Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Honda 's SOOcc National MX team received addi tio na l pe rso nnel. Dar re ll .Shu ltz, who injured h is knee and was kept ou t of the Houston Supercross, will join Chuck Sun in the bigbore wars, thus giving the knee even more time to heal. Da vid Bailey sulIered a broken fibu la at HOUSlOn. The decision 10 keep h im in the 2S0cc class or move h im to SOOs has not been made yet, Carlos Serrano has been released from his AA Maico contract. according to Selvaraj NarayelUl, Maico's Racing Team Manager. No replacement has been named, and Serrano rode a Roost Factory Suzuki in the 250cc class at - .... l-< 0. < ......gtown. J Yam aha 's Kenny Roberts won the openi ng round of th e SOOcc World Ro ad Racing Championsh ip Seri es held Mar. 28 in Argen tina. Ro bert s q ua lified fastest and led most of the way, fi na lly stavin g off fad in g brak es in th e late laps for the win. Yam aha teamma te Barry Sh eene and Ho n da 's - Freddie Spencer had a treme ndous d ice going fo r secon d, even passing Ro berts several tim es befo re it was fina lly settled with Sheen e in second and Spencer in third. Suzuki-mounted Franco Un cini finished founh wi th defending World Cham p Marco Lucchinelli (Hon) fifth. Suzuki's Randy Mam ol a DNF with a broken gearshift. YarTlIIhB's Man: Velk8neers put» gether a 1-2 tally to win the 125cc VIIorid MX Char1'1Jjonshi in e%::.rs HoIIaWld on Mar, 2B. won the first moto over Suzuki. rnount8d Harry Everts and Gilera ~~~~~m= to win the secolld moto. Fra n k Stacy (Mai) posted the top in dividual score in th e Foggy Mo u nta in One-Da y Qualifier March 28 at T ell ico Plain s, T N . Stacy's 96 1.2score easi ly ou td ista nced Mark Hy de's (Hus) 984. Stacy too k the 2S0cc Inten t class win whi le Hyde was the O pen Intent class winner. In the 12Scc Intent class , the h o nors fell to Mike Melton (Hus), j oh n n y Martin (C·A) was the 17Scc Inten t class winner. HosPITal STOP: Kevin Case, the " Desert AI::e:' will be out of action for about a yet! following a bed spill Mar, 2B In the San Felipe 250. He was in the process of moving his 125 up through the 250cc class when he did a front wheel runber off a jUrJ1). The aash broke his left fenu, and five holn of surgery \N8f'8 required to insert a rod in the leg. He could use all the cheering ~ he can pet and wcuId ~18 you tsihim a card or etter at 10560 . Ave., Fountain Valley, CA By the WEI'f' he'll also be needing to part with his stable or race bikes, seven essorted Yamaha VZ125s and 250s, vintage '81 and '82" to help defray medical bills. 6 Orange County In terna tio na l Raceway in Irvin e, CA, begins its season of T hu rsday n ight motocross on Apr. I. All classes run each week with Vets and Seniors runnin g on the first and third T h ursdays ' o f each mon th . Membership is not required for the R .A.C.E.· sanctio ned event. Gates open a t S p.rn., practice is at 6 ~ ~~~ . raci ng sta rt s a t 7. Fo r more in fo, ca ll 714/836-0437. The California apeedwey .ason stertsApr.2attheOrangeCounty Fairgrounds in Coste Mesa end continues every Friday night through September. San Bernardino begins their run through September on Wednesday night, Apr. 7. Gates open at 6:30 p.m, at both tracks with racing getting underway at 8. For anything you need to know about Costa Mesa, call 714/492-9933.5anBerdooscoop is at 213/446-0969. Sam P ierce, known to lo ng- time m o to rcycl e afficiana dos as " Mr. In d ia n," passed away Saturday evening, Mar. 27, alter a bout w ith ca ncer. An active In d ia n dea ler, P ierce strove to keep the ma rq ue at the top of the heap d u ring the '40s a nd 'SOs. Most rece ntly, he wa s th e curator of Steve McQ uee n's mo tor cycle co llection in O xna rd , CA. The funera l will be Thu rsday, Apr. I , a t 12 no on. It will be hel d a t Alexander 's Mortuary, S800 E. Beverly Blvd., in East Los Angeles. Godspeed, Sa m ... Good news from the legislative front up in Washington state. Governor John Spellman signed SB4692, the state's motorcycle rider training and licensing bill. In the meantime, the state legislature adjourned without taking action on S83283, the OHV fund rip-off. That effectively kills the bill for this year, although it can be brought up next session. Dan Ashcraft (Hus) won the Mar. 28 Rovers D-37 hare and hound at Red Mountain, CA. Ashcraft was followed in by fellow Husky rider Dan Smith and Honda pilot Lee Scheffers. John "Light Brown" Lancione is out of intensive care following his recent heart attack and should, by the time you read this, be on the mend at home. " We had two clear cu t victories in coun todav," said Phan tom Du c k o f the Desert Louis McKey in a pressday phone ca ll on Monda y, Mar. 29. McKey is suing the Bu reau o f La nd Managem en t over denial of hi s rights in rega rds 10 use o f th e Ca li fornia desert . " We filed two mot ions: o ne to mod ify the sui t ' to d ro p ponions a lready conceded by the BL M, a nd another to deconsolidate the suit from the ot he rs (regardi ng the desert issue). The j udge granted them both!" The Duck's suit will probably go to tria l _. _ j n a.bo ut .90. days. Brad Lackey's busy weeke nd of racing -driv in g a Cla ss I ca r at the San Felipe 2S0 a nd ri d ing the 2S0cc National cla ss a t H angtown the next da y - produced nothing but Iru stra tion. La ckey never made the starti ng line a t San Feli pe beca use hi s car didn 't make it . So , he jell ed up to Sa cramento, rode a co uple laps of p rac tice at Hangt o wn the nex t morn ing but was unable to com p lete hi s three-lap qualifier due 10 reported engi ne problems. Sportsman riders took to the track the day before the H angtown National. Rick Ryan (Suz) aced both 125cc Expert motos. He will tum 16 on June 6 and be "legal" to contest Pro Nationals. Mike Holmes (Suz) won the 250cc Expert class by outpointing Jerome Heiberger (Mai). Heiberger came back, though, and took the 500cc Expert win. Coverage next week. Don't be surprised if both Honda and Yama ha show up at Ascot Fr ida y night, Apr. 2, totest hal f mile engine at the Gardena Gold Cup half mi le. It their would make sense since "everyone"will be in town a nyway for the TT Na tional the re the foll owing n igh t. National MX campaigner Steve Rhyan, who was slated to ride a Horsepower Factory Honda in the four-stroke exhibition race at Hangtown, has been hampered by compressed vertabrae which has reduced the amount of time he can spend riding and training. Kunizo Ko nak a zawa , better known as "K K" in Nationa l MX circles, is returning to japan after four years in the States as Showa's racing service manager. No replacement has been named yet. Peter Locasio will be leaving his position as the National Advertising Manager for Kawasaki Motors Corp. effective Apr. 5 to take a new position with Hester Communications. Locasio's new job will be director of Sales and Marketing for Hester. with responsibility for sales of both advertising for the firm's publications and exh ibit space for their trade shows. In Locasio's marketing duties, he will be developing new products, and programs to support existing products. "I'm excited about this new opportunity," said Lacasio, adding, "I've been an advertising director for six years. and this will be a whole new experience; the first time I've been on the publication side," j.e. Agaja nia n has received perm is· sio n fro m th e Genera l Manager o f the Cal ExJX> Fairgrounds in Sacramento to put as much calcium chloride on the one-mile dirt track as needed for h is Apr. 17 AMA/Wi ns to n' Pro series 2S·m ile KR W Helmets-sponsored Mi le National. T his is a reversal of past years when horsemen objected to the use of the chemica l to ho ld wa ter in the surface for a fas ter track. Adva nce sa le tickets for the night mi le, first of the year on the Wi nston Pro Series, are on sale at all Ticketron and Bass outlets in northern Californ ia, as well as the H ow e Ave. Box Office,92S Ho we Ave., Sacramento. Over 1,000 tickets were sold the first day they went on sa le. Following the AMA decision to remove the 750cc two-stroke restrictor rule from Formula One road racing, we asked Yamaha Racing Team MalUlger Kenny Clark if that would change his team's plans. "No," he replied, "Jimmy Filice will still ride the TZ50OJ." Asked for a comment on the restrictors' demise, Clark said, "I had a better idea. Put them on the 1,ooOs. Seems like all these years they've penalized the private Yamaha riders. If you'll remember, theyoriginally put in the restrictors because of tire problems. Look at the tire troubles the Hondas had at Daytona." , There's been a swi tch in travel plans for Kawasak i Team Green's western van. It will be in Boise, ID , on Apr. 24 for the TT regiona l there. instead o f a t Edwards AFB as was announced last week. In case you were wondering what happens to California Green Stickie monies - well, what's left after the Stem legislature finished its rip-off - you should know that $124,289 is ~id in salaries for administrators, OHV Coordinator Dave Cox receives a healthy $36.228 himself. And that's not counting cost of living raises scheduled for later in the year... Pa pa received a phone ca ll fro m a rea der who was cr itical of Cal iforn ia Green Stickle monies being used 10 help acq ui re a drag strip near the Castaic area. How ever, Papa 's so urces in Sacramento say it's a good deal. U nde r present p la ns , so mewhere over $ 100,000 in OHV money will be used to b uy l iS acres j us t n orth of the Los Angeles area. Abou t IS acres wi ll be u til ized for the drag strip, wi th the drag people co m miui ng over $I.S million 10 the drag strip. The reo maining 100 acres will be avai lable for OHV use. Mark off May 27-30, 1982 on you calendar. Mark it off as the 17th annual Southwest Safety Congress and Exposition, and it will be held at the Camelback Inn in Phoenix, AZ. Friday, May 28. is the big day of t he Southwest Regional Motor- , cycle Safety Conference. There will be presentations on safety, equipment, medical treatment, demonstrations, licensing. education and research updates, and an MSF instructor session. Saturday and Sunday. May 29 and 30, will be largely reserved for group tours among the motorcyclists. For more on the safety conference. call Suzanne or Craig Etzel at 6021 869-9644 (office) or 602 /971· 6031 (home) . Anyone p la n n ing 011 compe ti ng in the invitatio na l 2S0cc G P race ru nn in g wit h the Lon g Beach G P shou ld be aware that a ll ent ries must be regis tered by 8 p.m. on T h ursday, Ap r. I . Reg istra tio n takes p lace at the Q ueen Mary . If you've got any questions, contact AFM Pro at 714/371·06SI. Oh, by the way, that Apr. I deadli ne is no AprilFool's joke. • _ --_ . . _. --.. . . --_ -_ . ---j_.. _ . . . .._ .--_ ..

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