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/126758
Motocourse 1983-84 Published by Hazelton Publishing Edited by Peter Clifford Hardbound, 192 pages, $36.95 The eighth edition of Motocourse Jives up to the editions which preceded it. In other words, it's an indispensable chronicle of the past eason's major road races. Atthe same time. it' more ~han a chronicle in that the editor, Cycle News contributor Peter Clifford, gives u more than juSt a raceby-race account of the season. He gives us his annual "top ten" and technical review of the machinery used in GP racing. If you're the least bit interested in road racing, you know who head Cli£ford's top ten list. ome of the others named might surprise you. The tech reviews cover machinery ranging from Fast Freddie pencer's title winning Honda 1 500 to the carbon·framed Armmong 250. As has been the case with each edition of Motocourse, the photography i superb. With the emphasis on the color photography of Don Morley, you're guaranteed a book that will become dog-eared if you don't keep your friends' mitts off of it. Former Cycle News editor John Ulrich, who spent the '83 season as the executive editor of Cycle World when not out leading Team Hammer to the WERA Endurance Road Ra e Series championship, again provides us with a chapter on the American road race scene. Ulrich's words deserve praise, but the lack of even single photo from the exciting '83 Daytona 200 is a glaring omission. What makes the '83 Motocourse outstanding is tied in with what made the '83 GP cason so interesting: the battle between the new World Champion, Freddie pencer, and three-time, World Champion Kenny Roberts. Their season long baule receives the attention it deserves and the documentation appears to have received tender loving care equal to the a uention gi ven to the two racers' machinery. Eddie Lawson's first year on the GP trail i also well documented and there's a two-page photo of Lawson that just might be the be t in the book. Randy Mamola. who had a disappointing eason (for just about anyone else the year would have been a success), receives his share of photos and is ranked fourth on Clifford's top ten list. The following by Freddie Spencer in the book's foreword is echoed by me: "I congratulate the many people who spent numerous hours and months making Motocourse the success that it is." The most anxiously awaited book on motorcycle radng is now available from Motorbook International, P.O. Box 2, Osceola, WI 54020 (Credit card customers may call 800/826-6600). a Jack Mangus ' SPECTRa OILS OF CALIFORNIA SPECTRa OILS OF AMERICA ~ 477 INDUSTRIAL WAY, PLACENTIA, CA 92670 (213) 331-7663 ORDER DESK LUBRICANTS DESIGNED TO EXCEL ROUTE 7, P.O. BOX 208, BROOKFiElD, CT 06804 "..