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/126253
(Above) Neither rain. nor mud . nor gloom of day could stay Dick Burleson from his appo inted rounds of sweeping his second consecutive National enduro victory in as many weeks. (Below) " M ud Mountain" created a few bottlenecks for riders w ith late numbers. King Richard rolls on at Stone Mountain By Matt Weismann DAl.TON . G A. MAR . 5 T he Geo rg ia Cra ckers Mot orcvch Club's a n nua l Slone Moun l; in End u ro. in p asl yea rs theAMA N at ion al Endu ro seaso n t im e a rou nd to t h.. Mississippi round h..ld on the pr ..vious week ..nd . (See p. 2 ~ opene r. lo ok a bac k seat th is [or .H /!,.Iis.li fl/ Ji I'ot'era".. . . . Edit o r.} But , seco nd Of no t , it wa sn 't obvious from rh.. an iru de of rhe riders. All t h.. s.. r io us N at iona l C ha mp io nship con tenders showed up wi th intentions of starring th e season a ll ove r ag-ain . o nlv th is tim, ' with t hemselves in rhe dri~'n's s..at. Whipp ing- Dick Burl eson . of course . was eve ryone's ~oa l. U Burl ..son. however. had ot he r plans. And he co ntinued to maint a in th e hlislt'rin g pace S t' t wh ile winning t he o p..ning- round last w....k..nd , tot all y dom in ating rh.. end uro sc..ne . Dick g-a \T up only 27 points this afte rnoo n : his closest co rn per irion c arne from Can -Am's 19i6 cha m pionsh ip runnerup . Skip O lson . Ol son 's second best scorr - of th .. run 38 -, fe 11 short of Hu sqvarna 's " King- Rich ard" by I I ma rks. Sto ne Moum a in has a lways been a tou gh ru n. a nd th e 19ii version was > certa in ly no exrx -pt inn to the ru le . Ra in . start ing' Satu rda y. co ntinued o n un til t he first riders left a t 9:0 0 a .m . The na me Stone Mountain co mes from the rough sections that cross the tops of the many mountains in the area . The huge bou lders and rocks in those sections make the ridin g very difficult . quickly d ra ining strength from the riders. T hey 'cou ld have ca lled it "Mud Mo untain" this year, and the hills soon became nearly im p assa ble in many spots. Bottlenecks formed . and getting throug h became a real cho re . Relatively few riders saw the finish line, with a finishi ng rate of about ten . percent. Burleson was the earliest Nationa l rider to leave . riding on number 25. Near the halfway point , he'd passed all th e ea rlier numbers and was the first rider on th e trail. Skip Olson and Di ck 's Husqvarna teammate Bob Popi el wer e a few numbers behind Burleson. and both kept him in sight for most of the day. Bill Geier. who 'd taken second overall behind Burleson on th e previous weekend in Mississip pi . was riding in the middle of the pa ck and also doing very well. Bill won th e Open A class with the th ird overall best sco re of 41 . 19ii is beginning to look like another Burleson yea r , his shot at an unpreced ented four consecutive National Enduro Championships. Bu t what will really be interesting, wit h a ll the very good riders on the enduro circuit , is the race for second place. • Results High Point A : Dick Burleson fHusl 27. High Point B: Michael M elton (Pen) 45. 200cc A : 1. Crew Sm ith (Herl 100: 2. Charles Gray (Hon) 105 ; 3. Dan Young (Penl 124; 4 . Lynn Holbrook (HerI126. 250c c A: 1. Dick Burleson IHu sl 27 ; 2. Skip Olson {C- AI 38. Open A: 1. Bill Geier (Pen) 41 ; 2. Bob Popiel (Husl 42; 3. Cick Nalle IBull 86: 4. Cave Eames (HusI95. 125c c B: 1. Ma rly Hensley (Penl 235 . Open B: 1. Jeff Hill (Penl 109 ; 2. George Burch {Husl 111: 3 Frank Gailo (Pen) 138. 250c c 8 : 1. Michael M elton (Pen) 45 ; 2. Dave Cannistraro (Oss) 64. 2]