Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

THE LATEST pop BY PAPA WEALEY According to re liable sources, President Carter will announce Executive Orders outlawing off road vehicle use on public lands before April 1, 19n. Sources indicate that draft copies of Carter's coming address to Congress on Environmental Quality includes notice of the action. All OHV use of federal lands would be halted, pending completion of environmental impact studies, which could take years. For full details and what to do, see page 5. Doug Sc hwe rrna , crea tor of Cham p io n fra mes. was fou n d dead in his small pi ck up truck Mo nday afternoon . March 14 in a remote area of Northern California. Friends said Schwerma had been despondent since th e sa le of h is business. Fune ral se rv ices were held M arch 19 in Berkeley. California . Schwerma , who sta r ted o u t worki ng fo r Miln e Brot hers. wen t on to found Champion Frames . developing his product into a d ominant force in American Cl ass C racing , Marty Moates will contest all 12 rounds of the 250 World Championship motocross GP circuit. With Ossa factory backing, Moates will leave for Europe March 30 and will ride the Spanish GP on April 3. The AMA sent Moates a letter of introduction and arranged entries for the first four GPs. This information was brought to Papa's attention by Marty's extremely happy and excited mother. T he March 27 Ascot 100-lap TT will be opened this yea r to Juniors , In ma king t h e annou nce ment . J ,C , Agajanian said. "Since we q ual ify 44 rid ers for the heats and th e main event. we hav e tim e and room to a llow the Junio rs to ride as they d id until last yea r" . T he form at calls for the top 20 in tim e trials to transfer directl y into the 100 -lap feature. wh ile qual ifiers 2 1 th rought 44 will run two hea ts to det ermine the ot her 13 sta rters in t he 33-rider main eve nt field . Don Kudalski is still looking for support on the National circuit. Seems it's difficult for east coast riders to get help, no matter how fast they are . Don rode a Can -Am at the Houston Astrodome, sponsored by Perrin Cycles in San Antonio. They're also letting Don usa the bike at Dallas for the Supercross. Gary Jones ' J ones-Islo is finall y proving itse lf to be a com petitive and reliable bike on the N ational circuit. J ones Mot ocross P roducts will ha ve 30 of the first product io n m odels avai lable for sa le in a bo u t a week. The bikes feat ure leadi ng ax le ' forks with 10 inches of sus pe ns ion travel front a nd rear, radial engi ne s and ot her goodies. 2 Suzuki's Jeff Jennings will be race testing the new RM250-C production bike at the Dallas Supercross. Due for release this summer, the bike has a conical front hub, air/spring forks, and redesigned exhaust system. broke his bike's swing arrn and did n't fini sh . a nd T omm v fin ished 17th a fter a nast y cndo . ' Koji Masuda , Su zuk i's 250cc Nation a l Champion in Japan . is now ra cing in the U. S. for Su zuk i. Koj i will race a ll the 12 5 cc a n d 2 50 c c Na t io na ls beginnin g a t Hangtow n , He wo n't be eligi b le fo r AMA cha m pionship poi nts for two yea rs, bu t Koji is now th e seco nd foreign rider to like th e m on ey that's ava ilable for doi ng well in Am erica . Daytona dry tank blues: Right after taking the checkered flag for second place in the Superbike Production race. David Emde's Mack Cycle Center Kawasaki died - out of gas. The same thing happened to Harry Klinzmann after finishing fourth in the International Lightweight race. Greg Hansford's dice with Takazumi Katayama for second i n the International Lightweight ran out with his fuel supply a few laps before the checkered flag. F750 World Champ ionship standings after Daytona: 15 1. Steve Baker 12 2. Kenny Roberts 3. Takazumi Katayama 10 4. Greg Hansford 8 6 5. Gene Romero 6. Warren Willing 5 4 7. Christian Sarron 8. Pat Evans 3 9. Boet V. Dulmen 2 1 10. Randy Cleek H a rley-Davidso n's Rex Sta te n won 't fo rge t the 1977 Daytona Supc rcross for a lon g whi le. It began wh en 1 got 1<' handcuffed by rhe Vo lusia Cou nty Sheriffs and hauled down to t he sta tio n . a nd ended wh en I", nosed div ed into th c trea ch erou s jum p / pi t by th e fin ish lin e' a nd brok.. his wris t. See ing his m echa nic bei ng hassled by the usua l oppressivc security g-oons. for not wearing a shi n in the pits. Sta ten had wa lked over to check it out. " I j ust we nt over a nd as kcd wh a t was goin~ on ," Staten said la ter. " a nd th ev said ' Put th e cuffs o n him' and rook me awav .' Tea m boss D ick O 'B rie n follo'wed . arid Sta ten and his wre nc h returned short ly, Some low-life stole Nancy Emde's YZSO pit bike when she went int o the Daytona infield hospital to check on brother David after his F750 first-lap crash. At Daytona, it's lock it, watch it, or lose it for pit bikes. Rid ing t he Kawasak i " p re -prod uc tion" rnotocr osser , Gary Sc mics won his Daytona qu a lifier , t hen g-ot stuc k in he avy tr a ffic in th e fin al. If t he one th ey sel l is like t he o ne t hey rare , it 'll be a terror, Pierre Karsmakers received his newest. latest trick works Yamaha which sported such niceties as a smaller rear hub, an aluminum swingarm, new alloy triple clamps and what looked like a titanium kickstarter. Detailing like hollow driIed bolts added to the lightweight 11971b.lexpensive package. Po ps Yoshi m ura. inju red whe-n find cst royed h is d yno roo m a nd wor kshop in No rt h H oll ywood . Ca lif. on Feb . 18 , was released fr om t he hos p ita l on March 14 . Pops. wh o suffered second deg ree burns o n his arms a nd le!{S, is up a nd around , but not y"l hack to work . Hi s son . Fuj io , a nd employees a rc kee pi ng Yoshimura R&D ro lli nga long. Being late can be expensive. That's what Honda Teamsters Marty Smith and Tommy Croft found out when they showed up 20 m inutes late for sign up at the Daytona Supercross. At first they were told they couldn 't ride . Later the decision was changed to let them ride after each 'paid a $500 fine , Ouch ! Sm ith and Croft hoth qua lified for the Da ytona Supe rcross fin a l mot o . :\Iany T he fina l lig h rwcigh; practi ce on T uesday o f Dayton a Spe ed W "ek e nde d a b r upt ly wh en so me of Goodyea r's slicks sta rte d to ch unk out. The prohlem bat ch was recal led and re pl aced wit h anot her pr oduction run flown in. Acco rdi ng- to Good year reps. th e prob lem was a cu ring defcct in one bat ch . All 250 riders. incl ud ing those riding Miche lin a nd Dun lop tires, had to sit ou t pr acti ce be cau se of t he Goodyear prob lem . The AMA moves in st ra nge wa ys. . . Holeshot of the month award goes to David Emde in the Daytona International Lightweight race . Because of a heat race crash, Emde started 79th on a grid of 80 250s. Emde had passed the entire 20 rider third wave before it was off the grid. Ka wa sa ki rent ed D a ytona l nr e r nation al Speedway the wee k a fter Speed W eek a nd set a slew of new AMA a nd FIM speed records with KZ650s, KZIOOOs. a nd KR750s. New 750cc ( KZ65 0) AMA records include : 10 m ile ( 124 .485 mph); 100 m ile ( 119.9 46 mph ); 1,000 mil e (1 14.5 71 mph). New AMA /FIM joint 750 cc ( KZ650) records in clude : O ne hour ( 1l 9. 027. mph ); six hour ( 117.6 12 mph ) . N ew FIM 750 cc ( K Z65 0) reco rd s includ e : 10 km ( 120 .8 8 7 m ph ); 100 km (1l 9 .8 74 mp h) ; 1,000 km ( 118. 077 m ph ). Using the KZ IOOO, Ka wasak i broke AMA records for: 10 mi le ( 127 . 149 mph ) ; 100 mi le ( 130 .003 m ph); 1,000 m ile ( 118.897 mph) . New I , OOOcc AMA /FIM re co rds inclu d e : Six hour (12 7.7 17 mph); 12 hour ( 118 .495 mph); 24 ho ur ( 117.240 mph). F IM records for the 1.000cc class were set in th e 100 km ( 133 .726 m ph ) a nd \,000 km ( 128 .442 mph ) catagories. Usin g a th ree -cylinder KR 750 . Ka wasak i set a new FIM 10 km record a t 154 .1 82 mph . In setting the 24 ·hour record. o ne KZI OOO cove red 2,8 13 .78 1 mil es. Tha t's one long. fas t day . Gary Nixon suffered a broken wrist i n a Daytona Speed Week lightweight practice crash. " Sand off the motocross course obviously was sucked in and tied up both cylinders," said Nixon. "Their went our (Nixon and tuner Erv Kanemotol plans. We wanted to do well at Daytona and Charlotte: go to Long Beach; pick up, some good starting money in Europe; win the F750 Championship; and then buy up all that California drought land." A tip of th e W eal ey duckbill to J .R. Kelley pf KK Cycl e Su p ply of Dayton , O hio , who kicked in $2 .000 to hel p Nixon defray his Daytona expe nses. Teuvo Lansivouri. who led the 1975 Daytona 200 until he crashed, m issed the 19n "200" 110011 after be ing stricken with a heavy case of flu. A C N co rrespo nde nt says a n insid e so u rce at H o nd a to ld h im a new line of " T r ick" m otocrosse rs , based . the fa ctory T yp e -2 ra cers . would be relea sed in June . The bikes will co me , in 125 . 250 a nd 400cc sizes. Bernie Schreiber got his best finish yet (second) at the West German World Championship trial. He's on his way home, as the next FIM trials round is in the U.S., May 29. Results of the West German round : 1. Martin Lampkin (Bull; 2. Bernie Schreiber (Bull; 3. Rob Shepherd (Hon); 4. Malcolm Rathmell (Mon); 5. Yrjo Vesterinen (Bull; 6. Ulf Karlsson (Mon); 7. Nigel Birkett (Suz); 8. Manuel Soler (Bull; 9. JeanMarie LeJeune (Mon); 10. Mick Andrews (Yam I. Mik e Bast had a perfect l8-p oint sco re to lea d the U. S. team to a victory over the Europea ns. 59 -49 , at Ventura Mar , 19. Mike Cu roso and Scott Autrey both scored II points, with Bobb y Sc h wartz r espo ns ibl e for anot her 10 , Ivan Ma uger a nd Anders Mic hanek top ped the Europea ns wit h 10 poi nts apiece , Co mplet e sto ry next week . The 5Occ. 75cc. and SOcc Italjet minicycles may now be qualified for Cal ifornia off-road registration with an add -on muffler kit by Murphy Muffler. Accordi ng to Da ve Despain of the Am er ic a n Moto rcyc lists Assn . (A MA) , the CB S television net wo rk will broadcast cove rage of th e Dayton a " 200" (actua lly, sho rtene d by ra in to 100 m iles) o n March 26 , un less programming d ifficulties a rise. Ab ou t 25 mi nutes of roa d ra cin g film will be see n o n th e C BS Sports Spect a cular show . Check you r local TV directory for a iri ng ti me in yo ur a rea . Jay Springsteen sustained only a few bruises when he crashed in turn one during the Daytona Lightweight event. Later, in a playful mood, Springer injured his ankle in a jump from the top of the . Harley-Davidson racing transpor· ter. Mechanical gremlins el imina ted the following fr om the Daytona Camel Pro Series road race: Skip Aksla nd (cl utch). Tom Herron (ignition). Avrum Gudelsky (clu tch), Gianfra nco Bonera (cl u tch) . J oh nny Cecotto (gea r box). Steve McLaughlin (igniti on). Bernard Fa u (clu tch). Gary Scott (seizu re) , John Clark (cl u tch). Greg Bo nelli (cl u tch). R ud y Galindo (wa ter leak). Bruce Hammer (fuel). Gary Bla ckm an (cl utch). Rich a rd Cham bers (co unter shaft). J im m y Metrando ( front brake). John C lark (sp roc ket). Co ry Ru pel t (e ngi ne), Robert Pietri (engi ne) . J ack Middelburg (wa ter leak) . Rob Bron (ch ai n ). Pa tri ck Po ns ( cl utch) . and Ro n Pierce (engine). Yvon DuHamel made an appearance at the Webco RacflO Show Saturday night to sit and chat with his former tuner Bob Work and Yamaha Japan contract rider Steve Baker. When pressed on his future plans Yvon offered that he had been spending a lot of time preparing his new Kawasaki shop in Montreal for its recent grand opening. " My number is 17 and this is m y 17t h year a t Daytona . bu t t his time I am a. spectator." Yvon had hoped for a ride in th e 200 , bu t .none were offer ed . Currently he is negotiating for a ride (presu m a b ly Kawasaki) in the Coup de End ura nce eve nts in Europe .

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