Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

"I'm basically for a restrictor rule. (But) if nobody makes a commitment to be involved, then I'm against the restrictor rule.'~ AMA Commissioner of Professional Racing Mike DiPrete. " ... We've already commited ourselves this year, hoping there would b~ a rule change, and what we're going to have to wait for now is the rule change."-Honda Team Manager Dennis McKay.. "We are interested, yes. But we would have to be comPetitive before we would be interested. We don't intend to go racing in a ~tacked deck." Yamaha Team Manager Ken Clark. If the 5008 we..e competitive... By Dale Brown LONG BEACH, CA, JULY 23 On Tuesday morning, July 24, the American Motorcyclist Association's Dirt Track Rules Committee will meet in Los Angeles. The subject they'll be discussing is the possible carburetor restrictions to be placed on ·of both companies and asked them if 750cc din track machinery, and we would ~ factory involveme~t. if in the open pan of the session the 500cc bikes were made competttlve h 'II b ' , ' w i t h the 750s. t ey e recelvmg comments First, we talked to Yamaha's Kenny 18 from riders, mechanics and factory represent~tives. Following. a closed· door seSSIon of the committee, AMA C .. . P ro £esslona I R ' aClOg ommlssloner Mike DiPrete will return to Ohio, ~:eo~~e alternatives, and make a "I' b . II ~ . I" . ~ wca y Jor a restnctor ru e, IIald DiPrete when contacted by p~one a few days before the meeting. ak H he dded "If bod owever: a , .no y m es a, co~tment to ~ mvolv~, then 1m agamst t~ restnctor rule.. And there bes the hean of the ISSUe. Those for the rule, which' would 06 . -I prob a bly see ... mm restnctor pates -_..J 750 hi p lau:.. on __ L mac nery, 500 cc argue • ha · ould ~I~e unrestncted t. t It w cc bikes competitive and open up the AMA Grand National Championshipl Winston Pro Series to real brand competition - something it sorely lacks now, The involvement DiPrete apeaks of is likely to come from two of the big four Japanese manufacturers - Honda and Yamaha. Honda has already made a first step - sponsoring Junior Jeff Haney as a full-time factory rider and helping some Expen riders in the five TT races that are pan of the Winston Pro Series. Yamaha has also been providing some suppon to a few TT500 riders. We talked to the racing managers Clark. If the 7501 Weft restricted enough to __ L """u'u' Id .......e """" COIDpe ve, wou we lee Yamaha bec:omi • led' C1:uI C racing? ng mva v In ''I'm quite sure that you would. I'm sure you would see as much Yamaha factory involvement as you see at Honda already. Once one of the . . Japanese manufacturers gets mto It, you usually see all of them follow. I've seen the Suzuki folks at the dirt track, I've been there myself, and I'll be there (Ascot TT) Saturda night. We are . mterested ,yes. ButY we have to be . . I competitive before we cou d be . ed mterest. We d" t mtend to go on racing in a stacked deck." Hal Yamaha been developing anything in anticipation of such a rule? "No, we have not, anymore than I have been all along. But Men's been working on a 500cc Yamaha, and of course Steve Eklund's been riding a 500. Skip Aksland tried one at Castle Rock. A fellow named Rob Muzzy has been building some good ones. Kenny was going to ride one at Houston Kenny would probably like to ride at Houston next year, if he can reach an agreement with the promoter, and he would ride a 500. I've been helping those folks a little bit. If they do have a 500 rule, I won't be caught completely with my pants down. "The o~y thing I see with the restrictor rule is when you restrict a Harley so that it puts out he same horsepower as a Yamaha, somewhere between 42 and 48, which is what the ·really best ones are doing - no matter what anybody says about an 80· horsepower· Yamaha, there is no such thing. So we have a 45.horsepower Yamaha and a 45·horsepower Harley. The Yamaha has to be turning 8,500 rpm to make its 45 horsepower.. But the restricted 750 Harley is going to be making its 45 horsepower at what, 5,500 rpm, we'll say. I don't know that much about Harleys. And that's going to make them awful quick off the comers. Awful quick. "If we could be competitive, we would be very interested. I have been telling people for the last two years that in. order for them to resurrect din track, they need to put some interest into it. They've got to take one brand out, jUSl like 750 road racing. If they reduced the road racing limit to 500cc, perhaps they'd see works Hondas, works Suzukis· and works Kawualtis in this country as well, and ,not just 750 Yamahas. One brand dommation by any manufacturer, when they're the only one racing, is no good fOT the sport. It's fine that Yamaha can dominate motocross, but we've got someone to race with. Racing with yourself doesn't do anything." Then we talked :with. Honda's Dennis McKay: If 7501 were restricted enough to make 500a competitive or if there was a 5OOc:c limit, would we lee HODda factory involvement? "Yes. Currrently I've got a letter going to the AMA which states our position. This year we already have a factory rider full time, Jeff Haney. What we have written them about is not a 500cc rule, but a restricted 750cc rule. We don't want to move Harley or anybody out of racing, we just want to make it more competitive and with more brands. "We have been supponing Class C this year already with engines to frame builders so they can build frames around them. The cam people Nonon Cams and Megacycle have our cams. We're working with Dan Gumey on our 250cc four-stroke for more power both for enduro and shan track. We're looking into building a shon track engine. "We've helped Rick Hoclting, Mickey· Fay and John Hatdey this ,year in Class C, and they'll be running this weekend at Ascot. We've helped a few others a little more limited, not quite as much money, but just products and so fonh. "So, we've already committed ourselves this year, hoping there would be a rule change, and what we're going to have to wait ·for now is the rule change. If in fact they are going to change the rule, and we can be competitive in the Expert class, definitely we'll go. We'll also be Setlding out a suppon vehicle to help all Honda riders, " Then you'll definitely be supporting Expert riden fall time? "Oh, yes. That's what I've been grooming Haney for. I'd say we'd probably have three full time riders, two or three others that we'd help and then a vehicle in the field to help all Honda riders. In other words, I'd have one person out there that they could come to if they had a problem: "How' does this work?" "How does this carburetor work?" We'd have the answer. I think that's more important almost than factory riders. That's my feeling. If you've got support there, where if a guy has problems with his Lectron and you've got somebody there who knows what's working well and .can say, 'Well, here, why don't you try this?' That does more." •

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