Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Championship for ".000 or $4.000 with a $1,000 winner-talte-all Expert Match Race open to th~ fint 12 pre·~nt~red Experts. Or. at th~ promot~r's option. the $1.000 purse could go to a Novic~ program and ~Iiminate the Experts or add another $1.000 and do both, Juniors of m~rit would soon accumulat~ a nest ~gg previously impolSibl~. reciev~ som~ National attention and th~ir ranks would swell. Experts would compete at Winston Pro Series events using the current format. Regarding engin~ siz~: All Novices would compet~ on 2505, Juniors on SOOs and Experts on 7SOs on all types of din tracks including th~ short tracks. Th~ onJy exc~ption: indoor events. Th~ additional requir~m~nt that all transmissions. cylind~r h~ads and cases remain stock - no altfiations from O.E.M. specs - would h~lp keep costs of conv~rting a street bik~ ~ngine to a rac~ bike at a minimum and should be ~asy to monitor. Maximum carburetor sizes in ~ach class would .limit the valu~ of th~ more ~xotic but still I~gal ~ngine modifications America's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper Sharon Clayton. Publisher Tom Culp. Marketing Director Caroline Gendry. Sec. to the Publisher Nancy Gorak. Sec. to tbe Mktng. Dir. Advertising Skip Jobmon, Sal.. Manage<. Teiry Prall. Sales Manage<. Linda Brown. Advertising Coordinator. Editorial Charles Morey. Managing Editor. Dale Brown, Editor. Bobi McGann. Editor. possibl~. Graphics and Production Judy Klinger. Production Manager. Pamela Wood. Production Aooiatant. Marion HalUm.., Cindy Torres, Typo· graphy. DenniaGreene, Laboratory. Accounting Mike Klinger, Manager. Jeanne HammOJlll, ACCb. Rettivable, Donna Bryan. "-t. Accu. Rettivable. Terry Dailey. Credit MaDap. Circuletlon Rbeba Smidl. MaDap. Tammy Taylor, Smrlcy Sbon. AIoiotanb. Reader/Dealer ServIce Gin Harper, Want Ad Sales. Harry Fisher. DeaJer Sales ManaS'<". ServIce and Support Chris AilCbnoD, Receptioniat. Sam Dickinaoo. Sti. West %201 Cherry A.... Long Beach. CA P.O. 80.498, Long Beach. CA 90801 (%15) 4%7·7455; L.A. Line 656·8844. East 4190 Fim A.... Tucker, CA. P.O. 80s 805. Tucker. GA 50084. (404) 954·7850. Cycle N..../W..t (USPS 141·540) is published weekly ..ceptthe lint and lut week of the calendar year for Sl5 per year by Cye" N...., Inc.. %%01 Cherry Avenue. Long Beacb, CA 90801. Second e1... pootage paid at Long Beach. CA. POSTMASTER: $end form 3571 to Cycle N-. P.O. Box _ Long ' IIeM:h. CA .-n. Subscription rates: One year. ICCond e1... mail. S18; two yea.., second e1... mail. S50; three yea.., second d ... mail, $41. Cycle. News ~elc~mel .u~lolici~ed cditonal materu.1 mc.ludmg SIDrlO, cartOOlll'lhotOi. ctc. Such material, if publilhc , becomel the exclusive property of Cycle N..... Such accepted malrrial '- subject to rniaion ill is necesoary int he ooIe discretion of Cyele N..... UnooIicited material which is nOl uaed will be returned if accompanied by a aelf·add.-d sumped enYe1ope. All unaoliticated material will be handled with ....-able care. however. Cycle N DO responoibility for the safety. or damage to aucb material. Reprinting in whole or pan only by pennisaion of the publiaben. Advenising rites and drcu1ation information will be IeDt upon req...... See S.R.D.S. CopyrIght. Cycle N_. Inc. 1m. T. . .m.tt Cycle ~ railin• • U.S. Patant Offlca. All rlllht. ,. . wed. ON THE FRONT PAGE: Two of Suzuki', line-up grace thll week', ·front pege: The mUlCUler Superblk.to-theHCOnd-power GS1100, and 'eo 4 the ..rIou.-looking DR400 four-atroke off-road machine. PhotoI courtesY of U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp. More 110 Suzukll on p. 14. Thanks from "Ricochet" Rlbolzl At this tim~ I would lik~ to thank all th~ peopl~ who helped malt~ it possibl~ for m~ to participat~ in th~ ISDT in West Germany. Fint on t~ list is Bev. my wif~. for putting up with 'all those lat~. Iat~ nights in th~ gara~. Also. thanks to Stev~ Smith (SuperSeer Goggles), Conni~ And~non (Sun Rims), T~rry and J~an Davis (T~rrycabl~). B~II H~lmets. Scott Boy~r (Scott Boots). Bruce Challinor (Volvo-Jofa). Chris Cartfi (Rocky Mountain Cycl~ Products). Billy Oury (Oury Grips). John Duncan (Diamond Chain). Jack Ramey (P~nnzoil). Visa-Th~rm (Griffs jack~ts). K~n Boyko (DG), Tony McAndr~w (DunJop Tires), Dick Burleson (Husky Products) and HiPoint Racing. A special thanks [0 Dan "Ski" Chrusci~I, th~ Brush Poppers M.C. (District 17) and the AMA for claiming us. And thanks to all th~ peopl~ al Yamaha: Claud~. IT Joe. John F~ro, and Kevin "Hollywood" Ha~rty, who su~ed th~ whol~ thing. RON RIBOLZI ISDTI142 Oglesby,IL Ribo/zi earned a Gold medal at the ISDTin West Germany.jinishing 18th in the 17Jcc class ... Editor. Texas trail riders I just ~ard that th~ Check Chase was denied its permit by th~ BLM so much for the agreem~nt with th~ Phantom Ducll.. Which brings m~ to th~ reason I'm writing. Som~ fri~nds and I ar~ planning th~ long trip from Texas to California for th~ Thanksgiving weelt~nd. W~ undentand that th~ ar~a around Bantow th~ Harvard ~xit - is not cloaed to ORV use. but t~r~ is some privat~ land. W~ wish you would publish a map of that ar~a and toward Las V~gas so w~ wouldn't be doing any trespassing. W~ furth~r und~rstand that this area is sometimes congest~d with individual trail riders, so to avoid confusion w~ int~nd to post a bann~r from our AMA District 20. and fly th~ £1.ag of th~ T~xas. 49 FROM TEXAS R~~berth~ Alamo! Active participation It seems this has b«n a low period for desert rid~n... with Gov~mor Brown·s v~toes of AB 1407. th~ Sagebrush Rebellion bill. and AB 101. environmental protection for ORVs. Now th~ BLM has denied th~ permit application for the 1979 Check Chase. They took IS months to malr.~ this d~cision, waiting until th~ Check~n had spent large sums of money for adv~nising and finisher pins. ~tc. Th~ BLM could hav~ d~nied the permit in July, 1978. since they had no intention of approving it. But they get th~ir "kicks" by I~tting you malt~ plans and th~n... permit d~nied: It's a pow~r play, pure and simpl~. I suggest· that th~ Check~rs send a bill to th~ BLM for the money that was spent and wast~d promoting this event. They say that there will be no '79 -B10 ·V; that no one applied for a permit. Maybe that's tru~, mayb~ no one applied for a permit (SVGMC applied in July, 1978 for a '79 Barstow to Vegas race, and the application was denied... Editor.) But th~re witl be a '79 B-IO'V and it will be th~ la~t ev~r held. Thumper Freak is right - I~tt~n ~Ip but active panicipation in a cause is th~ onJy way to win. So I and five m~bers of my family will travel from north~rn California and activ~ly participate. W~ will be at Barstow on Nov. 24, 1979. Com~ on Ducltbackcrs; AcmeIy panicipat~.. .it's your future. P.M.M. Vall~jo, CA Dirt track revisions I am t~ onJy professional promoteI' of AMA pro dirt track races left in Michigan, th~ inv~ntor of th~ T~am Michigan Match Rac~ conc~pt and the dev~loper of th~ Invitational Indoor lc~ Rac~ Series. I'm duly conc~m~d about c~rtain tr~nds. First of all. ~t~aling Juniors from local races to "fill" a National card will b~ th~ final nail in th~ coffin for small~r feed~r races and it will cr~at~ mor~ probl~ms than it solves. A suggestion: once a month, starting in F~bruary. have a National Junior Separate th~ Din Track Champion· ship from the Road Rac~ Champion· ship. Whatev~r th~ old r~asons w~r~ for keeping it togeth~r... they don't apply any lon~rl It's far too ~xpensiv~ and dan~roU5 for rid~rs committed to th~ numb~r on~ plat~ in eith~r category to hav~ to have skills and investments in th~ other. Neith~r will suff~r for th~ change; both should improve and road racing should be as Int~rnational as possibl~ with production racing rev~rting to a "tru~ .. production class - stocle engine parts. Up th~ production units required to SOO for AMA approval for all racing classes. Hold an annual meeting at Daytona on Monday aft~r th~ 200 between rid~r reps (Novic~, Junior and Expert). interested promot~rs and the various AMA competition boards. Purpose? Review every subject submitted, in writing. to th~ r~sp~ctiv~ AMA competition boards 60 days prior. Resolutions from th~ meeting to be acted upon for impl~m~ntation as soon as January first of th~ following year if need b~. , Drop th~ t~rm "R~gional Championship," up the purse 50% and ref~r to th~m as "Nationals". They are ~xactly that consid~ring th~ ~ntries com~ from all over th~ nationa and Canada. The problem is that every local Sportswritfi and/or broad· cast~r knows what a R~gional Championship is... it's a baseball. football or baslr.~tball gam~ b~tween schools in on~ corner of his county. Rcffi to th~ "Winston Pro Series" as just that! The addition of the phrase Grand National Championship would add a littl~ racing color that all oth~r motor sports use v~ry effectiv~ly. Lastly. incr~a.~ th~ minimum acc~ptabl~ purs~ for an AMA sanctioned event by 10% each year for at I~ast th~ n~xt six years which would weed out marginal promot~rs and tracks wh~r~ no effort is mad~ to do a good job of promoting sinc~ th~re isn't that much to lose. History proves that th~ bigger th~ invested risk th~ b~tter th~ promotion. This weeding out process would allow the strong venues to surviv~ and mor~ rid~rs would b~ making mor~ mon~y. This action is long ov~rduel Rid~rs have been racing for a $1,200 minimum purse sinc~ th~ ~arly 60s mayb~ earli~r. until last year wh~n a $1.500 minimum purs~ ~volved. STATON LORENZ Presid~D[ Northvill~ Downs Half Mile Cyc1~ Race Corp. Nonhvill~. OH

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