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/125860
Mike Hannon's .999 tops National Championship Enduro _ .By Ron Schneiders STRADDLELINE PARK, WA., MA Y.lI -1 2 . Today was Mother's Day for some, but for the West's top enduro riders, it was Black Hills Day, AMA Regional Championship Round Number Three, By the end of the day, there was a reluctant new contender for the regional title, Mike Hannon, and Bultaco had scored an other major victory. But on Saturday , before the event, many of the top riders who h ad drifted into the Capitol State Forest in Wash ingt on were having second though ts ab o u t the wisdom of traveling 2,000 miles or more to ride an event put on by an unknown club. Their fears were partly justified: Several things di d n ' t go quite rig ht. :But Washington is different from California. Everyone h ere was ' coo l and relaxe d, even the rid er s who had much at stake. Things that m ight have caused screaming, yelling, and protests filed in trip lica te had they happened in m or e uptight areas were solved amicably, and by 6 p. m, Su nday all th e scoring w as done , the winner had received a gigantic trophy and a half gallon of champagne, and m os t riders were at least moderately happy. You can pretty well bet he isn't giving it a benedi ction. Maybe getting ready t o di ve in? The course . T he course was everyone's first concern , both o rganizers and co mpetitors. No club ever wants bottlenecks, but they are particularly bad in a championship run. On the other hand, a too-easy run would be almost as bad. The Black Hills Dirt Riders m an aged that problem well. A long, muddy hill, right at the start, almost unnoticed by the better riders, sorted out the "squids" minutes after ..the start, before they could block any tight trail. Probably a dozen potential "bottleneckers" got sideways in the mud, lost traction, went off the road, fell down, and . generally defused themselves. Th e r em aining rid ers had a reasonably easy time for 25 miles or so , i f y o u a r e ' willing to dis count intermitren t rain , a bit of hail, and some snow. The terrain in that section was mostly fire road. After that , it toughened up consider ably, becoming m o s t l y single-track, . very m uddy trails for the re maining 82 miles. AI tho ugh there were only fo ur actual st ream crossing of any co nsequence (more than a foot deep), there were innumerable deep mud puddles waiting to trap brash or careless riders. Several of the checks (there were six altogether) were naively placed in fairly open surroundings. The club layou t peop le didn't realize how ade pt the better ri ders become at " sp o lling" checks far enough in advance to ad jus t their ti mes accordingly. Bu t spotting the tie- breake r di d n't help. It was at the to p of a lon g, very steep, clay-m ud hill. Many riders resolved ties by m in u tes rather than seconds on t hat hill ! The most challenging section of the day was t he very last , a power line trail tha t was virtually id entical to so me in AI Eames' Berkshires, even down to thi n mud-covered rocky t rail wh ich the New Englan de rs call "bo ny" and ca uses wh iplas h, hear t fail ure, an d frame breakage t o those with t oo m u ch tire pressure or too rash judg ment. A t the end o f this run Oly m p ia, Washin gt on, Expert rider Harvey Poe felt th er e had been "too m uch road" but m ost . rid ers felt th e course was a very good one. T he fee ling abou t checks , par ticu lar ly time and d istance measurem en t, was no t so unani m ous. Qui te a num ber of riders felt that the distances we re no t o nly so mewhat inaccurate, but were also inconsistent. An unconventional odome ter check system didn't hel p m atters any. After a lo t of post-run d iscu ssion , the club agreed to drop Check Number three without the fo rmai lity of a written pro test. A glance at the scores showed far t oo many riders ea rly at that one. th e cl ub decided, for T he n Nothing ru ins a fun enduro like we t feet. How gooshy ! • Mike Hannon (left) and Ben Bower further d ilute t he m ud after it's all o ver. unanno unced reasons, to also drop Ch eck Number two, a known gas check at which some questionable procedures were employed. trade team to me, too, but it's thei r trophy.) The winner After the problems were ironed out, the scores were posted an d a few new problems came up. A co uple of errors were mad e in transfe rring the scores fro m the master sheet to t he p osted shee t. Eventually, though, Mike Hannon was d eclared the Overall winner wi th a score of 999. Mike, the tall, dark-haired impresario of B ultaco Services in Silverado, California (He replaced Tom Patton, who was kicked upstairs to the main Bu lt a c o operat io n in Virginia.), managed to carry his team with him . His other tw o team m embers we re Bob St eff an , w ho crashed an d h urt his hand early in th e run ' and fin ish ed down somewhat on p o in ts, and J er ry Hoffer, who also finis he d o ut of th e money . Bultaco 's m ost serious co m petition for t he trad e team trophy was eli mi na ted before the eve nt. H usky's te am, led by Ben Bower, was fo rced to use a "B" rider whe n o ne m emb er was unable to get to Washi ngton. Pacific Performan ce h ad a si milar probl em . Hawley Slayton won his class, but t e amm a t e Jim Sp a r k e s is still rec uperating from an inj ury suffered at the Sh am ro ck ISDT . The Black Hills club awarded two additional team trophies, one to an AMA club team, the Mt. Baker M.C. , an d one to an "independent" team , wh ich went to the Auburn Motor Sports sponsored team (Yes, it sounds like a The Championship In this third championship round, the big questions, of course, co ncern the contests for the National and Regional ti tles, T he National Championship question is easy. There 's no effect on because, to date, no Western rider has piled up enough points to be considered a serious natio nal threat. T he Western Regional Championship, however, is really starting to get interesting with three riders virtually tied for first place. Cosby Chestnut, with a first in the 4ger enduro and sixth today (second 250A), appears to have 36 points. Then there is Hawley Slayton, a Nevada, Pen t o n ride r, who collected a thi rd today (first 25 0A), along with a fifth an d an eigh th fo r 35 points total. Bob Key s has a t hird, a fifth, an d got a sixth (fourth O pen A) today fo r 38 points. Within striking d ist ance are several other riders, incl ud ing Mike Hannon, today's Overall winner, and Jay Tullis, win ner of the R ed Garter, bot h of whom now have 30 points toward th e championship. Ben Bower, with a fourth to day to add to a 4ger second, and ap pears to ha ve about 32 points. The points l i s t e d are only approximate because the AMA rule book is not quite clear on certain scoring proced ures. Clarification from Westerville will undoubtedly be along s h o r t ly . Meanwhile, the question remains : Who's going to be big winner at the Greenhorn, which pays 60 points ? ' In spite of small difficulties, it was very apparent that the riders like this event very much. It's nice country. If you want to k now what it looks li ke, watch the Olym pia beer commercials froin Tumwater which is right down th e road. It's the water that makes th e difference, in enduros as well as beer. The frie ndli ness an d cooperation of the club people was imp ressive and, apart fro m t hose are as I' ve mentioned, their organization was excellent, as well. As an instance, for rescu e work, they had arranged for three para-medics t o be stationed around the course, had all the checks connected by radio and had a link to the neighborhood Air Fo rce b ase for air evacuation, if such became ne cessary. Fo rtunately, it d idn ' t. Next year, the clu b is thinking about holding a tw o day q ualifi er as well as a cha m pionshi p end uro. When the w ord gets o ut, they may have to cope with several times the 140 entries they had this weeken d . - Results 125 A CL ASS: 1. Herb Feul ner 972. 2. Jo e W i x on 6 9 5. 125 B CLASS : 1. Ro n Bowers 963 . 2 . Bob K r l sstoffer son 948. 2 0 0 B C LASS : 1. Jack Comnack 993. 2 . R on H a tten 965. 3. Gary Co n dotta 963. 250 A CL ASS : 1. Hawley Slayt o n (Pen ) 995 . 2 . Cos b y C hestn u t (Hus) 991. 3. Ro n F oster 984. 250 B CLASS : 1. A llen Ba dglery 983 . 2. Jim Laso 978. 3. Ph il C hristian 976. 4 . Walt Fulton 973 . O PEN A CLASS : 1. Mike Hannon (Bul, 999.2. Ron Fawcett 997 .3. Ben Bower (HuS) 994.4. Bob Keys (Yam) 988. OPEN B CLASS : 1 . Lyle Ouronso 983. 2 . Ronald DaWley 983. 3 . Jonn Francis 974. TEAM AWARDS CLUB: 1. Mt. Baker M .C .• Bell ingham. Wa . TRADE : 1. Bultaco A me r l ~ n Moto. INDEPENDENT: 1. A ubu r n Moto Sports. 5