Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

pio n , underwent knee surgery recently a t St. Joseph 's H osp ita l in Orange, CA. O ver a telep ho ne co nv ersa tio n, " Sh u" sai d, " My rig h t knee is tig h t as a drum now. They used co w liga me nts to tie it up, and it wo n 't pop o u t agai n. I ca n' t remember wh en I h ad a good kn ee o n th at side." Sh u lt z sa id he would be re leased from the hosp ita l Sep t. 18, a n d would sp end a m onth in a cas t before beginn ing thera py a nd training for the 1983 seaso n . " Next year I'm going to win Ana heim instead of just lea d it. " Get well ca rds ca n be sent to Sh ultz in care of Am er ican Honda, 100 West Alo nda Blvd., Gard ena, CA 90247. Elsew here in this issue is an update on the continuing controversy between the AMA and three major m anuf act u rers regardin g A MA m ot ocross. As reported, AMA represent at iv es met with Ho nda and Su zuki on Monday, Sept. 20, and w e talked wit h Gary Smit h, Ho nda's representat ive on the A MA Board of Trust ees and a participa nt in the Hondal AMA meet ing that included Ed Youngblood, J ohn Hasty and W ayne Moulton. "The result s of the meeting will not be know n for at least a few day s," said Smith when we contact ed hi m by phone M on day aftern oon. " We made a proposal, they made a proposal . A tthis pointthings are stat us quo. No decisions were made, nothing has been settled. The ' 8 3 MX form at as approved by the AMA Board of Trustees remains un accept able to us . We briefly discu ssed the Trans-USA , bu t we've m ade up our minds. " Asked if t he Mike Goodwin proposal (outlined elsew here in this issue) was discu ssed, Smit h said no. Asked if any anti-trust litigation was discu ss e d, S m i t h replie d, "N o comm ent." Ca li fo rnia Governo r Jerry Brown signed into la w AB2397, wh ich creates an independent OHV Commission to administer th e sta te's OHV Fund. That's one for our side, and in another signin g, a bill by Asse m blywo m a n Marion LaFollette becomes la w a nd will allow you to park yo u r Green Stickle-reg istered machine on p ublic streets. A 42-rider f ield is expected f or t he Coors Motorcycle Grand Prix that w ill run Sept . 26 at the Caesar s Palace Gra nd Prix in Las Vegas , NV. Top ranking pr ivateers such as Harry Klinzm ann, Tha d Wolff, Nicky Richichi, Jon Woo, John Lon g, Da vid Emde, Rhys How ard and Miles Baldw in will head t he field. Dave A lda na will be riding a Team Honda mount, and Dave Bu sby will be aboard Roberto Pietri's RG500 Suzuki. The Form ula On e cars will run on Satu rda y alon g w ith a motorcycle exhibition; then t he bikes share the billing wit hTrans-A m cars on Sunday . Fass Gass has signed to su p port, for 1983, Bryan Abe rna th y of Arlington, TX. Bryan w ill co m pete in GNC, N MA and AMA local, regio n al a nd na tio nal events. Texas motocross pioneer Wyman Priddy passed away in his sleep in the morning hours of Sept. 14. Wyman rode for every brand of competitive MX bike in the early '70s and spent time on f act ory Kawasaki s. He was renowned as America's best holeshot artist and show ed Kent Howerton, Steve Stackable and Steve Wise the w ay into national motocross. He leaves his wif e Rem oh and two daug h t ers. aged four years and two and a .half months. Cards and letters can be sent to the Priddy family c /o 7200 Meadowbrook, Fort Worth. TX 76112. He will be missed by m any. Godspeed Wyman. Form er San Jose Mil e wi n n er Stev e E klu n d didn 't h ave a good da y in front of the home town crowd . Ekl u nd q ualified for the second ro w of the fourth h eat, but dropped o ut with mech a n ical ill s before th e race was halfway over. Alex Jorgensen wa s another rider who had his day at Sa n Jose end early by mach ine failu re. If you've been calling Malcolm Smith Products recently and aski n g for Malcolm. he probably wasn't in . Malcolm just returned from Africa. where he took first overall in the car division of the Roof of Africa Rally. a three-day, 1500-kilometer event in South Africa. The win gave Malcolm the honor of being the only person to ever win both the car and motorcycle divisions of the event, having won the two-wheeled class in 1976 on a KTM. The '82 motorcycle division was taken by South African St uart Beatty on a Yamaha.' Also riding a Yamaha in the event was American Rex Staten, who finished eighth. Continental Mo to-spo rts Club hea d Stu Peters says that World 250cc MX Cha m p Danny L aPort e will be ridin g the CM C Trans-Ca l MX Series (referr ed to in th ese p ages earli er as the CMC Western States C ha m pionship) . Peters says that LaPort e will ride the en tire ser ies, which ru ns Sept. 26 throug h Oc t. 24. Peters als o said th at Wo rl d 500cc MX C ha mp Brad Lackey has exp ressed a desire to ride a t leas t part of the seri es, dep endin g on th e ava ila bi li ty of machinery. Lackey's Suzuki contract expired after the GPs en ded, and Brad has not yet signed a new co ntract. The CMC Trans-Cal MX Series, which starts Sept . 2 5 -2 6 at Saddleback Park, has picked up a sponsor, the first non-motorcycleindustry sponsor in CMC's history. Miller High Life Beer will be backing the five-race series. • Goodwin proposal fails to reach AMA; AMA, manufacturers meet By Tom Mueller Su percro ss promoter Mi ke Goodwin's 16-page proposal (mentioned in last week's report on the curren t MX controversy), which offers su ggestions for creating a new arm o f the AMA for p ro racing, never reached the AM A. Fu ll copies of the proposal were sent to th e promoters we co ntacted, but as o f Monday, Sept. 20, the proposal had not reached AMA executive di rector Ed Youngblood's office: We tried to co n tact Goodwin co nc erning a possible mix-up, bu t were told he was sick and unavailable. The proposal is bas ed on p ro MX problems, but C lass C racing is a lso mentioned . T he current AMAIWinsto n (sponsor of the Grand National Championship dirt tra ck/road race series) contract excludes the AMA from signing another tobacco company for sponsors hip of AMA racing . " T h e best of all wo rlds is to have Win sto n invo lved in bo th sides (Cl ass C an d MX) and I hope they will be." said Goodwin in the proposal. Goodwi n wan ts the AMAIWinston contract modified so that if Winston decides not to get involved w ith MX, other tobacco companies coul d be ap p roa ch ed w ith sponsorship p ro posa ls for MX . In another sectio n of G oodwin 's proposa l, he suggests tr imming the AMA's p ro race dep artment staff. "T h ree to six people can do th e jobs, wh ich curre ntly 14 are hand li n g an d there is excessive waste (or profit) in the (AMA) racing departme nt, " th e proposal says. " We n eed to be reali stic and set some goals for '83." said Larry Maiers, who sat in on the initial reading of the proposal. "Maybe we can't change everything, but we h ave to get things working. The promoters and manufacturers don 't want to shaft anyone. Everyone feels strongly that some changes need to be made right away, . but I don't think it should be u n der any threat situations. Everyone wants immediate concessions, but Youngblood is going to need some time to work this out. There are no two ways about it - this new arm has to be through th e AMA. If it is formed outside the AMA , the AMA's structure (co n cernin g legislative matters) cannot be disturbed. " In direct reply to the factories, Goodwin proposes 15Supercross races and 10 outdoor ra ces for the '83 MX schedule. The outdoor rounds would run J25, 250 and 500cc National classes on the same day. Maiers and outdoor promoter Bill West suggested a possible run-off at the end of each round, where the top five or 10 riders from each class would run against THE NATIONAL PAPERS The decider The old saying of " T h e Luck of the Irish " certainly does not apply to AMA Grand National Championship racing. How about "The Luck of the Armenians" for a more complete update? J .C. Agajanian will once again play host to the final AMAIWinston Pro Series ra ce on Saturday night, Sept. 25, at Ascot. It will be the 27th and final one of th e year. Last year at th e same time, Gary Scott and Mike Kidd ca m e into the same event tied for the points lead. Kidd came up wi th the title, but neither rider won the main event. A few yea rs ago it was Jay Springsteen and Steve Eklund taking it down to the Ascot fin al for the crown. Jay held off Steve by a few scant yards in th e final and the two riders ran away for a 1-2 finish . We could go on and on about how many times in recent seasons that it has all been decided at Ascot. What's in store th is time? Heading into las t we ek' s San Jose Mil e R icky G raham was a mere eight , poin ts in front of Springsteen. Twenty poin ts are awarded to all National event winners. Fo r the p as t severa l weeks, it has looked like eac h rider an d failed to gi ve th e tit le to the other. G raham had a string of cra shes from m id -August to Sep tem ber that allowed J a y to catch a nd pass ' him. Springsteen had n o m o re than taken th e lead whe n he fell , not once, but twice in th e same ra ce that Ricky went o ut an d won to regain the points lead. At Syracuse Graham passed nobody while Springer just m issed the win to close to eight points and almost insure I • , .. ~ . • ••• • • • .each other under a staggered start format (slo west class fir st, fastest class last) to decide th e top ri der at each even t. A modified propos a l was released from Goodwin 's office o n Sept. 17, wh ich calls for two Supercro ss reps on the proposed ra cing board, in stead o f th e ini tial request for o ne Supercro ss rep. Another change in the modified proposal deals wi th the AMA 's amateur MX program. Revisions were called for in the initial proposal, while th e m odified proposal calls for th e a m a teur program to remain in its current format. The AMA is continuing to examine the possiblity of filing an antitrust suit against th e J apanese factories who pulled their en tr ies from the AMA Trans-USA Series, then entered those riders in the conflicting CMC Series. O ne of our sources reported the AMA has spent $12,000 to date researching the matter. AMA executive director Youngblood, along with Board of Trustees treasurer J oh n Hasty and Class B R ep Wayne Moulton of Triumph, met with representatives from Honda and Suzuki on Monday, Sept. 20. The two companies sent th e AMA letters of inquiry concerning final plans for the '83 MX season on Sept. 7. " No decisions ha ve been made," said Youngblood concerning any anti-trust actions. " An anti-trust suit would take a decisio n from the Boa rd of Trustees, and no me eti ng concerning that has been h eld. Our legal counsel is looking in to a ll the possibilities." • that th e Ascot H a lf Mile will again be the decider . Bu t it co uld well end up that n either rider wins the main event but one takes the title, just like last year. They h ave run five half miles this year and come up with five winners. P lu s, there are no less than 16 active former half mile winners still on the circuit! Ra n dy Goss and Scott Parker could be two of the so-called spoilers. They both came up to m e at Syracuse and .said , " Please tell th e people at Ascot to put water - lo ts of water - on the track this time." Pa rker won the race in May with Graham in third and Goss/Spnngsteen r id ing like they were on ball bearings in the back of the pack. Even though Aggie is in the used-food (garbage) business, h e still has access to plenty of water. The message has been passed on. . A twist of fate shows th a t only four riders have qualified for all of the previous half mile finals where the points are paid . Graham and Springsteen are not on that list. The half mile point leader is Texan Terry Poovey, whose second place finish at Ascot in May was his best effort at th e trgck to date. " Q u ick Rick" will have to pull off a slick trick, though, to out-think the winningest rider of all time, especially o n the track whe re the ace from Michigan has won th ree times in the past. To add to the woes of Graham, wh o has never won the Asco t event, a total of seven for m er Asco t National winners are off icia lly entered for th e final race ever u n der th e Winston banner. All the riders on the Na tional circui t become " Ca m el Jockeys," so to speak. About the only thing cer tai n re garding the outcome of the Sept. 25 finale is that no new Michigan rider will win the event. All of the current ones, a total of four, will be there and all have won the race at lea st once. Roxy Rockwood ., . " ..... ~ I 3

• Cover