Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

continues to race in Australia , Europe, and j apa n . The Australians will be at Da ytona , th e U.K . team is a maybe. But as for an effort from Kawasaki Motors Corporation in the United States - forget it. BINSIDE ~ t Trans-AMA 6 Hurricane Hannah blows 'em down Ossa test 10 The Phantom weighs what they say it d oes B MX tric k ery 14 Peddle harder, fellas H u sk y two-scooper .•.. 16 First ride on CR390 and CR250, next seaso n's ultimate weapons? Dez ....• .. .. ..•. ... . •. 18 SGVMC and the Duck memorialize B-to-V 20 W /ERA road race Freezing your cojones for 24 hours West 26 Central .• .•.• . •.• . • .•.. 32 North . . . . . .• .. . •. .. ... 33 Bob Balentine. ... .. . . • . 36 Profile of a desert son. Results 38 Calendar 41 FRONT PAGE: Is a front page again - with color v Ossa Phantom portrai t by Charles Morey. Charles C. Cayton, Presiden t Bobi Scott. Assistant Sharon Cayton. Publisher Edna Mewton, Secretary to Publisher A""rtising Robert 1.. Nor Yelle, Nati onal Advertising Sales Manager Debbie Wilkins, Western Regional Advertising Sales Manager . C1ris Kolber, Advertising Assistant Editor ial Lane Campbell, EDitor, J ody Weisel, Editor, John Ulrich Editor, An and Production Production : Den n is Cox , Lab T e c h n ic i a n ; Marion Hatashita. Typographer; Mike Klinger , Lab a nd Production Assistant. Circul at ion Rhcba Sm ith, Manager; and Pam GreenAssist an t . : Aecounting Gay lcnc Zaioriz , Manager; Ken Lorin. Assist ant; Je ann e Hammond. Accts, R e c eivable; Pam ela Dickerson a nd Caro ly n Br anham . Assistants: J udy Klinger. Credit Dep t.: Rho nda Van Dore n, Co llection Dept. Service and Su pport Michael Co lika s, Den nis Watts. J uanita Blanton. receptionist. West P.O . Box 4 9 8, Long Beach. CA 90801. (2 13 ) 427-7433: L.A. Line 636-8844. East . P.O. Bo x 80" Tucker, GA 3 008 4. (404) 934·7850. Sub1c ript ion • One year, ' secon d class mail 5 12.50: 2 years, sec o nd class mail , S22.50; 3 years, seco nd class mail, 530 .0 0 _ ., CLA SS • ..( weEJIl CopyriR'ht Cv cle SC'ws. Inc. 197 6 . Trade • 2 "!OU'k re giste re d \ ' .5 . P...t ent Officr. All righls fC'S('n' 'U. Published weekl v e xcept C the fiut and toast week o f th e calendar year hy Cy dl' x ews. ln c. , P.O. Bo x 4 9 H, Long lteach , C.aJ iforniol. Second dan postage pa id at Long Bea ch , C .\ , 9 0KOI . Edil orioll SIOO('S. c ar to o n s, ph ot os , e u.. Ml' welc o me . Ad d ress ed , sta m pe d env elope ass u res re tum of u Qpu fd \oI ~l'd ed ito rial matter. KqJr inting in wh ole o r p.atl onl y by permissio n .,f rhe pu bli she rs. ..\ d ~· e r l i s i n l( rat es and lin ulollio n inform ati o n will be scn r upon request. Sl"C S. H. . U.S . There are still parts available for the six KR250s and three KR750s f loating around out in pr ivateer land. There is a long-shot chance that Kawasaki w ill go Production racing, but, as Smith puts it, Kawaski " GP rac ing is through." Loo k in the Results Section for the Official F.I.M. World Championship Standings for 1976 in both Road Racing and l\1Iotocross. Among the notables are Pat Hennen, third in SOOcc GP road racing; Marty Smith, fourth in 125 motocross; Jim Pomeroy, fourth in 250cc motocross; Brad Lackey, fifth in SOOcc motocross; and Gary Nixon. second in Formula 750 road racing. Hennen was also eighth in Formula 750 standings, with Steve Baker tenth. News item from the L.A . Times: 14million -year -old wha le fossil found in the Sant a Monica Mountains . The fin der? A 22-year-old student , trail riding on his motorcycle. Reggie Sully's find was described as having worldwi de significance by scientists. Cont ra ry to what the Sierra Club would have Californ ia policymakers believe, we're not all environmental illiterates. American representation in the World Individual Speedway Championship program ' w as doubled effective in 19n. Two American riders, to be selected through AMA qualifying events, w ill be seeded to the I nt erContinental Final Round of the program, j ust one step away from the World Finals, to be held in Sweden. In 1976 Scott Autrey was the lone U.S. representative in the eliminations. Remember the ru mors of Ji m Pomeroy's split with Bul taco? It 's all true. Loo k for " Bim bo" on a Honda for 1977, raci ng mot ocross in the Un ited States. He'll ride 250cc and Open class. Heikki Mikkola will ride a Yamaha in the 19n F.I.M. SOOcc Motocross Grands Prix. Bu tle r ' and Sm ith 's all -co nq ue ring BMWs will not be seen at AMA Superbike Pro duction road races in 1977. Helmet Kern of Bu tler and Sm ith put it this way: "We plan not to participate. Do you know of an yone who does ?" Alas, we don't , and it looks like the alread y-thin Superb ike Product ion ranks will be even slim me r next season. Kawasaki's Racing Department is no more. According to Tim Sm ith, formerly known as Kawasak i Racing Director, there will be no official " Gr ee n Meen ie " road racing in 19n. The on ly racing the company will do w ill be with Gary Semics and J immy We inert in motocross (250cc and SOOcc). and that effort will be under the auspices and budgetary control of the Quality Assurance Department. Steve Johnson and Rick Jones are the sole surviving " ra ci n g " employees - they tune for Weinert and Semics. Randy Hall has been moved to R&D, and Tim Smith still isn't sure what his new capacity will be in the Technical Operations Department. There will be Kawasaki road racers at Dayt.ona , however , because Kawasaki W ild Rumors Department: Is it true th at h igh -le vel American Honda execu tives ha ve been discreetly asking representatives of other manufacturers for handy hints as to how to go about I. Production road racing in the United States? Is it true that Honda wants to get back into racing to boost sales among hard -core enthusiast types looking for a thrilling ride? Hard to say, because th e corporate body known as "Honda" is very inscrutable. AMA received FIM sanction for five point-paying World Championship events in 19n. In addition to established Motocross Grands Prix at Carlsbad, California (500 c c) and lexington, Ohio (125cc). there will be a world observed trial and two F750 Road Races. The road races will be held at Daytona International Speedway and laguna Seca Raceway. A special revision of the FIM code was necessary to grant two F750 events to the AMA. an unprecedented move on the part of the FIM . The code now states that any nation which is over 2.500 k ilometers wide may obtain more than one event within a given world series if all other proper applications from other nations have been considered. The two events must be run at least 1.700 k ilometers apart from each other. No site has been selected yet for the Observed Trial which will be held in the U.S. T he 1977 Intern ational Six Da ys T ria l will be held at Povats ka Bystrica in Czechoslovakia , Septem be r 5 -1O. Sweden is th e likely location for 1978 _ Canada has ap plied for th e 1979 ISDT and th e FIM withheld granting th at req uest p e nd in g su ccessful organizat ion of a n internation al twoda y trial event in Canada next year. Beginning in 19n, all events within world championship series will count toward the final standings. Previously, a "ha lf-plus-one " formula was used. For example. in a nine-race series. on ly the best fi ve scores of each rider would count. The new system should provide better competition for the world titles and guarantee that top riders will be on hand for all series events. The Fall FIM Congress stated that in the 1977 Spring Congress (Ma rch 2629 in Geneva , Switzerland) the nature of Formula 750 racing would be examined with the thought in mind of mak i ng it a formula more representative of production eq uipment. Suggested changes include rais ing t he m axim um e ngine displacement to I,OOOcc, which could usher in sweeping changes in the series. Ap pr oved this fa ll was ra ising the m in im um d ispla cem en t for Formula 750 equi pme nt from S50cc to 501cc. Also at the req uest of the AMA, the distance of F7 50 eve nts was changed . Pr eviously, a ll point-paying F750 events had to be a t least 200 miles long and at most 500 m iles. The acceptable distance now is 200·5 00 kilometers. Races may be run "straigh t through" or in two heats, One of the men responsible for the BMW Superbike Production racers of the 1976 says that Butler and Smith pulled out because their bikes had been developed t o their limits w ithout design changes. Since design changes and monetary support from the BMW factory in Germany were not forthcoming for 19n. Butler and Sm ith just plain qu it. Next meeting of San Diego County's Citizens O RV Committee is Dccr-rnber 14 at 7:30 p .m . in the COUnl)' Adrninist rarive Center , R m 335 .-\. 1600 Pacific Hwy.. San Diego. Ca . These folks are among the few who arc hea vily involved in forcing cons ider> at ion of ride rs' nee d s in to t he gove rn me nl pla nning prneess. Drop o n in a nd ge t in volve d yourself. They're a lways welcomi ng ne w blood a nd new ideas. Typo correction Dept: ATA's address for EI Trial De Espana .entries should read 338 N. Glen Rose, Orange. Ca. 92669. The grand raffle pr ize this year is a 250cc Sherpa T, while a Honda TL125 goes to the faithful checkers in their own separate drawing. H a rry Everts, 1975 250cc Motocross World Champion on a Pu ch , will take Ji m Pom eroy's place for Bultaco in 250cc Gra nds Prix. For those of you who missed leapin larry Huffman's si lken tones last year due to Anaheim's baseball-tuned sound system, Stadium Sports is truckin ' in their Superbowl speakers. Guaranteed to shiver the seats and make the elves at nearby Disneyland blush. Riders in the Rio Grande Va lley of Texas were sad dened b y the loss of Mark Mitchell fr om McAllen. He was killed in a traffic accident retu rn ing from a motocross Nove mber 14. The idea of a "King Kong" jump at Stadium Sports' American MX Final in Anaheim stadium tweaked at least one artist's mind, as you'lI see in their ad this week. The idea of moving all that dirt. and all that structural reinforcement going in and out of the Astros' playground for one event tweaked ours, too. How can Goodwin afford it? Well, they hire this big monkey, see ... After the Anaheim r ace, th e Goodwin organization will have had back-to back ex pe rie nces with two dist inct forms of motocross: on e traditional and on e created specificall y for th e stadium venue. Ma ybe now th e "p ro" and " an ti" stadiu m cri tics will pipe down and let the fans choose their favori te way to wat ch . World long Track Champion Ivan Mauger is interested in broadening the equipment formula for long track speedway. He suggests that the class be open to all singI. cylinder four-stroke machines with engine capacities up to 750cc . The current limit. as for short track Speedway, is 500cc. It seems unlikely that Mauger will have much success with his idea in the near future. Seen any 750cc singles lately? Another piece of trivia which has been kicked around of late is whether or not Jay Sp ringsteen is the youngest Grand National Champion ever. A bit of

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