Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

and only one bottleneck cropped up on a rutty, stony, rooted short uphill where so me were delayed for 20 minutes and others rode around by finding paths through the woods. Over 120 finished Sunday, with the largest proportion of them still on zero time. Dane Leimbach was first into Mulkey 's ORV Park - site of the final motocross special test - ten minutes early. Uhl came in with eight minutes in which to change to a fresh rear tire. •He was done with time to spare for changing his shirt, tightening the front spokes and de-mudding his rims. But the MX test itself hurt Billy's overall score, as he finished third in his ten-man "moto" slowed down' from the blistering pace he'd set, in the uphiU te st. Jack Penton set the fastest motocross time, winning his mota, as Cranke rl~!!!re perfect trial McMINNVILLE, OR., JUNE 5-6 With point totals still being checked, Jack Penton appeared to have nudged Carl Cranke out of the . overall WIn by -. about SIX 16 seco nd s in a classically be autiful Pacific Northwest summer event. Saturday 's .ride had been a fairly easy 22 MPH average over soil left tacky and wonderfully tractive by previous ra ins (almost too easy, according to th e sado-masochists in the field). The terrain, most of it on the Willam ette timber holdings, ranged from tall standing timber to logged-o ff m eadow of the riche st and greenest green, sprinkled with a powder of yellow bloom. At the end of the first day, with over a hundred riders still on zero time, Billy Uhl (Her) led overall after two fast ( and a tad dangerous, according to some riders) cross-country special tes ts. J ack Penton (250), Carl Cranke (350) , Dane Leimbach (100/125) and Kevin LaVoie (Open) led their respective classes. Dane's speed through the course and the tests was all the more notable as he was riding his 100 in a co mb ined ' 100/125 class . Overnight, with an off -an d-o n dri zzle falling, the Trask Mountain MC decided to nudge the average upward to 24 MPH and chan ge the remaining cross-country test to a 2.5 mile uphi1l. Sunday mornmg be gan with a moment of truth as each rider had ten minutes to work on a motorcycle that had sat in the rain all night to ge t it to start within his minute . Cranke's and Penton 's machines lit off first kic k, saying something for th eir state of readiness in this kind of competitio n. Ben Bower (Bul ) had fin ishe d most of Saturday 's run with no rear brak e, still on zero time. In his ten minute work period, he managed to ch an ge br ake shoes and rear wheel bearings, clean Saturday 's crud off th e bike an d still get away on his minute. Charlie Vincent (say in g, " this IS _the bi g time, boy " to another rider on his minute) lef t with a pair' of fr esh fork springs taped behind his Ossa 's number plate so as to replace the sacked-out set somewhere on th e trail. John Rothlisberger (Hus) said , " If I'm really lucky, this turkey will refuse to start ", as more rain came mizzling down from the soppy low clouds which had rolled in after Saturday's bell-clear skies. Thoughts of last year's we ather horror story were still on many minds, and Bi1Iy Uhl expected it to be quite wet. As it turned out, t he ra in blew away, . easv-cruised to win his . Carl had second-fastest time in the uphill, one second behind Earl Law (Oss) who berserko 'd through at least two near-crashes to to win in a deceptively slow time . . Rick Munyon (Han) crashed in the mo tocross test, losing second in the 125 class to Ken Harvey, who see med to have the hardpack play track wired. Ted Uzzle's (Pen) torrid MX pace helped . him leapfrog D. Heilman for second in the 175 class.; while Mike Hannon (BuI), after beating Penton's uphill time by three seconds, still had to settle for second 250 when he won a slower mota. Earl Law's performance, though wild, was good enough to vault him into third 250. • Migh ty fmc traiI ride. Motocross virtuosity he lped Jac k Penton cinch the Trask. Billy Uhl does a slick. '!o-moves-wasted tire change.

• Cover