Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Anaheim pressbox pundits,. in reference to the vicious winds that hampered southern California earlier in the week, were referring to one Team Honda rider as Bob "Santa Ana" Hannah. Hurricanes were never too common in mogland. acquire a Suzuki 500 Gamma (in keeping with his Yoshimura/Suzuki Superbike effort), but concern over parts availability plus Honda's better contingency program persuaded last year's Sear Point F-I winner to buy one of the Hondas. Spectro Oils has a 40-minute video casette available to motorcycle clubs and dealers that they have candidly entitled '"The Fun of Motorcycling - a Shameless Spectro Commercial." Besides information on Spectro's product line (in the form of rider recommendations). the film focuses on three diverse motorcycle events: 1 ) The Retreads M.C. annual foliage ride. 2) The weekly woods ride led by New England rider/dealer Dick Bettencourt and 3) The annual motocross National held in Pepperell. Massachusetts. There is no charge for the casette and copies can be obtained by contacting George Petetin at Intercontinental Lubricants. Box 208-Rt #7. Brookfield. CT 06804.203/775-1291. IN MEMORIAM: Freddie Ells· worth. who founded the Four Aces Motorcycle Club back in the '30s and was a former Big Bear winner. passed away January 26 as the result of a heart attack. Ellsworth. who was 69 at the time of his death. is survived by his wife Sis. son Buddy and daughter Susie. The funeral was held before we went to press. but cards and letters may be sent to the family at 210 N. Sparks. Burbank. CA 91506. It has been requested that donations be made to the District 37 Legal Defense Fund in lieu of flowers. Godspeed. Freddie ... Only the strong are expected to survive this one: Motocross instructor Russ Darnell will be oHering a 12week "Americross Tour" to a select group of students in 1984. The tour is 12 weeks on the road with Darnell as he conducts schools across the country. [n addition to the intensive training, there will be opportunities to race at various tracks along the way, and all transportation and lodging will be provided. For more info, call Darnell at 714/980-3212. West German rider Rolf Dieffenbach showed up at the Anaheim Supercross on a water-cooled Maico 250 that featured very Honda-eaque styling. Dieffenbach failed to qualify for the final. The Miller High Life Supercross Kickoff set another attendance record at Anaheim Stadium as 70,305 fans packed themselves into the facility on Saturday night, January 28. The organizers claimed that another 10,000 people were turned away because of the sellout. Inside the stadium sponsor dollars were in abundance. Winner Johnny O'Mara got $ I000 from Miller High Life and a ticket to the Miller Masters, Canadian Ross Pederson received $1000 for nying 55 feet off the diet Coke "Catapult," and Ricky Johnson picked up $500 and an invitation to the 1984 Wrangler Dash for having the fastest heat-race win. 2 HosPITal STOP: In a yet-unexplained accident. Team Honda motocrouer Danny "Magoo" Chandler . suffered a badly broken jaw and was hospitalized in a coma as a result. Chandler was riding near his Foresthill. California. home on Friday. January 27. and late in the day he went out for "one last ride." Chandler was later found unconscious. still astride his bike. but he had suffered a major blow to the face. After spending two days in a coma. he underwent surgery on Monday to have the jaw wired. As of this writing. early Monday afternoon. doctors had not attempted to bring Danny out of the coma. We will have an update on Magoo in the next issue. but in the meantime he is being treated at Sacramento Medical Center. 2315 Stockton Blvd .• Sacramento. CA 95B17. Yamaha's Mini-class hotshoe Eddie Hicks topped the 80cc Expert exhibition race at the Anaheim Supercross. Hicks overcame a mid-moto crash that cost him two positiol1'ti, however, within the same lap, he managed to regain the lead and went on to take the victory. Lately, Hicks has been the one to beat in the Mini class after he became the 1983 CMC Trans-Cal Champion and is current points leader in CMC's Golden State Series. NBC had a crew out for the Anaheim Supercross. filming the competition to be used as a segment of a new sports show called SpeedWorld. The air date is expected to ba sometime in February or March. Results are in on the elections for rider reps to the various FIM racing commissions. Martin Wimmer and Franco Uncini were voted to the road racing committee. with Freddie Spencerjust 25 votes short of a job. Michele Rinaldi and Jaak Van Veithoven got seats on the motocross and snowmobile commission. and Peter Collins and Henny Kroeze will join the track racing commission. Only ISDE rider Augusto Taiocchi got a spot on the trial and enduro commission. because all four vote-getters were Italians and FIM rules require that rider reps be from different countries. All will serve two-year terms. At the end of last year we speculated thatdragrace tarTerryVancemight be joining forces with Yamaha to race their FJIlOO. Although nothing has been signed yet, Vance is optimistic. "The paperwork is on hold Lecause the president of Yamaha is in Japan. But I've got a bike, so they must be pretty serious." HosPITal STOP: We were sorry to hear that Randy Townsend. a former Yamaha Support motocrouer. was seriously injured January 15 in a car eccident. Randy. 22. was on his way home after spectating attha Hom Rapids ORV Kingdome qualifying race when his fourwheel-drive truck slid off the road and rolled several times. Randy was paralyzed from the waist down. and we're sure a few words of encouragement from his friends would come in handy about now. Randy is at St. Mary's Medical Center. 401 W. Poplar. Walla Walla. Washington 99362. The telephone number there is 509/ 525-3320. Randy·sgirlfriend. who was a passenger in the truck. was only slightly injured in the accident. Wes Cooley has joined the list of riders who will campaign a privateer Honda NS500 on this year's Formula One circuit. Wes originally tried to KTM·mounted Charle Halcom b was the overall winner of the January 28 Indian Gulch Hare Scrambles near Coulterville. California. Second overall went to Maico rider Douglas Noll, followed by Team Husky's Dave Bertram. InSport has announced a Supercross contingency program for 1984. aimed at those riders that fail to qualify for the final event at one of their Wrangler Supercross Series events. Plans call for approximately $1 000 from each of the sponsors of the program to be directed into the "privateer point fund." with 8n estimated $10.000 per event in contingencies to be distributed to riders finishing out of the top 20. Kevin Hartwell. InSport contingency director. is currently soliciting input from possible sponsors. as well as those riders who may benefit under the program. Hartwell can be contacted at InSport. 17981 Sky Park Circle. Suite H. Irvine. CA 92714. or telephone 714/494-9484. According to Keith Code, The Super· bike School Chall nge race series is going to the Nationals for 1984. The top non-factory road racers in America will have the chance to compete on equally prepared 1984 GPz550 Kawasakis. As was done last year, the machines will be weighted with lead for the lighter riders, bringing all competitor/machine weights to within 10 pounds of each other. The for· mat for the races will be slightly dif· ferent in that this year riders will be chosen by points standings in AMA competition; five riders from each class: Formula One, Formula Two and Superbike.1£ riders fallout of the top five in their class, they don't ride. The good news is that there will be a $2-3000 purse for each event. Code says there will be up to three bikes Left open for "promoter's choice" riders. Contact Code at 213/484-9323 to get the details on the Superbike School Challenge Series. Tracks to be run are Loudon, Road America, Sears Point, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, Riverside and Willow Springs. According to Anaheim Supercross announcer Larry Huffman. promoter Mike Goodwin bet Wheelie King Doug Domokos $10.000 that Domokos couldn't wheelie all the way around the track. Domokos did. Now it's Doug Dough-mokos. Former I25cc ational MXslarDanny Turner and Greg "Nuclear" Neukam are combining to form Paci(ic Race Productions, and they'll be promoting CMC motocross events in Northern California. Their first evelll is a

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