Here are some brief notes, none of which you will find interesting or entertaining, probably.
1. Rumors abound that King Kenny Roberts will be in Vegas
later this year to accept some kind of lifetime achievement award at the
AMA awards banquet and be bestowed the status of The Big Daddy of All Time,
or something like that from the AMA.
I'd
just like to point out that the last time I saw Roberts was in the hotel
lobby at Daytona where he looked to be having stern words with a man who
looked like the AMA's Ed Youngblood.
2. Other well-placed rumors have it that Nick Chainsnatch has finished restoring King Kenny's OW68 circa 1979 Yamaha GP bike and that zee King will be taking a few laps on the thing at the Vegas Motor Speedway, for an upcoming story in Sport Rider Magazine.
3. Former GP rider Mike Duff, a Canadian no less, who scored a 250 win at Assen in 1962 and a pair of 500 wins in 1964 & '65 (finishing second in the 250 class in 1965 to Phil Read) showed up this year at the Assen Historic races looking a bit different than the last time some had seen him. Duff, according to a report in the UK magazine Classic Racer, has undergone a sex change and now goes by the name Michele Duff. A quote from Mr/Ms. Duff in the body text written by Brit scribe Mick Wollett states, "We've all changed a bit over the years. Me more than most I guess ..."
4. Former Lawyer turned motorcyclist, then writer and then informal public relations arm for the entire Italian motorcycle industry, and a man known far and wide as someone who can write one 45 word sentence after another, Alan Cathcart, borrowed Duff a Matchless G50 for a few laps at Assen.
5. Good guy Knobby Clark, who changed diapers on Mike Hailwood's kids, tuned for he and and Read and Roberts, is now working at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC.
6. There's talk that Neil Hodgson might show up on a GP bike this weekend at the Grand Prix.
That's all. --Dean Adams