Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

! AMA National Championship ~ g t Enduros King Richard masters Masterlinks' season opener By Jon St illma n WI GGI NS. MS. FE B. 29 T h ree- time A MA N at ional En du ro Cha m pion Dick Burleson m ay have answered the oft heard quest ion , " Ca n he d o it agai n?" 20 a s he smo ked everyo ne in t he Ma st e rlink s M .C . organized first Nati on al Cham pio nship Enduro of t he 1977 season . Saturday morning revealed a la rge number of post ent ries as riders came from as far awa y as Wi sco nsin and New Jersey to ride on som ethin g besides snow . The New jersey TwoDay Qualifier, originally sched uled for the same weekend, had been post poned ensuring a good turnout of top riders. Saturday's weather, wind y and overcast, found many riders rejetting t!? compensate for the moisture-laden a ir. The Can-Am enduro team , con sisting of last year's runner-up in th e championship points race,Skip Olson and up-and-co ming Kevin Snapp, showed up early Saturday morning. Both were riding the new Can-Am "Q u alifier" series m achines-iDtson on a 250 and Snapp on a 175cc model. U .S . Suzuki is again sponsoring a serious effort with New Jersey's Bruce Kenny, Massachusetts' Herluf Johnson and Virginia's Ted Worrel do ing th e riding. Eastern Regional Service Manager John Morgan was on hand to coordinate the team effort. All three were on PE250s fitted with suspension components from the RM (Motocross) models. Team Husqvarna's Bob Popiel and Dick Burleson drove down from Nashville for the event. Bob , as in 1976 , is riding a 360 Automatic; Dick is 250 WR mounted. Cycle East , a motorcycle accessory distributor in Prat tville , Alabama is helping both Popiel and Burleson at the National Enduros and Two-Days in '77. Buzz McQueen who organized last year's successful Hercules Two-Day effort is now ern ployed at Cycle East, and will assist the Husky riders throughout the year. Noticeably absent was the Penton clan. Many expected Jack. in particular , to show up after making his comment in Cycle News to "smoke Bu rleson and his title." Upholding the Pen ton name were Jim Fogle and Bill Geier, both on the new GS-6 woods machines. Jim made the drive down from Lancaster. Ohio (Above) Sk ip Ols on blasts along a lonely, soggy road on his way to secon d overall be hind Burleson. (Below) Jim Fogle in quiet m oment bef ore the event. Jim took second in the 250 A class. to do busin ess in the 250cc ra nks . Ne w J ersey's Bill Ge ier sho wed u p with a 400 model and a vow to ride eve ry N at iona lEndu ro t hat doesn't co nflict with th e Two-Da y series. Rumor has it that he ha s a brand new van and another GS Penton wa iting for him on th e west coast so that he can fly ba ck and forth for events. . Follow ing Saturday eveni ng's high winds and torrential downpour , Sunday dawned clear and cool. The eight o'clock starting time was delayed one hour after Masterlinks rider Terry Webb and the AMA's AI Eames discovered a sixty foot bridge under a . foot and a half of water when thcy made a 5 a .rn , course check. The area , however, drained q uickly . and the bridge was left in the route. Checkpoint one at 13.6 miles caught surprisingly few riders riding exactly on time; most were either early or late. Bill Geier hit the check five minutes early but used it to his advantage since it brought him five m inutes closer to zeroing the difficult second section . It 's interesting to note. howeve r . that if Geier had waited and passed through check one exactly on time, he still would have won his cla ss. By the second gas stop. the field had been drastically reduced in number. Burleson, riding on minute 42 , was th e fifth rider to reach th e check.. in 69 miles, he'd passed over 160 riders! The never-ending tight pine wood trails found more andmore riders houring out, unable-to keep the pace. The ten m ile reset at 75 .6 miles (which represents 25 minutes gained) helped some riders stay within their hour. but by the time most reached th e sixth check at around 72 miles , they were already over the one hour lim it. The finish . 103 .6 miles . saw a-few riders hit the known check early. Up to fifteen m inutes is allowable under AMA rules, bu t most contestants had to gas it righr up to the last second. As is normal at the start of the season . many riders h ad experienced problems with their new machines. The entire Suzuki team had chain problems. Herluf Johnson commented that he 'd lost his at least five times . Skip Olson 's Can-Am lost its rear brakes , and aft e r the hard -charging rider took two dives over th e bars, he d ecided to cool it. H e still fini shed third in th e 250 cc A clas s. Out of a sta rt ing field of 335 riders , only 27 finished within th e one hour limit. Three of them wer e B riders: Mike Reynolds, who won High Point B and thus advances to A classifi cation; Allan Smith . the 250cc B winner; and Vic Jones, second in the 250cc B clas s. At th e six th check . to show how tig ht and tough th e course was , some of th e country's top riders wer e over forty m inu tes late while Burleson lost "on ly" twenty minutes th er e . The new season has only just begun. But if he can continue to outride the competition like he did today. " King Richard" Burleson ca n easily claim his fou rt h co nsec u tive National Enduro Championship cro wn. • Results High Point: Dick Burleson IHusJ 54. High Point B: M ike Reynolds 1 uz) 1n . 5 125cc A: 1. Ross Spence (Penl 5th ck: 2. David Browning IHon) 5th ck; 3. Scot! Van Daele IHon! 5'" ck. . 200cc A: 1. Bud Chambless (Hon) 116; 2. Dan Richa rds (Han) 144; 3. Ron Henry (Honl 184 . 250cc A: 1. Alan McDuff IC·AI 121: 2. J im Fogle (Pen I 124: 3. Sk ip Olson IC·Al 127. . Open A: 1. Bill Geier (Pen l 83; 2. Dave Eames IHus! 136: 3. Robert Caplinger IHusl l 53. 100cc B: 1. Dick Hial lYam I; 2. Rex Eppe rson tHonl: 3. Vernon Lacour (Hon ), 125cc B: 1. Rickey Gregg IHonl: 2. Gary Fitzmorris IHon!: 3. Kurt Stokes IHonl. 200cc B: 1. L Arrington (Herl: 2. Paul Kellmer IC·AI: 3. Gary Barr (Han) . 250cc B: 1. Allan Smith IHusl; 2. Vic Jones IHus); J . Sammy Wheeler IC·AI. Open B: 1. Gene Butler IPenl; 2. Robert Mosley IPen); 3. CharlesRagu (Husl. s Women : 1. Suzy Barr IHusl; 2 . Carol Johnston IHus); 3 . Veda Lancon (Har d. Sr; 1. Jim Creech (Hon); 2 . Don Burgess lHer); 3. Bud PeckIHanl. Jr 116 & under) : 1. Manny Garza IHon): 2. Pat Hayes (Honl: 3. Teny Seales IYa mi.

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