Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

St. Lukes Hospital in Boise, Ida ho, on June 16. He is walking but has to wear a neck brace for at least six weeks. ~Y'P~'P~ Wf~LfY (Con tinued from page 1) S avings, 6 131 W. Center si.. Milwaukee, WI 53210. Donated items are a lso needed for the auction . For more information, contact Gordon Lunde (evenings) at 414/871 -5682. ACQUIRE D: Sperex/VHT Corporation, by the PJ H Group wh ich is headed by Ch airm an of the Board P.J . Har vey and based in Scottsda le, Arizona; Sperex / VHT Co rpo rat io n manufactures VHT brand hightemperat ure paints and other specia lized coatings; PJ H Group companies include PJI which makes lubrican ts, oi ls and che micals excl usively for the motorcycle and sma ll engi ne spo rts markets. On June 14, Texas Governor William P. Clements, Jr. s igned into law legis lat io n t hat will give motorcycle ride r education in Texas a strong boost forward . SB589, sponsored by Senator Steve Carriker, provides funding to support the motorcycle safety and rider training program. The program, which is administered by the Texas Department of Public Safety, makes t he Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Motorcycle RiderCo urse wide ly ava ilable throughout the state. The new legislation is expected to produce more than $650,000 in additional revenue for the program. The Motorcycle Safety Foundati on (MSF) has won the right to fly the red , whi te an d blue ' C-Flag , th e symbol of the Pr esid ent's Cit ation Program for Pr ivat e . Sector Initiatives. The flag , which bears the sloga n " We Can - We Care," recogn izes ou tstanding co ntrib u ti ons to the Ame rica n sp iri t o f volunteerism a n d co m m u n i ty acti on . T he MSF qualified for the C-Flag becaus e of its public service ads and music video featuring the ' rock group Wi,lrrant. This program will now be considered for the top 100 Private Sector Ini tiatives awards and ci ta tio ns to be presented by President George Bush ill th e White House in July. 62 Dirt track racing and more d irt track racing is the name of the game in Illinois in m id-July. On Sunday, July 9 , the AMA National Championship Amateur Half Mile will be held at Henry. The National Amateur Short Track will take place the following Wednesday, . July 12, at Peoria Speedway, and on Saturday, July 15, the National Amateur TT will take place at the famous Peoria TT track. The fo llowing day, Sunday, July 16, the Camel Pro Springfield Mile, which was ra ined out ove r Memo rial Day weekend, w ill t ak e place at the Illino is State Fai rg ro und s w hich is les s than 100 m ile s fr om Peoria: If you stick around a week you can also catch the Camel Pro DuQuoin Mile the fo llowing Sunday, July 23. R ELO CAT ED : Mo ose Raci ng, manufactu rer of enduro conversio n accessories, to 2595 N. Highway 67 .(P.O. Box 412), Sedalia, CO 80135, 800/MOOSE-IT, Fax: 303/797-2722. Ph il Flack Rac in g Services (PFRS) has announced a contingency award program for Novice class road racers part icipating in AMA/CCS Unl im ited Heavyweight and Middleweight Production and WERA A,B and C Production c lasses a t Daytona International Speedway, Myrtle Beach Speedway, North Carolina Speedway, Road Atla nta, Roebling Road Raceway and Talladega Grand Prix Raceway. The program requires use of Dunlop K591 tires purchased from PFRS. Credit certificates good for a ny products sold by PFRS will be awarded as follows: $75 for a first place fin ish, $50 for second; and $25 for third. For more information , call 704/252-9897. T wo-time Grand National Cham pion Gary Nix on reports tha t he spo ke to Bubb a Sho bert last week via ph on e. " He sounded great, considering what he's been th rough," said Nixon. " He told me Wayne Rainey and his wife had flown bac k from Euro pe to visit an d they had played go lf toge ther." Sho bert is cont in u ing a heavy schedu le of the rapy, reha bilitating himself from the serio us in juries he suffered in the pos t-race accident at the U.S. G P at Laguna Seca Raceway on April 16. Defending National Hare Scramble Champion Tony Hendon has s igned with ATK to r ide the remain ing Nationa l Hare Scramble Series events. Bill Woolman will be Hendon's mechanic, Hendon broke his leg just before the opening round of the series in January and will make his first appearance of the year at the Idaho National in Ketchum, Idaho, July 2 . Team Green 's Larry Roeseler is on the road to recovery after compressing three ' vertabrae (T -4, T -5, T -7 vertabrae) in the middle of hi s back, fracturing a vertab ra (C-6) in hi s .neck, tear ing ligm ents in hi s ribs and breaking a thumb at the Nat ional Reliability T ria ls Series ISDE FourDay Qual ifier in Idaho City, Idah o, June I I. Roeseler was released from Alt ho ugh a ll the riders for the U.S. Tro p hy team have not yet been selected for the IS D E in Fra nc e this S eptember, it is 'know n t ha t Ro ese le r w ill make the team if he hea ls in ti m e . Roeseler fe e ls he w ill be rea dy to go. "I just have to make s u re that all the injuries heal and t hat I don 't move too quickly , " Roese le r tol d Papa . " I' m go ing to play it by ear. Im ight not be able t o ride right now, but I should be able t o tra in and do ' other act ivit ies t o get myself ready ." Roeseler is a lso espected t o ride in the 80cc cl as s at the Six Days. " I t hink it ' s a great id ea . We're going to start with a Kawa-· saki KX125 chassis, using a KX80 moto r, and build it as light as pos sible . " Bob Barnard, the ma n behind the Australian Grand Pri x, is the hot tip for a scena rio that may never happen , as political ferm en t with in G P road raci ng seeks a fresh power str ucture to solve the curre nt FIM/ IRTA/ ROP A im passe. His Phillip ' Island, Aus tra l ia, eve n t was so ' well organize d tha t Ba rn ard ear ne d instant respect in GP circles, witho ut (so far) making any enem ies, and hi s visit to th e G erman GP a t th e Hocken hei mring triggered a gr owing body of op in ion that would like to see him take over the managem ent of the sport. Barn ard is a par ticu larly attractive alternative to the muchfeared Sven ga li of F- l car racing, Bernie Eccles tone. Among Barnard's supporters is Ke nny Roberts, who feels the time is ripe for a fresh World Seriest y p e of in iti a t iv e; wh ile IRTA genera l secretary Mike Trimby, although stopping short of supporting Barnard, said in Yugoslavia : "What the sport needs is a dictator to control every aspect of it, and to makedecisions qu ickly." Barnard, wh o has already added the proposed Malaysia n G P to his portfol io, was in Germ an y for other reasons, but sp oke to reporters abo u t th e p ossib il it y. " T his is a grea t sport," he said. " But it's in a rea l mess. It needs a com mercia l bod y to ma ke the comme rcia l decision s, in the interests of the spon sors and TV coverage." T h is would cover matters in cl udi n g the set ti ng o f th e calendar," he added, "And the FIM sho uld n ot fea r lo si n g p ower , beca use they would still be able to make sporting decisio ns." Barnard 's name was put forward by IRTA to take over the running of t he unpopu lar U.S. GP at laguna Seca, but the existing organizers, SCRAMP, rejected that idea. SCRAMP's Lee Moselle and Bo Berowsusky were a lso in .G e rmany, along w ith Bill Amick ofthe AMA. . Porsche may regret the decision to lend four of the top 500cc G P riders a quartet of thei r lat est 9448 models for the period covering the German, Austri an an d Yu gosl avi an G Ps. Wh ile Wayn e Rainey's car remained clea n and un sullied, Randy Marnola, Eddie Lawson and Kevin Schw antz ma naged to cras h theirs in to one ano ther in a nose-to-tai l smash in Austria. They were not too badl y dam aged, and park ed alongs ide one another in crumpled glory in Rijeka. S ito Pons, current master of the 250cc GP class, hopes to move up to t he 500cc class in 1990. He has asked Honda if they will make a works bike available. His name is also being linked with a proposed second works Suzuki team, sponsored by Benetton, and run by Italia n team boss Roberto Ga llina, who gave Suzuki it s la st Wo r ld C hampions hip success wit h Ma rco Lucch in ell i and Franco Uncini in 1981 and '82. Discriminatory health insurance 'absent from Hatch proposal WESTERVILLE, O H , JUNE 27 U.S . Senator O rrin G. H atch. (R -U ta h) h a s a ppare n tly reject ed p lans to m andate healt h ins u ra nce coverage for a ll mot orcycles-as a part of a health care legislation package introduced .in the U.S. Senat e. Hatch 's proposal, the first in a series of upcoming legislati on , is st ill evolving and co u ld incl u de severa l addi tional proposals addressing nation al health care. Staff memb ers of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee ha d been cons ideri ng a pl an to in clude a pro posal that wou ld hav e required all motorcyclists to carry specia l ca tas tro p hic health ca re ins ura nce in health legislat ion being developed by Ha tch . Those staff memb ers had claim ed that uninsured or u nderinsured moto rcyclists were responsibl e for an inordi na te share of health care costs borne by taxpayers each year. . However, an AMA ana lysis of that p ro posa l, prin ted in Am er ican Motorcyclist m aga zine, clearl y sho wed that the figures being used were gross ly in accurate. In fact, figures produced by the AMA demons tra ted that motorcycle accidents represent a m uch smaller public health problem than au to mobile accidents. The AMA sen t 'a copy of that ana lysis to Sena tor Hatch before he in tro duced h is health care pa ckage on J une 23. In additio n, a number of the 165,000 AMA memb ers across the country also sent letters to Hatch urging him to reject the motorcycle health care p ro vision from tha t pac kage. " " It appears that Senat or Hatch has respo nded quite favorabl y to advice fro m the AMK and its memb ers, and we are very grat eful for hi s po sition," .said Ed Youngblood , president of th e AMA. . . However, in a conversa tio n with AMA governmen t relations staff, the Senator's staff memb er responsible for com pi ling the research for the proposal indicat ed that he would ha ve preferred to see motorcycli sts singled ou t in th e legisla tion. He also indicated that .he may attem p t to do that during the hear ing phase of the bill. "While we wi ll con tinue to closely mon itor the bill, we applaud Senator Hatch's decisi on to focu s his atten tion on the more pressing problems facing our health care system today, " You ngblood added. " I also want to thank the AMA members who wrote to Senat or Hatch and their own elec ted officials to express their op rrnons . The AMA is a non -profi t organizat ion representing 165,000 motorcycl ists nationwide. Establish ed in 1924, the Association's purpose is to pursue, protect and promote the in teres ts o f motorcycli st s whil e serving the needs of its members. -

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