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/128608
30 YEARS ABO.•. APRIL 21, 1970 On the cover of Issue #14, AI Baker (Yam) leads John DeSoto (Cl) and the rest of the 500cc Experts during the Viewfinders MC Grand Prix held at Bay Mare Raceway in Moorpark, California. DeSoto took the win ahead of the class champion, Baker, and Rich Thorwaldson (Ric) ... Dave Aldana (BSA) raced to victory in the 1T at Ascot Park in Gardena, California. Aldana finished with a full-straightaway lead on Mark Brelsford (H-D) in second, who, in turn, had about a half-lap lead on the Triumph of Skip Van Leeuwen in third ... Everyone was riding Jawas in the. speedway races at Antelope County Fairgrounds, Steve Bast won the scratch main, ahead of Stu Morley, Sonny Nutter and Rick'Woods. Woods had the win in the bag until he nigh-sided on the last lap... Famous "Endless Summer" moviemaker Bruce Brown was busy filming a movie about motor-cycles that would be due out in 1971. He would call it "On Any Sunday." 20 YEARS ABO... APRIL 16, 1980 Our resident dirt track expert, Gary Van Voorhis, sized up the rookie class of the Winston Pro Dirt Track Series. On the cover of Issue j/ 14 were the top contenders for rookieof-the-year honors, which included Rob Crabbe, David Jones, Gene Church, Bubba Shobert and Jeff Haney ... Bob Hannah, the defending 250cc National Motocross and 250cc Supercross champion, won the $24,000 Orange Crush Super Star Challenge at Phoenix International Raceway in a buggy. This was his first off-road car win. It was also his first try ... We spent a day with Brad Lackey and his trainer, Dean Miller, to see what it takes to race at a World Championship level. We used a scale developed by the National Athletic Health Institute to see which of the top motocrossers would be the bestconditioned. Out of a possible 300 points, the leaders were Lackey (225), Jeff Ward (201.5), Mike Bell (197.5), Chris Hl'isser (161) and Broc Glover (157.5). 10 YEARS ABO•.• APRIL 11, 1990 Wayne Rainey (Yam) graced the cover of Issue #14 as the winner of the first round of the 1990 World Championshjp Road Race Series in Suzuka City, Japan. The defending champion started from the pole and led every inch of the race, soundly defeating Australian Wayne Gardner (Hon) and fellow American Kevin Schwantz (Suz) ... Kawasaki's Jeff Ward was taken out by an overzealous Damon Bradshaw (Yam) in the first turn of the first moto during the 250cc National at Hangtown Cycle Park in Sacramento, California. The Kawasaki superstar came from behind to pass Jeff Stanton (Hon) for the lead with two laps remaining. Ward' won the second moto as well, securing the overall on the day. Guy Cooper (Suz) traded moto wins with JeanMichel Bayle (Hon) in the 125cc class but took the overall with his second-moto romp of the field... Larry Roeseler (Kaw) took on all comers at the 37th ann~al Check Chase National Championship Hare & Hound at Lucerne Valley, California. Dan Smith (KTM) finished second, but Roeseler took over the points lead with his win. CN 5e I t was the Cinzano that did it. That, and the use of the word "synergy." Would you like that on the rocks, sir? Or in the gravel trap ... ? Now I'd be the last person to suggest there's anything wrong with Cinzano as a drink, or with those who enjoy this soothing cocktail concoction, a vermouth blending fragrant herbs with white wine. The sort of thing one might enjoy as a civilized sundowner on the deck of one's yacht on the Mediterranean. Or such is the image it enjoys, though one suspects that (like Martini, or indeed Babycham) it enjoys even greater patronage among the more pretentious members of a rather lower social order. In any case, it's the image that is important, as is always the case when matters of marketing are concerned. Where I lose the plot is when the name Cinzano is married to the rough, tough, rock 'n' roll sport of motorcycle racing. Just doesn't fit together, somehow. Cinzano is a cigarette filter bearing lipstick traces - bike racing is grease under the fingernails, sweat and adrenalin. Never the twain shall meet, except perhaps surreptitiously. And except in the new world of year 2000 Grand effects of the strongest class system modern times motorcycles are readily accepted as an adjunct to anyone's this side of the Indian Raj. since I came to England from South garage, which might already boast one or two family cars - sports bikes Africa, and was struck by the curious "them-and-us" feeling that in particular are toys for the rich, who are not ashamed to admit that they pervaded so much of life, and most also have a two-seater sports car for the winter. It has been more than 20 years especially motorcycling. I worked in the motorcycle press and have ever So what does all this have to do since, and though I tried to kick successful. It seemed set in stone with GP racing? Simply this. For a couple of years or more Britain has been falling off that if you were a motorcyclist, then the back of the Grand Prix bus, and you dare not admit that you ever so while this may be set to change with much as sat in a car, let alone a number of new initiatives, this year - against this feeling, I was not ranging from better support for the actually owned one as well. This may have handful of remaining riders to terrestrial TV coverage of the full series - sneering at the Cinzano factor changed somewhat. Should have, anyway. As motorcycles have become both more will serve no purpose other than to reinforce the old alienation. expensive and more technically complex and less amenable to the Far better that every GP fan goes out right now and downs half-a-bottle of the Sneering at the Cinzano factor will serve no purpose other tha·n to reinforce the old alienation. Prix racing, ever since GP bosses Dorna signed up Cinzano as naming sponsor to the British and three other GPs. I was discussing this with a colleague, and expressed the thoughts above - that Cinzano and bike racing were chalk and cheese, soup and nuts. My friend, based in Europe, looked at me as though it was me who was nuts. What do you mean, he cried. In Italy, or in Spain, that's just not true. Nobody there would have any trouble marrying up the image of motorcycle maniacs and perfumed vermouth. No problem at all. It's only in Britain that it becomes incongruous. Well then - fair point. It must be Britain that is out of step with modern racing, not the other way around. And if this is the case, then it has everything to do with my country's generally cocked-up view of motorcycling, not to mention life in general - a phenomenon that is in turn bound up with the lingering stuff, no matter how appalling the prospect, or how damaging to your image. (Not, of course, before you go out driving. Stick to the Red Bull there, without the vodka, and you'll be supporting a sponsor as well as looking tough.) And the synergy? Well, that's one of those weasel words that one instinctively mistrusts, and it comes from another source - a new alliance between GP dirty-fingernail pleasures of home maintenance (as well as more reliable and thus less needy of bosses Dorna and Action Group International, a French company that such plays the same role in the Motocross tinkering), so have motorcyclists changed. People who buy bikes now are richer and, often as not, rather World Championship, as well as World Championship Supercross not to be confused, by the way, with "real" Supercross, the rebel PACE older. Their own circumstances (family, job, whatever) often compel them to have a car as well, so it's no Series where big crowds and superstars like Jeremy McGrath longer quite such a stigma. But more than a smattering of that feeling laugh at the notion that the European version should be called a World remains - not many people buy helmet stickers reading "My Other Bike's a Mondeo," and a huge part of Championship. Dorna and Action Group have joined forces, and in a joint statement, otherwise rather unrevealing of how the pleasure of being a motorcyclist comes from being a member - even these two sports will help each other spuriously - of a rebel community. out, they expect the best from the "synergy" between their two companies. Europe, rather like the colonies, has never really suffered from this southern In the interests of bike racing, we Europe, taking in Italy and Spain. affliction. must do the same. It's changing, and anyone not prepared to change with While Especially there may have been a utilitarian past, ownership of a two- it risks missing out. wheeler over there has never been an Scott lives in England, and covers the road race GP series in a synergistic fashion. CN exclusive commitment or one-way fashion statement, and certainly in In next week's Cycle News • • • • • 5uzuka Road Race GP Dallas 5X Arenacross Finale National Off-road: GNCC, Hare & Hound MX GP: 125 & 500CC cue I e n e _ is • APRIL 12', 2000 99