Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

R 8 ~ ager J.B . Norris. Pro-Am racing will be held at the April 30 Phoenix (Arizona) Half Mile ($1000 Pro-Am purse); May 14 Castle Rock (Washington) TT ($1000 purse); May 28 Springfield (Illinois) Short Track ($500 purse); June 12 ·Peor ia (Illinois) D' ($1000 purse); June 24 Santa Fe (Illinois) Short Track ($500 purse); July 15 Parkersburg (West Virginia) Half Mi le ($1000 purse); August 6 Ashland (Ohio) Half Mile ($1000 purse): August 12 Sturgis (South Dakota) Short Track ($500 purse); September 3 Springfield (Illinois) Short Track ($500 purse); and the October 15 Mesquite (Texas) Half Mile (purse to be determined). I n addition, the May 7 Grand National Championship Ascot Half Mile in Gardena, California, will incl ude a :Junior program ($800 Junior purse), and the July 3 Grand , Na tio nal Championship Middletown Half Mile will include both Junior and Pro-Am races. Negotiations are underway to add two 600cc National dirt track races to 1988's 18-race schedule; the AMA would not release additional details. Avon Tyres Ltd. has added Castle Sales of Greenbay, Wisconsin, to its list of U.S. distributors. Castle Sales will service dealers in the Great Lakes area. For Avon tire orders, call 800/558 -8137 (in Wisconsin, 8001 242-8100). The opening round of t he 1988 Dragbikel USA Western Championship Drag Race Series will take place at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, Cal ifornia, April 16-17. The event is open to all licensed motorcycle riders, w ith street bike classes and the ' featured professional and semipro classes being run both days. For more information, call the track at 805 /944-9123 or Dragbike's' National office at 315/ . 7 3 5 - 1 6 6 1. A ribbon cutting ceremony was 2 conducted at Laguna Seca Raceway on Monday, April 4, to celebrate the completion of finishing touches to the faci lity's lengthened course. Our man on the scene, Bill Spencer, said, "Now it's Grand Prix time." Spencer said advance sales for the April 10 Laguna Seca GP indicate the event will draw a "huge crowd. We should outdraw the Pope." Spencer was referring to the visi t by the head of the Roman Catholic church which drew over 72,000 people to the northern Ca lifornia race track last year. SuperSports' Bill West has restructured the purse for the April . 23 Tampa Stadium Supercross in Tampa , Florida. "We've been getting negative press f rom the amount of money the w inner and other top finishers get'in Supercross events so we 've addressed the problem and rest ruct ured our purse . In the past, the purse breakdown was structured to pay 60 250cc class riders, but we 've been averaging less than 45 riders per event, so the Tampa event w ill pay the 21 riders in the 250cc ' f ina l, and the second through 21 st place finishers in the Last Chance race, said West. "The 250cc winner will get $5000 of the $27,050 paid out in that class. Second will be worth $3000. The amount paid out will decrease down to 21 st (last) place in the final and that spot will pay $800. We 'll also pay a $5000 purse in the 125cc final with the winner getting $1000." Dunlop's Motorcycle Tire Division joins Yamaha, Honda, Marlboro and Shoei as a major sponsor of the April 10 U.S. GP at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. As part of its sponsorship agreement with the U.S. GP organization, Dunlop will . be a major sponsor of the delayed telecast of the 500cc GP which airs on NBC-TV on April 17, and the 250cc. GP scheduled for ESPN on April 24. In addition to the network coverage, prominent Dunlop identi- , ; .The Harley-Davidson Springer f ront end is backl When Harley-Davidson ships out it s 1988, 85th Ann iversary, 80 cubic inc h (1 25 0cc ), Springer Softail FXSTS in ear ly April, it will sport a computer-assisted redesign ed version of one of t he most unique features ever offered on two -wheels: Harle y 's eye -catching Springer front end. The orig inal Springer suspension system provided o nly two inches of f ront wheel travel and had some problems. The bushings would wear ou t and flex in t he pivot points, allowing t he f ront end to wander all over the road . The new Springer reported ly provides four inch es of travel and the bushings have been replaced by split, spherical bearings with teflon -coated, adjustable races. Adjustment to remove play from the f ront end (needed about every 1 0, 0 0 0 miles) can be handled with a sing le wrench . Du ring the new model introduction for the Springer Softai], Harley could make no' project ions on the life of the race/beari ng unit. The new Softail will retail for $10,695. ' fication will be featured on billboards and signs around the Laguna Seca circuit. Top competitors who will be using Dunlop tires at Laguna Seca include Team Lucky Strike Roberts members Way ne Rainey and ' Kevin Magee, and Yamaha factory rider Tadahiko Taira in the 500cc GP, and defending 250cc World Champion Anton Mang of Team Rothmans Honda, U.S. 250cc champ John Kocinski of Team Nordica Roberts, and Jacques Cornu on the ' Team Parisienne H onda. The 25th Ann iversa ry Widowmaker Hillclimb w ill take place on Sunday, May 22, in Draper, Utah. Draper is 15 miles south of Salt Lake City and can be reached by taking the Prison Exit off of 1-15 . For entry b lanks, write/call : Widowmaker Hillclimb, P.O . Box 130, West Jordan, UT ' B4084,801/943-5303 or 561 '-8071 . Trials Incorporated, the observed trials promoting club in Ohio, will host a Bernie Schreiber Trial School on May 14-15 at Mantua, Ohio. Mantua is located northeast of Akron. The two -day school includes 15 hours 01 ins tr uction (basic to advanced), a Saturday night video show, and a one-hour "World class" riding demonstration on Sunday. Class size is limited to 30 participants and the fee is $65. For fu rther information and registration forms, writel call : Trials Inc., 34676 Chestnut Ridge Rd., No rth Ridgevill e, OH 44039, 216/327 -2527. Papa tips his d uckbill to The Orange County (California) Register for it s March 29 editorial entitled Freewheeling. The editorial said, in part, "The Naderite had against all -terrain vehicles continues. The safety fanatics even rejected an agreement, worked out by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission and ATV ma nufacturers , that would seem to resolve the issue. What 's wrong with the ATVs? Are they defective? 'N o . Government inspectors have found no defects. Yet the Naderites, who gag whenever anyone h as fun, remain upset ... the reali ty is t hat everyone takes ri sks. It's not the gover~ment's job to make life as safe as living inside a padded cell. If people want to ri de ATVs, even the supposedly dangerous threewheelers, it should be their choice. It's their life. " Former pro road racer turned AMAI CCS official and announcer Richard Chambers received the Steve Sullivan Memorial Brotherhood Award at the March 25-26 AMA/CCS road race meet at Georgia's Road Atlanta. The award was presented by the SCCA Atlantic Region in memory of Sullivan who was killed on his way home from working at a 1987 race at Road Atlanta. Chambers was honored for his outstanding contributions to the sport and promotion of brotherhood among its participants , who voted he receive it . Chambers was presented the award along wi th a check for $200 at the me et 's rider's meeting. Similar awards, whose recipients are decided via rider vote , will be pres ented at all AMA 'races at Road Atlanta this year . Ralph O'Dell . 77, passed away on March 26 due to cancer in Bull Shoals, Arkansas. O'Dell; AMA member #506, purchased hi s first motorcycle in 1928 and was a lead ing dirt track racer in t he '30's and '40's. His son , J immie f ollowed in his rac ing footsteps as '" did his grandson J immie J r. He was also a Harley-Davidson dea ler until his reti rement i n 1968. Godspeed, Ralph . Owners of lightweight Ducatis (160 to 350cc models) who have had trouble locating fork seals for their bikes, might want to give Mike Green of West Coast Briush Racing a call. Green, a Cycle News contrib- ' utor and active vintage class road racer, has acquired an inventory of the seals. Call Green at 415/829-6091. Mt. Pinos Ranger District, Los Pad res National Forest and Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area will co -sponsor a voluntary OHV work project on April 16 as part of the 3rd Annual California Trail Days. The project will co nsist of t ra il repai rs and resource protection on several popular ro ut es with in Hungry Valley SVRA ' and adjacent Los Padres National Forest, near Go rman. ' Vo lu nt eers shou ld bring leather boots and work gloves. A ll , participants should meet at the information trailer at the north entrance to Hungry Valley SVRA at 10:00 a.m. Volunteers 'should contact the Mt. Pinos Ranger D istrict at 805/245-3731, or Hungry Valley SVRA at 805/2486447. . Sammy White's Kawasaki City in Irving, Texas, will host' an o pen house on Friday, April 15, to celebrate the grand opening of their new store at 1516 W. Irving Blvd. T he open house is being held in conjunction with the Saturday, April 16, AMA Supercross Series round at Texas Stadium and Team Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward and Ron Lechien will be on hand at Sammy White's Kawasaki City fram 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday; they'll be joined by Team Green riders Dennis Hawthorne and Denny Stephenson for bench racing and to sign autographs. Free drinks and hot dogs will be available and door prizes will be given out. For more info, call 214/438-9425. Editing m istakes were made in the Cherokee National Enduro story in the March 30, issue of Cycle News. The photo ident if ied as showing Bob Shillinger was actually of Wally Wilson, who was the, overall A winner, and the result s of the Open C class were left out. The top five riders were Don Ledbetter, Mike Gentry, Rex William s, W inston Gunnell and David Cripe. Apologies to contributor Patti Higgins and the riders invol ved . Pace /SRO, the 'Arkansas-based promotion company which produced the 1987 U.S. GP ro und 'of the Wor ld Championship 250cc MX Series in Hollister, Ca lifornia, has withdrawn from this year's U.S . GP, leaving the June 26 race in doubt and the AMA scrambling to find a new promoter. Pace/ SR O notified the AMA in early May that it wou ld not promote the 1988 500cc USGP in Hollister for financia l reasons. Pace /SRO 's withdrawal , however, does not mean cancellation of the race, according to the AMA. "The event has not been canceled," said Bill Amick, AMA vice president of professional competition. "Pace Management has withdrawn, but we're in the midst of negotiations to put together another promotion package. We have every expectation that the event will be a success. The promoter ' won 't be the same but the event will come off." Pace /SRO 's C.E . Altman said, "We notified the AMA, with(Continued to page .79)

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