Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 ~ ....... America's motorcycle newspaper Vo lume XXV Sharon Clay to n , Publish er Mike Klin ger.ComptrollN Skip J ohnson . A ssoc iate Publish"! Na tional Sal es lUanager lack. M a n~ us. Associate Publisher' Editor Rhcba Smuh. Circulation l\l anager Caro lin e Gendrv. Exe cutive Secr~tary to th ~ Publisher Aba daba do? · Ha rley gave us the first ge neric m o to rcycl e (the 3995 portster). Then we had th e Harl ey Barf (Bue ll). Now we have th e Fred Flintst one model pr eviewed in the April 13 issu e o f Cycle N ews (the H arl ey Sp ri nger). Nex t yea r can we look forward to hand shift? Rigid rear en d? Flat head? 'Aba dab a do. Onl y in th e U. S.A. Editorial Kit Palmer. A ssoc iate Editor Pau l Carruthers. A ssociate Edi tor Farre n Will iams. Associate Edi tor Nat e Rauba . A~'.wciate Editor Urian Ca tterson. A ssociate Editor Edwina Mangu s. Calenda r Edi to r Ad ve rt is ing Mike Chu rch. Senior Sales Managt'T Tcrrv Prat t Senior Sales M anai n MarL Thome. Western Sales Man ager Don Stoeber. Western Sales Managn Mark Mitche ll. East ern Salt'." Manager Thomas R. Comer. Eastern Sa les AIanagN' Ca th y Corrao We.dN'n Ad Coordinator Carla Bo rden . Eastern Ad Coo rdinator T oni Dcneske, Advertising A ssistant Graphics a nd Pr o duction Malcolm \\'ilso n.P roductio11 Mana ger Dian a H ilgen berg, G raphic Artist Stan:... Gu est. Graphic Artist Jimmie O·DeIi. Graph ic Artist Marion Ha ta shua. TY ~HUe'1 Carol )'n Branham. Tvpeseuer Dennis Gr eene. Lab . T ech: Ac co u nt ing /Da ta Pr ocessing Donna Bryan . AccLsReceivable Coord inat or Geneva Repa ss, Assisuuu Fran Hamwey, Cred it Circula tion Sarah Taylor . A ssistant Alma Anguiano, Assi stant Cheri Chapma n, Assistant Mari ta Ada ms. Assistant Circ ulat io n Deve lopm e n t Ron Davidso n . Manager Wa nt Ad s Debbie Winkl er, Want Ad Sa les S e rvic e and S upport Chri ~ Aitcheson . H eadq ua rters R ecept ion ist Leo nard Herring, Service and Suppo rt Na t io nal He a d q ua rters 220 1 Cherry Ave.• Lo ng Beach. CA 90806, P.O , Box 498. Lo ng Beach. CA 90801·0498 (213) 127·7433; 2 131636-8844. FAX (213) 127-6685 JERRY McDONALD Corpus Christi , TX P .S. Q uick, Ronnie, bring ba ck th e tariff. Suzuka turn Perhaps yo u co u ld clarify part of your Suzuka 250cc GP coverage. You reported that " Kocins ki shot up th e outside of Mang entering th e ch ica ne and pushed hi s wa y up th e insi de on th e exit o f th e left -h ander . . .' There is al so a photo o f Kocinski stu ffi ng Garriga o n " the la st co rner" lat er in th e ra ce. The last co rner In th e 'd iagram o f the Su zu ka track is a right-hander, however , a nd th e chicane is not shown . Would you print th e actual layout of th e tra ck , including the ch icane, so we could see where all this stu ffing was going o n? It is h ard to ima gin e how a seem ingly tight (fro m th e photos) left-hander could be th e last turn at Suzuka without a big change in th e layout £.rom what yo u printed. Wer en 't these photos actually of turns five and six, a right followed by a left, or is the start/fini sh line not as p rinted in the tra ck diagram? I really en jo y seeing how the various tra cks are laid out and trying to imagine the racing particularly in the tight sections, but this time I'm confused! Ea ste rn O ff ic e " 190 First Ave., Tucker. G A. 30084; ma iling address P.O . Box 805. T ucker, GA 30085080 (404) 934·7850. 5. FAX (404) 934-3112 Cycle News (USPS 141·340) is pu blished weeki y excep t the F and last week of the irst calendar year lor $32.50 per year by Cycle News, Inc., 220 1 Ch err y Avenue. Lo ng Beach. CA 90806. Second class J'OSGlS< P.;'id a t Long Beach. CA. and addi tional maihng o££i~ PO STMASTER: Send form 3579 t o Cycle News. P.O. Box 4 98. long Beech. CA 90801 ·0498 . Sub:w;:ription rates : O ne year, secon d class mail. 132.50. Cycle News welcomes un solicited edi toria l material inc lud ing stor ies, canoons, photos. etc. Such mat eri al, if pub lished, becomes the exclusive pro~ y of ~yd e New~ Such a~· cepted material is subject to revmon as IS necessary in the sole discretion of Cycle New s, Unso lici ted material which is not used will be returned if acco mpan ied by a self addressed stamped en velope. All un solicited material wil) be handled with reasonable ca re, however, C ycl e New s assum es no responsibility for th e' safety, loss or damage to such ma teria l. Reprin tin g in whol e or part only by permission of the ~ubl isher: Adv~ -. tising rat es a nd circulauon In forma tio n W i ll be sen t upon request, See S.R.D.S. JOHN COME Tucson, AZ Here 's a more detailed diagram of a portion of the Su zuka circuit that sh ows the chicane. Immediately follow ing the chicane is a right-hand sweeper, but our reporter, Paul Carruthers, says the riders refer to the chicane exit turn as th e " last turn." . . . Editor. Laguna Seca exodus Co pyright "' Cycle News , Inc . 1 988. Trade-ma ric Cycle News regiatered U.S . Pat ent Office . All right. rel8rved. A group of us traveled from Orange and .San Diego counties to attend the U.S. Grand Prix in Monterey. We had been ' looking forward to this event since it was fir st announced. Reservations at a motel were made at that time, and all we had to do was pick . up our tickets and enjoy. We have been avid motorcycle fans since the early 1970s . My sons raced ~ , I 4 aI I '7 CHARLES E. ZEHNER Brea, CA All of us who attended th e U.S. GP spen t time in traffic. Accoriling to The Herald, the Monterey Peninsula's dail y newspaper, th e ev en t " att racted a record crowd at the county park." In order to expedite the exodus of 80,000-plus race attendees, SCRAMP officials abandoned a new traffic plan that called for them to divert race traffic off Highway 68, but even ' that didn't prevent the massive traffic jams that developed on all exit roads. Karin Strasser Kauffman, the 5th District Monterey County Supervisor, said she was " disap p oin ted " that race traffic wasn 't diverted off Highway 68. Monterey residents and visitors other than race attendees don 't like traffic jams anymore than you do. Monterey County officials will hold a meeting at the Laguna Seca media center on April 28 to discuss , among other th ings, new traffic plans . . . Editor. GP praise and criticism BPA Con.ume, Audit Divi. lon Membershi p Applied For Dace mbe r. 1988 . ID]]] )~ , l\:::fj man y tim es agai nst Edd ie Lawson whe n they were a ll amat eurs. We have followed La wso n 's p rofessional career for ma ny years a nd a ttended events wh en we co u ld, even so me ltl Europe. We were ela ted wh en " o u r man " wo n the 500cc G P. As we sta rted to lea ve La guna Seca Ra cewav, we found we wo u ld not be allowed' to exit a t o ur 'en try p oint. We h ad parked o u r ca rs strategi cally so we co u ld mak e as fa st a n exit as possible for th e seven - to eig h t-ho u r drive home. We feel we were h erd ed lik e sh eep back to Monterey so th e merchants could grab th e last ni ckels from us. (We had already spent more than $1000. ) It took us three hours to exit the park as we wer e h erded by SCRAMP offi cials. We were an gr y an d irritable. We sa w people on the verge of fist icuffs because of having to wait in this eigh t- to IO-mile long lin e th at fina lly narrowed down to one lane. This cost us personally a quarter o f a tank of gaso line for each car, plus it added three hours to our driv ing time to get home. All of us had to work on Monday m orning. Needless to say, we left Montere y before having o ur even in g meal and we were so di senchanted that I doubt if any of us (a group of eigh t) ever enter th e city of Montere y again. . First, I'd like to thank SCRAMP for bringing the GP to Laguna Seca, and for the excellent job they did in the des ign and construction of the new track section . Laguna was turned into a much more exciting and interesting track for both the spectators and riders. As an event for spectators, though, the GP at Laguna was a total disappointment. The two brief hours of GP excitement on Sunday afternoon were overwhelmed by a weekend of otherwise complete boredom with no support races, pagentry, nor introduction or parade lap with the GP stars. The closed paddock area and the race team sequestered in tents on pit lane denied spectators the chance of seeing any bike or rider up close when not on the track. The $75 tickets were a waste of money, particularly because the grandstand seating that went with th em provided th e worst possible views of th.e tra ck. And , last ly, th e two hours It took to dri ve into th e track o n Sunda y mo rnin g a nd th e four hours it took to ge t o u t a fter th e race nearly ruined th e weekend. I probab ly wo n 't ret urn to see a nother m ot orcycle GP a t Lagu na unless SCRA MP uses th e lessons lea rned fro m thi s year 's event to mak e improveme nts. : First, I'd suggest th e add ing of four-stroke Superbike, Pro Twin o r Form ul a One bikes to fill ou t th e raci ng program (i n Europe th ey've got th e SOcc, 125cc a nd Sid ecar GPs in addi tio n to th e 250cc a nd 500cc races) . G randstand sea ting shou ld be . moved or added to prime viewing ar eas. The paddock a rea needs to be redesigned with fen cing th at allows spec ta tor viewing o f th e factory pit ar eas, th e bikes a nd rid er s. And, lastly, th e access ro ad s need to be widened or increa sed to a llow more than sin gle file exiting from th e track. If maj or stad iu ms can exi t"a capacity crowd in 30 minutes, Laguna Seca shou ld be able to do it in 60 minutes, not four hours! JIM GIANATSIS Canoga Park, CA FIM rules forb id the running of . "sup port" races at C P even ts. ~Ps outside of Europ e (Japan, America, Brazil and Argent ina ) run only the 250 and 500cc CPs du e to the high cost of fieldi ng the other classes. SCRAMP ope rates La guna Seca Ra ceway, but the surrounding property is a county park and at least one of th e exit roads IS on m ilitary reservation property. The construction of the new section of the track co st ov er I I million. Can you imagi ne w hat it would cos! to add additional ex it roads or Widen the pres ent ones? As for comparing major stadiums and La~una Seca Raceway, Laguna is limited to five motorsports events per year while stadium s located in major cit ies host dozens of ev en ts each year. For example, a. stadium that hosts a major leagu e baseball team is used fo r baseball approximately 80 times for regular season games from the beginning of April to the first week of October. Major leagu e baseball games in 26 stadiums drew a total of 49,610,822 spectators in 1987! It would take 40 U.S. CP crowds to equal the 3,238,163 spectators who attended the 78 regular season and three World Series games the St. Louis Cardinals played in Busch Stadium last year! We're sure that if Laguna Seca Racew.ay had 40 even~ like the CP each year you'd see multilane entrance Iex it roads, etc. As AMA President Ed Youngblood said in answer to someone's question of why couldn't the AMA host events like the U.S. CP every weekend, " Christm as only comes once a year." The big day for Laguna Seca an~ motorcycle road race fans came thl~ year on April 10. It'll return on A pnl 16,1989 . . . Editor . Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Letters are subject to condensation due to space limitations. Anonymous letters will not be published. Send letters to Voices. P.O . Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801-0498.

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