Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 3D -YEARS AGO••. AUGUST t t, 1970 The co ver of Issue 1130 featured Debb i e Sand er s , an ard en t North ern Cali forn ia moto cr os s fan w ho compla ined to Cycle News about the apparent lack of coverage of northern riders ; events and personaliti es. In response to this com- plaint, we photographed her from behind to show the word "North" that was ironed onto the back of her cutoff denim shorts while her friend looked on in amusement... Heiki Mikkola (Hus) continued his dom inance of the Viking MX Series with his two -m ote sweep of the final event in Atl anta, Georgia. Dick Burleson (Hus) was the top American at the event, finishing seventh overall... Red Wing Boots purchased an ad promoting their Motocross boots. The boot resembled an l a-hole Doc Martin with a tougher sole, by today's standards... Bob Grossi (Hus) was the domi nant rid er duri ng CMC MX action at Bay Mare Raceway in Moorpark, California , winning the 500cc Pro and Al l Pro classes, while Jo hn DeSoto (Cl) won the 250cc Pro cl ass and Gene Can ady (Sac) won the 125cc Pro class. 20 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 6, 1980 Multi - ti m e Wor ld and National Champion motorcy cle racer Kenny Rober ts graced th e c o v er of Issue 1130. Ins ide , we feat u re d Roberts ta lking about Europe and t he up co m ing Laguna Seca road race. The second cov er headline read: "Privateer rom ps in Mid -Oh io ' s 125cc USGP MX mud bath! " This , of course. was in reference to priva- teer Johllny O'Mara , who took a one-off Mugen 125 and beat all the best 125cc riders in the world. Other notables in the field for the first moto were Mark Barnett (Suz), who was second: Danny Bentley (Suz) , who was fourth ; Harry Everts (Suz), who was seventh: and Jeff Surwall (Yam) , who was ninth... The Continental Moto-sport Club (CMC) and the Robert Bosch Company put together a.two-day event at Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, California. Bosch and CMC carried a $3000 Pro purse for the eve nt. Bob Elliott (Suz ), Pete Wanket (Yam) and Ron Turner (Suz) won the 125, 250 and 500cc Pro classes, respectively... Our Fast Fact s sect ion was focu sed on John O 'Mara . He listed his future racing ambitions: "To work as hard as I can to be number one in the 125cc Nationals ." 10 YEARS AGO... AUGUST 1, 1990 Th e sta rt o f round five of the AMA Superbike Championship was capture d for the cover of Issue 11 3 0 . Do u g Chandler (Kaw) walked away with the vic tor y over Sco tt Ru s sell ( Kaw) . Russell got his reveng e th e foll owi ng day, though , taking the win in t he Superbi ke Challenge.. . Team Honda's Jeff Stanto n and Team Suzuki' s Guy Cooper both rode to perfect 1- 1 scores at th e Southwick , Massachusetts , AMA 125/250cc National. With their wins, Stanton assumed the points lead over Jeff Ward (Kaw ), and Cooper gain ed 14 points on series rival and points leader Jean-Michel Bayle ( Hon) ... In o ur Vo ic es col u m n, Jenny, Roger Lee, Nicky and Tommy Hayden sent in a letter congratulating the Peoria M.C.. among others, for th eir work in m aking th e AM A Amateur Dirt Track Nationals a success. The Haydens claimed five class wins during the event... Casey Lytle (Hon) finished fifth in the aocc Beginner class at Glen Helen Raceway during the I:N CMC Summer Series. CHRIS JONNUM e ri l ess ed wi t h a ra r e two da ys off this weekend , I d ec id ed to escape f ro m t he m o to rc y cl e race sc ene by t ak in g home and w atching ... a motorcy cle vi deo . Th is wa s a new one ca ll ed Time 10 Ride, a Motohed fl ick with the se em in gly od d combination o f off-ro ad and freesty le. A s it tu rn s out, the vi d eo was actu all y a su rpris ing ly good w atch , but that's not what I' v e g ot on m y m ind . Th is is a co l umn, not a m o v ie review . E ven if it we re , I d on 't wat ch en ou gh o f th e s e B videos t o quali fy m y sel f as an expert. I' m as appr ecia tive as the ne xt guy o f c over -your - eyes aer ial anti cs , cov er -y o u r- ears rock mus i c and cover - your ne th erl y re g ions pit tootsies , but there 's o ne thing abo u t man y fr e est yl er s th at's got m e m or e an n o yed t h an J esse Helms at a Strung Out conce rt - these g uys wh in e to o muc h . I k no w I'm ge ne ralizi ng h ere , a n d that t here a re fr e e st yl er s o ut th ere w h o don't p iss and m o an , but it seems tha t more and more o ft en I re a d and hear inter views i n wh ich j u m p ers are c om p lain in g about on e th ing or another. In addition to the largely discountable co n spiracy -esque r anti n g s that routin el y come f r o m the Metal Mulisha and t he like, a nu mber of m or e c r e d i bl e Larry freestylers are ve nting their fr ustrations abo u t not get t i ng t h e recognition they and their sport deserve . Th e m anu fa cturers and the press , it se ems , aren 't fort h c om in g enough w ith the adulat ion so ob v iousl y du e to th e freest yl e set. 1g enu inely di g freestyle, and I wi sh the be st o f success to it and its r iders , but co mi ng fro m them , all t h is ta lk ab o ut be in g slig h t ed has always struck me as holl ow. I wasn ' t sure why, but the rea son d awned on me so on after I po pped in that v ideo. As I wa tched guys like J ohnny Cam p bell , Ty D a v i s , Sh an e Wa tts , Rodney Sm ith , Randy Ha w k in s , D e st r y Abbo tt, M ike Laffe rty, Pau l Edm ond son , Dav e Ondas , Brian Brown, F red Andrew s, M ik e Kiedrowski and a ho st o f o thers pu lling t ru ly ama zi ng fea ts for th e vi deo camera, I fou n d myself fe eling th e sa me resp ect for th em t hat I so o fte n do w he n I see th em a t weekend rac es. • Final Molo rees al Now, t hese are guys who have a legitimate beef when it comes to allo cation of p ro p s. Season after season, they rack up m iles upon m il es in thei r blue-collar box va ns , drivi ng to Go d forsaken loca les to compe te on motorcycles t hey work on themselves in races th at are h igh in da nger and compe tition , but low in spectato rs an d pro p u rses. T he ir skills are truly i ncredible, an d Tim e to Rid e does a Roeseler: Freestyle before freestyle was g oo d job of showing that , but the American off- ro a d elite typ ically p er fo rm to aud iences m ad e up on ly of a f e w f riends , f am ily membe r s a n d sq ui r r els. And on th e ra re occ asio n that so meone d oes give these g uys a little a tte n t ion, t h e y n e ar l y always show t h eir ap p recia t ion b y ex pressi ng themselves in a p ol it e, g ra teful m an ner - ra rely by spouting obsenities or Grand Prix into the on e afte r th at , which is another reason 1 enjoyed watchi ng the video : Im pr e ss i v e a s freestyle is , its one-dime nsionali ty has bl en d e d most of t he frees tyle contests and videos I've seen to g eth er i n my m ind i nt o an e ndle s s strea m of cliff-hangers , d une j u m p s, and ta ttoos . B efor e I fall i nto a Mu l i sha - Iike rant against any and a ll th ings frees tyle , I wan t t o rei tera te t h a t I hon est ly d o enjoy the sp ort, and 1 reali ze th at th e t hi ng s t hey do are trul y am azi ng . I co ul d p robably come cl o ser t o dupl i c atin g C am pb ell's 105 mp h ac ros s N ev ada th an I co u ld th e ba ckflip I und er st and C arey Hart j u st pull ed t h i s weeke n d at t he G ra v it y G a m e s (t ho u g h you 'd h a ve to pu t a gun to m y h e ad t o get m e to t r y eit her ) . S till , I'm tire d o f h e a r in g h ow these g uy s h aven 't gotten a fair sh ake, wh en in t h e six yea r s that t h e spo rt has exi st e d, th e y ' v e alre a dy starred i n coun tl ess v ideos, b een fe atu re d regu lar l y on n ati o n al t e levision, appea red i n a featu re -le ngt h m ov ie (Frezno S mooth), a n d perfo rmed re gu la rl y for d ecent purses in p acked arena s. Off-roaders ha ve been work ing t he ir tails off fo r d e c ad e s , and d esp ite th e fa ct that Larry Ro e sel er and Dav is were cool. j u m p ing off cliffs and over roads for the Dirt Rid er st ill cam era s b efore " f r ee st yle" even ex isted , t h ey 'v e be en largely p a ss ed ov er i n o u r s po rt's r e cent fl owerin g. For ex amp le, it too k two weeks to determi ne t h a t M i k e L affe r t y had clinch ed the 200 0 AMA/ FM F Nation al E n d uro t itle at t he second to last round in T ex as - a fea t he p u lled off with souring body and a ir tempera tures . Now th e t 's extreme! That' s wh y I dug Tim e 10 Ride so moon ing th e camera (okay , so there is on e pressed ham and a couple of much ( I guess this is turning into somewhat o f a m ovie re view ) : Now that a few o f th ese riders are getting a sh ot in fron t o f a video camera , their sport is so fresh and im pressive t ha t it be t rays non e of its cons idera ble age. It's almost as new and different as a ce rtain in fl u en t ial Crustu video was a few years bac k . This is p rob a bl y a pi pe d r e am , but I h o p e the affect is equa lly as far -reaching th is ti me ar ound . eN swear words in th e video, but it 's more between-friends horseplay than self-aware p osturing ) . As g en u i nely nice as many offroad ers seemingly are , it's t h eir tal ents on a motorcycle t h at really ea rn my respect. T h e s e g uys are the ki ngs of v ers at il ity , ra c in g a GN CC r oun d o ne wee ke nd, a B e st in th e Dese r t ra c e th e n e xt , a nd th en sq ueez in g a Na ti onal Endu ro an d a Coming up in Cycle News • • • • ers Loretta Lynn's Amateur National MX Preview Washougal National MX Brainerd Superbike National Ohio AMA Dirt Track cue I e n e _ S • A UGUST 2 ,2000 91

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