e News, lnc., P.O. Box 49 8. Lo n g Bcach, Cal ifo rn ia. Seco nd class pos ta ge paid at Long Beac h , C A. 9 01:W 1Ed itorial st orie s, c artoons . ph otos. etc. ar e we lcome. Ad dr esse d . sta mped . envel op e assures re tu rn o f u np urch ased edi torial ma u er . Rep rin ting in wh ol e or p art o nly by pe rm issio n of the pub lishers. Adve rtisin g ra tes and circu latio n inform ati on will be se nt upon request . See S. R.D .S . 4 "Jaws" attacked Anything but tomfoolery The Ontario Champion Sp arkplug Motorcycle Classic racing was gre at , but we feel cheated and let down on the announcing done by Larry Huffman. He constan tly mis -called riders ' names, numbers, positions, yelled t oo loud and to o fast. He was tryin g too m uch to " sensation alize" a race th at was already sensati o nal to be gin wi th . His " an no uncing" is an ins ult to all th e fans, as we ll as lo yal ra ce exasp era tin g .. . we had to constantly ke ep wa t ch t hro ugh our bi noculars to be sure of an ythi ng . Fo r instance, in the Novice fin al, he con fu sed Baeder with Da vidson fo r almost the entire race. In the Junior fin al, he completely mi ssed leader Singleton's spectacular crash , an d co ntin ue d looking fo r him for a go od 15 mi n ut es before he fo und out about t he accident! He also in sinuat ed th at so me th in g had "happen ed" to seco nd plac e racer Skip Akslan d, becau se he so meh ow failed t o see him pass the line for t wo lap s. In the second le g o f the 200 mil e National, he failed to notice Canadian Jean Lysight's 120 mph slide in to the wall, and th e man laid there on the track almost five minute s b efore help arrived - without a word from Huffman! Ou r opinio n is that Huffman ought to stick to living-room sized tracks, and leave the b ig races to Roxy Rockwood! I resent Lane Campbell 's choice o f words in referring to th e Ontario in term issio n show of Yin tage Grand Prix motorcycles as " to mfoo lery." His th oughtl ess, ca su al remar k about the in termissio n sh ow in his rep o rt ab o u t th e National came as q uite a shock to m y sel f, but mostly to my hu sband wh o sp ent three months, hours o n t he phone and co nsid erable expe nse in organ izing th e ex hib it. Lane Campbell obviously wasn 't on pi t row as the bikes ca me in or he wo uld have seen th a t th e vario us racers. ph o to graphers , crew an d A.M.A. officials as well as t he ch eering crowd see m ed to be havin g a grand time. Granted, it might have all seemed trivial to yo u , but to all th ose who ap precia te the great racing bi kes of the past , th is was a step fo rward in getting th em o u t of the garages and in to the sp o tlight where th ey bel ong. We hope to double th e field ne xt year an d hopefully th en Cycl e New s will be more co urteo us an d en thusiasti c in its co verage. (MRS. STEPHEN WRIGHT ) Hun tin gto n, Beach, Calif. PHYG ARMSTRONG BRUCE JAMIESON Santa An a, Calif. Well, nobody 's perfect . . . Edit or Fair offer As sponsors/tuners we wo uld like t o make our own nomination fo r th e title o f California 's fastest and most consistent 350 class production racers. The bikes: The Fairway Racin g Products/Torco Oil sponso re d Yam aha RDs ridden by Dale ~IcCreary an d Wes Cooley , Jr.; the rider: Dale McCreary. We have entered six AFM points races and the two we st coa st nat ionals in 19 75. Th e record will spea k for itself (five first plac e finish es, two second place , an d on e DN F ). As far as we kn ow th e 3 50 production lap record for the On tario long co urse is 2:2 1.8 by Wes Co ol ey on April 20 . At th e Ontario National we . pulled 38/16 final gearing at 9100 RPM on a Dunlop 410 18 tire (h eigh t 25 an d one quarter inches). This computes to 127.7 mph. If it 's not the fastest , it 's close. Ulrich , if you wish to p ersonall y verify any of this please notify us and we will provide a ride at the A FM ra ce of your choice on a Fairway RD. We'll see if we can extend y our 125cc win streak to the 350 class . We 'll pro vid e a proven bike, the re st will be up to yo u. GE NE SCH ROE DE R, mgr. J E F F CAWAN, service mgr. Fai rway Yamaha Placen tia, Calif. I had originally in tended th e word "tomfoolery" to apply to the dragster sideshow only. I very mu ch regret, and apologize for, mention ing th e antique bikes in the sam e phrase. It 's tru e I wasn 't on pit row when the bik es were rolled out; I was still trekking back fr om th e infi eld . . . L.C. Ooops ! I read with interest yo ur report o n the Op en Producti on race , and would like to co rrect an error. Hurley Wilvert was no t on aYam ah a , Bein g a lat e entry and n ot being in th e p ro gram was probab ly where the mix -up occurred . An yway , the excelle nt p erforman ce Hur ley tu rn ed in was on an u nfamiliar Z- I Kawasa ki , b uilt by Dale-St arr Engineeri ng and tuned by Dale Alexander . I'm su re wi th a li ttle t ime o n th e mac hin e, Hurley would have played tag with Yvon. R. A. GO EP FRICH Dale -St arr Engineering Simi Valley, Calif. Hook & Ladder rescue Than ks to Larry Hunnewell and Nelson Brinkman (DDMC) for co ming to the rescue of on e mom and her buddy-up three-year-old son at th e Ho ok and Ladder Enduro . After brea king down h alfway t hrough t he cou rse and being stranded for more than 30 m in u tes, these two super guys go t m y bike running and sta yed with us to the finish to make sure we didn 't break down again. A special thanks from my son, who received his first finisher pin . FRAN SPARKLE & LITTLE JOE Huntington Beach, Cali f. • .. . . i ., With th e can ce lla ti o n of the HBMC ' race, followed by th e cancellation of the Barstow to Vegas , I feel it's time we put our money wh ere our mouth is. Surcharges on races is a fine idea and I'm all for it. How about some le gal fund benefit races? Everyone 's fam iliar wi th t he little co in collectors we see o n co un ters everywhere for causes like cancer an d heart funds. I t hink it's a go od idea to pu t these in every cy cle sh op in Southern California fo r a legal defense fun d. I'm sure there are many o t he rs o u t there with id eas for raising money. Most of us h ave sizea ble investme n ts in eq ui p me nt assoc iate d with our sport. We pro bably spend an avera ge of $20-30 pe r weeke nd racing, incl udi ng gas, repairs, e tc . Wh en yo u multiply th at by all ORV en th us ias ts (racing or not) y ou hav e a tidy sum wh ich supports an industry in it self. It 's a question of how much our sport is reall y worth to each of u s, I j u st sent in m y $25 check to SG VMC to help in th e legal ex pense s that will be incurre d trying to keep de sert racing alive an d well. DICK HARRIS An aheim, Calif. San Diego riders, read t his Thank y o u for running the items about th e San Die go County ORV Committee. Many other co un t ies could do well by following San Diego 's example (note : we also have the only legally nude beach in the U. S.). There are, unfortunately, problems Since the we are facing here. Committee's meetings in April, there has never been more th an a couple of handfuls o f people in attendance. Since becoming an o fficial member of the Committee, I have learned why it has ne ver re ached its goal of providing riding areas. The co un ty has not been exactly genero us in providing services (let alone rebate money fro m the " green stickle" fu nd ). The Committee has lost many importan t an d kn owledgeable members be cause o f the lack of La st me eting, t he co-operation. co-chairman, a qualified ORV m an, res ign ed fo r th is reason. We sorely need help. I believe th is help must co me fro m a grass roots level. Letters to co un ty board members ar e a must. I fi nd t hat most moto rcyclists want to do something. All th ey ne ed is a little gui dance. If you co uld suggest t hat p eople in San Diego County write their supervisor req ue sti ng a high-priority for ORV pro grams, I' m sure the Committee would so o n notice a ch an ge in the County 's a t ti tu de. PA UL C. HEFFERLIN San Die go, Calif. P.S. Not all of us down here are apathetic, but th e apathetic o nes su re get a lot more ridin g in . The view s ex pressed in th is colum n and a t h e r colu mns app earing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do no t ne cessarily refl ect th e official po sition of Cycle News West or Cycle News, Inc. QJlalified readers wishin g fr ee and equal rebu ttal space sho uld con tact the Editor.

• Cover