Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

JfYHD ~yp~p~ Wf~LfY The eighth round of th e World Championship 500cc MX Series in Hawkstone Park, England, July 10, saw England's Dave Thorpe (Hon ) capture the overall victory with a II tall y, beating Belgian rival Eric Geboers (H on), who went 2-2. Third place with a 3-3 went to Holland's Kees Van der Ven (KT M). Thorpe extends his points lead over Geboers by nine points, 251-242. Third in poi nts is Kurt Nicoll wi th 204. Don Estep (W-R) won the July 9 Hagerstown (Maryland) Half Mile round of the AMA 600cc National Championship Dirt Track Series. Kevin Atherton (W-R) was the runner-up and Will Davis (H-D) took third. Chris Carr leads the series with 135 points. 55 ahead of Atherton. Pete Hames lies third in the standings. Chris Carr (H-D) won the Expert final at the Jul y 8 Hagerstown Regio nal Ch ampionship Half Mil e. Rodney Farris (H o n) was second, and Dan Ingram (H-D) took third. Kevi n Ath erton (W- R ) wo n the Junior final and Bryan Tillson (WR ) topped the P ro-Am final. Fritz Kadlec (Yam) was the overall w inner at the National Champion ship Hare Scrambles in Wa lden• . Colorado. July 10. Second place went to Ed Lojak (Hus) f ollow ed by John Bnickbauer (Yam ) and Open class winner an d se rie s points leader~ony Hendon (ATK). Spectators attending the July 24 U.S. 250cc MX Gp 'at Unadilla won 't be allo wed to bring beer or an y o ther alco holic beverages into th e New Berlin, New York , facility. Those wishing to down a coo l on e will be abl e to purchase Birrel's, a nonalcoholic beer that tastes like th e real stuff, at th e track. Randy Mamola's third place finish on the V-four Cagiva in the Belgian GP was the first rostrum position in a 500cc GP for a nonJapanese machine since Giacomo Agostini and MV Agusta won the West German GP on August 29. 1976. AMA Grand, National Ch am p io n Bub ba Shobert and dirt tracker Scott Pearson a re urging their fellow professional dirt tra ckers to dona te leathers, helmets, etc., for a pro riders auction they are trying to put together to aid the Ted Boody Fund. Shobert and Pearson are hoping to have the necessary items to hold th e auction aft er the second Springfield Mile, on September 4. Pearson can be reached at 209/538-2116or the two can be approached at any National. Ernesto Vettore. who recently was named president of Cagiva North America after a career in the automotive industry. has not surprisingly replaced employees who resigned with men from the automotive industry . Guido Furetta. who formerly worked with Vettore at Alfa Romeo. has been named general manager and will be responsible for the parts. distribution and accessory departments of Cagiva North America . Eric Lehman. formerly w ith Volkswagen. A lfa Romeo and BMW. will head up the service. warranty and export departments. NAME D: Jim Woods, Cagiva North America district sales manager for California and Arizona; Woods formerly operated Woods Motors in Glendale, California. Kawasaki's Jeff Ward tried to stir up some controversy in the first moto at the July 10 Binghamton MX National with a box on the back of his helmet. which Ward said he made out of a vitamin box. The box looks similar to the React rad io transmitter that Team Kawasaki was testing early in the season until the AMA banned the use of such radios in professional competition. "I was just trying to help promote the radios. which are still legal in amateur competition." Ward later said in an airport as he waited to board a plane to return home . Ward removed it for the second moto. H osP IT al ST O P : L au r en ce "Smitty" Smith, a longtim e HarleyDavidson deal er and supporter of dirt track racers, suffered a heart attack at the July 4 Frederick (Maryland) H alf Mi le. Smith is in critical condit ion at Frederick Mem o rial Hospi tal , Eas t 7th St., Frederick, MD 21701. Promoter Duke Cook intends to make August a thunderous month as far as dirt track racing goes. He'lI host a round of the AMA 600cc National Championship Dirt Track Series at Ashland . Ohio's Ashland County Fair. grounds on State Route 42. on Saturday night. August 6. Billed, as the Thunder In Ohio Half Mile. additional thunder will ' be laid down in ' a special HarleyDavidson Challenge Invitational Race that will see the winner pocket $1 000. Still more thunder will be provided by a special match race featuring the likes of George Roeder Sr.- and Ronnie Rail aboard vintage dirt track machinery. With the Camel Pro Series Mid·Ohio Road Race meet taking place that weekend just 18 miles south of Ashland. race fans can witness both dirt and asphalt racing on a National level with a minimum of travel. Cook will also be promoting the Thunder In Illinois Regional Championship Half M ile on August 13 at Knoxville's Knox County Fairgrounds off 1-74. which is just 20 m inutes from Peoria where the Camel Pro Series Peoria TT will be held the following day. 57 declared dead until 1989 By Farren Williams/Sacto-Letter WASHINGTON, DC, JULY II 00 00 Senate Bill 7, a proposal by U .S. Senator 0") Alan Cranston (D-California ) to shut down ...... most of the sou thern California desert to recreational use, including off-road riding, is dead until the 1989 session ' of congress, according to Cranston, who blamed the bill 's tem porary demise on Ca lifornia's junior U.S. senator, Repub lican Pete Wi lson. Cranston said the bill has no cha nce of passage this year and pointed a finger of blame at Wilson, who has refused to support the measure as written. Crans ton has vowed to reintroduce th e bill in i 989. Cranston charged that the California Desert Pro tectio n Act has no t moved in the Senate's Energy and Natura l Reso u r ces Committee . because it has been stonewalled by Wilson . Senate committees rarely take action on a bill unless it has th e suppOrt of both senators from th e _bill 's state of origin. Wilson holds that some sort of desert protection act is needed, but called Cranston's bill unrealistically restrictive. The two sena tors have been negotiating on 57's provisions for months, but have failed to reach a co mpro mise. . • Wilson agrees 57 will not pass this year , b ut blamed Cranston ' s approach to desert protection, which Wilson feels is unwarranted because it wou ld close nearl y nine million acres of desert to public use. Wilson doesn 't accept th e contention tha tthe . only way to save th e desert is to lock people oUL " 57 proposes to save the desert from the people of Ca lifornia. I propose to save the desert fOT th e people of California," Wilson said m a recent letter to Cranston which was published in the Voices section of last week's Cycle N ews. In a more recent letter sent to Cranston on J ul y 7, Wilson charged that the "death" of 57 lays squarely with Crans ton and his staff . . Wil son to ld Crans to n th a t h e could not voice support for the bill duri ng Energy and Nat ural Reso urces Committee hearings scheduled for late J une beca use he and his staff had received only ha lf the maps that define th e 82 separate wil derness areas proposed in 57. Due to Wilson's lack of suppor t, the committee hearin gs were postponed and 57 was p ut on hold indefin itely. " Neverth eless," Wilson wrote, " I 'pro posed in my letter of J u ne 30, even tho ugh we had not yet obtained all the necessary ma ps , that we keep our staffs at the task of, 'the same kind of careful, painstaking area-byarea analysis that -prod uced our 1984 Wildern ess Act, a co mpro m ise of which we ar e bo th justly proud,'. " " Yo u have responded by anno uncing that unless we could reach such a compromise by J u ly 8, the desert bi ll . would be 'dead ' for this year ," wro te Wil son. "A lan, a week could .hardly produ ce, 'the same kind of careful, painstaking, area-by-area analysis that produced our 1984 Wilderness Act,' .when that effort, dealingwi th on ly 58 proposed Wilderness areas, req u ired months of negotiation, whereas the much more ambitious 57 proposes 82 areas forWildemess," Wilson said. " A Jul y 8 'drop dead' date is obvi o usly unrealisttc, and I am quite frankl y di sappointed b y yo ur announcement," Wilson told Cranston. "Some .people interested in the issues addressed by 57 seem to be labori ng under the misapprehension th at th ey need not demonstrate flexibi lity becaus e th ey have mistakenly assumed I will make co ncessions that I would not otherwise make because it is an election year,'.' Wilson wrote. " Though I regret your decision, perhaps it is better that we defer completion of th e analysis to a new year when we will have the time to - do justi ce to this important work, and then th e rea l issue will not be clouded by electi on year miscalculations," said Wilson. " But anticipating th e resumption of this effort in th e lOlst co ngress, let me once -more address my ch ief concern and cri ticism of 57," Wilson said. "I do not believe th e o nly way to protect the desert enviro nme nt is by locking o ut th e people. "I canno t sub scribe to an exclu sion ary scheme," said Wil son , "and, frankly, wh ether or no t tha t was th e intention of th ose wh o draft ed 57, it is unfortunat ely the result. " Alan, we owe it to the peo pl e of Cal ifornia to do th e job right," said Wilson in hi s letter. " It is more important to do it carefu ll y and well th an to rush to a hasty judgem ent in an election year which wou ld result in permanentl y denying millio ns of southern Californians access to legitim ate desert recreation." . Cranston's amlouncement that S7 is dead may have elect io n -yea r mo tivations, according to congressional analysts. Democrat s may have announced the " death" of 57 in an attempt to damage Wilson's reelection campaign. California Lieu tenan t Governor Leo McCarthy, Wilson's Democra tic opponent ,in th is year 's senate race, is seeki ng to discredit Wilson's claim that he has been a champ io n of the Ca lifornia enviro nmen t. McCarthy, 'who has supported 57 since its in trodu ction and who recent ly was endorsed by th e Sierra Club, has reiterated his support fo r th e desert b ill. He al so said he regrets the desert "will remain unprotected" through 1989 because of Wilson. Evidence that the Democrat s have p laced a high priority on getting Wilson out of offi ce came last week when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm ittee gave McCarthy a written pledge of $1.9 million, th e maximum amount th e committee may offer a candidate. A commi ttee spokesman for the Democrats recently called McCart hy one of the party's top candidates from the group of 33 Democrats who are seeking senate sea ts in 1988. The co mp lete text of Wi lson's letter to Cranston appears on page 4, the Voices page. I

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