Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Ch arlie's Place alon g Trona Road , north o f Red Moun tain. The ribboning problem occurre d whe n "Hey! Quit hogging the river!" " Ah , shut up and move over yourself." Tonto Enduro. scenic trails were a Tonto 100 staple. mountain and it was back t hro ug h Pun kin Center, up a fir e road , onto a jeep trail where the las t ch ec k was wai ting j ust five mil es fro m th e fini sh . Final ly the finish check but th e end uro was n 't quite over yet. A short motocross was wa iting as a spe cial test. If you sco re d within 25 percent o f th e fastest rider in y ou r class, you didn't lose an y points, if yo u scored be tw een 26 pe rcen t and 5 0 per cen t you lost one point, an d 50 percent, you lost three. A different ide a but , it didn 't work out. Due to some problems in clo cking the riders and some confusion in co ur se marking, the motocros s spe cial te st scores were not used. When all the sco re s had be en co mp u te d , the tr op hie s were handed out at eight p .rn, As mentioned , Dave Evans, Roy Sheridan and Fred Hay es won th e co vete d "A" team trop hy along wi th Dave 's overall win. known gas chec k at t he little town of Punkin Cen te r, abo u t 4 0 miles into the loop. Th e loop was mostly fireroad with the exception o f a roc ky downhill an d a section goi ng into Pun kin Center which ran down Tonto Creek fo r fo ur m iles over ro cks wh ich ne ver see med to en d. On ce th e riders go t going they went over th e rocks at fr igh ten ing speeds. Roy Sheridan o f Team Montesa told me things reall y smoothe d o ut ar ound 50 mph . I wouldn' t kn ow per sonally , I was strugg ling along with a flat rear tire try in g to reach Pun kin Center so I co uld scro unge up a new t ube . The rid ers eithe r gassed u p from their pit crews (if they had one) or b oug ht gas at the pu mp at Pun kin Ce nter Gas Station. After a check to catch the sloppy timekeepers , th e course turn ed on th e mo st spe c tacular part of the en du ro, a five-mile ride down wh at most ride rs called th e "goat trail, " so nam ed b ecause it was only a foot or so wid e and went down and down and down for wh at seemed forever. A drop of several thousand feet just inc h es away made for mu ch ca utio n but so me rid ers held up o thers behi n d t hem cau sing many foul utterance s to spew forth , th e cleanest of which wen t lik e " Move over Tur k ey !" Th e rid ers able to maintain the 12 mp h average do wn th e trail we re havi ng a prob lem with th e m any riders who could n ' t (o r wouldn't) and did n't move over to le t the faster riders th rough . After what see m ed like hours. the trail finally cam e out at the bo ttom of th e All in all, the Ro ad And Trail Association d id an outstanding job in pro moting the Ton to 10 0. The fine trails and spectacular sce nery mad e the lo ng d rive fro m Cali fornia wort hwh ile for th e many Cali fornia ride rs who entered. Wh y th e Arizon a rider s don 't tum o ut in greater numbers remai ns a mystery but mi gh t be solve d with a " C" clas s and an eas ier " C" firs t lo op. In cid en tall y , the trophies were the fines t I have ever seen , being han d tooled le at her m ounted on walnut. Th ey were absolu tel y first class and the Briggs family is to be congratu la ted for ta kin g t he time to make 'th em . • CRC Pucker Bunny Enduro the De sert Kn ights M.C . laid down t he sam e co lor ribb on fo r their Hare and Hound wh ich will be hel d nex t week . A CRC mar king crew pic ked up on the Desert Kn igh ts ribbo n, thinkin g it was the enduro course and lai d in th e wrong course. CRC worked frantically Sunday morning to correct the problem an d eve n reclocked the course to insure it was the same as listed on the schedule. This pr obl em could have, and should have, been avo ided by a little co mmu nication between clubs. No club sho ul d be allo wed to lay down the same co lor ribbon o n consecu tive wee ken ds. With th e land u se problems we have , we don 't n eed to create any more pr oblem s. The enduro feature d two ra t her long loop s for a family enduro . Th e first loop ran 3 9 miles, just abo ut the limit for th e m in i-cy cles. I didn't he ar any co mp lain ts abo u t the loop and since there were 10 zero es, it was easy en ou gh. Qu inton Smith h ad t he honor of zeroing even the tie-breaker ending up with a perfect sco re to take first overall honors for one loopers. Beverly Ta bor rode her MR ·17 5 to second overal l, first women 's division with just a lo ss of two seconds at th e tie brea ker. Three checks kep t everyone honest and an hour's break allowed the rid ers who escorted t heir families aro und to m ake t he ir way in and still have time for a co ol one be for e ta kin g out on th e 48 mil e secon d loop. About four miles out on the second loop was where the horse problem occurred. Approxim ately 40 or 50 horseback rider s (who earlier were seen in the pits) congregated on the course and tried to prevent riders from riding through while they " cro ssed" the course. Most riders ju st rode on through but a few got stopped and threatened. No w I feel there is plenty of room for both horses and bi kes on the desert, but the fact remains that there was an enduro going on and CRC had a permit from BLM to use th e course they had laid out. Do you get th e feeling the horse me n were trying to set us up ? I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find some pic t u res of the bikers " h arrassing" the poor horsemen showing up. Don't think for a minute we aren 't in a "w ar" with organi zations trying to sh u t us out of the desert co m ple tely . . After clearing th e horse dropping successfully, the second loop riders foll owed the co urs e around the perimeter of the Spangler Mountains, picked up some tr ails across the Searles Valley, and ma de th eir way in to the Summit Range, a proposed Na tural area un der the BLM Red Moun tain Draft Plan. This are a is very popular wi t h the race s and en duro s in th e area an d C RC alway s lays ou t a fu n loop wi th in the range . Th e Pucker Bunn y was no ex ception. Th e h ighlight of the course was a sand downhill which th e be t ter riders co nsidere d an absolute gas as they powere d their way down while the less fortunate inched their way down white knuckle s and all. More than one rider unl oaded , tu mbling head over h eels for qu ite a wa ys until they could manage to st op. Sin ce it was so sandy , it was hard to get hun , ex cept for some p ride. Na tural ly there was a chec k around the comer to catch the tardy. Most riders complain ed the check was off bu t a check of the clo ck and flip card ch eckoff sheet after the endur o showed everything OK so the check will stay. A number of rider s lost only two points, incl udin g Fronter a-mounted Sam Lyman who is the he avy favo rite to nail down the CRC enduro points cham pionsh ip with just one CRC enduro left this yea r. • ........ ........ l-< IU ..0 S IU > o Z By Larry Langley RE D MOUNTAIN, CAL ., NOV. 2 CRC survived a ribb oning crisis and an unusual p robl em with ho rses on 't he co urse to pr esent the annual Pucker Bunny Enduro. Pits were locate d at p opular Results ONE-LOOPERS : 1. Qu inton Sm ith M in i C·16; 2. Beverly T abor, 200 WID ; 2 . 'Glenn N ester . 200 C·16 ; 4 . Chris Gables, Min i 8-16; 5 . M a tt Phelan . 2 0 0 C·16 ; 6 . An n Me nnen, 250 WID , 7 . Da r in Ludlum. 2 50 C· 16 , 8. T .D . S w ets, M in i C· 16i 9 . Mary RaW lings. 200 WI D' 1 0 . Jo Ann Brown, 2 50 WID T 35. Other resul t s Dend lng. 19

• Cover