Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1977 08 17

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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The Camel Pro Series Race of Champions Is now official. The October 23 event at Pompano Park In Pompano Beach, Rorlda will post a total purse of .18,000 which will cover both the RoC and a full expert and Junior progrem. The event will be filmed by CBS Sports Spectacular. In the 250cc race at the Swedish Grand Prix. Mick Grant brought Kawasaki it s second GP win, beating Mario Lega, John Akerold and Takazumi Katayama, all on Yamahas. Lega leads the 250cc points standings with 71, ahead of Katayama (58) and HarleyDavidson's Franco Uncini (41). The GT Racing/Group 4 ra cing team took th e overall at th e Ninth Annual 24 Hours of Nelson ra ce held at Nelson Led ges. Ohio o n July 23 and 24 . The team pilot ed th eir 900cc Ducati for a total of 1892 strong m iles to wrest the titl e aw ay from th e Japanese marques. W ith average lap tim es a round 1:30 t ha t adds up to rou ghly 960 la ps. th e t ho ug ht makes Papa di zzy. T he tentative date on the Unadilla 250 cc GP isJuly 30. 1978 . Following the last 125 Natio nal at San Antonio, Texas on August 14, Moto-X Fox will put Pat Richter's bike, the one he campaigned in the 125 Nationals and also rode to a third in the 125 USGP in Ohio, up for sale. Just bring along an extra $2,500 and you can take home one trick scoot. Camel Pro Series events rained out Both Friday night's (August 5) Santa Fe Short .Track and Sunday's (August 7) Peoria TT w ere rained out . The AMA Grand National championship events have both been rescheduled with the Santa Fe race set for Friday night A ugust 12, and the Peoria TT tentat ively set to run Sunday, September 18. The Peoria TT would follow on the heels of the "Toledo" National, w hich due to a fire that destroyed the grandstands at Toledo w ill run at Louisville Downs in Louisvill e, Kentucky. Riders would have to make a nearly-300 mile haul following the Saturday night Louisville event in order to participate in th e followi ng day's Peoria, Illinois race. We 'll bring you complete coverage of the rescheduled Santa Fe Short Track and Sunday's Terre Haute. Indiana, Half M ile in next week's paper - weat her permitting ! Th is item was inadvertent ly left out of last week's issue: Arlo Englund no longer ' rides f or Husqvarna. According to Bill Kniegge, Husqvarna National Sales Manager, Englund and Husky went their separate ways on July 18. Kniegge said that Husky was pleased with Arlo 's performance on stock machines, but that Arlo's financial needs didn't work out with the available budget. Latest word has it that Arlo is riding privateer Yamahas in Colordo. Jim Gianatsis penned the article before Eng lund and Husky parted company. Mickey Kessler had some in teresting looking forks on his Montesa . T hey appeared to be Yamaha units. Want to call it a Monaha or a Yamtesa? The last farewells were spoken to the int ernationally famous " Screw U" gulley on the Unadilla Valley Sports Center motocross course last weekend during the AMA/Mr. PiBB 500cc National Motocross. The loved/dreaded landmark will remain on the course. However, at the decision of the FIM, the name " Screw U" will no longer be used. Seems some of the "energy d ri nks" are showing more than a pass in g interest in motocross. ERG and Gatorade were seen in quantit y at Unadilla alon g with som e T vshirts a nd stickies. Sponsor ship by the gallon? . . 2 " Screw U" is now being referred to as" that U-shaped gulley," and that's the way it will stay..,unless, of course, Cycle News ' readers have some new ideas. Let us know. We 'll pass the information on to the Unadilla folks. scheduled the Ka wasa ki h as introd uction of the KZ- I R road burner for the near fu ture . The $3 .700 bike will feature Morris Mags, 4-into- 1 exhaust p ip e and low-12 secon d quarter m ile times . Stay tuned for more. Brian Lunnis from Scott Goggles lost out when thieves, who apparently had an ins ide line at the airport. ransacked his luggage while in the airline's custody. "Mr. Brian" lost some samples he was taking to the Unadilla race as well as some valuable personal property. If you hold a Am erican Mot orcyclist Association (AMA) Pro licen se and don 't pla n to com pete in th e TransAMA Qualifier at Racing World on Sunday. August 14, th ere are some rules that you should kn ow abou t . If the AMA has a sanctio ned event , you ca n' t race with in 300 m iles OT 48 hours of that event, The AMA doesn't try to for ce anyone to ride th eir events but th ey could fine you or re voke your licens e if you do compete in a nonsa ncti oned event . The only way to get into the AMA 's lar ger races like the Supercross Series, Trans-AMA or the Nationals is to become a graded rider through the qualifiers. Graded riders have priority over all non-graded riders for such events in the future. So if your eyes are on the Nationals next year you should be at Racing World next weekend. Robert Blake . better known as TV's " Ba re tt a, " will be at Billy Gray's Dia m on d Speedway for the SRA sa n c t ion ed races there Saturda y, August 13. Suzuki teammates Ba rry Shee ne , Pa t Henne n and Steve Pa rrish dominated m uch of the day's ra cing in the annu al Bri tish Ra ce of Aces internat ional mee ting at Snetterton on Su nday. J u ly 17. but it was Frenchman Berna rd Fa u, aboard a Yamaha . who won th e big race . the Brut Superbike Cham pionship. Californian Hennen won the program's Race of Aces and finished third, behind Sheene and Parrish, in the Shellsport 500cc Championship, but his Suzuki seized in the Brut Superbike race. A Kid ney Foundation benefit road rally has been scheduled for August 13-14 in Pu yallu p . Wash . There will be lots o f prizes and trophies to augment the grand prize - a five day tri p to Hawaii. The Hi-Lo Shopping Cent er is the ta ke off point for 100 -125 scenic miles ~r day. Call (206) 531 · 9478 for the details. . The point standings after the Charlotte round of the AMA/Mr. Pibb 500cc Nationals are : 1. Marty Smith 154 2. Bob Hannah 135 3. Tony DiStefano 123 4. Steve Stackable 114 5. Kent Howerton 112 6. Gary Semics 97 7. Tommy Croft 94 8. Rex Staten 93 9. Rick Burgett 88 10. J im Pomeroy 82 Am erican Mot orcycle Sch ools. Inc . is offering a 640 hour m ot orcycl e mech an ic's training program in Santa Fe Springs . They offe r both day and night classes for all phases of repa ir on a ll major brands of mot orcycles. For fu rt he r informa tion give them a call at (213) 944 -063 1. Pierre Karsmakers injured his foot at Unadilla when it was knocked off the footpeg and pulled back under the rear wheel. Ken Clark, Yamaha's Racing Manager, flew out of Syracuse, N.Y. with Pierre as soon as possible and the foot was on the doctor's x-ray table, on the west coast. by 9:00 a.m, the next day. It turns out that Pierre's foot was just badly sprained and luckily there were no broken bones. . Ba rry Sheene won the 500cc class at the Swedish road racing Grand Prix on July 24 . The Suzuki ace beat Yamaha teamsters Johnny Cecotto and Steve Baker . 500cc points have Sheene lea di ng with 102 , trailed by Baker wit h 68 and Pa t Hennen with 44 . The top seven f inal transfer positions in the National Mini-Bike Association (NMAl series that will transfer to Houston, Texas for the championship are: 80cc Modified class : 1. Jeff Ward FMF 2. Gary Dircks DG 3. Paul Emerson DG 4. Scott Burnworth R&D 5. Steve Schmitt U.S. Suz DG · 6. Chris Heiser 7. John Whelchel U.S.Suz 80cc Stock Class: 1. Gary Dircks DG DG 2. Paul Emerson 3. Scott Burnworth R&D 4. Drey Dircks DG 5. Jeff Ward FMF 6. Steve Schmitz U.S.Suz 7. B. Sullivan Yam Of the top 14 machines that won transfer positions to compete in the NMA Championship. 13 are Suzuki RM 80s. There are still a few roadless and undeveloped area (RA RE III inventory workshops scheduled. Call the phone number listed for your area of the country and find out when and where these workshops are . Go if you can, for these roadless areas j ust might become motorcycle-less areas. Northern Region (M onta na, Idaho), 406 /329-3n5; Pacific Northwest Region (Washington, Oregon), 503 /221 ·2971 ; Rocky Mountain Region (Co l o rado, Nebraska), 303/234-4185 or 234-4187 ; Southwestern Reg ion (New Mexico), 505 /766 -2444 ; Intermountain Region lJdaho, Utah, Nevada), 801/399-6597; California Region (San Francisco), 415/5564563. Many meetings were held before Cycle News got the Dept. of Agriculture schedule. At the 500 Grand Pri x in Belgiu m Heikki Mikk ol a mathematicall y wrapped up the 500 World Championship cr own with a powerful 2-1 moto tall y. Second overa ll went to America 's Brad Lackey with a 3,3 score. Moto one in Belgium went to Roger DeCoster followed by M ikkola, Lackey, Graham Noyce, Jean-Paul M ingels, Andre Malherbe, He rbert Schmitt, Gaston Rahie r, Adolf We il and Hakan Andersson. In the second round M ikkola took the win followed gy Gerrit Wolsink, Lackey Weil. Noyce, Andersson, Malherbe and Aberg. The cu rrent 'W orld Mot ocross point standings have Mikkola with 24 7, Wolsink 185 . DeCoster 17 1. a nd Lackey 150. It looks like a few of the new 78, 125 Husqvarnas have arrived. In the 125 Pro class at CMC on August 7, David Taylor took the DG-prepared Husky to an overall victory. The next round of the AMA / Mr . Pib b 500 Nationa l has been moved from August to Dallas. Georgia . The race has been re-located for Burnt Hickory Raceway because of th e severe drought in the sou the rn half of th e sta te .

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