Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Cycle News 1965 10 06

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. e Motorcycle Journal VOL. n PRICE: 15 CENTS NO. 30 NEW NAME DECIDED -NEWMAN $25 WINNER (See page& 6 & 7) GUEST EDITORI AL THE MESS AT TULARE By Dale Boller EDITOR'S NOTE - Last week Dale described the recent races at Tulare County Fairgrounds. Hu report at that time ended . . . "So reads a factual report of the actual racing action at Tulare. It was fast , exciting and quite colorful with those sliding corners especially fun to watch." Hereunder follows the balance of that report, which was held over until thu usue so we could v erify it& complete accuracy by several eyewitnesses: . . . Nevertheless, the race as a whole would have to be labeled as an atrocity. Poor officiating and lighting conditions were the basic causes of the problem. To state the problems briefly: I. There was insufficient ligh ting on the race track. A woman would have felt unsafe alone on the turns it was so dark. Lack of light combined with flying dirt churned up by sliding rear wheels made visib ility practically zero. 2. There was insufficient flagging and no pick up men. Any rider who unloaded was expected to remove himself and his motorcycle from the . track with no help from anyone. 3. There was only one ambulance. When the lone ambulance left with an injured rider the show was delayed for half an hour while it was gone. Surely the Fair Board, which packs the grandstands every year for this event could afford to hire a second ambulance. 4. Nobody seemed to know who was running the show District Referee Hank Gendusa, or the gentleman in the black and white striped referee's sh irt who seemed to be giving the orders. And what order they were! Three examples of uncalled for incidents due t o poor officiating s houl d make clear the tone of the even t. I. The track was dragged before the Amateur semi and all the riders were given one practice la p to check the new surface. Jim Nicholson fouled a plug just before the practice and went to the pits and replaced it. Upon returning, he requested a practice lap and permission was granted by an official. Just after he took off, an official called the field out to line up on the starting grid. The boys pushed their bikes out and just as they got to the middle Of the track, Nicholson came out of ttlm four full bore. With n o brakes to stop, he immediate ly down-shifted, picked the pa th least infested by wandering people, somehow managed to miss hitting anyone and then slid to a stop in a cloud of dust. The first thing which greeted J im after doing a fine job of preventing a potentially serious accident for which he would not have been responsible was a tongue Iashing from the official with (Continued on Page 2) ENSENADA INTERNATIONAL SCRAMBLES Dirt action was the order of the day last weekend in Ensenada, Baja California. The course laid out by the Ensenada Motorcycle Club was reminiscent of the dusty scrambles of last decade, before every dirt course on this side of the border became a graded TT. It was a r ider's race course, one that horsepower alone couldn't win. In fact, Frank Morgan, with only 90Cc to his name, placed third in the swee psta kes race against all the big winners. Nor was it an easy course for the experts. Marion Massey, ri ding his second race, di dn' t h ave a no vice card, so he entered in the 650 expert class and won against some more experienced men. With the full cooperation of local authorities, next year's Ensenada scrambles should be bigger and better. It will be held on the first weekend in October, 1966. So look to your air cleaners. Frank Morgan fairly flew on Hodaka, beating lob of bigger bikeā€¢. Frank Harlan and his ._patak" trophy, donated by Sam Corona in honor of late Clemmie Ja-cbon and presented by the wife of Ensenada'. mayor, a large honor in Mexico. (Continued on Page 4) e- "' '-i"'=-=-~i:Cholson N ck N POUr$ it on during what he and other veterans ca lled "the roughest trials in history." CAL RIDERS " SW AMPED" In World Trails Three American motorcycle teams - one of them led by two 1964 gold medal winners - came up emptyhanded and dirty-faced two weeks ago in the International Six Days Trial run on the Isle of Man. The trials was won by an East German team. A Czechoslovokia team finished second. America's leading team, the Silver Vase A team of Triumph riders Bud Ekins, Dave Ekins, John Steen and Cliff Coleman, was completely eliminated before the event was half over. Heavy fog and driving rain made already marshy terrain almost impossible to navigate in an event trials riders called the roughest In history. Almost 220 of the 299 starters failed to finish. Of these, 131 dropped out on the third day alone. Dave Ekins, gold medal winner in last year's trials, quit late the third day when it became apparent he would faIl victim to the rule disqualifying any rider more than on e hour late to a checkpoint. Steen quit about the same time. So did Coleman, also a gold medal winner last year. Bud Ekins hung in, but was disqualified when he was 1 hour 3 minutes late to the final check on the third day. The Silver Vase B team met the same fate on the swampy course. Ail four Jawa riders were dropped the th ird day. Walt Axthelm was the first to go, flOOding his engine with water after a dive Into a river. ' By the time he got his water-locked engine to kick over, he was too late to remain in competition. Dick Vide, Mike Patrick and Bill Thorwaldson also went out - Patrick with a brok- -(Contin'\ted on Page 2)

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