Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~,'tI.J ' !f'" .<,; 4ftIt,~<'IiIIV'~ .-...,. :Jf*.... '#* ;ill' . . ~~ "Just past the observation check was an in nocent lo o kin g area .. . "What is this, Dirt Bik e magazine? Turkeys to the winners, agood fun enduro to all By Larry Langley LUCERNE VALLEY. NOV. 24 The Pomona Valley Desert Riders advertised their third annual Turkey Shoot Enduro as an easy timekeepers run and that is exactly what they delivered. A good tu rnout of 1200 riders came out to try their hand at enduroing and if they were lucky enough, to take home a turkey. Things were pretty easy going all wee ken d and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Especially in the URA pits since PVDR finally paid off their lo n g standing deb t and bought URA a "party." Na turally U RA invited everyone else around over and you know what happens when bikers start partying it u p. Quite a few riders were sorry they had early numbers Sunday morning when eigh t a.rn. key time rolled around. It's a good th ing the first loo p was super-easy; they we ren't han d ling to o goo d . The 3 0· m ile loop was pretty tame an d the averages were slow. PV DR eve n Only thing hard about the Pomona Valley Dese rt Riders enduro was holding down a 15 mph average on a dirt road. 8 had a hard way{easy way at one point. Th e hard way really wasn't, other than being a little soft, wh ich gives th e minicycles fi ts , One lo ng dirt road was at an gawdawful slow 15 MPH. I know PVDR wanted to make sure things were easy, but ... . They had four or five checks to keep every o ne hones t and all were sp ot-on in m ileage and time. Well, there were some complaints ab o u t th e tieb rea ker being, get th is, 15 seconds off! I can remember when mo st riders wo uld' be tickled pink ·t o co m e within 15 seconds o f thei r minute. Come on guys, it 's a fun run. Poor Shelly Sheridan. She was fo llo wing her dad Roy around on her little Yamaha 60 and had zeroed everything including the tiebreaker, wh en they decided to take the easy way section (Roy claimed it was for her benefit) and they blew a turn , cu t t ing off a good portion of the co urse. Since there wasn't a speed change in that section they didn 't know it until they hi t t he next ch ec k seven minutes early . Ouch. They had fu n anyway. At the finish, you drew your finisher' s pin. A "T" on the back made you a winner of Thanksgiving bird. a At the finish, wh ich was not a known check (which meant y ou had to come in on yo ur minute) the o ne-loopers and passengers received their fin isher pins and checked th e back of them for a "T" wh ich stood for " Yo u won a Turkey." Lucky riders got a gift certificate for a bird. The rest of us hot shoes t ook a bre ak and got ready for the second lo o p . We were primed for action since the first loop was so tame. Things started off well at 24 MPH as we took off down the dry lake over the wh Dopers. Things were going fa irly easy when the course turned off in to a was h and it was tig h t getting into the firs t check. That 's more like it, we thought. Well that was abo ut it, as it turned out. The rest of the loop was mostly cross-co un try stuff whi ch was very easy to keep on tim e, excep t when we were in an eight MPH section up a sand wash . T ry to imagine riding in a sand was h in first gear for a couple of miles and y ou get the picture. Finally a check and it 's eigh t m in utes off! My rider partner swears he saw a guy standing there with a wind-u p alarm clock flipping the cards. Afte r the check it was j ust a p leasant trail ride. Only one d ownhill t o speak of which led in to t he second lo op tiebrea ker ch eck. I he ard a lo t of com plain ts about it being exactly one min u te off and PVDR to ld me it will b e ad justed if it is in dee d off. (Yo u want m y opinion? It was off.) Later I found ou t the morning co urse patrol had fo und o ver five miles of ribbon tom down an d in so me cases ret ied . They finished patching in the course jus t mi nu te s be fore th e fi rst rid er was due. J ust o nce I'd like to catch so meone messing with th e ribbon. J ust past t he observation check was an in no cent lo o king area which was abou t a foot deep in silt. 'You know, the kind th at billows up all ar ound y ou when you ride through. I saw three or fo ur riders fall and it seemed like forever before th e dust settled down enough to find t he m . At leas t it was soft. I asked ar o und an d everyo ne seemed to h ave a good tim e. The course markin g was very good (I didn 't ride th e easy way) and PVDR had all bases covered with International Racing Radio Crew and Service' Search an d • Rescue sta ndi ng by.

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