(A b ove) It 's true - Jack Penton does wheelie his way around entire
0,
Two-Day courses. (Top. rightl350cc class w inner Gary Yonkins lu bes ...
up hi s Penton 's chain at the start of Day Two. (Right ) Arm y 's Bob
Messer rode his Maico to first ove rall , t raded his fatigues for overalls. ":
le
Ft. Hood Two-Day Trials
m'
uOl
••
Team Army
maneuvers to
victory j-n Texas€
flood
"
'b
,d
on
m
By J im Gianatsis
(Above) Mike Hannon (S8E)and Carl Cranke IS8B) head for the starting
area. (Below) Fort Ho o d's barbed-wire im pou nd area lo ok ed like a
motorcycle concentration camp.
6
i.n
up
FT. HOOD , TX , AP R . 30-MAY I
.l
It had been thundershowering intermittently .
for 14 hours as the flip card tu rn ed over to :01
at 8:01 a.m. on Saturday morning. The first
riders left the starting area to begin Day O~~
of the Ft. Hood Two-Day Q ualifier.
The sky .wa s b lack , pierced by
lig htning. The rain came down in a
steady d rizzle as riders continued to
leave when t heir start numbers came
u p. No one was r~ally looking .forw~rd
to almost 180 ~lles. of r~cky terr~m,
muddy tank trails , slick hills and tricky
river crossings. Some 300 riders were
entered , many trying to do well
enough to qualify th em selves fo r ISDT
scheduled for C ~echoslovakia this fa ll.
A mud field Just 50 yards from th e
start was a n in.dica tion of what was to
co me : ~any bl~es were a lready stuck.
Some nders. tried to cross a nearby
creek to avoid the field , only to drown
out. Eventually, a safe pa th around
the im pound area and through th e
parking lot got the riders out to th e
trail.
The starting numbers reached tbe
60s before rid ers who had left almost
an ho ur before began to trickle back to
the sta rti ng a r ea with stories 6£
impassa ble river -crossings. Flas n
flooding had raised the normally tW6}
feet-deep streams which criss -crosse '!
the trails to anywhere from five to 10
feet deep.
m
,
~ J
Don a ld Cichocki wa s one of th e
early n umbers to return first. "The'
wat er look ed like r ag in g rapids.
Everywher e was chest deep . I saw five
guys tryi ng to carry a b ike across. E;.ve~
if you found a bridge across it was
useless , because the trail would tum
around and route you across again ."
.
One of those riders trying to carry
his bike across was Team Penton's Ted
