Round·up
ROUND·UP
JOE PARKHURST
WHERE IS he now? What is he doing this win moments? Is he riding in a club motocross somewhere in Ohio or Michigan? Is he an AMA Junior or Novice in New England? More than likely he is riding in one of the Southern California high school motocross events.
No matter. He is going to be the first American World Champion on a motorcycle. The day is coming when Americans will dominate motocross like no other na tion ever has.
The British have had their day. The Swedes were the best for years. Now it's Bel gians, Germans, Czechs and a Russian or two. But with the way motocross is growing in t country, with the way so y thousands of young sters are competing at such early ages, with the incredible rise in bicycle motocrossing, we are developing a nation of motocrossers. It won’t be too long until the World Champion, and probably most of the best riders in the world, will be Americans.
With America’s resources, leisure time, love of sporting competition and fascination with such things as motorcycles, we are developing riders at a rate unknown, even unattainable, in Europe. It’s a far cry already from just a short time ago when the American Motocross Team could just barely get an entry accepted for an event in Europe or England. It’s been nice to be a part of it. CYCLE WORLD will do something spectacular for the first World Champion. Can’t wait.
VANDALISM is a crime. Complete disregard for other people’s property is a crime. Just because the other people’s property is an oil company or manufacturer’s banner strung on a fence at a race, doesn’t mean it belongs to whoever is quickest to rip it off.
At the U.S. Grand Prix at Carlsbad, a couple of the spectators took their black art to an even higher degree by actually tearing down painted wooden blinders on the spectator bridges. They were caught and a real mix-up ensued when the people who own the signs tried to retrieve their property.
Worse, the Hot Hats concession stand was selling T-shirts. Some klutz reached in and grabbed a box of shirts and ran. The proprietor took off after him. Seeing him coming, the guy started throwing shirts to the crowd. The Hot Hats guy almost got beat up by the crowd for trying to retrieve his own property. It’s happening at almost every race.
It won’t be long until no one will be putting up banners and signs at races, no matter how much they need the advertising or how neat they make the track look. What the hell is happening to some people?
F YOU were wondering why I mentioned that I thought the first World Motocross Champion would probably be coming from the high school motocross programs in Southern California, it is because this may well be the next form of interscholastic competition offered here. Although the idea is meeting with some opposition, educators are beginning to realize something that gave enormous dissatisfaction to me and thousands of others in their prep school years; not all of us really get that enthused about football, baseball, basketball, etc.
I didn’t care for any of those games using a ball in which the sporting emphasis was on team effort. I wanted to do it all by myself. Some educators might call these kids uncooperative, incorrigible nonconformists. But the truth is that some guys just don’t get it off on a team playing with some dumb kind of a ball. To be penalized in school, as I was, because you won’t cooperate with the school jock and go out for one or another of the teams is just plain not fair or realistic.
The movement in Southern California seems to have begun at several schools among teachers who dig bikes. Huntington Beach High> is one of them. Bob Hill at Huntington Beach, and Tom Jacobson at Costa Mesa, CW’s neighbor hometown, both felt that a lot of students really don’t enjoy the “regular” sports, but still like to compete and ride bikes. Hill was the unofficial advisor for the school’s motorcycle club and took on the job as coach of their motocross team.
Although they operate without official sanction, they are competing at Orange County Raceway’s motocross track under the direction of Saddleback Park’s Vic Wilson. Several schools are doing the same thing, so a growing league of interscholastic motocross teams is developing.
During the intermission at the last Superbowl of Motocross, the “finals” were held.. Young Marty Smith, fully sponsored by Honda, was the star. Riding 125cc bikes, the high-schoolers were almost the show’s scene-stealers.
There are more than 160 riders in the Newport/Costa Mesa Districts. They recently got approval for District sanction of their events. Soon they expect approval from the C.I.F. as a fully-sanctioned interscholastic form of competition.
HE BAJA 1000 is on. November 6, 7 and 8 are the dates. Things will be a little different this year. The race will not go to La Paz, as I feared. It will work its way from Ensenada, through the area around Mike’s Sky Ranch, down the center of the peninsula to el Arco, over to the Gulf Coast and up the Eastern side, ending near Mexicali.
A fabulous race, of course, but eliminating the beauty of resting in La Paz. But from an economical viewpoint it will be better for the racers. Since it will finish not too far from where it began, it will ease the financial burdens of getting machines and crews to and from La Paz. It will also eliminate one of the best parts of the 1000. Sad.
The Baja Racing Association will stage the race. They have the blessings of Governor Milton Castellanos. I speculated that Micky Thompson’s SCORE might end up running the event, especially after his highly successful Baja 500 Internacionale in June. The Mexicans are guaranteeing a purse of $50,000 and there will be three classes for bikes.
Cycle World will be there, or at least a few hundred feet off the ground there in John McLaughlin's Cessna 185. John deserts his Honda agency in Durate, California to fly me all over the place. The least I can do is ask you to buy a bike from him sometime.
P ROFESSIONAL man agement has come to motorcycle racing. John Old man, Mert Lawwill, Dave Friedman and Jan C. Winn have put together an associa tion, called Motor Sports As sociates, that will personally manage riders and promote races.
The client list already in cludes Mert, Dick Mann, Mark Brelsford, Rick Hock ing, John Gennai, Jim Porn eroy, Mike Runyard, Rich Thorwaldson, Roger DeCos ter, Tim Hart, Al Baker, Sylvain Geboers, Pierre Kars makers, Jim Weinert, Cliff Carr and Paul Smart. They are at 8899 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles 90048 in case you are interested.
. INCE CYCLE WORLD has grown as a magazine of national importance, we have started receiving adver tising from firms in endeavors other than those of making or distributing motorcycles and accessories. One of them is cigarettes.
I am a smoker myself, but it doesn't mean that I want anyone else to smoke. Some cite the health hazards. Some call it a vile habit. Both are, of course, correct. I won't get into an argument about the pros and cons of smoking here. But, a long-time friend of CW, Bill Kaysing, ug gested that in order to n ter the "bad karma" of cigar ette advertising in CW, I should give equal time to his project. So, if the idea of smoking and cigarette adver tising puts you off, write for the Baccy Book, Box 147, Wilseyville, Calif.
OTO GUZZI in Italy is working hard on the development of an automatic transmission version of the 850 V7 for the California police, heavy users of the big Twin.
Guzzi's chief designer, Tonti, has had experience with automatics, having de signed a hydraulic transmis sion motor scooter ha n 1954. How soon do ou think we'll see it offered to the public?
