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/126323
Shefters' speedway rebuttal ·\VIS! America's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper Sharon Cl ayton , Publisher Caroline Gmdry~ Secretary to the Publisher Bobi Scott. Execu tive Assistant - Advertising Ji m Ryan , Sa les Manager. Larry Little. 5310 Manager. Margot Bergman, Sales Manager. Chris Kolber . Assistant. Editorial Charl es Morey, Managing Ed itor. Dale Brown, Ed itor . Brian George. Assistant Edi tor . Graphics and Production Jan Gill , Dav Pauli, Production. Marion Ha tashita , Typography. Dennis Greene. La borat ory. Accounting Mike Klinger . Manager. J eanne Hammond. Ace ts. Receivable. Yvette Baer, Asst . Accts. Receivable. Holly Hale. CoII«tion. a n d Credit. Circulation Rheb a Sm ith . Manager . Patricia Pasqual e. Sherry Kaufma n . Sandye McKay, Cbristy &11, AsUstants. Services and Support Pat Cardenas. Reception ist . C inny Harper. Want A~ . Steve McKa y, S&S. West 2201 Cherry Ave.. Long Beach. CA P.O . Box 498. Long Beach, CA 90801 (% 4%7 ·74" : L .A . Line 6'6·8844 . 1') East 4190 Fint Ave .. Tucker, GA . P.O . Box 80S, Tucker, GA '0084 . . (404 ) 9'4 ·7850. Subscription One year, second class ma il. $]5 ; two yean. second class mail, $27 : th ree years, second cia .. ma il, $".50 . Copyright " Cycle News. Inc. 1978 . Trademark Cycle News registered U.S. Pa tent O ffi ce . A ll righ ts reserved . Published weekly excep t the fint and last week.of the calenda r yea r by Cycle News, Inc . . P .O. Box 498 . Lo ng Beach , Ca liforni a . Second cla ss posta ge pa id at Long Beach. CA 9080 I. Cycle News welcom es unsolicit ed ed itori al m a teri al incl udi ng stories . ca rtoons, photos. etc . Such material, if p u blished , bec omes the exclus ive copyright pro perty of Cycle N ~ . Such accepted ma terial is subject to revision as is necessary in th e solediscretion of Cycle News. Unsol icited mate-rial which is not used will be returned if accompanied by iii selfaddressed stam ped en velope. All un solicited material will be handled with reasonable care. however, Cycle N~s assumes no responsibility for the safety. loa or damage- to such material. Reprioring in whole or pan only by ~mlis . sion of the publishen. Advertising rates and circulation information win be sent upon .-.qu_. See S.R.D .S. POStIIASTER: Send form 3&79 to Cyde News. P.O. Box .... Long a-:h. c.:.,..". ON lHE FRONT PAGE: Action at the AMA Camel Pro road race at Sears Point. where Mike Baldwin scored his first-ever Grand National win. 4 Photos by Charles Morey and Dale Brown. ., Motocross by the braille method Racing in southern California so much , J have gotten used to racing on rock-hard, dusty tracks, but lately the dust is unbearable. The tracks I'm referring to are Saddleback and Carlsbad. The starts are so dusty that I can't see my own bike, let alone the track. When I'm going 40·50 mph just inches from 30 other guys, J don't like to ride blindly into a dust cloud. J know they can't water the whole track every moto , but the starting area shouldn't be dusty, I don't like racing motocross by the braille method . The . tracks are screaming about insurance , but just wait until some rider goes down in a dusty start and gets killed getting run over by riders that can't see where they are going. I raced Saddleback last week and J couldn't even see decently until half a lap into the race. J am not going to race Saddleback until they correct this problem" which will probably be never. Indian Dunes doesn't have this problem as "bad because of th e sand. but Saddleback and Carlsbad be tt er clean up their act. JOHN LARSON South Pasadena, CA Oregon MX tracks I would like to obtain the mailing addresses of all motocross tracks in Oregon. I would also like their ra cing schedules and which sanction each runs under, if you have it. I appreciate any infonnation you can give me . GARY LAMBERT 5025 E. Behymer Clovis, CA 93612 Gary, everything we know about Oregon MX is printed each week in the Calendar section of the paper. Possibly, some Oregon MX promoters will now contact you directly . . . Editor Rudolph points out Papa's blunder In your Latest Poop column coverage of the recent changes in the AMA Code of Regulations regarding . t h e structure of th e Board of Trustees, you reported that I a m one of the th ree Class A members. This is in error. I woul d certai nly cons ider it an honor to be elected at Class A Trustee from the Western Region. However, the Class A members are well represented by j im Wells in the West, who incidentally is Vice President of the AMA , Bill Baird, recently reelected from the Central Region, and Bill Gifford from the East who is completing Mark Rosen's term, It is true that I am serving on the Board of Trustees, but as a Class B representative. In February, 1978 I chose not to run for another two year term as Trustee which would have meant five years when added to the three years just completed. The Board of Trustees asked, and I agreed to serve one more year by filling the vacancy in B Trustees created by john Wyckoffs resignation. The purpose of this was to provide continuity and background to the new Board and officers from the retiring President. To provide for this officially in the future, the Code now permits the immediate past , president of the AMA to service one yea r as an official l Sth member of the Board when he would otherwise not be on th e Board. I hope this clarifies any confusion your readers may have had . I find it somewhat disappointing that there was not more coverage of Code changes voted on at this spec ial meeting of the Class B members . They probably rep resent some of the most historic changes made in the AMA. 1. The passing of absolute control of the association of the motorcycle industry to a responsible sharing on an equal basis with the individual members. 2. The changingin the structure of the congress to provide equally for the road riding and off-road riders' interests. Perhaps these changes can be the sources of future articles. BOB RUDOLPH .Ba tes Industries , Inc. Long Beach, CA Our sincere apologies for the misun· derstandmg and sub sequent error in th e Latest Poop item; please check p . 5 for more coverage by Class A member/rep on th e AMA Board of Trus tees, GlennJordan of recent AMA doings . . . Editor. In reply to Mr. Digger Helm's letter to Voices, I feel some things in his letter need clarification: First, does Mr. Helm really think that Speedway riders who are not riding at the Saturday night races are doing so in gratitude because they "m ew thai the men who made it all possible for them in the first place were Oxley and jack Milne? " What rider wouldn't like to ride both nights and have a chance to make twice as much money? Mr . Helm states " If she could see how things are run from the office out, she would know tha t this is one of the most stupid remarks yet. That track is tight compared to other promotions. " Digger, who cares if compared to others, Orange County security and crowd control is tight? It is obviously not tight enough for the city of Costa Mesa - or they would not have refused to grant Mr . Oxley a city permit to conduct his speedway races. As for my comment being "stupid," that is your opinion, although to defend myself, I must ask how anyone who lives in Bakersfield can correctly assess the situation in Orange County. • I have lived in Orange County all my life ; my parents own a restaurant approximately ~ ·block from the fairgrounds; I have had my horses stabledwith various trainers who work out of the fairgrounds for the last 10 years . I know from past experience that the Agriculture/Horse related situation is as political as the speedway racing is. Try asking some of the people who use the fairground to make their living (George Meyer, Roberta Walton , Bob McDonald, to name a few) about the so-called security and crowd control for the Friday niglit races, and they will tell you there is nonel n As to why a new promoter should be allowed to move into a area that another promoter is already in ; that one is easy . I believe it's called free enterprise, one of the principles this country was founded on. I suggest Mr. Helm take a business or economics class. One of the first things you learn is that free enterprise is wasteful; monopoly efficient. . For the businessman (promoter) that is, Not very good for the consumer, though. Mr. Helm says that Mr . Oxley has offered to open his books for any of the riders that will come to his office. I didn't suggest the riders check Mr . Oxley's books, I suggested they check his income, not that either one makes any difference. Anyone knows that ,a good accountant can make the books read any way he wants. What's more, it seems that Mr . Helm thinks you speedway rid ers "wouldn't know what you were looking at anyway." Do Y 9u think the riders are stupid? And last but not least , the beginning of your fourth paragraph set the tone for your whole letter. It started off "I don't mow . . .' You're right, Mr . Helm , you don't. Mr . Oxley was specifically forbidden in his contract to give ou t any free passes. Whether or not it is better to have a full grandstand or a empty one .is debatable, but it is definitely a good idea to abide by the conditions of one's contract. In closing, let me say that it is you , Mr. Helm, writing all the way from Bakersfield, who is on the outside looking in . Even though I am only 5'4" , the only person I have "looking over my shoulder" is my husband Lee. and he has never even seen a speedway race. I've checked my facts, Mr. Helm . .. it's obvious you haven 't checked yours . EL LEN W INKELMAN SCHEFFERS Placentia . CA