Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

in the W/ERA National Road Race at Ontario, July 17-18, they failed to give cred it to t he top finishers of the 250 Modified Production Class and did not award prizes or prize mo ney as promised for their efforts in supporting the club and racing hard all weekend. The top three finishers are: 1st place Mark Hornchick, 2nd p lace Wally Karpenick, 3rd place Kevin Andress. IINSIDE ~ E Superball -er, Bowl 6 73,000 screaming, stomping fans • . . and racing, too Int1 . Trials ...... .. • • •. 10 MS. CECILE DE LA PENA W. Covina, Calif. U.S. round called "best" of World Otamp season Cyclerama - one more thing West .. • • . • .•.. •..... .12 Hotdogs and hambones Dez ••.. . •... .• • ...... 20 Bo ta Run to Roeseler-> Bag t o Brooks .' Grand Nat1 roundup •. . .22 11It: rust half CR125 test ••• •• •• • •• • •24 TeD us why , Marty North ....•.. •.. •..... 26 J oyner keeps roDin' Speedway . . • • . . . • . . . . .32 Results .• •.... ...... ..33 Cat •• •.•••• •.. •.. • .•. 36 Central •. .. ..... ... ....37. Calendar 40 ON THE ' F RONT PAGE: Supc:rballs - or, d id Tony jam the J ammer? Photo by Mike: Yada. Sharon Clayton. Publisher Raben 1- Nor Vet te, Genera l Manag er . Edna Mewton. Secretary to Publisher Adwert ising Linda Clark. Advertising Manager Chris Kolber, Advertising Assistant Editorial Lane Ca mpbell. Senior Editor. J od y Wei5C'l. Editor. Bobi Scott. Editor. Art mel Proauet,on Barbara Mizuno, Production Man age r ; Pam Grant. Advertising Produ ct io n Directo r, &: Assistant Typographer ; Den nis Cox. Lab Technician ; Marion Hatashita, TYPographer; Mike Klinger, Lab an d Production Assistant. Cin:uI--' RMba Smith. Manager; Pam G reen and Callie Smith. Assistants. Acc:aunting Gaylc:ne Zaionz. Manager;J udy Klinger, Ken Lorin, Jeanne Hammond. Assistants; Dave Auld, Rhonda ' Van Doren, Credi t Department. Senice ond Support Michael Colikas, Dennis Watts, Juanita Blanton, receptionist. West P.O. Box 498. Long Bea ch . CA 9 0 801. (213) 427·7433; L .A. Line 6 36·884-1. (Telex 656-330) E_ P.O . Box 805. Tucker. GA 30 08 4 , GA 30084. (404) 934-78 50. (Te le x 542·777) Subscription One year, second class mail S 12 .50; 2 years, second class mail. $22.50; -3 years. second class mail, $30.00; cuss. ~ Mf.M8£R Copyright Cycle Ne ws. Ine. 1976. Trade mark n:p.ten:d U.S. Pa ten t Office. All righu reserved. Pu blish ed weekly except th e' fIrSt and las t week or th e calendar year. by Cycle Ne ws, Inc ., P.O . Box 498, tong Beach . California. Second class p ostage p aid at Long Beac h. CA. 90801 . t:dito.riaI stories. cartoon s. pho tos. e tc. ;ar'C' welcome. Ad dressed.' stamped m w:oloPe .lSSum return o f un p urch ased : editorial ma n n. Rep rinting in whole or part only by pe rmissio n o f the p~n.. Advertising rates and circubaioa inro rmatio n will be sent _ rt:qUCSL Sec S.R.D.S . 4 Let me tell you Good fo r CNW an d J o hn Huerte r. I' m glad t o see th at yo u rec ognize No yce as an up an d co mi ng Eur opean . I just spent two years racin g in Eng land and t here are a lo t mo re where he comes from. A few months ago Modern Cy cle printed someth ing to the effect that there weren't any Europeans to fill the boots of Roger D. and the gang. I think MC gave the American public the wrong idea. When Weil and the oldsters pack it up, there will be someone else to fill their shoes . Check it out! I'm in KIammath Falls. Ore. right now and there see ms to be a lot of dirt bikes just sitting around. MX races are . far and few between. There 's a lot of open land for the CMC or AMA to put to -use, What does it take? We have a new club up here , how do we get CMC officials? Help us get something going up here. BOB CROSBY Kingsley Fidd,-Qre. Yeh, someone will fill those European boots alright. but th e guys wearing th em might have American accents. You can contact th e CMC, PO Box 1402, Costa Mesa. Calif 92662 for inf orm ation on organizing some motocross races up in your area. They'll be glad you asked . . . Ed. Memories One of the best bonuses in having road races fo r the past fo ur o r five years are the few good friends I've made along the way. One of these friends was Ed Unini. Ove r the years we would stop and talk about things in general while in the pits or just spectating. I always admired the companionship shared by Ed and his dad. Both of them tr avelin g around to the races together and working as a team made it a very special team. That special relationship and my friend is go ne now. Everybody knows the risk involved in racing but when a tragedy happens it doesn 't minimize the loss of good friends and a fellow rider. We will all go on but we will be a little less somehow without Ed . STEVE LANG Camber Company Costa Mesa, Calif. On page 27 of this issue, you will find a tribute to Ed Unini who was involv ed in a fatal crash at Sears Point Raceway, J uly 18, 1976 ... Ed. G~ out the vote, there.might be hope Good news fo r dirt bikers of America. Senato r Walter Mo nda le of Minneso ta (Vice Presidential candidate) has a son th a t is a dirt biker. Looks like some suction in t he White Ho use a t last. Three che ers for Mondale, Rah-rah-rah I ALAN STEVONS CMC 250 Jr. Huntington Beach, Calif. Wonder what's gonna happen the first time he tracks mud into the room . .. Ed. ' oval Now hear this O ur co mpany co nsiders itself an ar de n t su pporte r of the sport of roadracing; b ut w hen the supporting organization co mes u p with as m uch pure unmitigated bullshit as the W/ERA di d July 17-18 , we draw the lin e . lt wi ll be a very cold day in hell before a Yoshimura crew lowers itself to attend another W/ERA fiasco , DONNASMITII. ALAN MILFORD. MARK MILFORD, HIDEO YOSHIMURA Yoshimura R&D North Hollywood. Calif. And this . . . It is with a great deal of pleasure that we have watched the tremendous growth of road racing at the club level in the last two years. Clubs in which we offer a contingency program, such as the AFM and CMC have made every effort to let the riders know that Camber Co . is offering sponsorship and prizes. A rider realizes that when he buys a Camber product , a portion of his mo n ey is going back in t o the sport of road racing. Even though we offer the identical contingency program with the W/ERA as the AFM and CMC, the promo tio nal benefits agree d up-on were n o t re turned at t he recen t W/ E RA National in On tario, CA. In spite of th e fact t hat a professionally written and ty p ed announcer's spot was handed to Lance Weil, t here was not one men t ion of Camber's giving sponsorship through the entire day. There was nei th er an ad in the program . nor a listin g in the ' contingency sponsor's list . This is a tremendous disservice to the riders, as it wi 11 n e i ther encourage: other manufacturers to offer prizes, nor were they made aware that they were supposed to be running a Camber decal to qualify for our program. It seems that although an abundance of decals we re supplied at tech inspection, the y were being used at the antique bike judging where we were offering no prizes at all . The greatest tragedy of this race is that even though many riders complained about the dangerous and sharp narrowing of the return to the pit area (also called the plug check area), their complaints went unheeded. Ra ther than making it a funnel type of return. the rider was forced into a narrow alleyway between a cement wall and chain link fence. This is where a highly . respected AMA Expert , Bob Endicott, wrappe d his bike around a pole, and is now in the hospital with m ultiple bro ken bones. He will naturally have to mi ss Lagu na Seca, It will be interes ting to see ho w man y companies will ste p forward to sponso r once again in a program w here thei r agreement is ign ored. CAMI GR EER Camber Comp an y Costa Mesa, Calif. And this .. . Because of a score: mix-up an d brain seizu re o n th e p art of the score ke epers Thank you for the generous comments in response to Mr . Kenneth B. Blakc:ley's inquiry in your July 20, 1976 issue. With regard to the soil conditions, we: have recently installed a complete sp rin kler system and hauled in several thousand yards of river sand. The sand has made a tremendous d ifferen ce in the racing surface. Now we actually build berms. WALT SANDIFER President - Cycle ra ma San Antonio, Texas B·to -V off again The . San Ga briel Valle y M.C. has sus pen ded efforts to run the "Barsto w to Vegas" race in 1976. This has been done for one reason only : to allow the District 3 7 Legal Defense Task Force to negotiate an equitable rotational plan of areas in which to race. This will res ult in many "new" areas open to organized racing onceagain, If this is not accomplished. as promised by the B.L.M., all the monies in the B to V fund will be spen t in 1977 to once again pursue the UBarstow .to Vegas" race. All of the donations made to the "Barstow to Vegas" Defens e Fund are still in a trust account, and will remain as such un til we either get our 'desert back, or run the 1977 Vegas race . SAN GABRIEL VALLEY M.C. - Lf anyone has qu estions or wants to help , write th e S.C. V. MC, Legal Defense Fund, P.O. Box 1895, Pomona, CA 91769 ... Ed. Hot shot's back Regarding the story by Ted Titmas on the AME $2000 race, Greg Ro be rt son reall y is not a n ew rider for Mid-Val ley , Ac tually it 's like a homecomin g. In th e early 70 's Greg was one of t he hottest ride rs in So Ca!. Not yet in his Jun io r year o f high school, he won the 125 Pro class at the very first Snake Rive r, Idaho race with Brad Lackey in second, both on 125 CZs. Then came the e ntrance of Honda , etc. into the 125 class and the once mighty CZ was left in the co ld . REX BACKMAN Paradise , Calif. Falta, Velky•.Churavy, Babaro vsk y - all ride CZs - and that 's a pretty hot foursome . . . Ed. No teething problems here Re: "john Ulrich's coverage of the AFM Road Race at Ontario Motor Speedway. July II. In the article. the motorcycle I ride was referred to as a Gordon Jennings RD 250. I don't wish to dis-credit Go rd on in any way, but Matt Owens owns and tunes the bike I have been verv fortunate to race . It has been such a good ride for me that I have been a ble t o le arn at a good rate . I j ust wanted to se t the record straigh t . MARK HOMCHICK Woodlan d Hills, Calif. The vie ws expressed in th is colum n ana oth er columns appearing on th e fo Jlowing pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect th e officilll po sition of Cycle News West or Cycle News, In e.-Q!lalified reader» wishing free and equal rtlbuttal space should contact the Editor.

• Cover