Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

by Alice Rhea Photos by A. Rhea & Linda Schamel LUCERNE VALLEY, CAL., June 24WIllie all the crazies were fighting the traffic to see a race you could hear all DOUG WINCHELL First EVERYTHING, That's What! about on the radio, and a motocross, at that, those of us with good sense were out in the desert watching one of the strangest races we have ever been privele, ged to watch. At the bomb, Mark Adent had his 250 DKWin the lead with Jim Fishback, in second place cleverly behind number 1438, campaigning a 400cc CZ in an effort to take first overall once again. T9m Brooks' Screaming DKW was next with A.C. Bakken running fourth on his 400 Husky, Shortly after the bomb, Fishback powered into the lead and just past check one Adent lost the course and Brooks followed. The pair wound around in the sagebrush for a while looking for the trail, doubled back and picked it up long after Fishback had gone his merry way. Halfway around,Adent hit a gian t rock, and while he was lying onthe ground contemplating his ruined front rim, who should happen along but A.C. who, not to be outdone by a lightweight, stubbed his rear wheelan the same rock and thudded to rest beside Adenl. The pair studied the situation fOT a considerable time, decided that nobody was going to come get them, and though t it would be fun to race until (1) they got to the pits, or (2) one or both wheels collapsed. It was only a 40·mile loop, and riders were expected to complete it in less than an hour, but an hour and fifteen minutes went by before Fishback came Doug Winchell gets the news. "Whatr' smoking through the pi ts, waving, doing impromptu flying "W's" and generally sbowing the spectators and pit crews how delighted he was. Then silence fell over the pits as the crews waited and wai ted and waited for second place. Eleven minutes passed and then some strange people started coming by ... Novices, Trail Amateurs, Heavyweight Amateurs nobody bas ever seen before. Many of the riders were obviously lost as some of the Novices were too green to even think of cutting course. It would be hard enough for most of them' to find their way back to camp if they followed the ribbon. (No offense to you more experienced Novices.) Brooks came though then Bakken and Aden t, whose wheels lasted to the pits, ended the race at the Rams pit in a dead h,eat and both dropped out of the race. It then became a spectator game of "Who is Real" wherein the spectators try to guess which of the riders have actually completed the 'first loop with all the checks and stand a ch'ance of winning the race in the event Fishback should break down. Fishback broke off both footpegs on rocks and dropped out and Brooks came back in for some unknown reason. For the first time perhaps this year, Jim Fishback led the first loop. there was some real guessing going on at the fmish line. Who was left in the race? Could this be Roeseler's chance to win overall' on a Trailbike? Suspense moun ted and then Brian Brecker came over the rise, but he didn't come into the finish, and we later learned that he had been lost for most of the first loop and didn't have all the checks. So we waited some more, and Lynn Zuber completed the first loop, came in for her finish, and talked the club into taking her tank car d just in case none of the other girls got that far. Next, a couple of Novices wandered through the finish chute and an Amateur or two with three or four marks on their cards and still, there was no winner. 1t had been almost three hours since the start, and it was getting pretty hot standing out there in the sun, and we had just about decided that there wasn't going to be any finishers when sharp·eyed Vickie spied her favorite color, hot pink, on the horizon. The speck grew until it became none other th an Doug Winchell, the Invader in the hot pink leathers, riding his 250cc Bultaco in for first overall. Doug almost fell off his bike when he was told he was first. "First what?" he demanded. UFirst everything," a friend said. HI won?" said Doug, looking like he still didn't believe it. Asked how he liked the course Doug replied that he though t it was just great, "Except there were an awful lot of rocks." (Doug did not use th ose exact words, but that is close.) Living in the desert, Doug is sponsored by Lancaster Bultaco and has been eaining his keep by finishing in the top ten for the last year, but today he really justified their faith in him by going on when he knew That is, if the rocks let you out the first time. he Was running so poorly and coming up a winner. Doug said he seriously .. considered quaing several times,most of the last half of the second loop, that is, because he had a flat .front tire and was hot and kept losing the course markings, but kept going because every point counts toward next year's number. Persistence was the name of the game today, and Doug won. Terry Davis got a second overall one other time, and if memory se-rves, it was for first Heavyweight Expert that time too, just like today. Terry was really enthusiastic about the course. When Morris Norman came in a few minutes later at nin th ove{alI he and Tony got together and grinned and laughed and told each other what a great course it was, just like the old days. Morris said it was the best course in two years. Larry Roese1er rode his Baja in for third overall and first Trailbike. Larry's clutch got out of adjustment, but he is an old desert rider (at seventeen years old), and he knew enough to keep plugging along, never dreaming he was going to finish in the top ten, let along third overall! Mike Power's first' Novice finish at the Barstow.to-Vegas and subsequent Novice victories, got the attention of Westminster Sportcycle and he became one of those race spnosored Novices. Transfering to Amateur he spent over a man th ON F'ing for one reason or another. But, today it came together, and he rode his 250 Montesa in for first Amateur at fourth overall. This is the third week in a row that an Amateur has been fourth overall. A.J. (or Andy) Kirker was feeling quite ill at the fmish today, and being told that he had just won the Division II Ligh tweigh t class did little to relieve his nausea, although he will sure'ly be pleased to hear the good news' when he gets cooled off and feels better. There oughta' be a trophy for frrst wierdo, and if there was such a prize it would go today to District Referee Ed Farrell for finishing 18th overall on a four-stroke 250 Honda, complete with lights and license plate. How he kept all those miscellaneous parts on through the rocks is a mystery. And how about Lightweight II steward Ron Hall screaming in for second in his own class on the Puch, or Bob Hayes, who had to be carried to a chair because of his injured foot, bringing his Monark in for third. .Wayne Lee, riding a Tracy·tuned 125 Husky, got first Division II Amateur again today, making a total of ten transfers. l'I1 bet Ron Hall will move him up to Expert and show him what real competition is after that. Time was when Benny Padilla was a Novice and everyone somehow got the 'impression that he was quite young, about 14 or 15. Then he moved to a 250 Yamaha and looked taller and when he took his helme t off you could see that he was over twen ty ...maybe as old as twenty·five: but nobody paid much attention to him except the other Novices he was beating. Then he became Amateur, and nothing much happened until Yamaha of Buena Park took him under their wing, and, with a trick here and a new plug there, Ben . starting making a name for himself. The last three races he has finished ninth, eighth and seventh overall. Where next, Ben? Before the race started the club that they had to go out and re- ribbon one whole section Saturday aftemoon, and that somebody had kicked dirt over the lime. Then there were places where the ribbon was nothing more than stubs where it had been jerked off the bushes. Fishback said he had no trouble with the course markings on the frrst loop, but he couldn't find any markings on his second loop. This is about the fourth time sponsoring clubs have complained that somebody was tampering with course markings and up til now nobody paid much attention, thinking the club was using it as an excuse, but the Vipers had gone to so much trouble to make this an excellen~ run, even printing their own jazzy arrows, that somehow there is a ring of truth to what they say. It doesn't make the run any more fun for the riders who were lost and ran out of gas because of it, but it may redirect their anger. The suhject is one which bears discussion and will be the topic of a forthcoming article. For various reasons most of the six hundred starts never crossed the finish line, at least not with all the checks. Many of them lost and then ran out of gas because of the extra distance they had to cover and many bikes packed it on the rocks. Phil Cowan, first Trail Novice on his DKW was the last one we saw, taking some thing like seventieth overall, give or take ten places. 1 M .... 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