Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GUEST EDITORIAL , . .By Larry La·ngley. n our lifetimes we sometimes witness courage. It can be in the form of a hero who runs into a burning house to res_ e a child. It can be a pilot who someow manages to bring a crippled air~ane down to a safe landing with 200 ateful passengers on board. It can be a ldier who commits the ulitmate sacri.ce to save his comrades in combat. Or t can be a child. I have witnessed real courage. It esided in Michael Hoeflin. At a very oung age Michael was diagnosed with rare form of brain cancer. As a parent, can not imagine anything more terrifyng than having your child come down ick with a deadly disease. Michael nderwent operations and treatments d at one point the disease seemed to e in remission. Michael was an All-Star occer player before his illness. But the ancer would not keep him down. ichaeJ was a fighter and just would ot give up. 1 first met Michael at the Ride for .ds Dual Sport ride in San Bernardino, a1ifornia, in 1995. Michael was one of our kids that even t organizer Mike raynor brought to the ride for the ridrs to meet. Mike thought th'at if people ould meet the kids affected by the disthat the ride was designed to raise oney to fight, they would take a more ersonal interest in the cause. Mike Traynor also qualifies for my efinition of real courage. Mike Traynor ad his own career in At1anta, Georgia, d got into the charity fund-raising usiness when a friend's child died of rain cancer. Mike eventually founded he Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation d started promoting motorcycle rides ound the United States to raise money or research. How many people do you know who have dedicated their lives to such a cause? Mike and his wife Diane have. Michael's and the other kids' plight inspired my club, the Oran'ge County Dualies, to make an effort to raise as much money as we could for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. We carne up with the idea of a motorcycle oriented garage sale and, with the help of many industry d9nors and the great folks at Fineline Motosports, we sold about $2,600 worth of goodies. ln addition my club members raised enough money to be able to generate a $6,000 donation at the ride. Then at the 1996 ride, our dub, along with three other clubs, "adopted" one of the kids as a club member. Our adopted kid was Michael Hoeflin. Michael was in a wheelchair for this year's event, his condition had obviously deteriorated and the outlook was not good. But receiving his DuaHes T-shirt and hat brought a smile to Michael's face. Real courage. The final tally that the dual sporters raised for 1996 came out to $22,000, almost .double of the '95 total. We challenged the other clubs to try and beat our '97 fund-raising efforts and to double the amount raised again. Then just a short time after the event, while watching MotoWorld on television, the sad announcement that Michael had passed away - at the age of just 10 years old - hi t me like a brick. As far as I know, Michael did not complain, he just did his best to cope. It's easy to get angry and ask, "Why, God?" I have my own theory about that. I believe that God created this wonderful world of ours ana all the good and bad that comes with it but He just lets things sort themselves out. Sort of a lottery, the lottery of life. Most of the time I appreciate the joy of life that He created. But sometimes I have a hard time coping with the cruelty and hurt that can devastate a family. Michael's famLly could have just put the awful pain behind them and gotten on with their lives, but they chose to continue the fight by establishing a foundation in Michael's name to fight pediatric brain tumors in other children. Real courage. All the money the Orange County Dualies raise for the '97 Ride for Kids Dual Sport ride will be de4icated to the memory of Michael Hoeflin. Compared to the million dollars raised at the Love Ride, it's not much. Mike Traynor has raised over a million dollars in the past few years. Maybe one day the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation will raise a million bucks in one day. But for now we will do what we can. W~ have Mike Traynor (left), founder of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, promotes motorycle rides around the United States to raise money for reseach. already raised $900 at the Cycle News Dual Sport Jamboree event (see page 46) and plan on raffling off a motorcycle to raise even more money in addition to the garage sale. I hope if you are a dual sport rider, or even if you are not, that you. will show up at the garage sale at Fineline Motorsports in Huntington Beach, Calilornia, March 14-15, 1997, and the Ride for Kids at Glen Helen OHV Park, in San Bernardino, California, March 16. Start raising money now. There are not too many things more important to do on these dates. The kids will appreciate it and so will I. Hope to see you there. CN ..LOOKIN·G BACK~'i . . 5YEARS AGO.., TOBER 26,1971 SA's Dick Man n became the AMA Grand National Champion. when he finished ninth at the final national of the year, the first annual Champion Sparkplug Classic, held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California. BSA's John Cooper won the race in his first AMA National, while Yamaha's Kel Carruthers got second and Suzuki's Ron Grant finished third... Finland's Heikki Mikkola won the 500cc fnternational class at the Trans AMA Motocross held in Copetown, Ontario, Canada. Germans Adolph Weil and Willie ~auer got second and third, respectively. Dewayne Jones won the 500cc National class, followed by Lars Larson and Dave Eaton in third. Tom Rapp won the 250cc National class. crowned AMA 500cc and 125cc National MX Champions, respectively, at the final round held at the UnadiJJa Valley Sports Center in New York. Neither rider won his respective class...Newlycrowned World Superbike Champion Doug Polen took his Ducati to the pole and the race-one win at the Italian World Superbike round held in Mugel10, Italy. 1990's World Champion Raymond Roche took his Ducati to the racetwo win. fN B 15 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER21,1981 . amaha's Broc Glover won the 250cc class at the AMA Trans-USA MX held in Houston, Texas. Suzuki's Darryl Schultz and Mark Barnett took second and third, respectively. Danny Chandler won the 500cc Support Y 5YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 23, 1991 a r leyDavidson's S cot t Parker wrapped up his recordtying fourth consecutive AMA Grand National Championship by finishin5 second to teariunate Chris Carr, who made it his third consecutive win at the Sacramento Mile. The late Rodney Farris finished in third...H;onda's Jean-Michel Bayle and Kawasaki's Mike Kiedrowski were H '-0 0\ 0\ ,..-.I -.0 ,..-.I l-< OJ .g .,. u Former National MX Champion Marty Smith ralls a berm during a CMC motocross at Carlsbad Raceway In 1975. Photo Cycle News Archives. '0 79

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