Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Wind (Con tinued from page 16;' to a new location; the firm is now a full service advertising/marketing and design agency; 22642 Lambert, Suite 405, EI Toro, CA 92630,714/830-5971. Dr. Wiltz Wagner did severa l laps around the fa m ed Indianapol is Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, on J ul y 28 whi le testing a Yamaha TZ250, Kawasaki 80 and Fantic 125 in preparation for speed runs at Bonneville later this month. MARRIED: Mike Church, Cycle News senior advertising manager, and Bonnie Rodi, on June 23 in Atlanta, Georgia; Mike and Bonnie honeymooned in Jama ica . Russ Darnell, of Russ ' Darnell MX Schools, would like to exchange track tim e and pr ivate lesso ns to plumbers, tractor drivers, pool builders, concrete finishers, etc., for th eir hel p in developing his private Knob Hill Estate MX Track in Hemet, Cal ifornia. For more information , call 714/658-RDMX. With Team Yamaha deciding not to partic ipate in the 1988 AMA Nationa l Championsh ip 500cc MX Series, Broc Glover and Micky Dymond have suddenly found t he m se lve s with a lot of t ime on their hands, so what have the two former National C hampions been doing lat e ly? Glover has sold his house in EI Cajon, California, and is moving to Del Mar, California. " I decided t o get away from here lEI Cajo n), because I' m 'getting ti red of t his area, " said Glover. " I've been doing some rid ing to keep in shape, as well as bicycling . As far as next year goes, I have no idea what I' ll be doing . Things don't lo ok promising .w it h .Ya m a ha right now; I'd like t o continue racing but I don't know who it ' ll be with. I'd like to race in America, but!'ll go to Europe if I have to. ·1"j ust want to race." Dymond, on the other hand, has been " . . . kicking back since the Unadilla 250cc U.S. GP. 1did buy a Harley-Davidson Springer Soft Tail. though. It's great; it's been so much fun:' From the "whatever happened to" departmen t comes word that Russ Collins is still operating R C Engineering in Torrance, California, but is no longer involved in motorcycles. RC Engineering no w build high-performance car engines for IMSA and SCCA racing. Collins . just received h is SCCA license and plans to ent er endurance races. Bet the car he races isn 't as fast as the Atchinson; Topeka and Santa Fe, the motorcycle drag bike with thr ee Honda engines that he campaigned in th e mid-70s. . Disney opposes Whitney Canyon OHV proposal By Farren Williams/ Saeto-Letter SACRAMENTO, CA, J ULY 22 48 Officials from the Walt Disney Studios claim a proposed offhighway vehicle park in Los Angeles County 's Whitney Canyon woul d render Disney's adjacent Golden O a k Movie Ran ch useless for the production of motion p ictures. Disney spokesmen ma de the charge during the J uly meet ing of th e Califo rnia O ff-H ig h w a y Motor Veh icle Recreation Commission, held today in Sacramento. The approval of " OHV facility an in Whitney Canyon allegedly would boost area noise levels to the point where sensitive motion picture sound equipment couldn't cope with the noise increase. The audio recording eq uipment would pick up the drone of distant OHVs, making it impossible to film at Golden Oak Ranch, according to Disney Studios ' Executive Vice President William E. Kerstetter. "Golden Oak Ranch is the last great production ranch in Ca lifornia," Kerstett er told th e com m ission. " Whitney Canyon OHV Park would make th e ran ch unusabl e for film production. "If th e ranch is sh u t down, Disney will lose $648,000 .annuall y," said Kerstetter. " If it is sh u t down, there would be $5 million a year in lost wages. If it is shut down , it would be another incentive for 'ru naway production,' wh ere film producers flee southern California to produce films in other states a n d other countries, particularl y Canada. "Admittedly , ' we have o ur own selfish con cerns," said Kerstetter. " Bu t we're al so co ncerned with losing jobs in sou th ern Ca liforn ia and with runaway production. For thos e reasons, we would like you to move away from co nsiderin g an OHV park in Whitney Ca nyo n." H enry Agonia, Director for the Sta te's Department of Parks and Recreati on , pointed out that Los Angeles County currentl y is conduc ting an environme nta l impact report .(EIR) on th e proposed park, using sta te OHV funds. 'Ago nia suggested a portion of the EIR be a " focused concern" on th e potential impact of nois e o n Golden Oak Ran ch. "T here is still the pote nt ial for' mitigating this concern," said Ago ni a. " We shou ld cont in ue with th e program and direct L.A. County to focus on th e impact of noise on Disn ey Studios. You sho uld make this study a part of the EIR." " It's premature to say full speed ahead or to back off," said Committee Chairman Eugene Chappie. "We can' t say we love Tinkerbell and that's the end of it. We should take the course of action as expressed by Mr. Agonia." The commission approved a mo tion to include the "focused area" in the Whitney Canyon project EIR, arid directed the county to concentrate on the nois e study before conducting th e full impact report. " It 's silly to do the full EIR if the noise question can't be sett led," said Commissioner Mar ge Sutton. "It costs a lot of money for a n EIR. " In other action related to Whitney Can yon, the commission, following th e recommendation of the Grants Committee, deni ed grant requests from Los Angeles County for more 'than $16 million to buy the property and develop Whitney Canyon O HV Park during th e 1989-90 budget year. According to Gr ants Committee Chairman Ed Waldheim , the Commis sion still supports the Whitney Canyon project, but decided not to p ro vide funds for acq u isi tio n of pro perty and development of the park until "all enviro nme nt al assessments are com plete. "The project has not been killed," Waldheim said. H owever , th e co m missio n did approve a total of $7,498,000 in other grants and cooperative agreement proj ects for the 1989-90 fiscal year. Most of the funding was awarded to the Bureau of Land Managem ent, and to the Un ited States Forest Service, for the operation and main tenance of exis ting OHV areas, and Iorthe development of new O HV facilities. The monies will come from the OHV fund in the 1989-90 Department of Parks and Recreation budget. The commission also approved 1989-90 fu ndin g of $300,0 00 fo r safety grants and $200,0000 to purchase liability ins urance for O H V parks. During his report to the commission, Agonia said that the Par ks and Recreation Co m m issio n may be willing to discuss a Parks' Com mi ssion policy adopted in J u ne which bans OHVs in all California state parks. " T here is an opportunity for this co m m issio n and the Parks and Recreation Commission to open a dialogue regarding OHV use," Agonia said. Commissioner Sutton made a motion that the O H V Commission wri te a letter to the Par ks and Recreation suggesting a trial program that would allow OHVs to be used in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on a one-year trial basis, beginning November I of this year . The OHV us e in Ariza-Borrego would be limi ted to organized offroad gro up s that wou ld be given access to a limited number of trai ls. U nder the proposed plan, OHV use would be monitored and reports would be made to both com missio ns. The motion, seconded by Commiss io ne r Betty Morris, passed unanimousl y. " I'm not su re how the proposal will be received (by the Parks and .. Recreation Commission)," said Agonia, " bu t I think it is a proper action by thi s commission and I would be ' very supportive." Commissioners reviewed the proposed 1989-90budget for California's OHV program, but delayed taking any action until their September mee ting. . According to a staff- report made to the. commission, projected OHV fu nd revenues in fiscal year 1989-90 will be $37,654,000, while projec ted expenses - not including funding for Wh itney Canyon O HV Park or another OHV project in McCain Valley - will be $25,960,000. Commissioner John Motley reported that motorcycle manufacturers no w are printing disclaim ers in advertisements when they advertise race wi ns by factory race teams. Motley said the disclaimers probably are the result of a co mmission meeting held early this year during which co mmissioners m et with representa tives of the motorcycle industry to express concern with the noise levels produced ' by off-road vehicles. Motley said the manufac turers are printing notices in victory ads which say the factory-backed, competitiononly motorcycles used to win offroad races on public lands in Cali- fornia have been modified to meet noise standards and o ther state regulations. Commissioner Motley also said, " When it com es to closed-course vehicles, I suspect we may see a change in the types of vehicles the manufacturers will introduce in 1989 or 1990. It's, on ly a sense. I don 't know that officially." The co nt ro versial issue of OHV mana gement by the U.S . Forest Service in th e Ta hoe Basin was 'discu ssed after the grants committee recommended that the Forest Service receive only $10,000 for operation and maintenance of the Tahoe Basin program, even th ough forest officials had req uested $60,000. The grants committee also recom mended that the Forest Service be denied any portion of a request for a $78,000 grant for resource managem ent in the T ahoe Basin. Both grant req uests are " under su bmission" and will be considered by the commission at a future date. ' "You're se n di ng a .very clear message to every o the r forest," sai d Fo r es t Service spo kes man Tom Crimm ins. "The message is, if you don't give us what we want, we're going to p ull your mo ney." "You're not providing an adaquate pl an ," co untered Jerry Co un ts, a spokesma n for the AMA. "It is go ing to be successful?" " We don't want to be part of a program that will fai l," said Commissioner Waldheim. " Pu tting trails near subdivisions is a no-no." Critics of OHV management in the Tahoe Basin charge the Forest Service with in adeq uate planning. " They've gotten . green sticker money, but they have no OHV plan and no new trails," said Bill Dart of the High Sierra Motorcycle Club. Forest Service O HV managers in the heavily populated T ahoe Basin feel they have lim ited opportunities for OHV trail development because they are , " Living in a social and political fish bowl." Tahoe Basin managers admitted that som e trail routes do not meet the needs of users and some trai ls are too close to subdivisions, although they said an effort is being made to move those trails away from homesThe commission took no action on the Tahoe Basin issue. Following a presentation by Les McCargo, chief deputy director for the Department of Parks and Recreatio n, the OHV Commission decid ed to explore the possibility of creating an OHV foundation , or using the State Parks Foundat ion, to aid the OHV r.rogram in the quick purchase of avai labl e land. "The State Parks Foundation was set up to accomplish things that can't be accomplished quickl y in the b ureaucratic process," said McCargo. " If you want to use the State Park Foundation, have a (commission) me mber contact (Foundation Director) Wayne Guthrie, if there is a particu lar p ro ject yo u want the fou ndation to ta ke o n," said McCargo. "If you wa nt to crea te your own foundat ion, th ey can assis t you in setting it up," said McCa rgo . " G uthrie ca n help yo u explore ways you may wan t to use the' fou ndation." The commission would use a fou ndation ' to ra ise fu nds and to p urchase land quickly, according to Waldheim. "We lost three parcels this week (potentia l buffer zones to existing Sta te Vehicular Recreation Areas) beca use we act so slowly," Wa ldheim said. "We would be very interested in - opportunity purchase," added Commissioner J im Livermore. Chappie dirrected McCargo to mee t with Guthrie, "to see what the opportunities are," and to report back to the commission in September. A motion by Livermore to reduce O HV Commission meetings from once every other month to four times a year was defeated 5-1 following lengthy discussion The next meeting of the OHMV Recreation Commission will be held in San Diego on September 16. A . meeting of the Grants and Cooperative Agreements/Trails Committee will be he ld in San Diego on September 15. •

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