Racing Review
RACING REVIEW
A COMMENT
The AMA national calendar may appear to have little to do with the road rider. But it does, in that it speaks of his loneliness and neglect. The AMA offers nothing of sporting value to him, nor does any other organization in America.
The American Motorcycle Association has announced the biggest and most varied calendar to appear in its history. There are 29 professional events counting towards the Grand National Championship, now held by HarleyDavidson factory rider Mert Lawwill. In addition, there are 21 Sportsman (nonprofessional) cross-country enduros counting towards a separate championship, three motocross nationals, and the usual single Hillclimb National for the boys back in the Muskegon area.
The big enduro schedule speaks graphically of the rise in trail riding participation. In 1970 we are sure to see the entry at one of these enduros top 1500—perhaps at the 500-mile Greenhorn.
Dirt riding clubs, who put on these enduros, are the backbone of the AMA Sportsman program. The dirt rider is well taken care of; he has his choice of enduros, hare scrambles, TT and motocross almost every weekend for the year.
But how about the road rider, who outnumbers the dirt rider many times over, and who is the real reason that so many people are making a good living in the motorcycle industry? It is impractical and expensive for him to go road racing, and he may find the risks too great.
If he just likes socializing, and can endure the placid pacing and interminable waiting in line involved in a weekend road run, he can find happiness. However, this is hardly competition, and a great many enthusiastic riders are repelled by the cornball aspect of road runs as they exist today.
The most available form of competition for the average road rider and his street bike is drag racing. He can take a stock road machine and run e.t. brackets at the drag strip, or move into the modified street classes.
What is obviously missing is the sort of activity which has been the domain of the amateur sports car crowd for years—time/speed/distance rallies, European-style road hillclimbs, and parking lot slaloms.
The tsd (time/speed/distance) rally, of which the now-defunct Johnson Motors Invitational Run is an example, would prove quite popular to many
street riders. It is run on public roads, at legal speeds, and requires conformance to a series of average speeds. Just about any street bike in existence could be used for the event if it is equipped with an accurate odometer, and the pilot has a stopwatch and can handle simple math. It is a contest of skill, and a trophy for winning such an event would really mean something.
Many sports car clubs also put on hillclimbs on a short stretch of mountain road, which has been closed off with cooperation of the local authorities. Speed is the determining factor. Hillclimbs, of course, are more difficult to put on, due to the official cooperation needed, insurance, timing equipment, etc. But a well-organized club can bring it off. Pavement slaloms are in much the same category, but are easier to organize, for they are not run on public roads.
The question is: how can such activities be established? Some of the impetus might come from the AMA, but they can do nothing unless riders everywhere make their interest known. The AMA is not a race-promoting body; it merely provides a set of rules for various types of competition, sanctions events, and keeps a points tally on which to base the award of a championship title.
Motorcycle tsd rallies, road hillclimbs and slaloms will only become established through organization at the grass roots level. "Grass roots" means: an interested group of riders who get together and go through the strain of promoting such an event, AMA sanction or no sanction at all. However, such groups are hard to come by.
The most likely grass roots source of such participation would be an enterprising motorcycle dealer, who would like to see his road bike customers have something more to do than ride back and forth from one shop to another. He could become the springboard for a rally club, just as sports car dealers often provide impetus for amateur events in their area. Their efforts are repaid in customer loyalty, enthusiasm and increased sales of rally accessories and speed equipment. If a bike dealer doesn't quite know how to begin, he might seek information from a sports car club.
The long-range benefit, of course, is that the road going motorcyclist could vent his enthusiasm with people of a similar frame of mind, who hold skill of pilotage in high esteem. Perhaps a large network of rally clubs would develop, in time, and serve as a concerted voice for the road rider, who is now not really part of an effective group, but only an involuntary loner in a nebulous group of other loners.
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When this happens, the American road rider, numbering in the millions, will have a lot more class and selfrespect than he has now.
THE NEW CHAMP?
Desert races have always been big affairs. Of the old ones, the now extinct Big Bear run for several years drew more than 800 entrants.
The end of 1969 saw the running of a possible new all-time biggie. This is, of course, the Barstow-to-Vegas Hare & Hound, an all-out race across the desolate scrub of the Southern California desert into Nevada.
All-out is an understatement. To be in the top placings, you've got to run through the sagebrush flats—which don't seem so flat when you're riding them on a bike—at more than 80 mph. Bravest of them all, apparently, was desert rat J.N. Roberts—who now works as a movie stunt rider. He rode a Husqvarna 405. Second overall was Gene Smith on a 650 Triumph; he was the 1st Open Expert machine in. Third in was a 360-cc Montesa ridden by Steve Kirk. Most remarkable was the performance of Terry Clark in the trailbike class. In spite of the fact that the trailbikes start 15 minutes after the bigger machines, Clark finished 56th overall on a Van Tech framed Kawasaki 100. That, people, is wfo!
There is another aspect to this race that is even more fascinating.
If you fix an average retail price of $700 on the 1300-plus entries in the Barstow-Vegas run, you have a total investment of more than $910,000 in motorcycles. Nearly a million dollars. Maybe more.
Further, the Barstow-Vegas race is only one race, in one district. Many erstwhile entrants were turned away.
CYCLE WORLD staffers Dan Hunt and Bryon "Clutch" Farnsworth recently rode the 1969 Cowbell 125-Mile National Enduro 700 miles to the North and were flabbergasted to discover they were starting with more than 1100 machines.
These incredible numbers are why the Japanese companies are getting interested in the dirt motorcycle market. They've stuck to road bikes in the past, because that traditionally has been the big market, worth the high-powered style of Japanese research and automated tooling.
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Now we have Yamaha's DT-1, Suzuki's Savage, Kawasaki's Bighorn. Honda, perhaps the most conservative company in regard to the dirt bike market, has countered with the SL350.
It all fits together. The Cowbell, the Barstow-Vegas run, and the appearance of these new Japanese machines are all symptoms of it. The dirt bike market is in the real bigtime now.
What does this mean to the buyer. For one thing, competition among the manufacturers is going to get even fiercer. Particularly among the Japanese. We've seen in the past few years the introduction of four very acceptable Japanese combination-use dirt bikes with lights. In the next two or three years, we predict that new models to come from across the sea, will be even better, to the point of surprising everyone.
RACING GROUP FORMS
An FIM-oriented road racing group has formed in the Midwest. Its goal is to increase the opportunity for riders in that part of the USA to compete in the hard pavement sport.
Membership has now surpassed 40, drawing mostly from the MinneapolisSt. Paul area where the new groupcalled the Central Roadracing Association—is centered. These are very eager fellows and 23 of them from the Twin Cities go as far as Virginia to ride AAMRR road races there. But there are closer tracks available: Donnybrooke, a new circuit at Hudson, Wis.; Greenwood near Des Moines; and Blackhawk and Meadowdale near Chicago. The CRA reports that tentative contacts with some of these tracks have proved encouraging.
The CRA plans to pay its own way, dues and race entry fees to be used to pay for track rentals, ambulance fees, insurance, etc. While the price may seem a bit stiff, such rider-member supported events are still a less expensive alternative than traveling from the Midwest to Virginia.
Displacement classes will be split along FIM rules, and the CRA will add production bike and sidecar classes if the interest warrants it. Of course, there is a possibility that the CRA could draw support from the active sidecar enthusiasts in Canada.
Interested parties may contact the CRA at 1396 W. 7th St., Saint Paul, Minn. 55102.
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AMA NATIONAL CALENDAR
