Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"FChris Jonnum'O fN ALM .TO' .By n the fast-paced world of professional motorcycle racing, flying is a wa y of life - and not jus t over 80foot triple jumps. With events regu lar ly sc hed u led seven d ays and 3000 miles apart, and training regimens to ma intain in the mean time, it's no wonder that all of the top riders achieve preferred status on their frequent flyer accounts before the year is eve n half over. But the racers aren't the only ones who log a lo t of air time. Cycle News reporters and photographers are also quite familia r wi th most of the country's major airpo rts. As I write this, I'm returning from my first assignment of the yea r, and it's n ice to see tha t I'm rig ht back in the swing of things following a two-mon th , off-season tra veling hiatus. After covering last night' s Minneapolis Supercross, I slept throug h my wake- up call and then drove like a madm an on icy freew ays to make my fligh t with a good 30 seconds to spa re. It p robab ly sounds glamorous, flying around the country to vario us important races and hob-nobbing wi th the factory riders. I admit tha t it can be a bit of a high - especially at first - but most of the novelty wears off after abou t a ye a r. Don't get me wrong - I still love the racing, bu t I no longer look forwa rd to the actual tra vel. Part of my p roblem is that I simply wasn't built to fly. I' m not ridi culously ta ll - approximately six-foot- three - b ut my legs alone accoun t for nearly six feet of th at. My co-w o rk e r Kit Palmer is almos t as tall, but doesn't have nearly as m uch trouble g ettin g comfo rtable in coach class. Pau l Carruthers, our diminutive senio r ed itor, would be comp lacent in the back seat of a Nissan 3OOZX. Not only th at, but I must suffer the curse of living w ith airplane insomnia, a little-k nown d isease that prevents th e victim from sleeping w hile airbo rne. That means that no matter how late I stay up th e nigh t before, D how early r my plane leaves, I am unable to catch up on my rest once on the plane. It seems odd tha t I should be stric ken by such a ma lad y, si n ce I do little else besides sleeping when I'm on the gro un d, Donn Maeda , yet another of my associates, has no problem at all napping in flight. In fact, he often boasts that he 's ne ver ex perienced th e sensation of a plane taking off - this de spite ha ving logged in excess of 100 airplane tri p s 9 while at Cycle News. He once fell asleep and awoke fou r hour s la ter, when he noticed that the plane wa s on the gro un d and nearl y empty . Assuming he had re ached hi s des tina tion, D ori n deboarded, o nly to d iscover that h is flight had experienced a long delay and hadn't yet d eparted . . Actually, I should be saving my complain ts for later in the year. Covering supercross rounds really isn't so bad. After all, these events are held on Saturday evenings, which means we have all t Cali I: of Sunday to ge anback to up onfornia, I write our stories, d catch sleep. When the National MX season r oll s a ro und, th e , p ressure co o ke r ge ts cranked up ano ther notch, and resting is something tha t pretty mu ch gets put on hold unti l Monday night. Tha t's becau se outdoo r races are held on Sunday, leaving us m in imal time to com p lete ou r requirements. When the rac e ends a t, say, 5:30 p.m. on Sunday at High Point Racewa y in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, most people head home for some muchdeserved rest. But our job has just started . One way or another, we h av e to walk into our Southern California office the next morning, with our film read y to develop and our story completed. What goes on between the end of the race and our deadline can only be described as hell, and it's the sing le part of the job that all of us dread the most. Typicall y, I'll try to make a mad dash th r ough the p its , getting a few qu ick qu otes from the top riders and grabbing the results from the AMA (if they're finished) befo re jumping in the rental car. A tight sched u le o nce had Kit lea ve before the end of the last rnoto, listening to th e end of the ra ce on a local radio station which broadc asted the event. After a frenzied, high-speed, on e-hour trip to the airp ort (Pittsburgh, in th e case of High Point), I tum in the car, run to the gate a n d board th e plane.' O f cou rse, Nationals are held during the summer, and I'm usually drench ed in s wea t and covered in dust and mud from the race. At this point, it's actually fun walking down the aisle and watching suited bu sinessmen eyeing me nervously, praying that I don't sit down next to them. Of course they h a v e absolutely nothing to worry about if they're in firs t class or weigh less than 300 pounds. I've got nothing against overweight people, bu t they do tend to make thin gs a bit more crowded around them - and a litt le extra space is something I'd kill for on mo st of my re turn trips. At the most, the charge on our laptop compu te rs lasts abou t two and a halfhours, so I'll sp read my notes ou t wherever I can (much to the chagrin of my neighbor) and type like crazy until the "Battery Low" ligh t starts flashing . Then I sit there and wish I could sleep until we land, when I d rive home and finish my story. .' As you might expec t, this makes for quite a few all-nigh ters, and we still have to work in the off ice all d ay on Monday. At first I thought it might be easier to cover races clo ser to home, such as Hangtown and Washou gal, bu t I quickly learned tha t suc h events are at . least as d ifficul t. Sure, the plane trip is shorter, but withou t any time zo nes to pass throu gh, you d on 't gain th e extra hou rs to get everything finished . My worst plane trip ever? Tha t's easy - flying back to LAX from a motorcycle tour in San Jose, Costa Rica. With no race to cover, I was in less of a hurry, but the flight itself was one for the r ecord books. Things started off nicely wh en I found my seat, which was cramped - as usua l and located directly behind the smoking section. Then, as the plane was taxii ng d own the ru nw ay, a gentlem an about three rows back had a heart attack. After returning to the terminal and handing the unfortunate victim off to the med ics, we were finally on our way - u ntil arriving at our first stop-over in Gu atemala. There, it was discovered that the plane had an engine problem, so we were all h erded off the plane and - after tw o hou rs - onto another on e, which was already ha lf full. Crowded? Don't ask. Things went re la tiv ely smoo th ly until th e a tte m p ted take-off fro m ou r last sto p in Me xico Cit y, upon w hich another person - this one an elderly lad y - experi enced heart trouble. Despite her and h~r husband 's p r ot ests tha t she wou ld be fine, we again d ropped her off a n d a tt em p ted to leave the airpor t. Wh en ye t another lady began ha ving troub le breathing.sl wa sn't even s urprised - and apparently neither we re the flight attendants; they brought ou t the .oxygen tank, but thankfully, the plane wasn't turned ar ound. The rest of the flight wa s fairly hassle-free, though I learned upon landing that my luggage including all my cloth es, rid ing gea~ and a one-of-a-kind Jerry Bernardo custom- pa inted Ara i helmet - had been lost. Fo rtunately, everything was found and re turned nine months later! International trips only acco unt for about 5 percent of our flights, but they have a te nd en cy to stand out in our minds. Donn says his worst pla ne trip was to Barcelona, Spain, for the Trial des Nations last yea r. He "zoned out" and arrived at the airport 30 minutes before take-off, like he usually does for domestic fligh ts, only to be greeted by a twohour line at the customs counter. After he had begged his way to the front of the jam-up and onto the airplane, Donn's flight to New York was delayed and he had 10 minutes to make his Spanish connection . He m ad e it, b u t hi s lu gga ge didn't, a ndhe had to wea r th e same pants for 10 days at the d es Nations. Paul's nightmare trip was also overseas. After covering two road race GPs in Europe, he was dr opped off at the Milan airport by his father, Kel. Again, a delay was the primary problem, only this time it was a 12-hour one. Th ough da d wa s just 45 minutes away at the Agostini race sho p in Bergamo, Pa ul d id n't have the p ho ne nu mber. He inst ead passed the time getting drunk. Three times. Kit's worst trip? Yet another international flight. After flying to Ne w York to cover the Unad illa MX d es Nations, Kit faxed his story and sent his photos back, then caught a puddle-jumper from Syracuse to Kenned y Airport, From there he flew to Frankfurt, Ge rmany, then to Warsaw, Poland, an d finally to .WrD claw, Poland, where he rented a car and drove six hou rs through the night to the Internationa l Six Day Enduro in [elena Cora, Among the highlights were a long delay in an airport with no food, a dead prop-engined plane that had to be jumpstarted with a hu ge battery, and armed guards instead of flight attendants . Bu t we really shouldn' t com p lain. Yes, we all spend a lot of time away from home, bu t at least we split up the races a mo ngst ourselves. Th e ride rs ha ve to travel nearly every we ekend, and like us, they work during the wee k not behind a d esk, but working jus t the sa me. And if you really want someone to feel sorry for, how about the mechanics? These gu ys also att end every race, only they drive to each one! Th ough som etimes I wonder which is really wo rse. C'I I l O K GB K..· :1 O IN AC 25 YEARSAGO... F ebruary 17, 1970 cti o n from the Ho uston As trodome graced th e front cover, and re c e n t l y crowned Grand N a tiD n a l C ha m p i Dn Mert Lawwill battled for the lead wi th ~ :=:~r~I========::::J Dick Mann in the l ea d photo .. . The all-new HarleyDavidson XR750 w as unveiled at the Hous ton trade show , and Cycle News repo rted that it, "even comes with tuned pipes, SD it looks like it is supplied wi th everything b u t a skid shoe..." A fu llpage Cycle News subscr ip tion ad fea -tu red an irate-looki ng housewife and stated, "Sometim es... All he wants to do A I" nv is read Cy cle News .. ." Dick Mann announced that he wo uld race a fourcylinde r Ho nda at Daytona in March... Danny LaPorte wo n th e 100cc Spo rtsman class a t Hunti ngt on Beac h Cy cle Park NGK Spark Plugs cost on ly 59 cen ts . Gary Van Vo orh is wro te, "An o t he r product of Michigan, Scott Parker could well be the leader of the ne w wave of the 80s..." Ron Turner, Chuck Sun and Danny Chandle r topped the 125, 250 and 500cc Pro classes at the Prairi e City • round of the CMC Golden State Nati onals.. . Mike Preston carried th e CMC nurnber-one pla te in the 12Sec class and finishe d sixth, w hil e Ross Maeda an d Troy Lee nabb ed 19th- and 20th-pl ace finishes, respectively... Paul Thede wo n the 125cc Pro class at DeAnza Cycle Park... ~ ~ L{) 0\ . 0\ ,.-; 5YEAR G ... SA O February 7,1990 a m on Bradshaw scored h is fi rstever American 250cc Sup ercross win at the Anaheim series opener. Chasing ac r oss the fi nish line were Jea n Michel Bay le and Jeff Matiasevich... Todd DeHoop and Ro nnie T ichenor swept the 125 an d 250cc Pro ' classes at 00 >. I-< D ca ;:l I-< -B f,I.; C\" 51

• Cover