Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ity re rns By Ron Schneiders RED MOUNTAIN, CA L., JAN. 5 For the first time in so me months "an AMA District 37 enduro has received resounding app lause from virtually all participants. Even God smi led on their efforts with nice weather and no wind . (Nice weather in January isn't all that warm, however. Onl y a few tough 6 kids were riding without jackets. a nd th ere were pat c hes of snow here and there.) The California Racing Club, a sort of p ro fessio nal operation with an amateur heart and District Charter ho st ed th e event. The pits were lo cated about nine miles d ue no rth o f th e town of Red Mo untain, Cal iforn ia in th e Eag le Wash area East of Trona Road. From th is ce ntral point three loops spread o u t to more or less co ver the corridor b ounded by the Naval _W eapons Center o n the East and the Kern Co u n ty line on the West. Each loop was approxima tely 32 miles lo n g, so no one had a ny pro ble m s with gas. The "C " riders rode only the first two lo op s. Loop One was a long s kin n y lo o p which straddled the Trona Ro ad a nd c ir cl e d Red Mountain (the m o un t ain, not the town) at the southern end. 'j;he terrain o n :,11 three loops co uld b e best described as m od era te , mean ing a bit of ro ck , a lot of rolli ng ' type trail, a few hills, and nothing that a good "B" rider would find too difficult to m anage. Th e " C " riders probably go t in a bit of difficulty on som e hills , both up a nd d o wn but there was noth ing ver y danger o us, eve n for he" riders. L oop T wo wen t n orth and criss -cr ossed th e Spangler ra n ge several times. Alth ough it was ve ry similar to Loop One, th e a verages were j ust a bi t higher. Between th e loops wer e rest breaks of 2 3 minutes and 28 m in utes. Loop 'Three was the lo op for the "A" and " B" riders only , but aside from havi ng a few mo re ro ck s and a bit tighter schedule there was lillie to distinguish it from th e other tw o . It dipped down to the south a nd tr aced a pattern in th e Lava m ountains. Course m arking co uld. only b e described as lavish in mos t p laces. Coming up o n a turn yo u co uld so m et imes see 15 pieces of rib bon, a nd maybe a bush with ribbon wrapped ar ound it like a m a ypol e. Dan gero us spots wer e mar ked far ah ead o f th e ac t ual h azard. Th e "C" rid ers foun d this hard to underst and, but th e faster rid er s app reciated it. This area has so m an y tr ails and ro ads a nd so much o ld rib bo n that it was still possible to get o ff th e trail, even wi th a ll the ribbon, and so me riders did." Last year there were so m e 60 conte s tan ts who ze roed the en tire [ron Horse Enduro and iwo riders wh o zeroed the tiebreaker, resu lting in a rather inconclusive co n t est . This year there were still a lot of zero scores (26 ) so I as ked some o f the better rid ers if the checks were pl aced in such o b vio us spots that they were easy to hit o n tim e. Even a "B " rid er who h as neve r won an enduro before and who hit al l n in e checks on the b utton and ze roed one o f th e tie-breakers insisted that th e chec ks were quite cleverly p laced , I d on 't understand it , b ut that's wh at they said . There wer e t wo tiebreaker c hec ks, one in the first lo o p an d one in the th ird lo o p . It was announced be fo reh and, a ccording to Club Referee J erry McNeal, tha t the first lo op tie br eak er would be used for the "C" rid er s a nd the second tiebreaker for the " A" and "B" riders. Not all riders were a ware o f the arrangement, h owever, a nd th er e is a bit of unhappiness. Since th er e were 16 riders who zero ed th e course, t he Six miles from the end with no po ints lost. facing a 5100 repa ir job, and he can still manage a smile. He must be Irish. tiebreaker th at was used m ad e a difference o f 10 pl aces in th e o ve ra ll st an d ing! There co uld b e a third o rd er of finishers if the tiebreaker sco re s were totaled. As it was, th ough , Wal t T ab er, a "B" rider abo ar d a Husky was the overall winner with zero po ints lo st a nd ze ro seconds on the tiebreaker. Using th e first chec k as th e tiebreaker , Dave Evans (wh o actually finished eighth) would have won. Using co mb ined tiebreak er scores, Sam Lyman , th e Mu s t a c h i o e d Cooper Commander , wo uld have won, bu t he ac tually fin ish ed fift h . The to tal differen ce in per forman ce amo ng th ese t hree is a m atter o f ] 2 sec o nds ove r t wo ch ec ks in a 100 mil e run. This sort o f accuracy is co m m o n in sports car rallies, but neither the promoter> nor the competitors in enduros have the sophisticated (and e x pensive) equipm ent common to sports car rally buffs , so when the scoring gets this close, win ning beco mes a m atter of lu ck. There were sti ll some neat things done on this Tu n . First it was accu ra t el y laid out at 99.9 miles whic h allowed chec ks every three mi les instead o f every five . Then there was a n interesting rnin esh aft tunnel that the riders went through. Finally, they finished the run o u t o f the pits to give the over-j azzed types a cha nc e to co o l off b efore they scattered th e women and kids in the pits. It was a _good sane run an d the ride rs ap p recia ted it . There were 332 starters a nd 257 finishers, which works o ut to almost 77 %. • Results . TO P TE N : 1. Wa lt Taber (Hu s) O..Q . Open B . 2.- u r ry Twal t (Hus) 0 -2. O pe n A . 3 . K en L ew is ( Pen) 0 -3. 25 0 A . - 4 . Reggie K r o ng (Ha n ) 0 -3 . Open A . 5 . Sam L y m an (C OOP) 0 -4 . 250 A. 6. Rick Mu n yon (Pe n ) 0 -6 . 125 A . 7. H a r old Holstead (H on ) 0 ·7 . O p en A . 8 . Dave E vans ( a ss) 0- 1 0. 25 0 A . 9. Fred Ha y es 1~nh .0 .l0. 250 A . 10. Mike Sterli ng 0- 12. e CLASS : 1. W alt T aber (Hus) 0 -0 . O p en B ' . 2 . Larry Lamby (CZ) 1·3,250 B . 3 . La rr y Bussard (Hon) 1-2 , 12 5 B. C CLASS : 1. Ken WOOdling (Yam) S..Q. O pen C. 2. Ed Hardy Jr . (CZ) 2-1, 25 0 C. 3 . Mike Rogers (Suz) 5-0 . 125 C.

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