Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ Saturday afternoon. He was reduced to bronze in spite of having no marks lost. His teammates were still on gold and finished tbat way. Even without 1 ,... M Mungenast's bad luck, however, w.erc 5!! considerably worse than those of the Kawasaki teaam which was in the same class..Monark had two teams, the first of wblcb was totaled the flTst day. Team B fmished with two on gold. Jack Fro,elich and Scott Haislip. Husqvama had trouble right from the start. Pittsburgh star Jake Fisher didn't make it out for the trial and Malcolm Smith was out the first day with a broken crnakshift. Opinions abou t the course seemed to depend primarily on where the rider's home was. Desert riders thought it was neat, easterners thought it was boring, and of course nobody thougbt Saturday's heat was so great. Sunday way much nicer though and the riders could think more' about the course and le~s about the weather. Surprisingly', in spite of the fact that the temperature variation is between the two days seemed to be easily 20 degrees, the apparent change was not reflected in the weather bureau statistics nor in the special test scores of the better riders. Score were very close over the two days, and the official temperature both days was 106 degrees. One thing no one argued: The Shamrock organization was absolutely superb. There is not other way to describe it. All wer agreed that it was by far the best of the trials in that respect. Here are just a few of the fine points, for the riders to cool off in after the sun. Markeing of the machine parts ·was very thorough and the rider's number was scratched in to the pain t so that two pained parts couldn't exchanged. There was strick con trois in the M > :; .., '" 3: w z w oJ ~ U A Rokon finished. That ~y not sound like much •.but it is. This is Ricky Mehrobot from Fort Hood. Texas. (Continued from page 9) Fort Irwin Rd. and came to the second mark on Saturday. She passed out Special Test, some ridge running trails ..,vera! times and was extremely weak at that ended on a 100.., sand downhill, the time she was rescued by Rescue with a kind in' the middle. Those Tbree. Heat accoun ted for the demise of conestants who made it this far had the Rokon team, most of whom cauge to view that downhill with some dropped out with unbroken machinery. concern. because the following day, . The ~ourse itself was quite simple, SUl)day, they would be going around Just a big loop really. On Saturday the the course in the opposite direction and riders left Barstow and rode through would have to get up that hiU. There Stoddard Valley between Barstow Road was a large Hodaka Team entered and and Interstate 15 on trails that were they were very concerned abou t that pretty rough and cobby. Al>out 20 miles hill bec'ause they did some practicing south of Barstow there is a strip of beforehand and were unable to get up abandoned asphalt that was used for the it. Their concern, however, was acceleration test. The riders then unnecessary since none of them made it crossed Barstow road to start the first that far. Special Test, a long trail through the Several Manufacturers made rqcks in an easternly direction . This determined efforts to secure the Trade part of the course was actually the team award and thus a probable berth southern portion of the Desert Vipers for their brand on the 1SDT team. Hare Scrambles which was scheduled for BuHaco had two teams entered. Team Sunday. A fter circling the Ord A, led by Lane Leavitt, and its hopes Mountains the riders dropped all the kiJled when Greg Ekins unaccountedly way down to Johnston Valley and ran out of gas in the first day. Team B skirted the edge of Soggy Dry Lake, wad finished when Dave Ekins had an before working their way north to the ignition failure. Tom Patton, though, interstate 40 at Hector. After crossing finished on Gold. The Penton A team the I·40 the path was a kind 0 f was doomed when Carl Cranke got lost ..,mi-circJe through the Cady Mountains, and missed a check. where the terrain consisted of Lave Triumph mounted a very heavy blow sand and talc. A t the northern end effort with Ken Harvey, Dave the trail came dose to Afton Canyon Mungenast. and John Greenrose. Dave and then followed the Untion Pacific Mungenast bad a real heartbreaking t:acks west for a few miles, to where the situation wben he discovered his card Tlders could cross Interstate 15. They was missing midway through' the hot then rode Coyote. Dry Lake, crossed • . Stan• Bald....in did some goqd..bei"!l i~ ~Golptake r . • • .' • • ./ • lOB Started, 32 Finished checks with riders on one side of a road and marshalls on the other waching every move, which resulted in some disqualfications. The route was marked extremely well and every so often there were buried water bottles for emergency use that the Shamrocks packed in on motorcycles! The scoring took awhile, but when it was finished there were no complaints. It seemed to have been done very thoroughly and accurately. There was one person who almost sunk the winning Penton team's effort all by himself and that was a fellow who ~so rides a Penton, Jim Hollander. Hollander set such a hot pace in the 125 cJass, that Tom Penton who was on the team, picked classes, that mjght have sunk the ship. Jim Hollander, a Connecticut rider, should certainly have a place on the team. And the Shamrocks should certainly have another qualjfier, hopefully with a ljjtle more support from around home 'next year. They had 108 entrants, 32 finishers.

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