Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Can-Am has introducad a new limited-edition 250cc racer. The CrossCountry has a motocross engine. muffler/spark arrestor, three-gallon gas tank;and the electrics w ill adapt easily to a lighting kit. It is expected to fall in the $1300-$1400 range. "King Kenny" Roberts won th e June 18 Formula 750 World Championship Series event on th eJarama circu it near Madrid , Spain topping series point leader Johnny Cecotto and th irdplacer Christian Sarron. All three were Yamaha -mounted . Rob er ts' win brings him to within nine poin ts of Cecotto in the title chase. Bultaco riders topped both National Championship Observed Trials rounds over the June 17-18 weekend. Bernie Schreiber dropped only 19 points at the June 17 Rhody Rovers M ,C, event in Escoheag. RI. easily beating Montesa-sponsored Marland Whaley's 38.2 point score, Montesa-mounted Jack Stites and Curt Comer. Jr. filled the third and fourth slots with 39.0 and 42.1 totals. Bultaco rider Terry Cheney rounded out the top five with a 43..9. Lane Leavitt. in a much closer . clash. let 32 points get past him at the June 18 Nashoba Valley Riders event in East Swanzey. NH . narrowly edging Bill Burgener's 33,7 ride on his Montesa. Comer took third at 38.4; Whaley's 40.3 was good enough for fourth; Montesa's Don Sweet scored a 41.9 fifth place. Bern ie Schreiber rode the J u ne 18 event but was disqualified for running one minute outside his grace period. He protested the disqualification; the protest was turn ed down . Schreiber appealed, making the. resul~ :' pr~. visional" until an official decision IS made. His score was good enough to have won the meet had he not been disqualified. Team KTM 's Jack Penton high pointed the June 18 North Star National Enduro put on by the Range Riders MC. of Grand Rapids. MN, Team Suzu ki rider Herluf Johnson took AA class laurels while Can-Am rider John Martin put in the best A class ride . Acco rding to the U.S . Suzuki people, Pat Hennen's condition is "unc hanged." Doctors at Noble H ospital in Liverpool, Eng land are waiti ng for Hen nen to regain consciousness before they make fu rt her decisions rega rd ing treatment for the American Suzuki rider injured in an Isle of Man 'TT crash. 2 Guennady Moisseev put his KTM at the head of the list at the June 18 British 250cc World ChampionshipMX Series round with a perfect 1-1 score. Second and third went to Harry Everts, who rides Bultaco. and Maicomounted Neal Hudson with 2·2 and 3-3 tallies. respectively. The series moves to France for a July 2 race. then it·s on to America for the July 30 250cc USGP at Unadilla. NY . Bel-Ray's Da ve Rod gers and wife Julie are th e proud pa ren ts of an eight. pound daught er , Gail Mau reen Rodgers, who was born at noon on June 18. Papa says congrats to all three. Grand Marshall of the Coca-Cola Superbowl of Motocross VII will be Larry Wilcox, star of the NBC TV show "CHiPs." The Pasadena Fire Dep a rtm ent 's Women's Auxilia ry-sponsored H ook & Lad der fami ly end uro will not be run this year. T he H ook & Lad der . by far and away the most po pu lar event of its type in southern Ca liforn ia , has donated several hundred thousand dollars to the L. A. County Hospital Bu rn Ward . But Dick Payne, the guiding force be hi nd the enduro since its inception, was recently reti red from the PFD d ue to me dical reasons, and the organizers appa rently don' t wish to continue in his absence, even though Payne said that he wou ld do the job if asked. Coca-Cola Superbowl of Motocross VII effluvia: Besides Bob "Hurricane" Hannah and Marty " T yphoon" Tripes. riders to watch will include Mike Bell. who finished fourth in his Team Yamaha debut at the Superbowl last year and is sure to be pumped after his St. Peters 500cc AMAIM r. PiBB National MX w in ; J im m y Ellis. who's won the Superbowl twice and won at Seattle earlier this year; and a good longshot w ill be Maico-mounted privateer Darrell Shultz, who's been running with t he factory-sponsored riders all year. What does a 500cc National MX winner do after he rips up St. Peters, Missouri? Yamaha's Mike Bell flew home, arriving in Los Angeles at 1 a .m , Monday, then went surfing later on that morning! Last Chance: Saturday. June 24 is the night of Superbowl VII - not the one where grown m en bump into each other f ight in g ov er a f unnv-shaped ball. but t he good one where grown m en bump into each other on motocross bikes f ight ing f or a ch unk of the largest . ever for a stadium purse motocross event: $50.000. Tickets. priced as low as $6 for reserved seats. are available from Ticketron. Mut1:lal Agencies. Sports Arena box office and participating Honda dealers. For more info. dial 21317486131. H usqvarna's slogan, "To W in!" is also t he nam e of a 30· minute documentary film being done by Klein & Associates , a N. Carolina firm, on the 1978 Intern at ion al Six Days Trial. Funded largely by Husky, th e $60, 000 project also covers some AMA ISDT Qua lifier action lea d ing u p to the Swed ish event . Klein & Associates has also p rod uced a film. "The Silver Safari," on the East African auto rally. Owen Kerns. editor of TIle ea,nornlan, is organizing a non-violent protest of the recently enacted Golden Trout Wilderness. The 306.000 acre wifderness area was designated by the passage of the Endangered American Wilderness Act by the U.S. Congress. Hopeful . of a big turnout, Kearns has invited all concerned motorcyclists to join him 3% miles north of the Western Divide Highway/California Hot Springs Johnsondale Rd. intersection in the Long Meadow Campground at 10 a.m . on July 2. Kearns cautioned that the Long Meadow Campground is small. but added that there are approximately five other camping locations in the area . For more info. Kearns can be reached at 805/323-7631. ext. 231 or in the evenings at 805/393-6121. Bakersfield When questioned on the Weslake power output, Leppan said. "I did 270 seven years ago with Triumphs without using nitro." He thinks Weslakes will produce "more than enough power." T he infam ous Ma mmoth Mounta in kille r d ownh ill claimed a victim t he T hursday before th e race, when 250cc Pro cont ender Steve Ba uer cr ashed and re- broke t he collarbone he'd done in a t the Omaha , NB, AMA/Mr. PiBB National Mo to cross. Steve, b umm ed o ut about m issing t he Superbowl of Motocross, expects to see ac tion again in six weeks. Over the June 10-11 weekend. somebody broke into the Cross· Up. Inc.• building and stole some unfinished swingarms. The swingarms have not been bored and are without chain adjusters, so watch out if somebody tries to sel l one cheap. International Six Days Trial competition has always been among the toughest in the world , but th is year, even more than before, the fight will start in the AMA meeting where it's determined who will or will no t go . Accordi ng to the AMA's Al Eames, the top six in each class from the AMA ISDT Qualifier Series automatically are selected . But from there on down, the going gets rough. A particularly touchy decision for the '78 ISDT in Sweden will be that of determining the U.S. Silver Vase Team. It 's rumored that no fewer than four manufacturers - Husqvarna, Yamaha, Suzuki and KTM - want it. RARE II, an acronym for Roadless Area Review and Evaluation , is part two of a program that began with the designation of over 2.000 potential wilderness areas in America . Part two will determine which of those areas are true wilderness. A series of National Forest Service open houses will offer full explanation of the situation. Inform a tion regarding open house dates and locations are available at your nearest National Forest Service office. More information on RARE II may be obtained by sending a selfaddressed envelope to RAR E II, c/o Government Rela tions, P.O. Box 141. Westerville, O H 4308 1. The annual Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance road race in France will reportedly witness an American invasion this year. Set to enter the September 16-17 rac::e . is an allAmerican effort conSisting of Ron Pierce and Steve Mclaughlin. who will ride a monoshock 1.000-plus Kawasaki prepared by Bob Bahn. Word also has Reg Pridmore, Wes Cooley and Gary Fisher set to compete, the latter aboard a Yoshimura Suzuki. Detroit, Michigan's Bob Leppan. who held the AMA lend speed record at 245 mph in 1971 has an nounced his intentions to top the present record of 303 mph held by Don Vesco. Leppan will use two eight·valve parallel twin Weslake ' engines in his attempt. The record assault will take place at Lake Eyre in southern Australia next year. Engla nd 's Texaco Heron Suzuki team m an ager ·Rex W hite has announced th at Ba rry Sheene will have a "lower and .lighter" Su zuki 500 ' for the next Grand Prix road race whic h will be th e Dutch IT on June 24 . " W e realize that t he next round of the series is vital. You could say it's the crunch meeting. If we don't win there it's going to be very, very difficult for Suzuki to retain the title ," said W hite. •

• Cover