Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

6% of the gate. Riders in small. local l\IXes win more than that! The riders and the AMA should be entitled to about 20 % of the gate or about 5200,000 for the week. Such a purse would enable the AMA to pay first S32,OOO (a little more than one-half as mu ch as the winning stock car driver) . Tony DiStefano earned 53300 for his day 's work and the first place rider in the 500cc Motocross won $750, including contingency money. Wayne and Bobby Sullivan of Sullivan Bros . Dist, Co. , and Bettencourt's Honda donated a total of $300 for lap money for the motocross. We did our share . NOW to get the promoters to do their share! IINSIDE ~ t Poop Voices Supercross 2 4 6 Pontiac's Dome debut So. Am. Road Race •.••..8 .... s-. 0.. < Coups and recoups Cal. City Two Day ' 10 ISDT hopefuls and desert blossoms Parody '.15 DICK BETTENCOURT_ West Bridgewater, Mass. Modem Cycho - Sorry Super . Western Hotline 24 ao Trays. rpacks and gas Desert Hotli ne How.shocking 33 I'm glad someone like Kenny Robertsj e finally suggested something be done about limiting motorcycle power in I racing. The cars had to do it, and they did. th ro ugh carburetor limits. This wo u ld be an easy way to limi t q mo t orcycle engines and might enco urage a few four strokes . ;lP It's too late now. but a few years ago r they co uld have lim ite d wheel travel and save d us bikers thousands of do llars in lJ shocks and out-moded bikes every six months. After all, the courses just got rougher anyway, so we ended up with a more expensive ma chine to fix. J Best of the West Northern Date line Central Pipeline , Results Want Ads 35 , .40 44 51 ON THE COVER - Jammin' J immy carves a Pontiac Stadium haybale berm un der a thousand eyes - Photo by Charles Morey. It's a crime Sharon Cla yt on. l~hlis~C'r Robert L. Nor Velie. General.Manager Ulna Mewton, Se cretary to Publisher Advert ising Linda Clark, Adverusing Manager Chris Kolber, Advertising Assistant Ed itorial Lane Campbell, Senior Editor. Jody Weisel . Editor, Bobi Sc ott. Editor. Art a nd Production Catherine Lampton. Art Director; Barbara Mizu no. Advertising Art Director; Dennis Cox, Lab Technician; Mario n Ha tas hita, Typograp her. Pam Grant. Assistant Typographer. Circulation Rhcba Smith, Manager: Pam Green and Callie Smith, Assistants. Accou nting Gaylen. Za.iORZ, Manager;Judy Klinll"r; Klinger. Jeanne Hammond, Mike Assistants; Tom Hunter. Rhonda Van Doren. Cn:clit DepartmenL Sanices lit Suppon Bill Runyan, Tom Luehmann. Juanita Blanton, receptionist. West P.O. Box 498. Long Beach, CA 90801. (2t3) 427·7433; L.A. Lin. 636·8844. (TeI.x 65.6·330) East P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA 30084. GA 30084. (404) 934-7850. (TeI.x 542.777) Subscription One year, second class mail $ 12.50: 2 years. second class mail, $2.2.50: 3 years, second class mail. S30.0 0; Single copy price. 50 cents. Get out the' vote , It is . fairly commonplace to hear desert bikers co mplain about gove rn me n t n o t giving a damn about us. Now you riders in the 39th Assembly District have a chance to put up or shut up! Bob Hayes is a Distr ict 37 Desert Expert, and also a candidate for State Assembly. He will lose in the primary without your help . He needs two things, money (small contributions add up), and vol unteers to hel p in campaigning. He needs bodies to help with the mailouts, to answer ' telephones: to engage in .telephone campaigning, to go door-to-door talking or delivering literature and get out the vote efforts. If Hayes can develop a large corps of volunteers, bikers will become a viable political force whether or not he wins. If not. we deserve what we get. PAT RICE Lomita. Calif. Do it yourselfer 4 Copyrigh t Cycl e Ne ws , Inc. 1976. Trade mark registered U.S."P"tC'nt Office, All rights reserved. Published weekly except the first and las t wee k of the calendar y.ar by Cycle News, Inc.. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach, C-uifor~ia. Second class postage paid at Lo ng Beach. CA . 90801. Editorial sto ries. cartoons, photos, e tc. are welcome. Add ressed, stamped envelope assures return of u npurchased cditonal ma tter. Reprinting in whole or part o nly by perm ission or the publishers. Adve rtising rates and ci rculation information will be sent upon req uest. See s. R.O .S . I want to co mp limen t Gl"and Prix _ Specialties in Burbank. , As a shoestring desert racer with a blown CZ engine you can imagine I was pretty sad. but their patience and advice made it possible for me to rebuild it myself and made the whole 't hin g as near a pleasure as it could be. NOEL PARK DRA378x San Pedro. Calif. Hospital stop On March 21. Ronnie ' Marx was seriously injured while competing in a desert race. MORA wishes to say thank you to rider Lee Fabry, who gave u p a good overall position to aid Ronnie. Riders and friends m ay send cards to RON MARX. c/o KA ISER SUNSET HOS P ITAL, ROOM .4 6 8. 4867 SUNSET BLVD., LOS ANGELES. CALIF. PATTY KELSAY Rialto, Calif. Much obl iged I would like to thank Rescue 3 for their o.utstandingwork when I was injured at the Maywood M.C. race at Cali fornia City . Also. thanks to several clubs who notified my club for me and the two boys who waved people away while I was down. FRED TRAGAR 67c Bellflower. Calif. Big time MXSmall t ime winnings After attending the Daytona races and the AMA Victory Dinner Sunday night, I am compelled to write this le tt er . I feel the size of the purse was scandalous. The program lists the prize money for first p lace in the 200 mile National Championship as only $10.635 ; first place in the Expert Lightweight race as $1420 and first place Superbike Production as $630. The Mo tocross riders fared even worse! First place each moto ; 250cc . ' $335 ; first place each moto: 500cc . $105. Attendance figures of about 100.000 people for the two days at a min imum of SI 0 per person amounts to SI ,000.000. not counting the admission fees for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday . Total purse : 560.000 or about MICHAEL POLISH McGill . Neve , ' o I protest the rip-off perpetrated upon the riders and spectators at the Daytona" Supercross, Over 30.000 spectators paid r $10 to $15 to watch six heats o f. motocross. With half a million dollars kicking around in the kitty, how much r was paid out to the riders? Would you believe a piddling 3.4%? For winning the 500 Support classes. Monte McCoy won only $755. This is Professional motocross. but the money paid out at . this event and other events like it is so little that the best professional riders in this country can't even make travel expenses to the events. How can we hope to attract and keep fine young athletes in this sport when the only racers able to live off it have to '; be supported by a factory just to stay a1~ . I will not be at the next Day to na ., Supercross . My $15 will stay in my T pocket. The pro moters who m ad e 'over 53 00,000 0)1 this event will certainly not miss me. and t he ri ders will " probably not m iss my 51 " either. ~ BILL BOLES Bro ckt on , Mass. If you must Allow m e to register my disgust and amazement with the cover of your March 23 publication. . The illustration that was m ean t to capture the essence of Ascot racing was totally without merit. Not only was it without humor, it was also of the most ~ base high school drawing skill. : I am surprised and disappointed at your complete lack of taste, and I hate to think this illustration was displayed on newsstands for a week showing that image of Ascot racing to the public. Usually I am very proud to be a . motorcycle enthusiast, but every once, in awhile this sort of trash makes me Cf wonder if we do deserve the public's respect. . DENNIS ASBURY Long Beach, CalifYour letter was the only complaint we received about that cover. A re you sitting - on your sense of ~' humor? . . . Editor I l The views expressed in this colum n and o the r colu mns appearing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cycle . News, Inc. Q!Jalified readers wishing free and equal rebuttal space should contact the Editor. ~

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