Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The percels renge from 1 to 233 ecres, et from $100 to $20,000 perBcre. The BLM hes mede it eesier to buy lend by eccepting a 10% of the purchase price as a down payment; the balance due to 180 days. For more information on the sale, call the BLM at 714/ 351-6394. project is still scheduled for August 5, with a 10:00 a.m. sign-up time at the Troy Meadows Campground. Organizer Bill Herndon says that O'Neel USA, Banzai Brothers and ND will have all prizes for lucky folks, and Duralube will have products for ell volunteers. For information, contact Herndon at 213/ 255-5815. HosPITal STOP: SouLhern California mOLOCTosser Joel Harriott suffered a badly broken leg at Lhe Mammoth Mountain Motocross earlier Lhis monLh. Because he was in the middle of changing insurance companies, his injuries were not covered and as a result he had LO be driven from Mammoth to Ventura County Hospital with the leg still broken. Joel is home now, but still faces over $6000 in medical bills, and his broLher JeH is leading a campaign LO raise money. Donations, as well as cards and letters, may be sent LO Joel Harriott, 1851 Buyers St. Apt. 14, Simi Valley, CA 93063. The 10th annual Elks Major Project Benefit motocross will be held on August 5 at Santa Maria, California's Spillway Park. The event boasts many prizes, double AME Pro points, 50% trophies, and all classes. One-hundred percent b£ the proceeds will go LO aid handicapped children. To avoid conflict, AME (American Motocross Ente~prises) is cancelling its August 5 race at Los Angeles County Raceway. American Honde riders Mike Baldwin and Fred Merkel teemed up to win the annual Suzuka Eight-Hour Endurence race July 29 in Japan. It was Baldwin's second win of the event, Merkel's first. The race was also the third round of the World Endurance Road Racing Championship Series. MXer JeH Ward, who lives in Mission Viejo, California, awoke one morning last week and found his driveway had been blocked oH with banners, pylons and the like. "The course they set up for the road bicycling races in Lhe Olympics goes right down my street," aid Ward. The course, approximately 10 miles in lengLh, wound its way around the city. WHO'S REALLV THE FASTEST? That could be decided as far es Grend Prix road rece competitors, crew members end the press are concerned on Thursdey, August 2, when e foot rece will be held at Englend's Silverstone road race circuit which will host the British GP on Sunday, August 5. Billed as the Edger Jessup Memorial Trophy Rece in honor of the legendary yet seemingly mythicel Six Days competitor, the rece hes drewn at leest one Americen entrant. Weyne Reiney, who's contesting the 250cc GP cless on e Teem Marlboro Roberts Vemehe, hes Hid he'll get out his sneekers end go for it. Team Kawasaki wrench Tom Halverson, who tunes for Goat Breker, spent a day in jail in Pennsylvania. "We had just picked up a new box van in California before we left for this weekend's National MX in New York," said Halverson. "All we had was a temporary license tag and that apparently wasn't good enough for the Slate trooper that pulled us over. He didn't see things our way at all and ended up sending me to jail. I have to go back to court to straighten things out." The works Kawasaki Halverson was carrying sported a hand-crafted boost bottle attached to the intake port. "It helps to mellow out the lower end power of the 500cc motor," said Halverson. Recent rains have reduced the fire danger in the Sequoia National Forest, so motorcycle treils in the Kennedy Meadows erea ere still open. The third part ofthe Sequoia Summer Series trail-maintenance (Continued to page 19) RISK By John Ulrich "./' Lunacy at Laguna Sece What you see below is a photo I took in the corkscrew at Laguna Seca. If it looks like a bunch of street riders - some wiLh helmets, some wiLhout - out on the racetrack, that's because that's exactly what it is. When I sa-w Lhe stream of riders - some wearing no shins, no shoes, no helmets, no gloves, just shons and sunglasses - I thought that surely some mistake had been made. Among the riders were kids on minibikes, at least two on bicycles, sedate tourists on tank-like Gold Wings and Ventures, canyon crazies on RD400s and several maniacs who clearly thought this was a race and sought to weave Lheir machines at speed between clumps of slower pilots. Tour he organized for the ractrack. Spencer's Yamaha Tour is a package deal sold through Yamaha dealers Lhroughout California. It includes a three-day admission ticket, pit pass, a hat, a pin and one lap on the track. The one lap is supposed LO be a parade lap, riders slowly following behind pace cars. Butitturned into a 25-minute freefor-all, lunacy at Laguna, maniacs on macadam. Three people crashed, Spencer says, with no injuries. It's a miracle. About 1700 passes were sold; the extra 400 machines snuck onto the track wi th the masses of others. The potential for group crashes and mai med street riders is enormous in Lhe Yamaha Tour. "There are a number of problems with the parade lap," Art Glatke of Laguna Seca LOld me. "We're taking a look at either controlling it or doing away with it:" Good idea, that; getting rid of a program gone mad. ...... Professionel street squids Probably the motorcycle industry's least-known group, the Southern California Professional Bench Racer's Association is a social bunch of sportriding journalists and advertising/ public relations men. The SCPBRA's annual ride up California Highway I from Los Angeles LO Mon terey for Lhe Laguna Seca road races always produces numerous crashes, and this year was outstanding in that respect. Kawasaki MotorsCorp. U.S.A. Public Relations Manager Mel Moore - (he man behind Kawasaki's 1983 recognition of motorcycle journalists with the most test bike crashes - bailed for Lhesecond consecutive year, crashinga 750 Turbo. Jeff Greenberg, who writes win ads for Kawasaki's advertising agency - Kenyon and Eckhardt - crashed a GPz550 not once, but twice, both wrecks involving other riders. In one incident, Greenberg Lhrew it away entering a decreasingradius corner and his bike hit Mike Burroughs of Burroughs Advertising, who had run off the same corner and was SLOpped on the shoulder aboard his (formerly). immaculate Bimola Suzuki. Later Greenbergsem his GPz end-over-end when he ran oH another corner while following Kawasaki Team Tour's John May, who ran into the dirt just ahead of Greenberg and wadded a 750 Turbo. Freelance writer Hector Cademartori -the U.S. correspondent for Spain's Solo Moto magazine - wadded a Honda CB700S. Former racer Mike Spencer, now working for American Honda's Product Research Department providing technical information for magazine writers, crashed a new VF500F2. Spencer spent much of the rest of Lhe trip riding in the chase/crash truck provided by Kawasaki, a white box van decorated with a huge red cross on each door and slid through corners by Kawasaki's Stewart Thomas with highbeams and emergency Dashers on. • •••• California Red Alert: Parks and Rec turns its back on dirt riders One helrhetless fool screamed "Yahoo" as he gunned his Harley down the corkscrew; another wheelied LO the cheers of the crowd and the encouragement of - of all things - a corner worker who signalled riders LO wheelie. I would have guessed 500 people lapped Laguna Seca in Lhe spectacle. ow I've learned from Bill Spencer that over 21 00 mOLOrcycles rolled ontO the track a part of Lhe latest Yamaha OHV champion Russ Sanford was forced out of the California State Department of Parks and Recreation because Director William Briner cares more about possibly oHending homosexuals than he does about protecting the legitimate concerns of dirt riders and other off-high wayvehicle enthusiasts. Sanford, of course, was Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, in charge of OHV projects. The Department has issued press releases saying Sanford resigned because he felt he could better serve the spon and the industry by working outside the Department. What Briner isn't telling anybody is that he forced Sanford to resign, browbeating and pressuring his Deputy Director LO the point that Sanford finally gave up any hope of working with Briner in the future and resi~ed. Briner was appointed to his position by Governor George Deukmejian, and his selection is subject LO confirmation by the State Senate on August 6. Briner was worried that a memo Sanford wrote would oHend homosexuals in the Slate and endanger his confirmation as director. The memo Sanford wrote to Lhe OHV Commission recommended Lhat a policy be developed regarding use of state OHV facilities by non-OHV groups. The issue was brought up when 220 members of a gay street mOLOrcycle (chopper) club from San ·Francisco reserved Area 5 of the Hollister Hills OHV Recreation Area for a four-day camp-out. OHV recreation areas are funded by Green Stickie money, and use fee schedules are kept low because of the Green Stickie subsidies of Lhe facilities. The legitimate question Sanford raised was whether or not use of those facilities by OHV enthusiasts should be prevented by allowing non-OHV groups - such as the street-riding guys from San San Francisco - to reserve Lhe areas for activities not related to OHV us . That's what Sanford sought to resolve in his memo, which someone in the Department of Parks and Recreation leaked to the press before anford had a chance LO mail itordeliver it to its intended destination. Because the group that motivated the asking of the question happened LO be gay, Briner panicked and set out to eliminate Sanford. For 12 years dirt riders and everybodv else with an OHV have been bUyIng Green Stickies, and part of the $15 bi-annual fee is for development and operation of OHV facilities. But over the years OHV owners have had LO put up with various politicans attempting LO take the OHV Fund and use the money for other, unrelated things; politicians short of budget money love to poach OHV funds because they don't understand and don't care about dirt riders or ATV fans or people with dune buggies and jeeps. So what happens? We finally get a guy who knows about and appreciates motorcycles and OHVs - Ruos Sanford, founder of Motorcycle Owners, Riders and EnLhusiasts and the man who invented lobbying for mOLOrcyclists' rights in SacramenLO - and he gets forced out because his boss is worried about possibly oHending gays. What can you do? Write a letter, now, today, right this instant. Write to your State Senator (Slate CapiLOI, Sacramento, CA 95814) and tell him that you oppose confirmation of William Briner as Director of the State Department of Parks and Recreation; tell him you want Russ Sanford put back in charge of OHV activities. Then send a copy of your letter LO Governor Deukmejian and SenaLOr H. L. Richardson at the same address. Do it! Send a message today, a message that says the state can't ignore your rights and needs just because some gay street riders from San Francisco might be oHended because they might not be able LO reserve and use OHV facilities LO the exclusion of OI-iV-enlhusiasts"and 'dirt riders'- • 3

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