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t
IA bove! Matt W hiting in local-style helmet.lleft. top! A.J. Wh iting sets up to
square off the turn while leadi ng. Ileft. middle! At the rider's presentation,
it's A.J., Matt and two mechanics behind the U.S.A. sign, next to riders
representing different Japanese prefectures lor states!. Ileft. bottom! The
Whitings.lfather Art. mother Caryl, Matt and A .J.! pose with Yamaha's
J im Koike.
AMERiCANS SMOKE
. 1lfE t"c&S iN JAm!'
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Whiting kids annihilate IGcc motoc'ross
at5ugo
.
By John Ulrich
SENDA I.JAPAN , AUG. 7
A. J. Whiting, 14, of California ran away and
hid from the 80cc class at the Sugo Summer
Festival Motocross at Yamaha's Sugo Sports
Land track near Sendai, Japan. Racing against
16
Japanese riders ranging in age up to 30
years old. Whiting won both motos of
his class with a stock 1977 YZ80
Yam aha . H is bro ther Ma tt, 13. was
second in the second mo to , but did not
finish the first becau se his bike q uit
running while he was in secon d place.
l-2 -lap from the finish .
The race followed a .week of testing
1978 pre-production model YZ80s
and YZI00s. along with a heavy
schedule of tourism . The tri p for A. J ..
Matt. and th eir pa ren ts, Mr. and Mrs.
Art Whit ing . was arran ged by J im
Koike , Manager of the Testing Dept. ,
Engineering Divisio n of Yamaha
Motor Corporation, U.S.A .
A.J. won the 105cc 12-16 years class
race in the National Minicycle Assn.
(NMA) World Mini GP th is year . and
held the NMA Championship in 1973 .
.
'
1974; an d 1975 . Ma tt was second in
th e NMA Cha mpionships those sam e
three years . A. J. has been racing six
years . .while Matt ha s com peted for
four years . .
During the race at Sugo, the
Whiting boys were the only riders in
their class actually taking the shortest
lines between comers. The last tum of
the track, for example , led onto an
uphill straight with bumps all over the
-wide , flat-track style line all the
J a panese riders were using . T he
Whitings would square off the turn
neatly and run up the inside of the
straight. where there were no bumps.
The difference was easy to see - the
Whitings left the Japanese riders
behind, in spite of Matt's second-moto
fall .
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