Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

atively easy," according to our man on the scene. East Germany led the Trophy Team competition, France was in second and Czechoslovakia third. The U.S. team was in eighth. East Germany was also on top in Junior World Team competition with Italy second. Finland third, and the U.S. fourth. One American. Ed Marchini. dropped out of the Six Days on the first day. r- oc 0') BYP4IP4I Wf4lLfY Duane Summers (Duc) won the La Carrera III road race in Baja California, Mexico, on September 19. The desert racer-turned road racer averaged 116 mph on the 1I5-mile road which runs between San Felipe and Ensenada. Sol max Racing USA's (Vam) Scott Russell and Terry Bailey won the WERA six-hour endurance race at Shannonville Motorsport Park in Shannonville. Ontario. Canada. on September 19. Solmax topped Team Suzuki (Suz) by two laps in the rainy conditions with Red Stripe Racing (Vam) finishing third. Team Suzuki holds a 1O-point lead in the championship with three events remaining in the 15-event series. Three-time AMA Superbike Champion Reg Pridmore has started a new road riding school after splitting up with RATS (Rider Advanced Trainin~ School) partner Rob Beach. Pndmore's new venture is called CLASS (California's Leading Advanced Safety Schools) and will be held at race tracks throughout the country. For information regarding the schools, contact Pridmore at 1495 Palma Dr., Ventura, CA 93003,805/ 644-7159. John Eidenberger (Suz) was the big winner during WERA Regional Sprint road racing action at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit. Illinois, 'on September 20. Eidenberger won the A Production. B Production and the Open Grand Prix classes. The C Production class was won by Ed Key (Hon). Jeff Stanton (Yam) won both motos to take the 250<:<: Pro class win at the third round of the CMC/Dodge Trucks Trans-Cal Series at Sunrise Cycle Park in Adelanto, California. Ty Davis (Hon) combined a 4-1 score to top the 125cc Pro class, while Tommy Watts (Kaw) went 2-1 to lock up the 500cc Pro win. West Germany's Carl Maier won the World Championship Speedway Long Track Final on September 20. in Muldorf. West Germany. England's Simon WJgg finished second while Shawn Moran was the top American in third. Moran tied England's Martin Hagan in points. then won the run-off to take sole possession of third place. Gerald Hanson of Fountain Valley, California, was killed durin~ the La Carrera III road race in Baja California, Mexico, on September 19. Hanson, 43, was pronounced dead on arrival at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula VIsta, California, after his accident near the hal£way mark in the U5-mile road race. The 62nd International Six Days Enduro got underway on Monday. September21, in Poland, and with the exception of one terrain test hill which was thrown out when scores were tabulated at the end of day one, the terrain was "rel- This battery-powered bike made its drag strip debut at Palmdale, California's Los Angeles County Raceway recently. Randy Rannberg logged runs in the mid-12s at 100 mph aboard the Eyeball Engineering project bike. Although ].B. Norris, the AMA manager of dirt track racing, would only say, "Drug tests conducted by the AMA are strictly confidential," Camel Pro Series competitor Tim Mertens, one of four riders involved in random drug testing following the September 6 Springfield Mile had more to say. "It was a public deal that we were tested and you printed our names. I've been told I tested negative and I want that printed too." Assuming the AMA would suspend any rider who ,tested positive, since the four riders who were' tested - Mertens, Ronnie Jones, Billy Herndon and Scott Stump all competed in the September 20 San Jose Mile, one can assume the results of their tests were negative. The 6th Annual True Grits 50cc Road Reliability Fun Run will take place in the north Georgia mountains on Sunday, October 18. When promoter Ben Cheatwood says the True Grits event is a "fun" run. he means just that. Example: "AMA sanction applied for. As always, the event is open to non-AMA members with more money than common sense. Entry fee: $345 non-AMA' members/ $20 AMA members." Multi-time MX Nationel Champion Bob Hannah. Professor Gary Bailey and John Penton are just a few of the fun seekers who've ridden the event. Limited to 50cc motorcycles, the class you compete in ia determined by your weight. There are also two special cia...., the NERD cia.. (Nationally Entertaining Riders Division), and the Iron Man class for moped and scooter riders. We suggest you ,get your hands on an entry form soon as the run is limited to 60 riders. For more information. call 404/9636477. What do Texans Bubba Shobert and Kevin Schwantz have in common? Sure, they're both super fast racers, but did you know they're both tooling around in new 2..3/16-valve Mercedes Benz 190 cars. Shobert, who now calls Carmel Valley, California. home, said, "When I won my first (of three) Camel Pro title I was going to buy a Ferrari, but most of the money I made was eaten up by taxes. I bought the Mercedes this summer as a present to myself." Neither Shobert nor Scbwantz were exactly sure of what our editor meant when he told them he'd been driving cars and trucks with l6-valve engines . since he was a kid. Two-time Grand National Champion Dick Mann will host his annual Dirt Bike Rally at Brentwood, California's Sandhill Ranch on Sunday. October 18. According to Mann. former Grand National Champions Mert Lawwill. Bart Markel and Gary Nixon will be joined by Neil Keen. Jody Nichols and Jimmy Odom at this year's rally. For information on the event. call 408/476-3663. 2 Great Motorcycle Adventures will host a six-day trail ride that will start in· Presidio, Texas, on Sunday. October 15, and take participants to Mexico's Copper Canyon. According to Ed "Duct Tapes" Hertfelder, who will lead the ride, "We'll ride two track trails and secondary roads over cool mountain passes and into the famous Copper Canyon - 125 miles . per day of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. We'll be riding elevations to 11,000 feet with no tight woods. Enduro bikes are okay and ladies are welcome." The $395 fee covers five nights of lodging (double occupancy), all meals and experienced bilingual guides. No, Ed's not one of the bilingual guides. In fact, he got down right mad when we asked him if he was bilingual For more information, contact Les French, c/o Great Motorcycle Adventures, 8241 Heartfield Lane, Beaumont, TX 77706, 409/866-7891. Kawasaki's Research and Development Department has signed motocrosser Mike Fisher to. a contract as a factory test rider to aid with the development of the KX line. according to Kawasaki's Michael Preston. Fisher will campaign the 250 and 500Cc outdoor Nationals and the Supercross Series for Kawasaki in 1988. SuperSports, promoters of the Florida Winter Nationals Be Mini Olympics, has announced that the Senior and Plus 25 classes will be dropped from this year's competition. Two classes have been added and they are the 125cc Youth Stock and Youth Modified classes. SuperSport's Bill West said that the changes were made based on previous years participation. "The Mini Olympics is a National event, designed from its inception primarily for the Youth classes and we have to be in line with what the current times dictate," said ,West. "Dropping the two classes was not an easy decision, but a necessary one." The 16th Annual Florida Winter Nationals' Be Winter Olympics will take place November 24-28 at Gatorback Cycle Park in Gainesville. For more information, call or write: SuperSports, P.O. Box 13246, St Petersburg, FL 33733, 813/8228929. Malcolm Forbes, the world's weathiest motorcyclist, gave movie star Elizabeth Taylor a Harley-Davidson 883 Hugger on Sunday. September 20. The bike had received a purple custom paint job by none other than Willie G. Davidson. Both Forbes and Taylor denied wedding rumors; Forbes said, "We're good friends. .. Film at 11 ... oops, pictures next week. Despite suffering a fractured wrist and ankle in Denmark on September 11, Sam Ermolenko says he is determined to compete in the October ! U.S. National Championship-Speedway event at Costa Mesa, California's Orange County Fairgrounds. Ermolenko won the American Speedway Final in June. If Ermolenko is unable to compete, Kelly Moran, who finished second in the June event, will take his place. Bobby Schwartz leads the list of riders who qualified for the National in southern California speedway events this season. Expert or Junior? We called dirt tracker Rob Hassey a Junior in this section two weeks ago. Hassey then celled us and said he was an Expert, so we printed that last week. For this week's edition of the Hassey story, read on. At San (Continued to page 4)

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