Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dunes riding the only two single shock Open class Maico motocroeaen in the country. Word also has it that the editor feD and broke the rear backing plate on one. The D-37 Boerd of Dlrectora hu _ked the Checkers M.C. to ra... the entry fee on their Oct. 10 Check C8hH from $28 to $30, with the extre $2 going to the leg81 DefeI'lH Fund. The Checkers repon thIIt 41" lyftemS ere go on obtaining the nee.. IPy pennitB. but some resistIInc:e Is expected from environmentlllists - ''The only problem we foresee ill thIIt Mr. Ukel EMtvoid may try end stop us with a 1e~1t... II8id one Checker. Lest yeer 0-37 spent .11,000 defending ItHIf from a sui;t over the Check Chue, end current raports ara thIIt the DefeI'lH Fund Is beck up to the .11,000 rnerk lifter the Idle but unresolved 1e~1t over the D_n Plen. Going beck to the race, the Checkers ..y entrlel c:Iose Sept. 30. Harley-Davidson has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to permit modulated (flashing) headlights for daytime use. The modulated headlight increases operator visibility and Harley wents to offer it as an option. Current law only allows flashing lights on emergency vehicles, tum signals and hazard ' indicaton_ Bruce PenhaIL the rwwIy Yowned World Spndwey Ct.nplon. wiI rneke hie return to CllllfomIII .... INa month. It1I be • brtef vIaIt. but you «:en c:etI:h him In ecdon et the Cello...1e s... Speectwey CIwm- THE NATIONAL PAPERS What is well known, has four turns and two very long straightaways? What is noted for having race after race decided on the last lap, the final tum or at the finish line? They call it the SanJose Mile. The eighth and fmal mile National event of 1981 is on tap for Sunday afternoon, Sept. 20, hosting from )518,000 fans from Canada to the Mexican border. Fourteen of the riden entered are mile track winnen, eight of whom have already won the San Jose Mile at least once. Three of these eight have won it twice. Nobody has ever won it three times. Nobody. Not too long ago only one, two, maybe three riden would enter any mile event and have even the slightest chance of winning. Not true anymore, or at least when it come to the San Jose event. Two of our past and present Grand National champs, Steve Eklund and Randy Gou, have only won one mile race in their careen. At San Jose of course, where past performance on any type of track means little or nothing. Looking back. at those yean when just a few were capable of winning on a mile we find that nine time mile winner J~Leonard only won at San Jose once. Kenny Roberts - a 29 time National winner - only won at San Jose once. Hank Scott - who is now tied with Leonard with nine mile wins - has won at San Jose only once, but has won at Indy three' times 'and 'at pIonshIp lit SlIn Bem.IClllo'. InIIIncI Motorcycle Speedwey on Sept. 23. Two deysleter, The Fox will be ridIng et Coate M... on the Orange Show Felrgrounda weekly Fridey night progrem. He'll allo be on hend et the edjecent lwap meet before and efter the Coste M... r8C8I to Ilgn autographs and pr0mote his book. 8tuce PHItaII'. - S,...""..... 00 0) Huaqvama will post a three man team for the upcoming Trans-USA Series. Mike Guerra, sixth in the World 250cc Motocross Championship, WIll carry the banner in the International class. Bill Grossi and Gary Pustelak will run in the 500cc Support class. The Sobobe GP, long a c....ic event on the IOUthem C8lifomle reclng scene, will be a D-37 event run by the D_n Vipers In '82. scheduled for Feb. 21. Known .. a tough, grueling GP, the race hel been run annuelly on the Sobobe Indlen Re. .rv8tlon neer Hemet. Got a CZ lying around the garage somewhere? Well, get out there, work out a deal with the spiden to get it back, and race prep the 01' commie 'CJ'OIIlIer, because the CZ World Championships will be held Oct. 5 at Saddleback Park.. It's not so much a race though there are two 50-minute motas - as a happening. Everything Czechoslovakian, from Pete Maly's latest single shocker CZ to the old twin pipes of the late '60s, will be running around. In addition to the World Championship, there will be awards like Best Vintage Bike, Hard Luck Award, Trickest Bike and olben. For more info, call 714/945-4771. Sacramento on two occasions_ On the other side of the page there is Greg Sasaman. Remember him? He was on the lceDe for a very short time and won only one National race - the San Jose mile. Then there is Garth Brow, a steady part time racer on the circuit each year and never a contender for the title. But Brow stands alone at San Jose. ~e is the only rider to win both San Jose Miles the sameyearl Every brand wins at San Jose. H-D, BSA, Triumph and Yamaha have all been fint at one time or another. It is a surprise track that finds Yamaha 5501 beating the big 750s in the Junior Invitationals. It is an event that started in 1957 wiht little or no publiciry and was moved out after only two yean. It was brought back in 1972 and became so popular under the Barkhimer " Associates promotional banner that starting in 1977 it was run twice each year. Some people would liIte to see it at least four to SIX times each season. The San Jose Mile insures close racing. Not only in the heats, semis and Trophy events, but the 25-mile, 16-rider final as well. Since 1972 only two winnen were guaranteed before the start of the final lapl In the early yean the promoten could not fill the center grandstand. Then people started hearing what a mile event was all about. S.oon they had to add bleachen in front of the grandstand. Then the bleachers filled up and they had to open up the standing roon down the straightaway and into the fint tum. Soon the tum was filled and the people wer pushing towards the back chute. Then the promoters added yet another grandstand. They put it in a location not found at any other mile - outside of the last tum. It only took. the people a 'race 'or'two to 'find 'Out We heel heard tel. . thet the Belglen were enthullutic ebout motoerou, but we didn't realize how IntIIl'IH they could be. This Henny Hey Abrema photo lhow. 41 Belglen lpeetetor going all out to root on fellow countrymen Herry Everts during the Trophea de. N8tlonl held in Belgium. Vamahe hel announced thet they'll be hoIItlng the Yamaha FemHy Affair lit Knott'l Berry Fenn on Oct. 17. TIcketa, evellllble .t Vemehe deelers, will Include unlimited u.. of ell Knott'l rides end lIttI'IIctiona, the firIt public .howIng of Vamehe'l '82 line, privIIte berbeque with Ive enter· tlIinment end continuous motorcycle movies. P.tIc:fpentll get a Tshirt. there will be guM'decI motorcycle ..,edng, end drawings for tine V....... V. . . . . acelllMel .nd Knott'l pr•••",... Tlckete ere .15 per penon lit your Vemehe ....... about this area for viewing. We UIed to plead with them to go down there and give it a try. Now they are adding 2,000 more seats in that tum where the stands are officially known as, "The Dud Perkins Grandstands," after that fine old gentleman who did 10 much for racing and paseed away a few yean ago. The track has a record of nearperfect weather/racing conditions. Only once has a few drops of rain fallen on it during race day. On that day Steve Eklund was bidding for his first (and only) mile win. In the first few laps of the fmal his battery went dead and he slowed and was getting ready to coast in when the race was stopped due to the dew. Steve got a new battery, lined up last - and went on to win the races by inches at the line, never leading the race until the fmal 10 feet. That's what they call a "typical" SanJose fmal. Another year an obscure Expert got into the far tum too hot, like tbey still do on occasion, only this rider really was testing his luck. He and his bike totaDy cleared the high board fence and landed in the patio area of a house where the ownen were hOllting a yard party. A month later he was back racing but never quite got over his record leap and retired soon after. It's the same track where we have seen as many as half the field still in contention for the win after the halfway mark. It's the track where we have seen more thanftw riden coming out of the last tum on the last lap, inches apart, going for the check.ered flag. It's a track. where you can actually start last (16th) and come on for the win. It's been done not once, but twice, in recent yean. It's the tough track. where former number one riden like Carroll Resweber, Dick. Mann, Gary Nixon and Mert Lawwill tried time and time again to -win and nev.er 'did: 'It's the Alabama International Speedway (Talladega) will hold a press conference tomorrow (W.ednesday, September 9) during which they're expected to announce that Honda wiU sponsor the '82 Talladega Pro-Am Road Race. An AMA promoters meeting we. held at the AMA offices in Wester- ville, Ohio, on August Xl, end word helit the Atlenta Supercross round for '82 ill cancelled_ Roed Atlenta will be beck in action for 41 NIItioneI MX round in May of next yeer, end tI-. II • pc •• "'Ity of ...... OOle round In PItteburgh In July. .• track Gene Romero won on in '75 and has tried 15 more times to win again. Sept. 20 will be his 14th try. San Jose is the same black dirt oval where Ricky Graham wu the leader with only a lap to go - and did not win, or even finish second. The same track where Skip Abland has both won and lost the big one on the final lap. At mllllt traw you can get an early indication of a poesible winner by who is fast in the time trials. Or maybe even better, the heat race winnen. Not at San jose. Mike Kidd, one of the three riden going for the title this year along with Gary Scott and Randy Goes, was all of these things one year. Everything went right for Kidd in time trials, he won his heat race by a wide margin (for San Jose that is anything more than five yards) and then had the main event in the bag going into the final tum on the 25th mile. Then the engine quit and he did not finish in the top 10. Mike has never won at San Jose on the mile but has won mile finals at Du~on, Indy and Sacramento. The Texan can tell you how tough it is to win at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds_ For the final mile of the year they have even now gone into Saturday for the planned record crowd. The entire front of the grounds, inside the main gate, will host a motorcycle swap meet, the best country western band on the west coast and various booths with dealen showing 1981-82 models of your favorite brand. It runs all day on Saturday, the 19th. If all this crammed into two daY' is not enough, then add this. For the final mile race of the year the high point miler for the season will be decided. Hank Scott has 69 points and Gary Scott and Mike Kidd are a single point back., with 68 apiece. That's close. < Roxy Rockwood

• Cover