The sign on the dirt road/driveway,
we had just turned onto clearly stated
private property but, in smaller letters,
au ti.orized use by bikes in certain
instances; it was a short cut to the
power line section. The power line was
used as a daily special test and consisted
of about fffs as a, result of melting mow do
the same. In my opinion the damage
from the Six Days has been minimal."
A whir of the electric start brought
the BeeEm to life and we played
demolition derby and Kamikaze pilot
over, around and through the rocky
maze finally coming to rest atop the
highest point of the power line in an
area with an unparalleled view. It was an
almost unanimous feeling among the
riders that the trails had been well laid
out. "I was under the impression that
when I laid, out the trails that it was a
little too easy and there Was more road in
it than I would have liked but the riders
felt the challenge was definitely there.
(-my own observations support this
conclusion.) I could have 'increased the
speed average in some sections since the
police, and this is typical of Six Days
competition, did not actively enforce
the speed limits on the riders. It
surprised me when some· riders said it
was more difficult in some aspects than
Czechoslovakia."
Then what about the layout as a
whole; was it interesting to the rider?
"The, terrain mix favored the rider in
that the normal Six- Day course goes
twice around a daily route one day and
then twice around the same route in the
opposite direction on the next day. The
riding becomes very ho-hum. Here the
rider had a full day of completely
different terrain and he didn't come
back to it until at least a day's break
in between so it kept the rider, on his toes
and on guard as to what the next
off-road section would contain."
"I think our faci1i"ties in all areas were
reasonable but some of the Europeans
thought that perhaps we were a little
slow in getting our organization
together. Once the week got rolling and
everybody got shaken down in the first
day or so then everything began to run
smoothly" I think it was a little more
difficult for the support and gas people
in that they had to move around
whereas in other years if you had a
gas/support responsibility you stayed in
that spot all day which was not the case
here. Our maps were probably a little
bit vague fOl'-support people who were
a little on the shakey side in getting
around. I don't think that anyone ran
out of gas because of that though."
After riding for about twenty miles it
became increasingly apparent that there
was so much isolated' land that it
seemed that h would have been
extremely easy for anyone--with a little
ingenuity--to perhaps bend the'rules a
little. However, one of the most
surprising aspects of the ISDT were the
rider claims of trail marshals behind
almost every tree. AI laughed at the
cloak of security that head marshal Ross
Fanhauf' and his marshals had created to
combat rule infractions. "We did the job
with 22 marshals. Each was assigned a
certain rider Dumber span (group of
riders) to stay with so that he got used
to their particular habits; in this way
each marshal was watching the same
group almost all the time and it made
for a fairly cohesive policing action.
There were many actions thwarted
during the course of the week and the
rider exchanges which I think did go on
in some cases..ome of those little
meetings were broken up. It was a very
satisfactory policing action from my
standpoint. I think we kept the
competitors pretty honest although I
believe there was definite part changing
once they found out how to get our
inspection stickers ofr. The stickers
were supposedly almost indestructible
but I understand with a little heat and
some work that they could be removed;
I think they probably were in some
cases."
At about this point we had been
riding over som~ back roads savoring the
fresh smell of the pine needles that was
mixed with the musky odor of damp
fallen leaves; we turned onto the road
leading to the sight of the grass track
and slowed as we neared the last house
before the acres of open fields. "Poli",
as he is known to his friends, seemed to
be very happy for the unexpected
company. Napoleon "Poli" Iwanowicz
was the unofficial "Czar of the
Grasstrack". He, along with his brother,
own the land where the final days test
was held (the third such event that AI
Eames has held on the brothers land)
and the excitement of the event was
"better than the World Series." Poli led
us up to his home-a log house buih
entirely of timber cut from his land·for
a little nip of some home brewed cider.
Love that apple juice.
Our inspection of the field showed
that the 'new grass planted soon after
had quickly taken hold and that it was
almost impossible to teU that almost
200 bikes and a huge crowd of
s pc c tat ors had used the area.
Unfortunately the grasstrack is probably
a part of the ISDT that the AMA would
like to forget. "I feel that it was an
honest error to begin with, but it was to
the advantage to the whole organization
in the long run looking at it from the
weather sta,ndp'oint, the terrain
standpoint and actually the rider
standpoint. If the speed test had gone
the fuU eight laps or twenty minutes it
would have been boring for everyone
under the conditions. It was (the early
flagging was of the initial test) a definite
mistake that the starter somehow was
not fully aware of and neither were the
scorers. Our scorers were 1).ampered by
the muddy conditions that made the
number plates hard to see, the timers
were in definite trouble with getting the
correct number and time" the lap scorers
were a little more used to scoring under
the conditions and therefore thought
they could work it out. In the end the
cpmpromise of four laps/ten minutes I
think worked out to every ones
advantage."
AI's choice of trails took US over what
he characterized as some of the areas
that took a lot of beating and showed it
. and some that showed almost no use at
all but were still heavily traveled. The
ecologist and land closure are a very real
threat to all trail riders. "I think we've
got to realize that we can't thumb our
nose at the concerned ecologist
regardless of who he is--he might have a
totally .warped idea of what ecology
is--but we still have 1:0 meet him
halfway. There are some areas that we
, are just going to have to stay out of".
After about fifty miles of varying
terrain I began to get the idea of what
the IS-DT was really like but what I
really wondered was just how the
Czechs could dommate the event with
seeming ease. AI's explanation was
simple: they're good. "The Czechs don't
make very many mistakes and this is
where their efficiency shows. There is a
lot of planning that goes into the riding
and their support; as a result they
seldom break down. They don't make
errors that are costly to them; their
organization. is the key to the whole
thing."
Then how do we field a better
qualified rider in the coming years? "I
think that standardization of the
qualifiers is a must. A rider has to
establish a pattern for the organization
of himself and his riding habits; this
relationship of,the'rider to the Six Days
is the ultimate reason for the qualifier.
A set of rules based on Six Days
competition should be establish.ed and
these are the rules that each and every
qualifier should be run by. The rules
should be standardize along with the
method of scoring the rider and the
method of reporting the results. This
would be based on the simplest method
that could be used with the minimum
manpower available. There is always a
.•
II
•
~
STARTING,
GATE
t
A TOTALLY NEW CONCEPT IN STARTING GATES FOR RACE TRACKS EVERYWHERE
~
.
,..~ -
:.
:~
~
. ., .v
.
,
.....
•
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"
.....
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'~"'
FASt FAI, SAfE STAllS -EVERY"
BIKES
ABSQLUTE~CANNOT
GO OVER OR PUSH
DDWN THE GATE
GET A t-EAD START.
THE GATE SNAPS DOWN BY ITSELF ON COMMAND
FROM THE STARTER. THE BIKES DO NOT HAVE
TO PUSH IT OVER TO START.
B.£C1KAI.I.Y ACTIVA1f:D TIP _
EXISTING STARTING GATES ARE MADE FROM
STEEL PIPE OR TUBING. PUSHING THESE
MECHANICAL GATES DOWN AND ROLLING OVER
THE GATE STRUCTURE CAUSES loss OF
~3a~TS~~R?~f CONTROL. THE RESULTTHE 'PRESTON PETTY PRODUCTS GATE STRUCTURE
UTILIZES THREE TON CAPACITY STEEL CABLES
MOUNTED ON AUTOMATIC TRIP UNITS. THE
.sPRING LOADED TRIP UNITS SNAP THE GATE
DOWN INSTANTLY LEAVING ONLY THREE ~MALL
DIAMETER CABLES TO RUN OVER. ALLOwING
THE BIKES TO MAINTAIN TRACTION AND '9~:
189k ON EV<8Y_SIARl ,THE RESULT - ~.
tAlK. AND ~ SIAR S,
t
WIJlPEUJIII
AID MAIlIIIKf
NO ELECTRICAL OUlkET IS REQUIRED. THE GATE
OPERATES ON TWO 12 VOLT CAR BATTERIES IN
SERIES. QHE ~ CAN FLAG START. AND PUSH
THE BUTTON TO ACTIVATE THE STARTING GATE.
THE STARTING GATE IS SO EASY TO RESET
YOU COULD EVEN HAVE YOUR TROPHY GIRL DO ,
IT BY HERSELFl
THE PRESTON PETTY STARTING GATE COMES IN
THIRTY FOOT MODULAR UNITS ALLOWING YOU TO
CUSTOM TAILOR IT TO YOUR EXACT NEEDS
WHETHER YOUR TRACK IS LARGE OR SMALL. IF
YOU WISH TO EXPAND LATER. ANY NUMBER OF
ADDITIONAL 'UNITS CAN BE ADDED AT ANY TIME.
CALL OR WRITE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND
PRICING.
403 NQr1tI .-in Sttwt
NIwberg, 0,..".. 87132
15031 538-.'0.-1503) 228·0438
/
HQJUZ@NI
YNUMfrfIi~
CYCLES
-1973 CZ CLEARANCE SALE-
~
~'~
400cc with modified pipe'- $1095.
125cc with modified pipe - $ 749.
See our 1973 250cc CZ Desert Bike with wide
ratio gear box and high pipe....
Introductory offer - $875.
CZ MOloplat Ignition - $99,50
Koni Shocks with 75 Ib or 88 Ib springs $48.00
250 Pen tons in Stock
Bankamericard Mastercharge 100% Financing
22726 Ventura Blvd .• Woodland Hills, CA 91364 (213) 340-2191
RACING FORK OIL
• BETTER /II1NDI.INL/DAMPENING
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