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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126268
1 two. 6. Merl< Eg~ (Han) 56. 19 elns. 7. Mortin Belair IM on) 56. 18 elns. 8. Torry Cheney (Bull 60. 9. Bill Burgener IBull63. 10. Mike GriHitts IMon) 63. SENIOR: 1. Bob Nicke!oon IHonl 44. 2. W iltz Wegner IM on) 47. 3. Bud Mytorberg IBull64. SUPPORT: 1. Steve Darrow IKaw) 41. 2. Bob Langlow 50. 3. Mike Fenner 70. W_hington: Whaley on top In a -:ocky one BRIDGE OF TIiE GODS, WA,.JUNE 26 Forty miles along the Columbia River east of Portland, the Washington round was convened near the shores of the river, bet- '(Top) Terry Cheney attempts Saturday's sectio~, 14. (Below) B~i~,Schreiber started OK, but still fived section six. (Bottom) I better turn fight. (Contin ue d f rom page 24) slipper iest rocks thi s side of th e ocea n floor. T he last on e. at th e end of a sm all poo l claimed the vast majority of t he ' fives. Traction simply d id not exist. Whaley and Leavitt had the best scores - ones . Whaley did it in his deliberate, precise style , never getting int o seriou s trouble. Lea vitt d id it.with the world's longest dab . using his foot to provide a push ou t of th e stream and keeping it . the re until he nearly ca me off th e motorcycle. _ Another int eresti ng section was 14. Well over 200 feet long , it was stee p and covered with jagged rock the size of basketballs and bigger. Several turns near the top increas ed th e difficulty . Whaley ama zed th e crowd by cleaning it the first time through . " There were 20 sections on th e loop , and rid ers had to com plete two loops in seven hours, plus an hour's grace. Everybody made it in before their grace period. When the scores w~re totalled, Whaley came out on top WIth 30 points lost , 12 fewer than runnerup Levitt (42). Schreiber took third , ' the' best he's done in a National trial th is year. with a 53-poin t tota l. New York 's Don Swe et ( Mo n) and Washington 's Marv Heath (Bul) got int o a tie that had th e club cou nt ing two s to break it. Sweet 'cam e out on top . Heath would sit out the following da y, his home round , as must all ride rs. There is no Southern Cal ifornia round , so Whaley sat out the Ohio event , which Leavitt won with: onl y three po ints lost in an easy tri a l. Righ t beh ind t he Sweet /H eath tie was an other one. Mark Egga r (Hon) a nd Martin Bela ir (Mon) tied at 56 , but Eggar had the ed ge in clea ns. T erry Chen ey (Bul). Bill Burgener ( Bu l) and Mik e Griffitts ( Mo n) rounded ou t the top 10. Honda's Bob Nickelson again won th e Senior class . though Wiltz Wagner (Mon) made it close. "W iltz had me until the last few sections: ' said Nickelson. " He was Tour points ahead of me . but he scre wed up ." Steve Darrow (Kaw), a National class competitor in recent years, who is only riding the West Coast rounds. easily won . the Support class by nine points over Bob Langlow. Competitors gave the Oregon round very high marks for the course and sections. • Results 26 CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS : 1. Merland Wholey IHan) 30. 2. Lane Lovin IBu1l42 . 3. Bornie Schreiber (Bun 53. 4. Don Sweet (Mon) 55. 3 twos. 5. Morv H88th (Bull 55. ween the Bonneville Dam and the Cascade Locks . The forest wasn 't quite as thick and there were more sections o.f gigantic , jagged rocks. O~e immediate difference made ItS presence known quickly: The area is filled with poison oakl Leaving camp and loopi~g quickly . around a gravel quarry. riders and spectators came to sect ion one. Lai? on a hillside covered with rock, It looked difficult , but riders encountered little trouble. Section two was also fairl y easy: running up a ravine, over a traction-filled ledge. down over ' two logs and turn to exit. Three was deemed by the riders to be one of the hardest , as it looped around and through a streambed. But it wasn 't until section six that Whaley suffered the embarrassment of a five. From then on , Whaley took one three and a few ones to make his total score 14 for 40 sections. One of the . one-dabbers was in section 19, a trulyfearson looking climb up and around some huge boulders. After climbing straight for about 40 feet , there was a sharp right turn; then a jump over a "fou r foot boulder followed by a rocky path and tum around a massive , upjutting ledge. Splitting a vee through the two huge rocks to the exit, most riders made it . Whaley and Mike Griffitts dropped one on the first climb and then made their way through . Schreiber , near the end of a disasterous 25 -point first loop , cleaned it easily . Schreiber was among the last to start at one rider pe r minute; and was one of the first 10 to show up at 19. Debbie Evans, the only woman entered, had a nice ride going in 19 until she tried to enter the vee and stalled her 175 Yamaha. This time there were only six hours plus an hour's grace to cover running the 13.5-mile loop twice. Most riders took over three hours to get around once. The second loop turned into a race. Whaley pulled up at 20 , laid out at the bottom of a massive rockslide, went straight to the entrance, cleaned. it and dashed back to the finish riding his RTL trials bike like it was Jim Pomeroy's RC400 . 'W ha ley made it back with onl y a few minutes to spare, but several finished into their grace period and lost points at the rate of 1I10t h point per minute late. Griffitts really improved his performance over the previous day, finishing second with 21 points lost. Sweet continued his consistent finishes with a third , five points behind Griffitts. Leavitt came in la te , but his 28 .9 total still beat (just barely) Team Montesa's jeff Fish's 29. Eggar finished sixth, one point ahead of Schreiber. Nickelson blitzed the Senior class th is time . His 46 -point total was well ahead of Wagner's 71. Darrow did a similar job on the Support class , 43 points ahead of Chuck Withrow. On both days , Senior and Support class riders skipped some of the sections. Results CHAM PIONSHIP CLASS: ~Iand Whaley lHan)14. Mike Gtiffitts (Mon) 21. Don Sweet (Mon) 26. Lane Leovitt IBull 28.9. JeH Fioh IMonl29. ~k E _ IHan) 40. Bernie Schreiber IBull 41. Mor_ Kavanaugh (Bull 46. Brad Skr..,. Gteg RuoH IMon) 52. SENIOR CLASS: Bob Nickelson (Han) 46. Wiltz (MonI71 . C'-t8r Hudtp8Ih lKaw) 93. SUPPORT CLASS : SIeve Derrow (Kaw) 26. ChucIt Withrow 69 . Tony Heduc75. W_