Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

C'J ...-i I-< II) .0 o ..... u o au tom atic motorcycle," he ;a id in a phone call followin g th e trial. Billy UhI, lik e every o ther U.S. Trophy t eam rid er, got support from his in dividual sponsor. In h is case, it was th e ' Ge rm an He rc u les c re w, and t hey seem ed super efficient. "They're doin g it all. There's re ally nothin g for m e to do, " Her cu les USA team m an ager Bu zz McQueen said of th e opera tion. "They treated the American riders li ke ki ngs." Billy cam e close to co llec ting a few course marks when he ra n throu gh the yello w flags at one chec k before hi s time was up . Apparently th e check personnel realized th at the flags were located in a con fu sing m anner, and Billy backed out of the check with no penalty. "The sneakiest thing they d id all we ek was borrow a T- handJe wren ch to ch ec k th e m otor mount b olts, " l\kQueen sai d of the Hercules cre w. "Nothing w cn t w rong a ll week. " HI nev er worried abou t Gary, " Marci a MacD on ald sa id abou t Gary Younkin s. " lie had a good so lid rid e. " Strai ght face d a nd serious all week long, Gary finally relaxe d foll owin g th e six t h day , sp eci al test when it was finall y all ove r. His nervou sness t h ro ug hou t th e week built up to max on the eve o f th e sixth da y wh en he and J eff Gerber " st ayed up until 3 a.m . with th e fifth d ay ji tte rs. " Nerv es als o were th e cau se of st omach p ain s whic h disap p eared o n Satu rday. " I thought it was th e sausage," Gary lau gh ed afte rward. U.S. Silver Vase team ' No ne of th e U.S. Silver Vase ride rs see m ed to have an y m aj o r p roble ms all wee k - or if th ey d id, it wasn't anything they wanted to ta lk abou t, Day one saw Dane Leim bach and Carl Cran ke sporting grins and c ru ising alo n g ouble free. Likewise, J ack and Tom Penton had it all under co n trol and were enjo y in g th e ride. Tom be came th e star of day o ne when he tu rned in a special test ride of 2 79.2 du rin g h is sec nd tr ip th ro ugh the cro ss co un try cou rse. His score fqr th e. openin g d ay was go od for fo urth in class, n inth overall and of course. top Am erican. But t hat was as good as it go t. Fo r the rem ainde r of the week, the sp ecial tests turned to , as T om alrea d y pu t it, "a bi g frustration." Dane. Tom, .Jac k an d Carl were , tu rn in g gre at ti mes - they j us t we ren 't great ~ n ou gh . The six th d ay sp ecial tes t seemed the wo rs t of all. No one really d id we ll in it . (The bri ghte st po int of d ay six cam e whe n Yam ah a rider Ch ris Carter wo n his m oto . li e w as th e on ly Am er ican ride r to do so.) For the Silver Vase team, th e MX test only mea nt more disappoin tmenL " I probably dropped ou t of th e top ten becau se of that sp ecial te st." Jack co m m en ted after it was over. He 'd had trouble ge tting the bike to run clean after the de ad e n gin e' start and h ad fo llowed th e entire pa ck into turn one, He rode well b u t was un ab le to overcome . the st art ing dis ad vantage. That morning, accordin g to j ack , To m had he ld a one second lead over him a nd was top American rider. Di ck Burleson was 20 secon ds back. The :\IX test on the last day ch an ged a ll th at to read Bu rleson. J ack Penton, th en T om Penton on th e fin al score sheets. Dane Le imbach's ride, like his ride las t 'year o n th e Isle o f Man, see med so st ro ng, st eady and u nde r co n trol that it looked easy. Rest assu red that th ere 's nothin g easy abou t S ix Day s, bu t rider s o f the cal iber o f these four m en make it ap pear so. T he Americans . With 29 Go ld Med al s, th ere obv ious ly are n ' t m an y hard lu ck st o ries go ing aro und that co n ce rn th e U.S. team. T here are fou r. th ou gh. o ne ea ch fo r th e fo u r U.S . DNFs. Troph y te am rid er Kevin La Voi e was the firs t to drop ou t wh en a m ain bearing cal led it q u its on day three. Ossa ride rs Ro n Lam astu s a nd David lI ulse both reti red o n th e fift h day. Ro n 's problem was a broken front ax le. " It ju st shear ed off, a nd 1 did a gia n t e ndu. " he desc r ibed it. " I j am m ed a screwdriver and a drift pu nch in and made it to the ncx t c hec k, bu t it was too late b y then. " The Ossa riders were using a sp eci al qu ic k-change fron t axl e ra ther than a stoc k it em. a nd th ey we re scarce. David Hulse retired fo llo win g a tr agic accident where h is m ach ine st ruck a 72 year o ld wo m an . David stopped, saw that she re ceiv ed med ical assis tance , then co n t in ued, He rep or ted the inciden t at every checkpoin t in cluding the one at the parc ferme before he began his second loo p. It wasn 't un t il the n th at he learned that the wo m an had d ied; and , accord ing to th e A us tria n press bu lle tin , he c o llap sed. " Al Eames, realizing no t only the d an ger of lettin g Da vid rid e in his nea r state of shock bu t the possible legal complications as well, saw t hat he was ' with drawn from the event, Fo llowing te nse ho urs of seeking legal aid (H ulse was take n into c u st o dy ), th e issue was finally settled a nd David returned ho me wi th the Ame rican tou r clear ed o f ch arges of leav in g the sce ne of an accid en L The fin al non-Finish er , Larry Th ompson, h ad been rid in g du rin g the fif th d ay after being di squalified for alleged ly re ceiving ou tsid e help along th e cou rse . On th e m orning o f day six he was informed that he would not b e allowed to finish th e event, Larry had be en riding with a gearbox problem - it kept stic k ing in sixth ge ar. He dis covered -later tha t if he hit th e e nd of th e co u n ters haft with a ro ck. it would break lo o se, bu t by then it was to o late. He'd e n te re d a ch ec k stuc k in six th, kill ed th e m otor, then pushed in to the c hec k on time. T he A ustri an so ld iers m anning the check co uldn't figure out wh at t he problem was ; Lar ry tri ed to exp lain. T hen he sta rted pu sh ing the -bike to start it. " I felt so meone p ush it just as 1 b ump started it. " Larry said. "and I hit their arm s with m y fisL I wondered if anyone had see n it, bu t 1 also figured they 'd have see n m e hit the so ld iers. " T he b ike started, a nd he rode off. "The story got all mixed up - th e la n gu age problem - the y had m e go ing back into the check te n m inutes later .. . . . it's all messed up." A I Eames was involved in the Hulse incident a t the tim e the jury consid ered the protest against Larry a nd co uld n ' t make it to th e m eeting. Thomp son w as voted ou t 15 to I. Eame s tr ied to ge t permissio n for Larry to rid e an oth er d ay under protest, bu t w as denied. It was a tremendous let down for the first tim e ISD T rider. The tr a nsmission problem had. a t one poin i, dro pp ed hi m to wit hin 29 seconds o f ho urin g o u t, an d he , was ju st try ing to finish to keep h is Bronze. . Just as th ere were sad an d fru strati ng sto ries of th e 5 1st IS DT, there we re also some happy ones. One of the very bes t, u nfor tuna tel y . defies wo rd s. It look pla ce in the p it a re a wh ere the U.S . Bu ltaco team had been cen tered all week a n d it happen ed ju st a s the scores wer e posted. One b y one. Mike Han non, Ben Bower, Charlie Bethards' and m an ager Tom Cullen heard th e Gold l\Ieda! scores. The grin s, che ers and embraces m a rked on e of th e bri ghtest m oments of the week, Another te a m th at faired we ll was the Yamaha USA learn of Chris Carte r, David Ashley' an d J ohn Fero, Last year marked the first time a J ap anese motorcycle had finished th e event, Yamaha 's first m aj o r (SO T e ffo rt , under the management of Bill Stewart, y iel d ed three Gold Med als, He rcu les USA , with rid ers Billy Uhl , Drew Smith and Mik e Ro o so joined Bultaco, Yamaha and two out of the three Penton manu fac turers' teams in claiming a perfect three Go ld Med al total The top placed U.S . Man u factu re r's tcam was, as antici pa ted, the Penton "A " team . Carl Cran ke, Tom Penton and Jack Pe nton arc a h ard trio to beat, The Pen ton "1\" team w ith Dan e Leim ba c h, Gary Younkins and Rod Bu sh fo rmed a so lid second fro n t for Uncle J ohn 's bikes. An d the Penton "C " team inclu de d Kev in La Voie , Dannv Van d eca r an d "Fast Fr ank " Gal lo. Danny and Frank bo th scored Golds; Frank also tu rn ted fas t e no ugh special test times th at h e ended u p fift h American ove rall. T h e Hi ghl a nd Cycle Rid ers club team had the best in d iv id u al scores - Dick Burleson's top American sho wing and

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