Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By KIT 30 rEARS AGO..• SEPTEMBER 8, 1970 More than 1000 riders and 10,000 specta tors braved the desert heat at Indian Dunes to see the local motocross he roes ta ke on the desert p ros in a 20minute race for $600. An unknown rider was pictured on the cover of Issue 4133 tak ing a dip in a water hole to cool off. He didn't even bother taking off his gear first, In the team race, the motocross riders put a hurt on the desert aces with a final sco re of 30-27... Bart Markel (H-D) pred icted a victory from the second row over the loudspeaker at the Hinsdale , illinois, round of the AMA Short Track National Championship and, 20 laps later, sped across the finish line in the first position to take his 27th National-event win and tie Joe leonard for the all-time record.._ Jim Rice (BSA) took his sixth Grand National Dirt Track victory of the year at the Peoria IT and was vaulted into the points lead. 20 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 27, 1980 Dede Cates graced the cover of Issue 4133 after winning the Women's National Motocross Champi onship for the second year in a row... Dale Singleton (Yam) returned from overseas GP racing to run away with the show during the AMA Grand National Championship Road Racing Series' stop in Pocono, Pennsylvania. Rich Schlachte r (Yam) finished second in Formula One action after narrowly defeating the hottest rider of the weekend, Eddie lawson (Kaw), aboard his four-stroke. fairingless Superbike . Lawson also won the Superbike final on the same motorcycle... At the fourth annual NMA Grand National Championship Motocross in Ponca City, Oklahoma, 15-year-old George Holland was the most dominant rider of the week, posting winsin the 83cc Stock Expert, 83cc Modified Expert and 105cc (over 12) classes with a perfect six motos and six victories... Bruce Penhallcame within inches of winning the runoff that would determine the victor at the London Intercontinental Speedway Qualifier. He finished sec ond to Cris Morton and moved on to the finals to race for the WorldChampionship. 10 YEARS AGO... AUSUST 22, 1990 Eric Geboers, who wa s crowned World 500cc Motocross Champion after the pen ultimate round of the series, was photographed for the cover of Issue #33. Inside was a preview of the first 500cc MXGP to be held in Southern Califomia in four years. after the fa me d Ca rlsbad event gave way to the Hollister Hills MX facility in Northern California. After retiring from Team Honda, Roger DeCoster put it all on the line to promote the 1990 500cc USGP at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bemardino, California... Team Suzuki's Guy Cooper used perfect I-I moto finishes to win the I25cc overall in Washougal, Washington. Series challenger Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon) broke his wrist at the event and handed the series points lead over to Cooper with six rounds left to run. In the first 500cc National of the year, Jeff Stanton (Hon) and J eff Ward (Kaw) tra ded moto wins, but Stanton's first place in the second moto netted him the overall and a two-waytie for the points lead between him and Ward... Ryan Hug hes (Kaw) and Brian Sw ink (Kaw) dominated the Loretta Lynn's Amat eur National MX Championship in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. CN o n c a C it y , Oklahoma. It 's not usually the first p lac e that com es t o m ind when y o u start t hinki ng about your up coming summer vaca t ion . No , places like Yos emite , the Grand C a n yo n , Disney Wor ld , Mt. Ru shm o re and Yellowstone usua lly come up before Ponca City , home of th e Pione e r Woman and Kaw Lake, is mentioned. But for hundreds of families , Pon c a City is their a nnual va cation destina tio n , and that , no doubt, has a lot to do with the fact that none of the aforemention ed vacation won derlands have a motocross tra c k. P I don't know if I'm weird, but I had fun at Ponca City. When I first jo ined the Cy cl e New s crew ba c k in 1983, on e of my firs t assignments was to cove r th e NMA Gra n d National Ch amp io ns h ip moto cross he ld annually in th is s mall Midwest town in Ok lahoma that I had never he a rd of. Afte r all , I was a California kid, and motocross was just a Cali fo rnia s p o rt, o r so I t h o ught. S inc e I wa s th e ne w kid on the bloc k , m y sen ior cohorts at that tim e qu ic kly "d um ped" the Pon ca City race on me. "Ha ve fun," th ey sa id as I he ade d out th e d oo r to t he ai rport with m y notepad in o ne hand and m y c ame ra in the other. "Do n' t for get yo ur su ns creen and storm su it ," they adde d , laughin g . Ac c o rd in g t o th e m , t h is race wa s a week from hell : five da ys of s u n , h u mi dity , t hu n ders tor ms , mini b ikes , mi n ibike riders and mi nibike parents . I guess they forgot to tell m e about the pretty m inib ike riders' old er sisters, the close racing , the fest iva l-lik e atmos phere - n ot on ly a t the tra ck but in town as we ll the friend ly peop le, and the eveni ng e ntert ai n m e n t a n d act iv iti e s in th e p its . I don 't know if I'm weird , b ut I ha d fun at Ponca City. I must admit, though , I was a little ov e rwh e lmed by the overa ll ma gn itude o f it a ll: so man y cl a s s e s , so m an y ride rs, so ma ny motos . Wow! How wa s I go ing to write abou t it all , abo ut eve ry rider , e very lap , every turn? We ll, I quickly re a lized that you ca n' t, s o I d id what I could and got by without too many hate letters. Ponca City holds many memori es for m e : The first tim e I met J e rem y McGrath was at Ponca Cit y; he was staying in th e ro om next to min e at Six Da PALMER signing ne w blood for next year's racing sea so n. Th er e al so seems t o b e fe wer after-race a c tiv ities h e ld at the c ityrun track; a fte r all , all of th e video games are a t the loc al p izza pa rlors in town , where re venue is generated. But that' s okay, beca use ha lf th e fun of go in g to the Po nc a City GNC is go ing into to wn a fte r a lon g day a t the track, to get a way from buzzing moto rc ycl es a nd ins e cts for a wh ile . . An d if yo ur la st m oto is done early, yo u ca n eve n re la x by the water at Kaw La ke. (Too bad they j u s t couldn 't have a dded a n "a s a ki" to the end of the name.) After 10 years, th e t ra ck hasn 't c h a ng e d all that much , a nd neither ha s th e just -pla in -fu n a t mosph e re a rou nd town and at th e tra ck. Parents seeme d mu c h b ett e r behaved th is ye ar. I rem em be r th at a Ponca City day d id n't go by without m y seei ng at least one screa m- at-kid s ess io n , o r o n e chin- g uard helmet grab , or o ne s ide -of-th e track temper ta ntr um . Instead, I saw a lot of pa ts on the backs and "good jo bs: even if their kid finish ed 12th. I'm still im press ed by the way pa re nts c a n ru n from one s ide of the track to the other for an en tir e moto in 100-de g ree heat and 100-perce nt hu m idity witho ut m issing a beat. And they mi ght do this fou r to eight times a d a y! I'm not s ure who is more tired a fte r a four -la p moto , t he racers o r th e parents - or me just wa tching the pa rents . There also seems to be less of that Ea st - r id e rs - ve rs u s -We s t - riders (o r v ice v e rs a) th in g a t Pon ca City . The re 's a good mix of Ea st and West, North and South ride rs at thi s m idd leof-America ra cetra ck. At Pon ca City , it doesn't re a lly seem to m atter where yo u c a m e from . the Holiday Inn, and I literally bumped into him on the balcony. (He probabl y thought I wa s a je rk; hopefully he doe sn't fee l that wa y now .) I remember coming down with the flu and spending an entire day at the track stretched out on the back seat of my renta l car, sweating in the heat and humid ity a nd rev is iting what I had for breakfast that m om ing (over and ov e r again). I rem emb er playing p o ol in a sal oon just out of town a nd wa tching a fe llow m agazin e e d ito r get tu rned down for a dance becaus e the girl he aske d - in her words - "wa s n' t drunk e nough." I remember witn essing some of the most specta cular thunderstorms that I have ev er see n , one of wh ich left th e racec ourse s o soggy that s om e of th e Pee Wee m otos were c ut to just one lap . An d a nother storm, I rem e m be r, left the cit y with out lights - a nd with no T.V. - one night . I reme m ber some m o numental battles that too k p lace on the tra ck , one of those invo lvin g Mik e Healey a nd Edd ie Hic ks , a nd a nother involving Jeff Em ig a nd Damon Brads haw . I remember that Po n c a City was the site where many of the m a nu fa c turers would debut their ne xt -year's new mo de ls , a nd th a t was always a Ponca City highl ig ht. The first time I met Jeremy M cGrath w as at Ponca City. I remember getting the c ha nc e to rid e one of those ne w b ikes a round the Po nca City track and thinking ho w g reat the b ik e was - and how inc re dibly out of shape I wa s . My McG rath encounter 10 ye a rs ago wa s the la st time I a tt e nd ed the Pon c a City GNC until th is ye ar's ra c e, a nd I was a nxious to go a gain . I figur ed th e ra ce had c ha nged a lot ov er the yea rs, a nd - a s I found out - some th ing s h av e c h an g ed. a n d some thi ng s ha ve not. T h e re seems to b e s lig h t ly le s s factory invol ve ment a t Po nc a Ci t y , and some of th e top a mate ur riders, usually the a bout-to-turn-Pro riders, sit o ut Po nca City , s a ving the ir am mo for the following week's showdown at th e AMA Amateur Motocr oss Nation a ls in T ennessee , where th ey can s tru t th e ir st uff in front of the major ra c e teams right b efor e th e y start Coming up in Cycle News • • • • ey Parents seemed much better behaved this year· O vera ll, Ponc a C it y rea lly hasn 't c h ang e d much . T h e raci ng is as goo d as eve r , the weat her is as un predictab le as ever, and the ci ty is as enthusias tic a ho st as ever. I guess th e o ne th ing that has c h a nged the most in th e past decade is , well .. .me. After a ll, it' s no longer the m inicycle r ider s ' s is te rs t h at are c a t c h in g m y e ye , but th e min icyc le ride rs ' moms. CN GP Road Race from Czech Republic Hagerstown AMA Dirt Track GP Motocross Tripleheader from Luxembourg AMA Trials Final Round e I .. n e _ S • A UGUST 23 . 2000 99

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