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o i- lL ... N Cl> ~ U o ~ W Z W -J (J >(J This ""as the Check Chase ... And, at the end, in utter exhaustion; the by Alice Rhea PARKER, ARIZ., Oct. 7, 1972 - "I didn't know how big a kad 1 had," Larry Pfutzen""u tt'r said at the finish line. "I looked back and all I could see was this big roostertail of wet sand." One thousand-plus riders, all sick and nervous, lined up at Ludlow, California for the 22nd Annual Check Chase. Checkers evidently had big bikes in mind when they choS" the starting area. The bomb run was soft and sligh tly up hill and you could get 100 MPH, if you had the horst'power. The banner dropped, the ground shook, and every thing disappeared in a cloud of dust as the racers charged toward Parker. At gas check one, the pit crews, n"fYousiy waiting for their riders, were craning their necks at the approaching cloud of dust. "Who is it?" they asked each other. "Can't tell. Light shirt, maybe white or yellow." Tension mounted. UNo, ]. can't see what color his helmet is." "Wow, it's Larry!" cam.e the shouts as the Sled Riders' pit crew recognized Pfutz<:nreuter hard:<:harging at them. At the bomb, Larry was running about 15th or 20th but, shortly after the bomb, the course ran down a road and in the blinding dust, Larry began to pick off the riders ahead of him. Then the course dropped in to a cobby arroyo and wiley Larry saw a spot of lime off to his right. He picked the faster, smoother line, passing the ""st of the people wbo were ahead of him. As Gene Cannady pulled in to the pits, Larry was leaving. But the course was nice, flat desert and Cannady dialed the power to the prototype Honda and had begun closing the gap when Larry ducked in to the tunnel under the railroad track. "I had my helmet on the tank," Larry said, "and my head was still bumping along the top of the tunnel." He killed his engine and Cannady sat behind him and waited while Larry kicked the Bultaco back to life. Again he killed the engine, and Cannady must have been wishing that tunnel was just a couple of feet wide as here was his chance to get by and take the lead, but he tunnel just had room for one bike at a time and again Gene waited while Larry kicked. Emerging from the first tunnel, Larry dashed for the second and ducked in to it before Cannady had a chance to take advantage of his horsepower. But, after the tunnel, it was flat desert and the Honda, which looked like an XL 250 hut was the ยท350 prototype singk for Baja carrying Gene's Open Expert number plate, out horsepowered the Bultaco and Cannady moved into the lead. The Honda seemed to be a good handler, going, straigh t and smooth, although that is also the way Cannady rides. Riders said the sand dunes were really fun if you had the ponles to pull it. Just pretty, clean. sand to sail over. Cannady increased his lead to about a mile and Pfutz was running out of ga , but luckily there were' some people parked beside the road and Larry stopped and bummed some gas. Another three or four Iilinutes were lost as Larry waited for them to get the gas out and splash some into the tank. (Not 'nearly as much iime lost as would have been had those good people not been there.) Now, Cannady had a terrific lead. The samari tans told Larry that gas check was 13 miles straight down the road, and he took off again. Several minutes later, Cannady came back, InIS In nzona. first Hvywt. Expert dog. Right ahead of John McCowan. wavmg to Pfutz that the course wasn't top few were Howard Utsey (Hus) an,", that way. Doug Wincbell (BuI), the Invader who "I smiled to myself and Lucked down wears those shocking pink leathers. on the tank," Larry said. HI knew I was Also, an Invader was first Amateur: going the right way." Dave Cheney (Yam). Floyd Burke, Jr. And everybody except Bill Friant (Kaw) and Tom Schmid (Yam) came followed Cannady fOr five miles back through followed by Bob Johnson (Hus) who stopped to ask who was leading ti,e the way they had come. Friant (Puc) was too near out of gas to change his race, and by S"cond Amateur Larry mind about direction at this point. It Wilson (CZ). I don't know how he did it on a was do or die. If the gas pits weren't pretty close he was going to be out of course that required so much gas anywway. Just short of the Victor's horsepower, but Mitch Mayes was right pit, Bill did run out of gas but he was up there on his little bitty screamer, the close to help. Harley Baja. It had rained hard Friday night and Spectators at desert races are usually between gas checks two and three it was a quiet lot, but this is Check Chase and flat open desert with great traction and the man who wins it deserves no dust. Racers exchanged dust for recognition. At Parker, Arizona several hundred fans stood up and clapped as super-slippery mud between three and the finish line. Larry Pfutzenreuter steered his After gas check two, the riders mud-eovered 250 Bultaco down the jumped off the ramp and into the chute and into the winner's circle. drainage ditch running under Hig-hway Cameras snapped as the crowd 62 near Rice, California. Pfutzenreuter gathered around the grinning Larry. had lost a lens out of his goggles earlier And twelve and one-half agonizing minutes passed while expectant fans while trying to relieve pressure on his waited to see who would take second glasses, and one of the Checkers went into his truck and brought out his spare place. So. Cal's quite, shy Tom Smith had pair. Larry put them on,jumped down the doggedly held onto his second place. He ramp and fought his way through the crossed the finish line, grinning shyly at ditch and up the bank on the other side. fans and photographers, got hugged and The spectators waited. And waited. And kissed by his extremely pleased (and waited. pretty) wife and got beat on the back Eight minutes slowly ticked by by fellow club members and friends. and ..."Hey, that's Tom Smith," second Then he quietly slipped away. overall and first Open Expert on a 360 Rubberrnan Bill Friant (so called Yamaha, coming out the end of the because he crashes so often and still upderpass. Bill Friant was second manages to finish enough to be number coming into the check, but Tom got by one in his class points standings) had him and beat him through the underpass come 170 miles without a single get-off. and back onto the desert. He waited until he was in full view of Next came the very well known 300 spectators at the finish line and did Larry Bergquist (Bul), Gene Cannady a spectacular endo. The Puch spit him (Hon) and Gene Smith (Tn). The order off and proceeded to whap him in the eludes me now, but also running in the back hard enough to crack hIS helmet.