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/125861
oSPARKS WINS! Western Regiona l T.T. Champ ionship Boise, Idah o: 1st Place Expert Class Mark Williams Almost eve rybody struggled with this silty. rocky u phill Granny provided. Gruntin' through Granny Three Sunshine Nati onal Drags Memphis, Tennessee: By Larry Langley BARSTOW, CAL., MA Y 19 The Pomona Valley Desert Riders don't have any luck. 'Last year the Granny II was hit by rain, h ail, and snow, causing cancellation. This year they deci ded to hol d the end uro in May and got December type weather for their effo rts . I t was cold and the wind mad e things miserab le. Key time was m o ved to 7 :0 1 due to t he 1200 entries received. Sin ce we were o n m inute number. five we were dressed like Eskimos trying to stay w arm. The first loop was billed as an easy family loop. There was a lo t of sand , one rocky d ownhill, a co up le o f mildly challenging uphills, and a few rocky, sect ions to keep t he 'fam ily rider busy. The only complain t I had was with the inconsisten t mileages from point to point. At the three mile che ck my speedometer read 2.9 miles so this meant I had to dial in . 1 every th ree miles and I would match their mileage, right? Not hardly. Our mileages varied fro m .1 to .3 every check and every speed chan ge on th e first loop . At fir st I though t it was just me but I chec ked around and everyone was having th e same problem. It made t ime keeping erratic. The worse check was the last one before the end of the loop, .3 miles. The finish o f th e first loop according to the riders in structions was an unknown check wh ich m eant yo u c o u ld n ' t be up to 15 minutes early as usual. In fact PVDR borrowed an ide a from the Lame Puppy Enduro and made th e finish a tie breaker, catch ing the sloppy time keepers off guard. T o avoid th e usual bottleneck you received a slip of paper with your time and sec o nd. on it and rode about 10 yards furt he r and had your sco re card marked . T he one loopers turned in their car ds and received their pins and the two loopers took a sh ort break before ta ckling the harder second loop. After gassing up,lubing the chain and getting a bite to eat we took out on the loop paralleli ng the freeway for a few miles before maki ng a left turn up a soft rocky up hill. Over the hill, 'up so me ridges through so me rocks, down a roc ky hill, and ra ts, 10 seconds late to the check. T he m ileages were o n so th at was a relief . T he rest of the loop was f un and a t ti mes challenging. The MPH averages were pretty good ; we didn't have much ti me to loaf. There were enough chec ks to keep you scratching to st ay on time at all times an d most seem ed pretty - accurate. Right at th e end o f th e loop was the biggest challenge o f th e loop, a long s teep uphill which was both roc ky _ and soft. The finish was jus t over the hill on th e o ther sid e. •• .fIere -wa s- the. only -inaecuracv of the second loop, as the finish was one m ile sho rt o f the scheduled mileage. I wen t back to the hill to take so me p ict ur es an d it was turning into a big bo ttlen eck. Not one rid er in 10 made it o ver without pushing. The biggest pro blem was other people ge lling in your way. A t one tim e I coun ted ab out 25 riders blocking the trail. T here w ere som e bizzar e riding st yl es. T he charge -up -the-hill at 50 MPH type (w ho usu all y unlo aded when he hit th e 'first ro ck), th e trials-t ype-rider who go t up on the pegs and pi cked his way up , the low -g e a r- t e n-t h o u s an d-Rl'Mvslip-theclu tc h-wi th -tria ls-tire s, and every o ther style y o u could imagine. O ne poor soul who was totally exhausted collapsed over his bike trying to regain some energy for another try. He glanced over at a bike passing hi m and almost came totally unglued. The rider calm ly pi cking his way up the hill had a buddy up on the back and j us t motored righ t up, to the amazement of riders stuck on the grade. T hen some dude on a little Honda T rai l 70 really blew their m ind s as h e rode up the hill pushing jus t o nce. S.?me eg,!! were deflated. Quite a few riders went around the hill and PVDR was t al king abou t throwing out the finish check. To me this would be unfair to the riders who did go up the hill. PVDR had th e finish set up righ t at the base of th e downhill and enduro rules state you must com e into a ch eck from the proper direction, i.e. , down th e hill. Everyone else should have had their car ds marked for penalty or disqualification. I t was a good c ourse even though th e first loop mileages were off. The finishing pi ns were absolutely first rate. International Ra cing Radio Crew was on hand providing communications and emergency first aid and so me money was raised fo r M.O.R.E . by donations and PVD R kicked in the extra dollar paid by the post sign up . • 1st Place Pro St ock Class Frank G ilroy Ascot April Silver Medal Series: 1st & 2nd Junior Div. Ron Tobey Skip Aksland 1st & 3rd Novice Div. Dave Racine Brent Knauer Join our growing list of winners. Pick t he perfor mance plug. NIPPONDENSO of Los A ngeles, I nc. 1815 Anderson Ave. Compton Californ ia 90220 (213) 639-3630 Te lex 67408 2 Some riders even took soil samples t o d etermine exactly what this terrain was all about - fi rst hand. 17