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/125868
b ot torn of a 24 ~(PII ave rage ro c ky do wn h ill wi th o n ly o ne narro w tr a il, caught m an y riders stuck b eh ind slow pokes late. There we ren' t m an y ge tting off the trail to pass; it was j ust too treacherous. The Lucerne Valley is known fo r its sand washes and ro cks, and th ere were tons of them on the first loop along with moderate uphills and ridge running to keep you busy. The m in i-squirts attacked Sat urd ay ' s f amily loop with t he soda pop equ iva lent o f layou t J have had the pleasure of riding. The CTR cou ld ha ve made it harder but keeping in mind what the "searing Ju ly heat could d o to our poor bods they opted to make it just challenging enough to be interesting, just easy enough to avoid heat prostration. The temperature ran aro u nd 95 -100 degrees. It wasn't too bad as long as you kept moving. The first c hec k , located at the The se cond check was located in a wash right off of a fire road. The tum arrows were righ t at the tum . It was easy to overrun the turn. and when a rider did make it, he risked being center punched by riders coming from behind who didn 't see the tum. The speeds were realistic, and it was possible to ze ro the loop. A ro c ky stretch of wash took its toll as Punk Wilson ate it on his new Ro ko n , doing a number on his leg. Good old Bill Adams was taking care of Punk until hel p arrived. At the a lt e rn a te gas stop, 43 m iles out. the riders enjoyed some free Gatorade. There was a sneaky check just past the free zo ne ou t of the gas stop to catch the sloppy time keepers . J ust before the tie breaker check a lot of riders got lo s t as the course turned o ut of a wash. A good nu mber continue d up the was h and by the ti me they realized their error , they we re very late. Jay Tu llis and Team Ho nda los t th ree min utes he r e, b lowing t he endu ro for them . How d oes t hat saying go? You win some and .. . Heading into the p its now it was WFO ti me. We knew we were near the pits as we headed up a nas ty type rocky uphill and there were spectators allover the hill . ' a t urally the old ego had everyone gassing it to show off a Iittle bit. Strange, at t he finish of the loop there wasn't a check. After a welcome 43 minu te b reak to get the scooter serviced it was time for the 31 mile second loo p , which to o k off backwards from the Saturday fa mily loop. About half of the lo op was the same, then the CTR diverted the course into more c h allen ging terrain, still nothing really hard. It was obvious they were lightening up on us thinking it wo uld be pretty hot by now. The club must have kept a crew work ing full time carrying ou t all those water bottles on the course. At one u ph ill there were hot tles at the bottom and also hal f w ay up . Maybe they were t ry in g to tell us something. The lo o p had three checks to kee p us ho n est and then it was o ver. Again th e C'l'R was scoring the cards as they ca me in hop ing to get eve ryting sco re d be fore the ri ders went h ome. I h ad to leave before all the resu lts were posted b ut I know t here were two zeros, Fred Hayes an d Carl Price of the C ha parra ls hav ing them. Carl, (175 Pen) won Overal l. Fred (250 Pen) was second. Nobody was hitching that the co urse was easy enough to ze ro, it could have very easily been just a body buster, and nobody wanted that in the July heat. The Conejo Trail Riders are to be commended for the tremendous amo unt of work they put into the run. All proceeds will RO to Russ Sanford and :'ol.O.R.E. which for the motorcyclist, is where it's at. • Why is th is man-lost? She's ju st check in' u p on ya. gust~ . Firecracker for M.O.R.E. gets off with a bang By Larry Langley LUCERNE VALLEY, CAL..JULY 6 When the Conejo Trail R iders decided to host a M.O.R.E. benefit run and get everyone from beginners to D-37 enduro aces out, t h e y didn't mess around. Saturday th ey "threw a 30 mile "end uro," a Smuggler type run in that the tota l ela pse d t im e from start to finish counted for scoring. A few of the checks were included for tie breaking p urposes, and a co uple fo r observation. The "secret" winning time to try and match was an average set by a CTR family. At 8:01a.m. the first riders set out on a nice trail ride, easy enough for most anyone to tackle, yet interesting enough to keep the better riders from boredom. About half way around they had a mind blowing snow cone break , of all things. They even had caches of one gallon wate r bottles set up every few miles around the course in case someone broke down or suffered from the heat, prepared for the worst. They lucked out: the temperature wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. At the finish they had a co u p le o f their kids on minicycles running th e Then 0-3 7 po int sc h asers WFO'd int o the h ome checks of a moderately easy but worth while S unday e nduro. score ca rds to th e trailers for instant scoring. More 0 -3 7 cl ubs should pu t into the e nd uros the effor t this fami ly or ien ted club di d . "A couple of girls sitting on their b ikes near the finish line are sti ll shaking a ft er a rattlesnake slipped in between t hem, but a Dirt Digger spotted the snake and killed it with a ro ck. By one o 'clock they had all the cards scored and Russ Sanford of ~ l.O. R.E. himself gave ou t the prizes. Russ had a Rood time like everyone else. The Conejo Trail Riders went out to the dealers of Southern California and rounded up 55,000 worth of goodies to give away. The first place rid er received a complete riding outfit including leathers, boots, jersey, etc. (liis winning time of one hour 36 minutes surprised most everyone. If the time setting family took the 20 minute break lik e o t he r riders did. they covered the 3 0 miles in one hour, 16 minutes, fast for a fami ly ave rage. They sure fooled a lot of pe opl e. Most rid ers figured it would t ake over two hours and rode acco rd in gly. ) CTR Rave out a whole lot of goodies, and eve n the very last place rider got a prize. As the multi tudes indulged in a co ld on e an d admired th eir goodies, the Conejo Trail Riders were hard at work ch a ngin g the family loop around for Sunday 's District 37 enduro . LUCERNE VALLi-:Y, CAL.,JULY 7 Only about 250 riders signed up for the District 37 part of the week end en d uro, d ue to th e combi natio n of Ju ly heat and vacation time. It was one of the year 's best runs. . T he long first loop (58 miles) was the best Lucerne Valley Conejo Trail Riders provided th ousands o f b u c ks worth of pr izes fo r almost eve ry b o dy wh o f in ished, including t h e myt hi cal Heck el plastic IS OT boot s. -' 8