Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

; II ~ E A utographs for charity at USGP TH SACRAMENTO, CA, JUNE 9 After the final flag at the Bel-Ray 500cc USGP of Motocross on June 22motorcycle .nthusiasts and notable recers will come together to help the sport they love. Brad Lackey, Gerrit Wolsink, Graham Noyce, Gaylon Mosier, Danny laPorte and oth.rs ar. ready to sign a program, a shirt. a hat or the polaroid photo that will be taken of a racer with each fan who donat.s t6 to The Kurt Kiefer M.morial Fund. Each racer has only 75 tickets, each good for one photo with a fan. One tieket will be given out with each $5 donation to the Fund, beginning 10 a.m. Sunday at a tent set up just outside the pit area gate and ending when all the tickets have been given out. One-half hour after the end of the rece, at the same tent,. the benefit will begin as the fans meet the racers. People should Haten for announcements during the race and look in the race program for details and a complete list of racers who will participate. The benefit is for the Kurt Kiefer Memorial Fund, the motorcycling world's flr.t public charity, working to develop and refine safety methods and medical techniques especially for motorcycling. This money will help support the production and publication of a pamphlet and training film on the right methods and poaslble dangers of helmet removal after an accident. 0 00 (j') 1"""'4 ~ 00 1"""'4 ~ l::= ~ ~ Springsteen may sit out season MILWAUKEE. WI, JUNE 4 "Jay Springsteen will be out of racing for an undetermined length of time:' said Harley-DlIVidson racing team boss Dick O'Brien in a call from his MlIwaukee office. "His sickness before the louisville National was the deciding factor. Both John Davidson and I wera disappointed but not surprised that his sickness reoccurred." This marks the second time that Harley-Davidson has put their three-time AMA Grand Nationel Champion on the sidelines becau.. of the undiagnosed stomach sickness/virus that has been bothering him for almost two seasons. Springsteen was put on an "indefinite Iaave of absenca" on February 22 following a bout of sickness at the Houston Nationals. He returned to action at the May 4 San Jose National convinced that a v.rtebra discov.red out of piece by a chiropractor was the cau.. of all his troubles. Springsteen finished s.cond at San Jose. The following week at the Ascot National he finished 10th and became sick later that evening. The sickn.ss struck again - on the morning of the Louisvill. National - and he did not compete. "I waited until Tu.sday (June 3) to call Jay:' continued O'Brien. "By thet tim. he and his par.nts hed already decided on the cours. of action to be taken. Unfortunately, I guess it had to come to this. " Jay accepts the d.clsion. He accepts the fact thet he must find out what is making him sick and get it cured if he is to race again. It frustrates","e, but I'm more concerned for Jay. Th.r. will b. other seasons and other races, but h. has only one lif., and he's got a lot of years to go. . "I would not expact him to ride in the near future. I really don't s.e him riding for awhile. Th.ra will be no replac.m.nt for Jay. We may help other riders in the field; w.'11 have to .... His rid. with Harl.yDavidson will be here whan h. wants to go racing. We're bahind him 100 percent. "What a lot of people don't realize is thet there is tr.mendous pressure at the top. Although he seemed to be the happy go lucky guy who was never bothered by anything, perhaps the pressure did get to him over a period of time. W. aren't used to seeing this in motorcycling, but it can happen just as it does in other sports." Phona calls to Springsteen's Lapeer, Michigan hom. brought no answer. A call to his parant's home provided the reason. "H.'s gone up north fishing for a w ••k or two:' said his feth.r Wayn•. "He needs to think a bit about things. Making the deeisicn was probably the hardest thing he ever had to do." Just minutes before we went to press , we heard that California Department of Parks and Recreation Director Russ Cahill has announced his resignation . effective Friday, June 13, for personal reasons. No replacement has been named. In 125cc MX GP action, Eric G.boers (Yam) topped Tatsumi Mitsusyesu (Yam) in tha Jun. 8 West German round. The pair traded moto wins and second place finishes. Geboers now ranks third in the points tabl. with 64, Harry Ev.rts leads the standings with 98 followed by Marc V.lkeneers at 97. 2 Andre Malherbe rode his Alan Hahntuned works Honda to a 2·1 overall win at the Italian 500cc MXGP. taking the World Championship Series . points lead from Team Kawasaki's "Bad Brad" Lackey. Lackey scored a 5-6 placing, dropping from a threepoint lead over Malherbe to a 13·point deficit. Roger DeCoster won the first mota at the Fermo, Italy course on his Dave Arnold-tuned factory Honda. then followed up with a third placing in the second race. Andre Vromans finished a 3-2 third overall behind DeCoster. In the point standings. it's Malherbe, 141; Lackey. 128; Carlqvist, 83; Vromans 76; DeCoster 62; Noyce, 55. K••s Van der Ven (Mail topp.d the Jun. 8 260cc MX GP In Poland, polting a 1-4 moto score. G.org. Jobe (Suzl and Jean Claude Lacquay. (SWM) ren s.cond and third with 4-3 and 6-2 placing., respectively. Jobe lead. the standing. with 94 points, trailed by Dlmltar Rangelov at 63. Rangelov (Hus) posted a U day In P~land. . In his Baja debut, Bob "Hurricane" Hannah finished fourth in Class I, the class for unlimited single-scat cars. in the 482-miIe SCORE Baja Intemaeional. Hannah had a flat along the way, and stopped to offer help to another driver, The driver, who had led until he ran out of gas, told the SCORE press office, "I want to thank Bobby Hannah. He stopped, backed up and asked if there was anything he could do for us. That's real sportsmanship." Bob Gordon won Class 1 driving a Parnelli Jones· built Blazer "funny car" and the star of the original On Any Sunday. Malcolm Smith, was second. Scoring updates from the Mt. Baker Two-Day ISDT Qualifier give the overall win to 260cc Husky rider Terry Cunningham, who beat out Open class winner John Ay.rs by 15 points (s.conds). The U.S. Suzuki ad that appears in this paper was based upon our input to them prior to obtaining the updated results. The order within the 260cc class remains as printed in the coverage that ran last week. It was the first class and overall win ever for Cunningham, who ironically .nough, failed to finish the Trask Mountain Thra.Day b&caus. he overslept the start of Day Two. For Ayers, It was his second straight Open class win and his second overall runner-up placing. Don Vesco "totalled" his KZl000 powered streamliner, June 8, at EI Mirage dry lake. " I just got loose in the din and highsided it. It flipped five times ," said a not-even bruised Vesco. "It was son of Iilr.e one of those carnival rides , with your eyes closed . You know you're upside-down, but you don't know wherel I could probably fix it , but it's a major," he added. The new double-engine KZ1300 'liner is in the works, slated for a debut at the 1980 Bonneville Speed Week in September. Vesco also plans to stay at the salt flats for "three or four weeks after Speed Week, or however. long it takes to go 400 mph." Grant won the F-1 rece over Suzuki (four-stroke) sponsored Graeme Crosby. Yamaha sponsored Charlie William. rode to victory In two races - F-2 and 260cc - taking the F-2 race (similar to F-1, but with smaller motors) on a box stock Yamaha RD3&O, the one with monoshock suspension and water· cooling, the European-only model. Never mind. That's what Skip Abland is saying now about his announcement to retire from road racing. Altsland, who underwent an operation on May 26 to repair a five-piece kneecap. is considering a return to racing. His doctor reports that the knee will be fully recovered in eight weeks. according to PJl 's Tim Rockwood, and Skip will make his final decision then. Here's a shuffle for ye_ Mike Goodwin (Stadium Motorsportsl wanted to promote an AMA Supercross race in San Diego on Oct. 26, so he contacted Trlpp.eox. the Superblkers promoters who'd scheduled their event for that weekend and found that they were agreeable to a date switch. As it now stands, the San Diego Supercross will take the Oct. 26 date, and the Superblkers will move to the Nov. 1-2 weekend. HosPITal STOP: Fred Hansen, Jr.. who crashed hard in his inaugural ride for Team Husky at the SCORE Baja Internacional, is recuperating at San Diego's University Hospital. Hansen suffered a broken leg, hip, ribs and collarbone, plus a punctured lung and a lacerated throat. Get well cards would certainly be appreciated and they can be sent to him at the hospital, 225 Dickinson, San Diego , CA 92103 . Randy Chambers. a friend of Fred's, called and asked us to pass along a heartfelt thanks to the J.D. Brand Racing groups, who provided the helicopter that got Fred out of the desert, and the plane that flew him to San Diego. and to Frank "Scoop" Vessels, who let Fred's parents know what was happening. Irish farmboy Joey Dunlop topped the "big race:' the 10M Classic, at the June 2-6 Isle of Man roed The July 6 AMA Grand National racing week on the 38-mlle public Championship/Winston Pro SerIes roa d course. Dunlop rode a half mile at Topeka, KS, will be the Yamaha TZ75O, beating Mlck scene of the Honda Challenge, an Grant's factory Honde four-stroke Invitational open to Juniors and ex(an F-1 bike, not the NR600I. What perts riding any 600cc four-stroke, made Dunlop's ride even more Insingle or twin. If you're Interested, teresting was that his elght-gallon get going right away and write f~ fuel tank broke loose from its entries to Devls Cyclas, 4808 mounts at the start of the race, and he rode the 228-mHe event holding (Continu~d to pag~ 34) It. on with , his knees and ~I~~I .... •

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