Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

America's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXV , Shar on Clay ton . Pu blisher M ike Klin ger ,Comptroller Skip J o hnson . A ssociate Pu blisher! N atio nal Sal es ,'v [a'lag er . jark Man gu s. A ssociate Pu blish er/ Edito r Rh eha Smit h . Circu lation Manager Caro line Gendrv, Executive Secretary to the Pu blisher Editorial , J Kit Palmer, As sociate Editor Pa ul Carru the rs. A ssociate Ed itor Farrell Will iam s. An uciate Editor Nat e Ranba . Associate Edi to r Edw ina Man gus . Calenda r Editor Advertising Mi ke Ch ur ch, Sen ior Sales Manager Terry,Pra ll Senior Sales Manager Mark T home. Wt".~t e rn Sales Manager non SIOt'h . W,...~ lt'm Soles Manager eT Mar k Mi tch e ll. Eastern Sa les Manager T hom as R. Genter , Eastern Sales Manag er Ca th y Corrao Western Ad Coo rdinator Carl a Borde n. Eastern Ad Coordinator Ton i Doueske, Advertising As sistan t Graphics and Productio n Mal col m W ilson .P rod uctio n Manager Dian a H il gen berg . G rap hi c Artist Peggy Smi th . G~raph ic A rtist Stacey G ues t. G rap h ic Artist Ji m m ie O 'Dell. G rap hi c Art ist John Bolda , G raph ic A rtist Ma rion Ha tash ita . T vpeseu er Carolyn Bra n ha m , T v pesetter Denni s C re ue. Lab, T ech, e Accounting /Data Processing Do nn a Brya n , Aects R eceivable Coor dinator Geneva Repa ss, A:l 'sistan t Fran Ham wcy. Credit Ci rculation . Sara h T a ylor . A ss ista nt Alma Ang uia no , Assistan t Cheri Chapma n. A ssistant Ma rna Ada ms. Assistant J im Ko sta, R rta il Sa le:'i Ma nager Wan t A d s [)dJbj t~ Wirlklt'r, Wan t Ad Sales Service and Su pport Ch ris Aitcheson , H eadquarters R ecep tion ist Leo nard Herr in g, Se rv ice and Sup po rt Natio nal Headquarter s 220 1 C h erry Ave.. l.on g Be-ac-h, C A 90S06. P.O . Box 498, Lon g:Beach . CA 9080 1-(H98 (2 13) 127· 7133; 2 13/ 636·8811. FA X (2 13) 127·668;' Eastern Office 4 190 First Ave.• Tucker . G A, 3001 ; mailing H ad dress P.O . Bo x 80!' , T ucker. G A 300&' > 1)080 ',. (401) 931· 78;'0. FAX (104) 934· 3 112 Cycle News (US PS 111· 3·10) is p u blished week ly excep t the first a nd last week o f th e cal enda r year for $32.50 pe r year b y Cycle News. l nc. , 220 1 C herr y Aven ue. Lon gBeach , CA 90K Second class postage pa id 06. a t Long- Beach. CA, and addi tiona l ma ili n g o ffices. POSTMASTER ; Sen d f orm 3 5 7 9 to Cyc le News. P.O . Box 4 98. Long Beach. CA 90801 ·0498. Su bscri ption rates: O ne year , seco nd cla ss mail. $32.5 0. C ycle News welco mes u nsolicited ed ito rial . ma terial incl udi ng sto ries, ca n no ns. 1' hOlO5, etc. Such mat erial. if pu bli shed , becom es the excl u sive prop erl y o f C ycle Ne ws. Such accep ted ma ter ia l is su bject ' to revisio n as is . necessar y in the so le d iscretio n o f Cycle News. U nsol icited ma teria l w hich is no t used will he re turned if acco mpa n ied by a self add ressed sta mped en velope. All unsoli ci ted material wi ll be han dl ed with reasonable ca re, howev er . Cy cle News as sumes n o responsibility fo r the sa fety, loss o r da ma ge to such materi a l. Rep rin tin g in who le or pan o n ly by permi ssion o f th e p ub lisher. Adver(isin g- ra tes an d circu latio n informa tio n will be SCIll u po n req uest. See S.R .D.S. Copyr ig ht S Cycle N ews, Inc . 1988. Tra de -m ark Cycle N ews reg istered U.S. Pat en t Office. All rig hts reserved, BPA C on su mer Au dit Di vi sio n Member ship Appli ed For Dece m ber 1 98 6 , ~ Y [A. 5 1:"l7i" 4 Brand f ight Lightweight champs The new AMA 600cc Na tional Ch ampionsh ip Dirt Track Seri es shou ld p rov e ben efi cia l to fan s, ra cer s, deal ers a nd ' p ro mot ers in man y ways. H owever , if Kawasaki , Suzuki, Yam aha and possib ly a few o ther manufacturers mad e race-read y 600cc d irt track mod els, a lo t more people would be interest ed a n d participat e in th e series. Everyon e kn ows H onda and Rotax will be the re in force, but what abou t th e rest? It was a great era in the sevent ies wh en ' 10 brands (H arley, Honda, BSA, Suzuki , No rt on , Kawasaki, O ssa, Yam ah a, Bultaco a nd T riumph ) made th ei r way into th e winn er 's circle. With th e di rt track expe rience Yamaha ha s, it seems it wo uld be a natural for th em to mak e it a threeway fight in the 1987 600cc Nati on al Ch ampionship Series. We would like to th ank our sp onsors a nd all of th e people wh o helped us win th e Li ghtweight class titl e, 10th overa ll, in th e 1987 WERA/EBC Bra kes End ura nce Road Race Series. Our sponsor s were Arai, Kal-C ard, a nd Winners Sports Bar of Collins. vill e, Illi noi s. A spe cial th anks goes o ut to o ur scor er Am y Bertrand and tune r Tom Krivi . The shops tha t helped us were Nieh au s Cycle Sal es, Co ll insville Yamaha and Cycle City Enginee ring Corp. We would also like to th an k Dunlop's Phil Flack and Ronnie Bowen fo r a ll th eir advi ce and for doing wh at ever it took to get th e tires to the races for us. We certain ly want to th ank Evelyn Pr itz for a fair and well run series. T ha n ks to T ea m Royale and T eam T err or for making it a n exciting seri es: T ha nks aga in to everyonesand to anyone we in advert entl y left ou t. RUSS WHITTINGHILL Loui sville, KY CHU CK MATHIS J O H N CO PELAND CRAIG BATTERSHELL T eam F.B.I. Troy,IL On the line T hi s lett er.is in response to the cute little story abo ut Floyd " Goober" Carter 's stuck Power Valve that a ppea red in th e Voices section in Novemb er. If he had purch ased hi s Ya mah a from a dealer wh o reall y cared abo ut him, 'he would no t have ta ken th e bike hom e in th e cra te. T hat way the deal ership co uld have properl y set up th e bike and th e in cident would no t have occured. As for th e dealer wh o so ld th e bike in th e cra te, he kn ows thi s is agains t Yamaha policy. T h is dealer should ask himself if it was reall y worth layin g h is fran chise on th e. line for " Goober. " DON LIN GLE Lancaster , PA Send them to A labama ' I have always ad mired people from California , but wh en it comes to people like (Mike) Rosell e a nd th e Eart h First! grou p I think you are too len ien t. If you co uld send th em to Alab am a we would use that s.o.b. a nd th e rest of th e Earth First! group for traction in some of our favorite riding areas . After all, one good turn deserves ano ther. ST EP H EN GAR R ISO N Arab , AL Credit where credit is due This letter is to bring to yo ur a tten tio n an erro r .in th e results section of your WERA Road Atlanta coverage. In C Producti on, th e fifth place finisher was J a y R athbun aboa rd th e Bill Hyde Racin g/Buzz 's Psycle Honda Hurrican e. Jay rode well all season, taking wins a t th e Talladega Regional a nd Savannah Nat ional, without o ne word in Cycle N ews other th an th e cursory note in th e results co lum n. It may not seem like a big th in g to you, but aft er being ignored all season by your rep orters, I'm sure that J ay wou ld ap preciate you printing a correc tion . BILL HYDE N. Lauderd ale, FL In memoriam Dave Essex wa s a gifted in divid ual in th at he had a talent for riding mot or cycles, wh ich led h im into racing. T he' highest regard bestowed to Dave was' his ability to pas s th at ex perience to beginning ra cer s. Safety was always a key issue in hi s program a nd he cared for th e en try level racer enough . to work end less hours to mak e sur e they understood th e race weeke nd and what wa s expected of th em. Dave's co ncern for th e needy was so grea t th at he.even set up a pl edge race . for his tea m with the W ERA Nati onal Six-Hour race at Blackh awk Farms to benefit a needy child ren 's organ ization . . ~ Dave lost his life in a p lane crash wh ile return ing home from Alaska. He is sur vived by his wife a nd two ch ildren. I will miss him as will many o thers, especially the people he would have reach ed if he had lived. God sp eed , Dave. Godsp eed. RONNIE BOWEN Solmax Racing USA Lake City, GA Not thrilled I'm sorry to say I was not thrilled abou t the October 24-25 Daytona Race of Ch ampions covera ge. H avin g wo n the Light weight Superbike Champion ship for Experts , th e coverage of this race was almo st nill and it did not do justice to me o r my co mpetitor, J ohn Lowman, on th e fin e race we had . Bu t even worse than th is, none of the riders who won National Ch am pi onships had th eir sponsors men tioned. It's diffi cult for motorcycle roa d racers to ac h ieve fin an cial and product sponsorship in difficu lt and stra nge eco nom ic times but it's even harder whe n our own motorcycle press lets us down by failing to mention our spo nsors aft er winning National Championship titles. At th is tim e I would like to thank Miller amerIcan Kac lng, Wall Sch aefer and hi s Michelin T ires, Marushin H elme ts, Sports Villa Yamaha in Green Ba y, WI, Bill Fehrm an a n d his su p po rt from Freedom Racing these past two years, Gordon and Ell en Lunde a nd the Mid -W est -AM A/ CCS st aff, m y bro ther Bob , a ll my com pe titor s wh o mad e it worthwhile and a special th anks to Dave Essex who helped me .sta rt road rac ing. I was very grateful th at I was a ble to tell him that I won the L ightweight Su perbike Championship before he was killed in a p lane cras h in Alask a on Novem ber 23. BRAD LOWE Appleton, WI Th e race you wo n, Brad, receive.'d 102 words of edi torial coverage. Coin cid en tally, the paragraph in w hic h you list your spo nsors in the letter above also con tains 102 wo rds. If we had taken up that much editorial space to list each class winner's sp onsors · precious little space wou ld have been left in which to cover th e racing. Our main editorial responsibility is to cover th e races, not list sponsors, alt houg h we do list them when space allow s . . .Ed itor. Working together in Louisiana On December 9, 1987, a grou ndbreaki n g ag ree me n t was sig ne d betw een th e United States Forest Service a nd th e Acadiana Dirt Riders. T he agreemen t provides for fund ing to maintain motorcycle trails in the Kisat ch ie Nati onal Forest within the Evan geline District. The Acadiana Dirt Rid ers will prov ide fu nding and la bo r " for the protection a n d improvement of th e said Nationa l Forest. " This agr eem ent is th e result of 10 years of coo pera tion betw een the Acad ian a Dirt Riders and the rangers of the Evangeline Distr ict of th e Kisat chi e Nati onal Forest. The Acadiana ' Dirt R iders will host th eir firs t AMA Nat iona l Cha m 'p ionship End uro in th e area covered by thi s agreement on October 30, 1988. The Cajun Class ic Enduro is one.of th e best o n the SERA circu it and the National promises to be even better. The support of off-road rid ers nationw ide is needed to maintain this coo pe ra tive spiri t wh ich preserves access to riding areas. Please d rop a note, a posta l card wi ll do, to: Mrv Clyde M. Todd Jr. , Distri ct Ranger, Evangeli ne District , Kisat ch ie Na tio na l Forest , 3 727 Government s r., Alex a ndria, LA 71302-3327. Express your appreciation for their coo pera tive spir it a nd th eir recognition of th e use of offroad motorized vehicles as a bonafide recreationa l use of publi c lands. We ho pe that everyo ne a ttendin g our, a nd o the r, events in Nat ional Forests wi ll talk to U.S.F.S . people present. They are a great bunch and are as concerned as we are about the · loss of riding a reas. Your co urtesy and friendship will go a .long way · in our efforts to preserve th is na tura l resource. R O BERT K. CORNELL President, Acadiana Dirt Riders, In c. . Lafayette, LA Published letters do not necessarily reflect the posit ion of Cycle News. Inc . Letters are subject to condensation due to space lim itations. Anonymous letters will not be published . Send letters to Voices. P.O. Box 498, . Long Beach. CA 90801-0498.

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