Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

DIRT DIGGERS EUROPEAN SCRAMBLES rider from the So. Cal. club, Jack Orndoff on a Husky. He was the man again today, taking a good lead and holding it all the way for the win. Fred Bayles was second followed by Jerry Skipper, both were on Huskies. After the noon break it started to get hot and the Experts start to get into the act, with a good group of 100cc Amateur/Experts. Mitch Mayes, No.2, has been holding a hot hand lately and he kept it going today with a win over Mitch Mayes won the Expert Trailbike etass then showed changing to a Husky and taking second in the Heavyweight. his Harley teammate and arch rival Terry Clark. Coris Brooks was third on a Hodaka. First Amateur went to the kid with the hairy helmet and fast Hodaka, Lucky Merritt. Now the big ones were on the line and the word was out that the course was really chopped up; big sand holes all over the place which makes for lots of end swapping and fast endo's. All the Combined 125-250 Amateur/Experts got off in good shape after the drop of the banner, and the leader at the smoke bomb riding the course like it was Ascot motocross was Jeff Wright on a new 250 Rickman. Right on his tail was the top 250 rider of the season, Larry Pfutzenreuter, on a new Bultaco, so now the battle was on. Pfutz has not been second to the bomb for a long time and he was hot after Wright. They went up into the tigh t twisty section and Pfutz was able to find the fast trail and straigh ten the curves out a little and catch Wright just before the fast fire road. Pfutz got on the fire road first and turned it on, giving Wright the dust to eat and moving out to a good lead which he held coming through the pits. Wright was second, and Jim Brown was third. Wright and Brown had mechanial trouble after that and had to pull into the pits and Pfutz just kept it on and pulled in for another good win. Lloyd Joines, moved up from about sixth spot to second and Tom Poteet moved into third on his Rickman. It's good to see Tom put it all together again after his bad crash of two months ago. Brooks took first 125 on a Carabela. The Open Amateur/E.xperts were the last race of the day, and Rich Thorwaldson took command right away on his Suzuki, coming through the pits like a half-miler. Second man through was a bit of a surprise being our 100cc champ, Mitch Mayes, now on a big 400cc Husky, giving Rich a good run for his money. Rick kept it turned up and came in with about a mile lead over our young Mitch Mayes who took first Amateur. Art Knapp caught Tom Muto on the last lap and came in third followed closely by Muto, both on Huskies. Dick Breker was next in. The Dirt Diggers did a good job and were one of the very few clubs that have ever been able to give us the results after the race. Usually we have to do the best we can at the finish line, but the Dirt Diggers know where it's at. RESULTS 100 NOVICE Neil Christman Hod Jeff Fries Suz Gary Charters Hod Rudy Abele Hod Rick Austin Hod 101-250 NOVICE Doug Winchell _ Bul Dean Dailey Oss Ron Parton CZ Tom Martin Bul Rick Jones BuJ 251-OPEN NOV. Jack Orndoff Hus Fred Bayles Hus Jerry Skipper .....•........Has Chuck Slayton Suz Mike Marsh GRe TRIAL A¥/EX. Mitch Mayes " H·D Terry Clark H·D Cordis Brooks Hod Jack Froelich Hod Larry Roeseler H·D 101-250 AM/EX. Larry Pfutzenreuter Bul Lloyd Joines Hus Tom Poteet Ric Hus Charlie Van De Voorde David Trip Hus 251-OPEN AM/EX. Rich ThorwaJdson Suz Mitch Mayes Hus Arthur Kanpp Hus Tom Muto Hus Dick Breker Hus Checkpoints' Owl.hoot Dusty But Successfull By Ron Schneiders Photos by Ellen Schneiders FOUR CORNERS, CAL., Aug. 15, 1971 - Sometimes logic leads people down strange paths. Anyone knows that no normal, sane individual wants to ride in the desert in the middle of August when the tempera lure's a blistering 11 2 degrees, right? But at night the temperature drops to a relatively cool 75 degrees. So throw events at night when it's cool. What could be more logical? Do I hear someone in the background snivelling softly, "But you can't see anything at night!" Well, that's true. But in most desert events it's so dusty you can't see anyway, right? So just throw a good, dusty event - only at night - and it'll be just like always, except cool. Strictly logical. With the logic established beyond reasonable doubt, desert riders simply made the moral choice and accepted night events as the new catagorical imperative. To date there have been two night enduros. Last night was the Checkpoint's Owllioot Enduro which was first in several respects. It was the frrst enduro to advertise that it was offering District 37 enduro points and it was the frrst to take the timekeeping part of the night time enduro riding seriously. They used odd-valued schedule speeds like 28 mph and 14 mph to make sure that the winner was really an enduro rider. The course layout was two loops in a figure 8 with the pits in the center which is easy on pit crews. The frrst loop was almost all dirt road and, from a terrain standpoint, dead easy. To add zest, the schedule speeds were brisk, 24 and 30 mph. To maintain a 30 mph average, you have to travel a good part of the time at speeds around 45 mph. If you fall behind a bit with a fouled plug, it's a 60 mph proposition almost immediately to catch up. In the night when it's dusty, schedule speeds that high can become, as Dave Evans put it, "suicidal." And it was dusty. AI Fox, who's ridden quite a few events since his migration from England a few years back, said it was the dustiest event he's ridden. Myself? Well, I've been riding desert races for the past few weeks so this enduro didn't seem all that dangerous or dusty to me. Depends on your perspective_ If you're in a cage with two tigers and someone takes one away, you feel safer, don't you? The second loop maintained the high schedule speeds but added a bit more difficult terrain. They threw in some broken desert with the kind of small hills or big whoop-de-doos, take your choice, that are particularly thrilling at night. As you crest one of these things, your headlight points straight out into space and you drop into what seems like a black pit. A couple miles of these can turn you into a fatalist or a nervous wreck real quick. Four Corners is justly famous for the world's deep~st sandwashes and we had the privilege of traversing one of its better specimens at 18 mph. You guys on Triumphs and 400 Huskies probably don't even remember that wash, but if you had any trailbike-riding friends, ask them about it. Chances are pretty good that you'll have to go. back to the sandwash to ask him because he's probably still there, with his engine screaming at 12,000 rpm in first, unable to pull second, throwing sand all over creation and not moving an inch. Forever. Winding up loop 2 was a quick run· down 12.4 miles of powerline road. The • road was fairly rough and it did a slalom around the poles. Here I must agree with Dave Evans that it was a bit dangerous. In the dust, with our rather meager lights, the poles themselves were often almost invisible which is quite exciting. There's just nothing like the thrill of doing a feet-up crossed-up broadslide through a tum and suddenly seeing a powerline pole loom up out of the night - about a foot from your handlebar. But some of those poles had guy wires and with those guy wires the situation became more than exciting. I doubt if I was the only rider who feared becoming a split personality on that road... This enduro was technically very well done. The mileages seemed as close to spot-on as any I've seen in a long time. Every time 1 had a chance to check, their mileage was within a couple of tenths of my own which is phenomenal. Their time keeping seemed very accurate, too. No one that I talked to seemed to have any gripes at all about timing or measureI!.'ent.. MarkinJ( was good overall, but for mghttlme course marking, I have to give the nod to the Prospectors, so far. 1 was always able to fmd the course, but quite often especially if I had to get off the trail to pass someone, I was uncertain for long minutes. Anytime you can follow a trail across the desert in the middle of the nigh t in heavy dust, that trail is damn well marked, but the Prospectors have me spoiled. So far there have been three runs this year where either lights or street-legal equipment were required. The entries have been higher in each successive event. The Checkpoints had approximately 420 riders. Talking to the guys after the run, it's apparent that they really liked the event and that many of them are developing a fondness for nigh t enduros. So far we've been very lucky in that the clubs who've elected to throw night events have been very responsible. Nobody's thrown a real bummer so far. I, for one, sure hope it stays that way. Lots of riders seem to be d.eveloping a tradition riding the night event and then driving somewhere to ride the next day. Talk about a lost weekend. It takes about a month to recover from two of these back-to-back no-sleep-between events, but it's the coming thing. Winners, of course, won't be known for a week or two or three, but I have it on good authority that Roy Sheridan zero'd not just a check but the entire run! Roy was riding with Bob Nichelsen who didn't do quite as well and Dave Evans who did lousy. (He got just a bit lost... ) The Checkpoints were going to try out a couple of the District's proposed new rules, specifically, Drawing "A" riders numbers first and not letting "A" and "B" riders go on the same minute. But since it was not announced on the posters, they decided not to try the new rules this time. But look for it on an eo,duro in ~he nea~ fu,l1Jrf·, , " .. .... 1 .... (I) ~ w Z W ..J tJ >tJ

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