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/126456
IAbove) Randy Goss must be listed with Eklund and Springer as a likely 1980 champ. (Below) Steve Morehead (42) looks good. too. Rick Hocking returned to the top ten last year after putting in a solid season. Hocking capped 1979 with a win in the Santa Fe Short Track National· his fourth career victory. Yamaha has chosen Hocking for factory backing at all IT and short tra.ck Nationals. Hocking scored 82 of his 124 total points in those two divisions. It appears as of this writing that Hocking will continue his association with Chris Armstrong/H·D of Las Vegas/Spartan Trucking, his sponsors of last season on the miles and half miles. Hocking is a charger and a manhandler . the rougher the track the more fun to ride. He has never quite fulfilled the promise that he showed in the mid '70's. Perhaps this is the year. Corky Keener doesn't like to be left out of the top ten. With the exception of 1976 when he broke a leg. Keener has been collecting points top ten style since 1974. He sees this season no·dif· ferently. , "I've got a good program although it could be better, but then everything could always be better. Al Stangler. ·,ho tuned for me last -year. will again prepare my bikes at the Harley' Davidson factory at the beginning of the season. From there on it will be me who does the majority of maintenance. "I look for a good season. I was close a couple of times last year. but had some really bad luck. I need to get back into the winning groove." Don't count "Mr. Dirt" out at any time. There are plenty of others who deserve mention. Ted Boody spent a good part of last year healing from a road racing accident in June. He came back strong in the final events of the season, but still has problems with his knees from the accident. Boody will continue his sponsorship from Arai Helmets for the coming season. Terry Poovey picked up his second and third career wins last season on the half miles at Columbus and The Meadows, aboard Doug Sehl prepared machines. This year "Pooh Bear" will be backed by Jack Sisemore Traveland and Bel· Ray, aboard a Harley he bought from Mert Lawwill. Look for his brother, Teddy, to be handling the wrenches. Ricky Graham's charge ended at mid·season when he ran out of parts and machinery. He charged through the final 'half aboard borrowed bikes and still managed to finish in a tie . with Poovey . for 13th. This year Graham has picked up Klotz/Wiseco sponsorship and will have Tex Peel building and tuning his bikes. Scott Peanon's backing from Harley· Davidson West came to an end at the close of the 1979 season. Pearson is currently putting together a sponsor· ship package. Billy Labrie made his first serious attempt at running the Winston Pro Series last season and finished 18th overall although he ran only about half of the Nationals. Mother Flet· cher's H·D will again back Labrie. Ganh Brow will be aboard machin· ery built and tuned by Jimmy Clarke. Brow is currently looking for sponsor· ship after losing his backing by Klotz/Wiseco. Despite hot and cold performances, Brow is rated by many to be one of the best mile riders around. On good bikes, such as Mert Lawwill's in 1978, he proved why. Sure· Fire Distributing has put together a four rider effort led by 1978 Rookie of the Year Lance Jones. Carl Patrick will be tuning his mile and half mile bikes. Woody Kyle will do his short trackers. Look for Jones to make his strongest showing to date. Joining Jones will be Steve Freeman who is out to make a dent in the Harley·Davidson armor. Freeman will be riqing a Ducati Desmo 750 dirt tracker under the backing of Bill Eply with Dennis Harris doing the tuning. "I feel that a lot of people will be surprised when they see how well the Ducati runs," said Freeman. Two Rookie of the Year candidates Gene Church and Rick Farrington· round out the squad. Church will be aboard Tilly's H·D backed machinery while Farrington will have the backing ofCoxH·D. Gene Romero will concentrate on road racing, but will ride in all Winston Pro miles and selected half miles aboard machinery sponsored by Busch Beer. He will probably be mounted on Mert Lawwill prepared machinery. Although having lost his taste for half miles, Romero still gets the gas on. . There are many others who have shown promise or are long time competitors like Tommy Duma, Ronnie Jones, Phil McDonald, Bubba Rush, Jackie Mitchell Alex Jorgensen, Brad Hurst, Joe Wilson, Tom Berry, Mickey Fay, Keith Ulicki, Rickey Campbell, Scott Drake, Billy Schaeffer and others. They and many more all ride hard. The Rookies The new riders are always the hard· est to preview. The switch from Junior to Expert division is like night and day to the majority. To some it is a rude awakening, to others it is their cup of tea. For this reason, we will take a close look at the rookies after Houston. Those who bear watching· and this is a selective list based on performance in the AMA Eastern/Cen· tral/Western Regional Champion· ships· should be Bob Crabbe, Gene Church, Bubba Shobert, David Jones. and Jeff Haney. There are others, but these five topped their respective divisions. The road racers It is rather strange that now when there are enough road races scheduled to make racing a somewhat profitable proposition, a vast majority of riders are heading for Europe on either a full or part time basis. Certainly Daytona will pull everybody out of the wood· work, but after that look for an exodus. Two-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts will be out to give everybody hell at Daytona and at least two selected Nationals during the ye.ar. King Kenny just may choose to - field a 500cc mount from his Yamaha factory stable for Daytona. Based on his showing at last year's Sears Point National aboard the 500, King Kenny should be a threat. 1979 Daytona 200 winner Dale Singleton is heading for the World Championships with backing from a French carpet firm, Berry Tuft. Randy Mamola has been signed by Suzuki of Great Britain - Suzuki Japan's racing arm - to a contract. Skip Aksland is also set to spend a fu II season in Europe. Others heading across the pond include Freddie Spencer who will run for the 250cc World Championship when his Honda duties don't conflict. Rich Schlachter, West Cooley, John Long, Roberto Pietri are also set to go. Gene Romero has backing from Busch and will race all the Winston Pro Series Nationals. David Aldana will probably do the same. Romero and Aldana will probably also race in some European events. . R.on Pierce, Steve McLaughlin and Freddie Spencer will be Honda's spearhead in the Superbike class with Pierce and Spencer also riding in the Formula One events if they receive machinery. Wes Cooley will lead the Yoshimura Suzuki effort while Eddie Lawson will ride as Kawasaki's only fully backed representative. Familiar faces David Emde and Harry Klinzmann will also be around. And what of Mike Baldwin? His leg is still healing. He has on order or in hand at least one Yamaha TZ500 which be would like to race in Europe. Baldwin bas plenty of offers, but his schedule depends upon how quick he can be back in shape to ride. He may well spend more time racing in the V.S. than across the pond. The change of formula in road racing from F750 to Formula One rules unrestricted 500cc 2strokes/restricted 750cc 2strokesll 025cc 4-stroke - has opened the door to enough different machinery that we are basically starting all over in the road racing game. The door is open for a new crop of V.S. road racers to make their work. The tracks Of the 31 Winston Pro Series Nationals to be run, six are at new facilities. Of those six, two have hosted Nationals in the past. The following is a rundown of the tracks and a few notes. The two short track Nationals will be hosted at the Houston Astrodome and at Santa Fe Park in Hinsdale, Illinois. Both events have been on the schedule for years. There are five IT Nationals with each facility having hosted events in past seasons. The Houston Astrodome kicks off the IT's. It is a man-made course, very tight and demanding. Santa Fe Park's IT course is wide open, but also features a tight infield portion. One rider once said that Castle Rock is a track where the fence protects the riders from the spectators. The track contains no jump and favors riders from the Northwest rather than outsiders. Ascot always seems to produce good races. The track is more of a sweeping one than a tight, structured course. The PeoriaTT is the only "natural" IT course on the circuit. Making use of the terrain in an amphitheater. the track requires good handlin~, good braking and power. It is definitely not a 500cc track. The seven miles' -Sacramento. San Jose (twice), DuQuoin, Indianapolis (twice) and Syracuse each have dif· ferent perS9nalities although each is supposed to be 5280 feet around. Syracuse is the fastest. this is due mainly to the damp and overcast con- 9