Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1972 04 11

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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T his month 's "C ycle World" carries a rather sh allow article on G ary, DeWayne, an d Don J o nes , localities wh o thus far are most resp onsible fo r Yamah a's success in pro fessio nal moto cross. T he story is corny wi th co ntrived fam ily -ty pe cu te nes s a nd fails to give much menti on to Gary's marvelo u s sta m ina and advanc ed style. Even t h e immacu late preparation Don gives th e ma chines is ign ored. Bu t th e mo st glaring fault w ith the article , au tho red b y a Ran d y Ri ggs, is the inclusion o f a single sw ip e at the CMC (and only th e CMC) , wh ich th ey d eem a "Ml ck e y Mou se o rganization". Superficially , it is unfair to singl e o u t one o rganiza tio n to clout in a national magazine since no racing o utfit is perfect. The CMC is n o worse t han mo st. If Riggs was going to m en tio n anything, he sho uld have printed the wh ole st ory : When th e Cal ifo rn ia Mo te-Sport Club was j us t starting o u t, G ary showed up late one day an d asked for some p ra ctice durin g a race . Reluctantly , CMC h ead Stu Peters agreed, providing he do a quick lap an d co me back in . When Gary came back in h e caught a wire Stu had stretc h ed across the starting area right o n th e ne ck. It nearly kill ed h im. Stu cl aims Gary wasn't watching w h ere h e wa s go ing and Don clai ms Stu pu t up the wire against Perris' o rders. Whatever; th e incid ent led to a sizeab le lawsu it and o f course , t he J o nes brothers h aven 't been allowed to ride CMC events, for o bvious reas o ns. T he su it see me d destined to become a d ead issu e u n til Evel Knievel had CMC san cti on his upcoming megab uck race May 7. Gary won a car at Evel's last race and certainly sta nds a good ch ance as anybody th is time . If th e b o ys could have t he ir wa y , the sui t would b e dropp ed and every thing would b e hu nky- dory, b u t Do n h as a he avy -d uty co mm it ment to get b ack a t St u , who in his mi nd, nearly k illed h is son Gary an d n ever even apologized fo r it. To co mplicate matters, at least two o ther p arties h ave been fo rc ed in to th e fiasco . T wo weeks ago th e J ones boys showed up at Lio ns to ride the Fr iday nighter, license and riding fees in th eir han ds. A lso o n h and we re so me law y ers an d executives fro m Yam aha In ternati onal. ''They aren ' t de aling with the J o nes ' any mo re, " o n e Yamaha ex ec was reported as saying. ''T h ey 'r e dealing wit h us, n o w . " Y amaha wa s also rep ort ed to h ave t h reatened Steve Evans , t he d irector of Lions , with a loss o f adve rtising re venue if t h ey d idn ' t for ce P eters to comply with t h eir de ma nds. St u Pe ters is lik e Don J o ne s. He's b ig, st ro ng, an d has a mind o f h is o wn . H e wiII put u p just a stro ng a figh t as anyo ne at an y cost. Wit h th ese two h ead s b utting togeth er that outcome can o nly sp ell unhap pin ess for at least o ne and probab ly b oth . The decisio n may co me soon, in fact. This weekend marks a "smaller" Knievel me et with a $6,0 00 purse. The race is a t th e sa me spot as last Sunday 's Han gt own and it h as all t he p restige a motocro ss can h ave. Most importantly , the race is sponso red b y CMC No rt h and t he J ones b oys will have to obtain a CMC licens e to rid e. Lo rd knows how t hey 'll ge t it. I ~ e atest 1--:-,"so":b-st ory , ", , 'usu al about ri sing p ostage costs , but yo u kn ow all that. We are averag ing o ver 10 p age s m ore p er issue th an we were a year ago . T hat's a straight-across 30 p erc en t increase in conten t as opposed to an 18 pe rcent price increase. What 's more, we are a1lo ting more editorial space per ad vert ising inc h than ever b efore. So n o gru mp y lett ers; we're still a b argain . • • • We got a confirm word Monday t hat there will be a pro Half-Mile at the famed oval in San Jose on April 16. The size of the purse was not disclosed but we did find out that the pit gates close at noon...which means that heats begin about 1 p.m. * * * Heh-heh-heh , The A me rica na T urf Clu b , a filth y rich horse-racing out fit , has propos ed $6,1 0 0, 0 00 wo rth of improv ements to the Stat e in o rder to build "an excep tio nally fa st an d unique" I I".l-mil e d irt t u rf t rack at O ntario Motor Speed way . Inside th e odd pear-shape d track will be a I lA-mile dirt track . OMS b ig-wig John R . Co oper said, "T h e proposed horse racing facili ti es will h ave n o significant effec t o n the cond uct of o ur major racing even ts... n Bet we can come up w ith a significan t effec t, heh-heh -h eh . • • • Remember Wallis Weat h erw a x and t h e Phantom Duck of the Desert? Well , Wallis and h is wife Dia ne (who d id all that Phantom stuff , we fo und out) have given birth to a n ew d uckling , J ill A nn . Specif ications: S ix po unds, 1 1'f4 oh-zees, February 26. If she was a he, t h ey could h ave nam ed it Webst er. * * * Here are the eight qualifyin g rounds for o ur ISDT team : April 14-16 St. Louis. Mo. April 21·23 Bristol. v ». May IB-20 Pittsfield, Mass. Jun e 3-4 Trask Mt., Or. Jun e 10-11 Weston, Or. Las Yegas, Nev. Ju ne 16-1 B J uly 3-5 Albany. Ohio August 4-6 Fort Hood, Tex. Ku t th is list an d put it in yo u r wa llet. It 'll save yo u a ph one call. • * • IF YO U CAN RIDE A BIKE , YOU CA N DR IV E A CA R: Da n G urn ey o f AMXT fame w en t a rec or d 196.09 mph at Ontari o. He won Pho eni x and we"'nt 179 mph in the pro cess. Bobb y Unser drove a John Miller Offy to a record 190 mph at Indy . He has nin e bikes he pl ays with , by th e wa y. • • • Here's what t he Europeans go t cooking this seaso n: 500cc April 23 A ust r ia April 30 May 7 May 14 May 21 Switzerland Italy Sweden France , June 4 Russia J une 11 Ju ly 9 Ju ly 16 July 23 August 6 Czechoslovakia Britain West Germany East Germany Belgiuin August 13 Luxembourg 250cc April 9 April 16 May 7 May 14 May 21 June 4 J une 11 June 18 August 6 August 13 Spain France , Holland Czephoslovakla Yugoslavia West Germany Poland Russia Finland Sweden Augu st 20 Britain August 27 Swit zerland Contrary to ru ~o~, E; cape Country is not being shut down by the co unty . So there. Also, o ur apologies to G eo rge lohnson of Rawh id e and the Cit y of E lsinore. We said t hey were giving him a bad time w he n, in fac t, the city has been very good to him an d d eserv e co mm endatio n fo r it. It's the co u nty th at's causing him trouble. • * • Hot-shot promo te r Do n Bry me r, th e guy who ma d e indoo r madn ess a socia l must, will be b ring ing a $6,0 00 Yama h a Go ld C up half-mi le t o Ascot May 5 , th e night be fo re t he $1 0,0 0 0 25-lap TT . Th e w eek en d before t hat will see a Gold C up Nati o nal at Co lora do Spri ngs , t he first Nat io nal ever for t h e Rocky Mountain State. The way th ings are going , Yamaha may w in all their cups th is year . No fu n fo r t h e ot h er guys. * Co « By Papa Wealey * * ABC T elevision will retract a statem ent th ey mad e o n last week's show regarding Super J o e Ein ho rn 's jump . Th ey cla ime d it broke Eve!' s record an d that it was "s an ctioned " by th e A MA. Both Evel and A.l\lA Executive Dir ect or ~ Russ March are ticked off abou t it, understandably. • * • nice th ings ab out On e of th e weari ng he lmets whil e y ou 're at th e laundry is t hat y o u're n ot afra id of t o p pli ng ove r unexpect ed ly . * * * Claude O steen Motor Bike Par k in Po mo na is offering a S 100 reward for info rma tion leading to the recovery o f t he ir Honda gen erato r and a coffee mak er . S eems lik e so me industrious jerks h opped the fence last Friday night and carried o ut th e t h ing s. T o m ak e matt ers even worse , the same gro up ho pped th e fence Sat urday nigh t and ripped off some h elm ets, hand lebars and o th er goodies. The Osteen people are no t very h app y abo ut it and th ey are serious abou t the $100. Yo u ca n tell t h em abo ut it at (7 14) 5 29-3 5 78. • * * The number of those delicious Norton production racers is lim ited but Norton-Y illiers plans to build some b ikes to sell to privateers for the AMA road races and the like. * * * Confused about all th e AMA bi gbuck races? 0 f co urse yo u are. We ca n 't make he ads o r feds out of them, either . Just t hat so mewhere every rem ember Su nday t he re is an AMA sanctio ne d professional motocross and mo re than likely a p romo ter is taking a beating. • • * * * * Leisu ret ech's big US . C up ser ies scheduled fo r three we ek en d s in May might be co nfus ing t o some sportsmen who wan t to ente r. Straig ht scoo p : all spo rts man races will be o n Sat urday and the classes ar e No vice 12 S, 25 0 , Open; Am at eur 125 , 250, Op en ; and Expert 12 5, 2S0 , Open. Entry deadli nes are exte nded to two weeks pr io r to the event. Se nd yo ur q uest io n marks to Le isuretech, Bo x 13369 , Sac rame nto , CA 958 13. Co nsiderin g some o f the ro ads racers have to traverse: to get to their favori te: track, and consid ering th e numb er of T oyota an d Datsu n pickups use d by rac ers, let u s p ass o n th is no te: th e Natio nal Off Road Racing A ssociatio n has crea ted a new cat egory for mini-pickups for th e " Upco ming Baja 50 0 . Cat egory 10 was d eci ded u pon af ter .Ford an d Chevrolet began ma rke ting similar vehicles. • • • • • • La rry Huffma n has been crank ing out som e fun ny radio co mmercials for Ora ng e Cou nt y co ncerns lately . Atta bo y . He also se nt us an exc iting scoop t hat is sure t o ro ck t h e fo undations of t h e indu stry . Rick Woods will be wea ring a Premier Helmet th is seaso n on th e speedway circ uit. But wa it , there 's mo re. The he lmet will be orange and have silver letters on the side , saying " Rick Wood s" . T o match his leat h ers. Rmember , yo u saw it her e fir st . * Billy Silvert h orne and Ge ne Fe t ty, who came in second o verall at the Mint 40 0, were to h ave ridden a Ho nda 250. T h ey opted fo r a 400 Husky when they decide d th e fo ur -valve sing le sp ecially p repare d by Am erican Honda j us t wouldn't cut it. * Last week we had a big error in our Calendar Section. We ran the DRA ad with the RAT information. It has been corrected this week , but for all of you who were confused, the DRA race will still be held at Four Corners on April 9. They do not accept mail entries . * * Rod Breaker told us he was at an end uro last w eek an d encountered the usu al p it -racers. His solution involv ed ano ther so lution ; namely , hot, hot coffee. He k ep t a cup o n h an d until o ne o f the b o ogers came ro aring b y. He nonch antly stro lled in his p ath , jumped in surp rise , a nd d oused t he dolt with the co n tents o f h is cup. "You go tta make it loo k lik e it was his fa ult ," says Rod. T here are other p ossibilit ie s if you have no de sire to scald th e fello w. Co ke, oil, wee-wee ... • • • "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH". That's what Evel Knievel said after he found out that Gary Wells, the young Arizona jum per, was paralyzed for life . * * * In case your d eal er fo rgot, go b ack and give him anothe r nickle fo r this issue . Yu p , o ur prices wen t up agai n , fro m 30 cents a copy to 35. In case you got this issue in the mail, congratulations fo r bein g cle ver enough to subscribe. Use all th e rao ne y YfJ U save Io r- a new rear tire . or so mething. We could give you the (Above) , Danny Turner's full s po nsorsh ip wit h Mo na rk nifty, new MCB, the first one to be raced in the Western distributed by Brady-Helmes Co. in Sacrame nto. He won Hangtown Saturday in its first race . ..(below) is what J im Hangtown course both days. It 's anew, e xperimental 125 on the market for many months. ca me com plete w it h this Un ited States. It is to be the 12S Amateur class at Npble powered about t he Hod y , not expected t o be * * • • • The lif e insurance available to American Mot o rcy cle Associatio n members even incl ud es complete cov erage in case of su icide. * * * The Larry McCl ellen Benefit Enduro was held last week en d, b ut it 's no t too late to enter. Larry h as th ese horrendus hospital b ills, y o u see, and yo u can h elp by en te ring th e endu ro. This is j ust the thin k for all you fo lks who d o n 't like to ride b ut like to say you entered an enduro. It w ill also allow yo u to say yo u entered but d idn 't get beaten. In any event, if yo u would like to he lp : Il33 Sierra Ave ., Santa Ana, Ca. 92 70 7. (7 14 ) 557-07 54. Entry is 55, b u t an yth ing is welcome. Oh, the entry will get yo u a finish er p in (and a good feeling in side) . • • • Bob G ross i told us S und ay t hat he will be leav in g fo r Europe in t w o weeks to rid e t h e GP circu it 's fir st seven rounds. He al so me nt ioned that Mark Blac kwe ll '(pic~~(: 5) . ......• .. ... u;;" to i 'p w Z W ..J U >- U

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