Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126078
BINSIDE ~ t Free W heeling , 7 Campbell's found the recipe that everyone else missed A merican MX Finals , , , , , 8 Crash or cash and King Kong too 11-s e c ond Yama ha , , , .. 10 $685 and it's all over National Trials Finale , .. 12 One dab and you're out Steve Wise , , , , , , 14 Another Texan loose on the land West. ,. " " " " " " , .. 16 Desert."" " , 22 P litical Enduro ' , . , 26 The rubes are wising up North , " " . " , 30 CMC Road Races .. , ... 32 Gassing and crashing New Products . """ .. 34 More freebies for the editor Resu lts , .. " , · ,38 , FRONT PAGE : Sant a Crash has been at the presents again . Artist, Tim Barella . THE LATEST P0 BY PAPA WEALEY The Invad ers MC trophy presentati on will be held Saturday night , December II , at the Hilltoppers/Desert Donkeys Dual European Scrambles. Beer will be sold at 25¢ each. with all proceeds going to Mit ch Mayes and St eve Wagn er. to help them on the trail to recovery. Plus the winner of th e Lab or Day Wet T -shirt Cont est will be on hand to plant one on trophy winners. Be there or be slow. Another note from t he Invaders: They j u s t won another club challenge, w ith another $40 bet going to Rescue 3. First the Desert MC, now the Rovers have challenged the Invaders and lost. Who will be next? David Emd e tells us he want I :34 on his TZ350 at Willow Springs on Novemb er 21. That's faster than we said Whitney Blakeslee went , which means Whitney's track record is for Op en class only. Blak eslee used a St ewart Toomey H2R air-cool ed Kawasaki ; Emde rode a Mel Dinesen TZ350 Yamaha . Charles C. q al[ton. President Bobi Scott, Assistant Sharon C ayton, Publisher · Edna Mewton, Secretary to Publisher Ad.ertising Robert L. Nor Velle, National Advertising Sales Manager Debbie Wilkins, Western Regional Advertising Sales Manager . Chris Kolbet , Advertising Assistant Ed itorial Lane Campbell, Edit or, JOdy Weisel. Editor. J ohn Ulrich Editor. Art and PrOduction Produ ction : De n nis Tee hn i c i an ; Marion Cox. Lab Hatashita, Klinger, Lab a nd Typographer; Mike Production Assista nt. Circu latio n Rh cb a Smith. Manager : and Pam Green Assist ant . Account ing Gaylc:n c Zalonz, Manager; Ken Lorin. Assistant; J c:anne Hammond., Aeets . Receivable; Pamela Dickerson and Carolyn Branham , Assistants ; Judy Klinger, Credit Dept. : Rhonda Va n Doren, Collection Dept. . Serv ice and Support Michael Colikas, Dennis Watts. Juanita Blanton. receptionist. West P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801. (2 13) 427·7433 ; L.A. Line 636·8844. East P.O . Box 80S, Tucker, GA 30084. (404) 934-7850. Subscript ion One year, ' second class mail $12 .50: 2 years. second class mail , $22.50 : 3 years, seco nd class mail. 530 .00. cuss. ~ MI!.... EJl 4 Copyright CydC' News . Inc . 1976. Trade mar k regtster ed I t.S . P... te nt Office . All rights reserved. Published weekly ex cept the firs t and last week of the' cale n da r year by Cyc le News. In c . P.O . Box 49M. Long Beach , Cal ifornia. Second class pos tage paid at Long Beach , C.\ . 90MOI. Edi tori al stories. c ar t o o n s, photos. etc. .11' (,.' welcome. Addressed. stamped envelope assures return of unpurchascd edit or ial matter . Rl'print ing in whole or par t onl y uy perm ission .uf t he p u blishe rs. Ad ...·(·r tisin j( rat es and vircu la u o n informati on will be scn r upon request. Sec S.R .Il .S. AMA's competition d irector, Bill Boyce, tells us that if the seven Camel Pro Series Nat ional Road Races o n the calendar for 19n are successful, he has four or fiv e more promote rs in terested in holding road races in 1978, And if there 's a 12-event road ra ce series in 1978, t h e re ' might a lso be a split in t he national series - one Road Racing Championsh ip, and one Dirt Track Championship. Keith Code won 350 GP at the CMC road ra ce at Willow Springs ' on November 21. not David Emde as reported . Emde won 250 and 500 GP. The Motorcyclist Magazine team at t he WERA24-hour race parked their GS750 after 12 hours because they had used up all available tires. Not expecting the super-abrasive t ra c k surface at Las Vegas, the team did n't bring enough t ires. Of course, the fact that the track ha s on ly one le ft turn ' h el p e d concentrate tire wear, a lso. The March is s ue of the magazine w ill have the problem-free GS750 12hour test re port. Side-note to the Californ ia OH V ripoff scandal - how the Sacramento dailies handled it . The Sacra mento Bee headlined their story " Audit shows false records in OHV Fun d" an d went on to detail how the auditors found "improper" emp loyee timesheets, etc . The Sacrament o Union , by contrast, chose to completely ignore the ripoff and instead wro te tha t lack of enforceme nt and owner resistance was costing $3.2 million in lost registration revenu e. Makes you wonder who owns whom , doesn't it? After s o m e tentative contact w ith Yamaha, Walter Villa returned to the Herlev-Devldson fo ld and signed a new contract fo r t he 250/350 World Championship road racing season. Yamaha apparently wasn't ready to fund a 250 /35Occ effort, as Johnny Cecotto a lso found out. Cecotto is s igned to ride 500 and 750cc works Yamahas but is campaigning the two smaller classes under h is home-nation Venemotos sponsorship. Before signing his H-D contract, Villa was visibly upset (as reported in the Euro -press) with the layoff of teammate ' Gianfranco Bonera. In Bonera's place, the works has signed a 21-year-old Italian privateer, Franco Uncini . Uncini gained notice in Italy by beating Agostini twice in a race at Misano , earlier this year. Italy ha s a new moto-weekly called MOTOSPRINT, which in its first issue launched a campaign to persuade the Italian government to c reate ORV parks. Their staff expressed great 'int e re s t upon hearing of t he OHV scandal as reported in Cycle News they int e nd to c ite California as how NOTto do it . Incidentally, we at Cycle News can get away with tossing aro und terms like "Sierra Mafia ." But in Italy, that is one name you da re not ta ke in vain. How come all t his Italian stuff? It seems MOTOSPRINT has tabbed the Lame Camel as their American correspondent. meaning we share a lot of hot poop via teletype. It a lso means the big t ur key is being published in two la n g ua g e s rather amazing fo r one whose command of Italian stumbles on anyth ing more complex than "Mama m ia!" Ciao. District 38 desert racers are being asked to write the Imperial County Sheriffs Dept. , El Centro, CA 92243, stating the riders' need for the presence of the desert rescue helicopter. Seems the availability of the county whirlybird is in jeopardy because some loca l politicos don't realize its importance to life and limb . Can-Am/Bombardier has signed Skip Olson and Kevin Snap (an Olson protegel, both neighbors in Grantsburg, W isconsin, for the 1977 National enduro season. Olson will campaign a new 250cc Qualifier, and Snap won the 175 class in six out of 10 National enduros he entered last year. You Can't Win Dept : A British cartoon shows a biker buried in the hood of a car, and the driver is saying . "I was momentarily blinded by his bri ghtly-coloured riding gear, officer." Bitter irony , wot? Mike Bast took his second straight overall victory at the Cow Palace Indoor Speedway over Thanksgiving weekend. In the finale of the two-day event. Bast a lmost got taken by an aggressive Mike Faria, former 0 -36 Class C hero. Faria's brother Dave took a Handicap win also. Scott Autrey was there, worked hard, but couldn't get dialed in to a short track. Details to come in the Northern Dateline. Did we mention that BL M's Ridgecrest office has been reloca ted to 340 Segundo , Ridgecrest , CA 93555? New phone number is (714) 375-9726 . Jim Nid iffer, formerly Amateur Activities Director for AMA, has found a new h o m e at Texas' Cyclerama near San Anton io, where he'll work as Director of Operations. For Jim and his wife, something of a t h is is homecoming; both were raised and educated panhandle. in the Texas We got a Quack Quack call from the Duck Monday, telling us that all told, approximately 100 people trickled in to the finish of the Phantom Duck Unorganized Trail Ride . Also found out that our doctor friend , whose wiferode part-way last year with a broken hand , finished this year's event with two broken ribs, which he acquired slightly downrange of a sinkhole in Soda Lake . Not too shabby, Doc. One IS DT rule change which w ill be of int e re s t 'in v o lv e s tire changes. In the future, rid e rs w ill be a llowed to change tires only in the work area each morning or at t he fina l gas stop of the day. Previous ly, t ire changes were permissable at any checkpoint. The Trophee des Natio ns a n d Motocross des Nations have been given world cha mp ionshi p status beginning in 1977. T he winning national in eac h event will ca rry the title "World Team Motocross Champion, " much the same as 'with the existing Team Speedway Championships. The Kawasaki KZ1000 presently being tested by Cycle Magazine last week logged the quickest set of stock-bike . quarter-m ile ETs in magazine history. Hu nn mg at Irwind ale, California the KZ had ETs of 12,16, 12.14, 12.10, 12.10, 12.10 a nd 12.06. Trap speeds ra nged between a high of 111.66 and a low of 109 .75 mph. Use of slick or treaded tires in FIM road racing will be left up to the discretion of individual riders beginning in 1977. The subject has been a controversial one since the slick tires - which are superior on dry pavement - were first introduced. Prob lems arise because in Europe road racing is a " rain or shine" proposition and slicks are unable to maintain adequate traction on wet pavement. By the same token , though , treaded tires are inferior when it's dry . Moves to ban slicks altogether were quelled at the FI M Congress . The Other Brother Dept.: It was not Cordis, but rat her Tom Brooks who led much of SGVMC's Hare ' N Hound. Summit Porsche / Audi of Victorville is now selling Husqvarnas as well. In addition , they're sponsoring Michele Griffin , Monte Lee and Dean Kirk. Mr . K. Shimizu has been named President of U.S. Suzuki Motor Corporation, the distributor of Suzuki motorcycles in this country, Shimizu, 41, has worked for Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd, (manufacturer of Suzuki motorcycles) of Japan for 20 years. He will be in charge of all U.S . Suzuki operatio ns.