Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Wind (Co nt inued from page 2) a l6-rider limit. For more information, ca ll Brant a t 714/646-0560. Assistant U.S . At t o rney Da vi d Katz announced in Lo s Angeles t hat Sam uel Filippo and Robert Ja mes Ma t t hews have b e en . charged in a federa l gran d jury ind ic t m ent and face 1 6 cou nts of mail fraud fo r conduct ing a bogus market stud y. Reade rs m ig ht recall that National Marketing. a Ve n ice. Ca liforn ia-based fi rm . promised to deliver a " re vo lut io nary new (GT-2 5 0) motorcycle fo r testing " for less than $400 w h ich was sa id to be for sh ipp ing charges. According to Katz. of approximately 4000 people who re s po n d e d to the mail solicitation. about 3000 received nothing and about 1000 received a moped valued at less than $150. Filippo. 42. and Matthews. 40. are fugitives. If convicted for allegedly b ~lking more than 4000 people out of $1 million. the pair would face up to $4 m illion in fines and 80 yea rs in jail. MARRI ED : Camel Pro Ser ies competitor Rand y Tex te r a nd Ki m Fitzc harles in Po ttsto wn , Pennsylvan ia , Novem ber 26; Randy, Kim and th eir 15-m onth-ol d son Co ry wi ll be maki ng- their home in New Provide nce , Pen ns ylva n ia. Be ta w ill fie ld it s stro ngest t e a m ever in the 1 9 8 9 World Cha m p ionsh ip O bs erve d Tr ia ls Series. with five of the world's top 10 rid ers c o n t est ing the s eries. e ach riding the n ew Be ta TR34 Ca m pionato. He adi ng t he Beta t e a m will be Spa n ia rd J o rd i Tarres, the 1 9 8 7 Worl d C ha m p io n a n d runner -up in 1 9 88 . Rejoining Ta rre s will be Frenchman Phillipe Be rla t ie r. It alian Renato C h ia berto. and Finn Peter Jahn . The t e a m's new c o m er is Fre nchman Thierry Gi rard. The World C hamp io nsh ip Observed Trials Series will return tothe U.S . with a round t o be held in Winchester. Tennessee. on May 29 . The fo llowing weekend there will be a Canadian Jack Mercer: Farewell To A Friend By Bill Bagnall It was th e Monday night before T hanksg iving. T he telephone ra ng. It was a tearful Eddy Mercer, telling me that her beloved husband Jack had died the day before, at the age of 71. H e h ad finally lost his long battle with cancer. round on June 4 which will be h el d near Niagara Falls. T he T rack Riders Associatio n has annou nced its 1989 schedule of open track days at Rosam on d , California's Willow Spri ngs Intern a tio na l Raceway. T he dates are March 31, May 19, June 26, July 14, September 29 and November 3. Cost is 75 per day pre-entry, and 90 post-entry. For more information, contact Renard Fiscus at T R A, P .O . . Bo x 9551, Canoga Park, CA 9 1309, 818/3623029. T he AMA -sa nc t io ned . A c t io n Sports Promot io ns - p ro m oted in d o o r MX double header sc h eduled for the Hu nt ington Civic Center in Huntington . West Virgin ia. on January 7 -8 has been rescheduled and w ill t ake p lace the fo llowing weeke nd. J an ua ry 14-15 . . . . DEPARTING: T ad O kano, assis ta nt to th e vice pr esident of engi neering for Yamaha Motor Corp., is returnin g to Japan after spe ndi ng eig h t years in the U.S. wh ere he worked closely wi th both the raci ng a nd rnoto rspor ts d epa rtm en ts at Yama ha, ass is ting in developing ma ny of th e progra ms in effect today; Okano w i ll be in vol ved III the management of Ya m ah a 's worldwide motors ports p rogram ; Okano wi ll be repl aced by T. Watanabe, formerly of th e motorsports depart. rneru o f Yamaha Mo tor Corp. of Japan. AM A Nationa l Hare & Hound Cham pi o n Da n Smith has swit che d fr om Husq va rn a to KTM for th e 1989 season . Smith. who rode Husqvarnas under support or fa ctory rid e pro g rams for the pa st ei ght yea rs. w ill c o m pe t e in the Hare & Ho u n d a nd Be s t in the Des ert Series. Ba ja races a n d s e lected AMA Dist rict 3 7 events fo r KTM . T he AMA's Government Relat io ns Depa rtment has released its u pda ted i nfo rma t io na l b o okl e ts o n ho w mot orcycli sts ca n ge t in vol ved in th e political p rocess. The three p ub lications, H ow to Com mun icat e with Eddy and I started to exchange co nve rsatio n, reca ll ing som e o f th e j o yful tim es . we h a d a ll sh a re d together, which dat ed bac k well over 30 years. Short ly, we were bo th la ughing. J ack had made us laugh. He was like th at, with a great sense of h um or - mo torcycl ing 's co urt jester, if you will - a nd he left us la ugh,i ng , even th ough tearfully. " Hones t J ohn" was one of hi s n ickn ames d u ring his many years in the motorcycle tra de. A later, m ore sui ta b le n icknam e was " H a p p y J ack ." An d he certainly lived up to it. J ack a nd I first met a t Daytona in 1949. In add itio n to our love of motorcycling, we were both avi d p hotogra p he rs. With o ur mutual dual interests, we had a lot to talk abo u t, a nd became friends immedi at ely - a friendship th at wa s to last a lmost 40 year s. Duri ng mos t of th e n ext two decades Jack was a fie ld representative for T he T ri umph Corporation, while I was edito r of Mo torcyclist magazin e. Jac k was a ' freq u e n t co n tribu tor, with words and p ix , to the magazine. And he was never short on words, either on the written page or verbally: H e was a prolifi c writer. His letters to famil y members and l th e G overnment, Motorcycli sts Pol itical Actio n Handbook a nd Motorcyclis ts Guide to Political Acti on Com mi ttees co nta in spec ific information o n sim p le lobbyin g tech n iques, orga ni zing voter reg istra tio n dr ives and general polit ica l in volvement skills. T he booklets arc avai lable for 2 each or a ll three for $5 by contacting Tracey Po well , Legislative Coordinator; AMA, Government Relations Dept., P.O. Box 6114. Westervi lle, O H 4308 1-6 114. Cycle News In c . ha s ceased publica ti on of A TV News. the b iweekly all-t e rrai n ve h icle n e w s paper. The January 5 issue wh ich w as m ail e d to subsc ribers on Decem ber 15 was the final issue. A T V N e w s subscribers will re c eive Cycle News for the remainde r of the is s u e s due in t heir s ubscription period. Dou ble yo ur p leasure an d double your fun is what th e folks a t Un adill a Va lley Spo rts Center in New Berlin, Ne w Yor k, a re su ggesting you do by atten di n g bo th the July 8-9 Unadi lla 250cc MX Grand Prix a nd th e O ct ob e r 15 U na d i ll a N ati ona l C ha mpio ns hi p 125 / 500cc MX. Unad illa 's Ward Robi nson reco mmen ds th at fans plann in g on a tte n ding either o r bo th of th e events, particu larly in the case o f th e GP , make travel a n d lod g in g pl ans as soon as poss ible as there a re mari y other events taking pl a ce in th e central New York State area that weekend. For more informa tion , and a ' flyer, write to: U nadilla Valley Sport Center, P.O . Box 5119, Edmeston, ,y 13335, or call Leatherstocking Co., toll-free at 800/233-8778. NAMED : KMX D ist rib ut ing as motocro s s t ire distribu to r a n d racing s ervic e s orga n ization by Kayo Corporation. sole marketing agents f or Yoko h a m a moto rc yc le t ires in the U.S .; KMX w ill offer tracksid e s e rvi c e s at more tha n 70 Nat io nal and reg ional MX and end u ro events during the ' 8 9 season . provid ing competitors with sales. techn ica l assistance and inst all a t io n services; for more information. contact: KMX Distributing. 9571 Rt. 30. Irwin. PA or frie nds a re cl assics. Hi s sty le would be to type th e letter to o ne person - for exam p le, his daughter Bonnie in H ermosa Beach , Californ ia _ .and the n send co p ies of same to whomever else was m entioned in the letter, wh ich usu all y inv olved four or five cop ies a lso being di st rib- . uted, Even though eac h reci p ient was primarily co ncerned a bo u t th e letter's portion that pertai ned to him, one cou ldn't help but deve lop an overview of what was goingon with the Mercer Tri be. It should be n ot ed that J ack 's writings were humo rous. H ad he no t been so ro ma ntica lly in volved in th e wonder ful world of motorcycling, I'd bet tha t he co u ld have become a very popular nationall y synd ica ted new spa per co lu m n ist - and not just o n a humorous vein. Jack and Edd y's interests ra n wide and deep. They wer e eq ually comfortable ta lking a bo u t America 's ear ly da y settlers, religions of th e wo rld, the current status of our nation 's economy, or a lmost any su bject that ca m e to m in d - in cluding th e motorcycl e market. I believe that it was th e lat e Will Rogers who stated that he never met a man that he didn 't like. The same could be said for J ack Mercer - in both direc tio ns : H e lik ed everybody, I'm sure that everybody whom he met ., 15642. 800 /228-5765 or 412/ 863-9070. MOVED: Storz Per formance, to a larger facility ab out two blocks from it s old location; new address is 1445 Donlon St., No . 18, Ventura, CA 93003, sa me phone n umber , 805/654 8816. Jerry Griff ith /S uperTrapp Racin g- s p o ns o re d d irt t ra c ke r Tricia Lyons of O regon C ity. Oregon. has relocated to California for an int e ns e winter training program. Ms. Lyons will be rid ing short track at G riff ith's ranch with the like s of Doug Chandler and J immy Filice. Her training will also cons ist of MX sessions and workouts on Nautilus equipment. Lyons will be rid ing Griffith-prepared Hondas at selected Camel Pro mile races this year and additional financial sponsors are currently being sought. Interested parties can contact Kerry Bryant at SuperTrapp Industries USA. 916 /372-5000 . BORN: Syd ney Allison Reinen , so n o f Bob Reinen , the ge nera l m anager of California 's Simi Valley Honda, and wife Bell , in Burbank, Californ ia , December 3. CORRECTION I: In our January 4 is s ue we inadvertently ran the wrong Bell He lmets ad . We were to have run a Bell Moto-4 ad but ins t e a d a Bell M -2 ad offering a special price was run; the specia l p rice was dropped o n Ju ly 15. 1988; the correct suggested ret ail p rice of a Bell M-2 helm et is $224.95 . CO RRECTION II: In a "thank you" ad pl aced by Dan n y Robert s in o ur J anuary 4 issue, two of h is major sponsors were incorrectly listed. The ad shou ld have given credit to Pro Pad a nd La rsen Paintin g. CORRECTION III : The lo g o of Ipone Lubricants was inadvertently left out of the WorldSports South Florida Winter AMA MX Series ad which ran in our January 4 issue. (Co n tinued to page 47) lik ed him. They co u ldn ' t help but be initially fascinat ed by his wit and sparkle. He had a way of verball y blending into a group, a n d soon he was th e center of a tte ntio n , for he was en joyab le listen in g. There wer e times when we hadn 't seen eac h o the r for a year or two , a n d J ack had a knack of p ickin g u p th e co nversa tio n abo u t where we'd left off, eithe r from the last vis it or letter. J ack was n' t much for p hone ca lls, as he enjoyed writing. H e accused us West Co asters of being too lazy to wr ite, op ting for pi cking up th e p hone. I told him that I enjoyed both means o f com m u n ication, and th ere were times wh en each method seemed a p p ro p ria te and welcome. And now , with Jack gone, we'll be deprived of reading hi s colorful and welcome letters, and of hearing that spark ling a nd distinctive voice and ch u ckle. Wh at a gr eat pl easure it was to hav e known this man as a friend for so ma ny , and yet so few, years . Eddy told me th at J ack 's ashes will be sca ttered on th eir island, Carr Island on a New Engla nd lake, next sum mer. I to ld her that I' d be th ere. Jack a lways wanted me to visi t their island. I' m sorry that I did n 't do it sooner. Bu t it'll be a festi ve occasion. Jack wo u ld have wanted it th a t way .

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