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/128629
"I hope that all -riders will respe ct Baja and the great experiences it can p rovlde." It' s About the Kids e have recently returned from th e oretta L y n n N ational s ("To the ines," August 30 , #34] , and what an ncredibly great ev ent it wa s. It ma y e the finest racing and th e best dis la y of sportsman ship. an y whe re - at east by the rid ers. We have re ad th e co m p l a i n ts in reg ard to the beh avi or of th e pa rents wh ose children co m pete in th e smaller cla sses, but we had no id ea of the exte nt to whi ch th ese par ents go t o " b uy " the ir chil dren a cham p ionship . h is w as de fi ni te ly th e case in o ne d ivision at Lo retta 's. Th is p articul ar set of par ents p rot est ed th e bikes that fi nishe d di rec tly in fron t of th ei r ch ild , in hopes of eliminating th em fro m th e c o m peti t io n. Wh en all was sa id and do ne, all these bikes wer e found to be c ompletely leg al. Why can't parents accept th e f act there a r e oth er k id s tha t ma y b e faster th an th eir own ch ild ? Wh y c an' t th ey un de rstand y ou ca n't wi n every race? Personal gr owth is learned from w inning an d losing . T he se paren ts only instil l p o or sp ortsmanship in the ir child and do nothing m ore than rui n th e fun of c om petitio n for th os e t he y ha ve cho sen to prot est. These parents know wh o the y are . F or a ll of u s wh o enjoy th e fam il y ex p er ie nce o f moto c r o s s w i t h o ur c hil dren, I say , just let yo ur chil d race a nd be p lea sed w ith how ev er he or she ma y fin ish ; leave yo ur m on ey in yo u r poc ke ts and r em ain s i le n t i n your p rotests. If yo u ca n' t do this .. . stay home . Congratu la ti ons t o all th o se w ho p ar ticipated at Loretta L ynn ' s - you are aIL c hamp io ns! :Janice Kllboum e Nashville, Tennessee Loretta & Albee Whil e enjoying t he Au gu st 9 , 2 0 0 0 i ssu e of Cycle News (#31) , I came ac ross tw o it em s t ha t need co m ment from m e ju st to set h istory st ra ight. One articl e t hat needs a littl e clarifi c at i o n i s th e o r igi ns o f th e Lo r et t a Ly n n 's e vent ( " T he Nex t Big T hi ng ") . Th i s clarific ation is not mean t in any way to denigrat e t he co nt ribution and dedi c ati on m ad e b y my oid fr iend , the late Dave C oombs. How ev er, decidin g to put t he AMA Ama t eur M ot o c r o s s Ch ampi on ship a t Loretta Lynn' s did not c ome to whil e jo g g i n g o n th e prop er ty durin g a c ha nce c am pou t. Da ve Co ombs and I had been fri ends f o r m an y years since we both p rom ot ed t he old Inter A M A International Motocross Ser ies in the mid '70s. In the late ' 70 s into 1980, Dave and I wanted to produce a state -of-the -a rt Amateur Champim on ey. If s om e day y ou want to onship . We both knew that it c o u ld mak e a sm all fortun e , get into th e not be do ne a t a l o c a l tra ck; w e promotion b u sin es s. But be awa re needed a pla ce with real sizzl e. I had that you will probably make a sm all heard of L orett a Lynn ' s Ran ch fortun e out of large fortune. Should because I knew Cr aig Vetter and th e y ou ha v e an y doubts, pleas e ask BMW Owners Gr oup had eac h had yourself what ever happened to the road rallies there. Su p ercro s se s that were at M iami , I call ed th e ran ch to see if th ey T ampa , Cl ev el and , N ew York , Pitts were in t ereste d in having an an nua l bur gh , Philad elphia, Orland o, the motorcycle ev ent on th e p ropert y . Rose Bow l and othe rs in th e past that Th ey said that th ey wer e, and I wen t I c an ' t rem ember. Th ese eve nts went d own , lo oked t he p l ace ove r , m et away bec ause th ey d id not ge ne rate with Moon ey Lynn and m ad e a lo ng e no ug h re ve n ues to k e ep g oing. term ag reemen t to lease the property Man y lost a gr eat deal of m on e y for th e Amat eur Motocross Champi even t ho ug h th ey looked fairly suconship pend in g getting th e sa nction. cessfu l from th e outsid e. Later , o n hi s w ay ba c k from Pon c a Paul Schlegel City , Dave st op pe d at th e ra nc h fo r Toledo, OH th e fir st tim e , and s i nce p art of Dav e ' s j ob w ould be t o bu ild a n d y ea rs now. I hope that all rid ers will m aintain th e tra ck , he sa id the be st resp ect B aj a a nd th e great ex p er ipla c e for it wa s in th e pasture wh er e Yo ur " Ne ve r Better " art icl e in th e July enc es it c an provid e. Don't hassle the i t has alw ays bee n . D av e a n d I 26 (#29) iss ue re all y brought back a loc al s, ga s it , and k eep it straight. f orm ed MX Sp ort s t o p r om ot e th e lot of o ld m emories of Baj a . In 1972 Dick Johnson event. an d '7 3 , Di ck Vick and the late Niles Prescott, AZ For years , th e AMA Amateur M otocross eve n t s had been d isasters and w ere not compar abl e t o th e NMA Ponca City event. Our pro posal to produ c e the ev en t wa s immed i You were a littl e rou gh on us desert rac at ely accepted by AM A presid ent Lin ers when m en ti oning the results from Ku ch ler, and as they sa y, th e rest is the race at Ind ian Dunes in 1970 in front hi st o ry . Coombs and I r em a ined of 10 ,000 spe ctato rs betw een our top partn ers until I retired to rid e motorfive v ersus th e to p fiv e motocrossers cy cl es in th e summer of 1989. I then (lssu e#33 , A ug us t 23) . Sa y ing the. t r ans f err ed my half t o th e MXers " put a hu rt " on us was a little M cC arthys , wh o had b e en m y st rong. The 30 -27 sco re wa s c or rect , employees . but if Whitey Martino, one of m y fellow T he se c o nd thing I wo u ld lik e t o Checkers, had push ed his bike abo ut 30 co m men t on is Gr eg Alber t yn 's letter feet or so to the fin ish line on th e last ( " A T ime to Wh in e " ). lap, the desert guys would Gr e g ' s stat em ent th at hav e wo n. Th e big de al Sup ercro ss even ts m a k e before th e race wa s about $ 1 m illio n pe r eve n t is Rich Th orwaldson, who was j us t wrong. I have been a r a c i n g t h e des ert eve ry partner in th e Pontia c SiI w eek , and only once in a ver do me e v e n t f or 25 whi le racing MX . The MXers years, a n d was als o a talk ed hi m into riding for partn er at th e Pittsb u rgh th em because they thought a n d Phi l a d e l p h i a Sup er th ey co uldn' t beat us withcro sses . Unfo r t unatel y , out h im . They we r e right! G reg ' s ass e s sm ent i s a (A ctually , I think they bribed p ri m e ex amp le of ho w d ifhim!) fer ent a b us i ness loo ks I can' t reall y blam e it all fr om o ne s i de of th e on Wh itey , th ough, bec ause c o u n t e r compa red to t he other. Th e o l d, e sta b - For an idea of what two decades can do t o a ship, check out the one in the while running second, I fell and lost three pla ces. It was backgrounds of both these p ho t os . li sh ed e v e n ts ar e a r el a ~-------------------- a really fun ra c e! I a lso t i v el y mod e s t pi e c e o f remembe r never seeing bu sine ss . No ne m a k e Ussery int ro duced m e to t he area you J ohn Rice so happy! unreas onabl e pro fit s . Hu n dr ed s of covered in the artic le . From 1977 to By th e way , besides Sports Illustrated thousa nd s ar e spe n t on facil it y ren t , 19 8 3 , " Ra pi d Robert" Jord an a nd I showing the Carey Hart backflip, you ad ve rt i sin g , event per sonn el , PA CE t rav e le d th is c o a st a l rou t e man y , can also see it in th e new issue of Racer semi trucks and eq ui pmen t and dri m an y times with o ur pals Loren HarX, which is now a m onthly publication, vers , trac k co nstruc tio n and t ear ris and D ick Hale. Th is c irca 1980d o wn , a nd o f c our s e a nea r l y and it is a pu ll-out double-page color '82 photo of Ha rr is and J ord an was $30,000 AMA sanction fee . Besides poster. Pretty awesome! all th e o b vio us event expend itures, a Between your two publications, it's tak en in front of th e same shipwreck large compan y wi t h a lo t of em p loy(i t was called Isl a d el Carm en) fe a pretty hard for m e to miss anything ee s and offices must be maintained . tured in the background of y o ur arti th at' s h app en ing i n motorcycli ng Greg, I know you have been a p rocle 's lead photo . Notice that all th e th ese day s. Good Job, as usua ll fessio nal factor y rac er f or years. rigging is in place. Dick MIller Hopefull y , yo u have s av ed you r Endno, CA At 72 , I haven't ridden Baja in five Baja, Then & Now Desert vs. MX eye I e n e _ s S EPTEM BER 6 , 2 000 5