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/126790
Harley-Davidson considers West Berlin factory ~ o .-; .... (I) ..0 o ..... u o BY p~p~ Wf~LfY - AMA, SMC & Pace ink supercross pact WESTERVILLE. OH. SEPT. 28 An .g....m.nt h.s been sign.d by r.pr...ntativ.s of the Am.rican Motorcyclists Auoci.tion and k.y supercrou promot.rs Stadium Motorsports Corpor.tion (SMC) .nd P.c. M.nagem.nt Corporation that will see the AMA once .g.in ..nction .11 supercrou races in the U.S. beginning in 1985. Th••nnounc.m.nt w.s m.de Frid.y. September 28, .fter the conclusion of th.... d.ys of discussion. in Houston involving AMA·.W.yne Moulton, SMC's Mike Goodwin, Jeanne Sleeper and Joe Lillis. and Pace'. C.E. Altman and Alan Becker. Whil••pecnlC detail. of the pact have not been disclosed, Moulton .aid the AMA will be re.pon.ible for ..nctioning and officiating .upercross .vents. while Inaport will take cere of the promotional a.pects of the ..ries. "What we'lI have i. a unified .upercro•• and National MX program for 1985." ..id Moulton, "The .upercrou end will retain the name of the In.port Tour••anctioned by the AMA••nd those ev.nts will be combined with the AMA outdoor N.tional MX Series to form the Grand National Championship MX Series. From that, we'lI crown a Grand National MX Champion. Supercrou Ch.mpion. and 125, 250 and 500cc National Champions." lronicelly, it was breaking off of .imilar talks between the AMA, SMC and Pace at the .nd of 1983 that led to the formation of In.port. In.port has sanctioned and run all event. in the 1984 Wrangler Supercro.s Serie., while the AMA was left out of the picture entirely. According to a pre•• relea•• from the AMA, SMC's Mike Goodwin. who invented supercross in the early 70s, said, ''I'm extremely pleased that AMA's Wayne Moulton, my motorsport organization, and the Pace Management people have looked into the long-term improvements of the sport in reaching this milestone accord. Motocross and .upercross will prosp.r under the new AMA agreement. " The same r.I.... quoted Pace's Altman as saying. '" am very happy with the arrangement and am looking forWard to 1985 with new enthusiasm." Moulton said the role of In.port will be "to work with the promotional aspects of the series. including securing television coverage and additional sponsors. I expect to see Gene Trobaugh continue as the he.d of Insport." International Six Days Enduro Host country Holland leads after day one By Gary Van Voorhis ASSEN. HOLLAND. OCT. 1 At the end of the first of .ix days of off-road competition. Holland's Trophy and Vase Teams led the way. Sweden was second in the Trophy T.am standings. while Italy was third. Following Holland in Vase Team competition were Finland and France. At pr.sstime no standings below third place were available, but it was known that the Am.rican Trophy Team suffered a setback when Mark Hyde (Hus) endured an .ngine ••izure 15 miles from the finish. He nursed the bike in but lost approximately 40 minutes. Dav. Bertram (Hus) of the Vase Team had trouble firing his bike at the start and lost eight minutes. Bertram and Kevin Brown (C-A) joined the Vase Team after Geoff Ballard (C-A) and Wally Wilson (Hus) w.re moved up to the Trophy T.am to replace injured Ed Lojak and Mik. Melton. Randy Hawkins (Hus) and Fred Hoess (KTM) were on the DNF list aft.r day one. leaving 20 of the 22 starting Americans still running. LONDON, SEPT. 28 Harley-Davidson has confirmed reports that the Milwaukee company is negotiating with the West Berlin Economic Development Office regarding the possible construction of a factory in West Berlin. According to offICials of the Development Office, Harley-Davidson has been involved in discussions since November 1982, and the possibility of Harley building a factory to produce the Porschedesigned Nova V-4 hinges on crucial talks between the company, Development Offic. officials and West German banks. The talks are scheduled for n.xt month. Advantages of locating in West Berlin include tax concessions, government-subsidized rent and low-interest loans. It was for those very reasons that BMW established a factory in West Berlin, which is surrounded by communist East Germany. West Berlin government sources say that the proposed factory would build the new four-cylinder Nova machine, and that the bike could be on sale in 1986 or 1987. Harley-Davidson Corporat. Public Relations Manager Bob Klein responded to the report by saying, "We have been holding discussions with West Berlin officials on the subject of funding Nova. We're looking for funding for production of the Nova project. "We've been holding discussions with a number of parti.s and West Berlin is one of them. We really don't want to get into the details until - when and if - something is finalized." . Tick.ts for the Nov.mber 5 AMA Prof.uion.' Awards Banqu.t are now availabl. for $25 .ach. The .v.nt includes a cockt.il hour. dinn.r and the award. pr...ntation .nd will be hald at the N.wport Be.ch Mariott in Newport B.ach. C.lifornia. The awards c.r.mony will be co-hosted by D.v. D••pain of Motorweek Illustrated (WTBSTV) .nd Larry M.i.rs. presid.nt of Hi- Point Racing Products and host of. new TV show which will debut this wint.r. Motoworld (USA N.twork). No tickets will b. sold at the door. Ticket r.s.rv.tions may b. mad. by ..nding a ch.ck for $25 per p.r.on to: AMA Pro Awards Banqu.t. c/o Pat McCoy. P.O. Box 141, We.tervill., OH ~3081. Deadline i. October 22. Lee Rowley of Madison, Wisconsin won an expense-paid motorcycle tour of Germany for two in Continental's "Sport Tour of a Lifetime" Sweepstakes. David Long won an expensepaid trip to the November 11-4 AMA Pro-Am road races at Daytona Beach, Florida, and 52 other riders won sets of Continental SuperTwins tires. Yam.ha. on. of the sponsors of the Cal-Expo Supercros•• took adv.ntage of the occasion to publicly debut it. 1985 YZs. Prior to the fir.t qu.lifying he.t. Ricky Johnson and Broc Glover m.d. a circuit of the track. mount.d on the new Yl250and Yl490. respectiv.ly. Fans got anoth.r look at the r.d-and-whit. wond.rs during intermiuion before the final, a. the .ntire lin•• from the YZ80 up. was shown off. Wh.n racing got und.rw.y. Glov.r. Johnson and Keith Bowen raced th.ir r.gular production-based r.cers, which were still y.llow and black, how.ver. A recent desert story contained a small error in the results supplied by the sponsoring club. John Blakeney, a 250cc Expert, rides a Husqvarna, not a Honda. The San Diego, California. Norton Club i• •ponsoring an .II-British str••t ride on October 21 . Th. 90mil. rid. starts and fini.h.s .t Don Vesco Motorcycl.s in T.mecula, C.lifornia; more information is av.ilable.t 619/232-3222. HOT-FOOTING IT DEPARTMENT: MXer Johnny O'Mara has been heavily into running as a training aid, and has convinced Honda teammate David Bailey to run with him in a marathon. "We haven't decided exactly when we'll do it," said Bailey. "only that we plan to fit it in between the remaining rounds of the Supercross eries. (Jeff) Ward also plans to try one soon." A marathon is 26.2 miles in length. Entrie. are available for Fred Chase'. 15th-annual La.t Chance Tr.il Ride. to be held in north.rn California on October 12-14. Friday night i. registration at the Auburn Inn in Auburn, Saturday is the trail ride to Lake Tahoe (with A- and B-Ievel course.), Saturday night i. a banquet at Lake Tahoe. and Sunday i. the raturn to Auburn. There will al.o be an accompanying road ride. Entri•• arelimit.d to the first 100 riders, th....-wheel.r. ar. invited. and the cost is $100. The ride i. op.n only to m.otorcycle d.alers and parts/accessory di.tributor•. T.ubaki chain d.al.r. can .nter free. For more inform.tion. call Ch... at213/747-5173. Dee Granger, a retired racer and former AMA D-1I7 Women's and Motocross Division steward, was an adopted child. Recently, Granger traced down and met her natural mother; the natural mother was a motorcycle enthusiast, having learned to ride on an Ariel square four and owned a Triumph for some time. Gregg Hansford. the Austr.lian GP ro.d racing star of the late 70.. i. racing cars thase d.y•. Hansford. driving with Alan Moffat in • M.zd. RX7. finished third in the prestigious B.thurst 1000 (kilometer) touring car race in Australia S.pt.mber 29. A proposed FIM European Stadiumcross Series received a major setback when the manufacturers told the sport's international governing body they wouldn't support the proposed Rodil Cup Championship. An industry spokesman said, "The present World Championship set up already costs us a lot of time and money. As a body we felt thuthe present situation