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/125853
By Lane Campbell ANGE LES NATIONAL FOREST, CA ., MAR. 16-17 Bernie Schreiber, with an outstanding one point second loop ride on Saturday, added some heat to the A.T~A. Expert points race, winning the two d ay event ami d a volley of protests. To pull off the 14 po int victory, he had ridd en four 20 m ile loops of a course 24 m an y riders felt to be one of the most di ffic ult ever laid out in A.T.A. points . co m petition. T he trial w as laid ou t b y th e Valley Ob served T rials Enthusiasts (V.O.T.E.) in the Texas Canyon a rea of Angeles National Fo rest, with two loops to be ridden Saturday a nd tw o loops over an entirely different route for Sunday. Saturday's loop trended generally downhill into ca ny ons an d gullies west of th e campsite, and included a traverse past some spectacular table rocks. For Sunday, the trend was up h ill, from the 2,000 foo t campsite to the fire lookout at 4,80«L!t. and back - straight down the mountain along the ridgeerest firebreaks. Fo r many riders , the loops the mselves were as hard or harder than the traps. In t he can yo ns, there were two and three mi le stretches of rocky stream be d to ride just to reach the traps. On Sunday it was m ile after mile of rid ge run ni ng with more stream beds thro wn in fo r spi ce . List en ing to people out on the loo p : "Wow - th is m ust be some kind of enduro! "; "Man, I rod e thro ug h all that poison oak with my feet on the han d lebars and my ha nd s tucked in like a cafe racer:'; "I can 't believe I rode the whole thi ng!" Along the rocky bottoms, Novice and Amateur riders would arrive at a trap so winded from the approach route that they couldn't handle the observed section. Even among the Experts, the • tough circuit exacted its toll, as many ' top riders fell b ehind on time and fo un d it nearly impossible to m ak e up. As the pressure began to moun t, the st rain brought on some casua lt ies among well-known co m pe tito rs. Debbie Evans finished Saturday 's first loop looking physically drained. Midway through the second loop, as Debbie told it , " I had it co m e up on th e back wheel, trying to ' make a floati ng turn. I had to put my faot down , and when I did, my boot just slipped right off arock." The bike p inned her leg against another rock , a nd a tri p to th e hospita l confirmed that tho ugh u nb roken, the leg was sti ll to o severely battered for her to co n t in ue to ride. On Su nday's second lo op , Marland Whaley got off hard in Section Five and split the C ota's ta nk. Leaking fuel profuse ly, he j us t m ad e it back to ca mp, was ab le to fit a new ta nk, and finished the trial , t hough no t wit ho ut a heavy time penalty. The effort was worthw hile in that it netted hi m Sixth Expert in spite of the disaste r. . Sc hreiber set the pa ce Saturday with a see mi ngly inc red ible 10-I, followed by Martin Belair a t 10-7 and Mike Griffi ths at 7-13. Ri ch Delaney (Man) and Steve Graham (Yam) finished the first day tied at 22 points each. • • Darwin Smith, at 46 points, led the • Amateur cla ss on Saturday, but a 36·35 the following day combined with I pain ts lost on time dropped him to fifth in class. Randy Rader vaulted from sixth on the first day to win the class losing only two marks on time to pas a n overall tally of 12 I. Tom Hasche rode a 125 Honda to seco nd with no-time-lost 12 4 , edging Jeff Fish (Bul) by one point after the la t ter d rop ped 17 marks on time. Time, as it turned out , was at the heart of m an y o f t he diffi culties and a t the root of most of the protests. A t the beginning it was announced that co n testa n ts had five hou rs ea ch day plus an hour 's grace period a t a pe nalty of a point a m inu te. By mi d d ay S unday, .the r id e r s ' diff i c ulties prom pted ·th e organizers 't o add an extra half, h our . S hor tly thereafter, it w as poin te d o ut that unde r A.T.A. rul es, the original time schedule had to re mai n . unchanged. Unfort unately, several rid er s had left o n thei r second lo o p una war e tha t they did no t have the extra ti me . The action "d rew an initial flurry of p rotests, but after te mpers had cooled a nd the impact of the Ass ociation ru le had su nk in, th e protests were settled and t he results stood as posted. Things could have been far wars t. w i l h o u t; .. tbe . m o b ile . ra dio ne