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/128605
By 30 YEARS AGO..• MARCH 31, 1970 Mi.ke Patrick and Phil Bowers (Yam) graced the cover of Issue #11 as repeat winners of the Mint 400 outside Las Vegas, Nevada. The duo defeated the team of James "Whitey" Martino and Malcolm Smith (Hus) among others... An unknown Elsinore G.P. rider took out a full-page ad addressing the fact that the Gripsters M.C. couldn't declare a winner of the event. It read "Hey World, Malcolm Smith won Elsinore. Riders know it. What's your problem Gripsters? Signed a rider and truth lover"... Gary Bailey laid out the motocross course at Dunlap Cycle Park in Fresno, California and promptly ran away with the victory... Mini bike rider Jeff Ward finished second at a TT race in Elsinore, Califomia ... Grant helmets bought an ad featuring a helmet painted in rebel colors as well as one painted in union colors. The latter helmet was made famous a year earlier by Peter Fonda in a movie entitled Easy Rider. ,il· 20 YEARS AGO••• MARCH 26, 1980 Speedway star Gene Woods graced the cover of Issue 1111 on his 500cc mount. In this issue we pre. viewed the coming California Speedway season ... Dave Aldana filed a formal protest with the AMA claiming that he, indeed, finished second in the Daytona 200, not sixth as he was credited. Aldana cited lap charts as part of his protest and, until a ruling was handed out, $33,000 of purse money would be locked up in the AMA bank account.._The lanky moto warriors of Team Yamaha placed one-two on both nights of the Houston Supercross doubleheader. Mike Bell defeated Broc Glover on Friday night with Glover defeating Bell Saturday night. Bell used the races to extend his points lead over Chuck Sun (Hon) to 16... Bruce Penhall won both the Handicap and Scratctf Mains to dominate the Spring Classic at Ascot Park ... We interviewed 23-year-old Yamaha off-road racer Larry Roeseler to find out what he's doing and where he's going in motorcycling. 10 YEARS AGO•.. MARCH 21, 1990 Vance £,. Hines Yamaha's David Sadowski and Honda's Jeff Stanton graced the cover of Issue 1111 as the big winners at Daytona. Sadowski qualified second and avoided a first-turn disaster to lay claim to victory in the Daytona 200 by Arai over Randy Renfrow (Hon) and Doug Chandler (Kaw). Stanton won his Heat and the Main Event en route to the Daytona Supercross victory. Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon) and Mike Kiedrowski (Han) made it a Honda sweep at the Honda-sponsored supercross. Denny Stephenson (Suz) won the 125cc class to move within two points of Mike Jones (Hon) in the points standings ... Dan Ingram (Hon) defeated Chris Carr (H-D) and Steve Aseltine (H-D) at the Daytona Short Track ... Team Suzuki's Randy Hawkins topped 420 riders to win the 40th Annual Alligator Enduro... Doug Chandler (Kaw) narrowly defeated his Muzzy Kawasak.i Teammate Scott Russell to win the opening round of the 750cc Supersport CN series at Daytona. Final ""010 CHRIS JONNUM e uring practice for the Pontiac Supercross a few weeks ago, I was talking with Chevy Trucks/ Kawasaki P.R. guru Tony Gardea about old riders. As you might suspect, the subject came up because the team Gardea works for has two of the oldest in pro- getting older, and is this tendency Next I turned to editorial assistant Steve Cox, who though younger and less experienced than Kit, is an absolute junkie for moto trivia and topics of this sort (as I write this, he's in the next office tabulating rider cover-appearances through 35 years fessional MX (John Dowd, 34, and Larry Ward, 29), but our impression good or bad? My first inclination was to grill factory-team personnel on the of Cycle News back issues). "There's an ever-increasing num- was that far from being an enigma, Chevy Trucks/ Kawasaki is simply the most extreme example in a series-wide general rising in the age on the AMA/EA Sports Supercross circuit. I had a rare bit of spare office time issue, but nearly the entire industry ber of techniques that you need to learn and perfect before you can ride at that level," said Steve. "Obviously, it takes some time to do that." Steve also thinks that in the haste of trying to find someone to beat D was 21, and teenagers. all but two were Though I now had evidence to at least support Gardea's and my hypothesis, I still didn't know what to make of the trend. Why are our riders was out in Daytona. Hesitant to form an opinion for publication, I decided to grill a few people around the CN office before doing so. this week between text and photo bombardments from the CN army in Daytona, so I decided to investigate a bit further, to see if Gardea and I were Jeremy McGrath, the teams are starting to pay the younger riders more money (McGrath supported this idea in a recent issue of Motocross Action, correct. Though my methods were far from scientific, they did turn up some interesting facts. For example, the average age among the top-10 riders in the 250cc in which he claimed that there are at least a couple of riders who make a higher base salary than he). Because these guys are getting the money up front, Steve thinks they lack hunger, class point standings so far this year (this column was written before the Daytona Supercross) is just over 25. Points leader Jeremy McGrath is 28, and there are two riders older than he in the current top 10 (Mike LaRocco, don't train, and are more content to be beaten by written-off older guys with less dough and more desire. By this time we had tuned out the constant call of e-mailed race stories at 29, and Dowd, at 34). Tellingly, there's not a single teenage rider in the top 10. Granted, we're still not exactly talking septuagenarians here, but it was far less common a decade ago for riders with a quarter-century under their belts to do so well in the adrenaline-filled, rough-and-tumble world of motocross. Back in 1990, the top 10 riders in the final point standings had an average age of under 22. Thenchampion Jeff Stanton was 22, and there were only two top-10 riders older than he (Jeff Ward, 29, and Guy Cooper, 28). And there were two teenage riders (LaRocco, 19, and Damon Bradshaw, 17). I turned my attention to the 125cc class, and things got even weirder. After all, the Eastern and Western Regional Series are supposed to be the training grounds for future stars, not simply B leagues for guys who can't hack the quarter-liter ranks. Yet, among the five winners in the Western Region so far, the average age is over 23, and the two winners in the Eastern Region average 22. There's not a single teenager to have won a 125cc race yet this year. Again compare that to 1990, when the six Western Region winners averaged just over 19, and the three Eastern Region winners averaged just over 18. The very oldest among all nine and film-bearing DHL people, our discussion having developed into a fullscale bull session. Just when the debate had reached its crescendo, in hobbled Associate Editor Matt Freeman, late again thanks to another physical rehab session on his left knee. Without even uttering a word, Matt had reminded us of another possible explanation. At 26, he's at the John Dewd, 34: General Geritol age where a lot of top riders have had their careers prematurely ended by My first interviewee was Associate Editor Kit Palmer, who was happy to take a break from editing the injury. Now, improved protective wear and - more importantly - moreadvanced medical techniques may help riders to extend their racing careers (and Matt to extend his CN testing career). Now armed with a bevy of theories, I'm still hesitant to posit an opinion of umpteenth Daytona dirt track story of the week. Kit has been covering Supercross and motocross for Cycle News during the entire period in question, so his opinions bare consideration. "I think that with all the money and attention on Supercross now, the my own. So instead, I'll go with somewhat of a cop-out. I think that the sport has gotten a lot more intense," Palmer said. "Before, you used to be able to rely on training and natural talent, whereas now, that intensity makes maturity and brains play much more of a factor. Also, J think desire is more important now." Kit also brought up the fact that some of today's top riders got a little bit later start than is typical, specifically mentioning McGrath (who rode his first full 125cc season at the age increase in average age is due to a combination of reasons, including (but not limited to) those mentioned above. I will, however, go out on a limb a bit by guessing that the pendulum will start swinging the other way before long. After all, Geritol can only hold off talent like that possessed by 20-yearold Ricky Carmichael and 16-year-old Travis Pastrana for so long. eN of 18) and Doug Henry. Kit thinks this allows them to experience real life, develop maturity, and avoid burnout. Jonnum really did turn in this column before the Daytona Supercross, where Carmichael and Pastrana both won. - In next week's Cycle News ... y c Special Cruiser Issue Road Race GP Opener Suzuki DR-Z Dual Sport St. Louis Supercross • e n e vv S • MARCH 22, 2000 103