Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

America's motorcycle newspaper l-o Volume XXV V ..0 o .... u o Sharon C layton , Pub lis her Mike Klin ger,ComptTOl lt:r Skip Johnson, Associau Pu blish er! N atio nal Sales Ma nagtT J ack Man gu s, Associate Pu bl ish er! Edi to r Rheba Smith, Ci rcu latio n Manager Caroline Cend ry, Executive Suutary to th e Pu blish er Editorial Kit Palm er. Associate Edi tor Pa ul Carru thers. Associat e Editor Nate Rauba, Associate Editor Brian Catterso n , Associate Editor Edwina Man gu s. Calen dar Editor Advertising Mik e Ch u rc h . Senior Sales Manager T erry Pratt Senior Sa les Ma nager ' Mark Thome. Wes tnn Sales ManagtT Ron Davidso n , Westt"m Sales Manager Mark Mitchell . Eastern Sales ManagnThomas R. Corn er, Eastern Sales Mana ger Deb bie Wi nkl er. Western Ad Coordinator Carla Borde n. Easte-rn Ad COOTdinalO1' Graphics and Production Malc o lm wilso n. Product ion Manager Denni s Greene, LAb. T ech: Diana H ilgenberg, Gmphic A rtist Stacey Guest, G rap hic Art ist Jimm ie O 'Dell, Graph ic Artist Mandy LOo , G rap hic Artist Ca ro lyn Branham, Typ~s,.ttt!t Arienne T eli a s, T ypesetter Accounting/Data Processing . Donna Bryan . Ace ts R eceivabl e Coo rdina tor . Oe neva Repass. Assistant Fran Hamwey. Credit Circulation Sarah Tay lor, Assistant Alma An guiano , Assistan t Che ri Ch ap man, Assistant Mari ta Adams, A ssistant Hetl an e Richmon d , Assistant C rol Scan nel l, Assistant .a Circulation Development Ron Davi d son , Man ager Want Ads Jo an Russian , Want Ad Sa les Service and Support C hris Aitcheson . Headquart ers R eception ist Leonard He-rrin g, Service an.d S uppo rt National Headquarters 220 1 Cherry Ave. . Long Beach, CA 90806 , P .O . Il ox 198. Lo n g Bea ch. CA 9080 1·0198 (2 13) 127·74 33: 213/ 636·8844. FAX (2 13) 127 ·6685 Eastern Office 4 190 First Ave., T ucker, GA , 30084: mailing address P.O . Box 80S, Tucker, G A 300850805. ('10,1) 93,1 · 7850, FAX (101) 93'1·3 112 Cycle N l ' WS (US PS 14 1·310) is publish ed weekl y excep t the first and last week o f the ca lendar year fur $50.00 per year by C ycle New s. l nc. , 220 1 C he rry Avenue, Long Beach , CA 90806. Secon d class postage pa id a t Long Beach, CA, an d add itiona l maili ng offi ces. POSTMASTER : Send form 3579 to Cycle News. P.O . Box 498. Long 8each. CA 90801-0498. To determine 't he expiration date of your subscription, check the four numbers on the first line of your address label. The first two digits indicate the last issue number you'll receive and the last two characters indicat e the year of the last issue . Subscription rates: O ne year, second class mail, $50.00 Cycle New s welcom es u nsoli cited editorial mat erial including stories , ca rtoo ns, phot os . etc. Su ch mat erial. if published, becomes the e xclusive- prop(:rl y of Cycle News . Su ch ac' cepted mat eria l is su bject to revision as is necessary in th e sole di scret ion o f Cycle News. Unso lici ted materi al whic h is not used wi ll be retu rn ed if acco mpa ni ed b y a sel f add ressed sta mped envelope. All unsolicit ed material will be handled with reasonabl e ca rt' , how ever , C ycle News ass u mes no respo ns ibifity for th e sa fety, lo ss or da mage 10 suc h ma teri al. Reprinting in whole o r pan on ly by perm issio n of the p ublisher. Advertising ra tes a nd ci rcu la tio n information wi ll be sent upon req uest. Set- S. R .D.S. WBPA Copyright" AUDITED CIRCULATION Cycle News. Inc. 1988. Trade-mark Cycle News registered U.S . Patent Office. All rights reserved. On second tho·ught I would like to apologize to La rry Maiers for the letter I wrote wh ich appeared in the September 28 issue of Cycle News. I heard what happened at the (Washouga l) race and what I heard was , " Larry did a gr eat job and Hannah's co lor (com me ntating) was great a lso." I reacted off a letter. I shou ld have investigated th is before I wrote my letter. LARRY NASTON AXO Sport Valen cia ,CA See Bob Hannah 's com me n ts in th e following letter . . . Editor. The Hurricane responds In a recent letter, J ohn Dixon sa id that he didn't lik e being su bjected to " dr u n keness, loud mu sic a nd filt hy mouths" a t th e last 125/50Occ Nati onal MX in Wa sh o u g al, Wash ington. After rea ding the portion o n " lo u d filth y mou ths, " -includ ing "Larry Wha t' s H is Name" a nd Bob H annah 's " cu ss words," I decided to ca n Mr. Dixo n and find ou t what cuss words had offended him. He said that I had used the words "pissed off" during the interview with Larry Mai ers. I a po logi ze to him and to anyone else who may have been offended by this statement. . Now, in regards to the Larry "What's H is Nam e" portion , his name, for your informa tio n, is Larry Mai ers. Larry has been a fan and participant of motorcycling events for 25 years . For 15 of those years he has worked very closely with th e AMA, professio na l motorcycl e rac-" ers , a ma teu r motorcycle racers, and the television indus try as wen. H e has been one o f th e major con trib uting factors to the growth of th e motorcycle ind ustry over th e last decad e. In addi tio n to my concern with Larry, I also have so me prob lems wit h Mr. Dixon 's ani tud e toward th e AMA. I rea lize they ar e not perfect. but I don't see any o ther sanctioning body do ing a nything fo r the advancement of the overall sport. My final comments involve th e critical sta teme nts a bo ut th e crowd. I' ve been a ttending Nationals for 12 years, a nd I th ough t th e crowd was one of the bes t behaved and mos t supportive I' ve seen . After a ll , this is America. We can drink a beer a nd have a good time, can't we? BOB HANNAH Ketchum , ID Future greatest ever I wanted to commend yo u on head lining the fact that Rick John son now ho lds the AMA record for MXlSupercross ti tles at seven. Often these facts a re over looked in motorspo rts, com pared ' to th e treme ndous a tte nt io n they are give n in the " ma jor" spo rts. A poin t o f fact: J ohnson 's seventh ti tle not on ly exceeds (Bob) H annah's six, bu t also (Broc) Glover's six. H ad th e AMA follow ed it s ru les in th e 1985 Supercross fin al e, G lover wo u ld have seven. On th e o ther hand, had H annah not pulled over in '77, Gl over would have only five. For that matter , co nside ring his domination the past two yea r s, J ohnson could easi ly h ave nine, barring unt imel y injuries and mechanical problems. But, of cou rse, tha t ' s racing. However, that's not the point of this letter, Hannah has been correctly a n d . deservedl y called America's winningest MXer. But Johnson is ra p idly moving in on that record, a lso. By m y calculations, H annah has 63 AMA wins, while Johnson has 52. If Insport a nd MTEG Su percrosses ar e included, and th ey should be, H annah leads J ohnson, 64 to 56. Johnson has also been o n three Motocross de s Nations winning teams, plus won th e '86 U.S . 500 GP, and th e '87 and '88 U.S. 250 GPs. Add to th at severa l overseas wins like the P ari s Super cross a n d World Series o f Motocross. A truly in credibl e record. . H a ts o ff to the future grea tes t MXer ever, maybe even in th e world. LARRY JOHNSON Publ icit y Director SRAC Bo ulder, CO Gunny's thanks Another ISD E has passed and once ag ain we say, " Maybe nex t year." First off. let me say that no fa ult can be found with the U.S. effort o n the part of the riders or support crew. We just have bad luck. A broken cha in for Drew Smi th in a special test and a severe knee injury to Kurt Hough , both on t he t h ird day, spe lled disaster for the Trophy and ' J unior Trophy teams. and th e Europeans still beat us in the special tests. We used to say we needed " motocross ski ns." Yes we do , b ut o ur riders m us t practice on th e sides of gra ssy, roc ky h ill s. The Euro's use hill y, tech nical courses so we must ' focus our skills in th at d irecti on because o ur trai l pace is fin e-. Now on to my special than k yous to the people who hel p so m uch wit h support of the U.6. team : Mark Johnson a nd Kawasa ki Team Green who he lped tremen dousl y by providing a container to sh ip th e motorcycles and supplies overseas which resulted in a grea t savings from the past; product sponsors Bell H el mets, Jeff Fredette Racing Produ cts, O ffRoad Products, Acerbis, Bevo Forte and Scott Goggles, Bel-Ray O il s, a nd Metzeler Tires . T ha nks a lso to Malcolm Smith P roducts. O ' Neal , Smith and J ones Goggles, Arai a nd Shoei He lmets, a n d H all m an Racin g. Thanks to the following AMA ' clubs that mad e donations to the ISDE Support Fu nd : Desert M.C ., We stern Kent uck y T rail R id er s, Checkpoint M.C., Central Oh io Competition R iders, Merced Di rt Riders, a nd Mt. Ba ker M.e. Thanks also 10 the unnam ed individual s a nd .clu bs who donat ed funds to th e riders to off-set the ir cos ts. Now to the spec ia l people who I ca n o n eac h year. These peop le are specia l because year a fter year th ey use th eir vaca tio n time and money to help the U .S. team. Many pe ople say, " Wen, th ey're go ing to Eu rope, a ren' t th ey?" Guess how much you see wh en you're trying to find you r chec kpoi n t in th e dark or stay ing a t the Pare Ferme from dawn to dusk. So , a big thank you to: Wayne H inman, J erry Val en cia, Dick and Bunny Lenover , Su e Blackburn, Don and Carol yn H ough, Reed Nordin, Mark J ohnson, Pam ela Dunn, Hope Freem an, Bill Daniel, Rich ard Christian , Chuck Mason. Ed Mills, Alan Barker, Loretta Tucker , Jill Burleson, Melinda Ansel , Ted Lytle, Jim Harris, Bill and Beverl y Peiser, Alan and Karen Drafs, T im Zierman, Chuck Amlaw, Norm and Lan Kuba, Donny Lusk, Meldon Mull, Paul and Jean e Ni el son, Doug and Ty Lathrop, Dal e Stegan, Woody Bramlett, Kerrie Brokaw, Bru ce Wakely, Kathy Bertram, Mark Denton, and Ken, Brenda and Taz Harvey, and Ted, Evel yn , Joe and Penn y Noviciki. Thanks a lso to Cycle News, Dirt Rider, Cycle World and Dirt Bike for their press co verage. I tried not to forget anyone this year, and if I did I apologize because everyone was super. Thanks to the parents, wives a nd friends of th e riders who gave up specia liza tion and helped the whole team. Thank yo u aga in. I hope to see you all next year. RICK " G U NN Y" CLAYPOOLE 29 Palms, CA Cl ayp oole is a Mar in e Co rps gunnery sergeant and he, lik e m any of th ose he mentione d, uses h is vacation tim e to help the U.S. team at the Six Days. Th is year "Gunny" was manager of the American team . . . Editor. Complete and accurate Your coverage of the Steamboat Spri ngs race weekend was co mplete a nd accurate for AH RMA's road race and the motocross. as usual. H owever, I'd like to give credi t to a few peop le who wou ld n't ca ll at ten tion to themselves: Mac Maca ffee, who has organized the mo tocross for four years nearl y by hi mself , a nd Bob H am m o n s of t he Steam boa t Chamb er of Co m m erce, wh o arranged things locall y wi th Nick Rose. Mac a nd Bob both sold tickets a n da y Sunday in th e co ld ra in . Finally, Ch uc k ' Gilchrest, presiden t o f th e Mountain Roadracing Associa tio n, helped orga n ize j us t abo ut everyth ing, and even rode hi s MTI 25 in the a n-comers race. T hey 're race troopers, and we'd like to say so. GA RY L. WI N N , Ph.D. Executive Director . AH RMA, Ltd. Marengo,OH It sucked A few weeks ago I was in Stea mboat Spri ngs , Co lorado, to a ttend th e historic motorcycle races (AH RM A and CVRG ). Fo r two days, we saw so me great ma ch ines, a nd so me fantastic racing. In fact, I tho ugh t the meet was one of th e best I' ve ever atten ded. T he n I rea d your Steam boat Springs road racing coverage in your most recent issue , a nd I'm here to tell you it sucked ! All I rea d was Dave Roper this , and Dave Roper th a t. I'v e met .Dave, a nd he 's a ni ce guy, a grea t race r, a nd just abo ut anythi ng else yo u co uld think of, bu t let 's give cred it wh ere cred it is due. U ndo u b ted ly, th e best two race s o f th e da y were the 350 GP a nd 750 Sp ortsman . .. pe riod ! P.L. HAMMOND Pl easanton, CA Mr. Hammond contin ued on to tell us that northern California riders (Continued on pag e 51)

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