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/126259
r; • THE LATEST ~ III t rr- O'l ~ POOP BY PAPA WEALEY ~ ~ >. ~ ~ Contrary to a few irr espo n sib le, unfounded, baseless, vain and completely unjustified rumors, the San Jose Mile w ill be run as planned. The premier West Coast Camel Pro Series di rt t r ack will be at the San Jose Fairgrounds on May 15. Papa doesn't like f alse rumors . Bob Greene. 57 , died suddenly of a heart attack April 26 . An em ployee of Peterson Publ ishing Co . for 27 yea rs. Bob was lately Executive Edi tor o f M ot or cyclist Magazine . At one tim e Bob was th e first editor of Cvclc. He set a high sta nda rd for mot orcycle journalism that will perpetuat e his memory . California Fred Bellman remains hospitalised in Alabama as a result of the serious injuries he su ffered in t he April 16-17 T w o-Dav s in Alabama Reliability Trial. According to Fred, he' ll not be able to be moved for several more weeks. Drop him a line c/o Selma Medical Center, Selma, Alabama . Reg Pri dmore, the 1976 Ameri ca n Motorcyclist Assn. (A M A) Superbike Production champion on BMWs, im pressed everybody at the American Federation of Motor· cyclists (A FM) Six·Hour Endurance race held at Ontario 'M ot or Speedway on April 24 by jumping on the Racecrafters Kawasaki KZ1000 and blitzing off 2:12 lap times instantly. Now it looks like there's a chance that Pridmore will ride the Racecrafters Kawasaki in remaining 19n AMA Superbike Production races, since Butler and Smith (the BMW importer) seems re luctant to support a racing program in the future. Brad Lackey debuted his 1977 factory Honda in winning fashion as he turned in a 1-3-1 day to win the Hants Grand International MX in R ingwood , England on April 8. It marked the secon d year in a row that Lackey has won the event and the Sammy Miller Trophy. Dick Burleson (Hus) won his fifth National Championship Enduro of the season, the May 1 Burr Oak National run out of Sterling, Illinois. Team Army's Bob Messer put in the best overall performance in what was described as "the sho rtest TwO-Day in history" by an observer. Messer 's ho megrounds at Ft. H ood , Texas were swamped with thundershowers , turning creeks into gulleywashes that swept away men and machines that attempted a crossing. T he course had to be shortened to 70 miles on Saturday and 30 m iles Sund ay. There were 77 finis hers among the 230 who started the ru n . Messer's Maico headed the Open class results list while Team Penton topped the 250cc category (J ack Penton), the 350cc class (Gary Younkins) and the 175cc class (Dane leimbachl. Mike Rosso broke up the Penton domination by w inning the. 125cc class on his Hercules. Glen Allison was the top 100cc class rider on, you guessed it a Penton. 2 Jim Felt , currently Broc Gover 's mechanic, of. Simi Valley , Calif. has chose n to give u p the drudgery of sing le life to wed a lady known to CN as only " Dia ne . ,. Nuptials a re sched uled for som etime in September. Dick Burleson (Hus) scored his fourth ove r a ll victory in five Nat ional championship Enduro Seri es events by dropping only 12 points in th e April 24 125 mil e Little Harpeth Enduro held near Nashville. Tenn . Bill Geig"r (Pen ) took "A" honors with a 980 sco re. The purse for the June 4 New , Orleans Supercross was listed incorrect ly on official AMA entry blanks. The total is $15,ooo,(no t $20,000), with $2,255 going to the winner. A brief excerpt from an open letter to President Carter from the Breeder Support Committee published by "T he Washington Post" read" . . .There is a lready mined and stored in this country enough breeder reactor fuel to supply five times the electricity that could be supplied by all the oil in all the 0 PEC nations combined . T hat is an energy reso urce worth $20 trillion ." Interesting in this time of "crisis," isn't it ? Unofficially the current 250 National MX Series point standings including the Southwick race are: 1. Marty Smith (163); 2. Tony DiStefano (160); 3. Jim Pomeroy (151); 4. Kent Howerton (115); 5. Tommy Croft (101); 6. Rick Burgett 1961; 7. Bob Hannah (92); Chuck Sun (881; 9. Gaylon Mosier (84); 10. Danny LaPorte 1791. At the Czechoslovakian 250 Motocross Grand Prix, Antonin Barborovasky (Cl) took the first moto win with Vladimir Kavinov (KT M) second . Harry Everts (Bul) third , Hans Maisch (Mai) fourth and Marty Moates put in a great ride to finish fifth . In moto two it was Jaroslav Falta (Cl) first, followed by Kavinov, Barborovasky Maisch and Vladimir Ovchinnikov (KTM) for the top five. 250cc World Championship MX points including the Czech. Round are Guennady Moisseev (661; Harry Everts (62); Vladimir Kavinov (50); Hans Maisch (47); and Raymond Boven (46). At the third ro und in the 125 Gra nd Prix action held on May I, in Belgium , the first moto went to Gaston Raheir with Gi lbert DeR oover second and Andre Massont third . In the second race it again was Ra hier with the win with Milia and Massont second and third . The overall for th e day went to Rahier with scores of I -I . second to Massont with 3-3 and third to DeRoover witha 2 -5 showing . A star-studded field has a lready been signed for the United States 500cc Motocross Grand Prix (a lso known as th e Ha ng Ten GP) slated for J une 19 at Carlsbad . including: Roger De-Coster (Suz): Gerrit Wolsink (Su z); Brad La cke y (Hon ): Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) : Heikki Mikkola (Ya m) ; Hakan Anderson (Mon ): Adolph WeiI (Ma i): J a ak - "an Velthoven (KTM): Herbert Schm idt ( Ma i); Gr aham Noyce (Ma i): a nd John Banks (CCM) . USG P p romoter!> Trippe . Cox arc still tryin g to sign up Bcngt Ab er g a nd his four-st roke Yamaha . Mass Confusion: David Emde (sho w n abovel and Harry Klinzmann, riding the Mack Cycle Ce nter/lester Wheels/NO Spark Plugs KZ1000 have been declared the official. final winners of the American Federation of Motorcyclists Six -Hour road race held at Ontario April 24. All previously-announced official results are inoperative. The change came on April 29, after AFM officials examined closely the scoring sheets (marked by teamprovided scorers I of several teams, and took testimony from scoring tower observors. The decision was that score sheet inconsista ncies made it appear in itially that Cooley and Murphy had won, but they hadn't. Cooley and Murphy are now officially second. Other changes brought the team of Bob Crossman/Scott Clough/David McClanahan into second in the 410 class, ahead of Bob Tigert/Dennis Rogers and Stan Smith/Mike Velasco. Bill France. Jr-. executive vice president and general manager of Da ytona International Speedway. has announced that the 37th running of the Davtona 200 is scheduled for March 12, 1978 . Plans are underway to insure that th e ra ce will run a full 200 co nsec u tive miles, and incl ude consid era t ion of mandatory tir e cha nges and ca rb u reto r restricror plates . France said that any c ha nges in the rules for the race will be announced in p lenty of time to a llow teams to prepare ad equately. J immy Weinert, out of action since the Hangtown Classic, where he separated his shoulder, was seen at Saddleback Friday morning riding for the first time since the m ishap. The " Jammer" was doing some testing on Kawasaki 's preproduction KX125. Weinert' s shoulder shou ld not require surgery as f eared earlier, and Weinert w ill return to ac t ion at t he 250 National in Axton, VA on May 15. In th e AFM Six -Hour road race report last week . it was staled that David Breetwor's Triumph broke. The bike actually got a flat tire . Does that mean the tire broke? Steve Peterman of Mr. Jags, (a British car repair shop in Hollywood, Calif.I. is a road racing enthusiast. Besides always fielding several competitive British motorcycles at club races, Peterman awards $25 cash to the most deserving or outstanding rider at a given race. On May 1 at Ontario, Peterman's chosen rider didn't need the cash, so Peterman passed t he money on to a rider who wasn 't racing because his bike had been destroyed by h is partner in a Six-Hour cr ash. Peterman and people li k e hi m make this sport neat. The 48 fastest qualifie rs at every AMA Gra nd National/Camel Pro Series dirt t rack w ill earn $50. The $2.400 w ill come off the top of the purse with a drop in the w inner 's share expected to average about $200. Lap money and fast qualify ing t ime awards will not be affected . . An info rme d source to ld us that S&W standard sho cks will soon be equipment on Bu ltaco 250c c and 370cc Pursangs , ORV or OHV7 The government often calls off-road vehicles "offhighway vehicles." That's why the California " Green Stickie" is for " O HV s" in official state literature. Ca liforn ia State Parks and Recreation Director Herb!,rt Rhodes is asking people who called his confidential phone-in system to call back if their first inquiries went unanswered. According to Rhodes , so many people called in that he couldn't respond to all the requests for info . Rhodes co ntrols the Depa rt ment , which is responsible for administering offhighway vehicle (OHV) . registration funds (popularly known as the "G reen Stickle" program) slated for the establishment of state OHV parks. To date , there is no State OHV park in southern California . The number is (916) 322-6927. Anybody interested should drop a line to Ed Hastey, the California state director of the Bureau of Land management (BlMI. and explain to him the specific reasons that off-road vehicle (ORVI users do not care for his agency's actions in California. In a reply to 'a letter complaining about land closures from Motorcycle Owners, Riders and Enthusiasts (M.O.R.E.), Hastey wrote".. .I am not aware of any actions that our agency has undertaken with the off-road groups that warrant these accusations." Hastey's address is Federal Office bu ilding, Room E· 2820, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA 95825 . Drag racer Russ Collins will return to racin g on June 10-II -12 at the scene of his 170 mph crash of last year, Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio. The event is the International Drag Bike Association's G ra nd Nationa l Cham pionshi p runoffs, which will be run in conjunction with the annual Rick Case Appreciation Days. Collins will debut his much talked· about supercharged twin· Honda dragster. Racing against Collins will be T.C. Christenson, whose twin·Norton holds the IDBA speed record at 174 mph, Marion Owens and Joe Thorensen, plus a sea of other competitors all after a hunk of the $30,000 purse. (Contin ue d on page 25 )