Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

...... America's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXVI Sha ro n Clayton. Pu bl isher Mi ke Klin ger . Co m p tmllt'T Sk ip J ohnson . Associate Pu blishnl Na liona l S alt's M anagn Jack Man gu s, Associate Pu bluht:,1Editor Rh eba Sm i th . Circu lation Ma ntlg" Ca ro li ne: Gc-ndry, £"ecutivt Surt'tary to the Pu bl ish er Editoria l J ack Man gu s. Ed itor Kit Pal mer , Associate Editor Paul Ca r rut hers, Associate Edi tor Na te Rauba. Associau Edi to r Brian Canerson . As socia te Editor Ken FauJ; ht. Auistant E.dito r Edwina Man gu s. Ca[mdar Editor Advertising Skip J ohnson. Na t'! Sale s M anng f'r Mi ke Church. S enior Sal es Manager Terry Pran. Senior Salt's Mallagn Mark Thome. Wt'stt'tn Sa les .\tanagt'T Ron Davidson. Westt'rn Sales ManagtT Mark Mitdu:lI. Eastern S ales Managt'r l1UlIO . IS R. Comer. Eastern Sa les M an agt'T Debbi e weller. Wt'Stt'm Ad Coordinator Carla Borden. Eastern Ad Coa rdi na tg T Graphics a nd Production Mal co lm Wilson . Product ion Managn Dennis G reene. La b. T ech , S13(" G U(' M . Graph ic Arust ('y Jimmie O·Dd!. G rap hi c Ar tist Mandy Lon . GraphiC Art ist Michad G rus zka, G rap h ic Ar ti.it Carol yn Branham. T yp est"ttt'1 Arirnnr- T ehas, T ypt'.'t' u t'1' Ac co unt ing / Da ta Processing Donna Bryan. 'A ecls R eceivable Coordinaun Geneva Repass, A uijtant Fran Ha mwey, Cudit C ircul a t ion' Sarah Ta ylor . As.sijtant Alma Angu ia no . Assistant Ma nta Adams, A.'iS istant Herlane Rich mo nd. As.sistanl Carol Sca n ne ll. Assistan t .... 1 Godspeed, Pappy On Monday, February I, motorcycling lost a friend and a true representative of our sport - j.C. "Pappy" Hoe l, Pappy wa s . the founder of the Sturgis Blackhills Rally in 1939, and was at the forefront of the event every year since. Pappy was the Indian dealer in Sturgis when I was ra cing and if we . needed a place to work on our "hated" Harleys, old Pappy would let us do the needed work inside his shop. Pappy and I were co-fo unders of the White Plate Flat Trackers Association in 1980, but he was th e driving force that made it go a nd grow. It was Pappy who got the beautiful monument built in Sturgis to honor th e dirt track racers from back in th e 30's to the pres ent da y racers. Pappy wrote in th e pr elude: A go ld star in front of th e nam e indicates it is o ne of th ose grand fellows wh o have gone before us to " that beautiful land of th e big track wh ere the groove is 20feet wide, wh ere there is no dust or rain o uts , no fouled pi ugs on th e starti ng lin e, and the motor always starts with a' short IO-foot push." Well , Pappy is finally riding that track, no doubt on an In dian bigbase Scout and sm ili ng agai n. Godspeed, Pappy. We'll miss you at Sturgis thi s year. ALB URKE Ri chfi eld , MN Circulation ' Development Ron Dav idson. Mana1{t'1' Wa nt Ads J oa n Ru ssian. Want .A d Salt' s Serv ice and Su ppo rt Chris Aitcheson. H t'adq U4T tt'Tj llruptionist Leo nard H err in g. Service and S up por t Na tio na l Hea dq ua rters 2201 Cherrv Ave.• Lon g Beach. CA 90806 . P.O . Box 198 . Lung Beach . CA 9080 1·0498 (2 13) 427-7133: 213/63f>88H. FAX (2 13) 427·66"5 Eastern Off ice -4190 First Ave.. Tucker , GA . 30084 ; mailing address P.O. Bo x 80r). T ucker . G A 300li.Ij·OB05. (404) 931-7850. FAX (404) 93·1-3 112 Cyc le News (USPS 141·540) is p ub lished. w("("kly excep t the £irst a nd 1;!>t week or th e cale n da r I year for $50.00 pe r year by Cycle News, Inc.. 2-<>0 1 Olerry Avenue. Lo ng Beach . CA 90806. Second class postage pa id at Lo ng Beach . CA . and addiuonat ma ili nJi: of fices. POSTMASTER: S end form 3679 to Cycle News . P.O . Box 498 . long Beech. CA 90801 -0 4 9 8 . . To determine th e ex pirati o n da te of yo ur s ubscripti o n. check th e four numbers on th e firlt line of yo ur address la be l. The first two d igit a ind icate t he laat iss ue num be r you·1I receive a nd the last two characte rs indicate the year of t he la st i_sue. Subscript ion ra tes: RaI('S fo r the United States an d iu po ssessions (or o ne year , (SO· LsSUt'S ), $50.00; two years ( 100 Issu ('5). 195.00; six months, . (25 iSliUt'S). $26.00; Iria l sub (15 issu es ), 119.00. Canada and For eign . o ne-year (50 issues ). $90.00: two years ( 100 hsun), $175.00 : si x months (25 issues ). 145.00: tr ia l sub ( 15 issues }, $38.00. Cycle New s wel com es unso ticu ed editorial ma teria l includ in g stories. CArtoons. ph ot os. etc. S uc h mat erial . if pub lish ed . becomes th e excl usive propert y of CycleNews. Suc h accepted mat er ial is su bject to revi sion as is necessa ry in . the sui t' discretion o f Cycle Ne ws. Unsolicited mat erial wh ich is n ot used 'will be ret u rned if . acrom pa nled by a se lf addressed stamped enve lope. All u n sol icited m a teri al will be' han dled wit h reaso nable ca re, ho wever , Cvcle News assu mes no rnpons ibilitr for th e sa(('IY. le ss or da mage 10 such ma teria . Reprinting in wh ol e o r pa rt o nly ' b y pe rm issi o n of rhe . p u b lis her. Ad ven isin g rat es a n d circu la tio n mfor m at ion will be sent u pon req uest. See S.R .D .S. WI BPA "if AUDITED CIRCULATION Copyright 8 Cycle News. Inc. 1989. Tr.dem.rk Cycle News regiatered U.S . Pa tent Off ice. All rights reserved . Show Me State scramblin ' On j anuary 14'the Missouri Har e Scr ambl es Champi onship Seri es (MO HSCS) held its 1988 Awards Banquet. Class winners were pres en ted tro phi es as well as unique Malcolm Smith Racin g swea tshi rts designed specifically for the MOHSC by Kinney j ones of MS Racing. All first pl ace winners also received a tire from Dunlop, th anks to factory representat ive Frank Stac y. O ther series sponsors, including Bevo Forte of Scott USA, Kevin Donnell y of Shoei, Mr. Motorcycle, j&W Cycles, St. Louis H o n da and Surdyke Yamah a , mad e it possibl e for th e 92 riders in attendance to eac h" take home a prize. Two mountain bikes , donated by MS Racing and Scott USA, were also raffled off. The banquet was a success but it wou ld not have been possible had it not been for th e interest and gen erosity of our sponsors. And without th e hard work of our 13 race promoters, th ere wou ld not have been on e of the finest hare scrambles series in the country. As chairman of th e MOHSCS for th e fourth consecutive year , I wou ld like to again sa y thanks to th e sponsors , promoters and participants for a successful '88. As prep arations are u nder way for th e '89 racing season, I invite each of you to find out for yourself wha t a great hare scrambles series Missouri has to offer. Our final . race of the year (October 22) is also the final round of the AMA Na tional Ch ampionship Hare Scrambles Series. I hope to see you this season I MARKGR UM KE Chairman, MOHSCS St. Louis, MO Trail rider input sought As part of our ongoing review of the use plan for the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, the forest planners are lookin g for input on th e number of potential tra il rider users in the George Washington. The more potential users that we can document, the greater mi leage of trails we can get into the p lan. We als o crea te po litical strength against groups that would like to see trail ride rs shu t out of the Na tio n al Forest. Wh en the initial plan was developed, which resulted in a total a llotme nt of 240 miles for trail riding, there was very litt le organized input from trail riders. We now have an op port u n ity to possibly establish a need for even more mileage if all the trail riders (two, th ree and fourwhee l) in Virginia respo nd. This show of demand for use is so very important to push th e Forest Service forward in wo rking to acco mmo da te us, especiall y in th e face of opposition from conserva tio n grou ps. Send your reply, as a n indi vid ual or club (listing the size of your members h ip) to : David Plunkett , Forest Planner, Geor ge Washington Nationa l 'Forest, 210 Federal Building, H arri sonburg, VA 22801. Also, please send me a co py of your respo nse. We want to keep a record of the inp ut to insure that a ll of it is used in the planning process. DAVID NEES Washington Trailrider Committee 632 Grand St. H erndon, VA 22070 Safety at Sears Point T he death of any racer causes sadness and anger. When th e person is as lo ved and respe cted as Russ Pa ulk , th ese emo tio n s run even hi gher. The fingers pointing at Sears Poin t and its management, however, are based on misco ncep tions and in correct information. The followin g are some related facts. In 1983 a representative of the john Woo Memoria l Safety Project (jWMSP ) spoke with Sears Point management about safety improvements. They were not receptive. The m an agement has ch a n ged three times since then. The present ma nagement is now worki ng wit h the Ameri can Federa tio n of Motorcyclists to make Sears Point a safer race tra ck. When they too k control of Sear s all they knew is that motorcycles had raced there for years. T hey assu med, and rightly so, that if safety was an issu e the AFM and/or AMA wou ld tell th em and work with them to improve it. In 1985 the j WMSP representative/ AFM racer was ejected from Sears Point beca use he chose to argue with a security person ra ther th an follow a simple request in the pi t area. The trac k owner/manager was called. T he rep /racer continued to argue an d exchange curses with the owner until he was rem oved from the property. I witnessed most of th is; I was a frien d of the rep / racer and was a member of th e j WMSP at the tim e. While the track owner was th e sam e person who in 1983 had rejected the proposed improvements, it was clear that the rep/racer's lac k of cooperation and inability to contro his temper were the on ly reasons for him being banned from th e track. Wh en th e managem ent cha nged the following year he was allo wed back and nothing was held aga inst him by the new team. Russ did no t cras h in turn eigh - wh ere the jWMSP proposed exten sive changes. H e highsid ed for unknown reasons in a nearl y strai gh t portion of the track between turns seven and eight. No one that I know of can recall an yone else who has ever fall en there. The changes that were proposed in 1983 didn't include that section of the track. The loss of R uss Paulk was tragic The resulting concl usions and accu sa tions were u nfair toward the pres ent management of Sears Po int who have proven themselves willing to work to make it a safer race track for mo torcycles. • J O E MONTOYA President, AFM North Oakland, CA Fast rep 's thanks '" I wou ld like to take this opportunity to th ank a lot of people wh o have a) su ppo rted me, b) put up with me, c) don e bo th of the above during my term as rider representative on the AMA Dirt Track Advisory Board for th e past four years. My term expired at the end of 1988. First, I wo u ld like to th ank all of the riders wh o had th e confidence in me to elect me rider representative. I trie d to do what I though t was best for everybody, but as you all know it's impossible to p lease everybody all the tim e. Second, I would like to thank thos e in volved at the AMA for giving me the cha nce to be involved, starting with th e pro staff and including the Board of Trustees and everyone ba ck at Westerville. Finally, I would like to give- a specia l thanks to th e other advisory board members for putting up wi th me. It reall y has been my pl easur e to work with all of you. Being rider rep has been both work and fun at th e same time, but mos t of all it has taught me a great deal abo u t working with people, tryi ng to see both sides of a problem , and a little bit about politics and diploma cy. Certainly not what I expected wh en I accepted th e posi tion. Aga in, thanks . to ever yo ne involved. Good luck to all and I' ll be seein g you in '89. RONNIE JONES Okla ho ma City, O K jones, Nationa l Nu mber 16, has finished in the top 10 in the last four AMA Grand National Championship Series. T he 28-year-old rider has won "five Na tionals - th e Houston Short T rack and Santa Fe TT in 1980, the Ascot H alf Mi le in 1985, the Lima Half Mi le in 1986 and the Midd letown H alf Mile in 1987. His best N ational performance in '88 was a third pla ce finis h in the Hagerstown Half Mi le. H e finishe d sixth in th e '88 Grand National Championship Series and 10th in the '88 Cam el Pro Series . . . 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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