Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

"Lio ns Drag Strip has apparently decided that' they don't like motocrosse rs. In stead o f just sending them away th ey have com e up with h arsher meth ods. On May 19 they are ho ldin g a jumpin g con test. T he top 12 fin ish er s fr om the p revio us week will each get a sho t at the S 100 p rize fo r th e longest j u mp. One of th e rul es re ads "F or a j u mp to co unt, rider mu st rem ain o n h is wh ee ls af ter lan d ing , h e need n ot m a ke the nex t comer." ,re are surprised to sec the C~I C coope rating w ith d an gero u s, fool ish fo lderol into th is. With S 10 0 up th e rid e rs ar e go ing to be try in g quite hard, a nd so meo ne is going to get bad ly hu n . - * * .* T RICK BIKE OF THE WEEK was built by Michael Fallon of Belfast Ireland. It is a 12-eylinder Honda in a Manx Norton F ra me . It features 12 carbs and megs. The unique power plant was created by grafting together t ' 0 Hond a six-cyl inder eng ines that I ad been rewo rked by the It alia n Motomodelli f irm . Fal lon est imates that over 70 hours were put into the machine w ith a cost of some elev en English pou nds. By doing his own wo rk Fallon was able to keep costs down. While there are no horsepower figures available the weight is in the neigh borhood of six or eight Costa Mesa on Fridays. • • • Pau l S mart aboard a Ducat i 750 won t h e richest road race in Europ e at Imola , Italy April 2~. It was Smart's birthday a nd the ic ing on the cake was beating wo rld champio n G iacomo Agost ini ~ Even afte r he go t by Agostini, tho ugh , S ma rt st ill had to deal w it h Bru no Spagg ia ri on another Duc ati to take t he $9 0 0 0 purse . Ron Gra nt , on a S uzuk i 500 was in 17th sp ot. Do n Em de had problems with hi s Kuhn Norton at th e start and lost eight laps to finish 2 0th . The MV 75 0 t hat Ago st ini was ridin g was not up t o t h e 20 0-m ile distance an d d idn't finish . A n interesting note on the race is t hat Barry Sh ee ne was supposed to ride t he machine that Smart rod e, but turned it down. Smart didn't have a ride and, although he didn't expect it to events with the usual stipulation that they obey all regulations. Stu left with a happy sm ile to go run h is Wednesd ay night event; the Jones' attorney left with a pu zzled loo k to tell the Jones boys wh at they had to do, a nd we left wo nde ring wh at a Kawasak i 7S0 was go ing to be lik e in downto wn ru sh ho ur traffic. * * * S om e time ago we had a con test. First and o nly p rize was a co py o f the naugh ty p o ste r "W ill to Win" and all yo u h ad to d o to win i t w as tell us wh y you d o o r d on't li ke it. Well , T im R alph o f Walnut, Calif., didn' t exac tly go b y th e ru les bu t he tri ed harder th an an y one else. lIere's h is winning entry. After see ing y our pro fan e p i ture , "Will To Sin" , I was ve ry inspired. I im me d ia te ly th ough t you mi gh t like t o was ·the size ofa lemon. Anyway, Dave's ' okay now. * * • • • * Traffic c a n trol in Elsinore was a problem sinc e th e police w e re spre ad a little thin. They had trouble keeping the crowds back. Rich Ho ffm an te lls u s that he devel oped his own method of crowd con tr o l as he exited wide from some turns o n to c ro wde d stree ts. "Man ," said Rich , "I must hav e m oved 500 people!" The trouble wi th a Bell Star is that it ' s so ha rd to k iss yo u r t o o tsi e wh ile wea ring one . * * * Rod Bre ak er w as in th e. o the r day a nd told u s th at he h as heard th at Maureen Lee is ac tual ly a pseudon ym fo r a defector of th e Ch inese ISDT te am. • • • ounces. Wheelbase is eight Giacomo , it's a model. * * inches. Yes, * We kee p expecting somethi ng new that we haven't seen, b ut which sh o uld be inevit ab le: A chopped S u zuki 750. • • • Hot tip for new Ja panese bike owners : Change t he air in your tires. The Ja pa nese stuff isn't as go o d as the kind that you get here . * * * In stark contrast to the A:\IA's treatment of such matters the FI~I recently suspended Russian speedway racer Gordeev and h is tuner for one year for ru nning n it ro . T he n amb y -p am bl v A~ I A p ro ba bly wo uld h ave sla pped h is wrist and suspended h im for a week during which there were no X ationals. * • • Evel Knievel is c urrently film ing a sequel to h is bo x office boffo mov ie of the same name . Evel 's new mov ie w ill probably be t itled "Color Me Lucky ." If he keeps this up , Knievel is likely to become the Hopalong Ca ssidy o f the 'Seventies , * * * Diff'Brakc , m e mb er s of a super d upe r cycle stopper, will sp onso r the Man u fac tu re r's Cup fo r the' AMA In te r-Am a ser ies thi s sum mer. T he tro ph y will go to the high point manufacturer's team of th e mo to cro ss series. DiffB rake also p ays no n-contingency p rize SSS to th e top American rid ers in th e series. • • • The Be rkshire, Massachusetts E u ro pean tria ls is now A MA sa nctioned. It happe ns May 2 0-21 and Cy cle New s will te ll yo u all a bout, natch , * * * Escape Co un try. a fo rward-loo king recreation park in S outh ern Cal ifornia, will soon launch the first Motorcycle T rai l Patrol tr ain in g program . • • • The '7 S0 cc Ducati V-Twin, w hic h mopped up th e Imola Road Race GP in Ital y last week , is homologated in Eng la nd , an d th us el igib le to comp ete in AMA /FI M int ernati onal road races here in t h e U.s. * * * Speedway racing wil l wea th er a season in th e Lo s Angeles Coliseum eve ry Saturday nigh t fo r six m onth s, sta rting in Ju ne . Thursday nigh ts , Irwindale Raceway w ill run sp eedway as will be competitive, accepted the Du cati on the Tuesday preceeding the race , * * * Th e J .1'\. Roberts Deser t C lassic ( that is so me sort of record , h avin g a classic the first tim e o u t) is sh apin g up in to a fu n wee ken d. High ligh tin g th e two day s of rac ing will be the su pe r-tr ick pre-release showing of a dramatic documentary of about three desert racers which will have to go unname d at this mornen t. See at the S howcase Theatre in Californ ia Ci ty Friday, Sa turday, an d Sunday nights. It won't cost all that much , eit her . • • • We got word Wednesday that the CMC and the J ones boys we re all set to shoot it out in court, so we hopped on our Kawasaki 750 test bike and smoked down there. If you have bee n following th is action-packed drama in prev ious issues you know that the CMC, headed by Stu Peters, wouldn't allow Gary and DeWayne Jones to race CMC events because they had a law suit against the CMC for alleged neglect a nd had made some less than flattering remarks about t he CMC in a recent interview in "Cycle World ". However, the CMC has a big-bucks (very big·bueks) event upcoming with more in the works, and the Jones and their sponsor, Yamaha , wanted t o be t here . So t he Jones boys went to co u rt to be allowed to race . With visio ns o f "The Bold Ones" in our hea ds we hast ened to the co urt room. Ala s, it wa s not to be. St u held all t he ca rd s - a nd t he p rize mon ey. By th e t im e it was settled in cou rt 'm uc h mo ola h wo uld have been missed by t he Jo nes cla n , and t he re just wasn't gro u nds for an injuncti on to st o p the eve nts. So it was settled o ut of cou rt just o ut o f co urt , in the ha llw ay . If t he y had a ll been moto rcyclist s it could have been settled in a fe w m inut es , but t ho se super-trick lawy e rs had some t rouble u nd ersta nd ing w hy one has t o enter a race in advance . One o f them couldn't even understand why a lia bilit y re lease had to be signed_ Wh ile the lawyers were d icing with each other Stu e ntertained us with sto ries of rac ing in Europe. F ina lly , a n agreement was reach ed. Th e Joneses wou ld drop th eir la w suit and have an apology p rinted in " Cyc le Wor ld ". They then wo uld be issued lice nses and be allowed to en te r CMC hear a true story about that p icture. It was to ld to me b y a small old m an a t las t ye ar's Inter -Am. Th e on ly identifica tion I could make o f him wa s a small n am e o n h is shi rt, " T or st en ". A n y way, he re go es. Man y ye ars ago in a sma ll to wn j ust ou tside V ienna the re was a d oct or : no t jus t an o rdi na ry doc tor, b u t a proc tologist. Being a very shy pe rso n he d id n ' t like to advertise hi s p rofessio nal specialty, so he often refe rred to h im se lf as a " RO -do c to r" . Several yea rs lat er in a gran d -pri x rna ro c ro ss in France a JDel and a T orsten were b attlin g it o ut in. th e first m o to. J ocl won , du e to th e fac t T or st en did n 't li ke to ru n ove r live p eo ple lying on th e trac k. T he second m o to was fie rce ! Joel was first agai n bur Torsren was cl o sing in . Over a GO-m ph jump Torsten stre tc he d h is H usky fo r th e win. T he stage was se t for a blood-letting th ird mo to, When the ga te we nt d own b oth ride rs we re handleb ar to han d lehar. Torste n fina lly go t the lea d: J oel was rid ing h is p ants off try in g to ca tch him . I t just so happened o ur' frien dl y u RO-docto r" w as at th is ra ce. An yway , J oel w as goi ng over a jump a t 8 0 mph an d he h it the gro u nd with a terrib le rrrruuu um mmppp right in front of th e d octor; and wh en h e hit , th a t 's exac tl y wh at they saw ! It w as th en wh en th e grea t old d octor yell ed , "J O E L RO -BAR E !" Send th at man a poster. • • • Don 't forge r. ! ~I ay 9 is electi on d ay in Ass embly District 49 , E lec t Richard Brownell the st ate asse m b ly m an - he' s a motorcyclist. Here' s our chance to vote fo r (no t against) someone running for office . By the way, things arc lookin g very good for Pomona's Mayor Brownell. Seems as th ough several can d id ates a rc co nsid erin g, dropping ou t and throwing their support to him. • • • Latest word on Dave Sm ith , inju red in a post-race accident at Road Atlanta: On Th ursday , Dave had an operation and had a blood clot removed from the base of the sk ull and is now in good condition. He had a sligh t concuss ion, bu t the clo t was causing most of the problems . The repo rt is that the clot Bet y ou're wondering who won Atlanta. Well , he re' s the sco o p . Sunday night afte r a n inte nse meeting S uzu ki d ec id ed to wit hd ra w their ap pe al of th e officia l protest on t h eir mac hin e. T o Yvon Du Ha m el a nd Ka wasa k i go a so mewhat tarn ished tro phy, a kis s (lo ng-dista nce) . from t he tro phy girl, an d th e p rize mo ney . Paul Sm a rt was seco nd o n a no t he r Kawasaki, Ge ne Rome ro got fourth on a Triumph an d "Bugs" Mann (BSA) was fifth. You won't see any "Ka wasaki takes first and second" ad vertisin g however. "It is an u nf ortunate situation w hi ch we ch o ose no t to take advantage o f ," said S k ip Newell at Kawasaki . Commen d able. The most unfortunate pa rt o f the entire situation is that some one could have been hurt trying to catch an illegal Su zu k i, or a Suzuki ~ider could have be en hurt pursuing so methin g that he couldn't have anyway, The big loser is Jody Nicholas. He put out a beautiful ride but reaped noth ing. Pe rhap s something can be done ab out such things in the future. Apparently S uz uki was told in the pre-race tech ins pe cti on that the heads di dn't look right. So here's to you, Yvon . Co ngrat u latio ns. * * * En tries at this year's Simi Vall e y :-I.C. Hare an d Hound were d o wn , thanks in part to th e Els in ore Grand Pri x and a De sert Racing A sso ciation race ju st on th e o the r side of Four C orn ers. Hopefully, these desert organ iza tio ns are co m munica ting with one another when they lay ou t courses. On e d ay two cou rse s are goin g to cross . c o nside r the p o ssibilities. * * * Gary Coll in s ov ersho t the n o rt h sweeper d ur ing the HRA Saturday n ight hal f-mile in Adelanto a nd did a bad number. Ho sp ital spokesman report that Gary is scheduled t o undergo surgery for a bro ken ja w on Monday afternoon. Listed as in " Fa irly satisfactory condition ", Gary 's visitors are restricted to im m ed iat e family , Those wishing to send card s, etc ., may do so c/o St . Bernadines Hospital , Room 208 , San Bernardino , Ca lif. • • CBS here in Los Angeles had a lot of go od things to sa y about Elsin ore. we ..re told, Maybe they have some hang-up ab o u t accurate news reporting. • • • Actress Ciia Scala F D I I ound ead no~ An~ele~ ij:"me£i MORNING ~ 1 fiNAl MO NDAY O"nge County EditIon I D EEKEND Motorcyclists,Roar Int o Elsinore Don 't look for the Healey/Ariel Square Four at your dealers anyti me soon. According to John Wyckoff, who had previously been en th usias tic about importing the bikes, 'T he British just aren't giving us the qual ity: The Yew-Lss-of-Ave could learn a lesson from the British experience wit h labor problems, Races Attract The LA Times get s o ur Motorcyciists~Make-Sensati o nal -Press awa rd. S igh. 150,000; Over 100 Injured

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