Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1976 02 24

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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W/ERA Hotline : They've about finalized their series of 200-mile endurance road races; and the first one is at Willow , February 28-29. So far there are six races in t he series, with a December 18 -19 " Nat ion al" at a site to be announced that will p it the nation's top 60 end u rance teams in a 24-hour show down. A reliable sou rce tells us that Larry Roese ler (!Ius) won the 100-mile Sobo ha Gran d Prix . Malcolm Sm ith was lead ing until he slid o u t on a fireroad. Bob Balent ine was righ t be h ind a nd too k o ver the lead u ntil he lo st ten min ut es in a waterhole dro wn-out. Complet e story and pix next week. 3 Last year, Dave Wood fin ished eve ry ORA race and took the Number One plate in the Open class. Th is year he hasn't f inished a race at all. His luck might be turning though ; he won S100 in the ORA Team Race Pool for picking the number that Phil Stumbo and Vance Schmidt carried to victory . In this race . Wood's partner Jamie Avels crashed ' hard and we hope he 's feeling better now. Giaco mo Agostin i and J oh nn y Cecotto have both co nfirm ed their entries for the Dayton a 200. Ago and Cecotto were only po ssibl e starte rs until Ago iro ned out his mo ney de ma nds and Ceco tto was given the go ahead to race al tho ugh h is pr eviousl y inj ured ankle is still bo therin g him. J: u a: oJ :> z J: o ~ LTR No.1 : This poor so ul has long travel suspension all the way to his Fruit of the Looms. Correction on that Sears po int course worker money - that's supposed to be $5 gas money per veh icle (not carload). You guys who show up on motorcycles should make ou t like bandits . Speedy Babbs , the incredi ble air and motorcycle daredevil who for decades rode mo tordomes at carnivals and once fo ugh t a bu ll on a motorcycle, passed away rece nt ly in his home Stuart, Fla . He was 71 yea rs and many crashes old. Interviewed on radio du rin g Sunday's coast· to -eoast hook-up o f the Day to na 500 stock car race , Gene Ro mero so un ded as if he was pitch in g himself for a stoc ker ride. Promoter Harry Oxley has cancelled his "U.S. Ver sus The World" speedway match races after the American Motorcycle Assn . refused to grant him a sanction for th e five -race ser ies wh ich was to have begun at the Costa Mesa track February 27. 2 AFM Nort h released its Sears Po int 19 76 road race sched u le as fo llows: March 14 , April I I , May 16, J un e 13 , J uly 18, August 28 /29, September 26, and October 24. The eight one-day even ts are regul ar poin ts races. The August two-day affair is a spe cial 52 000 purse "Nati onal ." (North vs. South , mayb e?) T his year, "RAH" means "Ride Against Hemophilia, " as far as the AMA is conc erne d . Already , the Indy 50 0 :'IIC has p resented th e 1976 campai gn with $345 in don ations, and issue d a challenge to o the r AMA clu bs to do likewise (or better, even ). Af ter pro cessing by the Nat ion al Hemophilia Fou n dat ion , the Indv 50 0 don ation will co me back to the l ~cal chap ter to aid hem oph iliac kids in Ind ian a. Cycle News joi ned ove r two-do zen well known firm s (such as We bco, Petty, U n if il te r , Bel -R ay , Valvoline , Champion, Electro, K & N, KTM, Pennzoil and Hodaka ) in p roviding contingenc ies for the March 6 Bike Baja de sert race, an all-motorcycle event sched uled by Baja Rac ing Assoc . For entry info, write them at Box 1803, Calex ico, CA 92231 : For yo u folk s who ge t busted u nd er the 5 5 MPH limit, th er e's an outfit to con tac t called " Com mittee for Co mmo n Sense Speed Laws" , P.O. Box 938 , Camarillo, Calif. 9 301 0. T he y pu t ou t a $5 boo k titled " How to Defend Yourself in Traffic Court" ; and they advo cate figh ting spee d in g tickets - an d winning, if yo u know wh at YO U'TC doing. Ducati claims their 905cc Grau /Canellas Coupe d'Endurance b ike, at 344 pounds \Net, lightest big-bore distance racer in ' the world . But Americans at large may never know. The Im ola 200 organi zers have wo rk ed out a differen t payout sche me fo r thi s year's run nin g. Startin g with the th ird lap in eac h 100-mile leg, they 'll p ay the top 40 riders as sco red eac h lap . Te n ds to spread it around better , even to the guy s who go fast and then DN F. Total pr ize mo ney , according to the British papers, hov ers aro und $6 5,000. One of our sp ies conducted a soleful sur vey at the Jacksonville round of t he Flor ida Winter-AMA to determine wh ich brand of boot is most often found on the fee t of professional MX'ers. As the riders passed through the line leading to the qualifying motos (the seven riders who d idn't have to qualify \Neren't counted ) our spy noted that following brands and the number of each: Hi-Point 84; Full Bore 20; USGP 14; Heckel 12 ; Daytona 10 ; Experts 7; Norstar 5 ; Yamaha/Honda 5; Viking 3. Yea, we \Nere k inda surprised too. Te xas title ti me - $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 will be on the line for th e five rac e Te xas Motocross Championship Series star ting March 14th at Houston 's Rio Bravo MX Park. $500 will be ad de d to purse at ea ch stop to go int o the overall kitty. The series will go from Hou ston to Mosier Valley , Lak e Wh itn ey , Austin and San An tonio 's Cy cleram a. T hese are one day events with full classes for every on e. No licen ses requ ired. Th is will be strictly cash an d carry motocross. LTR No.2: Th is is taking long -t ravel rear suspension too far.

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