Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125831
October 23, 19'73 Page 30 CHECK CHASE: FISHBACK WINS THE RUN TO THE RIVER Jim F i....back was the first to catch the checks. Photos by Marcia Holley and Rhea By Alice Rhea PARKER, ARIZ., OCT. 13 It started out to be a bad day for Jim Fishback. He got a pretty good start In the 1973 running of the Check Chase, but he didn't have bis goggles on properly and when he looked to see who was behind him at the bomb the goggles blew off. Jim is smart enough to khow he couldn't make the 214 miles from Soggy ,Dry Lake to Parker without his goggles, so he went back after them. This involved two tricks: first find them and second stop, pick them up and put them on without being run down by the 1,100 riders behind him. By gas one Fishback, today mounted on the 400 CZ bearing heavyweight number 1468, had moved back into third place behind Tom Smith (Yam) and second place Mitch Mayes (H us). Smith continued to lead for another twenty miles or so, dicing with Mayes. For about three miles the pair actually ran side by side, but Mitch fmally got Tom Smith was second after a rash of seizures. • ahead and began drawing away. But Fishback was still behind the pair and detennined to win this one. Smith later said that Fisbback went by him like he was standing still. Once by the pair, Jim began stretching his lead and spectators reported that he was so excited that he popped a wheelie everytime he saw somebody wbo would look his way. He started running out of steam by gas three. The race was long this year and tough. Between two and three is a soda lake where you have to stay right in the groove or your bike will bury itself. After slogging through what feels like quicksand, if you were lucky enough to get through without seizing, you arrive at the sand dunes. If you didn't seize there you should give your tuner a big kiss. Lots of people fried their pistons on the lake or in the following dunes. If you are cursing the Checkers for running you through it, bear in mind that the shortest way around the lake is ten miles and the dunes at that end are much larger. After plowing through that mess and clawing his way the other 28 miles into gas three, Jim was ready to pack it in. His hands were so tired that he couldn't really race hut he still had enough energy to make it to his pits where he could lie in the shade and guzzle Gatorade. Only when he arrived some smart-aleck told him they heard over Rescue Three's radio that he had a four minute lead. He really had to go on, didn't he? Coming out of gas four at Vidal there is a nice long smooth sandwash and at the end, Eureka! The river, a stretch of pavement and a bridge which must be the last leg. Well, Jim collided with a sidehack right off the start last year, so he couldn't be expected to know abou t the finish, could he? When he got to the smiling Checkers at the bridge, fully expecting to be congratulated for winning, he found that he had not yet reached the end of the trip. "How much farther;' he groaned? "Another 48 miles," was the answer. Jim blistered his hands and was too tired to talk when he reached the finish line, but he had increased his lead enough to take first overall by a full fifteen minutes. Perhaps the lovely wet weather and resultant traction had something to do with last year's enthusiastic riders. At The Downhil1, about twenty miles from the finish, last year's contestants were yelling and clowning and telling the Checkers what a terrific race they had. This year it was hot and dusty, and, although the course was marked so well that a blind man could have followed it, nobody had anything nice to say to the Checkers. It wasn't that they were mad or upset "about the race; they just didJ:! 't have enough energy to open their mouth. Checkers sincerely hope everybody enjoyed this River Run. It may be the last. You see, Ron Sloan, our resident diplomat had to go all the way to Washington D.C. in order to obtain permission for us to cross the Marine base. That is that little parcel of land between gas one and two which extends for something like a million acres. There isn't much way to get around it. Now in order to obtain permission to pass, Checkers gave their word that they would have each rider sign a waiver for the Marines. And they did. Only some clowns burned about 800 of them. Very Gene Cannady. aboard a 350 Honda. made the best four-stroke desert finish in a long time. Note the Ieathen. Photo by Chris Hom .