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/126397
cross to be presented In the Seattle Kingdome by the Seattle Post·lntelligencer and promoted by Pace Management. Tickets, if you don't have them already, are still available at the Kingdome, Fidelity Lane, Ernst Home Centers and Seattle area Yamaha dealers. The super $14 model gets you pit 'access from 7-8 p.m.. and there are $10 and $8 reserved and $6 general admission seats on sale, too. "The posey-pluckers are trying to put this motorcyclist·who·was·elected-to · the-legislature in his place," Stille Assemblyman Bob Hayes said in a phone conversation with Papa last week. Hayes , our motorcyclist assemblyman , needs our help. Here's what's' happening: Under existing law , revenues from personalized vehicle license plates go to the California Env ironmental Protection Program Fund. Hayes wants to change that . He wa nt s to offer, through Assembly Bill 101 , personalized vehicle license plate buyers the alternative to have th e revenue d irected to the Off-Highway Vehicle Fund. Obvious ly, the " posey. pluckers" want the money in th eir environmental protection fund . An interesting sid elight is that , when th e en vironmental protection fund was audited rec ently, it was d iscovered tha t 95 % (yes, 95 % ) of the money was being spent on administrat ive costsl Here's how we ca n help Assemblyman Hayes. Write a letter to your State Assemblyman saying that you 'd like him to support Assembly Bill 101 . And don't be afraid to tell him why . Please send a copy of your letter to Bob Hayes, too . Send it to Room 6007 , State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814 . Papa 's sending out his letter today ; it . has to be there before Feb . 13 at the very latest. Playing games with numbers: At the Astrodome Yamaha Gold Cup races, Randy Goss earned 13 AMAJ WInston Pro Series points each night (two third place finishes), and now leads the series in points. Goss' riding number, by the way, is 13. -. Injuries clai med a couple of riders in th e Houston TT. Eddie Lawson had h is foot slip off th e peg whiie he was landing fro m the ju m p . crashed and dislocated his left shoulder . Ale x J or gensen , who dropped ou t late in th e Na t ion al, flew home to undergo su rgery on knee ligamen ts. Ted Boody, winner of the Houston short track. announced that he will ride the Daytona 200. Steve ha s a beard. In Steve Eklund and mech anic St eve Storz Houston with full facial 2 fact , two do . H ·D fa ct ory showed up at foliage. Hank Scott is crossing his fingers that he has a bike to ride in the April 14 Sacramento, CA. Winston Pro Saries mile, "Having a mile so soon:' said Scott at Houston, "is putting earl (Patrick) and myself in a bind. Carl sold last year's miler and we haven't received our new Harley yet. I guess I'll be all right I've got a Triumph we might breathe a little life into if things really get bad:' Scott's luck went sour at Houston and he failed to make either National. Houston TT winner Mickey Fay reo warded by Honda with a trip to Japan , a new bike of his choice a nd a reported $10 ,000 bonus. Fay would neither confirm nor deny th e figure . "Hond a took care of me really good, ". was all . he'd say when ' the questioning approached the subject of money. Kenny Roberts, who didn't compete at Houston when the promoters turned down his request for a rumored $10,000 to ride the TT, still played a part in the race . Skip Aksland used the frame Robarts had made specially for the event and stuffed in his own Yamaha TT500 engine. Aksland finished fifth in the National. John Gennai's second place in the Houston TT National marked the California rider's third consecutive top t hree finish in the event . Cennai was third in the '77 TT and placed second last year. " I' m pleased with my second place," said Gennai at Houston . " Next year it will be my turn to win ." The dismal, rainy weather made the outdoor pit area of the Houston Astrodome for the double Winston Pro Series Nationals a grim place to work in. Corky Keener summed up the thoughts of many riders with, "These have been the worst two days I've ever spent at a race " . Few riders thought to bring awnings, tarps or wet weather clothing. Thus, most looked very soggy by the time practice and qualifying finishing on both days. "Try rebuilding an engine. in the rain some time:' said one rider, "It isn't any funl" J ay Sp ringstee n a lso spent a d ism al two d ays at Houston and d id not co m pete in eit her N at ion a l. T he defend ing AMA Grand Na tion a l Champion arrived with what doctors lat er di agnosed as an int estinal virus and got progressively sicke r as th e action wore on. In additi on , Sp ringer received a couple of bad bruises on his left leg when he was involved in a crash during his TT hea t race . " He wanted to race the short trac k ," sai d tuner Bill Werner. " bu t was so sick by th e time qualifying . came around th a t he cou ld n't even keep wat er in his stomach ." Papa's reserved his seat for the Feb. 9-10 Yamaha Gold Cup Super· While you're thi nking about you r b udget vs. tic kets sta tus , don 't forget to allot eno ugh for the AMA Nationa l Championsh ip MX Series opener on Ma rch 24·25 . Dirt Diggers No rt h M. C. has a nno u nced that ticket s for th e Carmichael Honda Hangtown Motocr oss Classic a re now on sa le at T icket ro n ou tle ts a nd at select ed northern California motorcycle dealers . Ad vance tickets cost $5 for the Saturday (local ra cers) program and $6 for the Sunday National Pro show. Kids ' (7 -12) tickets are $3 per day . Admission at the gate for Sunday will be $8 ; you save $2 per adult by ordering early. More info? Dial 916 /920· 1121. Results from the opening round of the 9th annual Aorlda Winter-AMA MX Series are in. It was Team Suzuki's Mark Barnett topping the 125cc class, Hond.mounted JoeJoe Keller acing the 260cc race and .Malco rider Furman Grey taking 500cc class honors at the Feb. 4 St. Petersburg event. Leading th e AMA /Toyota Supercross po int standings as t he series heads for Seattle are J immy Weinert ·(28). Bob Hannah (24) , Steve Wise and Kent Howerton (tied a t 20 ) with Darrell Shultz (17) rounding out the top five. If anyone's wondering why the Feb. 4' ARRA race at Willow Springs was cancelled, Papa has the answer. ARRA's Pat Manning celled in with news that Willow was under a foot-and-a·half of snowl Try again on April 8. Alan Hahn , who tuned Tommy Croft's Honda .in '78 , has left for Europe where he'll dial -in Andre Malherbe's GP Honda MXers. - Hi-Point Racing Products has one of the hottest thre.man motocross teams around . Teem Suzuki's Darrell Shultz. Kawasaki of Sacr. mento's Danny Turner and ProTrac Trailers' Danny "Magoo" Chandler will carry the Hi·Point banner. American Mot orcyclist Association officers wer e selected by the AMA Board of Trustees followin g th e Class . B m embersh ip 's a n nual meeting in Houston durin g th e Yama ha Go ld Cu p Mot orcycle Ra ce weeke nd. John Da vidson of H a rley-Davidson Motor Company repeats as AMA Pr esid ent for '79 . Bob Cra ig , J r . of Good yea r Tire and Rubber Company, and Gen e T ro baugh of U .S. Suzuki Motor Corpo ra tion , a lso serve repeat terms as Trea surer and Assistant Treasurer, respect ively. Roger Hull of Road R ide r Magazin e replaces Class A member J im WelIs as Vice President. Class A member Hazel Cobb replaces Tom Sargent of Cycle Magazine as Secretary. 'Tha nk s to the alert personnel at Racecrafters International, the stolen equipment belonging to Yoshimura R&D was recovered last week. It seems that the thieves tried to pawn tha hlghly- specialized equipment off to the RaceCl'llfters shop. There is no more Trans·AMA MX Series. The name "Trans-Am" is copyrighted by the Sports Car Club of America for their auto racing series, and they've pressured the AMA to. discontinue using the title "T ransAMA ," Promoters of the series , which each year sees fewer and fewer Eu ropeans come over here to compete, will probably re n ame it the "TransInternational" or "Trans-Continental" MX series . Word also has it that they' ll try to draw more Europeans. ibur since the AMA d ivided the top riders into separate . National classes, it may not realIy be necess ary to have a b ig crowd of foreign riders . It'd still be a premier series where all our finest could race together head-to-head. Papa will keep you posted. Chuck Sun sent Papa a letter from Belgium dated Jan. 29, and it holds all sort of news, some good and some bad. The bad news is that Chuck belled off while preetldng In four Inches of snow and broke his right wrist. That _ on Jan. 23. But as Chuck wrote, "God always works good from bad, and I have faith that will happen here." He says tha east will be off In one month, and he expectll to be fit In time for the AprIl 22 opening round of the 500cc World Championship' MX SerIes In Austria. He's now headed back to Sweden to pick up a new Volvo. Chuck reports his GP bike Is great; the Husky is "basically stock with a few trick odds and ends." Fen mall can be sent to Chuck during his European campaign through his team manager George Meeker, Vloletstraat 13, 3960 Beringen, Belgium. The Forest Service has released its recommendations concerning the RARE II wilderness program. The USFS recommendation , which goes through the White House to Congress, contains 15 million acres of wilderness, II million acres for further study and 36 million acres returned to nonwilderness. multiple use management. About the recommendatlona, the AMA's Rob Rasor said, "We have some reel concarn over the 11 million acres In the further study category. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rupert Cutler, who initiated RARE II. made it pretty clear that he exp8cts these _ to end up es wilderness sooner or leter. However, Congress has the . lest word on tha RARE 1\ question. We will be there to help them aoswerit:' Publ ic meetings concerning BLM wilderness in Oregon wilI be taking place later this month. The meetings will be held in Lakeview (Feb . 21 , 23), Portland (Fe b . 24), P rineville (Feb . 24), Eugene (Feb . 26 ), Bums (Feb. 27). Medford (Fe b. 27), Baker (Feb. 27), Spokane (Fe b . 28 ) and Vale (Feb . 28). More info on the sites or copies of th e draft proposal are available from district BLM offi ces or write the BLM Oregon State Office, 729 NE Oregon s... Portland. OR 97208 , 503 /231 · 6276. The public comment deadline is Mar. 14. Copies of ' the BLM draft wilderness proposals for tha Ukiah district are available by calling 707/462-3873; or by writing to BLM Ukiah District OffIce, &66 leslie, P.O. Box 940, Ukiah, CA 96482 or by dropping by tha office, The Public Works Board authorized the folIowing California Department