Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

,.....---'--...: •..:..:....!..I- ' - - - - - : " - - ' - - - ' - - - - ' - '- '- - - , •...: • z « ::!: o w ii: lL. :x: u ~ ~ > '" a b :x: a. California's "Sudden Sam" Ermolenko, who finished third in the 1985 World Individual Speedway Championship, will be riding in British League competition this year for the Wolverhampton Wolves as the only American on the squad. He will be joined in England by Shawn and Kelly Moran, Bobby Schwartz, Rick Miller and Lance King. Voyagers combined. Beals said that February 1986 was the seventh consecutive month with Harley-Davidson retail sales ahead of the prior year, and that February 1986 sales showed a gain of almost 40% over February 1985. As Beals sees it, Harley-Davidson is doing well after nearly five tough , , years since a group of company executives led by Beals bought the company from AMF. Indiana became the 22nd state to establish a rider-funded motorcycle education program last month. when Governor Robert D. Orr signed legislation authored by State Representative John Thomas. In addition to the rider education provision. H B 1 279 also provides for special license plates ee WRITER New! Different! The way of speed, 1986 style By Chuck Clayton This y.ear we watched the season commence from a convenient tower with closed circuit TV and a radio feed. Outside OUT air condjtioned window was the real, live Daytona Speedway finish line. Inside were big color TV screens, showing the banking, the infield, the chicane of the road races. There were live action closeups of the motocross. But I preferred to watch the motocross outdoors, in the East turn, where the five or six best riders cleared the staircase in one smooth speed-leap. You can watch it all on April 24 if you have a good cable company or a for antique motorscooters. a waiver of the written test on motorcycle license renewals. and a "motorcycle only" operator license (previously. Indiana riders were required to obtain a regular automobile driver's license before a motorcycle endorsement could be issued). Invita~ional Motocross which'will be held on June" 14-15 at the Sacramento (California) Off-Highway Park. PAPERS EBC Brakes has been signed as the major sponsor of the 1986 WE~A National Endurance Road Racmg Series, which wiil now be known as the WERAIEBC National Endurance Series. EBC has deposited $10,000 in the series point fund and will offer certificates good for brake pads and parts for class winn~rs in the s~ries, which kicks off Apnl 12 at IndIanapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana. According to a study by the Champion Spark Plug Company, moto.rcycles will travel more than 23.bIllion miles this year in the United States. Two-thirds of that mileage will be for fun, including 44% on streets and highways. 18% for trail riding and 6% for hill climbing. The 67% total devoted to pleasure is up from 60% three years ago, according to the survey. Just 29% of motorcycle miles this year will go towards basic transportation which is down from the 33%. The survey also found that 9.3% of all households in the U.S. have a motorcycle and that there is a total of 10 million privately owned motorcycles in the country with an average annual mileage of 2305 miles. Swift Auto World and Swift Dodge of Sacramento, California, will give away a 1986 Dodge D-50 Power Ram four-wheel drive pickup at the Hangtown Motocross Classic on April 5-6. Hangtown is the second round of the AMA National Motocross Championship Series. Motocrosser Danny "Magoo" Chandler was released from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center on March 14 and has returned to his Forest Hill, California home. According to Chandler's manager Mike Collins, Magoo is now helping in the promotion of the Magoo satellite djsh. USA Network has no plan to cramble the special delayed Daytona broadcast. We will watch it again with great pleasure. . Going to the races and readmg about them in the newspaper is fun. But then seeing them replayed on TV later is a wonderful new experience. This is the "Re Decade." So proclaims the fe-dture in Esquire that I reau on the plane to Daytona. Ckdrly, the faus of the '80s are recycled from faus to previous ueGlue , lhe magazine says. Re lhat as it may ... To re or not to re ... Ronalu Reagcun. . Harley-Davidson has re-inven~ed the Antique Motorcycle (EsqUire shows a picture of it). . They call it the WLST Hentage Softail, but it is apparently out of the 1950 Panhead parts bin. Magazines are running "nostalgia" features. 100. One even reprinletl a column by Floyu Clymt'r writtt'n in 1960. "It's frightening, isn't it?" shuddered Ed Youngblood when I told him of this. They are close to digging up columns thal Ed and I might have written in some distant past that we hope we somehow lived down. Maybe we rushed through thost' decades too fast, quick to ridjcule and replace everything with something THE ~ NATIONAL l3 ~ By Roxy Rockwood lL's kickoff time in California. The kick is the s tart of the 1986 version of the Camel Pro Series, highlighting one IT, lWO half Ron Lechien Kawasaki's Director of Public Relations Mel Moore called Cycle News on Monday, March 31 to let us know that rumors circulating about motocrosser Ron Lechien being fired from Kawasaki are nothing more than rumors. "The rumors have been flying, but as of 11:08 on Monday, March 31, he's still with us," Moore said. "He has not been riding 100 percent because of a shoulder injury from the Gainesville National; he's at the Colorado River Jet-Skiing this weekend and his shoulder seems to be okay. He will be back racing at the Hangtown National (April 6). He's trying to meet all his contrac.tual agreements and he's very conscIo~s of what his obligations are to thls firm." According to legendary Ducati designer Dr. Fabi~ Taglioni•. now working for Caglva. the Caglva/- (Continued to page 63) New! Different! (Floyd's favorite words). Maybe the AMA is reviving Class C racing with the Superbikes because they are based on showroom stock scooters like racers used to be III decades past. Class C equjpment gave us the likes of Dick Mann, Gary ixon, and Bart Markel. Superbikes are already giving us an Eddie, a Kevin, Mike, and Fred. It has enticed a few dirt track experts- too, including Jay and Ricky, who can put a street bike into the top 10 if it has the righl stuf£. Well,as I look around this spring, it seems okay, The Re Decade. Gasoline is reduced to 1979 prices. Old motorcycles are getting restored and re-ridden. The factories are retailing what they race. We are re-djscovering the memorable delights of our recent decades wjth all of the 1980's technology. Even the oxymoronic New Antique Harley SpOrts the modern electric staner and foot shift and passes all the EPA tests. The showroom Superbikes are darn near race ready for the speeds of today, compared to the Class C machinery of yesteryear. You can still race with the big boys on a working man's budget. just like your daddy. That is an idea from motorcycling's past that is weIl wonh reliving. • miles and two mile events, plus a road race, between April 5 and May 18. When the dust settles and the racers head east, the title will be far from decided, but fans should have some idea as to who has the horsepower and the fast throttles to be a contender come next fall when it all returns and ends in the west. Let's take it by the numbers, or dates. Ascot TT, April 5: Four former winners will be on hand, Bubba Shobert Doug Chandler, J orgy Jorgensen and'Steve Eklund. Jorgy is always the pre-race (avorite in thi.s one, having won it four of the last nme times. The only annual event where Jay Springsteen has never made it to the winner's circle in 13 previous attempts. Eklund is fresh from his Houston victory and Ricky Graham has a nervous throttle hand alter missing the Houston race and later proving to rumseJ[ that he is indeed a road racer at the recent Daytona 200. Scotty Parker can be the dark horse in this one, the same for "Old Pro" teenager, Chris Carr. Sacramento Mile, April 12: Hank Scott joins the fray here to fight it out with Springsteen, Shobert, Graham as to who is the best miler oI all time. Hank'is one back in the win column wi th 12. The rest are in a three way tie with 13 apiece. . Scotty Parker was the upset wmner lhere last fall and Chris Carr will be riding the bike that Wayne Rainey rode to a near-miss win the last time out. Phoenix Half Mile, April 26: A new first lime event on a long-time racetrack. The Manzanita oval is big and (ast. None of the current crop of top riders have ever raced there in the past so it is wide open to SCOtty Parker-type riders who like to nde wide-open. This is the home of spnnt car racing in Arizona, where the unlimited (our-wheelers race fullmle on a weekly summertime b~sis. . San Jose Mile, May 4: Thlsone IS a day event on the long and fast oval that always separates the men (rom the boys. Eight former winners are set for the action but Graham and Shoben have acted like they own the place five out of the last six events held here. Scotty Parker has been trying for 14 straight times to win it and has finjshed in just about every POSItion but first. He could be due, or overdue, for his first time win in the city at the bottom of the Bay. Previous winners entered date all the way back to 1976, making this race one of the most difficult for the new kids. Shobert and Springsteen are each three-time winners, as is long time veteran miler, Ganh Brow. Ascot Half Mile, May 10: The flTSt half'mile of the new season opens with a bang on the longest-running traditional oval on the schedule. The outstanding feature is that the last seven Nationals here on the oval have produced seven diHerent winners! Privateers took It away from the factory aces last year with Ted Boody . . (Continued to page 21) ..... - ~ 0. < 3

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