Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

A new column that will cover highligh ts of the various Nationals, major no n-Nat ional ha ppenings & the riders who compete on the National trail. By Proteus Echo Remember when it was h urry .up .and.wait·for.Daytona in March, and then sit back and wait until June for the rest of the Nationals to start? For years June, July and August with a smattering of September were "National mo nth s" . With the increasing p op ularit y of professional cycle racing the Na tionals are now spread from January to October. The recent trend of the AMA ask for better purses, b etter to ra cetracks and better rules has not o nly found more tracks and promoters but more people willing to pay more money for a National event. Larger purses have brought more riders from the far comers o f th e country. More riders are showing up for National races than ever before. For the first time, 1972 will find early season Nationals in the West which has t raditionally only had Nationals in the past during July and September. Somebody discovered the West allover again and found that there is less chance of rain in the West during April and May af t er experie ncing many rai n-o u ts over the years during that t im e in th e East an d South. Now th at record cro wds h ave at t end ed Houston and D aytona it is time to re turn to R oad Atlanta, the fin e road racing pl ant, lo cated abou t 5 0 miles o uts id e of the Georgia cap ito l. T h is will be the second annual event on the track that is rated as o ne of the best for the riders but on th e poor side for the sp ectator that wants t o see most of the track at one sitting, Or standing. Over 20,000 people showed up last year for the inaugural to watch Kel Carruthers and Dick Mann run away with the even t. All road races will again be two-day events and a recent decision by the A.t\1A Board of Directors finds th at all road races will actually be a four-class the otest VOICES OF THE WEST TACT, ETC. Contary to the caption, the photo in Cycle News, April 4, 1972, page 34, is not of broken Yamaha forks. Tact, dis cretion, prudence, politeness, circumspection, moderation, and co m p assio n inhibit me from revealing the brand o f these European units. AMOS GARDLlN Customer Relations Officer Yamaha International • Buena Park, Calif. MARATHON MARATHON The accuracy of lap counting at the Fremont Mar athon leaves much to be desired . The races are great fun but for t)NO women to co u nt laps for 40·60 riders is ridicul ous. BILL & CAROLYN WAHL Newark, Calif. Wh at has become o f fair pl ay ? Fremont Ma rathon sponsors, whoever they are, cer tainly co uld use a lesson. Disregard for correct lap co u nting is th e o rder of the d ay. Rid ers' com pla in ts ar e me t with exc uses. En ough is enough ! DON HEEREN Hooray fo r the id ea of a mar athon. Bo o t o t h e lap co u nt er s. CLARK & WANDA HANS EN In ~egards to th e Fremont race on the 18th o f this month, I feel there is a better wa y o f counting laps. Als o , th e foul language is uncalled for. SHERRY HAMPTON I have enjoyed m yself at every Fremont Marath on as a spectator and p it crew. I think I have a few suggestions to help both riders and lap counters. -- Increas e lap counters or decrease the amo u nt of riders per class. -- Have a few flagmen on the track to black -flag bikes with unreadable numbers. Some riders have no one to tell them about muddy plates. -- Use a checkered flag for finish exactly two hours from the start. Maybe this is a good example of how sanctioned competition, AMA and District 36 rules are really protectors of the riders. ERN SMITH Sunnyvale, Calif. BUL POOP I was wondering if you could send me a schedule of the European motocross events. I also heard that Bultacos can't b e registered in California because of noise level. Do yo u know if Bultac o has an y plans to co rrec t this? TODMITCHAM Ch in a Lake. Calif. Check Papa Wealey 's column this week for the sk inny on the European Grand Prix motocross schedule. As for the Bultacos , the company had fits with the DMV at the early part o f the year when certa in models continually failed to meet legal noise requirements. Finally the sta te got ticked off and sent a letter to all dealers saying all new Bultacos could not be registered in the state , street or dirt. Although Bultaco Western could sell every bike im port ed ou tside of t he Golden State, they couldn 't let their many local dealers down. The big problem was, the Buls were plenty quiet at the exhaust end ; they were just too noisy at the inta ke tract. Eventually in a single nervous session of testing, they got one of the Buls quiet enough to pass the test, hence libera t ing thousands of brothers everywhere. Things are back to normal .... Ed. RUCKUS In reference to the Cycle News edition of March 28, 1972 , regarding the CMC race at Escape Country on March 19, 1972, in which Bu zz Baty reported that Rick Ruckman won all t h ree motos that day. If y ou would please ch ec k the offi cial CMC accou nt o f th ese moto s you will find th at Rick Ru ckman received tw o firsts and one third, contrary t o what you p ubli sh ed . BETTY L. WOOD Vista, Ca lif. RyQ9P (Cont'd. from page 3) is to leave Tuesday. They will return to ride the summer series before heading back to ride the final two GPs. * * * * * * * * * Lo cal TV st atio ns came o u t an d covered Ha ngto wn with pretty good results. Seems as th ough a lot of th e came ra men were really sto ke d over the whole affair. Gary Chaplin has pitched up one of those new radial-finned Maicos and says it's a monster in the power range. He hopes to get baek into form like last fall. That new MCB that Danny T urn er rode is goi ng to be a gre at machine. Danny rode the stocker because th e ho tted-up en gine wasn 't ready. He beat all th e 125 excep t Carl Cranke at Experts Hangtown. Dan ny's now ge tting offers from severa l o ther firm s. * * * Who says motorcyclists can 't regulate themselves? Bill Kasson Motorcycles in Austin , Texas is offering silencers at cost - as a public service. program with a Novi ce -only, Jun ior-only, a com b in ed 250 Exp er t -j unior and the Expert-only National as the firm schedule. The advancement point scale for road racing has also been changed to make it far easier fo r a rider t o adva nce from Novice to Junior and from Junior to Expert than it is for rid ers to adva nc e in the dirt classes. A good Novice in ro ad racing can now gam er th e required points with two good rides an d a Junior can make Expert, in road racing only, with about four good turns o f the track. Atlanta will be a three-day affair in total with practice. sla t ed for Friday, Lightweight racing on Saturday and the National and Junior big bike final on Sunday. T wo weeks after Atlanta it will be the first·time National on th e mile sand oval at Colorado Springs, Colo . This will b e a two day event sponsored b y Yamaha and promoted by Don Brymer. Brymer had his problems before finall y find ing a fin al resting sp o t for this race . It started o u t in Phoenix. Later the y tried to mo ve it to Miami d u e to t he h orse own ers efforts to get it o ut of Ph o enix. Miam i d id not h ave th e dates available so it is now co n firmed for Colorad o Springs. Bryme r w ill use t he h igh ly successf ul format that was used at Sacramento years ago . Expert s a nd Ju niors will pra ctice and ti m e tri al on Sat urday and t he n ru n all t he actual races o n Sunda y . T his gives riders an d t rac k co ndi tio ners the requ ired time to h ave eve rything in top cond ition by act ual race time. It's a fo rmat that more than o ne o th er promoter o n the Nat io nal circu it should use. Brymer will also h ave a Novice-only 250cc race on t h e mile o n Saturd ay, after th e t ime trials. T he dat es are Satu rd ay and S unday , Ap ril 29 ·3 0. The A scot half mil e season o pener on Fri day n igh t , A pril 7, will draw a record num ber o f riders. Pred ict ions are t hat t he new rule allo wing 16 -year ol d Novices wil l find many Fathers o n h and to introduce t heir very o wn future Nati onal ch am p io ns. Th e ride r may not b e w illi ng t o mak e his d ebut-but Dad is re ad y and waiting. Yam ah a will h ost th e 3rd ann ua l hal f mi le " Cup" race at Ascot the ni ght before th e National TT on !\Iay 6 . T he May 5 r ace wil l h ave a new record $ 6 .000 p urse with th e wi nner p ick ing up $1,600. Keith Mas hbu rn and Jody Nic holas h ave been the two past winners for Ya maha an d Norton. I sClram6Dn' aroundr By Maureen Lee A t ip o f the h elmet this w eek to two scram b les riders who d id so w ell in th e Min t a nd didn't get th e r ecogniti on th eir effo rt deserved. Jim Connoll y an d Danny Ha ck ie, who 've both held scram b les Number One plates we re orgin ally scheduled t o ride a Kaw asak i. T h e ride d idn't materiali ze at th e las t minute, so Ken Clar k p rovided th em with an Oss a Pioneer. T here were a few frantic hours of j us t checking the bike out, with no time to work it over and off they went. In the whole race which took quite a toll of equipment all they did was adjust the chain once and the Ossa just kept on running. The Pioneer isn 't designated as racing equipment b ut the two of them came in 18 th overall. Pretty darn good, I'd say, for two who aren't cross-country riders every weekend! It 's a pity the organizers didn't h ave at least a trophy for all those guys listed in th e top 20. In fact, they only paid back to 10th and from there on down no one go t any official recognition for their efforts. And with those $300 entry fees t oo! Gail Bell. who belongs to the family of th e Jack Rabbits M.C. went o u t and won herself one of those n eat Smuggler tr ailers in an Enduro a couple of Sundays ago. There were 1700 riders and Gail was first girl in and tw o minutes o ff t he key time. lI er mom Peg came in th ird and als o wen t horne with a goodie. Bet th e menfolk took a lot of ribbing ill that gro up with their ladies doing so well . There was pl en t y o f racing to b e seen on TV th is last weekend with Wid e Wo rld finally co mi ng up with th e showing of th e Race of Ch am p io ns. The ca mera angles and ligh ting wer en't to o good but the rac in g was, and Terry Dors ch was h is usu al cool sel f when acc epting co ngrat ulat io ns fo r h is win. T he n th ere was th e Atlan ta 500 which had to b e t he mo st exciting race ever filmed at th e fin ish. We go t a laugh o u t o f Bobby Issacs telling Chris Ekonomaki about h ow tiring drivi ng in a race lik e that was . Friend husband came up with th e crack, " Go d , if h e rode 2 0 minutes of motocross t hey'd have t o bury him in a b o x!" I guess all of us think our sport is tough er th an the other guys'. Then the TV cameras got the shots of Evel Knievel doing his thing when he broke his collar bone. T he approach ramp was like a ski jump, no chance t o practice, just down the hill and into the air. It looked like the front end went o n the landing but th e damage was d one when h e go t hoo ked up o n the damn bike a nd it dragged him alo ng fo r a lo ng way. Ah well , you can't keep o ld Evel down and regardless o f who you r favorite jumper is yo u have to ad m it th at Evel puts his money back in to the sport he ta kes it out of as h e's d o in g with h is motocross. Now th at's a purse wo rth go ing a fte r and from what we h ear. everyo ne who is anyone from all over the co un try will be there an d it will b e th e first time we 'll get a chance to see the East Coast boys go aga inst o ur west erners. Ge o rge Johnson inad e us welcom e a t Raw hide Par k last weekend and it is su re a nice addition to o ur p laces to go riding at. Not crowded, the fac ilities are there and will be improved as time goes alo ng ; spare p arts are so ld so if yo u b reak so mething sim p le or n eed a new - p lu g you d on't h ave to curse you rself if you forgot to bring a few good ies alo ng with yo u. I'm p roud to say I even got back on a bike again;- my trusty little Hodaka and I puttered fo r all of five mi nutes. Being o ff for a fu ll year su re d oes so m eth ing t o you. I co uld n' t even remember how to sh ift th e little b eastie! An ywa y , we wish G eorge all the luc k in the world and say t hank y o u to th e ci ty o f Elsinore for all o wing the p ark t o o p en. Th e county isn 't happy about it but the city fathers annexed the land into t h e city and allowed it open. Thank you, gentlemen, we w ish there were more public o ffic ials arou nd like you. N ow here we go again as ki ng for y o ur support in writing lett ers but let 's get th at mandatory h elm et law turned down. I know all th e pro s an d cons about it and so d o you. Pers onall y, I wouldn't go five fee t with out th e o ld Bell o n th e sam e as m y car d o esn't move until the belts are around everyone. But I resent p o lit ic ians tell ing me I have to wear a helme t fo r my own p ro tectio n. They must th ink w e're all d umb b ecause o f the maj ority of rid er s yo u see on the stree t a re in brain buc kets and the o thers...w ell.. .it 's their fu ne ral. So . give Ru ss San fo rd th e su p port he needs to figh t this o ne or re me m be r tha t helmet will be - with y ou like all albat ros s wherever yo u go o n your b ike. .~ « til ~ W Z W ..J U >- U

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