Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Engaged Team Honda road race tuner Phil McDonald, 28, and road racer/stunt woman Christine Bauer. 31. Aged Chris Carr to 17 on May 6, at the San Jose Mile. Aggie would have loved il. A'standing-room-only crowd was on hand for his final event at Rose Hills Cemetery last week in southern California. The "Who's Who" of racing were all there. ].c. "Aggie" A~ajanian,called the "Dean of Race Car Owners" was also the man who brought National Championship motorcycle ra~ing to California on a full-time basis back in 1959. He promoted the first Ascot National, a half mile, in July of '59 and it has been there since. He took mile track racing to Sacramento that same year and it is still running stronger than ever. He brought National TT racing to Ascot in 1962 and it continues to run on an annual basis. Aggie promoted other cycle events such as a National mile at Phoenix and the road race at Carlsbad. We even got him involved in county fair racing at Lancaster for a few years and combination dirt/ pavement TT racing at augus many year ago. I took him to his first mile ational motorcycle race years agoatSanJo e. At that time he wa promoting only car ra e . After the event he looked at me and said, "How do I go about getting one of these'" Thus the aeramento Mile was born. Aggie gave me my start in race announcing. I was the starter for the Pro races at the time at the old Gardena quarter mile and Riverside TT races. He had to talk me into making the switch, believe it or nol. He was the fir t promoter to ever give the racers a percentage of the gate on a weekly basis. He was flamboyant with ills Stetson and feathered hat band. The hat was the trademark and it went with him when they placed Aggie to rest for the last ti me. He wa a tough businessman who always paid his bill first and then talked about the cOSt later. He was colorful. The first time I ever saw him he had on a brown suit with the coat coming nearly to his knees. I think he had on an orange shirt and a green tie. You could oot miss him in those days, no maller how big the crowd. Many articles about Aggie label him as a car man. But he promoted motorcycle races more than any other per on or group and over the past 40 Don Emde, Don Castro and Jim Rice. They weren't the same. The ones like they rode had better chassis and were lighter and had smaller seat and fairings and were much, much faster thanks to a lot of trick engine pans we didn't gel. The trick ones had oil coolers mounted in the fairing, behind a lillie slol. Mine always had the oil cooler down on the frame lUbes. All the ones ridden by English riders went back to England. When BSAwemoutofbusiness in 1972, the other bikes were given to the American riders so they could ride them as privateers. Mine had been given to me, but then Pete Coleman (the guy who ran BSAlTriumph in the U.S.) sold it out from underneath me to John Hateley for $3500, and Hateley showed up at my house to take it away before the 1972 season started. I had nothing against Hateley, we're still friends. o maybe the bike Cathcart wrote about is mine. but it was never ridden by Hailwood. As as far as Mack Kambayashi's initials on engine parts go, all I know is that he worked on Emde's bikes. Maybe some of his engine pans got into that bike after Hateley bought il. I blew up my BSA in qualifying at Daytona in 1970, and had to start on the back of the grid, 83rd. My mechanics, Bob Tryon and Lloyd Bulmer, went into the BSA garage behind the Daytona airport and looked in some boxes of spares and got some trick parts to rebuild it, some different cylinder heads and pistons that I didn't have before. They finished my bike and delivered it to the staning grid just before the race. I jumped on it and wenl. I got up to fourth place and then crashed because I was still trying 0 hard. I didn't get any pit signals and I didn't know I was fourth. If I had known, I would have cooled il. But when Mann came around to lap me, I tried to race him, and ran off into the grass out ide turn two. I was so intent on racing him that I a celerated back onto the track in a big hurry and spun myself OUI. Anyway. I got up and finished 11th. After that I had the fa test Triple. because of those part that Bob and Lloyd got me. I went to Talledega and won that year becau e I had the fastest bikeon the track, and that was the fastest track we ran. Butthe one I rode never handled as good as the best ones. I remember once Don Castro got a chance to ride one of those good ones and when he got off hecouldn't believe how much beller it was compared to our bikes. There was no comparison, and they had the trick engine parts and more power, too. A lot of times guys go sell some bike and they say it was this or that, jus~ a~E selling point. Romero_s.Qld three different bikes to three different guys, and told each one of them that it was the bike that won him his title at Sacramento. !l's just an extra seiling poinl. • phoLO~raphyand writin~ rank in the top four of my life's passions. Those three are listed in alphabelical order and I won't ~o illl(~ the other one here. But when \'OU look at allthedetails of such drea;n employment. a career in mOLOjournalism. it has its plusses and minuses. just like any other job. \'Jet: vt.'rs;1. 6'6". 282-pounu defensive lackle \\Taring" the uniform of a sccurity company uecides thai you don'teven if you do. There are other wit's. other plusses and minuses. to be sure. And don't ~et me wron~. I like my job. If I uidn't, I woulun't be here. The bottom line of what I'm writin~ about is that you should never envy the l'ditors of any publication. Vou the readers are the very people who make them whole. give them purpose. For you to envy us is Ii ke the presidelll of a lar~e com pan I' envy i n~ the mail-room staff. Wearea dependent profession. We ('

dUly as a ~uesttesttT were waitin~ for the li~ht to turn to ~reen. The driver of the truck in the next lane. notin~ the e"clt' N f'WS bold Iy em blazoned on !lin'e of the four enduro jackets. shouted. "Vou ~uys work for e)Icit' News?" When one of us nodded a visor. the driver crooned back. "Boy you SUIT haw it made. ~ellin' paid LO ride all those new motorcvcles." I ~uess I do. Motorcycle i-idin~. By Roxy Rockwood To Aggie - A last tip of the Stetson It's~reatto~eltocan'eupcaJ1yons with the latest Sharpshooter 11.'>0. or cavOri wi th the tr('es whi It' test i n~ the latesl Enuuro Ea~le 326. If the boss will ~ive ITll' the lime away from the office. I'll )1;ladly do a cross-coulllry test of the latest Plush Thrush 1500supcrLOurt'l'. and I'll promise not to stay long-er than two weeks in New [n~ land (threc if the test should happen uurin~ the fall mOlllhs). BUI when you test motorcycles. you have to wrile motorcycle tests. If vou're a rcsponsible journalist. anu I've tried all the time to be' one. vou have 10 be fair. You havc 10 ~i\'l' s'ubject in' eva Iua tion an objecti ve framt·work. For telling- his reauers that a junk motorcycle is )1;ood. an edilor should bc sunllnarily execuled. And Ah. but there's more than the testin~. Motojournalisls. especially Cycle Nt'ws editors. ~ct to ~o to all the races. That's somewhat true. and some of my most deeply-eng-rained memories are of ei~ht to 12 riders balllin~ sim ultaneously for the leau at a Ca mel Pro Series Mile. the way King- Kenny Roberts handles the turn 6-9 section of La~una Seca, or some of Bob Hannah's wild rides throu~h the' pack after a bad starl at a National iVIX or . upercross. . But when vou COV('r out-of-town races for a weekly paper. it usually invoh,t·s f1yin~. Airports across the coulllry are universally lackin~ in motorcycle rental a~encies lod~ed ncar the ba~~a~e claim area. The worst motorcycle I can ever remember testin~ had better power. brakes and hanul i n~ than the a vera~e relll-a-car. I'n' t':lIen l'nou)1;h plastic foods on airliners 10 feel an altraction LO Prnton Pl'llv. Ph()(o)1;raphin~ the races is ~reat fun mosl of the time. excepl when you don't han' the correct pass. or a years, promoted far more cycle races than car events. He was one-of the worst car drivers I have ever ridden with - no wonder . his father was going to disown him if he tried racing cars. He owned convertibles for many year but finally went to hardtops when he rolled hi last convertible and was left hanging up ide down for a considerable time by the seatbelts. Aggie walked away without a scratch but it was his last ragtop. He liked to be down on thestarting line before the main event to shake hands with the riders and drivers. It must have hun him these past few years to sit in his booth at Ascot and not be able to be down there just before the action started. His last major race was the Ascot National Half Mile in May of '83. He' was unable to be at his events this past year. This was perhaps the bigge t hurt of all. If you knew Aggie then there is not much more to say atthis time. 1£ you did not know him then there is not enough room in this column or edition or the rest of the editions this year to tell you all the things about this man, the things he did and was involved in over the years. He was a remarkable man and a helluva guy. There will never be another like him. A tip of the Stetson one last time to an individual who really did in fact help write a lot of cycle racing history. 3

• Cover