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/126019
"I Desert hotline ~ E '" ... Cl.l ..0 E Cl.l u Cl.l c ,I "All right gentlemen. you know your assigned tasks. When the second hand strikes twelve. you go to it while I stay and warm my hands:' Turkey Shoot: National re-run Pretty rocky hill for a family enduro. but it looks OK. as long as yOU stay on the trail. By Larry Langley LUCERNE VALLEY, NOV . 23 Last year's Pomona Valley Desert Riders Turkey Shoot was extremely easy and most participants expected it to be somewhat 8 th e same th is ye ar. But, well over 1000 famil y en duro riders were in for a surprise! The first loop went straight up the first hill , much to the dismay of the assembled riders wai ting for th eir minute. It was pysch-out time and a good number of riders got the jitters wh ile watchin g a whole bunch of p eople not mak e it . The hill wasn 't reall y all that tough, but it looked pretty tricky. Some of th e minicycles had a rough time o f it , bu t a surprising number of them cleaned the hill, looking good all the way. Th e first 5.6 mil es were at a sedate 12 mp h average allowing the riders who had trouble gettin g up the hill to catch up before the three mile check. The first ch eck was located at the speed ch an ge, at 5.6 miles , and was easy to zero if you were timekeeping. Th e loop contained some very first interesting terrain, but the hills made it tough. A powder puffer or minicycle rider would have a tough row to hoe to even come close to zeroing the loop. The .second loop had no business be ing part of a family enduro as long as C riders were allowed to ride it . It was a virt ual copy of the second loop o f the previous Jubilee National Enduro. A number of people brought out some first time riders to try their luck . It was a mistak e. There were num ero us ch allengin g uphills and downhills at very fast speeds, resulting in A riders trying to 'get around C riders in the tight sections. Most of them lost points, since there were lots of C rid ers to get around. There were a lot of breakdowns and a lot of injuries. A whole bunch o f people were complaining about the enduro being too hard. Lay ing out an en duro is not an easy proposition. No matter who rides th e loop beforehand, race day is a whole new situation. It looks like Joe Shepard probably has a lock on the overall win . Joe rode his 250 Penton (KTM?) over the rocks, down the hills , through the canyons, and around the C riders, losing just 17 seconds at three (count 'em, three) tie breaker checks. This is all unofficial, of course. Nothing has been scored, but no on e else claimed th ey zeroed the course. C riders were in over their heads, an d were happy to finish . Especially th ose on their first enduro. Eric Morales, riding his very first enduro , started on minute 108 and finished on minute 228 . He was hurting at the end, due to a couple of get-offs, and his shoulder is going to have to be X-rayed. But you know wh at he said ? "I'm sure beat, but 1 sure had a good time. Are they all that hard?" No Eric they're not. • Results pending.