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/125882
From Iialy 10 New York 0& Gold lime By Boyd Rey ~o l ds CA YUTA, N.Y., SEPTEMBER 22 A w eek after t h e completion of the ISDT in Italy, four o f the blue helmet team riders joined 280 other competitors for the 150 Mile National Enduro between Cayuta and Newfield, New York. Within a few miles, the riders becam e aware that this event was not go ing to b e w o n with a one or tw o po in t los s . as SO m a n y of th e champ io nsh ip even t s have b een so far this season. Starting at 7:00 a. m., it was directl y into t he mountains behind t he Sebring Inn o n wet soggy trails. The sky was clear, but the temper at u re wa s in the 40 's. It h ad rained off an d o n for the p ast t h ree days and Saturday it rained hard all d ay so the going was greasy an d all th e rocks were very slip pery. There was little or no machine carrying, but similar to an ISDT type event, good rideable to ugh trail. Of the 285 riders that started about 6 I made the finish . Tom Penton was the last rider off the line, but like Bill Baird years back, he proved this was no disadvantage to co mputing the best score of the day. Dan Yo ung tied Penton on a 968 score but he was 15 seconds further off on the tie breaker check. To the casual observer, there we re several riders to watch: Ron Bohn, the '73 IS DT Vase team rider and win ner of some of t his seas o n's Championship s, and seco nd in earned po in ts for '74; Dick Bur leso n also on t he '73 Vase team an d the curre nt po in t lea der in the C h ampi on sh ip race; Tom Pen ton , co n sidered by many observers at this year' s ISDT in It al y as t he to p American rider ; Dan Young, an impressive looking rider who pro ved superiority in the several ISDT qualifiers this year. All Int ern ati on al Gold Medal caliber m ixed in with ride rs like Fran k Piasecki, Paul Cole , Don Cole (trail b reaker for mos t of the day , cha nge d a flat tire at 120 mil es and was b ack lead ing again tw en t y miles further d own t he trail). Sho rt bursts o f ro ad an d then back into tigh t w oods up and down mo un tai n s ides wh ere slidi ng wit h all w heels lock ed up was the ru le ra ther t ha n t he excep tion. As the resu lt listing will sh ow , it was a case of luck and trail fa mili arity that br ou g h t top positio ns to nat io nal un knowns wh ile the big gu ns were wav down o n the score sheet. Most of the Nationals this season have been won by a one or two po in t loss, but not this event as you will note, for example , that the average po in t loss for placing "A" riders was a 40 to 50 point loss. A class "B" wi nner in the 250cc size area won the class with a total loss of 25 I points, a sizeable amount you will agree? Yet , this was no t a "throw t he watch away an d ride" type of run as there were long sections of dirt road, some of which co ntained checks to catch those making up ti me who faile d to maintain a prop er sche d ule. Th e or g a ni z a t i o n at t his Championship co n test was no t up to par with other National Enduro co ntests. The so und te st was a far ce wit h no me ter used and th ere we re bikes o n the t rail putt ing o u t close t o 100 dB. • Resul ts in Resul ts Section . lll.) ..0 o ..... u o Tom Penton prepares for the climb out of Carter Creek. Complete with extra padding , this Penton rider tackles the swamp course. The muddy, rocky creek proved a difficult task for everyone. After 120 miles of pounding trail, few riders would smile in this fellow's predicament. A rider crosses Michigan Hollow creek as Dan Young fixes his b ike. ·23