...----What if Chairman Mao had had
an S&W Engineering Handbook?
No. it's not RED. but it will be READ
,
by everyone.
o
For your copy. including specificatio n
and master applicationchart.send check
or moneyorderfor$5 ,95 ($4,95+$1,OOfor
postage and handling)to:
. . 2617 Woodland Drive
_ ,. ,_" Anaheim, California 92801
C.t lifor nid re..idf." nh add &"" ..Idle
ld l .
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l
lli 8
'CHOPPA••
SEVENTEEN
INCH
'
SIKE SOOT
A battle of the multi-time Gra nd ~ationa l Cha m pions. Four-time winner Carroll Reswe ber 111 leads th ree-timer Bart M
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Over 250 St yles of Boots
and Work Sho es
'Won Shoes Unlimited
,
_,II227W-"inglonBIvd.~
GMIon GnMI, 12llBl111roo1etter promoters and final.ly
the really big dollar sponsors wh~ ~11I
want to drop a couple of million
doll~rs t a t leas!> o~ A~A Grand
National Championship ra cing.
At the oppo~ite end of the spect.ru~,
another myth IS. that Class C racln~ IS
dead and/or dying fas t. Class C racing
is not dying (if it wer e . a largc
!=ompany like ~ . 1- Reynolds - bless
them and thank you - would not be
involved) though it is top heavy. The
grass roots system is not as strong as it
was in the past; but there were 783
Novices , 49:' Juniors and 266 Expert
professional licenses for a total of 1541
issued in 1978 . and 243 ra ce meetings
were sanctioned and run under AMA
rules . By way of compa rison the re
were 131 Expert and 700 No vice Pro
motocross licenses issu ed by the AMA
in 1978 .
Motocross
racing,
particularly
Supercross has received a large amount
of publicity the past two or three years.
Supercross th erefore 'claims much of
the glamor and prestige that used to ,
be accorded the Grand National! .
Camel Pro Series. which has accelerated the myth that Class C is dying. I
Class C actually is in a sort of a
holding pattern . There has been no
real growth for severa l yea rs now .
Many of t he people involved with Class
C are complacent about the level the
competition ha s achieved an? feel .for
a number of reasons that this pomon
of the sport ca n't really get any bigger
or better. No one really wants to
disturb the status quo in a .very positive
manner for fear of possible loss, or
perhaps from lack of incentive or
something as unimportant and rnundane as the lack of time andenergy to
do so when the y hav e their hands full
coping with , th e day to day problems
and just "m ai n ta ining" what we ha ve.
No sport. however . can remain in a
holding pattern indefinitely. . That is
why I ask those with influence and
control , the promoters. th e top people
at the sanctioning body and the motorcycle manufacturers to take a good
hard look at th e overall p icture of
Class C raci ng with the thought of how
to best improve th e sport, to make it
better, to make it bigger.
Motorcycling in this cou nt ry is a
sport . It always has been and it always
will be , The sport of motorcycling
needs to use all types of racing to
generate more membership in the
AMA and as a tool to increase th e sales
of motorcycles. Racing is still a very
va lid tool . as I feel Yamaha ha s proven
over the past couple of yea rs. The
value of the spirir 'of being involved (in
whatever way) with a winner is valid
and quite powerful. Those who per·
haps doubt the truth of the above statements should th ink about HarleyDa vidson Motor Company for a few
minutes.
Class C is cert a in ly much more
professional now than it was in the
beginning when it was created as a
broad production -based type of
competition calculated to draw lots of
participants and make more !I1oney
for the sanctioning body so that the
AMA could grow. The more powerful
and influential the AMA got , the
better the job they could do for motorcyclists and motorcycling in this
country where motorcycling has never
enjoyed the same type and amount of
respect it enjoys around the rest of the
world .
T he level of professionalism in Class
C ra cing stayed about the same. grow ·
ing slowly for the first fony years or so
(it was good Amateur Professionalism
in many wa ys meaning no disrespect to
those participants) until the late
sixties. It th en took a sort of quantum
jump duri ng the late sixties into the
early seventies, but has really leveled
off since then and maybe even slid
backwa rds JUSt a bi t.
Some people feel that Class C is a
dinosaur which has had its heyday and
is now just sort of hanging around for
a while as good ent ert a in ment for
some (with the exception of a few of
the b iggest races . of course) , We need
a healthy shot of positive thinking
about Class C , and perhaps .one of the
best ways to do this is to in crease the
level of professionalism at the top with
th e idea of providing a bigger incentive for rid ers, promoters. manufacturers and sponsors.
So many of th e thoughts and con cepts that worked when Class C racing
was crea ted and was indeed a broad
production motorcycle-based beginning
professional sport no longer work well
given th e highly spe cialized. nonproduction racing machine based ,
mor e professional sport it has become.
For insta nce. t he cla im ing rule wh ich
worked well and made sense for
