Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

its own, teaming with wildlife and vegetation that is missed by the casual onlooker. DI CK HARL OW BLM In yokern Area Manager Bakersfield, Calif. IINSIDE ~ t ORA Team Race Ah yes, he works in wondrous ways 6 Bowman/Brooks dust 'em o ff S RA Enduro 7 That 's the way we like it - almost Maico mono? 10 Loo ks can be de ceiving Mini Grand Prix ..... •.•12 ...... l-< ClJ ..0 Marty's mini madness m akes money Opinion .. ... . ..•... . .22 Pulling the purse strings Personality 23 E ClJ Down Under with the press agent 's wonder ClJ Central .. •..... . .. ....20 Q North ... .. ..•. . • . . . . .26 u Education 30 Wrenching 102 - 3 hours credit Results MX Cat Calendar 33 35 40 ON TIlE FRONT PAGE : The Pistol from Bristol , Tony DiStefano , carries his Trans·AMA stre ak on to Anaheim Stadium. Photo by jim Gianatsis. Don't stop now Cycle News West is. a rip-off to the former Cycle New Central subscribers. There is no lo cal news co mpared to California coverage and to add ins ul t to inj ury, we mi ss Mo t o-X Cat. It isn't wo rth it to me! DENNIS SHIRK Texarkana, Texas Dennis, does this m ean you are volunteering your services as .a Central contributorl Hop e so, we sure could use it. So far, we have pu blished every article we have received from Central: Does that give you a clue ? There aren't as man y Central reports because our corresponde nts aren 't responding. Help us spread the word and watch th e Central section grow . . . Editor Makes you wonder Sharon Cla yton . Pu blisher Ro be rt L Nor Veli e . Gene ral Man age r Ed na Mewto n , Se cretary to Publ isher , Advert ising Linda Clark, Ad vertising Man ager . C hris Kol ber , Ad ver tising Assist an t. Ed itorial Charles Clay to n . Edi to r-in-Chie f; La ne Ca mpbe ll, Sen ior Editor, Bobi Scot t Ed i to r & Dille Brown. Ass't , Ed ito r. Art and Production Catheri ne Lampton. Ar t Dire ctor; Barbara Mizuno , Adve rtis ing Art Dire crcr: J.>cnnis Cox . Lab Techn ician; Mari on Ha tashita, Typographer. Circulation Rhe ba Smit h, Manager : Pam Hobbs and Janet Phel an , Assistants. Gay lea e Zaio na, Man a ger ; Judy Fouts. Mike Klin ger . Jeanne Hamm ond. Assistan ts; T om Hunter, Rh onda Van Doren. Credit Department. Services 81 Support Bill Runy an , To m Luehmann . Jua nita Ulanton . re ceptionist. West P.O . Bo x 4 9 8. Long Beach. CA 90 80 1. (2 13) 42 7· 7433: L.A. Line 636-8K44. (Telex 6 56-3 30 ) East P.O . Box 805. Tucker, GA 3 008 4. (404) 934·7850. (Te lex 542 -77 7) Subscription O ne ye a r, seco nd class m a il S I 2.50 ; 2 yea rs, seco nd cl ass m ail , 52 2.50 ; 3 ye ars. second class m ail. 530.0 0 ; Sin gle co py price. 50 c en ts. Co py righ t Cycl e News. In c. 19 75. Trade mark registered U.S. Patent Offic e. All rights reserv ed. Published weekly excep t the firs t an d last week of th e cal endar year b y Cycle News, Inc•• P.O . Bo x 4 9 8 . Lon g Beach , California. Se co nd class postage paid at Long Beach , C A. 9 08 0 1. Editorial s tories, ca rtoo ns. p h o tos, e tc. ar e wel c o me . Ad d ressed. stamped e nvel o pe assu res re t urn o f unp urc has e d ed ito rial mutte r. Reprinting in wh ol e or p ar t o nly by permission o f the publishers. Adv e rti sin g rat es and c ircu la ti on in fo rm a tio n w ill be sent upon request. See S.R .D .S . 4 Why don 't all of you stop mo torcycle racing in the desert? The more yo u ch ew-up the desert with yo ur rum-dum motorcycles, the more attent ion y o u attract from the BLM. If yo u stopped all of these childish and fruitless negotiations with the BLM and other governing bodies, I am sure they would forgive and forget all that has taken place between you and stop the closures of prime desert riding areas. All interested and kn o wled geab le persons with the same views ca n write and tell m e how pleased th ey are with m y letter. I would appreciate hearing from motorcycle dis tributors, dealers, pro riders, Amateurs and Experts in racing. Novices and/or Beginners need no t write. They are such an infinitesimal part of the mo torcy cl e industry , their say has little to d o with the future of mo torcy clin g in the desert. I am sure that at leas t 75% o f you would agree that my w ay is the best way. Motocross takes only a small area to hold competitive meets. It is better to stay out of the desert and confine yourselves to motocross rather than have the whole desert closed off. jOHNWALUS 592 N. Bloomfield Rd . Nevada City, CA 95959 This in itself would give th e privateer a closer shot at duplicating works bik es. In reality the politics of racing made th e claiming rule alm ost useless, because the two major claims of the past met with such strong factory opposition neither bik e changed hands. This year the claim ing rule saw its first actual usage in th e Boody and Keener cases. Rule ' changes have now bun formulated that all o w only the engine , ignition and carbu retor to be claim ed and not the whole motorcycle. The factories don't lik e to lose their motorcycles anymore than v ou would your o wn . . . Editor Goodbye Grandpa The last lap has been run and the final checkered flag has been waved. Arlie (Grandpa) Hutsell has co m pet ed in his last race. Grandpa died Sunday , November 23, 1975 participating in the sport he so dearly loved. Grandpa, owner of Bul taco Sales of Dallas wa s a staunch su p po rt er of our sport. His untimely death will leave a void in not only the racing circles of the Dallas, Fort Worth area but also in the hearts of his many friends. We will miss y o u Grandpa. Thanks for helping us to be able to co mpete in motocross. We love you. THE JACK HARPER FAMILY Richardson, Texas Attention flattrackers The Oklah oma Flat Track Racers Associatio n is growing. We n ow have 10 0 members, and h ave adopted rules and regulations . We have seve ral promo t ional pro grams co ming up in the near future as we ll as a tentative insurance pro gram for our members. We feel that o ur associatio n is not only growing, but is responsive to our me:mbers n ee ds . We are ' lo oking forward to an increase d amateur program and larger purses fo r our ex pert riders. DUB JOHNSON President O ITRA O klah oma City, Okla. If you ' want more information on OFTRA , you can writ" to them at PO Box 20863, Ok lahoma City, OK 73120 . . . Editor John, are you for real l . .. Editor Trash-pickers commended How to drive the factories crazy Thank you for your cooperation and support d urin g the Rand Cleanup. Your do nation of five gift su bscriptio ns to Cycle News and the pre and past coverage of the event helped make this event the success it was. My thanks to Terry Rezek for th e article he wrote on the cleanup. Recreational Area clean u ps are not so me th in g new to the BLM . However, it is seldo m that o ne on such a huge scope as t he Rand Cleanup comes off as trouble free and effi cie n tly as this did. The volunteers in their d une buggies, four-wheel drives and motorcycles sco ure d 43 -th ou san d ac re s ! What all of us real ize fro m th ese efforts is something th at perh aps man y peop le aren't aware of. The d esert is not so me ki nd of bleak lu nar landscape . It is a living place with a profound beautv of Please explain the how, who, wh at, when and why of pro bike claiming. I didn ' t know such a thing co uld be done until I read o f Ted Boody at Ascot and Corky Keener . What do es th e factory think of this? MRS. BONNIE STOVER Merced, Calif. In order to assure that the privat eer has at least an equal chance of ob taining competitive equip ment th e AMA Rules Committee set up the claiming rule to kee p th e factories honest. The fa ct ory teams were ex pec ted to use mo re standard and readily available parts if the po ssibility of som eon e buying th eir fa ctory racer away from th em existed. And the Lo rd sp ak e unto the Sierra Club saying, " There is some goo d news and some bad news. The good news is that pl agues shall smite y o ur en emies. The sands shall be tu rned to jagged rocks, chain link fences will criss-eross the land, and gnats and flies shall infest the. motocrycle cam p s, and their motorcycles shall rot and turn to oil slicks in t he sand, and hail and darkness shall visit punishment upon the land of the Mojave ! Then will I lead the children of the Sie rra Club forth , parting the barbed wire so th at they may cross, and thereafter strewing the desert with . lush ve geta ti o n so that they m ay take up residence. " And the Sierra Club president said, " Oh Lord, that's wonderful! But tell me, what's t he bad news? And the Lord God replied, "It will be up to y o u, baby, to write the environ men tal-im pact statement. " J AME STORM ES Ro vers M.C . Obituary? or premature burial? Funeral services were co nd uc te d Saturday east of Bar stow, California for Mr . B. T . Vegas. The quiet graveside services were attended by a mere handful o f mou rners. An estimated 15 0 paid their respects th roughout the day . Cause of death is still under inve stigation. Mr . Vegas sustained a wound last fall from a relatively new weapon, called by its devel opers " man age ment," but more commonly known by the name "bureaucratic bumblings. Normally such a wound should no t have proved fatal, but co m plica ti ons set in when the injury was attacked by a massive case of apathy. In sp ite of dedicated and tireless efforts of Dr. S. G. Valley, M.C. assisted by the Coyote-Fox medical team and an unknown Ph .D (u ck), the patient died. In his heyday, B. T. Vegas drew lo ud ly enthusiastic crowds n umbering in the thousands. But although his dea th las t fal l drew reactions of shock and dismay, and even disbelief throughout the western United States, the funeral drew o nly a handful of loyal frie nds. Ho w so on we forget! An d what a sad co m me ntary! Where were all t he fan s of bygo ne years ? We can only guess. Whatev er t he reason, B. T . Vegas , may he rest in peace , was lai d in hi s final res ting place a lonely and deserted traditio n . LESLIE RICHARDS I agree Re: M.O.R.E . Fro m the Capitol, November 18 , 19 75. It's my head; let it make it s own decisions in regards t o perso nal su rvival. I do, h owever, have one qu est ion. If there is high probability that the wearer o f a helmet is going to sustain neck or bac k inju ry , why the heck do rac ers wear helme ts? The street rider may get o ff di fferen tl y , but I have seen racers get off q uit e hard. How about a co py of y our . statistics and su pporting documents. I have written several letters t o m y rep resen ta tives complaining ab out the lack o f local mo to rcy cle facilities. Fro m their replies I get th e impression that • they don't give a damn. I also find th e LAPD qui te unsympat het ic. A watch co m mander (sergeant) recen tly told me that he used to race and " p art o f th e fun of racing was getting to the track an d finding out why his vehicle wouldn 't work." Wit h kno theads like this running the show, it 's got to be a bad scene. What does a guy d o ? J OHN M. ROA RK Canoga Park, Calif. The views ex pressed in this colu m n and o t it e r colu mn s app earing on th e fo llowing pages are solely those of th e authors and do not necessarily reflect th e official p osition of Cycle News West or Cy cle News, Inc. Qualified readers wishing free and equal rebuttal space should contact th e Edi to r.

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