Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

(C~;'li;';';J /;0-'" 'pag; 2";) •••••• •• m any cases I prefer the desert. but the parks are not there to get arou nd the desert areas. They both have to compli ment each other. Parks are for conven ient day use , short travel, short period time type facilitie s. Desert is for more lengthy type stays, overnight campin g. So then you have to have a camper or motorh ome in which you 'tie up $10 ,000 ·$40,00 0 for a vehicle you can go out there and sit in , which doesn't usually get very good gas mileage . I'm not a rich man a nd 1 don't involve myself in a lot of exotic sports, bu t the few sports I' m invo lved in are equally as expensi ve if not more so than motorc ycling. I can take my fami ly bike riding as cheaply as I can take them skiing. In fact , lift tickets at most resorts will be runnin g $12 ·$15 this year. Co mpare th at to the $5 g~te fees at Saddle back. Do you see a decreas e in the n umber of r iders coming into the park ? WILSO N: Our attenda nce was down this year, but I think the industr y was down this last year. I don't think it' s because of our admissi on price. I think people are getting concern ed about BL M land closure s and they're and total about disench anted th e ' from hassles comple te govern ment. I think they're going ofr into other areas of rec reation . PETERS: I th ink it's a combin a tion of other things too , where motorc ycling today is a status symbol . Many years ago, when I first started rid ing motorcycles , you had a pair of blue jeans, lineman s boots, a reasona ble helmet , goggles and gloves . That was the extent of it . Everyth ing else you wore, whethe r it was your jeans or a Pend le ton shirt , was just a part of your everyday wardro be . Now , little Johnny , when he first starts riding his motorcycle, in some cases has as m uch money tied up on his body as he does on his bike. He has to have the Joel Robert sho ulder pads , and the face guard , and the hip pads, and the Hallma n leathers , a nd the Hi Point Boots, and the JT Racing socks, and the gloves. Bu t a lot of this apparel has just gone out of sight! If I paid more than $2 or $3 for a pair of gloves, I wouldn 't b uy them . Now days the riders th ink nothing of spendin g $28· $30 for a pair of gloveS that might last half a season with no rmal use. Then all of them have to ha ve a van or a tricked -out p ick -up truck to haul their bikes back and forth to the races . A lot of them feel if they can't have a tricked -out van and the tricked -out motorc ycle with all the super gear, they don't want to be a racer anymor e. 1 think that's deterre d a lot of young men fro m continu ing on wit h their racing. Too , when the young man moves away from home and doesn't have the financi al suppor t of his parents anymor e (in many cases the parents su pported about 95 percent ofhis racing habit) he discovers he c~n 't keep up with the other guys and Just finds other things to do . Vic, do the va rious par ks h ave a lot of co mmun ication betwee n each other ? Do you eve r wo rk togethe r as a group on various p rob lem s you migh t have in com m on? For examp le the ins u r a n ce problem ? WILSO N: I tried several years ago to get a park owners associa tion started , but unfortu nately they a ll felt I was overste pping my bounds or that I wanted to have control . But I didn't intend ' for it to be that way at all. Nothin g fruitful ever came out of the meetin g. But we are in constan t . commu nicatio n , ta lking about mutual problem s. Basica lly insuran ce problems, track co ndition s, promot er , problem s. What kind of promote r p roblems do you h a ve? WILSO N : (Laugh ingly) Believe me , - _.. ..... ers are not as stoutworthy as all promot ~ - ~ Stu Peters. There are a lot of promot ers out there that don't represent what they advertis e or put togethe r. Since there are basicall y only four pa rks in souther n Califor nia , if we find a problem with one promot er we try to discuss wha t problem s we've had with that promot er so that when he goes to anothe r track they're aware of it ou t front . I think basicall y all the parks do try to work toward making the riders happy. I don't think anyone is sitting dbwn t here in a rocking chair trying to rip anybod y off. W hat about you Stu ? Do you work with other promot ers? PETER S: We don't have much contact with other promot~rs ou tside of occasio nally touchin g base with them . We've been kind of a lead er in the area as far as setting entry fees, license fees and so forth . Everyb ody kind of sat around and wai ted to raise their entries because they felt if they did then we-wou ld get all the riders and they wouldn 't get ~ ny, so they've all tried to keep it in some line. Occasionally our office will ha ve contact with themw hen one of us might be running a series and someon e feels a rider might be "cherry pickin" or really riding out of class. We will then find OUI what the classific ation of the rid er is in their particu lar organiz a tion . Most of the promot ers in sou thern Califor nia are in a position to have an agreem ent with the track they hold most of their events with. In the case of CMC , we have an agreem ent with both Saddle back and Carlsba d to ru n events on certain Sunday s of the year. I'm expecte d to put out a 14 Karat effort and run those particu lar Sundays so the cash flow for their facility a ctu a lly happen s on that particular day . We need the cash flow also . Each track and organiz ation needs their own particu lar cut of the pie every week to keep their cash flow moving . It's a situatio n where 1 have spo nsors come to me and say , we.wan t to put a series on and here's when we want 10 do it:-So 1 look in the paper and I'll try not to run against some big annual event , but othe r than that I will go ahead and put my race togethe r : and in many cases I'm bumpin g heads with anothe r promot er - but it's someth ing you just have to go ahead and do . At any rate, we plan our ' whole program a full year in advanc e. 1 can't pu ll my horns in and say CMC can't run because there's an event on the same day at Ind ia n Dunes or R aci ng World. Saddle back Pa rk a nd Racing World are the two tracks closest togethe r with the same basic facilitie s as far as that goes . They're only seven miles apa rt. We draw from the same groups of people every weekend and each organiz ation tries to put on the best show possible to draw as many people out to their event as possible . I don't think there will ever be a promot ers organiz ation in south ern Califor nia because there are a m illion people that wou ld like to promot e races here. Everyb ody feels a promot er has it made, that all we have to do is show u p twice a week and the rest of the time is goof-of f time. T.hey feel I'm doing someth ing they would just love 10 do and I'm getting paid for it. There again , I've had people, come up 10 me and say, "hey, you 're chargin g 100 m uch money! " And 1 say, "well, do you th ink these workers and I should be doing it for free? " And they sa y, "yeah, you shou ld be doing it for free, because it's a sport. " And -then I ask, "well, what do you do for a living?" And they say , "t hat' s differen t , I man ufactur e hardwa re or I run a racquet · ball club," or someth ing that's not connec ted with the sport. My reply is, "you should tell my wife and kids how it's differen t and how it's for the sport and that they should go live in a tent .". Wh y MIK E BE LL we ars a 1m lIl 19Q sD t!th pan ts.. . DUR ABI LITY "I ra ced in my last pair fo r 8 mon ths! No one co uld bel ieve it, but Malcolm 's pants las t months lo nge r tha n anyone else 's. I still wear th at sa me pa ir now ' for pra ct ice." o l'""'4 FIT & STY LE " Malcol m's pants are designe d for co mfort and styled to fit so yo u look good. They don' t bu lge or ba g and aU the pads and shin guards are placed in just t he right spo ts ." PRIC E "Sure . Malcol m gives me my pants . but I'd bu y th e m bef ore I wo re any o thers, be cause they're still the best quality. For t he money . t hey're th e be s t pan" a rider ca n buy." Think of quality and yo u' )) think of us ! lIlal!:Glm SJll!th PRODUCTS ALL NYL ON $69. 95 NYL ON & LEA THE R $94. 95 LL CO LO RS & SIZ ES AV AIL AB LE AT YO UR LO CA L DEA LER S ,~~~\~~ SOef I 1979 Anah eim Hi-Siders Distr ict 37 Gran d Prix Feb ruar y 3 & 4 Racing Worl d (Escape Coun try) AMA sanc tione d Distr ict 37 poin ts Entri es open Jan. 5 close Jan. 26 75 M in. races ight camp ing $3 per vehic le Overn I . $3 spect ator fee , - includ es entry to park for rlde~ $15 mail entry I $25 post entry ,Postm ark determ ines starting position use any stand ard entry form - send with 3 S .A.S.E . to: ANA HEIM HI-SIDERS GP 217 Laxor Apt. B Anahe im, CA 92804 fo r more info call: 714-527-6799 39

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