Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

High School confidential ilNSIDE ~ t Texas Roadrace Champs . ..5 Dr. Endo ...... •.......6 Big cheese in the Mechanic's Mafia Poly Hotline .. •. ........8 How shall they sh af t thee ? Let us co u nt the wa ys . . . Products ..•• •.......••.9 10 Dez DRA 20·Mule Team 200 Opinion . . . . .. . . . . • . . . 12 Res id ent Greek philosopher asks : Whither MX? North City Desk 14 16 This one for J im Calendar 18 Results ....... .•...... 21 Central .. ..........•••24 ON THE FRONT PAGE : Dr. Endo suiting up for another operation. Photo by Jody Weisel. S haron Clay Ion. Pu bl ish er Robe rt L. Nor Velie. General :'\tanagcr Edna ;\Ie w to n . Se cretary to Pu blisher, Advertisin g Linda Clark. Advert isin g Ma nage r. Chris Kol ber. Adve rti sing Assist a n r. Ed itori al Ch arl e s Clay ton. Ed itor-in -Chief: Lane Cam p be ll, Senior Edi to r , Bo h i Sco tt Ed itor, Art and Production Ca therin e Lam pt o n . Art Direc to r : Barhara Mizun o , Adv er t ising Art Direc to r: Denn is Co x, Lab Tech nician: Mari on Hatashita , T ypographer. Cirallation Rheba Smith . Man ager ; Pa m Hobbs and Margaret Smith. Assista n ts . Accounting Ga vlen e Za lonz , :'\lanage r : Jud y F OUlS. ~r i k c Klin ger . J ea nn e Hammond , Assistants; Tom lIunter . Rh on d a Van Doren, Credit Department, Services & Support Bill Run yan , Tom I.u ch mann . J uanita Blanton . re ceptio nist . West 1 . Bu x 49X . Lon g Beac h , CA 90g0 ) . ).0 (2 13) 427·7 433 : L.A. Line 636-HX44. (Te lex 6>6·3 31l) East I'.U . lIo x sus, Tucker , GA 300M. (4 04 ) 934·7 K50. (Telex :,4 2· 77 7) Subscription OnC' yea r. second c lass mai l 512.5U ; :! years. seco n d d.ns mail. 522.5 0 : J yea rs. sec o n d class mail. S30.nO: Sin gle l" Opr pri ce . 50 ce nts. Co p yrigh t Cy cle News , In c. 19 75. Trade mark registe red U.S. Pa ten t Office. All right s reserve d . Pu blished weekly except the firs t and las t week of the calendar yea r by Cycle News . In c.• P.O . Bo x 49 g. Long Beach , California. Second class posta ge p aid at I.ong Beach. CA. 90 HO I. Edit orial sto ries. carto on s, photos . etc. arc welco me . Ad dr essed . slamped envelo pe as su res re turn of u npurch asc d ed it o ri~ matter. Rcp rmting in wh ole or part o nly by perm ission o f the publishers. Advertising ra tes and circulat ion in form at io n will be sen t up on re quest , See S.R .D.S . 4 Something missing Maybe I'm nuts. J im West di es competing in a Trans·AMA finale and your correspondent gives it a sentence in the ra ce report. The following issue has not a word about West, and I'm wondering. The next issue after that has a moving letter from Larry McCarty . Finally I get the message. Racing is dangerouS We take our ch ances. We also ". avoi d too much attention to its lethal possib ilities. No, that's not it! He wasn 't at the top, m ay be? You know, wo rld cali b re ch am pi o n , wh ich certainly ra t es a co lu m n anyway. Still ... a couple of years ago in Bay Marc mud so incred ibl e you couldn't eve n walk in it I wa tched hi m b litz Lac key an d Weinert and Po meroy li ke 125cc novices! I asked him how he co uld go so fas t in heavy gook - he actually see med to be flyi ng over the top of the stuff - and he just smiled quietly and said, "I like it ." Well th en? Why didn't he rate at least a sho rt par agrap h as a man? A fine racer? Or j ust because he 'd been around a long time? Anything ? So mehow, in the way we treat the de ath of our own people in our own sport - or m ore accurately how we d on 't treat it . so me t hing is missing . . . . JOE PHILLI PS Gol eta , Cali f. Cycl e News co mplied wit h the wishes of J im West 's fa mily in no t writing m ore regarding either th e many achievem en ts of J im or the det ails of his death. Th ere are many considerations in a situation of this ty pe and Cycle News fe lt that f amily interest should co me before news it em s. Those wh o rem em ber Ji m and miss him carry with them th e greatest tribu te . . . Editor Hey girl motocrossers! Do you feel yo u're improving, bu t will alwa y s have t o kiss yo ur chances fo r a t ro phy "goo d bye" when Su e Fish , Johanna St eners en, Ch erry St oc kt on, etc. , sh ow up at y our race? Well, you can race with t hem and still tro phy in your own class wh en you join and race with District 37 ! Our Women 's Division no t only has a novice class , but has a scar ci ty o f novices to fill it! All o ur fast no vices ar e now amateurs and experts, and we need new ri ders to replace them ! 0-37 also offers us girl s o ur o wn point sys tem wh ich award s points all the wa y down to las t place ! That means eve n a squid rider like me was able. through more parti cipation , to win a better 1975 number than Johanna ! So don't waste t ime - co n tac t our st eward, Sue Hall, a t (2 13) 368-4646, to b uy your D-37 license for only S5. If you'r e a begi nner, and a little sh y, the End Docs M.C. would be happy to show y ou th e rop es . . . call me at (8 05) 497-4983. DEE GRANGER, President End Docs M.C. Spectator stabs stadium I wo uld like t o offer my opinion of th e "American Mo to cross Final s" at Anaheim Stadium, held December 13, 1975. I thought all the false advertisin~ by Mediamax was over, but they advertised that Marty Tripes, J im Ellis , and Jim Pomeroy would be there. I never saw them . They also included 34 others, but the " offi cial " program ($ 2 a copy) lists only 23 riders, quite a difference. Why, if only 23 riders were entered in the program at press tim e,. d id the two·p~ge ad in Cycle News (which surely carr ied no ear lie r press deadline ] claim 3 7? The ad tells t he reader to " sec the be st o f American riders battle for No . L " Not o nly were Pomero y , Ellis, and Tripes no t present, bu t the lineu p incl ude d suc h nat ional st ars as J ohn Clatehs, Victor Dariler J r., an d Furman Gray . Wh o in So uthern California wanted to pay to sec : hese guys ride? There is a co m me nt from a sport swriter fro m the Los Angeles T im es - " The best sportmg event of any kind I 've eve r seen." How co u ld th is be in an ad for an event that had yet to take place? The pro gram was pure r o b b e r y - S2, and contained 37 full pages of ads, including a 12-page Ho nda section and 24 pages o f " useful " info rmat io n. With all the advertise men t money they sho uld have given th e programs ou t free t o the je rks, my self incl uded, th at paid fro m 8 t o 15 bucks t o sec th e fiasco. T he announcer never said an ything d uri ng the ra ces, only before and aft er , an d th e P.A. syste m was so b ad, I co uld barely he ar it . It is m y personal opmion th at we sho uld hold th e sam e opinion of Mediamax, In c. , as th e p eo pl e who were scre we d by Edison Dye in St. Louis Bandits who prey o n th e sp o rt of motocross purely for profit. Med iam ax, Inc. should never be allowed a sanctio n for any event and should refund all the admis sio n fees p aid . I urge everyone wh o cares ab o u t the qual it y of motocross as a sp o rt - not a business, to bo yco tt an y th in g co nnected with the promoters , in cluding the so-called " Su perbowl of Motocross." LA R RY T HE O BAL D Torrance, Calif. Unsung officialdom I wan t to take th is opportunit y to th an k all of th e AM A officials who worked during th e 19 75 motocross season. It would be difficult to name all of th e people who deserv e credit with o ut missing some. So again. thanks to the Referees, Starters, Scrutineers, Clerks of Course, Scorers, Registration Clerks, Payoff Clerks, Pit Stewards, Gate Starters, Flag men and assista nts to all these people. I want to especially thank Chuck and Denise McCall, and Carroll and Karen Ch andler, for an outstanding job this year . In order to help ou t, because of a lack of experienced help, Denise, Chuck, Carroll, and Kar en traveled many, many miles to o fficiate at 30 races. With ou t th eir help we wo u ld not have had the outstandin g results th at we had this year. MICHAE L A . DiP RETE Pro fessional Motocross Manager, AMA Another ripoff of the motorcy cle fra t ern ity, th is tim e by the p romoter Mike Goodwin. His treatment of h igh scho ol m otocrossers left much to be desired. An entry fcc o f $I 0 was charg ed each rider: Practice on an un familiar t rack was limite d to about six lap s, possibl y resulting in some o f th e serious sp ills : The riders were t ol d to repo rt at II a. m , The only thing to happen befo re the 4 :45 rider's meeting was a three minute de cib el chec k . An unnecessary five hour wai t: First prize donated by the was a helmet manufacturer. It's unfortunate that Mr. Goodwin has put his attem pt at getting rich ahead o f any cons idera ti o n to the ex pense of the riders. The same riders who make his shows possible. These riders put on a good show for the paying spectators at risk to life and limb. One rider, Todd Miller, was killed and four others suffered broken bones. The majority of these riders arc professionals and as such deserve more for their efforst and risks than a donated helmet. I am going to actively campaign against any HSMX Mr. Goodwin promotes, unless a much better reward for these young men is in the offing, At least the $600 entry fees paid by the HSMXers could be returned to the top finishers. D.IVIE Whittier, Calif. Randy Mamola restored T ch ! Tch ! Sour grapes? Even though we arc en cumbered wi th th e pursuit of . sel f ind ulgence be assu red that we tried seriously to best Mamola in the 125 GP. Jim Do yle 's efforts on Randy 's behalfhave noth ing to d o wi th the fact that Randy beat us all. BOB RI E F FRE D HODGSON Mill Valley, Calif. Writer referendum We would like to exp ress our thanks to th e man y people who called o r wrot e in t o the disqualifica tio n of Dean Modesett (No. 12 c). O ffi ciall y sho wn on the result sheets, Dean's disqualificat ion was from having " no . start check." This led to an unhappy rider and a very upset father (among othe rs). Soon af te r th e calls , th e District Committee had a meeting and found many p eople co uld veri fy the fact that Dean Modesett was on the st arting line, of t he race , on No vember 29 ·30; which w as put on by District 37. Their de cisi on was to reinstate Dean. NORM, CHRIS & DOT Yorba Linda, Calif. Williams responds to response On beh alf of Mark Williams National No. 70 , m yself Oeanie) and Mark's family, we would like t o thank everyone who sent cards , co n tr ibu tio ns, flowers, and pra yers, th ro ugh this difficult time. Mark is progressing as well as to be expec te d a t this point. He is co n fined to wearing a back brace while in his wheelchair , wh ich doesn 't allo w him to do much . And until his back is well eno u gh to withstand the weigh t and pressures of h is upper body , he will have to wear this brace. When the brace is removed. Mark will start working to rebuild his arms and ch est once again. . His sp irits vary and he really needs and appreciates those car ds and letters, so please keep th em co m ing . Mark is at : Mark Williams, 1440 South " A " Street, Springfield, OR 97477 . Mark's phone number: 1·503·726·15 I 5. JE.ANIE HELMICK Springfield, Ore. The vie ws ex pressed in this colu m n and o th e r colu mns appearing on th e f ollowing pages are solely those of th e authors and do not necessarily reflect the official po sition of Cy cle News West or Cy cle New s, In c. Qualified readers wishing fr ee and equal rebut tal space sh ould con tact the Editor. . I ~

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