Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126634
da . . t WI th .~ hlinul racing th e Aussie series has had. J im Love ll. working in conjunction w ith t he fo lks at Inland Motor Speedway, is putting together a t o ur to t he 1 9 8 3 World Individual Speedway Championship in Norden. West Germany. The 10-day e xcursio n w ill take place Sept. 211 and includes admission to the World Final as well as tou... of the BMW and Porsche factories. For more details. contact Lovell at Bon Viva nt To urs. 6809 Brockton Ave.• Riverside, CA 92506. 714/7878522. Craig Vetter's annual Fuel Economy Run will again take place in conj un ct ion with th e road races a t Laguna Seca July 16-17. On Saturday, July 16, all motorcycles will run a 100-mile qualifier from Carmel, Ca lif., to Big Sur and back again. On Sunday, out at the track, the top 15 co nt esta nt s from Saturday will try to go as far as they can o n 5¢ worth of th eir favorite fuel. The winner gets $3000. Offi cial rulebooks are available from Vett er Design Works, #1 Alta Lane, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Te d Boody a nd Steve Morehead are a m ong the Experts slated to co mpet e w it h Grand National Champ Ricky Graham and Pete Hame s (who is work ing o n a sixrace Ascot w in streak) in the Gardena Gold C up half m ile at Ascot on Friday ni ght. Ma y 8 . The fol lowing nig ht is the big Na t ional IT. King Kenny Roberts showed up as a spectator at the Dutch 125cc MXGP. and drew quite a crowd of fans . Photo by Henny Ray Ab rams. The Cal iforn ia Racing Club's Jack Barbacovi, promoter of the Coorssponsored Pro-TracTrailers $5000 motocross to be he ld at Saddleback on April 17. called Papa to ask if everyone in t he CN advertising department suffers from dyslexia . In last week's ad on the event. a couple of digits were switched and the $21 00 Pro purse read out as $1200. Papa responded by asking Barbacovi about h is mathematical background. How can you take $2100 for the Pros. $3000 in Pro-Trac awards for the sportsmen. and call ita $5000 MX7 The AMA has announced a Pro-Am dirt track program that will allow amateur racers to taste the rigors of Pro racing without losing their amateur status. Competing in half mile, short track and TT events, a Pro-Am rider could earn up to 25 of the 40 points needed to transfer from Novice to Junior Pro. Half mile classes which can be offered are 250, 500 and 750cc, while TT events can run 250 and 5001750cc combined, and short track is limited to 250 and 500cc classes . Amateur claiming ru les ($4000 for Vtwins) will be in effect, and will appl y to any Pros who enter such an event. To qualify for a Pro-Am license riders must be 16, and hold the highest applicable amateur standing, i.e. "A" rider or Expert. Long-time Kawasaki road race ace from Australia. Greg Hansford ~as considering a return to two-wheel.ed competition this year, but those plans were scrapped when Hansford e xperienced pain in his twicebroken leg . A t rip to t he doctor settled the question. The Doctor opined that he mi ght well lo se the le g if it was damaged again . Hansford w ill continue his car ra c ing. The Au stral ian press has rumored that H on da will co ntes t th e 250cc World Ch ampioship in 1984. Sam McDon ald is th e rumored rid er. Ivan Mauger has succeeded in his bid to have his year-long ban from FIM events, incurred at the Los Angeles World Speedway Final, removed at a recent FIM conference. He was required to pay a fine of 3000 Swiss Francs. Australian Honda rid er Jeff Lei sk topped Amer ican Jimmy Ellis in th e Aussie3XY Supercross. Ellis, in turn , bested Engl and's Dave Wat son. Americans Marty Moates and Ron Turner suffered from problems and did not show well. Cycle News is proud to announce that we h a v e a current World Champ working as a contributer from a part of the U.S . t ha t many wish. including those in t he state. was a foreign country. Smokey Joe Milian, ace contributer from the Lone Star State, is the World Champion Jalapeno Eater. He has held the title for fou r consecutive years and defeated champs for G illey's Urban Cowboy hangout and Mexico. Smokey. who has been known to comment. "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." holds an all-time record of 126 Jalapenos consumed in one hour. He is currently sporting a sling from a n Over 30 MX racing mishap. but he claims it is healing quickly because of his clean living . Sure. Smokey. Australian s will be facing th e toughest format yet in th eir Castrol's Mr. Motocross series. Events th is yea r will feature a four 20-mi n ute moto T he Bur ea u of Land Management's environmental impact sta teme nt for th e 1982 Desert P lan a m mend me nts has been released and will be open for publ ic co mme nt until May 10. Fortynine arnrn endmerus, as well as the Man agement Framework Plan for eastern San Diego County, are included. Address comments or questions to 1982 Ammendments, BL M, 1695 Spruce si.. Riverside, CA 92507, 714/ 351-6394. "My eII,..r as a Superbike tuner ended up to be a very short one. at least for now." said former Grand National Champion Mert La_ill abo ut parting company with Honda S upport rider Fred Merkel. " We didn't get along. It was something like oil and water. I've got a good rapport with ·the people at Honda and would really like to get in w ith the factory team. I enjoyed working on the bike beCIIuse the Superb ikes are a different thing for me. Right now. I'm running Mert La_ill Racing Produc:u and keep ing the door open to any offers ." -Former star of every major motocross team Marty Tripes raced at the Golden State finale after warming up at Sa turday Saddleback a day earlier. He looked fast, but didn 't feature in the top 10. HosPITal STOP : Washington 125cc Pro motocrouer RuaWICb was sidelined at the Enumclaw. Wash.• hospital for a few days after an operation to correct an inflamed hernia. Run is resting at home now. and should be back on the track w ithin a month. Cards and letters can be sent to Russ care of the Enumclaw Hospital. Enumclaw. WA 98022. 500cc G P roa d race bikes are too fast - th at 's the co ncl usio n of th e FIM 's technical co m m iss io n wh o have decided to look at ways of limiting the speeds of these machines. The FIM has set up a workin g party to look a t the problem. Regina Smith has been named Miss Harley-Davidson. Reg ina hails from Clinton, Oh io. and is a theater major at Ashland College in Ohio. She entered the Miss Harley-Davidson contest at the encouragement of a college friend who commutes to school on his Harley. Regina was crowned at Harley Heaven, the Daytona Inte rnatio nal Speedway's chicane grani!stand; just prior to the Daytona 200. NArr IONAL PAPERS Something for ever ybody. That probably su ms up the April 9Ma y 7 AM A Cam el Pro Seri es schedule in California th at will host at least o ne of each of the fou r types of Grand Nationa l di rt trac k raci ng. It kicks off with the Asco t TT on Saturday night , April 9, whi ch also includes th e a nn ua l Gardena Gold Cup non- Nat ional half mile th e night before. The following Saturday night, at the Cal-Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento, it is th e first mile of the season. This on e under the lights. Then there is a two-week breather before th e circuit heads for San Jose and a brand new National, a Saturda y night short track, inside th e famous San Jose mi le. The next day is the annual running of the spring mile at th e same location . Wrapping up this all important series will be th e Saturday night half m ile at Ascot Park on May 7. Then the Camel Pro Seri es heads east, not to return on th e western dirt tracks until next September. Two miles, one TT, one half mile and a short track , all within a span of . about one month. Times have changed. For many years the west hosted the Nationals in July and September. For one reason or another July is basically out, except for road racing, and the April/May time slot has taken over, but never before with this many events, which will certainly have an affect on th e Grand National title. I talked with all of the top dirt trackers down in Flo rida and al so many of the newer riders. They will all be on hand for all of the events because points from five National races cannot be overlooked. If the races in this series can be an y type of yardstick then we are go ing to see a different winner at each track . Th is is the way it ran a yea r ago: Ascot TT (Alex Jorgensen/Can-Am ), Sacramento (Jay Springsteen /H-D), San Jose mil e (Steve Moreh ead /H -D), Ascot half mile (Sco tty Parker v'Hvlf ), All four will be on hand to try and defend , but th e yea r ly California events have a habit of co ming up with different winners from year to year.. (Continue d to page 39) 7