Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

th e fans and rider s were gr ea tly upset, his plan bombed , and it didn 't provide better racin g for th e fan s. I,think Mike G ood win 's tal ents would be be tter p ut to u se in th e area of wrestl in g ! VALERIE MEYERS Hunti ngton Beach , CA Barstow-to-Vegas WEST America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Sh aron C layto n. Pu b/ish" Mike Klinger.Ca mp lT olIn Skip j o hns o n. Associate P ublish er! Na ti on al Salt's ."tlanagnCa rol ine Gendr y, Execut ive S,.cn·lary 10 th ,. Publish er Editorial J ohn ll irkh. Ed itor Kil Palmer, Associntr edito r Mall Ili IR(·nl)(·r~ . Associn tr Editor Paul Carru ther s. Ass ocintr Ed itor Advertising T erry Pr..H1 Salt's M an ag er T im Ryan. Sa lt's M tWa g t'T M ark Thorne, Sa lt's M anager L ind a Brown Ad vertisin g Coo rdinato r Na ncy Wasldl . Ad uertising t Ed ito rial Assistant Graphics and Prod uction Gingn Dev au l. Prod uction Man4gn Malc olm Wil son . G rap hic Artist Mar ion Ha tash ita, Tvpeseuer Carolyn Branham. T yp eset ter Dennis G reene. Lab. T ech. Accounting /Data Processing Baja 125s Donna Bryan. A cco unts R eceivable Coordinator Gen eva Repass, A ssistant Fra n Ha m wey, Crt'dit In the November 20 issue of Cycle Neuis, the Baja 1000 coverage listed Buckley/Johnson as the o n ly Class 20 ( 125cc) finishers. Although we had our problems (as did the Lane/Tucker entry) we still finished in th e allo tted time for a legal finish. For the record, th e co rrect times wer e Buckley/Johnson 2 1:25:58.9, Ca se/Senn 26:48:14.8, La ne/Tuc ker 31:37:21.1. That mak es three Cla ss 20 fin ish ers. _ It is hard enoug h to com pete in th e Baj a 1000, let a lo ne fini sh on a 125cc. If we are to have a p rogram at all, we need th e recogni ti on for us a nd the grea test bunch of sponsors anyone co u ld ask for: Yamaha Mot or Corp.. Beach Yamaha, Dall as Bak er, H allman Racin g USA, Smith Goggles a nd Dun lop T ires. Without th eir su p port a nd East/West M.C. p iue rs, we co u ld n' t compete. Congratulations to Buckl ey an d J ohnson on th eir win an d Lane a nd Tucker for hanging in th ere fo r third. Circulation Rheba Smith . Managn Sarah Taylor. Assistant Lyna Hood . AM uta nt Rebecca Braak . Assistant Alm a Ang uia no . Assistan t Dealer Sales and Service Bob Ellion, IHa ln- Sa lt'S ,\ Ionagn Want Ad s Candy Han d. lVa nt A d Soles Service and Support Chris Aitcheson . R ecept io nist Leonard Herring . S&S West 220 1 Cher ry Ave.• Long Beach. CA 90806. P.O . Box 498. Lo n g Beach , CA 9080 !·(H98 . (2 13) 427-7433; L.A. Lin e 636-88014. East -1 190 First Ave.. Tucker. GA. 30084.P.O . Box 805. Tucker. G A 30085-0805. ('104) 934·7850. Cycle News/Wesl (U SPS 1-1 1·340) is pub-lish ed weekl yexce pt the firs l a nd lao;t week o f th e ca len da r Yl"'"oIT for 125 per year -by Cycle News. Jnc.. 220 1Ch erty Avenu e. Lo ng-Beach . CA 90806 . Seco nd class postage paid a t Lo ng Beach , CA. POSTMASTER : Send f o rm 3579 t o Cyc le News. P.O ., Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 -0498 . Su bscr ip uo n rates: O ne year, seco nd class. ma il. $25; I W O years. seco nd class mail , $45; th ree yea rs, second cla ss ma il. $68; 25 weeks, $13. Fo reign ra tes a va ila b le o n req ues t. C ycl e NMlo'S welcomes unsol icited ed itor ial mat eria l includi ng sto ries. ca rtoo ns, photos. ere. Suc h mat eri a l. if published , becom es the excl usive p roperly o f Cycl e New s. Su ch acce pted mat erial is su bject to revision as is necessar y in the sole d iscretio n of Cycle News. Unsolici ted mat eri al whi ch is no r used will be retu rn ed if acco m pa nied by 3 self addressed sta mped en velo pe. All unsolicited ma terial will be handled with reaso na ble ca re. h ow ever . Cycle Ne ws a ss umes no responsibi fit y for th e safet y. Jossor dama ge 10 su ch mat eri al. Repri nt in g in who le or pa n only by permission of the pu blisher. Advertising Cites a nd circu la tio n in forma tio n wi ll be sent u pon request. Set- S.R .D.S. Copyright ® Cycle News. Inc. 1985. Trade mark Cycle News regis tered U.S. PBt~nt Office. All ~ghts reserved. ON THE FRONT PAGE : Ta king Husqvarna's lat est m achine, t he 400 Enduro. f or a test ride t h ro u g h the woods. Complete t est begins on page 6 . Photo by Tom Kolnowski. 4 KEVIN CASE/KEITH SENN Fountain Valley, CA sibl e to get first in a ra ce. Race fans , as well as those of us in the business, are going to find it hard to react generously to this kind of display. The best of th e few high points of the evening was seeing yo un g Robby H amm ond, wh om we reall y enjoy sponsoring, put on, with a ll th e o ther Pee Wee racers, a great display of effort and fun . In a class that, unfortunatel y, already has its sha re o f unfair practices, Robby is one of the most sport in g and fair riders we have helped . Wh at a pity tha t th ese yo u ngsters, who will be o ur next generation of p rofessionals, just ca n 't get an ac know ledge me nt , eve n in Cv c le N ews! I know the ir di sappointment. It sometimes seem s that you just can ' t do eno ugh for motocross racing. RICHARD HAZZARD H acienda H eights, CA R obb y Hamm ond, age seven, wo n th e Pee Wee ex hibition race at the Rodil Cup Supercross. The kids drew more cheers than th e professionals, pr obably due to th e controversial ma in event starting system and riders sandba!;ging in heat races . .. Editor. Supercross Coliseum Leaving th e Coliseum a fter th e races on Saturday, November 9, I felt both disgusted and ch eated. I felt disgusted by th e flagrant co ntempt O ' Mara , Ward a nd Lechien, (a nd , by collusion, their ra cing team managers), had for the ra ce fans who had attended to watch wh at was supposed to be a n international sport ing event. I felt ch eated by th e fact th at I had paid of $120 to ta ke m y famil y to see what turned out to be just another d isplay of the self-destruction o f American profession a l motocross racing. We make our li vin g by servin g th e needs an d interests o f motorcycle riders, and we do try ha rd a nd try to be p rofessional. You can im agine that it is very frustrating to feel we shou ld p rom ote the interests of such as Honda and Kawa saki wh en th eir p ublic behavior is so dam a ging to the sport. They do need to put mor e in to th e sport than just using any means pos- I hav e attended su pe rcross events for severa l years, an d they've a lways been exci ting to wa tch , however, th e Ch erry Coke World Su percross fin al a t th e L os Angeles Coliseum on November 9 was th e excep tio n. Wh v wasn 't the ra ce run as ad vertised? What happened to Mike "T he Promot er" Goodwin's, " G rea t Inverted Start Concept? " According to prerac e advertisi ng , a ll top 10America ns were to start in the second row, and a ll Europeans wou ld start in th e front ro w , bu t that's not wh at occ u r- I . red . What did happen was those Am eri can riders who finished third and fourth in the qualifyin g heats were all ow ed to start th e ra ce in th e first row with th e Europeans , with o u t a handicap. I found m yself agreein g with th e sand bagging that O'Mara , Ward . and Lech ien d id in th e q ua lifyi ng heat s a s a p ro test aga inst th is ch a nge in proced ure. As a resu lt o f Goodw in n ot sticking wi th th e o rigi na l pl an , Barstow -to-Vega s 1985 en tries are still ope n for those wh o have a multipurpose, street-lega l bike a nd wh o want to mak e th e ru n . No pre-entry is necessary. Just show up a t Barnes Yamaha, 1881 W. Main St ., Barstow, California , 7:00 to 10:00 a.m, on November 30, th e Saturday after Thanksgi vin g. Post enterfor S18(includes buffet dinner in La s Vegas ), pi ck up o ur map a n d instruction packet , a nd you a re on your wa y. The m ulti -purpose bike ride parallels th e dirt bike ra ce co urse, is about 250 miles long, a nd ha s service station ga s stops 50 to 65 miles a pa rt. This is an opportunity to to ur the Mojave National Scenic Area o n a route desig ned to please a lmost everyo ne. T he Pha ntom Du ck of th e Desert h ighly endo rses th is ride as suitable for novice a n d beginner riders and experts as well. You will travel routes similar to thos e used in the 1975 to 1982 protest trail rides against the BLM's ban on a full-blow n Barstowto- Vegas desert race. Out-of-state rid ers not familiar with the desert will be paired up with local , desert -wise rid ers wh enever possible for safety rea sons. This is a 'p n ce-in -a -lifetime opportunity, so let 's get it on and I will see all of you in Las Vegas at th e Awards Ceremony. For more information, call Jim Pilon, 818/ 353-5409. LOUIS McKEY Phantom Du ck of th e Desert Fontana . CA - Scott Head Now th at th e en d has come to a ver y successfu l season o f com pe tition . I wou ld lik e to take a few lines to tha n k th ose individua ls who hav e helped make th e 1984 a nd 1985 sea sons th e mo st rewa rd ing of m y career. I would like to th ank m y mother a n d father. Their su p port a nd interest has a lways been the key to m y success. I would like to thank Cosmopolitan Motors for the ir su p port and for th eir co m m itme nt to Observed Trials. A spe cia l thanks goe s to Ron a n d Lana Commo, whose teamwork a nd camaraderie gives race day a n atmosphere o f relative tranquility. I would like to thank Norm Saylor, whose an a lyti cal wizardry , ' sports philosophy a n d fundamental a pproach to building trials skills I consider an essentia l co ntrib u tion in rea ching m y cu rre nt pl ateau. Thanks to Len Weed a nd Earnie Marononi .for their training input. To m y sponsors - Beta, PJ I, Sidi, Ellgren and Works Perfo rm an ce - thank you all. In any sport there are individuals who contribute more than the ir share. In th e sport of observed trials two such individuals immediately come to mind. The first is Dr. Wiltz Wagner . Without his guidance and in £1uence Trials would soon be a ship adrift. The second is Maril yn Wicker. who a lmost single ha n de d ly ha s raised eno ug h funds to field a n American team a t the first two Triald es Nations. T heir contri b u tio ns need to be ackn owledged by a ll. SCOTfHEAD U.S. Observed Trials Champion P lacerville, CA (Contin ued to page 17)

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