Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

_6 ; III • ~ t l!') r--. ~ ....... l!') C'l .J::: u ,... CIl ~ ,. Ouch ! First man out, just because he cou ldn't ride one handed. C'mon Captain Crunch . Remember how great you thought those alumin um ban were? Want t o know why Carl Cran ke won ? Here he is zapping ISOT gold medal \/\/inner J im Hollander who started 11 minute s ahead of him! - Shamrocks' qualifier (Cont inue d from page 11) 30 crashed. Mark stayed with-his bik e til ' it l anded and lost about one m inute regaining his composure. Youngkins , fearing th at h e would land under the bi ke, kicked awa y from it on th e la u nc h . He bent h is shi f t lever into the ca se and spe nt several p recious m inutes trying to be n d it bac k o u t so he could con t in ue . He has n o clear ide a of how long it took h im t o ge t going again but from the score it seems ab o u t five m inutes. A n y body who th ought ab out it, would h a ve picked th e Richmond Ramblers to win the club team awa rd , (which is th e third m ajor award). After all, who co uld be at a com bi natio n of Ken Harvey , a veteran ISDT rider, Dic k Mann the best all aro u nd m otorcycle rider eve r, and Jeff Hammond, not qu ite in the league with the o th er two but still ve ry experie nced and very fast? But fate step pe d in . Di ck Mann with his many-time inj ured leg was u nable to get h is BSA started on time Sa turday . And shortly after he did get started, he b ro ke up his rea r wheel. Go o db y Richmo nd Ramblers. From then on it was p ick your ch o ice o u t of a hat. Would you li ke a De sert M.C . club? There were four t o choose fro m . A n underdog club? Try the "33rd St re et T urkey s. " Even the lit tl est Turkey , Lark Wight go t a silve r medal a nd h is momma 's so p roud of h im she's gonna have it b ronzed. Or you co ul d ch oo se an un hol y trio fro m the ki ddy 's fav orite m o 'sickl e magazin e, Dirt Bike . But all your guesses would be wrong. The winne r was a Northern Cal ifo rn ia b unc h , Jim Sparkes, Fre d Came ron, and Russ Powell. (In fo nnati on on some o f the lesser known ride rs is a bit scant th is y e ar because u nlike p revio us years, there was n o program an d list of ride rs. Kawasaki was rumo re d to be culprit r esponsible fo r th e orn issio n.) Both Ca m eron an d Sp arkes arc q uick e n du ro ri d e rs , but ne it h e r are te r ri bly co n sisten t . Their win W"dS a s urp rise to ev e ryo n e , inclu d in g them selves I susp ec t, because none of th em was arou n d to receiv e t he tr ophy from a b lea r y -eyed Shamrock abou t 12: 30 Sunday evening. Getting back t o the Tra de team co m pe titio n for a m oment. th ere were q uite a number of team s who m ade ex cell ent show i n g s . C an -Am, in third place co uld have won with just a bi t more lu ck. Bill Uhl won the 175 class and Lars Larsson, the vene rable Swede. was third in th e 35 0 class. Monresa 'm ounted a very ca pab le, co nsisten t te am of Dave Evans, Steve Bell and Roy Sh eridan. None o f them are fast enough t o be at gu ys like Cranke an d Adent , but th ey finished and if a few of the fast guys had b roken they would have been there wai t ing. Ro kon is pl ay in g t he same sort of g ame w i th t he stea dy D a ve Mun genast and Ron Bish op. Their third tea m m ember, J im Hollander, is very fast , but is a bit limited by the m achine, which despite much improvement in the last three years is still a fin ishe r ra the r th a n a win ne r. The disappointment of the Trial was the Moto-Bul taco team, m oun ted on the new Fr ontera models. All of them broke the first da y . There we re a vari e ty of tro ubl es b u t m o st o f th e new Buls los t the back en d o f their sile nc ers. Two Fron teras did fin ish bu t ne ithe r we re on the tea m. One h ad a broken fra m e an d just lim ped in o n a b ronze. Dave Schoon maker , an ex -Cycl e News sta ff e r, was on th e o the r a n d he won a gold medal. Hodaka an d Kawasaki also had d isap p o in ting eff o rts . A new set o f rules from th e FIM was in effec t for this ru n a nd th ey Ca me so late tha t the rule booklets had already be en printed. The new rules arc q uite co m plica ted but in essence th ey have done away with th e " ro u te m a rk " co nc ep t a nd all the scoring is based on o ne type o f point. Special te sts are sc o r e d a s before, in tota l elapsed seco nds. but la te poin ts also now are scored in blo cks o f 60 (per minute late) and ad ded to t he Sp ec ial Te st score. Failure to sta rt in the morning ea rn s 50 p oints an d flu nki ng the so u nd test ea rns 20 . The rider 's score is the t otal of all of these. To ge t a gold me dal his total point score must be within 15% of the best score in h is class. To get a silver he must be with in the top 50 % in his class. Two effects of t he rule are tha t being late to a c he c k doesn 't a uto matically co st a ride r h is go ld medal. By riding very fast in th e Special Tests he can still m ake it u p . The o the r co n seq ue nc e is th at one ve ry fast rider in a cl ass can made it ex tremely di ffi cult for a ny but the very t o p rid e rs to ge t go ld medals. T his yea r's t r i al was especially d iffe rent fro m las t year's in that eve rybody liked it. The cou rse was 140 miles lon g . The ri d e rs l eft the start / fini sh a rea at th e La keshore Inn an d rode to "C" Park, a distance o f ab o u t 20 miles fo r them, bu t on ly 12 mil es by ro ad. From th ere they went o ut on two loops each o f which was about 4 0 mil es long a nd each o f which went in a more o r less easterly direction . One loop, the o ne ridden first on Sa turd a y stayed nort h of Rand Mountain. The other stayed South . On Sunday th e o rde r in which the lo op s were ridden a nd the: di rection was reve rsed. There were di fferent speed averages for different sec ti ons, b u t it worked o u t to ab o u t 24 mph on Saturday a nd abo u t 28 m p h o n Su nday. These averages would have wiped out an a ve rag e e ndu ro fi e l d , b ut were consid e red fairl y slo w by the hi gh le vel field o f ISDT asp ira n ts. The weath er played q uite a part in rna ki n g pre vio us Sh a rn r o c k runs unpleasant, b u t for this run it was co op era t ive. Sa tu rda y was one o f the most bea u tiful d ays th e desert has eve r seen , bri ght blu e sk ies and co o l, but no t co ld , temperatures. On Sunday the wind blew a nd for some of the riders fro m o ut o f the area it was an unnerving expe rience. It was qu ite possible to get b low n off some of the high ridges. It looked earl y in th e morning like it might rain , whi ch would ha ve made the eastern ride rs very happy, but it didn 't. It j ust go t damned co ld ins tead , Besides m a kin g a much pleasanter co u rse to ride, th e Shamroc ks also lightened u p quite a bit on the technicalities. There was no lighting requi rement, a n d no st reet legal requirement. Fewer parts were marked and the engine was not sealed wi th wire and l e ad as in other eve nts. The Shamrocks did make quite a n effort to p re vent c hea tin g in the pit area. They ha d a whole bunch of m arshalls who m ad e a lo t of reports o f in fractio ns. Mos t ho wever , we re deemed unp ro vable an d were dropped o n the advice of AMA honc ho AI Eames. Last year t he Sham roc ks were hu ng in effigy at their eve n t. A lesser cl u b mi gh t have ab ando ned th e q ualifie r in disco u ragement. The Shamrocks didn't; they just decided to m ake it a lot better an d they succeeded. This year one co uld scarcel v he ar a c rit ical word and most of the riders th ou gh t it was a' gre at ride. E ven some of the Easterners were ta lk ing a bou t how they enjoy ed the ride. which m ust coun t as som e sort of an Irish miracle . • Results F I RST OVERA LL: Carl C ra n ke . 500ce CLASS, 1. Mark Aden t 2 6 4 8 . 2. M o rri s Norma n 274 4. 3. Bo b Massey 2 74 8 . 4. John Fo r d 2753. 5. Ma lc o lm Sm ith 2 77 3. 350cc CLASS : 1. Carl Cranke 25 7 8. 2. J im Sim m ons 2877. 3. La rs Larsson 287 9 . 5. Ron Bish oP 292 1.6. JOhn T o w sen d 2963. 2 5 0 cc C L ASS : 1. Bob Balen tine 2 7 3 3 . 2 . Er ic Je nse n 2 765. 3. Da ve Hulse 2 894 . 4, Ru ss Powell. 5 . Ji m SparkS 2933 . 175ee CLASS , 1. Bill Uhl 2 7 2 3. 2. Bill F r iant 2743. 3. Dan Y ou ng 2 8 6 3 . 4 . John S itto n 29 9 9 . 5 . Bill E isele 3 026 . 12 5 cc CLASS : 1. Tom Pe nt on 2861 . 2 . ~~~k~I~~~~~l~.9~: ~d~\~~C:ro~~ri~. 2944. 4 . MA N U F A CT U RE RS T EA M AWA R D, !. Pen t o n West - G ar y Vo u ngki ns 2 8 8. M ark A d ent 14 . Eric Jen sen 49, total 351. 2 . Hu scva rn a A - Bob Balenti ne 16. 8 en Bower 5 3 2. Ma lcolm Smi t h 125, tota l 673. 3. Can-A m - Lars Larsso n 3 01. Bi ll U h l 13 . Ji m O'Neil 459. to tal 773. 4. Montesa - R oy She ri dan 371. Dave Eva ns 259. St eve Bell 233, total 864. 5. Roko n - 1492 - Bi shop. M unge na nst. H oll an der. 6 . Husqv arna West B 16235 You ng , Ha tfiel d . Peste s. 7. Aub u rn M otor Sp orts - 167 84 - Be t h ar dS. M . Br o w n . G . Br o wn. 8. Hodak a - 2 0 7 20 Chest n ut, Meter, Oliver. 9 . Pen t on I mp o r t s 3 0028 - Cranke, T. Pent o n, J . Pen t on. 10. Kawasaki 30745 M illigan. co ree. Far nsworth. 11. Husq varna W est A - Maahs, D. Smith , Sitton - 6 0 2 8 9 . 12. M ota B u l tac o - 9 0 000 - Ha nnon . Eki n s. F ie l di n g. CL U B TEAM AWA R D , 1. P ac i fic Per fo r man c e 410 Po w ell . Cam eron , Sparkes. 2 . Desert M .C . No. 4 - 99 7 L ewell yn . Me j i a. Baeh r. 3 . Chec kpoints M.C. - 1074 - V ar n e r. Harris, GOdfr ey .

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