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/126015
Dick Mann seemed d isappointed about winning "only" a Bronze (finisher's) medal in his first Six·Days. "Most people in America don't know what it means," he grumped . "They think it mea ns you finished last." More remarkably , J . Younkins, also ridi ng his first Six-Days, won a Gold. LATEST Road racer Johnny Cecotto 's fame in Vene zuel a ha s developed into " Ceco tt o mania " , with motorcycle sales tr iplin g in volume since the 19-year-old cap tured his '3 5 0 c c Wo'rld Championship. Not only are the nation 's youth affecting his mode of dr ess. but po lice are having to dea l with street racers everywhere and hai rdressers arc doing a boo ming business in styling heads ala Joh nny C. The first shipment of Triumph 750cc Bonnevilles with left-side gear shifts is on the way to the U.S.A. The initial ship ment of 100 was followed by another 100 several days later. With Kawasaki and Suzuki dropping their U.S. road racing teams look for European rioers to show up at Daytona, etc. with "cherry picking" hopes. Among the judges at Unadilla's Union Carbide T-Shirt Pit Tootsie Contest (see photos of the winners in last week's paper) were Gerrit Wolsink, J immy Weinert and mota-journalists Paul Boudreau, Chet Heyberger and J immy " The Greek" Gianatsis. Final World Trials Champio nship poi nt standings: 101 1. Martin Lamp kin 100 2. Yrjo Vesterinen 3. Malco lm Rathmel l 99 . 4. Mick Andrews 82 5. C. Coutard . 66 6. U. Karlsson 62 7. B. Selman 62 8. D. Thorpe 43 9. A.R.C. Lampkin 27 10. R. Edwards 25 The first of a two race professional sidehack MX series was won by th e U.S. team of Harry Gaunt and Harry Adams. The Norton Wasp rig ridden/driven by the pai r topped the field in a cold rain at Appalachia Lake Pa rk in West Virgina on October 19 . Aft er narrowly missing election to the posi tio n a year ago at the FlM Congress in San Marino, AMA General Manager Ed Youngblo od is expected t o become a vice president of the Federation International e Motocycliste whe n the 1975 FIM Congress co nvene s this month in Be rl in . With fo ur available seats o n th e FIM' s powerful Bureau Centrale, Youngblood is one of only four candidates. Last year two ballots were required to break a tie between Youngblood and Frenchm an J . Lesueur for th e seat on the Bureau , with Lesue ur get ting the nod by a narrow margin. Didyaknow those neat bubble fairings on the BMW R90S models are made in England? Recently we saw some of th e new 750 Bonneville Triumphs made by the wor kers co-operati ve in Merid en . And you know what? They had excellent qu ality con tro l. May be th ere is ho pe for social cap italism. Profit to th e people! DCIR, near Irvine, Ca. will be back in action as a road racing venue next year under CMC sanction. Seems the swap meets that evicted the scratchers turned into flop meets. Back to square one and punt, huh? Yamaha will reporte d ly onl y field 500 and 750cc road racers in Europe nex t year. It is expected that no wo rks riders will be entered in 125, 250 or 350ce races. 2 Harley -Davidson's John Davidson gifted Gary Scott with a $10,000 bonus check before a gathering of AMF executives and motorcycle publication editon at a luncheon in York, Pennsylvania on October 21. Also honored was H-D's racing chief, Dick O'Brien. Scott's Grand National Championship marked the 13th time in Dick's 18 years of heading up H-D's racing effort that the orange and black marque has taken the Number One plate. HosPITal STOP: Mark Williams, who remains paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a get-off at the San Jose Mile on September 21, has been transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute in Portland, Oregon . A rehabi litation fund has been organized for Mark and contributions may be made in care of the U.S. National Bank at 449 Main, Springfield, Oregon. Lower expenses and the lack of big buc ks sponsorship seem to be the main reas ons many GP mo to cross star s are opting for racing in Australia rather than the Trans-AMA. Hakan Anderson, Gaston Rahier and Akira Watanabe are just three of the GP regulars who are already racing "down unde r." The Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 23 tol d motorcycle manufacturers to reduce pollution emissions of new street bikes 30 percent by 197 8 and 90 percent by 1980. Dirt bikes are exempt fro m the new . standards. Better buy two street bikes now and save one for later .. . you saw what happened to cars whe n th ey became Fedmobiles. Remember the recent profile of Rex Staten in these pages? Well, a Western Regional Harley -Davidson rep saw it , and got in touch with Rex about sponsoring his motocross ambitions. SXey Rexy? Stay tuned. Don ' t kn ow where you'll be o n the Saturday after Thanksgiving, bu t Papa will be joining the Phantom Duck of the Desert in a totally un organized trail ride somewhere be tween Barstow, Californ ia and Las Vegas, Nevada. Quack ! Grand National ' 76 schedule changes already. Ascot (Half mile) and Ontario have switched, with Ontario on the first weekend of October and Ascot listed on the following weekend. Laguna Seca's road race was switched to the first of August. Stay tuned for further deve lopments. Tick~ts are no w availab le at $25 each for the second annual AMA Awards Banquet wh ich will honor the top stars of AMA professional competition. The affai r is scheduled for Tuesday, December 2 at th e Marri ott Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport. Ticket orders whould be made p ayable and mailed to Gen eral Manag er, AMA, P.O. Box 14 1, Westerville, OH 43 081. Malcolm Rathmell won the Scott Trial, an event in which the fastest rider around the loop sets a key time. Others are given po ints according to how much longer it takes them as well as observation points. Rathmell set the key time and got 84 points on observation, while runner-up Martin 18mpkin had seven time points and 82 observed. Rob Shepard, Rob Edwards, and Mick Andrews made up the' rest of the top five. The team of Rathmell, Shepard and Edwards won the team award. Somebody's subscrip tion renewal aske d for more D-38 covera ge. In order to do that , we will need some con tri butors from that area. If three years of raci ng hasn't gotten your name in the pap er, how 'b out wri ting fo r us an d getting it in bo ld type on a byline. Money ain't great, but fring e benefi ts aren't either. Get in to uch with us. The ISDT Watling Trophy, awarded fo r courageous team effort, went to Candada. J oel Robert , the Belgian Puch distributor and team man ager, rode the Six Days co urse almost every day, getting to the check points before his riders, help ing them and then m oving on to the next check. Gas it, J oel. Spectating at the Six Days was a super-busy Barry Briggs, ex-Speedway World Champion . Briggs raced back on the mainla nd seve ral t imes during the wok at night events and then boogied back to the 10M to catch all the action he could. J. Rabas, a Czech rider, refreshed himself with a swig of Czech beer at each checkpoint. , - D.E . Glover" a British entry competing on a Triumph 650, collided with a car on Day Two. He didn't have to 90 far to report the accident - he's a policeman. He rode on the Metropolitan Police dub team. The Hercules Wan kel bikes en te red in the Six Days h ad originally been accepted as disp lacin g 296cc, but the Jury up-clas sed them to the over-50 0cc class by using a calculation system that said th ey were 58 8cc mac hines. Dr. Richard Myen received a wide-eyed expression from a U.s. Customs Inspector in the JFK Airport when he opened up his bag which contained drugs, pills, syringes, etc. at the inspection table. An explanation that he _ the American ISDT team's doctor got him through. Because the en try from Poland was delayed - it took 17 days to reac h th e Aut o-Cycle Union office in London the full field for the 1975 ISDT totaled 306 - six more than th e pre scribed limi t. Senor J . Soler Bulto, President of th e International Jury, sportingly perm itted th e Polish entry to be accepted so that they could be represented in th e Go ld Jubilee celebration. Penton spent $964.02 for gas at the ISDT. John Penton, who alo ng with the lSDT celeb rated his 50th year in ' 75, was spreading rumors around the 10M th at he will ride the Two Day Qualifie rs ne xt year in hopes of , qualifying for the Aus trian ISOT. Carl Cranke's Penton 350 was clocked at 102 mp h on one of the long straights during the Saturday special-test road race. J eff Smith, ri ding for Canada, was one of the happiest competi to rs in the Six Days. The former World Champion mot ocrosser won a Gold Medal in his first ISDT - 25 years ago! He won another one thi s year. Australia will also be the scene of an international road race on February 7-8 with a true championsh ip fla ir. Already entered are title holders Giacomo Agostini, Johnny Cecotto, Walter Villa and Paolo Pileri with negotiations going on for other stars in the world of pavement scratching. Pat Hennen will join Steve McLa ughlin's Team Arm or All in 1976. The team ho pes to contest all four AMA nat ionals, as well as 13 European rac es. Bill Dutcher has been appointed Director of Public Rela tions of Harley-Davidson. Honda rumors aside, th e ,Britis h pres s reports that Heik ki Mikk ola has signed for ano ther year with ,Husqvarna. National short track star Robert E. Lee will be sponsoring the First Annual Lone Star Grand Prix at Green Valley Raceway in Dallas, Texas. Yep, they know that the 100 mile race should be called a ' Gran Prix, but in Texas you spell it like you say it. Mexican Motocro ss magnate Don J ones and , Son Gary are currentl y in Hico, Texas testing Jones/Isla MXers. Th e th ree time National Champ withdrew from the Trans AMA to do furth er testing on the new bikes . Th e Jones plan to return to th e circuit at Lake Whitney. Ross Downs, the home track of Mike Kidd and Terry Poovey, announced plans to run a $1 ,600 short track the night after the Texa stadium Grand National round. Grid position at the Daytona Amateur races will be determined by in-class point standing in each region. Abso lute last chance to qualify for th e ten berths per class in th e Pacific region will be at Ph oenix, December 6-7. Friend of oun found out the hard way - rubber tubeless t ire valve steams don't get it as air fork caps. They're designed for a steady 30-40 psi, and under the sudden pressure peaks imposed by motocross, they blowout. U.S. Transpo rtation Secretary William T. Colem an Jr. rece ntly said that he would not enforce federal san cti ons against states that have no motorcycl e helmet law unless somebody sues th e U.S. Govern men t to make him do it. Califo rnia, Utah, and Illinois can breathe easier fo r th e time being. All three Hondas in the top four at Carlsbad's four-stroke MX Opim Pro class were running C & J frames. Look for an upcoming article on C & J 's new monoshock frame .