Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

----- -------- :-- --------------------------------(eight rounds, up from six in 1987), will in clude races on February 6-7, March 19-20, April 9-10, May 14-15, Sep tem ber 10- 1I , O ctober 1-2, Novemb er 5-6, December 3-4. For m ore information, con tac t Chris Huth, Willow Springs Raceway, P.O. Box X, Rosam ond , CA 93560; 805/256-2471. Mul ti-time MX National Champion David Bail ey and his wife Gina are celebra ting the birth of their first child, son Sean Mitchell , who arrived on October 5 and weighed in at eight p o un d s a t the h osp it al in Martinsville, Virginia. Team Lockhart (Suz) wrapped up t h e 1987 AMA/MotoWorld Endurance Series title with its second place finish at Riverside Int ern at ional Raceway in Riverside, California, on October 10. Lockhart finished behind Dutchman Racing (Suz), but scored enough points to claim the title with one race (Daytona) remaining on the schedule. Team Suzuki (Suz) finished third at Riverside. Steel shoe king Ken Mael y recent ly returned from an extended tri p to the Peopl e's Rep ubl ic of China, wh ere he reportedly has been engineerin g motorcycle engines for the Ch in ese go vernment. " I work ed 18 hou rs a da y in China , but I had so mu ch fun ," said Mael y. " I worked in my gra ndfather's b lacks mith shop 55 years ago and some of the things we were doi ng th en , they're doing now." Maely , wh o came home to the Un ited Sta tes to work o n engi ne blueprints, will re turn to Ch in a in Februar y, so speed way riders a nd dirt trackers wh o want to order steel shoes sho uld do it soo n. Wh ile Maely is home, hi s speed way track in Coro na , Ca lifor nia , will be open during weekdays fo r pr act ice (by appoint ment on ly), and reserva tio ns will be accep ted [or his speedway school. Maely may be reached at i 14/735-0540. MOV ED : Maxima Racing Lubricant s, t o larger facil ities at 10969 Wh eatlands Ave. , Suite A, San t ee, CA 92071 ; t he new phone nu m ber is 61 9 /449 -5000. Will ow Springs Raceway in Rosamo n d, Cal if o rni a , w ill h o st a WSMA/ WERA 24-Ho ur West End ura nce Road Race durin g the 1988 season, in additio n to an expa nded Toyota/ Bud weiser / Coca- Co la Formu la USA Series. T he WER A 24Hour West wi ll be held Sep tember 17-18, a nd the Form u la USA Ser ies 1 The 1988 Formula USA Road Race Series at Willow Springs Raceway will feature a new Lightweight division in addition to the traditional Open class. Rules for the Lightweight class will be based on current Open rules, but engine size will be restricted. Lightweight F-USA bikes will 'be . limited to 600cc four-stroke motorcycles and 250cc twostroke machines. The Lightweight division will boast a $1000 purse at each race as well as a season point-fund payoff. Jeff Shetler , a member of Kawasaki's Go vernment Relation s Depart ment , recen tly qualified for the Hawai i lronman Triathlo n. The Los Angeles (California) County Department of Parks and Recreation will hold a public. hearing October 20 to accept comments on a proposed offhighway vehicle park in Whitney Canyon, near Newhall, and the expansion of an existing facility at Rowher Flat to include a motocross track. The hearing schedule includes comments from homeowners and property owners (from 6 :50 p.m, to 7:10 p .m.) and comments from OHV users (7:10 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.). The meeting will be held in the ' Valencia Public Library, 23743 West Valencia Blvd., Valencia, California. Written comments should be submitted before October 20 to Ralph Cryder, Director, Department of Parks and Recreation, 433 South Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, ' CA 90020. HIRED : J ohn Martin , as sales and tech n ica l., coo rd i na tor for AT K Leit ner Co rp o rati o n of Lag u na Beach , Califo rn ia. Mart in. a for mer em p loyee o f Ca n-Am a nd 1985 Nati on al H ar e Scram bles Cham pion, will work o ut of Minnesot a and serve the ATK eastern dealer network . Pontiac, Michigan's Bryan Villella earned no less than three dirt track titles in 1987. Villella, who rode most of the season as a J un ior, claimed the Junior Eastern Kawasaki unveiled the 1988 ZX1000 Ninja recently ' in southern California . The 1000 replaces the Ninja .9 0 0 with an increased redline f ro m 10,500 to 13,800 rpm and features an aluminum frame with a bolt-on rea r section. Look for more details on the 1000 and the rest of the Kawasaki street bike line- up next issue. ... Road racer Doug Polen was presented the keys to a new Suzuki GSXR750 by Kal-Gard's Larry Coleman after winning the Suzuki GSXR750 class at Riverside International Raceway on October 11, Polen donated the bike to the National Motorcycle Patrol. Regional title as well as the Junior National Championship, then collected (Expert) Rookie of the Year honors by qualifying for the National main event at the September 26 Ascot Half Mile. Villella was the only rookie to make it into a National dirt track final in 1987. T he Sierra Club has targeted Mike 'Bisho p 's sea t on the Ca lifornia O ffH ighway Vehicle Recreation Com m ission as a "high priority acq uisition ," according to Bishop , whose term exp i res J a nu a ry 15, 1988. Bishop, who has represented OHV interests o n the co mmission for five years (two as cha irma n), warned that his o uster and replaceme nt by a proSierra Club candidate wo uld -resu lt in green sticker grant mo ney (O H V re gis t ra tio n funds) go i ng to "conservation -hea vy projects." Letters supporting Bishop may be sent to Sena to r David Robert i , Sta te Capitol, Sacra men to, CA 95814. Ray Plumb, the Honda factory mechan ic who bu ilds racing engines for three-time Grand National Champion Bubba Shobert, phoned Cycle News last week to let us know that he and . Sk ip Eaken made up two-thirds of Shobert's tuning team this year, and that the third man on the squad, Mike \(elasc o , hasn't received the recognition he is due. During Shobert's h igh lysuccessful 1987 season, Velasco did all the chassis work on the c h am p ' s Honda VFR750 road racers. Shobert was quick to pra ise his tuners during the Camel Pro party following the October 3 Sacramento M ile. "It's not a one-man show," Shobert said. "I couldn't have done it withouttheir help," . Bub ba Shobert, wh o recently wrapped up hi s third consecu tive Cam el Pro Series / Grand Nat io nal Ch ampion sh ip , thanked his par ents du ring th e Cam el Pro party following the Sacra ment o Mile for backing his racing career. "T hey taught me a lot of things to help me ge t through life. I guess th ey taugh t me how to win races too, even though my dad ca n 't ride too good," said Sh obert. -T he tenative schedule for the 1988 FIM World Championship Road Race Series reads as follow s: M arch 27 ~ Japan; April 10 - Un it ed States (Laguna Seca) ; M ay 1 - Spain; May 22 - Italy; May 29 - Germany; J une 12 - Austria; June 25 - Ho lland; J uly 3 - Bel- gium; July 17 - Yugoslavia; July 24 - France; August 14 - Sweden; August 21 - Czechoslovakia; September 4 - San Marino; September 11 - Great Britain; September 25 - Brazil; October 2 Argentina. The September 4 running of the San Marino GP will only take place if one of the other events on the schedule is cancelled. Harl ey-Davidso n , Inc. an nou nced on October 7 that it has acquired the design and worldwide manufacturing rights for Armstrong Equipme nt, pic. of England' s model MT500 m il itary motorcycle. T h e MT 500 has been sold to th e Briti sh, Ca nadian and J ordan ian armies by Armstrong Equipment, an a utomotive compon ents ma n ufa cturer wit h (Con tin ued to page 57) CBS slams superbikes By Farren Williams LON G BEACH , CA, OCT. 9 In a scene reminiscent of 60 Mi n utes' attack on ATVs, a new C BS n ews magazine, " West 57th ," focused a critical eye on supcrbikes during th e pro gram 's premi er broadcast, Saturday, October 3. In a 12-mi n ut e segment produced by G len n Silber, corresponden t Steve Kro ft attacked superbikes - H on da's Hurricane lin e, Kawasak i's Nin jas , Yamaha's FZs an d the Suzu ki GSXR model li ne - as, "The most soph isticated motorcycles ever bui lt - and the mos t deadly . Designed to go 100 mph above the speed limit, they are less veh icles than projectiles." Fortunatel y, for the motorcycle industry , the airing of West 57th drew a Neilsen rating of 6.9 percent and a 14 shar e. U PI reported it was th e fourth lowest rated television seri es during th e week, ranking 7lst ou t of 74 shows. As a com pa rison , the number-o ne rated show of th e week, " T he Cosby Show," drew a 29.8 percent rati ng a nd a 49 shar e. The basis for the report was a recent ly-released study by the Insurance In stitute for H igh way Safety (lI H S) whi ch alleg es that mo torcycle death s and in juries occur almost twice as often on "racing-design" superbikes than on any' o ther type (Con tin ued to page 63)

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