Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

America 's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXIV Sharon Clayto n. Publisher Mike KJin ger.Cornptrolln Skip Johnson. Associate Publish er! National S41~s Managn Jack Ma n~s. Associate Pub lisberl Editor R heba Sm ith , Circulat ion Manager Caro line Gcndry . Executive Secrdary to th e Publ ish er Editorial Kit Pal mer , Associau Edi to r Paul Carruthers. Associate Editor Farre n Willi am s. Associate Editor Nat e Rauba, Associate Editor Edw ina Man gu s, c;almdar Editor Advertising T CITY Prau Sales M onag a Mark Thome. Sales Ma nager Don Stoe ber, Sales Manager Mike Church , EtJ.St~ Sales ManagtT Mark Mitchell . Eastern Sales Manage-r Thomas R. Comer. Eastern Sales Manage-r Cathy Co rrao Western Ad Coo rdi ruuor Car la Borde n, Eas tN'TI Ad Coor dinator Toni Doneske. AdveTtisinjt A ssista nt Graphics and Prod uction Malcol m Wilson ,Proout:tion M anagtT Diana H iI~m berg. GTap hic A rtist Peggy Sm i th , Graphic Artist Stacey Guest. Graphic Artist Jimmie O 'Dell, G raphic Artist Marion Hatashita, Typt!~tt~ Carolyn Branh a m, Typt!s~un Dennis Greene, Lob , T ech : Accounting /Da ta Pro cessing Donna Bryan. Ac cts Receivable Comdinator Gen eva Repass , A ssistant Fran Hamwev, Cudi t Circulatio n Jim Kosta , R etail Sa les Mana gt'T Sarah T a ylor , A ssistant Alma Anguiano. Assistant Cho-i Chapman. Assistant Marit. Adams , A ssista~t a Want Ads Drjl bie wtnkler, Want Ad Sa~s Service and Suppo rt Chris Aitcheson; He adq uarters R ecep tio nist Leon ard Herring , Senner and S u pport Nati on al Headqua rters ~o 1 Cherry Ave., Long Beach , CA 90806. 1'.0. Box i98. Lo ng Beac h . CA 90801·0498 (213) 427·7i 33; 213/636·88H FAX (213) 427·6685 Eastern Off ice 4190 First Ave., Tucker, GA, 30081; mailing addres s P.O . Box 805. Tucker. G A 30085· 0805. (i 04) 93i·7850. • FAX (404) 93i·3112 .Cycle New, (USPS 1i 1·340) is pub lished weekly excep t the first and last week of the ca lenda r year for $32.50 per Y r by Cycle Q News, Inc., 2201 Ch erry Avenue, Lo ng Beach, CA 90806. Second class postage paid a t Lo ng Beach. CA. a nd additional mailin g Kickapoo Kowboys kudos The members of th e Kickapoo Kowboys M.C . and riders of th e an nual Ancell Ran ch Run o ft he '40s, '50s a nd '60s, had a reun ion recentl y which was a success. We'd like to p u bl icly tha nk th e following who were respo nsible for the success and th e fun we had : Cycle News for publishing an all-pomts bulletin to ass ist us in o u r search for Arch ie Fairweather; Jack Mercer for a nsweri ng the APB a nd putting us in touch with Bob Schantz; Bob Schantz for putting us in touch with Jim Foreman; J im For eman for digging up one Archie Fairweather o u t of the boondocks of Owl Canyon, Col orado;Archie Fairweather, form er writer of articles in American Motorcycling magazine th at in a n undercover manner provided interesting reading ab out mot orcycli sts and their activities. Again, all of us a t the re u n io n can not ex p ress enough tha n ks for your total help in findi ng this character. His presen ce at our seco nd reu nion wi th his ta lk of the fun days we had in th e '50s, abou t H ogs a nd Beezers and NS Us and Ind ians and cowboys o f th e Ance ll Ran ch was a price less experience. FR ANK H ARRISON Kicka poo Kowboys M.e. Wi ch ita Falls, TX Godspeed, John We a t Sco tts of" Montrose wou ld like to express our deepest sym path y to th e family , friends, and relatives o f John Underhill who lost his life during this year's Barstow-to-Vegas race: John was a go od friend while I was racing and has been a valued customer here at Scotts for many years. His boisterous, fun loving attitude made him ajoy to be aro u nd. John 's love for motorcycles was gr eat and in the event of a tragedy" I'm sure John would have wanted it this way . We at Scotts will miss th e la te J o h n Underhill. STEVE ZOLLINGER Scotts In c. Montrose, CA offices . POS TMASTER : Se nd f o rm 3579 to Cycle New • • P.O. Box 498. long Beach. CA 90801·0498. Subscri ption rat es: One year. second class mail, S32.5O . ~ Cycle News welcomes un'solicited edito ria l ma teria l inclu ding stories, cartoons, photos, etc. Such material, if published, becomes the excl usive pro~y of Cycle News. Such accep ted materia f -is subject to revisio n as is necessary in the sole discretion o f Cycle News. Unso licited material which is nor used wilJ be returned if accompanied by a self addres sed stamped envelope. AU un soli cited mat erial wiU be handled with reasona ble care. how ever. Cycle New s ass umes n o respo ns ibili ty for the safety. loss or damage to suc h materi al. Reprinting in whole or part onl y by perm ission of the publisher . Adverthing rates and circulati on information wiJI . be sent upon rcqUCSL See S.R.D.S. Beam it to us We here in California's Ventura County wish they would put MotoWorld back on ESPN. We donot get The Nashville Network on our cable system. Everyone gets ESPN. Also, we hope NBC uses someone like Kenny Roberts on their coverage of the U.S. Grand Prix road race at Laguna Seca. No Sam Posey or Dave Stanfield types who do not know anything about motorgcles Bruce _ ..: Flanders or Larry HiiTfman would be fine choices. Copyright" Cycle New. . Inc. 19 8 7 . Cycle News registered U.S. Pstent Offica . All righ ts reserved . G .K. SCOTT Thousa nd Oaks, CA Tr.de ~m.rk BPA Conlumer Audit Divilion Member. hi p Applied For December 19 B6 .· 4 ON THE FRONT PAGE: Brian Swink (top} was the fastest 85cc (14-15) rider at the Florida Winter Olympics. Top 250cc B rider was John Kitsch (below}. See page six for race coverage. Photos by Mike and Anne Adair. Texas trials In . response to a letter in your November 25 issue from a trials rider in Waco, Texas, I suggest he contact Raymon Aguirre or Mark Smith for information on North Texas Trials - Association-hosted events. Th eir work numbers are 214/644-1275 and 817/498-6674, respectively. Thanks for helping spread the word ab out Texas trials. BILL NEWKIRK Ft. Worth , TX Indust ry first On behalf of American Honda, we th ank yo u for running the shot of Wayn e (Gard ner) a nd Eddie (Law- : son) in your In The Wind. I'd like to say that we received total coop er a tio n from all th e p eop le a r Yamaha, and special thanks go to Ken Clark for getting Yamaha's approval within 24 hours. Also, Honda wants to thank Gary Howard for calli ng Eddie and presenting the idea of appearing in a Honda advertisement, and for quickly getting Eddie's agreement. A very specia l thank you to Eddie Lawson and Wayne Gardner who volunteered th eir time for this rather worthy cause. T o m y recollection, this IS an industry first. DENNIS KANEGAE Vice President Managem ent Supervisor Dail ey & Associates Los Angeles , CA / Pub lished lette rs do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Letters are subject to condensation due to space lim itat io ns . Anonymous letters w ill not be published. Send letter to Voices. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 ·0498 . Promoters' war c.ould threaten SX Series By Farren Williams LO NG BEACH, CA, DEe. 7 With less than two mo nths remaining unti l the traditional January opening of the AMA Su percross Series in Anaheim (California) Stadium, the series in general, and the Anaheim event in particular, are caught u p in a promotors' war which some believe could threaten the survival of the sport. Four promotion companies SR O / P ace, Mickey Tho mpson Entertainment Group (MT EG ), Del ta Motorsports, and Supersports, . signed an agreement December 1 which carves u p a proposed, 11- · even t, 1988 Coors Supercross Series sche du le, with most of the - da tes going to SR O / Pace and MTEG. The agreement li sted only one event to be p ro mo ted by Supercro ss Inc., (SXI), a February 30 race at Jack Murphy Sta d ium in Sa n Diego , California. ; . The agreement was not signed by representatives of SXI or b y the ' AMA, and SXI's Mike Goodwin has vowed to go to court for a tem porary restraining order to block im pleme ntation of the agreement. SRO / Pace, SXI and the AMA are signatories of a p revio us contract known as the Insport Agreement, . signed in 1984, which gives SRO/ Pace and SXI exclusive rights to promote supercross events in certain geographic areas. In many instances, th e Insport agreement and the agr eement signed Decem ber 1 conflict. The Insport agreement, for exa mple, gives Goodwin 's SXI the exclusive right to produce the seasonopening, AM A-sanctioned super cross eve nt in Anah eim - th e nation 's premier supercross race in terms of attendance and gale receipts. The December 1 agreement, ho wever, would giv e that right, bu t no AMA sanction. to Thompson, wh o was awarded an exclusive con tract earlier this year by the city of Anaheim to produce motorsport events in Anaheim Stadium. In short, Goodwin has rights to the AMA sanction for Anaheim and Thompson has rights to the Anaheim facil ity, and neither p ro moter will budge. AMA President Ed Youngblood warned today that the MT EG/SXI deadlock must be resolved. . " It is essential to the sport of supercross that an AMA-sanctioned event take pl ace at Anaheim Stadium on January 30," You ngblood said. "T he Anaheim Supercross is not just another motorcycle race. It is the cornerstone of a series which ha s th e potential to showcase much that is good ab out motorcycling; and it should remain suc h, untarnished by personal vindictiv eness or greed. " Under th e new, December 1 agreement, each of th e four promoters involved would apply for an AMA sanction. The co n tra ct stipula tes that " in the event certain of thes e events can no t be sanctioned by the AMA , the y will remain as part of the championship and points-paying . series." Supercross races scheduled under the new agreement would be hel d using the 1987 supercross format, unless television coverage is secured for th e Anaheim and Los Angeles (Ca lifornia) Co liseum races (both to be promoted by T hompson under the Decemb er 1 contract). If a TV deal is signed, the televised races wo uld be run with an in verted start (MTEG 's U ltracross-style start) and would be promoted as , "T he new and exciting supercross format:" The areement claimed, "TV coverage 0 the Anaheim Stadium and L.A. Col iseum races is guaranteed if this new format is approved as the 1988 supercross format. " . SXI released a statement rejecting the validity of the Decem ber I contract and threatened to block it with legal action. It also blasted I nsport partner SRO / Pace for paru a pa u ng. " This shocking move by Pace vio la tes numerous written agreements with SXI ," the statement said. " SXI plans to initiate litigation immediately and will file for a temporary restraining order. " T his attempt is even more heinous as a ll of SXI 's 1988 (supercross) events, ex cep t San Diego, were omitted from the schedule," SXI said. " Man y of our dates/sites con fli ct with the 'o utlaw' events." The statement ad ded that SXI will fil e a laws uit agains t Anahei m Stadiu m 10 regam the r ight to p romote supercross races at the site , and claime d .that T hompsons ' agreeme nt to promote motorcycle races at the L.A . Coliseum in 1988 has not been finalized. (Conti n ued to page 15)

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