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/126406
Raceway, was on the phone and telecopier, sending a story and resull~ to the major L.A . papers. And It worked - the brief story and results . appeared in Cycle News' local paper, nearly 70 miles Jrom the scene oj the race . . . Editor. F750fiasco WlS! 00 1"""4 ...... .... I-t 0.. < America's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper Sh a ron Cla yton , Publ isher Tom Culp. Mark.et ing Director Caroline Ce'ndry. Sec . to the Publisher Margie Sou thern , Sec . to the Mtkl{. Dir . Advertising Jim Ryan, Sal es Manager . Larry Little. Salo ManageT . Skip Johnson , Sales Mana · g eT. Chris Kelber , Ad vertising C o ordinator. Editorial Charlo MOTey. Managing Editor. Dal e Brown , Ed itor . Bobi Scott, Editor. Graphics and Production Dav Paul i, Pr oduct ion Manager. Judy Klin geT, Production Assistant . Marion Hatash ira , Karen Farhat. T ypography. Dennis Greene, Laborato ry. Accounting Mik e Klin geT , Mana g e r . J eanne Hammond . Accts. Recei vabl e. Donna Bryan . Asst . Acets. Recei vable . Rick Oceusch. Credi t. Ellie Corter , Assista nt. . Circulation Rh eb a Sm ith , M 3 nagC' T. Barba r a Taylor . T am my T ay lor. Shirl")' Short . Assista nts . Reader/Dealer Services G in HarJXT . Want Ad Sales. Services and Support Ch ris Aitcbeson . Re cepr ion isr. Chris Burke , S&.S. West %%0 1 Chrrry Avr .. Long Brach. CA P.O . Box 498. Long Brach. CA 90801 (%IS) 4%7·74": L .A . Line 6S6 -8844 . East 4190 First Ave. . Tucker, GA . P.O. Box 805. Tucker , GA S0084. (404) 9S4-7850. Cycl r Nrw. /Wr" (USPS 141 ·S40) i. published. week ly except the first and last week of the calendar year for S15 per year by Cycle News. In c .. %%01 Cherry Avenue. Long Beach. CA 90801. Second class postage paid at Long Bea ch, CA . POSTMASTER: Send form 3619 to Cycle News. P.O. Box 49lI. Lonll ee.ch.CA . . . .. Subscription rates: OnC" year. SC'COnd class mail. '15 ; two years. second class mail , $27 : three yean. second class mail , SS7 .50. C yete New s we lcomes unsol ici ted ed itor ia l material in cl u d ing sto ri es , ca rtoo ns , ph ot os. ~C . Su ch m at erial . if published , be comes th e exc lu sive proprrty of Cyclr News, Such accepted ma terial is su bject to revision as i. n«nsary in th e sole d iscretion of Cycle New s. U nsol icited m a te ria l wh ich is not used will be ret u rn ed if accompanied by a self-ad d ressed stamped envelope. All u nsol ici ted material will be handled. with reasona b le care, how ever . Cycle New s assumes no rnpo nsib ility for the g fety. lo ss or d am a ge to su ch mat erial. Reprinting in whole o r pan onl y by permission of th e publishe rs. Adv ert ising rates and circulation in form a tion will be sent u po n requC'S t. S« S.R .D .S. Copyright " Cycle N.ws. Inc. 1979. Tr.d.m.rk Cycle N_s registered U.S. P.tent Office. All rIghts r••erved. ON TH E FRONT PAGE: Cycler· ema '79 brought together ell kinds of m otorcycle competition. from hillclimbing to minicycle motocross. end from grand prix to trials, Photos by Dennis~,Carol CempbeII. Terry Rezek end B. Merkhem. 4 A word from the Invaders The Invaders M.C. would like to exp ress its appreciation to joyce May for her efforts in reporting desert events. However, we feel that in her article about our race, that she im plied that a lack of course markings led to an unusual amount of injuries. . . We are pleased to sa y we had over 400 rid ers . only 14 of which reported to Rescue 3 for assistance. The most serious injury was a compound fracture of the arm . Another was a possible back injury. The rest were mostly cuts . bruises or abrasions. The most serious inj uries occurred, on th e bomb run , not related to course markings. . We hope joyce did not intentionally mean to imply negligence on our part . We need all the good reporting for our desert events that we can get, and hope joyce will continue to do rhe excellent job she 's been doing. JOHN McCOWN Secretary, Invaders M.C . South Gate , CA Thanks Maico! I thought I'd write to your fine newspaper and tell you about something nice that happened to me . Last yea r I was lucky enough to have en ough cash to buy a new Maico Magnum. Being an old Maico freak from way back and ha ving switching b rands for a while, I was glad to get ba ck to myoid marque. I had th e bike for several months. I had raced it a few times and done quite a bit of trail riding on it. A couple of friends of mine, who are Experts and qu ite a few other friends with less riding skills, rode the bike. They all thought the bike was on e of the strongest -running 400s they had ridden . Well . after. a race at Marysvill e. I noticed the bike to be a little down on power. My first thought was sand in the cylinder. I took the bike home and pulled the top end and found something really strange. Someone forgot to put in the clips that held in the wrist pin. My cylinder liner and piston were destroyed. Anyone that knows anything about the German bike knows this is a costly mistake. (About $175) I already had the bike for a while and thought Maico would never believe they did · this . They wotild probably think I d id it. So I threw everything in the truck and went down to Profess ional Cycle Parts, a local Ma ico dealer . The people at P.C.P. believed me, so that was a start. They sent the whole top end down to Maico in Burbank. In less than two weeks. Ma ico had sent me a complete top end and cleaned and repainted my cylinder. Nice l Thanks P.C.P. and thanks a bunch Maico. PAUL FLESHMAN Sacramento, CA Get us into the sports section I went toHangtown '79. It was the first time I had been to a major event in three years , since my interests were side-tracked by another sport. I was very impressed with how much the sport of motorcycling has grown in my absence. It was a very professionally done event , with the biggest turnout of any event I've ever seen, regardless of what kind of a sport involved. I loved it . One thing that is missing that the other sports get, though, is national coverage from the press. I was wondering why. Do they knew we are here yet ? All the basketball and baseball games were covered and I'm willing to bet they didn't have the turnout that Hangtown '79 did. I hope the promoters or someone tha t is involved hea vily with these races will do something about this . These people do deserve th e coverage. They are as popular as any superstar in an y sport. DANNY DA VIES San Rafael , CA We appreciate hearing Jrom you, Danny, but honestly, you 're umting to th e wrong people. W e devot ed four pages to Hangtown '79. You should be writing to the sports editor oj your local paper, telling him that you, his reader, want coverage oj motorcycle racing. Have your friends do the same thing. A barrage oj mail and phone calls demanding (politely) such coverage ought to do the trick. But promoters and tracks can help. Right after the OCMC Great Bear GP, Deke Houlgate, who works with Riverside It appears that 1980 would have been the opportune time for the FIM to revert back to its original intentions for the F750 class , that of GP·style 750s based on readily ava ilable street models: This would naturally have increased participation in that class by smaller manufacturers , dealers and sponsors, as well as those talented riders sitting on the sidelines because they can't afford the cost of 750 racing as it is today. But the-FIM , rather than admitting that its short-sightedness in ' opening the F750 class to allow TZ700 Yamahas to compete (1974) was a mistake, has taken the easy way out by just dropping the class at the end of this year. Obviously, many people are dis satisfied with F750 racing as it is. I feel the AMA has a chance of gaining some well-deserved popularity. if they were to initiate some form of street bikebased, Superbike style racing as the main attraction at U.S. road racing meets. Perhaps the gutless FlM will follow in the AMA 's footsteps and institute a world -wide class based on the Superbike formula . VINCE CASSIDY Cape Canaveral, FL Novices, Beginners do it in the dez; t oo I for one, along with other Novice and Beginner riders, appreciate joyce May's contribution to the desert motorcyclist. Her articles are looked forward to every week . However, the articles are mainly about Expert and Amateur events. As I mentioned above, I am a Novice/ Beginner. and look forward to reading about the events. I believe that Novice and Beginner riders deserve to have their races written about. We too support the sport of motorcycling, District 37 and the AMA . It would be appreciated if we could get some coverage of ou r events. It has been done before and I hope it can happen again. DAVE GUY Torrance, CA If you read Joyce May's most recent article, Dave , then you know that there was coverage oj th e Novice and Beginner races. But you could help out a little by making 'su re your steward providesJoyce with your 714me and racing number . . . Editor. Idiots spoil Hangtown I attended. the great Hangtown Motocross nice at Prairie City OHV Park. The Dirt Diggers really put on an exc ellent program . It was too bad some idiots had to mar th e end of an excellent weekend by do ing such a stu pid thing as trying to cross the track during a race . The announcer mus t have told everyone, at least every 10 minutes , to stay off the track. but some people either were just stupid or thought they were being "coo l" trying to get to the other side during th e race. . What will it take to make people realize that the riders are concentrating , on racing not dodging spectat ors!? RUSS DALEY . Concord, CA J.J .J ". .J