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/126398
BlM: Duckhuntlnq again LOS ANGELES, CA, FEB. 12 According to a Monday, Feb. 12 "News in brief" item in the Los An,eles Times, the Bureau of Land Management has filed a court order seeking contempt citations against four men who, as the article words it. " alledgedly organized a 150-mile motorcycle race last year through protected desert areas from Barstow to Las Vegas." Again, quoting ~he L.A. ,Tim es item: "The BLM is charging that Rich Sieman, editor · of Dirt Bike M.,azlne, along with Louis McKey, Albert Fols and William Brinson, defied a court order issued last Nov. 23 by a federal judge that restricted the ride through the desert to 50 motorcycles. Instead, 600 perticipated in the race while 2.000 spectators were in attendance." " The BLM is choosing this. as their point of confrontation:' Rick Sieman responded in a phone conversation early Monday afternoon. " Th ey want to put us in jail, plus have us pay all their legal fees, which will add up to thousands of dollars. "Our legal fund is healthy, although we could use more, and right now we're waiting for the impact of the a,rticles that are just coming out in the monthly publications. The Phantom Duck is incorporated now, so checks may be made out to the PDOD, Inc. instead of the legal defense fund we had established earlier:' Sieman's tone was aggressive and optimistic. After discussing' the matter with legal counsel, the Phantom Duck and crew seem confident and ready to fight. , When Darrell Shutlz's works Suzuki shows up a t t he Atlanta Supercross , it ma y be a m ixture of lightweight works bike arid RM N stocker. Father O rv, who is Da rre ll's fa ctory me chanic, was thinking of putting stock suspension components on t he m ach in e since Darrell's arms have bee n tiring ou t. Shultz's endurance has no t bee n a , problem when he's rid den the stocker , and besides, since he is ta ller than the other T eam Suzuki riders, he doesn't ,need a low-to-the -ground ma ch ine. Bob Hannah and John Savitski were instructors of a "Supercross Seminar" attended by riders entered in the following day's HiPoint-sponsored Amateur event in Seattle's Kingdome . During the course of the program, M.C. Larry Maiers brought the mechanics for each rider, Keith McCarty and Bevo Forte up to the michrophone. Responding to a Maiers question about Savitski, Bevo replied, "He's a good Polish rider." "What do you mean?" queried Maiers. "I bring along lots of handlebars," said Bevo. Bob Hannah and · T exan Rog er Brown were the winners in the second and third rou nds of th e Toyota Tower Jump Contest , respectivel y. Each received $100 , while anoth er $100 was given eac h n igh t by the Gold Belt l DeH ANdler line to the winner of the fast heat race. Those' awa rds went to Ma rt y Tripes and Tommy Croft. The crew of On Any Sund.y "was on hand, filming both night of the Saattle Supercross event. Kawa saki's J eff Ward was seen at th e Sea ttle race headquarters sip pi ng a very tasty m ixture of grenadine a nd 7· Up . Don't worry Jeff, we won 't tell a soul that bartenders call th e d rink a "Shirley T em ple." Ole Olson will be competing in the first two World Speedway Champion events at Santa Ana Stadium starting March 3. The facilities will also host open practice Feb. 17, 5:30 until 9:30 p.m . Riders Will be charged $5, wrenches $2. Honda's 500cc road racing GP com eback effort may be shrouded in secrecy, but there is no shortage of speculation. La test word has it that th e powerplant will be a four-str oke (n at ch) V-4 with cylind rical or conical valves that revs to 22 ,000 rpm and produced 150 horsepower . Honda is also expec ted to sign Taka zum i Katayama to head the on -the racetrack. program. Remember the '60's pop group The Monkees? Well recently, Mickey Dolenz, an original member of the quartet. won the Yamaha ' Song Festival with a number entitled ''I'm Your Man:' His prize? A Yamaha DTSO. Keep the Norw egia n d elegat ion away fro m St. Joan . That cou ntry's pa rliament recently enacted a ban on motorcycles over 750cc as a way to reduce motorcyclist fatal ities. If you thi nk th at's bad , the original proposa l would 've nixe d anyth ing over 400cc, b ut a 50 ,000 le tt er ca mpaign b y Norwegian cyclists re sulted in t he compromise>. Scott USA. the boots and goggles people, are offering a privateer contingency program in the major AMA MX land Supercross) races. The top placing privateer, even if he's in 29th place, gets $50 if he's wearing Scott USA goggles or plastic boots. If he's wearing both, thlJt's $50 plus $50, or an even hundred. Scott pays winners who wear their goggles $125 for an overall win, $75 for second and $50 for third. (If you 're a privateer, that's in addition to the $50 "privateer" money.) Plastic bootequipped riders can win $200 for an overall win, $100 for second and $50 for third. Lessee ... if a privateer wears both goggles and boots and then wins ... that's $50 plus $50 plus $125 plus $200 ... carry the one ...$4251 After making the typewriter contingencies vs . goggle /boot contingenc ies comparison test, Papa's goin' racing! In last week's sto ry on CMC 's Golden State Series at Sacrament o we had Yamaha's Rex Stat en pu lling a last minute second mo to win over Danny LaPorte in Open Pro action . The truth , however , was t ha t whi le " Rocket" Rex trie d his best to ge t by Danny, he d idn't do it an d settled instead for second pla ce in the mota . Assemblyman Bob Hayes reports that BLM representatives are trying the old "power grab" once again. This time we discover that in order to enforce California state laws on state, county and private land, BLM feels that they should be given deputy sheriff status in certain locations: Indio, Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial. and possibly Los Angeles and San Diego counties for example. Ed Hastey, the Director of BLM, hadn't heard about It and neither had any of the California state law enforcement agencies. But just to make sure we let our respective County Sheriff's Office know how we feel, write them and oppose this unflecessary power play. Assemblyman Hayes put it very succinctly; "They need police power only because they are defying the will and wishes of the American people." Mike Bast will teac h a March 17-18 two -day speed way school (high ly recommended by Cycle News staffers as you' ll soon see in an upcoming article) a t Ken Maley's ran ch . Dial 7141735-0540 and talk it over with Ken or Judy if you' re interested. Larry Roeseler has left,for France. Invited by the ' French dirtbike' magaziner Moto Verte, Larry will race in a Feb. 18 15O-mile event on the beach (big beachII at Touquet, according to French correspondent Francois Bourret. Rough life, Larry. And t he n th ere's t he Hangtown Hangove r. The annual killer motocross for the 40 ·and ·over berm bu sters o n t he weekend afte r the Hangtown Classi c (Ma rch 31-April 1 thi s year) will be held a t Prairie Cit y Off H ighwa y Veh icle Park , naturally, mak ing the mo ve with the Class ic itself away from Plymou th . T he Sierra Old Timers M .C . will run t he who le shebang again - it's a th ird annua l affai r, now. And ya go tta be a mem ber of an old timers club to enter, or at least a member of a fam ily of a registered old timer . Curious? Dia l 916 / 967 -7297 after 5 p .m. and talk it over with Dick King. ' Word has it that the June 24 AMA 250/500cc National Championship MX Series event has been cancelled and that Tri-Cross Promotions will pick up the date, holding 250/500cc National near Denver, CO. O regon Moto rcycl e Road Ra cing Associa tion , su p ported by 13 contingen cy donors, has slated th eir first race of th e yea r for Ap ril 29 at Portland Interna tional Ra ceway . Among those helping OMRRA are Nippondenso , . S&W Engineered Products, Megu iar's Pol ish Company, . Clym er Publications, Dupont, LubriT ech , H eli -Coil, Woodhill Permatex, WD -40 and Portl and's KYTE radio . Mike Adams of the Chaparrals M _C. told Papa that 10 of the 14 AMA .. AA" class riders have , entered the Feb. 18 Coyote National Enduro, Entered are Dick Burleson, Ted ' Worrell, Drew Smith, Mike Hannon, Herluf Johnson, George Peck, Don Sanford, George Hendrix, Rick Munyon, and Bill Geier. Also signed up are ISDT , vets Ron Bishop and John Fero and dez racer A.C . Bakken. Startin' to sound like a spectator sportl At the Pa rker 400 , Mickey Thompson was on his way to upset every body as he had a n ela psed time of 2:03 :21 , nearly three m in u tes faster tha n eve ntu a l ove ra ll winners H arden l WaIlingsford. T hom pson led all the way up to within two miles of the finish where he ran out of oil a nd pic ked up a tow into th e fin ish whereu po n he was d iqua lified for receiving assistance withi n one .m ile of the fin ish line, Toug h b reak. Don't panic. If your Cycle News is a dey late next week, it's because our printer observes Washington's birthday - Monday - and that sets our mailing department back exactly one day. Stuart Toomey, form er mechanic for Gary Scott a nd for Steve McLaughlin , has just sign ed a cont ract with AMA #50 , Dale Single to n for all U .S. and Eu ropean events the "Pig Fa rm er" rides in . U.S. Suzuki is presently holding Spring Sales Seminars for their dealers in 17 locations around the U.S., and wh ispers are going around about four new models being shown. Papa 's listenin'. Let ya know next week, for sure. T he first D-38 enduro in th ree yea rs, according to Bru ce Sa nford , will be held on March 25 in Plaster City ne a r EI Cen tro. It'll be a fa mi ly ru n ca lled the Bush Bunny, an d they'll even hav e a class for ATCs. Talk to Bruce at 7 14 / 286-366 0 o r 714 127 5-1823 fo r details. The weekend wasn't a total loss for Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller. After a DNF at the Parker 400, they journeyed to the Dirtfliers M.C. AMA 0-37 ' hare scrambles and finished ' ·2. Ogilvie was the overall winner with Miller finishing first 250cc." Jeff Mathews took third, first Amateur and Gary Charters, 40, finished sixth overall to capture the Senior class, .as well as being first 125cc into the finish. Mike "Downhill" Alexander, back after not racing much for a year, came in at 10th overall to capture the "real" 125cc Expert laurels. Complete coverage next week.