Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

The perils of non-enduro riding and incurring the wrath ofPreston Petty The enduro • There IS no full report on the Prospector's Gold Rush Enduro this week because rider number 67B (me) got disqualified fo r being ove r an hour late at the starting line. Two o ther 6 7's and my self were heade d fo r Barsto w towing o ur bi kes behind a faithless Chevy Vega. About 20 miles north of San Bernardino, theVega started pumping wa ter into vario us combustion chambers, burning valves and other such unpleasan t, ex pensive nonsense. So when our number left, we were still 70 m iles away with no wheels. The car itself is still halfway up Cajon Pass. He re are a few secondhand remarks on the run fro m Paul Flanders, the Paul, . who lost six points on the run . T he run started a t Harvard offramp of the Barstow freeway and gradually ma de its wa y to Razor Road, wh ich so me may re member as the first gas sto p of the Barstow-to-Vegas Hare and Hound. Along the way, the Prospectors even incl uded a co u ple of water crossings; no m ean feat in the middle of the desert. The return run from Raz or Road had only one speed average : 30 MPH. The course followed the first leg of the Barstow-to-Vegas race (in reverse). At 30 MPH, the difference between a Hare-and-Ho un d and an enduro became. a bit blurred. Anyone who co uld average 30 MPH from Barstow to 'Vegas co uld ce rtainly trophy. Anyway , it sounded lik e a swell enduro and I' m sorry I m issed it. There are rumors that Mike Ada ms mig h t have won sweepstakes trophy with a loss of one point. Preston Petty fourth man on our number who a ct u ally got to the event in time t o ride it. He says it w as a pretty decent enduro wi th the normal en dura-ish th ings like tim e an d distance measurement well d one. The run had a remote gas sto p, something that is a bit unusual fo r Southern Cali fornia enduros but th e Prospectors had gas there for th ose wh o had no pit crew to take it out fo r them. The first half of th e run had a number of speed ch an ges an d o ne sec tion of abo u t 6.6 miles t hat was de sign ated as free territory. T he firs t four miles of th at section wer e a banzai de sert race, but then came a sand hill that gave quite a few rid ers so me pr oblems. Next came a tight can yon o f the one-at-a-time-no-pushing variety . In it were several d ro p-offs up to four fee t(!) high . T he app roved tec hn iq ue was t o push yo ur bike off and t hen scra m ble d ow n after it. Wit h t ha t bottle neck, everyone was a bit j um py because they d id n ' t know wha t was co mi ng n ex t, b ut it t urn ed o ut that the Prospectors had allowed p lenty of ti me in the section and at the end of the "free territory" most riders had a few mi n u tes left to rest. Paul said he wished he had the beer con cessio n a t that point! Apart from the "free territory ." the averages were pretty tight. according t o T he co lum ns that write are generally design ed to be co n troversial; to m ake people think abou t selec ted issues and discuss t he m. The title of the co lum n "Gambit" is meant to imply controversiality. Consequently, when people do th ink abo u t th e co lum n topics enough to write to the paper, whether they agree with me o r di sagree, I'm happy. I've achieved what I set out to do ; mak ing people thi n k about iss ues. I don't generally lik e to resp ond to readers because th at so rt of thin g quickly ge ts o ut of ha nd and . becomes un in teresting for o the r reader s. Besides, ha vin g regular access to space in th e pap er gives me an un fair ad vantage. It usu all y is bes t to toss my issue in the ring . and then ta ke t h e bouquets or b rickbats as they co me. wit ho u t response. In the case of Prest on Petty's ed itorial resp on se, how ever , I'm goi ng t o make an ex ception fo r severa l rea so ns. First o f all , he's b ig enough in the indust ry tha t I d on 't feel like I'm picking on so meone unfa irly . If he reall y wants to resp ond , he has enough mone y to buy his own newspaper and he alrea d y writes for one of the monthly magazin es as well . Se condly , Preston was no t so m uch respo nding to what I wrote as attack ing me persona lly. In his firs t paragraph, Preston acc uses me of poor taste , q uoting from an article th at I w ro te in August o f 1971! Ap parently he's been a fa n for a long time. T he article was based on an interview wi th Gene Cannady, who was then preparing for the ISDT. Gen e is a fellow that I like and admire greatly and my art icle refl ected this. even perhaps, to sounding a bit like a fan magazine arti cle. Gene Cannady , h ow ever , is ver-y difficult to get to kn ow . He ventures few o pi ni o ns . His house, or at least the part of it th at I saw, was extre mely impersonal with none of the th ings scattered around th at tell what a person likes or thinks. Trying to c o nve y thi s clo sed aspec t of Gen e' s per sonality, I said in part , th at " ... th e living room we were in co uld have been rented intac t fr om Abbey Ren ts. There were no trophies, n o souvenirs of Gene's profession, few books , n ot even any to ys .... •• Pre st on misqu oted both in fact and in context, doing both me and Gen e Cannady a disservice. People reve al themselves not o nly by their choic e o f living room furn ishings, but also by th e f urnish ings of their mind . Diggin g up a three ye ar -old story in o rder to mis represent a person reveals much more than a living room. Preston goes on to make an impassioned plea for th e oil in d ustry, a bi t of nonse nse I won't bother with. Anyone in terested in the logi c of Preston's case can read the L.A. Tim e s, In this Sunday's L.A. Times, the ce nter sp read of t he editoria l pages is headlin ed . Sho uld t he U.S. get into th e oil business? T he L.A . Times made man y of the same poi n ts that I di d , albeit so me three weeks la ter. By infe re nce, th en , Prest o n fin ds th e L. A . Tim es to re p re se n t "lim ited intelle ct" an d to b e " d ist ast efu l" as we ll. Preston goes on to sugge st th at I migh t writ e fo r th e " Russian editio n of Cy cle Ne ws. " If cri tic izing th e o il ind ustry m akes me a Communist, I'm goi ng t o h ave pl enty of co m pany in Russia , incl uding about three-fourths of th e United States Congress. Preston accuses me o f be ing an i m p roper "guiding factor in the development of the p roper a ttitude toward business that o ur young people need to have." Since Preston is a businessman, I know what kind o f attitude he would like our young people to have. However, I challenge the notion that it is an attitude that our young people either need or want. Finally, Preston says that "This co un try grew from virtually nothing to the most powerful an d pro duc tive country the world has ever known. This is because it had more free dom (fewer governmen t co n troIs) an d fe we r bureaucratic mechanisms than any other majo r co untry in the world." Preston, you arc wrong. T his country, 300 years ago, was a very rich co un try with great natural resources, many species of wildlife, clean air , an d clean water. It was pop ula ted by p eople who lived in harm on y wi t h t heir enviro nme n t. To say it was "virtua lly no th in g" is slander eve n a Russian Communist wouldn "t make. T he businessman has in deed made thi s coun try very powe rf ul and productive, b ut the co st has been pretty high, from the slaughtered buffalo to t he sl aughtered Vietnamese to o il-pollu te d wate rs o ff Santa Barbara. T he busi ness man, th o ugh , d oesn 't mind . After h e makes h is me ss and his profi ts he moves his family out of the mess an d into the suburbs. How do you like Oregon, Pre ston? Ron Schneiders Elsinore TT By Gary C. Jones ELSINORE . CAL.. JAN . 26 For th ose of Y OU who were th ere , I don't have to tell YOU how co ld it was. After witnessing several nasty stunts, Mac (the starter) and I agreed th at the wind and co ld had a lot to do with them. It was j ust im possib le fo r the body to get warmed enough to tackle the rather tough job of putting a bike t hrough its paces. Doing a Rood job of it anyway was Tom my Norris, racin g and w in ni ng in M i n i bike com bi ne d t he Amateu r-Novice class . T ommy wa s rid ing an In d ian in a wa y that wo uld im press th e like s of seasoned Ex p erts. David Hale, who w as up o n a Hon da and Pau l Mc Phearson, (wh o has switched fro m Yam ah a to Honda for t he sta rt of th is season) , we re in co n ten tio n with Tommy all the way. T hese kids ca n really fly bu t the wind that was co m ing dow n the back straight was giving these ligh tweights a hard push, backwards ! Go ing to t he comb ined 100-125 Amateur-Expert class tonigh t we saw so me new faces and again so me really outstanding ra cing. Mark Prescott, who came down fro m h is big b ike class to co mpete with the lightweights, took first p lace, but not wi thout very to ugh pressure from the rest of the class. Co ming out and acting like the cold was he lpi ng rather than hurting h is performance w as J eff Springman rid in g an Indian . The gu y w ho twists wrenches for Jeff said that it looked like they were finally getting the bugs wo rked o ut of the bike. In tum, S teve Miller, who place d thi rd on a Suzuki, was right up alo ngside Springman each ra ce . _ Results 1 0 0 NOV : 1. Bo b H all ( Yam) . 2. D av id Leach (Kaw). 3 . Ste ve Slxbery ( K a w ) . M I N I NOV /AM : 1. Tom m y N o r ri s (In d ) . 2 . Da vi d Hale (Han). 3 . Pa u l McPhe arson ( Hon) . 125 N O V : 1. D a ve S u tt ( Va m). 2 . D a na N el so n ( Su z ) . 3. Steve W ask ask i (Vam) . 25 0 NO V : 1. J i m Davisson ( SU I) . 2. Pa u l W i ll iam s (0 55) . 3. John L uc k (Han) . S PEC NOV, 1. Pau l W illiam s (Oss ) . 2. R a ber t Fiesler (H a n) . 1 0 0- 125 A M /E X , 1. Ma rk Pro seo t! (YZ) . 2 . Jeff Sp r i ngm an (l nd) . 3 . Steve Miller ( SUZ) . 250 A M / E X : 1. D av i d R e inhard t (HOn) . 2. B ru ce Reyn Old s ( SU i ) . 3 . Gregg Wil hite (Y am ). 500 O PE N E X : 1. M ark Reic hert (V am ) . 2. Ji m Wright (Bu1) . 3 . K eit h Moss (Yam) . S PEC EX : 1. Jim Wright (8ul) . 2. Ke ith M oss (Vam) . SW E EPS : 1 . Mark Reichert (Vam) . Dave Reinhart (Ho n-17 ) and Bruce Reynolds (Bul-142 ) were th is close in t he 250 Am/ Ex Main. Reinhart t ook it.

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