Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• . championship half mile at Devil's Bowl Speedway saw Kidd (H-D I t ak e the Expert race, which was halted on the eighth lap after Terry Poovey took the lead but ran int o a slower rider and went down. Shobert finished second among the Experts while J im Filice did in the Juniors on his 500cc Yamaha. Randy Spence (Yam) topped the Novice field. HosPITal STO P: Speedway rider Dan McNeill unloaded ha rd at the May 14 Sa n Bernardino race suffering a broken arm in the process. He went to the hospita l tha t night, was released , then went into anot her hospi ta l Thursday and underwent an operat ion on t he arm. He's home now, and a few get well ca rds may be in o rder. Send 'em to Dan McNeill , 8691 Belmont , Cypress , CA 90630 . A hundred people who are interested in fame, fortune, a free lunch and t ick et s to the Coca-Cola Superbowl of Motocrross are needed for t he f ilming of the Walt Disney film The Devil and Max Devlin. Two shoots are scheduled, at Indian Dunes and at Carlsbad. Phone CRC (you don't have to be a member) at 213/830-7519 or 714/689-6114 for details. Spe aking of CRC, one of their rare Carlsbad motocross races is sla ted for June I . Full track preparation has bee n promised . If you own a 650cc Yamaha twin , and if you don't belong to the Yamaha 650 Society, you're missing out. Their newsletter alone makes the membership worthwhile. They live at Box 1. Princeville, IL 61559. HosPITal STOP: M ike Tripes, the CMC 125cc number one plate holder, crashed hard April 25 at Saddleback Park while leading the SSM 125cc Pro class. As a result of the crash, Mike broke his wrist severely and surgery was performed Friday, May 9, to put a pin in the wrist, Tripes said he could be out of racing for six months. John Pavich , whom many of you may re member as being one of Husqvarna's finest sa les-people a nd who many more may remem ber as being one of Malcolm Sm it h's finest salespeople, is not selling green onions and radishes. in Ventura . Not only that, bu t he got married on April 19 to Leslie Pu ttuck . Wha t more can we say? And then there's the SoCal M.C.'s July 5-6 California City Gran Prix .. . Team Yamaha plans to ride, and so do about 1,000 other people . Are you one of 'em ? For an entry blank, send a SASE to SoCal M ,C. Entry, 606 E. Birmingham Rd., Burbank, CA 91504. Need more info? Phone Rory (evenings) at 213/375-1336 or Dick at 213/644-0035 . If you tried to phone Slater Brothers to ask them about the Cagiva pict ure we printed in this column a couple weeks ago, you probably didn't have much luck. Turned out the number given us was incorrect. If you're still curious, try this one: 707/833-2622. Team Suzuki 's Brian Myerscough has be en getting the f eel of a f ast pace using four wheels - he 's been running mini Indy cars with ro tary Wankel engines in his spare time while at home' in San Antonio, Texas. Vic Cox. long known as "Mr. In d ia n ." and the n associated with BSA , passed away at the age of 79 after sufferin g a heart a ttack Saturda y. May II at his Colorado home . Godspeed. Vic. Assemblyman Bob Hayes, facing no opposition in ' the June 3 ......... 'O . • • • •• • Suzu ki's AMA National Championship Enduro Series/ISDT Q ua lifier Series rider Drew Smith will be out of action for an undeterm ined time. Smith re cently ha d a cast removed from his broken right wrist and was riding wit h a b rac e in a local Ne w Jersey enduro May 4 when he re -b roke the bone .. Pontiac Supercross w inner Kent Howerton has just about completed a year-long project: Building a competitive four-stroke plavbike. It has a .H usk y frame, Honda XL350 engine and Suzuki front end, tank, fenders and handlebars. "I haven't qu ite hit on t he right suspension set-up yet, but I'll get it. I can go pretty fast on it . I li k e f our-st ro k e power," Howerton said. Because our pri nter gets Memorial Day off - an d (glee) so do we - next week's issue of Cycle News will be a d a y la te.. goi ng to press May 27 . • • • • 4 • • •• • • • _ • • • The Desert Vipers' J u ne 7·8 Dual European Scrambles will feat u re a new twist - team racing . Two -man teams will tackle the Soggy Dry La ke terra in each d ay, wit h riders spli tting the four loops around the course. As a highlight of its first race under new management , the American Road Racing Association will hold a 15·lap main event at Wi llow Springs Race way . May 25, featuring Open Produc tion "T hu nder Bikes." This will be come a regula r p a rt of future AR RA ' races, with a different class featu red a t each event. Licensing and rider instruction will be available at the track . New number for AR RA is 805 / 966 -5700. The 1980 Women's .125cc Expert National Motocross Championship race will be held Saturday, June 21. at Carlsbad Raceway, That's the day before the Bel-Ray 500cc USGP of Motocross, and ABC's Wide World of Sports will be filming the race. The 250cc Expert and all the Amateur and Novice classes will run Aug. 17, t he originally scheduled date of the Women's Nationals. For more inf o, contact Vicki Miller Haag at 714/462-9395. .... Republican primary, is mounting a low-key campaign geared to build for the November wars, and he can use your help. If you live in the San Fernando Valley, why don't you contact Hayes' office about putting a Hayes yard sign in your front yard? Call 213/368-8045 to volunteer. Mark An derson of the Motorcycle Industry Council to ld Pa pa that the re'll he a four-d ay Motorcycle Trail Construction a nd Maintenance workshop , J u ly 7·10 , a t the Cap itol State Forest and the Wenatchee National Forest. both in the state of W ash ingto n . T he workshop is aimed at people a nd agencies who want to lea rn how to develop tra ilbike facilities , If that includes you, cont a ct the MIC at 4100 ' Birch St .. Suite 101 , Newport Beach, CA 92660 . Watch A B C Wide Wor ld a/SpOTts on May 24 for the airing of t he Ma y 4 D .LD San Jose Mile . . Now that the dead line for com ments to t he Burea u of Land Ma nageme nt on the Desert Plan Draft Environmental Impact Statement has come and gone . ORV strategists a re already pla nning to respond to the next p hase of this seemingly never-ending " b ureaucrap ." Ac cording to BLM , the next phase of this Desert Designation process will entail a " Pro posed Desert Pla n ." This Proposed Plan will be released to the public on Sep t. 30. 1980. This Proposed Plan su p posedly will satisfy the requirement that the Bureau specify one alternative as their " p referr ed p lan, " something th a t they did not do on the Dra ft statement . Anyhow , the "a ll new" Proposed Pl a n will be subject to p ublic com m en t for 30 days, after which the powers-thatbe will select and su bmit to Secreta ry of Interior Cecil Andrus the final plan. The purpose of all this rushing around after having been working on a Desert Planning Pro cess for the last 10 years is sim ple. The Bu rea ucra ts (mostly professional environmental fanatics) within BL M have long decided what the final Dese rt Plan shoul d look like. Now that t hey are nea ri ng the ac hiev ement of their goal , they don't want to ta ke any chances tha t come 1981 there might be a new Secr et ary of the Interior, and worse yet as they see it , maybe a new p resident. Ron ald Reaga n has bee n very vocal a bo ut his oppostion to many of the Federal wilderness schemes and it is no secret that his strategists have consulted with none ot her then motorcyclist Assemblyman Bob Hayes on many of his public la nds issue stands. A rumor which has been heard on severa l occasions is th at Reagan has approac hed Hayes co ncerning a high level appointment , perhaps Secreta ry of In te rior. should he win. Undoubtably this kind of rumo r a nd the possibility of a Reagan p resid ency has the BLM bu reaucra ts "s haking in their boots." One of their ob jectives then , is to do as much d amage as they ca n before January. T his ex plains their reasons for not granting a ny ex tensions to the pu b lic comment period on the p revious phase , an d the im possibly short 30 day co m ment period for the next ph ase , Ultimately. the . Con gress will still have some say as to how much of the BLM 's nonsense will ever get implemented even if Ca rt er a nd Andrus are still in the driver's seat after the November elections. For th is reason : it is still important to return the " bom b the BL M" co upon lett er wh ic h appeared in Cycle News two issues ago . O ne of the letters was supposed to go to the BLM ; the other letter was ad d ressed to' the N OC attorney in W ashington . There is no deadline in getting letters to the att orney. He is going to di stribute the letters to t he Congressmen who may u ltim ately have to correct the " m istakes" of the BL M. Speaking of letter writing campaigns, this column co ntacted our frie nd, . Assemblyman Bob Hayes when he was in southern California last weekend , and received an update on the pro· gress of his ca mpaign to stop A B 2914. According to Hayes the response to date fro m his request for lett ers which appeared in issue 14, has been encouraging. A fairly sizeable number of responses were recieved a nd many of these responses contained donations to help defray the costs , and to get COR PAC off a nd running. Several riders who couldn't send cash right now sent pledges to send co nt ributions la ter. Rig ht now Hayes is tryi ng to send acknowledgements to those who responded to his appeal. He is confident that we will be able to stop Mike Gage a nd his " Off-Highway R ob bery" bill dead in its tracks. Mail is still trickling in , so if you haven't sent your letter yet. there is still time . . , p resu mably dona tions are as welcome as ever. Because of still lim ited resources , and a desi re to get "the biggest band for the buck," CO R PAC will not be too active in the June primary elections. The real contests ta ke place in November. and that's where the effort is going to be spent. Almost as soon as the p rim a ry res ults are in , CORPAC will be interviewing candidates and selecting "target" dis tricts, Hayes said. Once selected, COR PAC will use th e media , particu larly Cycle Ne ws, and as much direct mail as they can afford , to sp read the word on the ORV su pported candi dates. T h is year, CORPAC plans to throw a couple of statewide versions of the precinct days which played a la rge part in getting Hayes ele cted in 1978 . Many riders will remember that Ru ss . Sanford of M.O ,R .E. helped or ganize two weekends in the fall of 1978, where motorcyclists were asked to spend hal f of one Saturd ay helping pass out Hayes' campaign litera ture throughout his district. In 1980 , t h rough CORPAC , we shou ld be able to involve every motorcyclist organization in the state to partici pate in sim ilia r events on behalf of the local CORPAC en dorsed ca ndidate. CORPA C has selected the weekend of Octo be r 4 , a nd November I, 1980 for these statewide "precinct days" . As of now . the on ly details wh ich have been firmed up a re the dates . Information will be diseminated as it becomes available. Righ t now, Hayes is a ppealing to each organized club to p lan a n event for one or both of these weekends. Get them on your calendar now. There will be endorsed candidates in virtually every area of the state. CORPAC will be preparing plans to ena ble every individual or cl ub to participate. Imagine the effect if we pu t litera lly thousands of workers into local Assembly and Sena te cam p aigns just prior to the elections . The wor k is not hard . it m ay involve dis tributing litera ture, placing lawn signs, or stuffing envelopes , etc , T he main thing is that the candidate remem bers th a t you helped h im get elected . T hese are things that ele cted officia ls rarely forget , As plans become finalized. and the target d istricts are identified , we will know more about the details. As soon as we know you'll know. In the mea n tim e , talk it up in your organization, m ark off one or bot h of those weeke nds for your participa tion in the precinct days. CO R PA C welco mes any donations of assista nce in org a nizing , financing. or oth erw ise coo rdinating this sta tewide endeavor. Do nations for su ch things as finisher p ins for participants , etc. will be apprecia ted . Correspond with CO RPAC at 2625 Dorine Way , Sacramento, CA 958 33 about their activities . C.N. Deepthroat 3

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