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/126422
8Uffered II dialocllted hip wh.n he feU In Rivereide Recewey. tum six during lin AFM road race lind hit the unprotected guard rell. Eddl.'. hlp wU put beck In piece without surgery lind he'll '" undergoing trection for the next two weeks, followed by lin .xpected, six to eight weeks on crutehea. Get weu wishes should be sent to Eddie Lawson. Room 202&, Keiaer Perrnane.nte Hoapitel, 9981 Sierra Ave., Fontana. CA 92336. Bobby Meyen, one of nonhero , California's top motocrossen, suffered severe leg injuries ir, a -crash while competing in a motocross in the midwest, between National rounds. Get well wishes and cards should be sent to him at Saint Anthony's Hospital, 1000 Lee Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73102, Room 7707. Team Suzuki'. Gerrlt Wolaink scored lin ov. ." win lit his hom.country &OOcc World Chempionship MX Series held July 29 In Markelo, HoIIIInd. Nineteen seconds wee his mergln of victory .. T..m Honda'. Greham Noyce pHoted his BiH BuchU-tuned mec:hine to the first moto Vldn lind II second piecing In round two for second overalL to tie WoIIink'. 2-1 score. Vamahe'. reigning World Champ Heikkl Mikkola reglatered • peir of third pilldngs for third 0VIII'lIIL Bred uckey DNF round one, reportedly bec:IIuse the K8weallkI seized. then turned In lin IIighth piece ride in the second motu. Roger DeCoa18r c:rahed In motu one end Injured his hand one report lllid bones wwe brok.n. With four motoIl'IIIRIIInIng In the ..... title chIIR, Noyce ieIIds his dOllllt competitor, Wolsink. by II 4O-polnt INII'IIn. 2111 to 167: Lackey is third with 140 lind no hope of CIItChIng Noyce for the title. Mikkola I. fourth with 138 ahead of Honda'. Andre Mlliherbe lind Suzuki'. Roger DeCoster who heve 122 lind 104 respectiv.ly. Another Dutchman topped a World Championship event on July 29, also a 500cc race, this one the Road Race Grand Prix at Imatra in Finland. Boet van Dulmen rode his RG500 Suzuki to the front of the international field with American Randy Mamola, also Suzuki-mounted, in second place. Barry Sheene put another Suzuki in third. '"World Champ Kenny Roberts finished sixth, riding a bike that was performing less than perfectly. 'Roberts had been clocked unofficially as fast qualifier, but official tim!ng had him second. Riding on a damp track folIowing rain, Roberts got off the dry groove, missed a chicane, then returned to the track in tenth place. Virginio Ferrari DNF; no repon why. Point standings have Roberts on top with 88 over Ferrari's 81. . Jimmy Weinert. in his firat &OOcc MXGP with Lackey in Europe, didn't finish .ither motu. 2 Lynn Abrams of Racecraften and Jim DickilllOn 9f Action Faun escaped injury on July 29 after a crash destroyed their light plane shortly after taking off from a San Fernando Valley airpon. For no obvious reason, the aircraft dropped through powerlines, shearing off a treetop, finally landing in the backyard of a private residence. Abrams filmed the remains with his home movie camera an reponedly has submitted it to a local TV news service. The pair were on their way out to Willow Springs to join their rider Steve McLaughlin at a testing session. Fr.nchmlln Petrick Pons took over the points lead In the Formule 750 World Chempionship Roed Rllce Series with II vIctory In the Cenedlen F750 round lit Moaport Pn. Pons posted II 1-2 telly In tha two '-ts to best Cenedlen Steve Gerveia 12-3J end Swiss MichelFrutsc:hi 1&-11. Pons now IeIIds Johnny Cec:otto In the. point ItIIndlnga. 98-79, with FruDchI third lit 71. Cenedian Vvon wee reportedly DuHamel competlnlf llboard the Bob Worktuned Vamabe Motor Cenede TZ7&O, but DNF both hNtI with mechlInicel troubl... Many Cycle News ad~isen will hear a new voice on their phones staning this week when former Dealer Sales Manager Terry Pratt steps from the phClne booth after donning his Advenising Manager costume and assumes his new role as a salesman of space on these pages. Terry replaces Jim Ryan who has left to become even richer and more famous selling ads for another book. Papa wisqes both the best of everything, and he wants his agent's cut right nowl Out of the b1ulI, Bred Hurst winner of the Ceatie Rock TT on Triumph. received a che.ck for .100, Why? Don KOIhir of BIICIIU.. Weatrnorelend Triumph Sal.. in GrHnsburg, PA thought h. deIervecI it. Bound for Sturgis? The annual Black Hills RaIly, slated for Au~, 6-12 in the South Dakota town. will see some changes this year, according to Richard Creed, fonner C'JCle News editor now plying his trade editing one of the Sturgis newspapen. There'll be no more motorcycle parking in the center of the street, only ilgllinst the curbs, although the bike Pinking area will be extended an extra block, Gas is no-problem, quantity·wise, but don't expect to ride in late at night and still find stations open. They're'c1osing at 6 p.m. on week nighu and shutting down entirely on the weekends. The new mayor is not a motorcycle .enthusiast, and he's said he'd like to limit the rally and surrounding happenings to 10,000 people, Extra highway patrol officers wil be on duty, as usual. Ho.PlTei STOP: Eddl. Lawson, one of southern Ceilfomle'. top tnK:kJroed race competitors, The AMA Dirt Trllck Rules Committee met July 24 In Lo. Ange.... first In op.n ••••Ion· to h.ar comm.nt on po••lbl. r••trlctor rul.. for 750cc dirt track mechlne.ry, then In clo..d ...Iion to milk. their recomm.ndlltion to the Commluloner of Profe.lllionel Recing. Mlk. DIPrete, By II vote of three In fevor end one llbatention (Hllrold Murr.III, th.y vot.d to recomm.nd 27mm restrletorl for the 7&OL DiPrete, howe.v., IIIicI he wli present that recomrnet ldetion IIIong with one for 2Bmm ,_, IctorI to the AMA 80IIrd of'Tru8tee. when they - meet eerIy next week. Tbe Din Track Rules Committee also recommended another rule change that would take place in 1981. The proposed change would raise the Novice·to-Junior point requirement from 40 to 60 poinu. and the Junior· to-Expert requirement from 80 to 100_ Riders would also be required to hold their licenses for 12 months, instead of the present six months. The open ....Ion of the Dirt Track Rul.. Committ••' m••tlng produced II lot of comment. Gary Scott. the rider rep on the ~d lind the only racer pre..nt lifter the others left for DuQuoin, worried llbout the co.t lind tIi. posslbl. ,ob.ol••c.nc. of hi. Hllrl.yDlIVidlOn equlpm.nt ("I'm going to hev. to get II 500 anyway. I don't know If my Harl.y would b. comp.tltlv•. "I Hllrl.y-DlIvldson'. Dick O'Brien qullltioned the need for a rule cheng., uyIng that "W. hllv. f1v. companle. thllt cen afford to go ,.cing. They cen efford to build IIny damn thing they we.nt to:' Hondll" D.nnl. McKllY argued for the rule chlInge, AYing that It would inc:reeae support of the aport lit the de.eler 1ev.1: "I we.nt to ... 100 Honde dealers supporting CIesa C rec:Ing," IIIid McKey, who lllso told the group that If there WIIS no rule chlInge, "EverythIng I've done this yNr to gilt Honde Into recIng wiD go clown the dreln," S9rne others ...... for II two-d... RiOO end 7IiOc:c) but .v.ntullily the committe. voted In fllvor of the 27mm ..,.tem, restrictDrs. 'Tm extremely upset at our cornpetiton' attitude, They want it handed to them on a silver platter, instead of working for it." saId Dick O'Brien, head of the Harley·Davidson racing depanment, about pro~ 750cc din track carburetor restnction rules. "They want to go for number one, but they don't want to work for it. , . if they want to play in our ballpark, they should play by our rules," he added. O'Brien said be was bothered. by the Japanese manufacturers' willingness to spend "millions" on a 500cc road racing effon in Europe u opposed to their insistance on a nile change before they would compete in American din track, With millions of doUan in Harley-Davidson din trad equipment in the hands of privateers across the country, O'Brien said "I expect that the privateer. with DO development work, is going to spend a couple of thousand dollars to try and get the horsepower back," while the Japanese teams could "come out with a bullet 500 and annihilate everybody." There '_. II misund.rltllnding which led to lin .rror in lest WNk'. Ascot TT cov.reg.. Th. 7&Oc:c: Vemehe .ngin. which propelled Steve Eklund to the win W8I d.v.loped .olely by Merlo Zenotti'. Zenottl Enterprf.... Mllrlo, a Stanford University r.u_eIl _0ciat8 - not ~ tiel ' plof8Uor who .pon.ors Ekknt. h8I II MlIIUIr'. degree In .nglneerlng and he. de.slgne.d unlqu. modiflcetion. for ell of Eklund'. blk.., The Vllmllhe, for lnatence, features II redesigned clutch to .llmlnete re.er wheal "pogo sticking" lind 8 reworked flywheel .ystem to centrllHze rotllting me.. end Its gyroscopic effect for better hendUng. Check Chase retumsl Maybe. Negotia· tions with the Bureau of Land Man· agement by the AMA and 0-57 memben have made likely the ns· establishment of the Checkers M.C. point·to-point hare and hound. fint 'run in 1950. BLM approval bas not officially been granted, but the red tape in preparing for such an event has been greatly trimmed, thanks larseJy to the District 57 Legal Defense .Task Force. As D-57's Jim Wells. put it, "We're not out of the woods yet. bat for the fint time in a long time. we may be able to look forward to an event like we used to have. Tentative date for the 27th Check Chase is Oct. 27. Keep your fingers crossed! Tickets to the Mr. PIBB presented VemehlI 12&1&OOcc AMA Nlltlonsl Championship MX Serle. a".nt lit Rio Bravo Motorcycle Perk inlly be purchll••d through Top TIck.t Iocetiona, ••a Vamaha dealers or lit Rio Brevo. They're $I each for adults, 6-12 helf price, under six free. P.nthou.. P.t for Jun., D.bbi. Zullo will pr•••nt the victory circle leur.i•. Did you know that Can· Am is planning a 500cc single cylinder street machine for the 198~ model year? Ov. 1.200 ridera have signed up for the Aug. 8-12 Vernllhll 1179 Motocross NMA Grend Netlonsl ChempionshIp event lit Ponce CIty, OK. NBC Sports World reportedly wi! tim the event to be shown aometim. In October. OueIIfYdlg races (&7, In ell wwe run in 12 NMA regions. More info? D1e12131 ...,12. The September 2 AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series road race at Loudon, New Hampshire, bas been canceled. The promoter hu elected not to renew the autumn race at Bryar Motonporu Park. fint held last year, and no replacement date has been announc:i:d by the AMA. S.ml·r.liebl. grep.vln. rllporta have II Honda - J*'heP' the one piloted by Deia SIngleton end o.ve Aldene - winning the July 29 Suzuke &-hour e.ndurence race. •