Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Burleson wins sabotaged Greenhorn National Enduro By Larry Langley PASADEN A/GREENHORN MTN . , CA . MAY 28 /29 National Enduro Champion Dick " King Richard" Burleson dispelled an y doubts ab out whether he cou ld be com petitive in a "tim ekeepers" enduro by losing just one point in the 31st Annua l Greenhorn Na tio nal C h a m p io nship En d uro . While a few of th e Nat ion al rid ers wh o m ade th e lon g tri p west in sea rc h of double n at ion al point s tho ug ht th e end u ro was too easy, th e riders who DNF'd di sagreed . T he a tt ri tion rat e was severe on th e local District -37 rid er level. At a very ea rly 6 :01 a .m . o n S aturd a y , th e fi rs t fou r of approx imatel y 400 hardy e nd u ro souls left th e parking lot a t John Muir H igh School in Pasadena . Five miles lat er th ey wer e winding th eir way up in to th e Na tiona l Forest a bo ve Sout hern Ca lifo rnia . In previou s yea rs th e speed ave rages have" been slow, a nd riders .com pla ined that it was borin g. T his year t he a verages were kicked up a nd few co m pla ints wer e heard - except about an erra nt cloc k a t the t hi rd chec k. W ith mor e chec ks to man tha n ne w LCD elec t ron ic cloc ks avai la ble. t he cl ub used a few of th e old D-37 eig lu- d ay clocks. The riders .weren·t ha p py whe n th e clock error ca used the cards to be fli pped 25 seconds late. and manv of th e be tt er rid ers ha d a m inute ea rly written on their sco re card. T he check was thro wn out. A number of stream cross ings were m il dl y e xc iti ng as t he co ncre te b o t t om s we r e m oss -covered a nd slip pe ry. Burleson h ad to stop and work on a n er ra nt carbure tor b u t still made t he next chec k on time, impressing local ace Tom Spurlock (who was rid ing with him ) to no end . The.first ga s stop was near Pearb lossom as usu al. The next sect ion was a d isaste r the cou rse was repea tedly sa bo taged . . Not on ly were ribbon and arrows torn down , th e sa bo teu rs even stap led th e arrows th e wrong wa y and ret ied th e ribbon down th e wrong tra il lead ing th e rid er s out int o th e booni es. The tampering 'occ u rred jus t before an emergency gas so th e ' rid ers were low on fuel - m an y wand er ed around a nd ra n out. O th ers , fa m ilia r with th e a rea (nea r EI Mirage Dry Lak e), spli t for H ighway 395 a nd picked up th e course wh er e it crossed th e h ighway. Ma ny rode a ll t he wa y to Four Corners, bou ght gas , and. rode to t he ne xt gas stop at Harper Dry Lake Roa d 13 mi les eas t on High wa y 58 . PM C refe ree Jac~ Garren m aint ained h is coo l an d di d nt pa nic. A q uic k decision to a llow a n ext ra hou r for the lun ch sto p , wh ich ex te nded th e la yove r period to two hou rs, helped . Rid ers who wa ndered in even a fter the two hour period were given lat e numbers to com plete th e last loop of th e day . Ther e wer e some unluck y riders who didn't ge t in a nd spe nt a co nsidera ble am ount of tim e in th e hot desert , You co u ld tell th e woods rid ers. According to one D-37 enduro rider , th e woods rid ers wer e th e ones with ou t ca nt ee ns . One g ro u p of ' riders , who will remain 16 namel ess , ca me upon th e course sa bo te u rs a nd ended up in a fight. The gro u p of tamperers wer e a p parent ly ca mped with a large g ro up a sho rt di stan ce away . On e fem a le member of th e grou p was trying her upmost to infli ct bod ily harm on one Dick " Ki ng Ric hard " Burleson .and hi s Husky won t he double-points Green-. horn. Woods riders can ride desert! , of the riders wh en his partner gave" h~r a drop kick . ope ning up a sizab le , bleed ing wound in her leg . T he rid er s had to split when reinfor cem ents arrived , a nd were ch ased by a ca r u nt il th ey sp lit across th e desert . A nice , fu n grou I' of people. Naturally , th e secti on was th rown out. Riders unfamiliar with th e a rea were understandably upset -a t bein g lost. Long-time Green horn rid e rs weren 't fazed a bit. Int ern a t ion a l Racing Rad io Crew ([R RC) was on hand to provide com m unica tions and d id an outs tanding job in tra cking down lost rid ers . The last .secrion was a nt i-clim a tic but had to be ridden . The feature most riders rem embered a bo ut th e loop was th e three foo t deep whoop dee -docs. which took th eir to ll on th e tired rid ers. Burleson's rid ing pa rtner a nd Husky rep J ohn Pavi ch was on zero u nt il his bik e seized comi ng d own the high wa y into t he finish . Pa vich dropped four point s aft er he coo led th e bike do wn . T ou gh break. It was Pa vich 's first end u ro, and he went on to score high point B, which autom a ticall y transfers him to A. Sunday's first loop ra n righ t up t he highwa y to Rea Mount a in . T her e was a lot of p avem ent this . yea r d ue to BLl\1 restri ct ion s on co u rse layout. It was ha rd on th e rid er s to have to ride do wn a road becau se of BLM ed ict when play rid er s were rom pi ng in th e hills next to th e ro ad . Th e first se ct id n o u t of R e d Mountain had to be re -ro u ted at the last minute due to birds nesting near the intended course . Never mind th at the same cou rse had been used in yea rs past and by oth er ra cers. A reset mi lea g e had to be posted t o co m pensa te fo r th e re -routing . The rest of the loop was fun a nd ge tt ing bett er but still not tou g h eno ugh to ta ke points from t he bett er riders. Bu lt a cos Mik e H a nn on wa s a n exce ption when his bike's chain ca me off when it hi t a roc k, a nd Hann an crashed ha rd tryin g to m ak e u p time. H annon's arm d idn't look too healthy and he lost 10 po int s at th e nex t chec k. T he next secti on was th e best of th e endu ro and fin all y took aw ay points from everyo ne - even Dick Burleson d ro p ped a point . As it turned out. it was th e on ly point Burleson lost d uring the end u ro . The loop was highlighted by a downh ill whi ch even had th e na tional riders im pressed . R ic k . Munyon went over the crest a nd looked down to sec Mike Hannon bu lldoggi ng his bike down and figured if H an non had to , he wasn' t goi ng to try and ride down . Rick was u nawa re t hat Mi ke 's arm was hurri ng . Report ed ly Bu rleson rode down feet up on the pegs . And they sa id Eastern rid ers couldn't rid e ro cks! Team Ossa 's St eve Keull hi t mi sfortune when th e steeri ng stem on his fork s broke and th e fro nt end separated from the rest of th e motorcycle . Steve was dazed but not seriou sly hurt in th e followin g crash . Ron Bishop was tryin g out his new Ca n -A m and unl oad ed o n th e downhill -when a ba cking plate broke . Bishop was hurting pretty bad but was ' ho pi ng it wasn 't any mor e severe than pulled muscles as he is sch edul ed to ride th e Baja 500 in a co u ple of weeks . District -S? 250 class point s leader T errv Swet s hit a ro ck a nd had th e mi sf';rtune of th e rear tir e going flat after th e fir st chec k int o th e sect ion . H e de cided to go f O it regardl ess and T rode flat out . 40 mi les lat er Swets pull ed into th e lun ch SlOp with very little rema ining of the rear tire . A huge chu nk of tire flew up , tore the rear fender off. and hit Swets in the ba ck so hard he a lmost fell off the bik e . H is back was still hu rt ing after th e end uro. Word filtered in that Ca n-Am 's Skip , Olson was out as he hi t a check 20 minutes early somehow which results in instant ·d isq u a lifica t io n. Team Honda' s j a y Tullis a lso went out when his MRI 75 Honda started to look like a cho p per th e frame picked a bad t ime to break . Motorcycli st Magazine's Brad Zimmerm a n , who was j ust one point down on Saturday to lea d the 175 class , b lew t he transmission in his ['1'175 Ya ma ha , For an "easy" enduro th ere were an awful lot of good riders spectating. Dirt Digger Gary Woodling ca me into th e lunch stop searching for a welder to repair th e broken swingarm on his Yamaha . Woodling got it welded and went on to fin ish third Open A behind Burleson and Sanford , T eam Suzuki look ed like they were getting the job done 'm uch to th e amazement of one of D-37's end u ro rid ers who obs erved them contin ua lly ~ sto p ped on th e trai l la te , trying to figure out wh er e th ey wer e . Then they would boogie by him and into a check on time . T he sections after lunch wer e all roads, dirt and pavem ent. The course went up Jawbone Canyon Road and fina lly ended up at Bodfish near Lake Isabella. A gas stop th ere and t he n up over Gr eenhorn Mountain and ba ck to the finish at Wooford Heights near the ' lake. The road down th e mountain gav e Tom Sp u rlock . John Pa vich , Dick Burleson and Mike Sterling a chance ~ to race down . . . with their engines off. Spurlock -reported that they had a lot of fun passing cars, after sneaking up. I behind them silently , Harry Keast got J int o a race with a 'Corvett e up tht!. ~ mountain . The Corvette lost when it crashed. Ha rry did sto p and offer to get a wrecker. When all was sett led a nd don e with . Dick Burleson just about wrapped up another National Enduro title with th e J double points-. National rul es don 't " co unt th e end uro as t wo eve nts but as 1 o ne event so the winner rec eived a I hu ge advantage in t he points chase. • The presen ce of most of th e National co ntenders underlined the im porra nceg of th e double points. Sanford ended i up second overa ll a n d picked up 32..., national points to m a ybe help ease th e pain of losing out a few weeks ago 'l when he was held up by a farmer'~ I1 sho tgu n as th e minu tes tick ed away./) Suzuki team m ember Bruce Kennyo took th ird ove ra ll , foll owed bYl District -37' s Sen ior class points lea der , f Tom Getzfrid , who th umped his way, into fourt h overa ll on his '1''1'500. Fifth overall went to a nother Suzuki rid er. L Ted Wo rre ll , p r o vin g t hat th ~ Na tion al riders indeed have to have tal ent to ride unfami liar te rrain and b adapt rather well. Sixth overall wentj to Mike Adams on his enduroized CR250 Honda . Mi ke' s finish was remarkable as he was experiencing~ ca rbu re tor problems. ~ District -S? rid ers thought this year's run was better than years past , even . with sabotage and a lot of roads. The" Nation al riders th ou ght it was too easy but th e results don 't su p port that opinion . - T he best rid er won an d Pa saden a M .C . co u ld n' t care less if he lost one or 100 . They feel you don't hav e to necessarily ta ke awa y gobs of point s to determ ine a winner. In th is case (no zeroes) , th ey were right. Results SWEEPSTAKES W INNER: Dick Burleson 1 p t . tHusl. A OPEN: 1. Dick Burleson (HU5 2. Don Sanford . (Hon). 3. Gary W oodling IYam). A-250: 1. Bruce Kenny (Suzi. 2. Ted Worrell ISuzl. 3. Mik e Adam s (Hanl . A 175: 1. Ron W ells (Hanl. 2. Dave Matus IKTM I. 3. Gordon Dickson (KTM) . A SENIOR: 1. Tom Getzfrid (Yam). 2. Ed Mazenko (Suli. 3. Bob J ohnson (C-AI. B OPEN: 1. John Pavich (Husl. 2. Bruce How ell (Yam). 3. Steve Casagrande (Yam). B 250 : 1. Lonni e Stefan Jr. (8u n. 2. L.E. Bon (Pen). 3. Ken Oviatt (Suzl. 8 175: 1. Micha el Goodwin IYam). 2. Jim Tripp (Yaml, 3. Ken Funkhou ser (Hon). _ B SEN IOR: 1. M ike Waters (Yam l. 2. Bill Brandenburg (Hon). 3. Richard Zimme r (Yam). C 250: 1. Richard Ferrick (Yarnl. 2. Don Collins IYam). 3. Richard Pierson (KTM ). C 175: 1. Les Long (Yaml. 2. Ray Shaver (Honl. 3. Phil Evans (Han\. OVERAll: 1. Dick Burleson (Husl. 2. Don Sanford (Hon). 3. Bruce Kenny ISuzl. 4. Tom Getzfrid (Yaml . 5. Ted W orrell (Suzl. 6. Mik e Adpm s (Hon). WOMAN A: Diane Blauer (C·AI. WOMAN B: Linda Zierer (Hon). WOMAN C: Sue Hall (KTMI. SIDE HACK : Robert & Charlie Sanner (Honl.

• Cover