Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'I .·.·.· "N" ..· '..·..· ,..V, " ·"" ·.." =Desert Hotline " .., il', v. , ..V' t Mitch Payton took first "C" bike. That's th810l).175 class for those unfamifl8r with laudig-ese. going to Red Mountain and win me an overall" ., By Gary Laudig RED MOUNTAI N , CA . SEPT . 11 As the starting dust trails neared the canyon entrance, Steve Ekardt (Yam) had a slim lead over Bill Tarling (KT M), then carne the 8 guy with the big Harley eagle on his . chest. Bruce Ogilivie. Making the bike-swallowing whoopers look smooth as silk was Chuck Pettigrew (Mai) , _ Bob Gilbert , Larry Roeseler then 'I Mike Edmonson, back from another tour of th e South. The canyon wound to the top of the Searles Mountains, leading the racers into a neat roller coaster about a hundred feet high . Working down the back side of the mountains, the racers picked up the new District 37 " highway section. " 1-37 . This was a sandy , tight, switchback road. lots of fun : At the end of the road the course headedleft past the big red mountain into some rocks and washes . Dick Camp made the turn leading Brian Wright and Ron Bebo. Second sen ior. SmokeBomb Gaetz . blasted over the , • ..,.".,N.·.· , , ,,..·•• V.·.· • V.V · , ", . ~ "Cut the cast off and let it fall~ I'm ' ..N ' h ardpan . lunar-look in g st u ff . Bob Rutten se p a r a te d Sm ok e b omb J r . fro m th e old man . T he co urse he aded across some flat lands steadily heading no rt h to wa rds T rona Road . Once across th e road. first a mateur Steve Nicho lso n hook ed a sha rp left para llelling the ro a d for abo ut two hundred ya rds . The course tu rned rig ht through the fla t cross co untry a rea past the mi ni ng section. Af ter about tw o m iles of this. Tim Fitz pat rick had two fast C bi kes on his tail - Randy Devonshire a nd Gary " Hawkeye" Cha rt ers. All three picked up t he second.section of 1-37 . All three dis a ppea red over a kn oll . 1-37 ra n and ran until the ra cers beg an to think the next check wou ld b e downtown Johannesburg. 1·37 d id end and the racers headed right . pick ing up the sand wash th at runs along Ga rlock Road. Coming out of th e wash . Garry Conner. Rick Vaughn (se con d amateur) . third amateur Marty Ol son . and amateur Ken Makos breathed a sigh of relief when they saw th at th e course passed the rutt y. wh oopy sec tion to the right where most of th e courses go . Crossing Garlock road Art Knapp and his Husky cleared th e flat out section then crossed Searles Station Road. Mitchell Payton had already cleared the underpass when the resonant sound of a thumper approached. Hiding in a pucker bush . Brian Klock zeroed in o n J ay Orendorff as he did a neat C&B . From this point on . the racers were in some desert territory not see n by many wh ite men . This section got everybody p umped ; it was a desert racers' p layground . At th is point Bill Tarling . who was still trying to figu re out how Ogi lvie got by him when he had h is KT:\1 wide open . su ffered another d isappointment as his bike ran out of ga s. Smokebomb Gaetz. at 15th was ha ving a ball when a bike landed on his expansion ch a m be r , lock ing up his rear end . Terry Davis later stated he didn't see the crash , only Smokebomb u p in the sky. The racers cle ared the monolit h rock section , climbed the nasty loose , su rface uphill . and headed for home . Cory Timms worked his wa y u p to fourth fr om way back . R ich J ackson m ade up 22 posit ions. sett li ng in be hind Pa yton and Ch arters. Bob Gilbert lost three posit ions but wasn't about to ge t upset. Dick Camp had a nine-bike cushion over Art Knapp . Ed "Za p" Zarp moved all the wa y up to 19th. He was so far back a t th e start , he had to pass th e sweep cr ew . James Vincent and Brad Henson had -a battle of their own for fifth C bike position. Fourth C bike spot was nailed down by a guy who can't make up his mind what class he wants to ride, Jody' Belknap. Kevin Hopkins, making his debut as an expert had first trail nailed down by th e time he had the pits in view. Pit crews spra ng to life as t he first rider. Ogilvie . ca me th ro ugh . T he rest of th e bikes did their thing a nd took off for loop two . Anyon e doin g a ny passing o n this lo op d ese r ves a " h uevos" awa rd beca u se , wit h t h e exce p tio n of th e rocky ca nyon uphill section , it was faaaast. T imms was running fourth now ca use Mike Edmonson had a faster p it. T ha t didn't last too long though ; Mike lost the ai r in his front tir e , T im ms took back first hea vy. Steve Ekardt , t he bomb run he ro , wa s back at sevent h thanks to a getoff. T om Grant m ade up twenty pos itions in order to join th e C bik e battles, Ken Mill er 's b ike q ui t and Max Eddy hurt his leg . T he co u rse went past C harlies's, paralleled the Military Road , turned righ t headin g into th e Sp anglers over some roll ers , washes and nasty ca nyo n uphil l. Clea rin g th is, G reg Thomas was tha nkful t hat the open amateur behind him was hol d ing off seco nd ama teur Steve W isem an . T he nic e guy doing this was Scott Child. Ken Earnest, with new rear spokes and tired of aw sh uc ks awa rds , smiled too soo n . He went a round a left ha nd t urn . st uc k ou t his foot and whe n he went to put it back, his foo tpeg was go ne , so was first two -fifty a mateur Jeff Ma tthews! T he co urse shot d own that old . familiar sa nd was h with the rocks cemented in pos ition , ac ross the fla t section with t h e rusty lo oki ng pinnacles. then across th e tracks and the vall ey floor. T rud y Beck was first in as usual. Kelly W isman second. Sh eila Hopkins t hi rd. Lisa Christenson fourth. The ra cers shot up an unused wash , up the face of the canyon below the smoke bom b then home. The dust trail in the distance materialized into the guy with the b ig eagle on his ch est, Bruce Ogilvie. Larry Roeseler was in next , then a long wait for third . Cory Timms looked awful. His vent hose ca me off and his face and front were coated with premix. The Novice Race Nov ices started their race about fift een minutes after those other guys. Crossing th e va lley and into the foot hills (a nd so glad to be t he re firs t) was Jim Rother , followed by Robin Busse. Gassin it a ro u nd the ent r anc e to the ca nyon . Busse swung left to pass . only to find ribbon ac ross th e trail. Swinging in behin d Rot her , the two disappeared up the canyon before the next racer appeared. It was George Gibson with fast guy Dean Kirk on his tail. The dust was thicker tha n Sa nt a Monica fog after the firs t five . so t he speeds d ecreased co nsiderably. Wayne Poore was the nex t b ike throug h, followed by Pat Ca in (firs t C). Lee McDo na ld . E r ic McCracken , and Steve Mill er (won de r if he plays a gui tar ?). T he fi rst senior running tenth over all was n um ber 0187 . Terry Mangrum was holding down second C and as th e racers cleared the giant roller section , th e open guys Paul Warsaw a nd George Yule Jr. had two 250 riders between them , Carl Davis a nd Gordon Hechter. Burning down 1-37 . Dave Wallace was trying to re-pass Tom Forbes. No sooner had Forbes got by . Jack Ash enbach flew past as if his throttle were stuck . Pat Kratoval, Kevin Oviatt, Peter Whitehead and Steve Kreiger na vigated through the hardpan, washes and rocks okay. but when th ey rea ched the flatlands , another st uc k t h rottle vict im flew by t hem. St eve Pri estl y. The ra cers cleared Trona Road and picked up section two of 1-37. After a . while fast guy Dave Landowsky began to wo nd er if h e'd pick ed up next week's cou rse. Glad to see the turn arrows. he head ed off through th e tri cky terra in towa rds Searl es Station Road. Robin Busse got by Rother for th e lead. but met a mining excavat ion. His bars were down by his knees ; Busse rode the whole loop cafe racer style. By the time the racers headed int o the new stuff. Dean Kirk quickl y took the lea d and began stretching it out because he h ad a feeling tha t Steve Priestly, Jack Ashenbach , and Dave Landowsk i were not ba ck there loafing. Afte r a view of th e mining complex at T rona . th e ra cers headed home. T aking ca re of business in th e pits. th e 'r acers lea rn ed tha t th e second loop was sho rter and fas te r an d to "hu rry home" . They took off to do j ust th a t. Dean Kirk was well into th e Am -Ex ranks (64t h as was Rob in Busse. Lee McDonald moved up two positions, to second 250 . Paul Warsaw mo ved up seven spaces be hind Dave Wallace. T om For bes passed 18 b ikes by th e tim e he cleared the face of th e bom b a rea was h. running fou rth overa ll. Mo ver of the day had to be Dave Landowski. ge tting by 23 fell ow desert racers to be a t sixth overa ll on th e homeward trip. T he racers filed in tired but ha ppy. Everyone reall y loved the first loop. so-so e n the secon d . but th e overall rati ng was bitch in . The Aw Shucks award thi s week goes to Bob Balentine. Having a dustfree bomb run on th e tra il he wanted , his rear tire kissed a rock and blew out. Quote of t he week goes to Charlie Morris who sta te d, " It was a long S.O.B .• really gave ya your money's worth ." The determination trophy goes to Chuck Pettigrew, finishing eight h overall after having to stop and replace a ' foot peg. And ' congratulations to Bruce Ogilvie. who got his foo t out of a cast Wednesday. Bruce was doubly glad of this win because last year Larry Roeseler got first and he got second. Thanks to Rescu e 3. Bill McElfresh. the snow cone man, Paul, the man who brings food and goodies to the Dez all th e way from Barstow. ' Results in Results Section .

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