Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

·ore desert Jaclreaction would on rider's Pine California .. a til ~ w Z W ...J U > U be "Sand? Where?'" The sand was fairly deep though and if you missed a shift going up one of the hills you either went to the bottom and tried again or you pushed. But just in case sand really bothered you, there were alternate trails around both sand hills! The Jack Pine is an important run. Eigh t out of the top ten riders in the National Enduro Points standings were entered, looking for that elusive number 1. Bohn was leading, going into Jack Pine, by a whopping 36 points and with his win this weekend he is virtually uncatchable. But the race for second place is really getting interesting. There are six riders within 50 points of one another. Ed Schmidt, who was sixth this weekend, has probably moved into second with his Medium Class "A" win this. weekend, displacing Norman Ford who was entered but did not win his class. John Penton was in third spot in the poin ts standings and was looking for a win to put him in contention. Instead he was disqualified because he arrived at the finish check 16 minutes early. John contends that it was only 6 minutes, that the checker read the watch wrong, but he isn't going to protest. Bob Puckett was also entered, but since he didn't win his class, he will probably stay about where he is in the standings. Moving up fast is Ray Kussmaul who won the Jack Pine Class "A" championship. There are five Championships left, three on the West Coast, two in the East so the number two and three spots are still very much open to challenge. Bud Howesman, a California rider, is sitting patiently down in seventh spot waiting for some enduros out his way. From almost any viewpoint, this year's Jack Pine was an excellently organized and well-run event. It was tough enough so that only about one third of the 600 entrants completed the course, but not so tough that there were cries of "Foul!" The course was quite excellently marked so that it could be followed even without the elaborate route sheet provided. From talking to the expert riders one gets the impression that the checks were very well placed, indeed. They got caught! There was a different method of scoring this year, (Cont'd. from page 17) by rider-carried cards. TIllS method seems to work quite well. Results of the first day's run were posted within hours and results of the entire run were a\'ailable Monday morning by 7: 30. Quite a contrast with our western enduors. For more than 25 years the Jack Pine has been considered this country's best enduro. Having roamed the area and ridden a good portion of the run, I can see why. Ron Bohn checks his two wrist watches prior to the run on Sunday. He has a third clock on the handlebars along with a roll chart and speedo. Note the headlight. It might be legal but it wouldn't be much use in getting out of the woods at night. Mr. McKnight took a short cut to avoid the water crossing. Next year he'll find a short cut to avoid his current predicament and probably ride into a tiger's den. Tile Corduroy Trif/ls As told to Ron Schneiders by Gene Cannady SEPT. 26 ACE Motocross ChalipiolShips •• TN.a. TO ••••••• Many of the top Seniors and Juniors in U.S. battle for No, 1 plates and $1,000 cash purse, 300 top riders in the wildest two-wheeled action now going! All Classes. Pros race for big Cash Purse! Juniors, Trophies and prizes. First race 9:00 am. $2 Adults - $1 Juniors - Kids free. ·Open riding for non-eompetitors 7 days a week from dawn to dusk. 600 acres of Good Dirty Fun! Bring the entire family and enjoy hills, streams, picnic tables and 20-miles of shady trails, INDIAN DUNES PARK 28700 SaugllS - Ventwa Rd., Vale.cia, Calif. Take Int. 5 to Castaic Junction - Track entrance 2 mi. west on Hwy 126.Plenty of Free parking. Informat!on: (805) 259-8000 "If they threw this thing in California, t1ieY'd have 1,000 entires!" said an enthusiastic Gene Cannady. But in Coboconk, Ontario, high in Canada, the Corduroy Trials drew only 234 entries. Part of the reason there are so few entrants if, of course, the location: It's a long drive from almost anywhere. But in addition, they are bucking the Jack Pine enduro which is held the same weekend. The Corduroy used to be an enduro and it used to be held the weekend after Jack Pine. No more. Not it is a trials very similar to the ISDT and the Berkshire and as such it is a valuable training ground for ,our ISDT team. So John Penton sent almost aU of our trophy team up to compete in the Corduroy on the gigantic Penton bus. Jack and Jeff Penton, Dane Leimback, Jack Lehto, Dick Burleson, Gene Cannady and Lars Larson were entered. The frrst day was the worst with 217 miles of tigh t twisty trails with lots of logs and stumps and two special tests to complete. "Not too much mud," said Gen~. He was rather surprised, "But the trails generally were damp." There was some frreroads and it was nice for big hairy slides. The frrst special test was five miles 0 f trail to be ridden as fast as possible. That was in the morning. In the afternoon there was another test, this one a hilJclimb. "But not a hi11climb like we think of it," said Gene, "This was an uphill traiI with rocks and stumps and several tight turns in it." It, too, was timed. Near the end of the run Saturday was a 30-mile section of trail with no relief and that was where everyone lost their "golds", although in this traiIs it's trophies railier than medals. Even tireJas Jack -Reo toa-lost-Iline-f>oin t5J Speeds for the day varied between 20 and 30 mph. Sunday was a little bit easier: It was only 160 miles long. In the morning there was a special test similar to the frrst special test of Saturday, a timed cross-country run. In the afternoon, they had something different, four-section observed trials where you lost poin ts for "dabbing" and such. Gene thought it was kind of neat. High spot of Sunday was a water crossing to end aU water crossing. "It was a foll 100 feet wide and two feet deep," said Gene, "I don't know how those bikes kept running. I could hear the exhaust note change when the end of the pipe went under water'" Most of the team, including Gene, were riding Pentons and the exhaust comes out right under the seat, quite high up. By Sunday night the Americans had drained the cup, both bitter and sweet. The sweet was an overall victory by Jack Penton and virtual domination of the 125 class by Cannady (lst), Larsson -{2nd), Dane Leimbach (4th), and Dick Burleson (6th). The bitter was bad indeed. Jeff Penton, one of the trophy team members, broke his foot and will not be able to compete in the trials. His place will be taken by Dane Leimbach. Dane is a fine rider but he lacks the experience of Jeff. He was slated to ride on the manufacturers' teams in the trials this year. He is 20 years old. U.s. hopes in the big bike class at Corduroy rested with big Jack Lehto and his yellow Husky, but it broke . (transmission) and so the big gold bike stayed in Canada. The team arrived back in Lorain, Ohio, Monday morning and left Monday evening for Europe and the Six Days.

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