Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

working up there , we will keep th e sho tgun loaded a t all times. Enclosed is $25 for Du ck feed. S&S KAW A SAK I I WHITESTINE RACING Sponsors for Superbike rider Gordy Seim -San ta Maria. CA Your check has been foruarded to the Phantom Duck of the Desert L egal A ttack Fund. Others who want to keep th e struggle alive may contribute by sending checks to the F,S, G ~G Client Trust Fund, c/o Rick Siema n, l 7619 Los Alimos si ., Granada Hills , CA 91344 . . . Editor. WIST A merica 's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper In memory: laVerne Darland Sharon Clayton . Pu blisher T om Culp. Markrting Dir ect or C aroline Cend ry, Sec . to the Publisher Margie Sou th ern . Sec . to the Mtk g. Oir. Advertis ing Jim Ryan . Sal es Manager. Larry Little . Sal es Manage r . Skip John son , Sal es Manager. Chris Kolber. Assistant . Editorial Charles Mor ey , Managing Ed itor. Dal e Brown . Edit or. Boh i S COll . Edi tor . .Graphics and Production Dav Pau li, Producti on Man ager . Ju d y Klinger. Produ ctio n Assistant. Ma rion Haraahi ra , Karen Farha t . Ty po gra p hy . Dermi s G reene. La bora to ry. . Accounting Mi ke Klin g er , Ma n ag er , j ea n ne Hammond . Accts. Re cei vable . Donna Brya n . Asst. A CCIS . Receivab le. Holly H ale . Cr ed it. Ellie Co rter. Assistan t. Circulation R h e b a Srnit h . Ma n a g e- r . She rry Kau fm an , Chriuy Bd l. T ammy T a ylo r. Ba r bara Taylor, Assista n ts. Reader/Dealer Services Gi n Ha rpe-r , W an t Ad Sales. Services and Support Pat Ca rde nas , R ece p rion ist , Pet tit , 5&5. Bru er West 220 1 C he rr-y Ave . . Long Beach . CA P.O . Box 498 . Lon g Beach . C A 90801 (2 13) 427 ·743 3; L.A . L10e 636·8844 . East 4190 First Ave . . Tucker . GA. P.O . Box 80 5 . Tucker . GA 30084 . (404) 934 ·78 50 . Subscription ' One yea r; second class m ai l. S I S; two yea rs, seco nd class ma il, $27; three yea rs. seco nd cla ss mail . $37. 50 . Co pyrig ht ~ Cycle News. In c. 1979 . T ra de mark Cycle News regi st e red U .S. Pa te-nt O ffi ct' . All · ri ghts re se rved. Pu bl ished weekl y excep t th e first a nd last week of the ca lenda r yrar by C ycle News, Inc ., P.O . Box 49 8 . Lon g Beach , Califo r nia . Second class pos tagt' pa id at Lon g B('ach ,_ CA ,9080 1. Cycle News welco mes u nsoli c ited editoria l material incl ud ing stories. cartoo ns , photos, etc . Suc h mate rial . if published , becomes the excl usi ve co pyrigh t property of Cycle News. Such accepted material is subject to revision as is necess arv in the sole d iscretion o f Cycle New; . Unsolicited m aterial wh ich is not used will be re t u r ned if acco m p an ied by a se lfa d dressed sta m ped en ve-lope. All unsol ici ted m a ter ia l will be hand led with reason ab le ca re , however . Cycle News assumes no responsibi lity for the' safety. loss or damage' to such m a teri al . Repr int ing in whole o r part o n ly by per rnis sion of the pub lish ers. Ad ven ising -r a tes and circu la tio n informat io n will be sent up on request . See S.R.D .S. POSTMASTE R; Send form 3579 t o Cycle News, P .O . Box 498. l on g Beach, CA 90801 . ON THE FRONT PAGE: " Rocket Rex" Staten lead s Danny " M agoo" Chandler at Indian Dunes' CMC Go lden State Series round, Magoo took the 250cc class. Photo · by J im Gianatsis. VOICES Letter to the Duck Dear Ph antom Du ck : Here is a check for S300 . No st rings attached . The money comes from a collection taken at th e New Year's Dav Ra ce that I put on every yea r. We su ppo rt your actions against governments, groups and herds that try to limit use of O UR land by us. We appl aud your co ura ge and hope to strengt he n you r efforts. "We" are riders in northern Cal ifornia who are mostl y former class C rid ers . or present motocross . en du ro types. We have one race . run what ya brung , one trophy. free beer for all a t the end . We get to use land that is normally closed to motorcycles beca use we lea ve the area spotl ess. do' not te ll where th e race is un til we meet at another nearby loca tion and promise not to come ' again without specific invitation . Although the tradition is older. I have organized the race for five yea rs. Some of th e people who have ridden and approved are: Brad Lackey, J ohn Gennai. Rick Ho cking , J immy Odorn , Jim Rice , Gary J on es. Chris Carter . Dave and Paul Bostrom . th e Pearson brothers, Alan Kenyon and Sonny Keny on , Don Emde and many m or e. . We start between 100 and 125 riders. We begin at 9:30 New Year's morning. In sho rt, we are do ers. . We support the mighty malla rd and his night ' in t he winds of freed om. Defeat to th e noise boys (who hat e exha ust) and victory to t he front ' wheel flyers. Our cause is.not lost. DAN CLAPP San Carlos , CA Slower, safer MX - please ! I'm writing this letter out - of . com plete frustration due to a situa tio n that is both intolerable and inex cusable. Premiums for rider insurance a t local motocrosses are becoming too cos tl y for p romot ers to afford . In n orth ern Califo rni a n ow . Pros a re cha rged an additional fee of $2·$5 to help pa y for insu ran ce . The main ca use for th e increases is th e high a ccident rate at th e races. With more riders the insurance base is increased and the cost per rider should actually go down . Yet entry fees continue to grow . The usual insu ra nce fee for a local motocross is about $400 , yet th e cost of - a si m p le broken leg approaches $1 ,000. It 's no wonder the insurance com p a n ies must ra ise rates sinc e I seldom go to a race without a rider going to th e hospital with some sort -of injury. High speed s ections result in many serious inju ries. At an amateur event , high speed sections should be avoided or minimized. As sp eeds increase. small rider errors result in large crashes, R ace bikes of todayare capab le of double the speed of just seven years ago. Other conditions which too often occur are unprotected trees lining the track . u n p rotected steel fences and fence posts. too -narrow ra ce tra cks and poor first turn areas which p romote congestion and crashes. The riders will u ltimately suffer when insurance rates continue to climb . ' It is the responsib ility of promot ers to provide a safe and challenging track which does not promote top speed as the determining factor . The organization which sanction s th ese events has th e responsibility to police th e promoters to make sure they live up ~o these guidelines and that th ey promote safe races. This is the ultimate duty of sanctioning bodies and why we belong to them - not for the privilege of carrying five plasti c ca rds in our wallets . It 's time we riders stand up and demand the type of ra cing even ts that we deserve and pay for. Stand up at your next rider's meeting and voice your opinion before it's too late. JIM TU RNER La Selva . CA Duckbacking pavement scratchers Thank you very much for the excellent coverage of the Phantom Du ck . We applaud his efforts. . Being 'road racers, we have no contact with the animal known as the Duck Hawk (tpe Bureau . of Land Management) , but now that you have made us aware that the hawk is The desert, again, is an emptier place. LaVerne Da rla nd , D·37 Senior Heavyweight Expert #0 7, was stricken by a n .apparent heart attack d uring the Sled R id ers M .C . hare scrambles. Vern was an ins piration to m a ny desert competitors, a nd he helped support Tom Kelly through his KTM shop in Lancaster. He was a true sportsman, and he dea rly loved the desert and the "d esert people ." He will be missed by his f amily, friends and desert competitors. VANCE HENDERSON I LOS COYOTES M. C. Lancaster, CA Claybrook denies derogatory comments Some weeks ago , an article over the. by-line of Mr . David Zinman appeared in the New York newspaper News day concerning the subject of motorcycle helmet use. In the course of that article , Mr. Zinman attributed certain anonymous quotes to " a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrat ion ," which were q u ite derogatory to motorcycle riders in general. Since the a ppearance of that article, the anonymous quotation has been picked up and given wide circulation by other p ublications . I am writing to . assure you , as I have others , and as I have said in severa l public forums , that th e views an d opinions cited by Mr. Zinman do not in a ny way reflect or represent my views, the views of this agency or its employees. Ou r agency is given the charter to concern itself wit h the safety of all of those who use our highways , no matter who they are . In fact , the agency employees who a re intimatel y and daily involved in motorcycle sa fety work are themselves motorcyclists. It would be unthinkable that they would hold the views anonymously attributed to them co ncern ing this fellow cyclists . W e d o not subscribe to the views anonymously attributed to us in the N ewsdayarticle. JOAN CLAYBROQK NHTSA , U .S . DOT Washington, D.C . Still not im pressed After reading Bob i Scott's article'on the cost and quality of motocross racing in southern California , I 'd ecided to write. I've raced CM C events, off a nd on, for four years, a nd I can say there ha been no obvious effort to improve day racing . As tracks go, Carlsbad was ra rel adequately prepared with condition getting worse . T he dust is the mai problem , and it has to be controlled. Saddleback is we ll -prepared i comparison. The track is a Ii ttl slippery when they water it betwee motes, but that's a reasonable price t pay for dust control. (Continued to page U

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