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/126778
a very close finish. the winners batlled for the last 30 minutes with the ZI Superbike of Rick Mitchell and Chris Crowell; both teams went 209 laps. In third, one lap down. was another Ninja. ridden by Franz Van Den Broek and Roger Hagie. The 600cc class win was taken by the Yamaha Seca of Chuck Pace, Marty Sharp and Tom Sharpe when they finished fifth overall. Two positions back was the 750cc class-winning Honda of Reginald Smith and Len Gambo. Complete coverage next week. Team Hammer won the July 7 WERA/Dunlop National Endurance Series Eight-hour at Savannah, Georgia, beating Northridge Racing's FJ1100 by nine laps. Team Quester I Sullivan was third. Team Hammer abandoned plans to run one bike in Georgia and one in California in order to seve resources for the upcoming Nelson Ledges 24-hour. With Team Hammer opting out of the AFM Six-hour, the pre-race favorite was the ll23cc Honda Superbike of Team Ontario, ridden bv Mike Spencer, Jim Vreeke and Ken Vreeke. However, Jim Vreeke crashed it in the second turn of the warm-up lap. AMA's Bill Boyce is looking into allegations by both Harley-Davidson's Clyde Denzer and Honda's Gene Romero that certain privateer riders used/are using Carlisle front tires in compounds not avilable to everyone. The alleged tires, of a probable intermediete compound and cerrying the approved manufacturer identificetion numbers required by the AMA, were uid to have been used at both Louisville and Harrington Half Mile Nationals. Apparently the tires have been stockpiled by some riders and may have been manufactured as far back as late 1982. "They wear decidedly different from other tires cerrying the same identification numbers, .. said Denzer. "The only way for us to tell if the tires are different is to check billing dates, which we are doing," said Boyce. • Settled The strike against West German auto manufacturers and BMW's motorcycle division; BMW's assembly lines went back into production July 2. Moving The Motorcycle afety Foundation national offices, from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, toa to-beannounced location in southern California, during the fall of 1984. Sampled Orange County Fairgrounds soil, Dirt Rider Feature Editor Mark Kariya, 27, in his debut Third Division speedway ride while running second in a heat race. Not Cherry Picking Dirt Rider Technical Editor Karel Kramer, 29; magazine now (August) lists him as "Novice motocrosser" following April runner-up finish in a Novice race, reasonable considering magazine lead times. Signed A contract with Renault to build the entire exhaust system for the Sports Renault SCCA racecar, by the SuperTrapp Division of Moller Corporation. Sponsored Dirt tracker Doug Chandler, by SuperTrapp. • DAVID! on EVE""hi~ By David Aldana it didn't take this fellow very long to see I didn't know what tbe going rate was for some of the things I had. (The one thing I did know was tbat I was getting rid of this junk.) This fellow buyer/seller/fast-working business man soon was across the isle from me selling all the things be had just bought from me, at a substantial profit. But what the hell, that's why I took the stuff, to get rid of it. Let that guy be the hard-driving salesperson. You've just cleared a space for that new dirt or road bike you've been thinking about, huh? And probably made some money at the swap meet to put towards your bike or buy a ticket to a motorcycle race. • • • • • • • • • I went to the Supercross the other day and noticed what everyone else did. The track was a litlle on the short side, the difficulty of the course was minimal, and there weren't many turns. I thought the rider who got the best starts normally placed high. I suppose the few crashes due to some of the track changes makes for a program schedule that can be followed more easily to meet curfew. But for myself, I may have to think twice about going next year. (Good job, Jeff Ward and Broc Glover). If Ricky Johnson rides the ProTee! ATK Yamaha as hard and as fast as he did to win the Four-Stroke Championship, I think in November, when the Superbikers race at Carlsbad is raced, you'll seea fast, fast bike and one really good four-stroke racer. (I will again be riding a Dallas Baker Prducts prepared bike as will Mike Baker.) Few know that Dallas ported the first and third place bikes last year. I had my normal Superbiker's luck ... Bad!! It would be great if we Americans can come out and support the world's best road racers at Laguna eca, like they do in the European races: The hillsides completely covered with bodies, and a giant swarm of people at the finish line to greet the deserved winner. In Europe, many people jump over fences and get through armed guards to get close enough just to reach out and touch the back or fairing of the winning riders. Let's show 'em we DO care about what they are accomplishing and the country they call home... the United States of America. THE NATIONAL PAPERS Purchased American Mugen, by Sudco International of Los Angeles, California, on July 2. Sudco will market Mugen high-performance two-stroke and four-stroke motorcycle and ATV parts in the U.S., according to vice presiden t of sales and marketing, Fred Chase. Former Mugen partn'er Al Baker will concentrate on his research and development company. Terms of the sale not announced. up in smoke: As in burned to the ground, the following: a 1976 model automobile; three motorcycles; arid a canoe. All courtesy of a rowdy bunch at Unadilla the night before the GP. Wedded Hollywood Honda's Loyal George Truesdale lII, to Alicia Clarke of Hollywood,)n Las Vegas July J. If there are any of you out there like me, (who've never thrown anything away), then the motorcycle swap meet that Al Martinez (Big Al the Kiddie's Pal) puts on is the place for you and all your junk. A couple of months ago I went to the one in Costa Mesa, and what a lesson I learned. Just so you "rookie" sellers don't fall prey to the kind of seller I ran into, let me tell you what happened. Before I had all my things on the Door, ready to sell, this ordinary looking guy came over and started asking me what my prices were. Well... By Roxy Rockwood There are so many aspects to the annual Champion Spark Plug 200 at Laguna Seca this year that it boggles the mind to a degree. Perhaps foremost is that it will probably be the last ride in motorcycle racing for Kenny Roberts. It has been stated several times that this will be his swan-song in motorcycling. It also seems fitting that it end in Monterey, where King Kenny has won a record six times since 1974. The July 21-22 weekend also finds another classic confrontation between Roberts and Freddie Spencer. It will be the first time in two years these two have been on the Laguna.Seca track together. In 1982 they each won one of the two legs of the event. Spencer was not entered in '83 due to a most difficult decision that had to be made. Pass Laguna and give his crew two additional weeks to rebuild and tune for the 500cc World Road Racing Championship title - or stop everything and go halfway around the world at the race in California. Yamaha's Eddie Lawson finds himself in the same position this fear aJ;ld like Spencer will pass the event in quest o( his first world racing title. Added spice is the fact that Randy Mamola will be back. Randy has switched to Honda this year and has won the Monterey event two of the last three)'ears. At present he is thirdranked rider in the world standings, and was the leading point rider in the English Match Race Series, winning three of the six races and topping both Spencer and Roberts. Not to be overlooked is the addition of seven other riders that have won AMA National road races: Wes Cooley, Rich Schlachter Mike Baldwin, Miles Baldwin, Nick Richichi, Gregg Smrz and the old pro, Dave Aldana. All are confirmed entries. Richichi will ride a Yamaha TZ750 and Aldana has selected a Suzuki RG500. The rest of the former champs will ride the Honda RS500 triples. The event is very important to Honda. Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha have won the event that dates back to 1972. Honda has yet to win the "200," that is the only road race on the Camel Pro Series circuit that is run in two segments. Laguna Seca is a publicly owned facility. It is controlled by a 25-rnan Board of Directors, which ha done a fantastic job in improving the (acility in recent years. Overall, it is probably the best anywhere in the U.S. If I had to guess I would say tbat more than 80,000 people will be on hand for tbe Sunday Spencer/Roberts run-off. More than half that total will fill the hillsides for the Saturday event and a third of the Sunday crowd will be parking and getting a camping spot during the practice sessions on Friday. They say they ran ou t of tiCKets last year during the Sunday events. The crowds, at least to me, seem to have doubled each year for the past two or three years. The estimate in '83 was that there were more street bikes in the parking area than at any other track, anywhere. I believe that because it is great road riding to the track from any direction anywhere in the west. So it is goodbye Roberts and welcome back Spencer tbis time around. The 32-year-old Roberts and the 22year-old Spencer match up for the final time in the sport that made them both world champions and both millionaires. They have left their mark all over the world in recent years and the only argument seems to be which one is the best road racer in the world? They ran 1-2 at Daytona last March but Laguna is a no-pitstop, all-out, full-bore effort from start to fiilish both times out. Wouldn't it be nice to see Freddie and Kenny run a troublefree race all the way in the last Honda/Yamaba clash in America until next year at Daytona? In passing it should also be noted tbat American riders ha,ve won every Grand Prix 500 final in Europe since mid-August of 1982. That's well over 20 straight as of this date. Not too shabby for (our guys that started out as dirt trackers and went on to become the most dominant road racers the world has ever seen from one nation. 3