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/126410
Associa tes a nd former pu blic relations manager for U .S. Su zuk i Motor Corp. , has been appointed na tional public relations manager of Kawasak i Moto rs Corp . . U.S.A . Rom has had 12 years of public relations experience in the motorcycle and automobile industries. At Kawasaki he will be responsible for public relations policy and administration. press relations and the management of the Kawasaki News B u r e a u . Go od luck R o m , a nd welcome back. Kenny Roberts (Yam) continued to defend his 500cc road race W orld Championship crown with a runnerup performance in the May 6 West German GP at Hockenheim. Holland's Wi! Hartog (Suz) too k the win with Italian Virginio Ferrari (Suz) third. Barry Sheene (Suz) retired with a blown engine while running third . Mike Baldwin (Yam) finished 10th after a slow start. Ferrari now leads Roberts in the point standings, 34 ·27 . The 250cc class races at the West German GP saw Californian Randy Mamola (Yaml take second beh ind defending 250cc World Champion Kork Ballington (Kawl after Wa lter Villa (Yam l ran out of gas. Mamola retired from the 350cc race with a burned out clutch. Ted Boody is apparently pretty close to signing a major sponsorship with a large firm. More details in the next couple of weeks. Mike Kidd had just about all the bad luck one can have on a single Sunday. Rrst. on the way to the San Jose track, Mike's transporter van suffered carburetor troubles, which Mike and Storme Winters lovingly patched up with nuts, silicone seal and duct tape under the watchful eye of a Highway Patrol officer who wanted to push the van further off the freeway. Then, while leading his heat race by a huge margin. the bike went belly-up and he coasted to a stop on the last lap. American speedway star Scott Autrey barely edged former World Cham p ion Peter Collins in a run-off race to settle the overall victory at the seventh annual Daily Express Spring Classic speedway race at Wimbledon. Autrey is the only rider ever to have won the event more than once. Malcolm Rathmell topped the April 3O-May 5 Scottish Six Days Trial last week on his factory-backed Montesa. Marland Whaley finis ed 15th. also on Montesa. Rat h.. ,ell had won the event once before in '73 on a Bultaco, and his '79 victory stopped Bultaco rider Martin Lampkin's bid to make it four wins ina row. 6 If you 're a street rider or a co ncerned motorcyclist of any type and you would like to express your feelings before the powers that be in Washington, D .C. , join the ABATE National Protest on june 11·16. Riders fro m the South will meet at Prin ce Wi llia m Forest Pa rk ; riders from the West will co nverge on Bull R u n National Park; riders fro m the North will meet at Greenb elt Regional Park , all d u ring th e june 9· 10 weekend. On Monday , june 11, everyone will ride into Washington and set up camp. On Tuesday and Wednesday , all in attendance should visit their individual representatives and discuss the problems of American motorcyclists. Thursday. june 14, marks group demonstrations at the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Bureau of Land Management. On Friday, all will meet at the White House to demand that j oa n Cla ybroo k be fired. On Saturday, june 16, the permit expires , and riders will clean up the mall, leaving it in as good or better co ndition than they found it . Stay tu ned for more in fo . AMAIToyota Supercross Series point standings: 1. Bob Hannah (2351: 2. Jim Weinert 11581: 3. Mike Bell (1431: 4. Steve Wise 11381: 5. mel Danny laPorte/Marty. Tripes (1151: 7. Gaylon Mosier 11051: 8. Warren Reid 11021: 9. Marty Smith (971: 10. Gary Semics (901: 11. Kent Howerton (891: 12. Darrell Shultz (811: 13. Tommy Croft (nl: 14. Rick Burgett (761:' 15. Rex Staten (531: 16. Frank Stacy (511: 17. (Tiel Mickey Boone/John Sav itski (461: 19. Mark Barnett (451; 20. Scott Gillman (361. Honda will enter a pair of X R500based machines in the May 12 AMA/Winston Pro Series half mile at Ascot. R ick Hocking and Mickey Fay will do the riding. while jeff Haney will have a similar machine in the junior Invitational. The last time a 500cc single made an Ascot National field was 10 years ago, when Tom Roc kwood rode a BSA Gold Star to fourth. . Senator Robert Presley, D-Riverside, has introduced a bill to provide $6.8 million to add 3,000 acres to DeAnza off-road vehicle park near Sunnymead, CA. Money for the addition would come from the state's OHV account, which is fed from fees paid by non-licensed vehicles. Presley's bill sets up a three-year program for expansion. The five-square-mile area would include trails, family recreation, camping and world-class rac ing courses. Rom Lovi\, formerly a n account executive with Bob T hom as a n d Brattstrom has d etermined that noise from ORVs is killing the spadefoot toad. Acco rd ing to Bra ttstrom , th e toads thinks the noise is thunder and surfaces fro m his bu rrow for water. In doing so, it expels its water su pply and uses up all its energy climbing ou t of the burrow. If it can't find wa ter, it'll die in the heat. The toad is not on the endangered species list. This, believe it or not, was the topic of a sizeable article that a ppears in the R iverside Press-Enterprise newspaper on May 1. Skipping the San Jose Mile round of the Winston Pro Series, Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen entered Rint. Michigan's Genesee Memorial Hospital on Saturday, May 5, to undergo tests in hopes of finding out why he 's not been feeling well. The tests revealed the Harley-Davidson factory rider has a urinary infection. ''I'll be at Ascot Saturday night." said Springer. "I can 't let those guys get too far ahead of me in the points standings." Springsteen is seeking his fourth consecutive AMA Grand National Championship . Mardlcro.. instead of Supercrou7 Could be. Mr. PIBB New Orleans Superdome Supercross promoters are out to make everyone who attends the June 2 event feel just like they are at Mardi Gras. One of the biggest events will be a party aboard the SS President which leaves the Canal Street Dock at 8 p.m. sharp on June 1. Assem blyman J. Robert Hayes would like to add Ca lifornia to the growing list of weste rn states now involved in the "Sagebnish Rebellion." AB I407 (legislation potentially returning 17 million acres of land to state jurisdiction) has cleared its first major hurdle with a vote of approval by the Assembly Resources, Land Use and Energy Committee. Specifically the bill requires California's State Lands Commission to conduct a study of all lands within the boundaries of the state which are now under the management of the B L M . The purpose of the study is to determine whether title to these lands should by constitutional right be vested in the State of Californ ia and then to initiate appropriate action to return those lands to state control. Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association's season starts on May 20 at Seattle International Raceway IlocatedIn Kent. WA you figure it outl, and continues through Sept. 16. They also have planned a Weekend Jubilee on June 2-3 with a full program on Saturday and a six-hour endurance race on Sunday. More inf07 Call Claude at 206/322-D440 or Garry at 2061525-0600. Reports from Yamaha indicate that Broc Glover, current leader in the AMA 125cc MX Nationals, will fly to F rance in j u ly for - get this - a 24 hour motocross m a r atho n . Br oc's scheduled to team wit h Sue Fish, a Yamaha support rider, and possibly Deb b ie Evans, who's mean on a motocross course. O t he r Yamaha riders traveling are Tim Lu nde and Rick j ohnson , who will be riding an MX series in Tahiti (Attention Kenny Clark: If either rider can't go, Papa Wealey offers to go in their pl ace) a nd Bob Hannah, who will be riding a stadi u m MX event in Montreal's O lympic Sta d iu m . Sketchy results from the May 6 250cc World Championship MX Series round ' in Ghent, Belgium indicat e that Nell Hudson (M ail scored the overall win with a 1-2 tally. Points leader Hakan Carlqvist (Husl put together a third in the first moto and a win in the second race for second overall. Defending champion Guennady Moiseev (KTMI finished third with a 2-3. No word on the Americans, Wha t ne x t ? N ow C al ifornia Sta te University p rofesso r Ba ya rd . .. T he Co uncil on Environment al Quality has p resent ed its re port on off· road vehi cles to President Carter, according to a Los Angeles Times a rticle. Among its recom menda tions, accord ing to th e T im es, is that ORV users be m ade to pay for maintenance of special facilities , similar to present programs in which hunters and fishermen p ay license fees for wildl ife ma nagem ent and fis h hatc heries . O n e observer speculated that this is the revised version of the originally-rejected ORV report done for the CE Q by David Sheridan, author of anti- O fcV a rt icles in the Smithsonian and New West . More details on the report in next week's issue. California Racing Club's Dunestown Grand Prix at Indian Dunes featured a large rider turnout and Pro class w ins by Dave Haugh (Openl, Donnie Hansen (250ccl and Team Suzuki's Brian Myerscough (125cc l. Complete coverage next week, C orrec t ion : Ita ljet- m ou nted road racers claimed the top three spots in th e Ma rc h 25 AFM event at W illow Springs , which is not the way we listed it. A scoring erro r ca use d th e mistake, acc ording to It a ljet distributor Ma rion Cal d a to. Prairie City OHV Park in Sacramento, CA is now open from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. since daylight savings time went into effect. More park info is available at 916/351-{)271, or write 3701 Branch Center Road, Room 106, Sacramento, CA 95827. Jeff Bu rtt , former P.R. person for U .S. Suzuki, has left the firm. j eff was Papa's main man for Eu ropean race info as well as loads of other stuff, and we'll miss him. Bryon Farnsworth, former P.R. person for Kawasaki Motors Corp.. USA, has been transferred to another department. Bryon was another of Papa 's main men for European race info and other P.R. related items, and we'll miss him. Want ed : P .R. position wit h japanese motorcycle fir m for el derly .gossi p column writer for weekly ta bloid. Has lo ts of experience in d eal ing with former P.R. peop le, and even knows how to spell the na m es of Grand Prix racers like Gue n n a dy Mo iseev , Hiroyuki Kawa sak i and Chuck Sun. If you're beautiful (sit down, Papa) and would like to be Miss Bel-Ray at the June 10 Carlsbad USGP of Motocross, here's what ya gotta do. Send in a photo and a short (Continued to pag e jJ)