Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

pits. T wo pits will be loca ted at start/ finis h . T he th ird pit will be off of Trona Roa d . The Sham rocks suggest th a t if you don 't wish to ca mp out a t th e sta rt / finish (there's lots of room ther e) that you co nside r staying in R idgecr est whi ch is ab out 20 m iles no rt h of th e event area . Mountain High Raceway and Huron Raceway, will run CMC sanctioned events in 1979. CMC also announced that contrary to rumors spreading throughout the state, both Cloud Nine and Fremont Raceway located in the San Francisco Bay area have not left the CMC, but have, inst ead, renewed their affiliation with the Costa Mesa-based orangizat io n for the coming year. Check out the calendar listings for current and future events at these tracks. ...... ... . .\-< 0.. < Kenny Rob erts is home resting and pl aying p oo l. H e hopes. to be out an d a bo ut by th e first of Ap ril. No racing until Austria but he will be visibl e. was involved in doing the voiceover for the upcoming telecast. Papa go t cu rious when he heard abou t John Roeder's claiming Marty Tripes' RC250 Honda works mot ocrosser at Hangtown , so he ca lled up a nd asked a few to-the -point questions - like , why? Here' s what Roeder said : " I wante d to m ake a point . I'd like to ke ep the fa cto ri es h onest. T he cla im in g rul e was p u t t h er e fo r a purpose - to make it fair for t he priva teers. T he fac to ries say th ey use these exotic bik es fo r d evelo pment of next year's product ion model .. . but a ll I ca n say is th at Husq varna and Maico do n't race $100 ,000 motorcycles to develop the m , and th ey m ak e better bikes ." Roed er said he had discussed the possib ility of H onda 's buying back the m otorcycle with MX Manager Gunnar Lindst rom . When Lindstrom asked for a price, Ro eder to ld him $1 5,000 . Lindstrom told Roed er th at th e fina l decision would be . m ad e by someone else at Honda , but a d d ed th at he'd recommend that Hon da not buy the bike ba ck . What will Roed er do with th e b ike, assuming Honda doesn 't buy it ? " I probably won 't ra ce it. I rid e a Mai co now , and 1 do n 't think I co uld set up the Hon da to work as well. I' m ge tting ready to take it apart and measu re it - portin g - to see what m akes it go so fast. I m a y use some parts like th e san dcast hubs on 'm y own bike o r se ll th e p arts." L indstrom , in another . phon e con versa ti on o n ly m om ents a fter Roeder's , said , "He'll have a go od tim e d oing it. H e 'll find a production m otor. T he o n ly differen ce is t he ce n terport cylin der. W e d id lose a chassis, th e double downtube. W e'll h ave to get J apan to m ake us anot her one . An d the forks . .. we have all t he valving a nd sp rings . Nothin g he has will fit them . The main problem is th at now J on R and Marty Tripes will ha ve to spend a lot . of lon g hou rs buildi ng and setting up a new b ike . It 's more of a n inconvenience for them th an a ny t hi ng else . " R eg a rd in g Roed er's $1 00 ,00 0 estim a te on th e worth of works b ik es, Lindstrom sim p ly said , " He's totally ou t in th e b lue . W e'll give him back his ch eck if he wants it , just to sa ve Marty a nd Jon R's tim e and wo rk , bu t we'r e not goi ng to buy it ba ck for any m or e th an that. " 6 Bultaco's Bernie Schreiber took a second in the French round of the World Trials Championship, boosting himself up to third in the standings. Schreiber was beaten by Montesa-riding Swede Ulf Karlsson, 82.4-88, with Charles Coutard (SWM) and Yrjo Vesterinen third and fourth. American Marland Whaley (Mon) placed ninth. Vesterinen (61 points) leads Martin Lampkin (49) and Schreiber (44) in the points after six rounds. Six remain. The Daytona 200 will be telecast by CBS on their Sports Spedacu/al' show on Apr. 21. Ken Squires and Dave. Despain will handle the commentary for what Dave informs us is a 20-minute (plus the in evitable commercial t ime) segment of the show. " T heir film crew did a good job, especially on the f ive rider dice for the lead at the beginning of the race ," said Despain, who called us from l.A. where he Du e to ' circu ms tances whic h th ey fel t wer e unreasonable, the Sham ro cks M .C . have deci ded to move their TwoDay ISDT Qual ifier out of Ca liforn ia City. T hey encountered problems, not wit h Ca liforn ia City, but with Great W estern La nd Company; who owns the Lakeshore In n. The club h as mo ved the event to an area one mil e north of Ra ndsburg on Goler Road . The qualifier will run 165 mi les per day ; it will be necessa ry to hav e th ree Moto-X Fox rider La rry Wosick is " bruised but OK ," according to the folks at Bob and Geoff Fox 's sto re in Campbell , CA . W osick was ridi ng in fourth place in the seco nd 250cc National mot o at Hangtown last week end wh en a specta tor stepped out in front of him trying to cross th e track du ring th e race. No reports on th e spec t ator 's co n d it io n. Larry is ' expected to return to ac tion a t Saddleba ck for the Tri -Cr oss Promotions 125 /250cc AMA N at ion al Championship MX Serie s ro un ds . Showing the Cycle News East fans ,'ust how it's done in California especially in northern California) during the Daytona Speed Week was 16-year-old Jim Filice. Running his first ever Pro Novice races, Jimbo managed some 15 wins in 21 tries, garnered 18 points toward his Western Regional point race, picked up about 44% points making his Junior points and a lot of fans along the way. Filice plans to campaign a Terry Do rsch /Mike Konle, Champion framed Can- Am a t th e Friday night Ascot Park ha lf -m ile sho ws. Make that two in a row for Tri Cross. On the weekend following their AMA National MX, Ron Henricksen and Ted Morewood will present Cyclerama '19, a nineevent program which begins with the Yamaha World Mini Grand Prix on April 5-8 and includes the Bosch $5,000 Pro-Am motocross, the Supernationals of BMX, the Coors Hillclimb, the Cyclerama Honda ATC-Odyssey Nationals, the CRC Coors Grand Prix, the SCTA Trials Spring Nationals and the Yamaha Speedway Kart Challenge Cup. And then in .their spare time ... For complete info, 213/868-8112. Also in Daytona for the happenings was young Doug Chandler who at the tender age of 13, is picking off records and championship titles faster than anyone around. The AMA amateur awards banquet showered him with four number one plates from his short track National runs and then, just for good measure, the AMA's highest amateur award, that of National Amateur Athlete of the Year. Rumor has it th at Ba rry Sheen e will debu t a 250 cc GP Suzuki road r acer in August at the British GP on the Silvers tone. Based on th e two rea r cylinders of th e. RG 500 , the 25 0 will m ark Suzuki 's return to th e class a fter a lO-year a bsence. Suzuki has a watercooled 125cc motocross bike that Akira Watanabe is expected to race in the World Championship MX Series this year., Heard in th e Kawasaki pits after Mike Baldwin's Dayton a crash: "Hey, we didn't hire another Yvon DuHamel. di d we?" The Pa ce M ana geme nt -p rom oted Super cross event or iginally sch eduled for Pitt sburgh. PA on July 6·7 , then switched to Dallas, TX on th e same dat e, has now been cancelled. When th e p romoter of th e Mt. Morris, PA Na tional MX heard about it , he changed his ra ce d at e from Ma y 13 to July 8. Mu sical mo toc ross? Update on Heikki Mikkola: The three-time 500cc World Motocross Champion broke his shin bone at a race in Hoeselt. Belgium. Mikkola was leading the wet, muddy race, according to Britain's Motol' Cycle Weekly, when he caught his foot on a tree root and was pulled off the bike. Doctors expect him to be out 2-3 months. Papa lea rn ed th e other day tha t Rob Mu zzy of Muzzy's M/ C Specia lties in Co rva llis, O R was the builder of Skip Aksland's TT5 00 m oto r for th e Hous to n even t. He a lso d id th e "trick alumin um .wor k" on H ock ing's H onda and helped Br ad Hurst become thi rd- fastest qualifier for the TT. H e did a no ther TT500 motor, too . For Kenny Rob erts. It 's sti ll sitting on the shelf, 'wa y up the re in th e northwoods . California Racing Club has lined up $10,000 for Pros and a Yamaha motorcycle for Sportsman racers in the CRC Dr. Pepper/Yamaha Series. The . four-race program kicks off at Indian Dunes on April ·15; moves to Saddleback Park on April 22, hits the Racing World grass-covered natural terrain . course on April 29, then wraps up on May 6 back at Indian Dunes with the Dunestown GP. Call 213/830-7519 and ask Jack for more info. CRC Friday night raci ng at Indian Dunes will start on April 13 in con ju nc tio n with the NMA , but the m ini bik es will run a com p letely separate event on their own track . The 1979 Trans-AME Series scheduled to begin April 8 has been cancelled. Contact AME for further information at 213/881-5778. Amateur Jeff Mathews pushed his 400 Yamaha to the overall win in t he Desert Squirrels M .C . AMA 0-37 hare scrambles Mar. 25 . Finishing second overall, first 250cc was Kern Park. Open Expert Lee Scheffers took third . Complete coverage next week . We were sorry to hear that Jeff Fries, son of CN desert correspondent Joyce May, fell in the Desert Squirrels run and broke his arm. But it may be a lucky break for somebody because Jeff isn't going to be able to use his two entries to the Great Bear Grand Prix Mar. 31-Apr. 1. So if you need an entry for Saturday's Sportsman race or Sunday's Heavyweight race, give Joyce a call at 714/2465014, after 5:30 p.rn, Fremont Ra ceway announced that their n ighttime motocross , which ran on Friday nights last year. will switch to Wednesday nights for '79. The opening event is slated for Apr . 4 . Call 415 /355 -4760 . Dave Harrell, who was mentioned in a race report on the Feb: 25 Sand Hill Ranch rough scrambles, wants everybody to know that he rode a Can -Am, not a Triumph as the race report said. It's an important distinction to Dave - he's a Can Am dealer. Nort onl If the mere mention of the name brings ( 1) tears to your eyes, (2) pa in to your wallet or (3) romantic fant asies to your m ind involving the beautiful winding roads of the Isle of Man TT co urse, Papa has the answer. Or ra the r Br ian Slark does. You need one of th e new . Norton catalogs from Brian Slark's Classic Mot orcycles, 785· B W. 17th s... Cost a Mesa , CA 92627 . They're $2 . L8s Vegas 400 is getting closeI Entries are still open, however, and you can get more info from promoter Casey Folks at Sportsman Cycle in Las Vegas, NV, 7021457-0343. This year there will be a new SO-mile course, many new contingency sponsors, plus a free Suzuki to be given away at the riders' meeting . . The event is scheduled for April 22, so get your entry in now! T he Cit y of Mexicali went all ou t to m ake peo ple in volved in th e SCORE Mexicali 250 feel right at home. .Efforts included 24-ho ur police patro ls of the major parking lot s. . •

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