Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128323
" I hope he doesn't have to hand the trophy to Bob Hannah after all these years..." I letters 1 the ed;lor ,hould be senl10Voke" Cycle New" PO Box 5084, Ccuo Me"" 0 CA 92628-5084; foxed 10 714-751-6685 or emciled 10 ed;toriIcyclenew,.com. Published letters do notnecessarily reRect Iheposition of Cycle News Inc. letters should notexceed200 , words, and all are subject to editing. Anonymous Jeffers will not be considered for publcation. i AU letters should contain thewriter's nome, addressand daytime phonenumber... Editor. The Gas Crisis While I understand the AMA's position on enforcing fuel rules, I believe the penalty dished out to the Yamaha supercross squad was harsh to say the least. If the AMA is trying to maintain a level playing field among the competitors, then per haps th is ruling makes sense. But a level playing field has never been the AMA's intention. Works suspension, one-off tires, and unfair seeding of top pros into supercross and motocross events are just a few examples of inequality. Believe me, I am not just an unhappy Yamaha fan. I will always cheer for riders from the good old US of A. But if Kevin Windham wins this championship, it will be empty indeed . Clearly the best 250cc supercrosser this year is not an American, and fuel has noth ing to do with it. My point is this: to enforce fuel rules, fine the teams . To level the playing field, put everyone on OEM motorcycles. How about stock bikes only at the U.S. Open of Supercross and let the best man win? Now that would be a hoot! Troy Teno Pleasureville KY The Gas Crisis II The way that the AMAhas been fin ing riders this year in Supercross reminds me of the FCC fining radio stations. The prob lem is with both is that there is not a clear rule. If you are going to make a rule for fuel, make a penalty for it at the same time. If there is a rule lor dirty riding, set the penalty belore it happens - that way there is no guessing. This will stop any appeal in its tracks and give some credibility back to the rule makers . They see m to be making the rules assuming no one is going to break them, and when they are broke n, the AMA has to make up a penalty after the fact. Eliot Fisher Nort hridge, CA The Gas Crisis III Dangero us riding is worse than a fuel infraction - end of story! There definitely needs to be a penalty for "fuel infractions," but it shou ld not be worse than a safety infraction. Whether or not Kevin Windham got the pena lty, the amount of the points loss was to be 10. Ten points for taking out another rider and photographer (or not) versus 25 points for using nons pee fuel seems crazy to me, but , hey, I'm just a fan. What could I know? If Windham had done what he was accused of (never mind the Video), someone could have been badly hurt. That in 6 no way is less serio us the monetary losses suffered by those whose competition is cheat ing (knowingly or not) . That fuel must be really special, because to stray n from the mix is 2 1 t imes more serious than dangero us riding! AMA, wake up! /(or' von Ubln via t he Intern et Pomeroy's Plight I know the podium at Sabadell on April 8, 1973, still riles jim Pomeroy, but I'm afraid the rule book could not be changed retrospectively, and although jim was top points scorer on the day and thus led the World Championship as this was the opening ro und of the series , he did not win the GP. As your article points out , 1973 was the first season they gave points in each moto at the GPs, but the rule for calculating the overall result of a GP. which was for nothing but glory and a trophy, as even Camel contingency money was not paid out in later years on the same basis as the FIM rule, remained unchanged from 196 1 to 1983. That rule stated that the overall result would be calculated by the addition of race placings using the so-called "O lympic" system of one for first, two for second, etc. and that any tie would be calculated on the addition of race times. This rule was altered to calculation by championship points scored at the FIM Autumn Congress of 1983 and implemented in 1984; even then, it was not until the mid'90s that ties were separated on the second moto as in AMA competition, and, for example, 2-4 moto finishes wou ld beat a 3-3. For the record, Hans Maisch's elapsed race time for two motos from 2-3 finishes at 5abadell in 1973 was I hour 32 minutes and 46 seconds. Pomeroy nee ded seven seconds longer in finishing 1-4. Between 1973 and 1983 the situation whereby a GP winner was not top points scorer actual ly occurred 16 times. The AMA was clearly aware of the FIM rule book because that was how Marty Tripes (2-2) beat jimmy Ellis (1-3) at the very first Unadilla GP in 1978 and how Wo lsink beat Mikkola at Carl sbad the previous year. Othe r organizers later began to ignore the rule book, and Brad Lackey (3- 1) was awarded the trophy at the British GP in 1982, 15 months before t he rule boo k was changed, eve n thoug h Andre Vromans (2-2) had the better elapsed time. MAY 12,2004 • CYCLE N EWS Perhaps the strangest result of all, but one which confirms the correctness of the Sabadell organizers came in 1980 when burly Germans Rolf Dieffenbach and Fritz Koebele had to squeeze onto the top rung of the podium toget her after they had gone 1-3 and 2-2, res pectively, but had identical combined race times even though the Spanish organizers had electronic timekeeping to one-hundredth of a second! For the record , jim Pomeroy only won one GP. the Belgian 250 on April 27, 1975 (still the first U.S. win, as Brad Lackeydidn't win a GP until 1977, and Marty Smith's Lexington win came three months later), but he won motos in Spain in 1973, that Belgian race, Poland in 1976 and Carlsbad in 1977. The 1975 Belgian success was also Bultaco's first, and its only other victory came from Harry Everts at Sabadell in 1978. But, though the AMA implemented this particular rule correctly, it did screw up in 1984 even in allowing Ron Lechien to compete at Unadilla. The Dogger is still to this day the youngest - ever 250cc GP winner at 17 years and 207 days; the only problem is that FIM rules at the time restricted under-18s to the 125cc class! I hope he doesn't have to hand the trophy to Bob Hannah after all these years , but perhaps the U.S. veteran movement can arrange some- thing; I had a mail forwarded to me a couple of years back which originated from there which claimed the FIM was just about to award the 1973 world title retrospectively to jaroslav Falta! O ld men's dreams, or SOS (silly old sods) as we call them over here. Alex Hodgki nson Echte, Germany Pity the Privateer My hat's off to the true privateers who give everything they have to compete against a stacked deck . You can't fault the factory riders fo r the fact that their eq uipment and riding co nditions are so superior. They've worked hard to get those rides. What really sucks is a guy wh o masquerades as a 40th Anniversa r y privateer and takes from the real privateer. He doesn't pay for his truck , his fuel, his driver, his mechanic , his flights, his room, his entries, etc., - and he gets paid a salary. The group says Damon Huffman is a privateer, and he willget the privateer championship. It is really a cheap shot to the genuine privateers following him in the points race (Evans, Clark, john son, Povolny, Wilson, etc.) . Riders (pictured below) who don't have somebody else paying for all the above expenses. Huffman has a right to be proud of his riding accomplishments this year, but not for picking the legitimate privateer's pockets every week. The final rip-off will be his getting the Nissan pick-u p. Someday Huffman might be trying to tell his kids about the time he won the "Privateer" Cham pionship, but will he be able to look them in the eye knowing what he does? Keep banging, privateers, and hopefully the money will hold out. You're real heroes to a whole bunch of us. Sometimes justice is slow in coming; but it will come. You'll never have to look away when you te ll your sto ries to your kids or grandkids. Frank Cardi nale Monterey, CA