I.NSIDE
Desert Hotline. . . . . . . . . . 4
WaIlinJ¢ord. Balentine at D-37. CRC
AMA 500cc Nat'l MX .... 6
Croft wins the battle. Smith the war
AMA Grand Nat'l M iles .. 8
The Michigan Mafia split a pair
SCORE off Road
Championship
10
Laguna Seca Preview
12
Who'll be frolicking in the green hills
Women 's Nat' l
Championship .. . • .. . . . 14
Fish flies furt her
Speedway
16
World Championship
MX
18
Flying Finns and Crazy Russians
Husqvarna Preview
20
" Do it in the D irt"
21
Lights. ca me~a . . .
Western Hotline
22
Marland Whaley
26
Hangin' out with the U.S. Trials
Champ
ON THE FRO NT PAGE: At the
Indy mile. Mike Caves (28 leads
Steve Freeman (68) and . in the St.
Pete 500cc motocross. To mmy Croft
( 16) leads Bob Hanna h (2 ) and
Marty Smit h (9). Photos by Bert
Shep herd and Charley Mon;y.
Debbie Wilk ins. SalesM gr.
J im Ryan. SalesMgr .
Skip Johnson. Sales Mgr.
Chris Kclbet , Assistant •
Editorial
Chares Clayton, Editor. Dale Brown Assistant
l
.
EditOf. Bobi Scott. Assistant Editor . .
Graphics and Production
Klinger, ·J an
Gill .
Typography: Mar_ashita. Donna Gaba;peeling the replica racers. '
" Eve rybod y at H ond a is upset!" said
one .
Maico claims their new 1978 AW
125 is so easy to ride t hat when'
you 're ' lapping a rider y ou don't
have t o wait for an opening - yo u
just point it and go . 17I The second claim Maico makes about their
little bundle of joy is that virtually
everything about it is new.' The
first shipment is due the first week
of September. Call your lo cal
Maico dealer about then for more
info.
Unofficial AMA/MR.. Pibb 500cc
National MX Series Fina l Point
Standings:
1. Marty Smith
223
199
2. Bob Hannah
191
3. Steve Stackable
167
4. Tommy Croft
1575; Tony DiStefano
1575. Kent Howerton
141
7. Gary Serilics
138
8. Rex Staten
111
9. Gaylon Mosier
10010. Rich Eirstedt
10010. M ickey Boone
--denotes tie
Advertising
Judy
POD
Bo t h , t he 2500R a nd 25 0 W R
Husqva rnas will co me o ut with longer
swi n g a r ms; Curnu tt shocks wi ll
defin it ely com e on th e OR producti on
model; head and ta il lights di spl ayed
on the W R model will defin it ely make
production ; but they still a ren't sure
a bou t the Girl in gs o n the WR
production model. 1£ none of th at
seems to make m uch se nse. tum to
page 20 . this issue , a nd find out what
it's all about .
Sharon Clayton . Publishn'
Edna M~lon . Secret.. ry to the_Pu blish"
Product ion :
THE LATEST
,
The U .S. Army presently has three
Husqva rna Automatics and three
standard . shift Husky machin es for
testing. The m otorcycles are being
considered for possible use in reconnaisance , for working with tank units .
for police use and for ,.messenger service in com bat zones.
There's - a ru m or out that Wi lli
Bauer will ride a Hercules in the
1978 motocross Grand Prix season.
Nobody's said what size; but we'd
venture a guess that it'll be a 250cc
machine.
'
This week we·r~ . introducing a new
secti o n in Ca lendar. " Eve ry Week"
co nt a ins a ll the events that run weekly,
under their respective d a ys. This move
is intended to maximize spac e so the '
Ca lendar ca n list events fu rt her into
th e futu re . An ybo dy send ing a list ing
for t his sect ion shou ld in cl u de a
closin g date if a pp lica b le.
Elsinore Raceway is starting an
every -ot her-week Speedway
racing series on September 4.
While you .w on't see the Bast Bros.
t here w ill be beginners and 0 -3
rac ing for trophies and 0 -2 riders
going for 100% payback. Call (714)
826·2386, or 674-5383 for info.
Ascot Park has' some big plans for thei r
T hursday . Se p te mber 8 . CMC
motocross . All ladies will be admi tted
free ("Fox H unt" ) a nd th ere will be a
$50 bo u nty o n Tim Lunde .
Check out the Calendar listing
under September 4, this issue, for
in f orm atio n on the First Annual
Widowmaker Desert Classic . After
t he mess at Cherry Creek earlier
this year the Salt Lake (Utah) Bee's
Motorcycle Club decided they
better come up qu ick with '
something to restore Utah desert
r aci n g pride. So - t he club
decided, at the last m inute, to turn
their usual team race into a National
event Hare Scrambles. The Bee's
cla im the course w ill be reasonably
hard, not impossible, challenging,
but lots of fun.
T he Peoria TT round of th e AMA
Grand
National
Championsh ip /Camel Pro Series has been can, .
celed, The organizers, the Peoria
M.C. , were offered October 16 by the
AMA as the date for resc hed ul ing
their ra in ed out event. The club.
which ha d asked for September 18 (t he
da y after th e ru nning o f t he burned
out T oledo National at Louisville ),
turned down th e O ctober date .
Suzuki 's Roger DeCoster and
KTM's Jaak Van Velthoven split
moto w ins in Switzerland t o wrap
up the 500cc World Championship
motocross series. Roger and Jaak
each had a first and a second;
Roger won on time. Hakan •
Andersson (Mon) and Graham
Noyce (Mail swapped third and
fourth places. First moto order
went: Van. Velthoven, DeCoster,
Andersson, Noyce, Gerrit Wolsink .
(Suz), W illi Bauer (KTM), Brad
Lackey ' (Hon), Vromans, Sylvain
Geboers (Mail, and Jonnsen.
Second moto was: DeCoster, Van
Ve lthoven, Noyce, Adnersson.
Herbert Schmitz (M ail, Angiolini,
Jonnsen. unknown. VaO' Den
Brook.
Fin al po int standin gs for the 500cc
Motocross World Championship are:
Heikki.. M ikkola
(2 72);
Rog er
DeCoster (222); CerritWolsink (201) ;
Brad Lackey ( 168) ; H erbert Schmitz
(86); Hakan Andersson (84) ; Jaak Van
Velthoven (79); Graham Noyce (74);
Bengt Aberg (62) ; and Ado lp h Weil
(47) .
A member of the Dirt Diggers M.C.
whispered in Papa's ear the other
day and said the 19th Annual Dirt
Diggers Grand Pr ix (formerly
Hopetown) will be November 5-6 at
Racing World, in Trabuco Cyn..
Calif. The whisperer went on to
say that there will be a $5,000 Pro
race and that " overtones" are
being made to European pro
sidecar teams.
The O ctober 2 Do u ble Cro ssers M.C .
"Cal Sta te 100" A MA D-37 / National
Enduro will a lso be the California
State Championship end u ro. It was
originall y planned to be a series with
Dist rict 36 running the other ha lf. But
no 0 ·36 club co uld be talked into
promoting an event . so it looks like t he
Sta te C hampions (0 · 175. 176·250 .
25 1-up , Senior a nd W om en ) will be
fro m Sou thern Ca liforn ia unless the 0 36 riders co me d o wn to cha llenge ,
The latest word on
Heikki
Mikkola's rid ing in the 1977 TransAMA series is not encouraging.
According to Yamaha's National
Racing
Manager
Ken . Clark,
Mikkola might enter in one or two
of the events near the end of the
series, but we shouldn't count on
it. The new 500cc MX World
Champ plans on taking a wen·
deserved vecation, then he has to
go to Japan for testing. The TransAMA is not a pr iority.
.
Department of correction: Last week
one of our former novice editors
credited
Ga vin
Trippe . with
originating Friday night racing at '
Ascot Park. This wa s incorrect.
Gavin 's
co m p a ny,
Trippe -Cox
o rigi n a ted the Yamaha Go ld and
Silver Cup series a t Ascot. Also ,
Trippe-Cox d id no t promote the first
AMA national at Ascot.
AMA's magazine is now called
American Motorcyclist.
The U tah ' Salt Flats Racing Associa tion's third monthly speed trials,
which h a d been scheduled f o r
September 3-4, have been called off.
T he usually d ry as a bone Bo nneville
Salt Fla ts were flooded by recent rains
which left the track too wet to be
p repa r ed .
"Moonbeam Rider" is the title of a
movie being filmed in Oklahoma. It
is a 1919 county fair circuit race
and sex film starring Brenda
Vaccaro.
A 30·minute TV program will be
produced from California Motorcycle
Dealers Association's biker rally to be
held September 17-18 in Los Angeles'
Griffith Park and Olvera Street. The
event , co m m em o r a ting the 196th
b irthday of Los Angeles , is the
brainchild of Jim Man ni ng, Random
P rodu ctio ns will be d o in g the
vid eo t a p ing, and entry forms a re
available from CM DA . Box 23 , East
Irvine. CA 92650 a s well as
participating dealers.