Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

your birthday suit Just to make the show... call 714/492-9955 , and on the latter, call 215 /446·0969 . HosPITal STOP: Desert racer Mike Sixbery dislocated his hip in the Feb. 14 Moose Run, and is expected to be in traction for another week. We're sure he'd like to hear from the motorcycling community, so send those cards and letters to him a t Simi Valley Adventist Hospital , Room 145B 2975 North Sycamore Dr., Simi Valley , CA 95065 . The phone number there is 805/527-2462, ext. 145. The annual AMA Board of Trustees meeting was held Feb. 22 in Cinci.nnati OH. Acting p resident Chuck Larsen was elected to that office for a full term . Bill Baird was elected vice president. Re-elected to the offices of secretary, treasurar and assistant traasurer, raspectively, wera Hazel Kolb, John Hasty and Lynn Wineland. Cliff Carr and Gavin Trippe are getting together to promote amateur motocross and TT racing at Carlsbad Raceway. The flm and third Sundays program will kick off Mar. 7 with the motocross program running on the USGP courae while the TTe,. do theIr thIng on the dIrt track portion ' of The Superblke,. track. There will be no Pro racing In either category. For more Information, cail 71417498697 or 714/292-9633. Dunlop has announced that entrants in the Daytona Battle of the Twins rac es may use all K181 and K291S Sport Elite tires without restriction. This approval applies , as well , to all othe r races in th e 1982 Battl e of th e T wins Seri es. Rider s in th e Wednesday amateur roa d ra ces at Dayton a m ay use th e K81, Kl SI , or K291S tires of their choice. Da ytona en trants may purch ase KSI and K29l S tires as well as slicks for the Formul a II bikes (250cc Lightweight ) at t he Du nlop garage in the ga rage a rea . I Yamaha's Kenny Roberts reportedly had a successful test session at Laguna Seca on Feb. 17-18. Roberts, testing his 500cc square four and Dunlop tires, was said to have turned In laps in the low one minute, eight second range on the track where he holds the motorcycle lap record at 1:07.9. Jimmy Filice also turned in a few laps on a stock-frame TZSOO. Filice is slated to get a special aluminum frame for Daytona. Kawasaki has posted contingencies for the Daytona Speedweek short track series at Memorial Stadium . A win on a green machine on Wednesday or Thursday would net you $500 , and the winner's champagne on Friday or Saturday wou ld be accompanied by a cool grand. Look for Billy Scott to ride a Yamaha Virago-engined dirt tracker in the various half miles before and during Daytona Speedweek, It would mark the first privateer effort with the Yamaha V-twin in the Expert ranks. Scott rode the bike briefly last year as a Junior. The first weekend in March kiclr..s off the California speedway season in a big way with the Spring Classic Series beginning Mar. 5 at Costa Mesa's Orange County Fairgrounds and ending Mar. 7 at San Bernardino's Inland Motor Speedway. Both will be 20-heat all Scratch programs, and the entry lists feature the cream of ' American talent. World and National Champ Bruce Penhall will be there, along with Mike Bast, Alan Christian, Mike Faria, Dennis Sigalos, Shawn and Kelly Moran, Bobby Schwanz, Ron Preston, Brad Oxley, Mike Curoso, Lance King, Dave DeTemple, Dubb Ferrell and the rest of the gang. Racing gets underway at 8 p .m. at Costa Mesa , and at noon at San Bernardino, For more, on the former Lin Kuchler, who stepped down as the AMA Executive Director o n Jan. I, was presented the Dud P erkins Award at the Board of Trus tees m eeting for his contributions to motorcycling. Kuchler, whose career in motorcycling dates back to 1939, was moved to tears by the presentation. Mike Kidd a promoter? You bet- eha. The defending AMA Grand National Champion has built an Astrodome replica TT and short track facility on his Boyd, TX, ranch and will be hosting races every second and fourth Sunday of the month beginning Mar. 14, "The track is identical to the Astrodome," says Kidd, adding, "I've put $10,000 into it and it's really beautiful:' Check out the eN Calendar for more information or call 817/433·5559 . • THE NATIONAL PAPERS The Chinese are celebrating this yea r as the "Year of the Dog," which could be good news for the many "underdog" privateers who will be entered in the coming Daytona 200 miler road race on March 7. Privateers have won the last three in a row , or since Kenny Roberts lapped the field on his factory Yamaha back in 1975 . Both Yamaha and the Privateers may be in for som e trouble this year with all four major Japanese fac tories fielding riders for the 'S2 meeting. Yamaha riders have won the 200 every year since 1971 , rid den by both factory and privateer riders on 550 and 750cc two-stroke machines. To say that they . have dominated America's longest road race would be an understatement. The Yamaha effort this year is of course led by Roberts, who we consider to be the finest road racer ever to come out of America. King Kenny has won more road races in the U .S. and Europe than any other, Joining Kenny as more or less of a gamble will be first time Formula One entrant, Jim Filice, the number two Lightweight 250cc rider a year ago and the Rookie of the Year dirt tracker. Both will be entered on new Yamaha 500cc two -stroke machines, untested in actual racing events prior to Daytona. But Roberts will have a Yamaha 750 four sitting in the team garage under the Goodyear tower. It will strictly be classed as a "back-up" machine and who can blame them? Since Kenny scored that most im pressive win back in '78 his efforts on a 750 have been limited to a handful of actual competition laps , having never gone far enough to require even the first gas stop. Roberts will not be alone with Filice as riders that are committed to the smal\er~s~f:ter,some say faster , 500s. . !law . will field anew 500 with , r. - ~ . ~ .". - Il':~. former 250cc kingpin Eddie Lawson in the saddle. Lawson has dominated 250cc racing the past two seasons but is giving it a pass this year to go after Formula One and Superbike efforts. This leaves the 100-mile 250cc race more or less wid e open. More about that later Californian Randy Mamola returns to Daytona for the first time in several years, riding a factory Suzuki 500. This of the same type that has carried him close to the 500cc World Championship the past two seasons in Europe and to the win at Laguna Seca last summer. Suzuki has come close to winning the Daytona event a couple of times, going back many years. Mamola gives them their most proven rider and well . tested machine. Honda's Freddie Spencer and Mike Baldwin will both ride the new 1000cc V-4 FWS , which is derived from the Magna and Sabre V-4 street bikes . Baldwin is back after missing several seasons due ' to injury and riding endurance races all of last season in various foreign countries. He ran well in one past 200 miler, going from the back of the grid to finish fourth on a dated Kawasaki KR750 triple. Spencer came close last ' year to winnin~ both the 200 and the Superbike events. He was leading the 200 when the mechanical bugs dropped him out, well past the halfway mark of the race . He led prior to that as well . Lawson and Spencer have both won the 250cc Novice and Lightweight and in the past and both will be bidding once again to become the first rider to ever win a Daytona "Gr and Slam" by also winning the Superbike race and the 200 . ' The privateers will be well represented by three riders who have all proven they are capable of winning the Daytona 200. They are two-time winner and one time second place finisher Dale Singleton, one of the top three last year, Rich Schlachter, and last year's fou rth pla ce runner , Dave Aldana. -, . Singleton , Day tona's "Six Hundred Mile Man" has finished either first or second the past three times at the Speedway and although Dale does not fare as well at the other events, he just keeps rolling along when it comes to Daytona on his rug merchant (Beaulieu)/ b uild ing contractor (T aylor White) sponsored Yamaha 750 . No rid er can boost the three year finish average at Da ytona like the "Georgia Pig Farmer " has turned in . Schlachter , the pride of all New England , left the States last year after his near-Daytona win and went road racing in Eu rope with mild success. He got an education on how to overhaul engines in the back of a van and how to cope with the European "bumpstart" dead engine system of getting off the starting line. This type of race start finds the rider standing by his machine with the engine off. The flag drops , the rider pushes, the rider prays , and maybe the engine will start .. and maybe it won't. A hell of way to decide a race and races over there have been decided by this outdated system . But Rich is back on home ground and although he is the oldest of the pre-race favorites , he should find Daytona much easier to cope with than in the past. His raft of mechanics and helpers are legion and know how to make a bike run fast enough to win . Veteran Dave Aldana is also back from the foreign wars and is here to stay , at least for the entire '82 AMA National road race season. His factory contract to ride endurance races overseas was not renewed this season and Dave is out to prove they were wron,g. I talked with him in mid-January and he is pumped and more ready to go than in a long while. He will rid e a Yamaha 750, owned, tuned and sponsored by veteran backer, Don Vesco . The same Vesco that gave him a Daytona ride at the last minute a year ago. The same combination that finished a solid fourth place. Aldana told me he feels like he is starting all over once again but to me he also seems super serious about his American racing efforts this season. There will be other privateers besides' these three, of course. France always sends one or two riders that have run very well at Daytona but are not heard from again in later FIM events. So the brand/engine mix appears to be the best ever with Honda , Kawasaki , Suzuki and Yamaha all in the factory fold with 1000, 750 and 500cc engines. The 250cc race, now known as the Formula Two class, is without the rider that won it on the last lap the last two years running, Eddie Lawson. , Kawasaki has withdrawn from any official American factory 250cc involvement, leaving the 100·mile Saturday race to what appears to be a two rider confrontation between J im Filice on a new 50-horsepower factory Yamaha 250 and the 'Sl FIM champion, Tony Mang from West Gennanyon a factory Kawasaki . Filice chased Lawson all the way last year with Mang in a distant third place. Mang has raced the Daytona Lightweight event four times and has run in the top four each outing, but has never won. He came within inches of victory two years ago when Lawson and Spencer got to playing around on the last lap with each wanting the other to lead ou t of the final tum . These two riders are the class of the field and both will ride 250s that are capable of over 150 mph on the straightaways, where races are won or lost at Daytona. For the first time the Novice riders will be blended into this class along with the Experts, giving some of the newer riders a real opportunity to make a name for themse lves just by staying close to either or both of the pre-race favorites. The Sueprbike event, again sponsored by Bell Helmets, will ,be another classic showdown bet ween Freddie Spencer, Wes Cooley and Lawson. For some re ason or another the Suzukis always appear to have the horsepower ,edge In this one but run equal in other Superb ike races at other tracks . There are no finer Superbike riders than Spencer, Lawson and- Cooley. Each is on a different brand and has miles of experience. It only remains now to see if Suzuki will bring additional riders like they did last year when New Zealand's Graeme Crosby ran wheel to wheel with Cooley until the final tum. Honda' proved last year that they could run with the Suzukis at Daytona but they must refine their pit stops to stay with them to the very end. Lawson's Kawasaki should also be improved this time around to give us a possible threesome on the final lap and the final tum. Two hundred miles is a long way, and 100 miles is also a long way . No final at Daytona can be described as a Trophy Dash, so perhaps the year of the Dog just might end up the' year of the "T he Underdog" on March 5-6- . 7. Or could it possibly be another "Year of the Pig?" _ _ I ,... Roxy ockwood 7

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