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/128325
"If you walk the pits at any supercross event, yo u can see it is no longe r pick-up truck racing. Nearly every rider who makes a 125 or 250cc main has the same type of support, if not more, th an Damon Huffman." Travis To ISDE? It's obvious tha t Travis Pastrana has all kinds of talent and whateve r he does he wants to win. Would it not be awe some to have him ride the ISDE for Team USA? Travis just plain flies no matter what he is do ing, and think of the interest he wou ld bring to the sport in America. Dave Schlabaras via the Interne t Won A Yamaha I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Kelly C lancy with Ca lifornia Spee dway and jo hn Hesson w ith the Yamaha Motor Co rp. I was fortunat e enough to attend the Superbike/su permoto race weekend held at California Speedway. The racing was excellent, and t he event was first class. I too k a mome nt to fi ll out a sweepstakes ticket at the Yamaha eve nt tent, and sure enough I won the 2004 Yamaha R6. I'm still in shock. This type of thing simply does not happen to me. To all involved in this event, I wou ld truly like to ex press my genuine thanks. What a race, wh at a weekend , what a bike ... Tha nk you , Yamaha. Ride blue and dreams do come t rue. Daniel T. McGettigan Cathedral City, CA The Plight Of Pomeroy As a proud member of the "U.S. Veteran movement," a.k.a. AHRMA I must reply , to Mr. Hodgkinson's long-winded letter. Pomeroy won, Maisch is a thief, and yo u, Sir, are a pretentious &% #hole. Spe ncer Balentine Hardin, KY Pomeroy's Plight II Alex, thanks for the note on Jim Po me roy, but we 'll conti nue to view his 1973 Spanish GP victory as our country 's fi rst w in just the same. After all , igno ring the rules was a 1970s tradition. By the way, if jaroslav Falta is going to be award ed a championship re troactively, I assume it'll be 7 4 - the year of the Russians' despicable acts at Roggenburg and not 73 , which was totally domi nated by Hakan Andersson and the then -new Y amaha monoshock. Finally, your flair for wr iting and your ability to put the reade r virtually on the fence are greatly missed. Kevin H. Connor via the Inte rnet The Privateers Frank Card inale doe s not know what he is ta lking about. The key here is that the sport has evolved so much that there are very few true privateers out ther e - especiallygoing by Frank's definition. The nice thing is that Damon Huffman has spo nsors such as XXX, Yoshimura, O ' Neal, Sidi and so on that help pay the bills so that he can race . However, a small team such as XXX can on ly go so far. For this reason, Damon has no rea l salary to speak of. His income is based on his co ntingency and prize money from his race resu lts. In addition, some of the peop le Frank me ntions in his letter - Tyler Evans, Ryan Clark and Kevin jo hnson all get paid entries, a mechanic, a truck to work out of, and get support for travel, hot el, fuel and food expenses fro m some of the ir sponsors - just like Damon. Their bikes are equipped no better than Damo n's is. If you walk the pits at any supercross event, you can see it is no longer pick-up tr uck racing. Nearly every ride r who makes a 125 or 250cc main has the same type of support, if not more, than Damon Huffman. You may not be a big Huffman fan, and that is okay, but you can't take away his accom plishments during this past supercross season . Huffman worked just as hard if not harder than any oth er rider out the re. He rode with injuries, served his team , its sponsors and himself well. As a result he earned the Top Privatee r Award . In my opinion, he also has now earned a w ell-due apolo gy fro m o ne Frank Cardinale. Eric Pelleg Thousand Oaks, CA Leiters to theeditorshould be senllo Voices, Cycle News PO80;\50804, CosioMesa, , CA92628-5084; faxed 10 714-751-6685 Of emailed 10 edit r@cyclenew,.com. Published a leneu donot necessarilyreflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. letters should notexceed 200 words, and all ore subject to editing. Anonymous leiters will not be considered for publication. All letters shouldcontain thewriter's nome, addressand daytimephonenumber... Edifor. To Frank Cardinale: Do you have a job? Do you get a paycheck? If your boss said to work for free and risk your life, would you? Damon wor ked for his goal even with a smashe d knuckle and fractured ankle. And, of co urse, someone wants to take the excitement away. Frank, look your kids in the ir eyes and te ll them not to be as judgmental as you are. You don't know the facts. Cherryl Sciac qua via the Internet Nice Guys Recently, I was lucky enough to mee t Nathan Ramsey, Ivan Tedesco and Andrew Short at the Shadow Mountain Co mmunity Church here in EI Cajon , Ca lifornia. They we re aske d by joe l Murphy, the chaplain at Motor Racing O utreach, to come and speak to a grou p of 600 men and boys du ring the SMCC men's BBQ. They spoke about their lives, racing accomplishments and their belief in jesus Christ. After each one was interviewed by joel, they would call ou t the names of the raffle prize winners and presented them with their prizes. It was great to see the level of support the local sho ps provided - Moto world of EI Cajon sent three new bikes for display, plus a ton of stickers for the kids; North County Yamahasent hats, shirts, posters, etc; Acerbis USA and Moto nations donated an amazing array of products. These three young men are a credit to the motorcycle industry, and I co mpletely enjoyed the dinner and their motivationa l message . David W. Giese via the Internet Naylor Kudos I wa nted to tha nk Ron Naylor for donating his $ 1000 purse from the Shasta Dam Hare Scrambles and the Redding Dirt riders for donating the same amount to the local family from the Redd ing, California, area that lost their fathe r. You called Ro n Naylo r t he "hom et ow n hero" in your April 28 of the Shasta Dam race. I don't know Ron, the family he helped ou t, or belong to the Redding Dirt Riders, but I wou ld say Ron Naylor and the Redding Dirt Riders are defin ite heroes with big hearts ! Mik e Smith Redding, CA The Privateers II In res ponse to Damon Huffman no t being a privateer, my understa nding of a privatee r is not just a pers on pitt ing o ut of a semi truck . Doing this does not make you a facto ry rider. Damon has been slammed by the press fo r much of his riding caree r. I have seen him ride with passion and aggressio n this past year as he fights to stay o n top. The facts are simple: Damon trains daily practices three to four times a , week, and treats this as a 12-hour-a-day job. He does not get a salary fro m Moto XXX, they have no factory parts , and they use suspension you can buy from Noleen and a Yoshimura pipe and motor that anyone can buy. Damon wo uld love to have a factory ride. Moto XXX has always been a privateer team, and for the peo ple who have time to talk about something they don't have the facts about should not be so judgmental on someone they don't know. www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • MAY 26, 2004 5