Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Latest Poop (Conti nued from page 3) Spaniard N icholas Rodi l del Valle. a past FIM president after whom the Rodil Trophy Supercross Series was named, has been hospitalized with a kidney ailment and will not preside over the November 9 Rod il Trophy _Supei'cross in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as previously announced. .... Q.) MOTORCYCLE ~ 8 INDUSTRYS Q.) :> o Z TerrY Cunningham runs up a stream bed past a stalled competitor. AMA National Championship Enduro Series: Final round By Dennis Zurawski, Jr. BEAR. DE. OCT. 27 For the second year in a row T erry Cu n-n in g h a m captured the o verall win a t th e Del a wa re Sta te Cham pionshi p N a tion al Enduro . Cunningh a m dropped 19 p oints 24 three. H on da develo p men t rider Dr ew Sm it h fin ishe d fifth o vera ll with a score o f 24. Even th ou gh Cu n ning ham won by a two -po int margin , he sa id, " I didn' t hav e a good day toda y . . . I fell fo ur times before [ go t to th e th ird chec k." Besides fall ing, T erry 's comp ute r a lso ga ve him som e trou ble. " My cOI-r: p u ter h ad. so me m oisture in it wh ich ca used It to fog up , a nd [ was try ing to switch o n th e o the r o ne (co m p u ter ). Whil e [ was doi ng this, 1 d id n' t see th e ti m e and 1 we n t aro u nd th e co r ne r .an d burned th e ch eck." At the ti me, T erry tho ug ht those two points he lost h urt h im . Cun n ingham the n enco u ntered 'a rider who had just fa ll en i n fro nt o f hi m a nd T erry stop p ed to hel p . " I just burn ed th e check a nd th en [ sto p ped to h elp th e g uy wh o broke his leg. [ hel ped h i m mov e his bike, the n 1 ro de ba ck to tell th e p eopl e at the ch eck . Wh en 1 got back to him there were o th er peo.. pi e th er e a n d th ey told me to go, but 1 was read y to quit riding and h elp th e gu y, becau se [ kn ow wh at it 's lik e to h ave a broken. leg a nd nobod y to h elp." , Fortunat ely fo r T erry, th ere was en o ug h time g iven ba ck , through reset s a nd ro ad sections, th a t he mad e up hi s lost time. Ov er coming a "bad sta rt " a n d being willinglo qui t to h elp someone. that is th e mark o f a tru e cham p ion , as T erry Cunningham proved . Not just Cunningham had a bad day , though , even Melton had hi s share of mistakes. Melton sai d, " I t h i n k 1 co u ld have shaved off a few p o ints. [ for got a bo u t th e second gas sto p br-ing a kn own 'co ntro l, an d T ba cked o ff a bit. 1 p roba bl y co u ld Born A baby girl, Rach el Marie, to road racer Richard Schlach ter and his wife.Sue.on October 29. Cunningham wins Delaware Enduro d u rin g the day, enough to beat o u t Husqvarna teammat es Mik e M It e: o n a n d F n. t z Ka dlec b.y two p oints . a nd Randy H awkins by C"ANGE have go tten a few p oints th er.e." The sto ry wa s th e sa me for most nder~ . as many th ought th ey co u ld have ga med so me more points. T he rea son for su ch co m me nts is largel y due to . as Smith p ut i t, " well eng inee red chec k p lacem ent." Besides Sm it h. a ll of th e top riders co m merited o n excellen t chec k placem ent. well marked tr a ils, a n d su per b r id i ng co n di tio ns, wit h minim a l a mou n ts o f d u st a nd no maj or bo tt len ecks . Course len g th wa s 135.5 m il es o n paper, 121. 1actua l, with vari ous speed cha nges to m eet the ridi ng co nd itio ns a nd to keep th e rid ers on th eir toes. A few riders d id think so me o f th e co urse was eas y to ride, but th e hi g h er speed averages made the tr a il s tricky. T he co u rse was co m posed o f man y d ifferent ki nd s of terra in , with a good a mo unt o f p hragrniris (so me tim es referr ed to as " elep ha n t gr as s" ), dirt roads , gra ssy tra il and tight woods trail s. Check number fo ur p os ed a problem for man y ri ders as 128 o f th e 480rider field bu rn ed th e well -pla ced check. Th e check wa s reach ed as riders rode down a longside a field. As th ey neared th e end of th e field th ey had to m ak e a ri ght turn. If th ey watch ed th e o the r riders go aro un d the turn they wou ld go behind some tall weeds and phra gmitis , th en reappear and co ntin ue down th e oth er side o f th e field. T he fourth check was loca ted beh ind thi s " blin d" of weeds and ri ders wh o were 10or more seconds hot had li tt le cha nce o f scrubbing off th e time. • ' Results GRAN CH D AMPION: T erry Cunningham (Hus) 19 op 10: 1. M Melton(H us)21; 2. F. Kadlac(Hus) . i 21 ; 3. R Hawkins(Hus) 23;4. D . .Smith(Han) 24; 5. D. B ertram (Hus) 26; 6. R.Scharphorn (Hus) 19; 7. J , Russall (H us) 29; 8. 0 , Tomli n (Hus) 30; 9. J . L afferty (Hus)35; 10. W Wilson(Hus)36. . HIG HPOINT A:W allyWilson IHusl 36 H IGHPOINT B L. Charlesworth 4 7. : HIGHPOI NTC: Steve Chapkovich ISuz)49, Engaged Team Honda motocrosser David Bailey to his girlfriend of the pas t 18 months, Gi na Da m o ne; the wedding da te hasn't been set . Quit Carlis le Tire Co."southern Ca lifornia dist rict sales manager Tony McAndrew; he is interested in p ursuing other opportunities in the ATV/ motorcycle industry and ca n bereached a t 714/737-3297 . Hired - Vance & Hines Racing By as road race m anager, Bill Foster, fo rm erly cre w ch ief for Cycle T ech Racing end ura nc e tea m . Signed A one-year co ntract to run en d ura nce road races an d work as a tes t rid er for u.s. Suzuki Mo to r Corp ., Doug Tola nd . Elimin ated T h e d irt track team ma nager posi tion a t H o nd a ; Gen e Ro mero , wh o g uided the team to tw o co n sec u tive AMA G ra n d Nationa l Champions hi p s in 1984 a nd 1985, may be repos itio ne d wi th th e co mpa ny in a ma nageri al position. Changed Th e phone number for Petersen Publishing Co m pa ny in Los Angeles , Californi a , effect iv e N ovem ber 4,to 213/ 854-2222. R esigned James E. Yehl , th e fo u nd er and prim ary stockholder of th e J ones Optical Compan y, from J ones Optical; Yehl has no definite p lan s for th e future. Quit Lancer Products general m an ager , Dan Melbourne; L in da H ogue will be assu m ing his duties.• THE NATIONAL PAPERS By Roxy Rockwood Congratulations are in order for the R .H . Reyn olds tobacco pe op le rhar sell the Camel brand of cigarettes. Reynolds h as been . a ssociated with professi onal motorcycle ra cing since 1974, with either th e Camel or Winston brand , while co m in g up with a point fund that has remained co ns istent a t $175 ,000. For 1986, th at figure jumps to $275,000 . In the early years there was just one point fund with winners taking a ll , so to speak, and it was always the dirt trackers ta king the majority of the point fund. Recent years have found a guaranteed portion being set as ide fo r the road racers and road racing points only. A road racer was also able to gain a portion of th e big po t if he cou ld win enough and score enough to place hi m in th e fina l top 10 in overall points. But it happened just tw ice. It is apparent that the AMA is finally listen in g to a growi ng factio n that has lo ng wa nted to separa te road raci ng from dirt tracki ng. Apparently . the Camel peop le were also listen ing and a lso agreed. Dirt track racing ha s always been th e backbone of America n racing with road racing comi ng along la ter and then finall y motocross. For years, dirt trackers were indeed road racers a nd road racers were dirt trackers. Throughou t the 50s and 60s n o more than five road races per sea so n wer e sancti oned. so m etime s less. Many fans an d followers say that the hey-day of American road racing was in thefirst half of the 1970s, th e era of th e facto ry tea ms from Harley, BSA, Triumph, Suzuki , Kawasaki and Yamaha . No less th an nine road races were sanct ioned i n 1973, but in two short years th e tota l had been reduced to on ly three. Many of the tracks that jumped on the bandwagon still exist, but a like n u m ber are now shopping cen ters or parking lots for high rise bu ildings. Th e current road racing picture, at least for actua l race loca tio ns, appears to have stabilized at about eight. Years of trial and error have shown on e gl aring fact; a road race fan must have so me th i ng other th an just the race wee ken d to get h is attention and money. T he even t h as to be in a genera l resort - type a rea . Nobody can rea lly ex p la in this, it is just fact based o n 50 yea rs o f expe rienc e by both prom o ters a nd fa ns . T he o ne single excep tio n is th e Sears Point Racewa y, loca ted a t th e top o f th e San Fra nc isco ba y wit h o n ly a ma ximu m security prison for an added a ttrac tion . Mid- Oh io n ear Lexi ngto n may be a no the r, but i t has on ly been o n th e sch ed u le for a short time a nd has a r u ra l ra th er th a n resort-type a ttrac tion to ma n y. T h e last time a rider tri ed to race an d win the title by ridin g both d ir t a nd ro ad races was in 1977. T h e la st time a rider succeeded was long ago in 1974. T he n ew sp li t, th at will now find road raci ng as a tot all y separate divisio n just li ke dirt track a n d motocro ss, will find winning road racers finall y getting th e recognition and attention tha t has been unavailable to them in th e past. The highest ra n kin g ever ac h ieved by a road racing specialist in the past final standin gs was Kel Carruthers' eighth p lace finish in 1971. R oad raci n g appears to have numerous unanswered questions a nd several ill s at th is time. By granting a totally separate division with points from the AMA a nd dollars from Camel , it cou ld be the major shot in th e arm needed to make Am erican road ra cing more than just a training ground for fu ture World Champions. But th ere is still one carro t in front of the riders. There is a special $25.000 to the rider tha t sco res the most combi ned points in both dirt track an d road race Nationals. Are you listening Bubba Shobert, Do ug Chand ler, Wayne Rainey and perhaps even • Kenuy, Ro berts '

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