Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

iThe AMA has issued a statement that it has not granted a sanction for any motorcycling event p lanned in Ruidoso. NM . Sept. 29 through Oct. 2 . This statement is in response to flyers c irculated by organizers of a road tour described as t he Ruidoso Motorcycle Tour. ~cco rd i ng to the AMA. the flyers (le scribe the event as AMA-senctioned. AMA Executive Director Ed Youngblood said. "The event is not AMA-sanctioned . In fact. we had received no information about the event until I made initial contact by letter to ask that the organizers cease falsely advertising the tour as AMA sanctioned." ;rhe Federal Register or Apr. 22 carries an announcement regarding a closure or land in Montana to OHV use. The area involved is a 70-acre section in the southwest end or the South Hills area or the BL M's Billings Reso u rce a rea. Lerry "Supermouth" Huffman has been signed to host the upcoming biographical movie on Mickey Thompson. tentatively titled Man In an 'ron e.,e. Huffman's cohost will be former Gene Autrey sidekick Pat Buttram. Veteran director Ed Forsyth. who served as second Ctirect o r and editor on the remake of On Any Sunday II, will d irect the film. Deser t ace Bob Ba lentine and wire Michele are expecting their first child this july. We're pretty confident, therefore, that Balentine will want to finish the SCORE/Pernod Baja Internacional, run june 5, as soon as he can. Balentine has already won the first two SCORE races or the year. new FIM ru le states. " T he maxmum travel of the suspension for nduro motorcycles w ill be 250 m ." That translates to 9 .8 inc h e s . e rule w ill be enforced at the 982 ISDE in Czechoslovakia. ccording to the AMA. only if somene uses it in the form of a protest. urther information on the rule ay be obtained from Hugh lemming of the AMA's Member ctivitias Dept. Hos PITal STOP: Road racers R ye Heney and Steve Sabatini were hospitalized May 2 alter separate and unr ela ted crashes at R iverside Raceay. Heney suffered a broken leg and back injury while Sabatini susined a concussion and a broken leg. hey're sure to appreciate letters or et-well cards as they recover so send 'em c/o Riverside Community Hosital, 4445 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, 92501. ovice d irt trecker Lerry Earhardt s in St. Johns Hospital in Santa onlea, and can use a few cards. arhardt fell in a recent Ascot hal f ile . and was hit as he tried t o get p. resulting in a broken hip. Send hose cards and letters to h im at oom 417. St. Johns Hospital. 328 22nd se. Santa Monica. CA 0404. ayne Boyer, well -known as the head nstructor in the Suz u ki School of otocross, attempted to compete at he Apr. 18 250cc MXGP in Pa yern e, witzerland. The Brit ish press reorted th a t although Boyer looked 000, jet lag prevented h im fro m sting fast enough or a time in p ra cice to q ua lify for the G P. onda. in its first major continncy involvement in drag racing in many years. h as poste d a w a rd s totaling $107.700 for pro and sportsman riders in NMRA competition. Northern California speedway will open soon as both Auburn a n d Napa pick up where they left off from last season. The Auburn opener is set for May 14, and promoter John Houston has Mike Bast lined up for an opening night appearance. with the seven-time U.S. Champ putting on a two-day speedway school the following two days. Auburn is 30 miles east of Sacramento, off Highway 80. The phone number there is 916 /448-7557 . Then on Saturday night, May 15, the Dennis Robinso n promoted show opens at the Town and Country Fairgrou nd in the scenic wine country town of Napa. For more info on that show, contact Robinson at 707/ 252-8772, The Kawasaki Team Green vans will be scrambling during the month of May to keep up with the National MotosportsAssociation's series of qualifiers for the Ponca City. OK. championship event. The western van starts May 1 with an NMA qualifier in Portland. OR. then hits Les Vegas. NV. Blythe. CA. and Orenge. CA on successive _kends for more NMA qualifiers. THe western van closes out the month by hitting an AMA race at Phoenix. AZ. on May 29. The central van starts at Pittsburg. KS. May 1-2. hits the Kansas City stad ium event (May 9) before going to the May 15-16 NMA race at Conroe. TX and another at Midland. TX. on May 30. Dates have been set for America's MX GP rounds in '83 . They are june 26 for the Carlsbad, .California, 500cc USGP and july 31 for the UnadilIa, New York, 250cc USGP. Canada will also be holding a 250cc GP on july 24, but at this time the location is unconfirmed. Alex Jorgensen. currently second in the Winston Pro Series point standings. will fill Scott Parker's vacated spot with Carl Patrick Racing . Parker . s igned with the Harley-Davidson factory team April 12. 1979 500cc World Champion MXer Graham Noyce married Pam Mosier, widow of former National MXer Gaylon Mosier, at a ceremony in St. Peter's church in Upper Beeding , Sussex, England, on Wednesday, April 21. A Grand National Champion MXer inay be c rowned in ' 8 3 . according to Carroll Chandler. manager of professiona l MX at the AMA. " We have to do something to help the sport grow. and all the factories are aware of our new proposal. " said Chandler. The proposal consists of a program which would include seven 125cc support/ 250cc National races. seven 125cc support/500cc National races. and Supercross races. The 125cc class would be for riders under 21 on production bikes. and a c la iming rule would be in effect. 250cc and 500cc National plus SupercrolS points would be combined for the Grand National MX Championship. There would be no Trans-USA Series. but tracks that have run TransUSA races in the past wou ld be given a 125cc support/500cc National round. The proposal will have to be approvad by the AMA Board of Otf"lCe,. and Trustees before it tak. . effect. joe Parkhurst's Motorcycle Busi'ness Newsletter reports on a new bill in th e U.S . Congress that would raise import duties on japanese motorcycles and related parts for a two-year period. HR 5616, introduced by Pennsylvania congressman Richard T. Schulze, would raise duty on motorcycles from 4.5% to 10%,on motorcycle parts from 5.3% to 25%, a nd on three-wheelers from 2.8% to 10%. The bill has been sent to the House Ways and Means Committee, and you can write to the chairman or that committee, Dan Rosten ka wski, care of the House or Representatives, Washington, DC 20515. America n Dave Roper took the Team Obsolete Matchless G50 to t h e overall win in the vintage port ion of England 's Anglo-America n TransAtlantic Match Race Series over the Easter weekend . Roper ran fifth at Brands Hatch. second at Mallory Park and fourth at Oulton Park. Don Vesco. the other American scheduled to run. d idn't make the grid due to obligations concerning the American Match Race team. Vesco received an award from Pauline Hailwood. w idow of multi-time World Champ ion road racer Mike Hai lwood. for putting in the top fin ish on a Period 1 (n o n -m o di fie d ) bike a t Daytona 's Vintage GP d u ring Cycle Week. On May 8-9, the Pasadena M.C. will celebrate its 75th anniversary with the Greenhorn 500 road tour. The club, established in 1907, is famous for the Greenhorn 500 enduros that began in 1946, but due to the increasing difficulty of putting on an offroad event, the ' H orn is now strictly a . road ride. This year's run will be 500 miles; with an overnight stop in Morro Bay. The ride begins at Honda of Pasadena, 2480 East Foothill Dr. For all the details, calI 213/914·3738 or 213/596-5120. Cable TV sports network ESPN filmed the Pontiac Supercross in it s entirety and will telecast the event twice in May. Check local listings for times and dates. Warren Reid is known as "Comedian" by some on the National MX and Supercross circuits due to his slaphappy ways. but when Reid tried to get Comedian printed on his race pants tl wouldnt tit. He went for the next best choice. When practice started at Pontiac Saturday, R eid came a ro u nd with "joker" on his pants. Denny Bentley crashed in Saturday 's fi na l at Pontiac and suffered a p unctured lu n g and broken ribs. It looks as if Bentley w ill miss the remaining 250cc Na t ionals this season. Drop him a card o r le tte r of encou ragement at 13849 South M-52, Perry. MI 48872. Larry Wosi ck was injured while practicing on Sunday at Pontiac and severely sprained his neck and back. He will be at home recuperating for the next few weeks , so drop him a line a t 3870 Aborn Road , San jose, CA 95135, • NAr-rIONAL PAPERS On Saturday n ight, May 8, riders will be going to th e starting line in th e Ascot half mil e National finid for the 28th i£me.' ~ The Gardena event started back in 1957 as a once-a-year happening and then in 1978the southside ova l became a twice-a-year affair. In the 27 previous outings only one rider, Sammy Tanner, won the race three times in a row. ' ow, not one rider, but two, have a shot at joining Tanner as a triple ace . And it all comes about in a most unusual manner. Florida's Billy Labrie won both events in '80, but missed both of the '81 races due to a broken leg incurred in the spring San jose mile that year. It will be his first time back since he won his second in a row back in the fall of '80. Then there is Randy Goss, who won both events last season while . Labrie was missing. Goss also wo n one back in '79 but was stopped both times the following year by Labrie. Goss came to Ascot for a regular Friday night event a few weeks ago and alter posting perhaps his slowest time trial ever, came back to win the final against a limited talent field. Over the pa st three seasons Goss has p robably wo n more Ascot haH mile finals than any other rider and has to be ra ted over Labrie and the other 13 National half mile winners to grab the event on the 8th. In all the years the Ascot half mile National has been running they have never started more than 14 riders in the final - but they will this time under the new rule that allows yet another rider from the new Last Chance Qualifier. jay Springsteen figures in the picture in a big way. jay has won the Ascot National no less than three times in the past (76-78-79) and if he goes to the line in the heat race yo u know he is going to be around for the main event. jay has a chance now to get a real run on the all time win record since he won his 30th National a few weeks ago and broke the tie with Kenny Roberts. If he is healthy enough to ride then he could well add another notch in the books. Six former winners of the famed event are entered. The oldest winner is Gary Scott whose win dates back to the '72 season when he was a rookie. But that event wasaday race,theonly one ever ru n in the long and colorful series. It was a day event to accommodate TV and featured a narrow slick groove. Springsteen can get close to yet another reco rd if he wins Ascot. Going in he has 14 half mile Nationals to his credit. The record stands at 18 by Bart Markel, and it's been standing for over 10 years. It is logical to assume that if a rider has won Ascot on three previous occasions and has two wins already this season on dirt, that his chances are better than most. jay also will be going for another record of sorts. Again onl y one rider has ever won the Ascot National four times,again it was the."Flying- Flea," Tanner. Stop and think how many talented Experts have entered so many times at Ascot and yet only one ever won it four times. It might be the most difficult record of all to tie or break. It took Sammy eight years to win four. He won the first Ascot back in '59 but was the last rider to qualify for the final and it was a major upset, especially when you consider that he raced a brand n ew machine that was ta ken out of the crate less than three days prior to th e race. It is all just part of th e Ascot lore tha t will someday be put into book form for all to enjoy. By the way, j orgy jorgensen, who u pset the fiel d at Asco t to wi n the TT last April, is one of th ose six former wi nners entered. Roxy Rockwood m CN 00 (j') _ CN - >C';l ~ S

• Cover