Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

..... " f6' 11. N ..... en By Bob F. Read After seve n n a ti onal ra ces the th eo ry th a t th e so -called " Priva te e r" canno t compete ap pears to b e somewhat hollow. Private mach ines h ave won four of the firs t seve n eve nts. Joh n H ateIey, Don Emde a nd J im Rice , twice , have all wheeled in to wi nner's circles on T riumph, Y am ah a and BSA w ithout the b en e fi t of full fa ctory su ppor t. It still goes b ac k to the id e a that it is no t where a mechan ic works, bu t rath e r, how he p uts the m t oge th er. A rider is no t alway s fast because h e is on a "Team", or getting factory salaries or bonuses. The cost of racing h as gone up. Everything h as gone up. What is of con ce rn is the cost of ro ad ra cin g. Who else but the distrib utors can afford the total cost? All ro ad race even ts now req ui re a rider to be there for a min imum o f three d ays. Add to th is th e travel, at le ast two days each way, Dr an expensive plane ticket and then to tal the p lane, m o tel and food for abou t seven . d ay s and yo u h ave the basic c ost of one ro ad ra ce meeting. Don't forget the gasoline . , If factory backed, or sp onsored, riders an d ma ch ines have an e dge it is in ro ad racing, at le as t through the first p ortion of the nationa l schedu le . F or y ea rs the Europeans, and especially the English, made m an y j o k es ab o u t the co lored racing leath ers and the fu ll coverage h el me ts. It seems as tho ugh th e tradition-minded pe op le have fin ally j oi ned us without much of a figh t. Many c om p an ie s in E urope ar e now m aking fu ll coverage he lmets an d m any more a re jump ing on the band wagon to fin ally add a little tou ch of class, and brigh tness, to th e ir ra cers. Agostini recen t1y wore one of the b righ tes t racing su its ever seen on the foreign circuits. So the USA can take cre d it fo r the cu rrent helmets and le ath ers. We st ill h ave an idea that the British cycle press w ill find a way to be the fir st to "Discover" these items. T hey are still amazed th at Cal Rayborn re ally kn ew how to ro ad race. Wait until the A MA c omes u p with a nationa l road race schedule that does not co n flic t with th eir English and Italian even ts and will allow a whole gang o f riders from here to 'g o there w it ho ut p inchi ng for time for th e all im p or tan t na tional road races over here. T he n a tion als n ow swing t o the midwest and east fo r the month of June. Two half m iles and two road races. T he Californians, wh o h ave dom inated everything t o this p oint, h ave their work cut o u t for them on the two half m ile s a t Lo uisville and Columbus as th ese were two the y d id n o t w in last y e ar. Bart Ma rkel and Dave Sehl have dominated L ouisville sin ce the n ationals star te d th e re . Markel w ill not be aro u n d this time but Seh l is ready . C o lumbus, which belonged to Bart la st year, is a nybody's gu ess. A n added attraction at Lousiville will be "The Flying Cycles" jumping ac t. T his is the only ju mp ac t th at uses tw o riders that meet in mid-air between the ramps. The two riders , R ex Blackwell and Gary Davis , u se , BSA 500 MX m ach ines. They will a ctually jump the d ay a f te r the natio nal on Sunday af te rno on . June 4 til a t the $3,0 0 0 n on -n a t io na l h al f mile a t the sa me locat io n as th e n ation al. Repor ts f rom the New E ng land De alers Association, the sp onsors of the Loudon road ra ces, s1ly tha t th is eve n t will be the best ever. Northeast fa ns ge t the ro ad races o n June II while the southeast fa n s get the non -natio nal m ile at Atlanta. Many top riders not ra cing p avement thi s year are expec ted to b e in Atlanta along w ith a few who normally ra ce p avemen t but are passing up CYCLE HOUSE ANAHEIM OPENS Loudon for the m a gic mile . More than enoug h good riders fo r both events. No decisio n a s y et from th e AMA as to what the penalty w ill b e for Suzuki, o r th e riders, reg arding th e illegal e quipment a t the Atlanta N ational road races. At least o n e di rt track racer las t • year was suspended for more than thi rty days for a similar infraction. Some of the most avid raci n g fans must be in th e Northwest. When the fans and the radio stations around the Seattle area fou nd out that th e San J ose Mile N atio nal was not on the AMA netwo rk th ey all got together and sen t th e lo ca l stations to San Jose. T here th ey con'lac te d R ox y d oes the radio Roc kw o od , wh o broadcasts for the network , and asked him if h e would d o the show for th e listeners as well as doing the trackside callings. The e n d result was th at Reno, Nevada also wanted the same thin g so Roxy ended u p with a t able fu ll o f mi crophones f or ab out four d ifferen t ou tlets. . lie told us after th e races that the Seattle station h a d su ch a grea t re spon se from the early network ra ce s that they wan ted a ll of th e Nation a ls p iped in! Hats off to R adio-K'I'W in Seattle and KNEW in Ren o. T he San Jose Mile was in ne ar perfe ct condition af te r fourte en years of no Replace racing. Promote r Bob Bark hi m er and track chief Harold Murrell spent many dollars and h ou rs getting it read y. The riders had the track down to the thirty-nine se cond mark "in practice. Murre ll is the same person w ho will put the Atlanta Mile in shape for the June 11 ra ce d ate . D o fans like a Mile? By seven in the mo rning on race day at San Jose t here were more than three thousand peop le standing in line waiting for th e 9 :00 AM ticket office and grandstand opening. By noon the p la ce was packed and the ' ra ces d id no t star t until an an nou nc ed 2:00 PM . Promo ter Barkhimer n early fain ted d uri ng the races when the Fa irgrounds man ager st ated th at , th er e h ad been mention of cu tting off one turn o f th e Mile fo r additional buildings, After h e saw the cro w d and the gre at racing he res cinded the state m ent. One of th e many w ays to mak e a promo ter age faster - especially w h en you have th e only Mi le on th e west coast , an d waited fourteen lon g y ea rs t o get it. Anothe r way to get gr ay hair in a hurry ? They h ad t o open up the infie ld at S an Jose for stan di ng ro om o n ly late-comers. The first thing th at happen ed w as somebody threw a cigarette down and started a gr ass fir e! It w as reported th at not o n ly Jim LUCAS with ~ L CAS British motor cycles a re noted for excellent quality a nd reliability. Their makers protect this fine reputat ion by using the finest original equ ipment obtainable. W ith electrical components and shock ab- so rbe rs this fine or igina l equipment is made by lucas a nd Girting. Re ason enough why ow ne rs-who will settle for noth ing short of long-life, pe ak perform a nce-insist on replacing l ucas with luc as. IN The Cycle House c e le b ra ted its Grand Opening at 1201 A East Ball R o ad in Anaheim and m ore th an 3 0 0 0 fri ends tu rn e d ou t t o ra p w it h Pre ston Petty, , Wh it ey Martin o an d t o se e Jeff Koskie rid e a mi n ia tu re trials se t u p . They a lso too k ad van ta ge o f special sa le s, consu lting exp erts , dem onstrations of vario u s item s, saw mo torcy cle m o vie s . an d p ar ti cipate d in h ourly drawings fo r prizes. . The Cy cl e Ho use is h ere to stay an d ap pare n tly a lo t o f p e op le are h ap p y th ey are. They are o pen fro m 9 to 9 Mon. throu gh S a tu rd ay an d from 10 to 6 on Sunday s. Phone (7 14) 776·1 250. Ri ce, b ut three ad d itio nal riders, got into the tu rns so hot that th ey n icked the inside rail. Rice, however, was th e o n ly rider to be damaged . After seven natio nal races no rider has scored n atio n al points in all of the eve n ts. Three riders, h o weve r, have scored in six . The two rookies , Gary Scott and Ke n Roberts, pl us veteran Eddie Mu lder are the three . Bob Bailey, self made king of the privateers, is p aying off like a slot machine in"his guara nteed contingency mone y to the AMA race program . Bre lsford and Rice w ere both u sin g h is p ip es at Ascot and San J ose. Each collected a thousand green ones fo r u sing the black ones . If this keeps u p Bob may n o t h ave en ou gh money fo r claimi ng purposes when On tario rolls ar ou n d on O ctober 1st. Excelle n t p ipes, by the w ay. Many are still th in k in g that with th e new n ation al p oint sc o ring sy stem this ye ar , the se ason is still to o young to ge t any picture a s to wh o will fight it out for the t op ten or twenty point fu nd p aying p ositions. T h e p oin ts p ay heavy to t h e fir st three fin ish sp ots an d four or liv e go od runs in those place s will p ut an y rider in th e hunt. Wait until early August before yo u star t deciding who will be in c onte ntio n by th e fir st .o f Octo b er. Genuine lucas replacements a re a vaila ble at British motorcyc le importers and dealers everywh ere. JO SEPH LUCAS NORTH AME RICA INC. 30 Va n Nostra nd Avenue. Englewood, N. I. 07631 Also at Baltimore, Boston , Ch icago, Denver, Houston, Jacksonville, los Ange les , S an Franc isco and Seattle cD c " .., ::l ~ w Z W ..J U >U

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