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/142444
viding emergency repairs, there will be a big Yamaha pit parking area , space in which will be g iven to Yamaha-assisted riders as a first priority, then to other riders on a first come, first serve basis . Yamaha teamsters M ike Bell and Erik Kehoe will be there Saturday and Sunday to sign autographs and answer questions. Then to top off their $14,000 in contingencies and the 11 motorcycles they're giving away, Yamaha w ill be showing f ilms and giving away T-shirts at selected times during the week flyers will tell you when. After Ponca City, YCSTAT w ill pack up and head for Hurricane Mills, TN, site of the AMA Amateur and Youth MX Championships. BY PAPA WEALEY Denny Pyeatt receives fatal injuries in England By John Hipkiss LONDON , ENGLAND, JULY 19 Speedway has been shocked with the tragic death of America n rider Denny Pyeatt. Pyeatt, a 24-year-old from Woodland, CA, received fatal injuries in a track crash at Hackney, London last Friday evening while riding for his British League club, Read ing. He was very popular with fans and riders throughout Europe, and his quiet, gentlemanly manner will be sadly missed. In the days prior to the crash, Pyeatt was riding on the crest of a wave, having achieved his best British League score the previous evening at Wimbledon with 11 points. . The fatal crash happened in race nine when Pyeatt replaced an out-of-form rider. While he was dicing forthe lead with Bo Peterson, Hackney's Mervyn Cox - who was making his lead debut - clipped Pyeatt's rear wheel. and both riders crashed. Denny hit a lamp pole and died at 8:45 Saturday morning. Cox suffered a broken arm. The meeting was immediately abandoned, and Pyeatt's team manager stayed at his bedside throughout the night. In only his second fu ll season riding speedway in England, Pyeatt had never missed a meeting for the Reading Racers and only failed to score on four occasions. A memorial meeting has been planned for later this season. We extend our deepest sympathies t o Pyeatt's family and f riends. Lance King took fourth overall in the Under 21 Speedway Championship July 18in West Germany. Czech rider Antonin Kasper won the event wi th 13 points. King placed second in his firs t race , DNF his next heat when his engine blew , then won his next three rides. He scored II points and won the run-off for fourth. Franco Uncini (Suz) won the July 18 Yugoslavian round of the 500cc World Road Racing Championship, opening up a 20-point lead on Yamaha riders Kenny Roberts (who ON F with ignition failure) and Barry Sheene, who finished third in the event beh ind Graeme Crosby' (Yam ). Belgian GP winner Freddie Spencer finished fourth on the Honda NS500 and Suzuki's Randy Mamola was seventh. Uncini has 88 points; Roberts and Sheene have 68. 8 American Danny La Porte will come into the Aug. 1 U.S. round of the 250cc World Motocross Championship at Unadilla, NY, in the points lead. Sketchy reports from the J u ly 18 round in R ussia indicate tha t La Porte (Yam) turne d in a 1-2 moto tally against Georges Jobe's (Suz) 2-1, and that La Porte won on the basis of lowest ela psed time. In th e point standings, La Porte leads J obe, 173-167, and there are three rounds left. . '" Two-wheelers from the Funny Bike and Pro Stock categories joined the cars at t he National Hot Rod Association's Summernationals at Englishtown, NJ, July 17-18. In the Funny Bike class, Craig Bums (Kaw) turned in a 7 .91-second, 173.41 mph pass to defeat Kawasaki rider Terry Kizer's red-lighted 7.78/175.0geffort. Pro Stock saw the Kawasaki of Randy Mason defeat Suzuki's Terry Vance by the ilimmest of margins. Mason went 8 .811/147.54 over Vance 's 8 .818/147.78. Bruce Hammer has announced tha t T eam H ammer has hired Ken H oo gland as its new crew chief and Dave Harold as a race mechanic. Hoogla nd ran the pits and prepared the bike for the three endurance races that Team Hammer won in 1981 , and Harold has wrenched for Mike Bal dwin, Rich Sch lachter , Miles Baldwin and m ost recently Rh ys H oward . The team also signed Boonie Knott of Illinois as a relief rider and to replace J ohn Ulrich, who recently rebroke his collarbone and will miss three end urance races. The Yamaha Competition Support Technical Assistance Team (hereafter r~verred to as YCSTAT) will be at the NMA Grand National Championships at Ponca City, OK, July ~8:,~ug, 1 .lnaclditionto pro- Ca lifornia Assembly Bill 2397, wh ich would take the state's OHV Fund away fro m the Depart men t of Parks and Recrea tion and place it under the control ofan independent OHV Commission, will face a hearing before the Senate Wildlife and Reso urces Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 4. The time for the meeting is 7:30 p.m., and it will take plan' in Room 112 of th e State Capitol. All Sacramentoarea riders are urged to attend the hearing in support of the measure. For those living in other parts of the state, it's no t too late to write your Senator and urge his/her support of the bill. Assem blyman Bruce Young (D-Downey) is its author. Northwest Motocross Enterprises will be presenting the Washougal/, Yamaha 125/500cc National Motocross at Washougal Motocross Park on Aug. 8 . One of the finest natural terrain facilities in the country, Washougal is just north of the Columbia river in southwestern Washington . Discount tickets are available at participating Yamaha dealers in the area . For more information on the event, which could see a National MX Champion or two crowned, call 503/620-5301. L O P Products has moved from Ill inois to Arizo na. The new address is 5306W. Missouri, Glendale, AZ 8530 1. The new p hone number is 602/9340983. Domiracer, an Ohio-based distributing company specializing in British motorcycles, has recently increased their considerable stock w ith three bulk purchases. These included a vast amount of WW II and early '50s spares for BSA, Matchless, Norton, Triumph and other military machines from the Republic of Singapore. Also purchased were the total Triumph and Norton spares stock of the former Quebec, Canada, importers covering model years from the early '60s through 1976, and the entire Royal Enfield spares stock of Gene Shillingford and Sons, Inc. That brings Domirecer's spares inventory up to a value of $8 million. The California -Firernan 's Olymp ics will be held in northern California during August, and one of the events will be a motocross. That event will be held Aug. 6 at Baylands Ra ceway in Fremont. More than a race, it 's also a benefit for the Santa Clara Valley Med ical Center's bum ward. Racing gets underway a 6 p .m. Tickets are $4 for adults, $2 for juniors, and kids wa tch for free. For more info, con tact Bob Webster at 408/ 246-5681. Unintentionally overlooked in last week's Battle of the Twins coverage was Dave Roper, who took the lead after Dave Aldana dropped out; It markfMI the first·time a Har- ley has led BOTT Series Champ Jimmy Adamo in the dry and while Adamo's Ducati was running well, according to Rob lanucchi, owner/ tuner of Roper's mount. Anyway, Roper led for a couple of laps until he couldn't grab enough throttle coming out of turn nine. Adamo flashed past, but by the t ime they got to the Corkscrew, Roper had closed up. Adamo zipped around a lappee, who was startled and vee red into Roper, causing him to crash. The first of three races in the Coppa Mille Dollari MX series took pl ace July 11 in San Severino, Italy. Arizo na's Carlos Serrano, on a factory Beta , took a 17th in the first rnoto after being stuck behind a fallen rider, and a sixth in moto two . There was no informa tion on how he p laced overall or who won. Goodyear has ann'ounced it is phasing out motorcycle tire production in the U.S. and plans to be totally withdrawn from that market by October. "With a continuing rise in production and distribution costs for American manufacturers and the current decline in the mo.torcycle and motorcycle tire market in the U.S., we had no reasonable alternative to w ithdrawal, " said Scott H. Buzby, president of Goodyear's Tire Divisinn. "Our gradual phase-out will enable us to meet obligations to our original equipment customers until they can obtain new sources of supply," Buzby said. Goodyear supplies tires to Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki. In the replacement market, Buzby said, the company will assist its network of cycle tire distributors until they take on other lines. Late last year Goodyear shifted its cycle tire production from New Bedford, MA, to its tire production facility in Jackson, MI. With termination of production, about 30 jobs at the Jackson plant will be eliminated. The plant also produces auto and light truck tires. Production of specialized racing motorcycle tires will be continued at Goodyear's new technical center in Akron where the company manufactures all of its racing tires. The AMA Grand National Championship /Winsto n ' Pro Series TT scheduled for July 16 at Santa Fe Park in Hinsdale, IL, was rained out. Automobile racing in the facility on Saturday and Sunday nights kept the ' event from bein g run d uring the weekend, and the race has been resched uled to Saturday, July 31. At presstime it was not yet deter m in ed whe ther the race will be run du ring the day or in the eveni ng. HosPITal STOP: Honda minicycle ace Mouse McCoy fell during practice on Wednesday, July 14 and suffered three broken bones in his right foot. Mouse is back home at the moment, but it's uncertain as to whether or not he'll be able to compete in the NMA Grand National Championships at Ponca City, OK , later this !1'ont h . T he NMA Grand Nationals in Ponca City, OK, have already attracted 2,026 pre -entries. All those entries will have a chance to par ade through Po nca City on Thursday, J ul y 29. Superbowl winner Mike Bell will be the parade's grand marshall. Also on T h ursday n ight a t Ponca Ci ty wi ll be a big country and western show featuring MCA record ing star George S~rait and Bql}l'} i.e ~Nc;;l~n ~ ,~ . '.-\- " ' .