Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

!Above) Down and down we go. (~elow right) Debbie 's dad, Team Montesa's Dave Evans in control. (A bove) Bultaco demonstrating the fine art of rear wheel uphill technique. (Below) De Winnahl Mike Hannon on his IT... well VZ ., .A hh •••Blue Yamaha. fairly tough : t he resets let the riders make up most of the time th ey were late, keeping them from falling further and further behind. Most D·37 enduros will use the resets from now on . They 'will be defined in th e 1978 ru lebook. Promptly at 8:01 a .m. , the first minute of A riders left the starting line. The schedu le called for an unusual average of 18.6 m .p.h. with a . speed ' change at 3.1 miles to a 30 rn.p.h. average. With a speedometer check at 3.0 miles, the great guessing game began. W ith a fast 30 m .p.h, average waiting . 1 past the speed om e te r check , riders were anxious to enter the section as early as possible. But the location was hidden by rocks. Would there be a check to catch the "ga m blers?" Nervous time. Most riders chose to wait until their minute' came up , came around the corner and no check! Now it was 50 rn.p .h. tim e and the Double Crossers really ca m e up with a good section. It wasn 't d ifficult but it was a tight , to rt u rous winding section which was all b ut imposs ible at 50 m .p .h , T hree and a half mil es in to the secti on was the waiting check m a n ned by Go rdon Dickson, the Enduro Squid and a squad of lovely check tootsies . Most "A" riders were from two to three minutes late with onl y a couple of riders one minute late. Hannon was fastest , only 17 seconds int o the nex t m inute. Sa nford was nex t on h is Honda four stroke. The first of many resets soon had the "A" riders back on time for the rest of t he loop . Next up wer e the " B" riders and three to five minutes late was the average. Finally the "C" 's and five to 10 mi n u tes lat e seemed to be th e pattern. Most had no problem gett ing back on time as the rest of the 49 mile loop was re latively easy . Lu ckily for Jay Tullis, Number One 175, there was a 55 ·minute break between loops. Jay lunched his MR· 175 t ra nny before the first check and had on ly first and fou rth left. With the help of teammates Mike Adams a nd Mark Heacox , J ay removed the engine fr om the fr a me, split th e cases, .repaired the sh ifter fork , and had the engi ne back in and ready to go before the break was over. Incredible. Jay finished up in his class too. T he second loop promised to be to ug h and was . The resets kept everything u nder cont rol though so ther e were some very good scores. First " B" , a nd an automatic tra nsfer to "A" ;"ent to D·56 rider Bruce Bowman (250 Hus ), Bruce made the journey sou th to prove that som e D·56 riders could ride the d esert and socked it to the D·57 desert B rid ers. First "C" ride r was B.J. Olson on his 175 Husky losin g j ust fou r po in ts. Looks like B.J. is ab ou t ready to try th e "B" ranks. W omen's Steward Sue Hall rode her some what loud (There was a sou nd test) KTM an d not only finished but ma y have won her class. Other women en du ro rid ers p resent were Ann Mennell and Linda Zierer , who was ha ving p robl ems with her bik e a t check one when it wouldn' t start. Linda wou ldn't give up though and m ad e it to the finish . Six Days rider Rick Munyon looked to be a favorite in the 175 class but he had two fla t tires which pu t him ou t of contention on his IT · 175 Yam aha . Yamaha rT ·400 m ou nt ed Gary Woodling took a huge step fo rwa rd in sec u r ing his fi rst N um be r One plate when he took third overa ll , second open . Ga ry started wit h his club m embers w.ay back in th e B r ide r numbers. Ga ry had to pass a whol e lot of slower riders and proved his point as he contend ed it didn't .m att er 'wha t number you drew , it's riding ability that cou nts. W ith onl y two enduros left , it would take a cou ple of DNFs for Gary to blow the Number one plate. Super senior Tom Getzfrid won the 40 -and-up bunch class and has already won the number one Senior plate. Tom is trying for a perfect points total at the end of the year standings. He finished third in class once this year, first every other time, and has been in contention for the overall win a number of times, Anyone who thinks Seniors are slow hasn't been roosted by Tom's TT·500. Hannon and Sanford called the Cal State 100 .the best Desert National yet and no protests were filed - Double Crosser Townsend couldn't ride his own enduro. Unofficial Results "A" RIDERS: 1. Mik. Hannon 5 !Yom 4001. 2. Punk W ilson 7 (KTM 2501. 3. Gory Woodling 7 IHus 2501, 4. Tom Spurlock 9 IHus 2501, 5. Ron Romlow 10 CHua 360), 6. Ken LowisJr.l1 CVom 4001, 7. M"'k Heacox 11 CHon 4 101 8. Don Sanford 12 (Han 41 01, 9 . Mik. . Adams 12 C Hon 2501.10. Tom Getzfrid 12 CVom 5001. "B" RIDERS : r, Bruc. Bowman 15 CHus 250), 2. Lann i. St.fan Jr . 18 CBui 2501. 3. lII1ry Woodruff 18 !Ysm 500), 4. Tom Webb 18 (C·A 2501. 5. Garn", PBlensk. 20 lYam 400), 6. Bob Keim 20 lOss 2501. 7. : Jami. unon 20 CKTM 4001. 8. Ken Cat", 20 ISuz 2501. KTM 9. Richard Waners 22 (Hen 350). 10 Norm Boll 22 C 350 1 . Hus 175). Erick " C" RIDERS: 1. B.J . Olson 4 C lehma nn 5 lHua 4001 3. Dave PhoIan 6 IKTM 250 1 4. . . . Dave Wi lson 6 IS u. 2501. 5. Dave Rag ers 6 IHus 3601 6. Pet . Jung 7 1Rok 3401. 7. Duan. Mahan 7 lYam 400 ), 8. J im Chives 7 C 360 ), 9. Bob Roush 9 (S u. 3701, 10. Bul 10 (Yam 2501. lofTY eo. 11

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