Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

DIc:I you hear the rumor about the Oakland Supercroaa elate changing from Feb. 17 to AprIl 137 " 10, forget It. It ain't gonna happen. Oakland lItays at Feb. 17, but the April 13 AMA 121i12!iOcc National MX Series event will change locations. Orglnally slated for Houston, it's been moved to Lake Whitney, near Dallas. Cycle News dealers will be talking with a new Dealer Sales Manager, effective immediately. Duane Johnson, former sales manager at a Honda/Yamaha/ Bultaco dealership in Omaha. NE, will be handling your accounts now that Harry Fisher has gone on to accept a management position with a truclr.ing firm. If you're going to the Anaheim show, it'd be a good place to meet Duane. Speaking of the Anaheim show, it's also e good spot to check out CCM's new XR500 Honda kit. a complate roiling chassis just waitIng for your motor. Randy Mamola on a Suzuki Superbike? Could be, according to an informed source at U.S. Suzuki. And his debut may be at Daytona. FIm maker Pater Starr and road racerlinstruetor Keith Code _ra Intarviawed recantly for Eye Wit· ness. Los Angeles, a Satw'day "magazine" show on KABC, Channel 7. Air elate for that program, based on the question "What attracts young people to motorcycle racing7' Is Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. caps from Starr's film Taira If fa .... ...." wII be shown. ThOR interested in participating in the annual tour from San Francisco to Houston for the Winston Pro ~es Nationals should contact Bill Spencer at 415/969-1682. The tour departs from "Ttle City" on either the morning or night of February 7. For tho.. interested in the upcoming Bay Araa-OakIand Supercross in Feb. of 1980, the qualifier series will be taking around 700 riders from the six qualifying eventl and along with tickets to the races on Sunday, tickets to the accompanying trade show, event T-shirt and patch make for a good buy for only $30. Tickets for both Sunday's Pro Supercross and Monday's Sportsman event from Bill Spencer, 4151969-1682. Mike Bast and Ken Maely have joined forces once again to present a speedway school that's good for ya even if you're already a good rider. It all takes place at the Maely goose ranch in Corona on Jan. 26-27. Rental bikes are available at $25/day, and you may phone either Bast (714/9897786) or Maely (714/7!15-0540) and reserve your spot. Jim Lewis, ..... manager for Smith Products, and WIlkins, advertising saleslady for RIder magazine and a former employ. . of Cycle Na. ., got hitched on Saturday, January Malcolm Debbie 6. Congratsl MXer John Savitski separated a shoulder in a Jan. II practice crash in Florida. No info on John Boy's planned return-to-action date. Promoter Pate Weidner has sold Mid-Ohio Moto Park. Effective Jan. &. 1980, Mid-Ohlo became the propeI1y of a new corporation led by M.-k CockIey. • THE NATIONAL PAPERS 'Domeward bound for lucky 113 Going back to Texas for the 13th year and the twin AMA openers on Feb. 8-9 at the Houston Astrodome? It's time once again. Break out all the new rookie Experts, but be sure to throwaway all their press clippings from their Novice and Junior years. Rookies do not fare well at the 'Dome. Break out the new racing suits of leather, the new bikes and new paint jobs. More than one will leave Texas beaten. battered and scratched. Times change quickly. A few years ago, it was all 6501750cc twins for the TT. Now most will be 500cc singles, winning singles. Bring in the "TT specialists" from the Nonhwest for Friday night and the oval gang from shon track, half mile and mile for Saturday night_ But whc!n the real bets are placed, remember this: Only one rider has ever won the TT twice, only one rider has ever won the shon track twice, and only one rider has ever won them both in the same season. If the I !Ith annual is to be lucky, then it would be that for Steve Eklund who has won I!I National races or Randy Goss who carries number I!I and scored I!I points each night in '79. What about Kenny Roberts return· ing to National din racing for the first time since he rode at Houston back in , '78? The "official word" is that he will race both events. Some avid bench racers are saying that he will win them both; some say he will win one of them. Some are betting he will not qualify for either' final ... with odds, of course. The Grand Marshal will be Bart Markel. Bart has tried to qualify for the short track event down there for several years but has failed to make the cut. This time he gets a special ride around the track and will stand alone atop the famous jump before the race as the only rider to ever win 28 National races. Soon after the introduction he will be flanked on one side by Jay Springsteen who has 25 victories and on the other side by Roberts who has 27 - a combined total of 80 National wins! Bring your camera. Robens, after a long career in the din track ranks. makes his only dirt appearance for the year at Houston. Not to be outdone is first time dirt Expert, Freddie Spencer, who watched last year with a broken arm while the Juniors did their thing. Freddie will also ride the dirt this year only at Houston. Spencer, the new pride of Louisiana has signed with Honda to ride in the Superbike class at all AMA road races this year and then jump down to a new 250cc Honda for all of the new Kenny Robens Benefit European road race series that was created by Kenny, promoted by Kenny and will more than likely be won by Kenny. But fast Freddie wants to race at least once in front of those avid Bayou state fans that have had nothing to cheer about for the past few years. He will also ride in the Daytona 200 miler aboard a Yamaha 750 and later at Laguna on the same bomb toned by Erv Kanemoto, the master wrench who tuned Freddie to the top spot in 250cc Expert road racing last season. Freddie wants at least one shot at Robens in the states in a non-sponsored R;'berts event to find out just how much he really has learned since he was 12 years old and a new road racer. The Roberts-Spencer shootout at Daytona should be wonh another 10,000-20,000 people. Honda, Harley-Davidson and Yamaha will all have factory· sponsored riders at Houston. Honda's Mickey Fay won it last year but didn't win another race the rest of the year. Ted Boody won the next night on a Yamaha as a privateer. Like Fay, Ted was to find Houston his only win in '79. New faces include another Jones boy, David, from Oklahoma, Bubba Shoben and Ricky Resweber from Texas andJeff Haney from California, to name a few. Shobert won both of the Junior invitationals at the 'Dome last year to become the only Junior ever to do that twin·win-in-24-hours bit. The 1979 Rookie of the Year, Michigan's Scotty Parker will be back a year older, much wiser and with a full year on the circuit behind him, which included two National wins. Scotty failed to make either main event last February. Jay Springsteen is back with his new teammate, Randy Goss. Jay took a full bore whaclr. in the back during the TT last year and was on and off the injury list the rest of the way. Running hurt, he still bagged four major wins. But as late as December they were still calling the doctor for an appointment to continue to try and find out what is causing the problems. This was after a trip to the famed Mayo Clinic where they are supposed to know it all when it comes to health problems. Good luck. Jay. The new Champ, Steve Eklund, and his "Think-Tank" squad from California are ready for the 'Dome once again. Eklund always does well in both events and stands alone as the only double winner of the twin events the same year. Rate him as the favorite both nights and you have a good bet going_ Eklund, Springsteen and many more would like nothing better than to get King Kenny into both finals and show the newer race fans the' fast way around. But Kenny has won both events under the roof in the past, once as a long ago rookie. He knows his way around, and don't be fooled by the fact that he has not raced the AMA din for two years. Another good bet. Somewhere outside of beautiful downtown Modesto there has to be a practice track of some son to keep Kenny busy between flights to Europe. But when all is said and done. the 'Dome events of late have created a habit of popping up with new/unexpected riders in the first three places. The majority do not crack the winners' circle the rest of the year for many reasons. You have to be good, you have to be brave, you have to be consistent and you have to be lucky even to get into either main event. You have to have a lot of everything to get in the select circle. The motorcycle show goes for three days once again right next door to the 'Dome. All in all, it probably is the most compact and best buy of the year, and nobody cares whether it rains or not. See you under the lights on Feb. 8-9 along with 40,OOO-plus fans and two to three hundred new and old Pro racers. Roxy Rockwood Goodnews According to Assemblyman Bob Hayes' office, the present confusion in the Capitol over the Speakership of the Assembly has caused the attempt to overrride the Governor's veto of Assembly Bill 1407 to be delayed for at least another week. This gives us. more time to pick up the phone and call your own Assemblyman and tell him to support Hayes' veto override of the Sagebrusl) Rebellion bill. In spite of the inaction on the Assembly floor, Hayes tells us that there has been some significant progress on pro-biker legislation in the committees. Hayes' Assembly Bill 1620 was approved in the Parks and Wildlife Committee on January 9. This bill will require the Department of Parks and Recreation to begin a plan to develop a motorcycle trail system which will extend across the state. Sounds good to us. Hayes assures us that there is a plan afoot to make sure that bikers have a major inFut into the development of this trai plan. There are still a number of legislative hurdles ahead for this idea, but if it happens, good things might be in store for riders. The Bureau of Land Management is still working on a reorganization of that agency's offices within California_ Although "officially" no final decision has been reached, it is a badly kept secret that State Director Jim Ruch has already requested the funds to pull it off. The level of dissatisfaction among field employees in the BLM over the tactics of newly-appointed State Di'rector Ruch is at an all-time high. We wonder if many of the BLMers in the rank and file might secr~t1y be supporting the Sagebrush Rebellion. Certainly it wouldn't break a lot of hearts among BLM staffers if Ruch became the victim of an internal "sagebrush rebellion" and got transferred to Fresno or Alaska or some place where he couldn't do as much harm. We know a Duck who might even buy the plane tickets. Still, it's hard for us to sympathize a great deal with the poor BLM employees who feel so oppressed by their new dictatorial boss. After all. it was many of these same people who cancelled race permits, requested us to get impossible written permission permits for crossing mall tracts of private lands, etc. And worst of all, they dragged the Phanlom Duck through the courts for a ycar just to prove that iI'S not nice to question BLM. Anyway. we still want to wish them well on their attempts to do away with Ruch. C. N. Deepthroat Published opinions and views do not necessar· ily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Send response or rebuttal to Cycle News, P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA90801. 3

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