Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Trans·AMA air raid I hope the track at Anaheim is mo re reasonable th an the one at the Superbowl. It's too bad the riders do n't have someone to represent th em . The AMA doesn't seem to be concerned with safety, or they would have banned the Superbowl track. What wo uld Mike Go odwin hav e done then? 6 Su zuki and Can-Am teams. bomb the troops in St . Louis MRS . PR UDE NCE LANE Azusa, Calif. Desert National Enduro ...8 u p. down 'n aro un d Lu cerne with th e Checkpoints' Jubilee A n y fo rm of moto rcycle racing is dangerous. That 's pa rt of the gam e, and probably th e reason mo tocr oss is so popu lar. I agree, so me owners and pr om oters could take a lesson in how to prepare a track fo r racing. Some don 't seem to recogniz e th e difference between a legit imate obstacle and a potential death trap. Bu t, riders certainly cou ld speak f or th emselves. Th ey aren 't f orced to participate in any eve n t h eld on an un -safe course . . . Ed itor Dez • . . • •• • • .• • • • • . 10,32 DRA, 0.3 7, D·3 8 triple fea ture 00 ,.....; $-0 QJ ..0 8 QJ > o Z Opinion ,. ,12 Grinding our ax e and blowing o ur horn Political Hotline .... . , . . 15 New section begins this issue City desk 16 So Cal racing act io n Central . . , Pull 'n' save 20 23-26 Usefu l reading for Californ ia bikers North Results New stuff Husky 76 Calendar ~ ; ; 27 33 36 37 38 ON THE FRONT PAGE : To get you in the mood - cover art by Darryle Purcell. Sharo n Clay ton. Pu blisher Ro be rt I.. Nor " di e . Ge nera l Man ager Ed na Mcw to n , Secre tary to Puhlish er, Adve rt ising Linda Clark. Adverti sing ~1 a n ag e r . Chris Kol ber , Advertising Assi stan t. Ed ito rial Charle s Clay ton. Edi to r-ill-Chid: I.a ne Ca m pbe ll. Senior Edi tor, Bolli Scott Edi to r & Dale Brown. Ass't. Edi to r, Art and Produetion Cat her ine Lamp ton. Art Direct o r: Barhara Mizun o , Ad verlisin K Art Director ; ~ Ia rio n Il a ta sh ita. T yp o grapher . Circul at ion Rhcha Sm ith . Man ager; Pa m Hobbs and Chris Andrew s. Assistants . Account ing Gav lene Zaion z.. ~Ianagc r : Jud y Fou ts , ~ I ike Klin ger , J eanne lI ammon d. Assistan ts: T om lI unte r. Rh onda Va n Do ren . Credit De partmen t. Services & Support Bill Runyan, Tom Luehmann . J uani ta Blan ton, rece p tion ist. West P.U . Box 49 B. 1.0n K Bea ch . CA 90BO I. (2 13 ) 4 2 7·74 33: L.A . Line 636·BM4. (Telex 656·33 U) This one sounds desperate Hang on T here have been rumors that Plym ou th Ra ceway (Home of "Hangtown") was to be added to the lost race track list. Last ye ar's Hangtown was a muddy mess. Bikes and fo u r-w h e e l e r s demolished the surrounding countryside. Rumors are rumors, so I wrote to the city to find out. The following is the answer I received , and was relieved to hear. DEBBIE SANDERS Santa Cruz, Calif. Dear Ms. Sanders: In replying to your letter wh ich requests the current stat us of th e Ra ceway. You are Pl y mouth misinformed that th e trac k has be en closed down. It is still open and the Dirt Diggers have a permit to hold a rac e in December 1975 and again in April 1976, if they meet c ertain conditions. What yo u may have heard is th at a certain Moto-X promoter will not be issued another perm it fo r any kind of function at the Plymouth Raceway. This came about for hi s repeated violations of the California Penal Code, the State o f Californ ia Health Cod e , and Ordinances of the City of Plymouth. Most of the residen ts we lcome tourists into o ur city , h ow ever, th ey feel th at the p resence of th ese tourists sho uld not pla ce an undue burden on them, such as gar ba ge, dust. sp eeding vehicles and no n-p ay men t of fee s to name a few. So, as you see, it is n ot too late for you, an d " hundreds of you out there " to enj oy our facilities , however you must comply with the law , an d req u ire all other spectators and participants to co mp ly also . You are free, with any of y o ur frien ds, to attend a co unci l meeting at th e City Hall at 8:00 p.m, on the second Thursday of any month. If y ou have any further inquiries, I would be glad to answer th em. RA.\10N F. DREHOBL Chief of Police Plymouth, Calif. east 1'. 0. lIox BUS, Tu cker, G/\ 300M. (4 04) 9 34·7X!)O. (Telex !' 42 ·777) ) Subseription One year. second class mail 512.50 ; :! years. second class ma il. 522.!)0: 3 years. secon d class m ail, S30.00: Sin gle: co p y pri ce . !)O ce n ts. Cop yr ight Cy cle Ne ws , Inc. 19 75. Tr ade mark registered U.S. Patent Offi ce. All rights reserved. Publ ished weekl y excep t the firs t an d last week o f the calen da r year by Cycle Ne ws, In c.• P.O. Box 49 ~ , Lu ng Beach, Califo rn ia. Seco nd class pos tage p aid a t Lon g Beac h, CA , 9 lJSOl. Edit ori al sto ries . carto on s, pho tos. e tc. an ' welc ome. Ad dr essed. sta mpe d envel ope ass ures return o f u npurch uscd edito rial ma tter. Rep rin ti ng in who le o r p.e-t o nly by p erm ission of th e pub lishers. Ad vert isin g ra tes and circu la tion inf orm at io n will 1><' sen t upon request . Sec S.R .lJ .S . 4 Chief Dreh obl sound s lik e one cool dude. It seems to me every thing he poin ts out makes sense. So, race fans if yo u want to hang o nto Hangto wn treat the good residents of Plymou th with the resp ect the y certainly deserve; and ab ove all don 't set your own standards, comply with th eirs . . . Editor To Lackey and Blackwell In response to your letter in Cycle News, Oct. 21 , Issue 41, the facts are: Rog er DeCoster is gre at ; Gasto n Rah ier is great ; Marty Sm ith is grea t ; th e motocross tr ack at Raven a, Ohio is Mid-Ohio is a World great; Championship moto cross tr ack . 1974 - Mr. Charl es Dillen , Oppen , Belgium. Vice Presiden t of FlM and Commission o f Te chn iqu e (c r) and the 197 3 Wor ld Champion motocross rid er inspect ed and ap prove d Mid-Ohio as a Grand Prix Worl d Ch ampio nsh ip Mo tocro ss Track. 19 75 - Mr . Tage Magnusson of Swede, Fl:'1 Vice President De Motocross (CMT) inspected Mid -Ohio and said , " It wo uld co mp are with any of the top th ree motocross circuits in the world ." Brad Lackey and Mark Blackwell are not q ualified or co m missio ned by F lM to approve or disapprove World Championship Motocross T racks (there are more requirements than just the co urse itself). Nice natural terrain motocross tracks are great. But sometimes, as in our case, the zoning boards tell you where you may build a race track. Mr. Magnusson advised me of some changes that could be made to Mid -Ohio to make it more difficult, and I agree co mpletely . These suggestions ' will be incorporated in to the course this winter during the off-season. On October 5, at the Mid-Ohio Trans·A.'\1A, yo u had dozens of opportunities to complain to me face to face privately and /or publicly before and after the event, instead of hiding behind a typewriter. PETER WEIDNER,JR. President Mid-Ohi·o Motocross Park Mansfield, Ohio ISOT rider lauded There were two Americans riding as Can adians at th e ISDT on th e Isle of Man . One was the late Bren Moran, the other was Fred Cameron who finished with a Bron ze Medal. Al Eames mistakenly overlooked Ca meron for th e American team wh ich he should have been on. He had earned two go lds and one silve r in the U.S. qualifiers. Eames instead, sele cted Gary Surdyke, who had one bronze to his credi t , and several others who qualified below Cameron on the list. The happy ending to this story is that Cameron beat all the riders pla ced in front of him (ex cep t for Wick man who also won a bronze) . This helped earn for the Canadians the Watling Trophy which is given to th e te am with the most meritorious performance . DONNA CAMERON Tiburon, Calif. Shape up those tracks I enjoy good motocross racing, but I hope track owners and promoters will provide safer motocross tracks in the future. The Superbowl track was a disgrace: Huge rocks in the track, rid iculous whoop-de-does, slick and hard packed. Apparently it was designed to break bikes and inju re riders. When top riders like Smith , St aten, DiStefano, Mikkola, DeCoster and many others can 't handle a track it must be really b ad. Other examples are : Carlsbad with its dangerous downhill jump . The steel fen ce alone will m ake hamburger out of a rider. Two riders were seriously injured recently on Saddleback 's Banzai Hill. Why not design and prepare tr acks with so me thought to the rid er 's safety? Give him a cha nce to race rather th an crash and burn . The pri vateer m ay beco me extinc t due to the expen se of bike repairs. To ma ke a lo ng story short , your pa pe r is a trip ! I have two reasons for writing. The first is MX Cat . I love him! He is my h ero! He is so clever, so witty, so brave, so do wn righ t nift y . What I would like is an au tographe d p icture o f MX Cat, a personally autographed pic ture. I want to keep it in my locker at school so I can see his smiling face between class es. Please , p lease, please! I really love him . The second reason is Rex William Reese. He is obviously brilliant. Please print more of his stuff. Could you sho w this to hi m ? Maybe he wo uld write to me personally. Do yo u h ave any pictures of Mr. Reese? I wo uld really like one. I would keep it right unde r MX Cat. (Providing there's roo m. If not, I will keep it inside the medicine chest o f the bathroom adjoining my bedroom, then I co uld still see it many times a da y .) HILDA WISENBU RG La Puente, Calif. Our paper m ight be a trip. but your letter was far o ut. I'll see what I can do about th e MX Cat picture. Th e second reque st I do n 't kn ow . Mr. Re ese has been "tripping" f or qu ite some time no w. Th e last I heard. he was out testing a pair of MX bo o ts and the darn things kic ked the heck out of him. I think the med icin e chest would be the most favo rable place for his pictu re, once you get it. I have a feeling you must take a lo t of aspirin . . . Editor Words of wisdom? En ole 1976. tehnyt sopimusta ru odelle H. MIKKOLA Somewhere in Europe Batstow C of C support I thought it might be interesting to note that the Barstow Chamber of Commerce sincerely su pports th e off road racers. They have been discussing the possibility of a parade thro ugh town if the San Gabriel Motorcycle Club can come up with a substitute for the Barstow to Vegas race. A few letters of appreciation for their support would be nice. Also, thin k what would happen if each motorcyclist m ade a promise to their future off road racing to write one letter a week to a BLM official , co ngressman, Sierra Club member, etc. Someone would be sure to listen with such a volume of mail on their desk each week! C. WATS ON Barstow, Calif. The views ex p ressed in this colu m n and a th e r colu mns appearing on the fo llowing pages are solely those of the au th ors and do not necessarily reflect th e official po sit ion of Cycle News West or Cycle News, Inc. Qualified readers wishing fr ee and equal rebuttal space sho uld co ntact the Editor. 1

• Cover