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/126309
THELATm on the circuit, which is used just twice a year for racing. topped 175 mph with Daytona gearing. Three humps on the straight sent bikes airborne at top speed. Cooley said. The race was held on Easter Sunday. Carter Alsop will make her Superbike Production debut at the Loudon, New Hampshire Camel Pro Series road race, riding a GS1000 Suzuki provided by U.S. Suzuki and prepared by Yoshimura R&D of America. Randy Mamola of Santa Clara, CA will ride a Venemotos -sponsored Yamaha TZ350 in an international road race held at Rimini, Italy on Apr. 23. Johnny Cecotto started out on Venemotos machinery before joining the Yamaha factory team . Mamola will also ride his Jim Doyle-sponsored TZ250. Dick Fuller of Ventura, CA will join the increasing number of American road racers in Europe when he leaves for the 250cc Grand Prix in May. KTM's Frank Gallo put in the best ride of the weekend in Maplesville, AL at the Apr. 22-23 Perry Mountain M .C .'s AMA ISDT Qualifier Series event, the Alabama Two-Day. Gallo topped fellow KTM rider Kevin LaVoie by 83 special test points at' the end of day two . KTM riders filled the top seven spots; Jeff Hill, Jack ' Penton , Ted Leimbach. Gary Younkins and Jeff Fredette followed Gallo and LaVoie. Team Suzuki riders Drew Smith . Denny Reese and Ted Worrell rounded out the top ten best scores. In his first ride as part of the Team Suzuki ISDT Qualifier team, Tom Penton suffered bad luck in the form of a flat tire - unfortunately during a special test - on day two and lost four minutes getting restarted. Husqvarna's . Greg Davis topped th e 125cc class in the Alabama Two-Day. Drew Sm ith , riding Suzuki, put in th e best 175cc class ride. Jack Penton , KTM . won th e 250cc divi sion. T im Cuibath. also KTM mounted , came out on top of the 350c c cla ss, and Frank Gallo - with his overall best bested the Open class score entra nts. For complete coverage of the Apr. 22-23 Sunland Shamrocks' AMA ISDT Qualifier event. turn to p. 12; complete Alabama story next week. Gerard Rond of Team Honda won both motos in the Apr. 23 125cc World Championship MX Series event in Maasrnechelen , Belgium beating Suzuki's 125cc World Champion Gaston Rahier's 2-2. Team Suzuki rider Akira Watanabe took a 3-3 . third . Series standings have Rahier leading eas ily with 81 points. Rond is second with 66 ; Watanabe third with 65 . Brad Lackey picked up a 3-2 third overall on his Bill Buchka-tuned works Honda at the Apr. 23 500cc International MX in Markelo, Holland. Winning the event with a 2-1 day was Holland's Peter Herlings on a Maico . Heikki Mikkola, Team Yamaha's 500cc World Champion, scored second overall with a 1-3 total. Gerrit Wolsink took fourth for Team Suzuki with a 4-5 as Graham Noyce put a second Honda in the top five with a 7-4 fifth placing. 6 Meanwhile. at the Apr. 23 F750 race at Brands Hatch , Team Yamaha's Kenny Roberts won both legs for a dominant overall victory. Steve Baker scored second in the first race and was running second in the final heat until he dropped out on the last lap, leaving second overall for Venezuela's Johnny Cecotto. On Friday, Apr. 21. the Treasury Department tentatively ruled that the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers have been "dumping" bikes in this country. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the following manufacturers have been selling bikes in 't his country for amounts (indicated by percentagel less than the selling prices in Japan: Honda 1.4%, Kawasaki 3.6%, Yamaha 1.9% and Suzuki 0.7%. The investigation was brought about by an "antidumping" suit filed by HarleyDavidson. The investigation, according tg the report, will continue. AMA Superbike Production Champion Reg Pridmore will make his return to sidecar racing with a hack built by frame maker Rob North and powered by a Don Vesco TZ750 engine. After a brief shakedown in' the United States, the sidehack will be shipped to England for the Isle of Mann 'IT, scheduled for June . Rather than risk having their motorcycles claimed, Yamaha Motor Canada has withdrawn from all racing in the United States. That leaves Ron Pierce without a 250cc ride for AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series. Pierce led the Daytona 250 race until the Bob Work - tuned Yamaha Motor Canada 250 ran out of gas. Wes Cooley has picked up sponsorship from Arai helmets. According to Cool ey. the deal was finalized over dinner with Michio Arai at Bathurst , Au strali a . Nik on , now th e officia l ca mera of th e Am erican Mot orcycli st Association . will be devel oping a " Nikon finish lin e d ocumentat ion syste m " at AMA Grand Nati onal Ch ampionship/Camel Pro Series and T oyo t a Supercross Series eve nts in ' 78 . The syst em . sim ilar to th e one now in use for Unit ed States Aut o Club eve nt s . consists of three Nikon ca meras: two still cameras and one movie ca mera . Sources inside the Honda factory say that major design changes will be made to the CBX six-cylinder before the bike is released for sale in June or July. Additional cylinder head bolts to halt leakage problems have already been seen on some CBX engines in the United States, but the latest report from inside Honda R&D is that the fork and swingarm pivot will be altered as well. Nikon will also supply prizes for an AMA membership photography contest. Two . categories, competition and non-competition, will be included with three prizes in each, plus an overall grand prize. The grand prize will be a Toyota SR-5 sport truck and a Nikon FM camera with 50mm f2 lens and MD-11 motor drive. Nikon equipment worth $1,500, $1.000 and $750 will be awarded to the top three photographers in each category. Suspension limited the handling of prototype Honda CBX models tested by U.S. magazines. Larger diameter fork tubes and sliders. needle roller bearings for the swingarm (replacing plastic bushings). larger diam eter swingarm pivot, and better shock absorbers are included in the specific changes. An improved seat is also slated for production models, according to the source. Californian Wes Cooley ran second 120-mile international road race on the street circuit of Bathurst. Australia for 25 of 30 laps until his bike's drive chain snapped and ·d est royed the engine cases. Hideo Kanaya led Cooley at the time of th e failure. with Warren W illing running third , 19 seconds behind Co ole y. According to Cooley, a fall on some parts of the course would have put th e rider over a 500 · foot cliff. and preliminary races were held in the rain . Straightaway speeds Race in the Superdome7 Amateur MXers who placed in the top 24 at the GNC event in the Houston Astrodome, who were among the top 10 in the April Teckfaw/Loranger MX, or who finish in the top 10 at the upcoming Apr. 30 AMA Amateur Qualifier at Motocross South in Pearl, MS; are eligible for the AMA Invitational Amateur MX in the New Orleans Superdome on May 21. Jerry Surber of GNC will organize the program; contact him at 233 Palm Aire Dr .• Friendswood, TX n546 713/482-7593. On the way to San Jose? Tickets for the May 7 San Jose Mile are available at BASS Ticket Agencies and through selected motorcycle dealers. Or you can mail order them (but ya better hurry) through Bob Barkhirner Associates, Inc. , 14 Camp Evers L~!1e., Scotts Valley, CA 95066 or call 408 / 438-3210 on Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m . - 4 p.m. 3:)~1 • 1~ Former San Jose winners Jay) Springsteen 1751. Gary Scott 1761 and Skip Aksland rnl will be tllere as will AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series points leader for 78 Steve Eklu'nd . In addition to the National event. a' Junior Invitational race will also run, Competition should be hot for the Apr. 30 AFM six -hour endurance road race at Ontario with names like Ga rY.. Fisher, Ron Pierce, Hurley Wilvert, Walt Fulton, Jr.. Wes Cooley. Reg Pridmore. Dennis Smith, Keith Code. Jody Nicholas, Harry Klinzrnann .and David Emde signed up. , The AFM Riverside ' road race slated for July 16 has been changed to July 9 at Ontario due to the rescheduling of the Sears Point AMA National. As reported in the MIC Recreational Trailbike Planner, Michael R. Fagan, Senior Planner with San Siego Country's Integrated Planning Officer said that over one-third of the 24 state off highway vehicle recreation gran requests throughout California which have been approved have :)b ee n dropped by applciants due to a lack orpublic support. So watch out folks., when the ball's in our court . . . 101 q There 's been a change in the schedule for the AMA Mini Motocross series schedule, Districts 25, 26. 31, 35. 37 and 38 will have their event July 8-9 ,at Racing World in Trabuco Canyon, CA. Call 714/581 -6400 for more information. There wer e 3. 277 off-highway vehicles sold in Cal ifornia last month, 42 .517 for the preceeding 12 months. . The Recreational Trails Committee of the California Parks and Recreation Dept. will have a meeting Apr. 28 in the Press Room of the California Exposition and State Fair, 1600 Exposition Blvd.. Sacramento, CA. It'll start at 9 a.m, Be there if you can; one of the items on the draft agenda is a California Wilderness Proposal. The word comes to Papa from Australia via England that Honda. Yamaha and Suzuki all have V-four configuration street bikes under development. Honda reportedly has 'a water-cooled V-fou r version of .the CX500 . called the CX700 with three valves per cylinder and a single overhead camshaft on each bank of cylinders. Power output is supposed to be 64 bhp. Yamaha's biggest V-four will be based on the I ,OOOcc endurance racer shown last year ana ' will come in two states of tune. The sports version will retain water cooling a nd shaft drive. In addition to a super' tuned GSI000 in limited production . Suzuki is developing a 1,200cc wat ercoo led V-four . Honda's new trials bike arrived in the U.S. this week and is expected to clear customs just as Cycle New. goes to press. The fourstroke single will ' be in the 350- I l