Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Angeles the best MX ever to be held in the southern California area, for a number of reasons. The staff is doubled in its resolve . We 're going to make it a tribute to Mickey Thompson, and to Trudy too - she was extremely important to the operation ." 00 00 0") BY P.AP.A Wf.ALfY T exan Kevin Schwantz (Suz) won the opening round of th e 500cc World Championship Road Race Seri es in Suzuka City , japan, on March 27. Schwantz topped defending World Champion Wayne Gardner (H o n) by 8.3 seconds after a race-long battle; Gardner ran off th e tra ck o n th e final lap. Third pla ce went to two-time World Champion Eddie Law son (Yam). Californian Wayne Rain ey (Yam) fini shed sixth in wh at was his first-ever 500cc Grand Prix . The fourth American entered in the 500cc cla ss. Randy Mamol a , co m p leted eigh t laps o n th e Cagiva V-four bef ore retiring with mech ani cal problems. In the 250cc GP, West Germany's defending World Ch ampion Toni Man g (H o n) defeated Spaniard Sito Pons (H on) by half a seco nd with last year 's japan ese GP winner Masuru Kobayashi (H on) finishin g third. Am eri can j ohn Kocinski (Yam) fini shed fifth after dicing for th e lead before experie ncing mechanical ill s. The entry lists for the 250 and 500cc GP road races at Laguna Seca on April 10 show 55 riders entered in the 250cc GP and 35 in the 500cc GP. "First. we used the international grading list for the 250cc riders and then used our 250 point standings f rom last year and the results at Daytona." said Bill Amick. AMA v icepresident in charge of competition. adding. "We rejected quite a few 250 riders." Among the 500cc entries is Eugene Brown of Oregon . Brown. who w ill attempt to qual ify aboard a RG500 Suzuki, competed in the 1965 U :S . GP at Daytona . Brown's entry was first rejected by the AMA but he pers isted in pressuring for permission to enter and was granted that permission last week. Brown has competed in Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association events for more than a decade, garnering that organization's number one plate eight times. " I just want a chance to qualify, " Brown, who is sponsored by Hanna Car Wash International. told us . 2 The Rules Committee in th e Cal ifornia Senate voted 4-0 March 23 to approve the co nfirmation of Henry R. Agonia as director of th e Ca lifornia Department of Parks and Recreation. Agonia, who closed AnzaBorrego Desert State Park to off-road riding shortly after taking office in 1987, recently has come under fire · from off-road enthusiast ~roups (especi ally CORVA, th e California Off-Road Vehicle Association ) seeking to prevent his confirmation. Before the Rules Committee voted to accept Agonia as th e state's perma nent parks director, th ey asked him if he would " nego tiate" the future of Anza-Borrego with CORVA offi cials. Agoni a reportedl y sa id he would consent to negotiations and added that a new plan for AnzaBorrego will be released afterwa rd. The full senate will vote on Agonia's confirma tion April 7. A rewa rd of approximately $165.000 is being offered fo r inf orm at ion leading to the arrest and conviction of two men who murdered Super Crown of Stadium Motocross promoter Mickey Thompson, 59 , and his wife Trudy, 42. The Thompsons were shot to death March 16 on the front lawn of their southern California home as they left for work. The reward money was ra ised from pr ivate donations. including a $30,000 donation from the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer 's Associatio n (SEM A) and a single, anonymous donation of $100.000. Clo sed casket services for Mickey and Trudy Thompson - attended by more than a 1000 mourners, including numerous motorsports celebrities - were held March 21 in Rose H ills Chapel in Whittier, California. Burial fo llowed in Ro se Hills Memorial Park. " The cro wd (during services) ranged from the ca pta ins of th e (racing) industry to just people who have been to a Mickey Thompson race," said MTEG spokesma n Doug Stokes. " There were a lot of fan s around the periphery, n ot curiosity seekers at all. It was really touch ing. There was quite an outpouring. " Motorsports figures who attended the bidenominational ser.vices (T h o m ps o n wa s Christian, Trudy was jewish) included auto racers Dan Gurn ey and Parnelli j ones. Many other representatives of the auto racing industry were on hand, as were numerous officials from the motorcycle!ATV industry. M ic key Thompson Entertainment Group's Super Crown of Stadium Motocross race slated for June 18 in the los Angeles (California) Coliseum w ill be a tribute to the slain promoter and his murdered wife Trudy, according to MTEG's Doug Stokes. During a brief interview with Cycle News following the March 1 6 doublehomocide which took the Thompsons' lives, Stokes said, "I feel M ickey looking over my shoulder now. He would say, 'You've got a guy from the press on the phone. Don't forget to remind him that the rac ing is ongoing. ' We want to make the Super Crown race in los AMA Legislative Affairs Specialist J im Bensberg raised strong objections to helmet law proponents' assertion that riders without helmets could be held liable for " co ntributory negligence" in the event that a m o torcycl e/au tomobile co ll isio n resulted in head injury to the rider. A rece nt ly rel ea sed Final La n d Resource Managemerit Pl an for th e Los Padres Nati onal Forest in Cal ifornia recommends increasing existin g Wilde~ness acreage in the forest from its curre nt level of 24 percent (412,912 acres) to 38 percent (666,778 acres). The p roposed " Ga rcia Wildern ess" in the Gar cia Moun tain area would shu t down 1O,306 'acres, but the off-road vehicle route in the area will not be closed. The recommended 197,047-acre "Sespe Wilderness," however, will close th e j ohnso n Ridge ORV T rail. The Los Padres Natio na l Forest occu p ies a maj or po rti on o f th e California Coa stal Mountain Range; its 1,750,000 acres sp read from midMonterey County in th e north to Los Angeles County in th e south. A 45day a ppea ls period for expressing opposi tion to provisions of the pl an begins im med ia tely. Appeal s should be sent to Regional Forester Paul Barker; U.S. Forest Service, Regio n Five, 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. Due to a court backlog, the scheduled March 21 trial to hear the Brockton . Massachusetts. city park bike ban case has been postponed until sometime in April. according to the AMA. The battle over motorcycle access to Brockton c ity parks has been going on since July 1. 1987 when the city Park Commission banned motorcycles but sti ll allowed automobile traffic in city parks. A spring motorcycle fundraising run is being planned to help defray legal expenses incurred by the AMA while fighting the discriminatory bike ban. Interested riders should contact Jim Slade, a coplaintiff with the AMA against the city of Brockton, at 617/5871701, or Charlie Poole at 6171 580-2230. Former Grand National Champion Gene Romero, o n the eve of the April 10 U.S. GP at laguna Seca , reca lled his f irst ride on slick road racing t ires. "Cal Rayborn and I were the first American riders to test the tires and we did that at Laguna Seca in 1972. When we saw our bikes w ith the slicks on them we laug hed; they looked like inner tubes. I rem em ber telling Ca l to go ahead and go out on t he track first because I had to take a leak. He countered with something about having to get something out of his van. We went back and forth trying to get the other guy to go first, " said Romero. Grand National Champion Bubba Shobert will lead the North American team in the Easter weekend Matc h Races in England, with ra ces taking place at Brands Hatch on April 1 and at Donington Park on April 4. Honda's Shobert will be joined by Suzuki riders Doug Pol en , Scott Gray, Gary Goodfellow, and Michel Mercier, and Yamaha riders Rueben McMurter and Tom Douglas. All also plan to co mpete in th e April 3 openi ng round of th e new World Championship Superbike : Road Race Series a t Donington Park, as will former U.S. Superbike Ch ampion Fred Merkel. The en try list for the World Championship Superbike race contains the names of over 50 riders from 12 nations. Dyna Tour .C o r p o r at i o n . the Broadview, Illinois-based U .S. importer of Italian-made Nolan helmets, has signed veteran di rt t racker David Hebb to race under the Nolan banner in both the AMA Grand National Championshipl Camel Pro Series and the new 600 National Dirt Track Series. The Judiciary Committee in the Maryland House of Rep resen ia tives voted March 10 to defeat House Bill 380, a manda tory he lme t use bill sponsored by Representative Theodore Levin (D-Baltimore). The AMA and ABATE of Maryland lobbied heavil y against the measure and claimed credit for the defeat. Representatives fro m both groups also testified against the bill during committee hearings on February 15. Au ssie Geoff Balland (KT M) led the Australian team to victory at the Au stralian Bicentennial International Four-Day Enduro (H DE) in Cal oundra , Queen sland, Australia, March 21-24. Ballard team ed with Brooke Flanagan (Yam) and Rick Madden (Hon) to edge th e Swedish team mad e up of last year's Polish Intern ational Si x- Days Enduro (lSDE) individual overall winner Di ck Wi cksell (KT M), Hakan Ludgren (H us) and Thomas Gustavsson (H us) by 96 points, while the Canadian team of Guy Perrett (Kaw), Blair Sharpless (Su z) an d Barry Rempel (Kaw) finished third. New Zeal and finished fourth while the U. S. team with 1987 ISDE top American Dave Bertram (Suz), Fred ' H oess (Kaw) and Fritz Kadlec (Yam), wh o replaced the injured AMA National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines, rounded out the top five. The even t was reported to be extre mely difficult (m uddy) due to heavy rains. Onl y 68 out of 274 starters finished th e even t. . As an added attraction at the April 16 Grand National Championship Sacramento (California) Mile at Ca l-Expo, Chris Agajanian will present Tennessean Earnie Adams w ho w ill attempt to j um p 22 ca rs. According to Adams, 30, Evel Kne ivel's son , Robbie, holds the record at 21 cars. Adams plans to j um p four times, starting at 1 6 cars and working his way up to 22. Practice for the $31,000 Sacramento Mile is scheduled for 4 :30 p.m. with racing starting at 8. Scott Russell (Suz) emerged the big winner from the March 26-27 AMAI CCS Southeastern Sprint Road Race m eet at Georgia's Road Atlanta. Russell scored wins in th e Unlimited , H eavyweight and Middleweight Supersport classes. Russell also learned with Dave Sadowski to tak e Sol max Racing (Suz) 10 victory in a four-hour endurance ra ce. Cycle Connection Raci n g (H o n), with David Si ngleton and Titian Bue handling the riding chores, was the GTU class winner in the endurance race. Greg Tysor, Continental Tire's national sales manager. suffered a broken kneecap when he clipped a corner cu rb at Road Atlanta on Sunday, March 27. Tysor w ill be laid up for a few weeks and would (Contin ued to page 42)

• Cover