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/126401
Kork Ballington, nor for that matter Johnny Cecotto, was seen in the pits on Monday. But. like we said, it's early. Hansford, reportedly won't ride since his mechanic Neville Doyle is tied up in Australia with legal matters. Skip Aksland · and the Yamaha team spent the day tire testing while Mike Baldwin - bikes all prepped - was seen cruising around on his minibike. And Dale "Pig Farmer" Singleton was shOWing off his. mascot, a white baby pig with a red harness (Taylor White's racing colors) that was trotting happily around the pits. Dick " King Richard" Burleson won the Stone Mountain National Enduro held Mar. 4 in Dalton, GA. Press day at Daytona: Monday, Mar. 5 found road racers beginning their weeklong preparation for their turn to race on Bill France's big tri-oval. Team Yamaha's Kenny Clark reported that Kenny Roberts . has returned to the U.S. He's in Peninsula Hospital in San Francisco where doctors are inspecting the medical work done in Japan. Roberts will ride the April 29 Austrian GP, according to Clark. Papa fainted when he heard the news that the Racecrafters Kawasaki (on this week's cover) had suffered what .people lightly refer to as a blown engine in practice, but then the old boy was reminded that it's only Monday. There's plenty of time to rebuild the potent bomb .. .er ... machine for the Bell Superbike 100. "God, I hope it rains ..." Gene Romero was heard to muse. Burritto's Don Vesco machinery arrived at the track in pieces and wasn't ready for prac. tice. Gene lucked out. 'ft did rain. let's hope Florida's Ma Nature gets all rained out before Wednesday. Ron Pierce was seen preparing to ride Bob Work's TZ250 in the lightweight International. Speaking of international, neither Gregg Hansford nor S&W Super Contest winners Dick Hamer and Don Emde will appear as guests on the Wednesday night Webco Radio show hosted by Roxy Rockwood where ' the announcer/Cyc'e News columnist (National Papers I will administer the ultimate test of their motorcycle trivia knowledge. No dummies, these guys, when offered their all-expenses-paid prize for winning the contest, they chose the Supercross that's farthest away from sunny southern Califor· nia: Pittsburgh. Team Suzuki 500cc World Championship MX Series bikes reportedly have undergone a complete rebuild thanks to the R&D efforts of The Man, Roger DeCoster. Dissatisfied with last year's machines , DeCoster spent a total of one month, in two two-week sessions, in Japan working with the engineers to MEMO- {rom the d k - update the bikes' power characteristics and to change the suspension/handling around to better suit his needs. Roger DeCoster, as the story goes, has a standing offer from Honda to ride their red machines in GP competition. They say they'll double whatever Suzuki offers him. Papa says he has the same offer from several factories. luckily we don't pay him anything, and double nothing is _. _ you-know-what. Mick Grant's RG500 privateer Suzuki is the only bike U.S .' Suzuki . people report will be entered in the Daytona 200. No factory effort, Barry Sheene for example, is anticipated. Pre-Daytona Cycle Week flat track activity in Florida saw several riders who don't believe that other Cyc'e News (East) bit about We Don't Care How The Hell They Do It In California scored well over the past weekend. Texan Mike Kidd won the Friday night Expert/Junior short track final at Ocala. Saturday afternoon saw Tulsa, Oklahoma's Jim Bradley win the Junior feature while San Jose, California's Jim Filice topped the Novices. Bradley repeated his win the next day in the Junior final of the Daytona Busch Half Mile, but was protested. The results of that protest were not available at presstime. It kinda caught Papa by surprise, but NBC's Sportsworld telecast the Fall '78 SanJose mile on Feb. 25. Those of you who caught it are requested to send letters to the producer - John Kerwin, Sportsworld, 3176 Bern Dr. , Laguna Beach, CA 92651. After we received a deluge of copies of letters sent to 60 Minutes, Papa knows you can write to networks. And letters of praise about good motorcycle programming can really help. Papa's readyl The 01' boy really got off on all that speedway racing last weekend (see p. 10-121. and he's deci~ to become a star. Mike Bast and Ken Maely are putting another two-day school together on Mar. 17-18, and Papa's hotto go. Ken and Judy have all the info at 714/735-0540. (Actually, it'll be Judy; Ken's run off to Daytona and left her to do all the work.) Word from our man in Germany is BMW recently considered scrapping their entire motorcycle division, but decided to continue production via a new factory that will be built near Berlin . All seven ' division directors of the motorcycle arm of BMW were fired. One reason offered was the veteran management team made the "bad, bad decision" to scrap all plans for new engines and continue production of the now famous BMW air-cooled twin . That decision was made two years ago, and it's a wellknown fact that BMW sales have slipped drastically recently. Our man says rumors have the German manu facturer producinlt . a "Gold Wing type" engine. Stay tuned . > that Also from across the pond word from Sweden that Electrolux. the owner of Husqvama, is presently negotiating the s~le of the motorcycle division to a group of Swedish investors. Part of the proposed sales arrangement has the purchasers obtaining the rights to the name "Husqvarne," If the deal goes through the other products of the present Husqvarna line-up chain · saws, sewing machines, etc. - will be marketed under another name. . .6 II I . (Continued to page 15)