Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126314
; I: _._._._._~._._._._._._ ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.- . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . - . _ . _ . _ . _ Western hotline (A bov e left) Op en B w in ne r Gran t Palensk e got down a Greenhorn hill with more success than (abov e rig ht) some others. (Below leftl Kenny Lewis. Jr. w as t he overall winner. (Below right ) Gary Woodling gets permission to play t hrough. ' Lewis zeros AMAD-37 Greenhorn Enduro By Larry Langley Photos by Peggy Hickman LUCERNE VALLEY , CA , MAY 20·21 After two days , 340 miles of des ert and mountain riding, and approximately 24 checks , Kenny Lewis, Jr. (Yam) won the 32nd 36 .. Annual Greenhorn Enduro by zeroing all th e checks and dropping just 15 seconds at six tiebreaker checks. Ken had plenty of competition as 30 riders zeroed Saturday's course but higher speed averages on Sunday combined with the length of the course. left jus t six riders sti ll on zero at th e en d of th e end u ro , The "A " riders weren't too happy with th e low scores. One mistake (suc h as a burnt check) and they were pretty well out of the running. The problem was extremely poor check placements. Som e portions of the course were tight and d emanding but no check was waiting at ' the end of the section, It would be located a couple of mil es fu rth er ou t intothe open a llowing la te rid er s to get back on time before th e chec k. It was pretty fru strating for many of th e riders . T he course itself was put toget her pretty well co nside ri ng Pasadena M.C . had to a ba ndo n plans to run fro m Pa sadena over th e Angeles National Forest a t th e last minute d ue to heav y snow. The course consisted of a desert loop ou t of the pits locat ed a t Anderson Dry La ke, th en a loop up into the San Bernardino Mountains wh ich led riders nea r Big Bea r Lak e . then another desert loop for a to tal of 170 miles ea ch day . T he cou rse Sunday was almost identical to Saturday's (with new speed avera ges) excep t Saturd ay's morning loo p became Sunday's afternoon loop and Saturday's afternoon loop became Sunda y's morning loo p . It was t he best ma rked, most accurate, Greenhorn in m ost rid ers' recent mem ory. The only chec ks that had to be thrown out were two Saturday th ird loop checks whe re th e flip card chart had bee n made ou t wrong . The 175cc "A" class had the closest competi tion wh en R eggi e Kron g (Yam) edged out Jay T ullis (Ho n) by just th ree seconds. J ay rode into on e tiebreaker a t seven seconds int o his minute and th at was the break Reggie needed for the cla ss win . Jay was probably a little bit tired Sunday after he spent half the night in Apple Va lley Hospital with his son Doug who was having a ca st put on his leg a fter breaking it in a freak accid ent near cam p wh ile play ridin g. Randy Lieb ig (KTM) too k the 25 0cc A class win wit h th e on ly zero in that cla ss as favorite Mike Ad ams (Ho n) wa ndered into , a chec k early p inning him wit h two big poi nts . Mike ended up second in clas s, The Senior A class battle went to Harry Keast (Mai ) as nu m ber on e Seni or Tom Getzfrid got stuc k on a hill ea rly Sunday and dropped a bunch of points. Keast zeroed th e co u rse , dropping 39 seco nds. Fr ed Hayes had his new Ma ico ou t a lso and got stuck on th e sa me hill as Get zfrid . When he sto pped throwing up , he found himself 13 minutes late to th e next ch eck . Al Bak er (Hon) and his girlfriend Leslie (H us) were ou t for th e rid e unt il AI lunch ed his tranny lat e Sunday on h is trick X L·2 50 'which was very quick . The on ly A Wom an to fin ish was Dana Be ll (Ya m ) who dropped 308 points over th e two days and thought she had houred ou t, H owever . th e D· 37 ru le book a llows more th an one hour lat e for t he W om en 's Division and th e Pasaden a M .C . a llowed her more than th e hour (she was jus t one minute over anyway). Consid erin g th e co u rse was extre mely tiring a nd th e heat was taking a lot of ene rgy aw ay, it requi red some fortitude to hang in th er e for a ll th e fini shers . Ann Mennell (Ya m) . who was featured in a recent Cycle N ews personality profile , too k the Women 's B class zeroing Saturday's course , The onl y C woman to finish was Nancy Niel son who dropped 91 points. A very good turnout of well over 400 rider s tri ed their luck and an estima ted 50% fin ished. The Criders (a nd B Women) had to rid e Saturday only a nd some very good scor es wer e turned in. Robert Zinn (Ya m) lost just one second to win th e O pen C class and led a ll the Crid er s, Ot her C riders' scores worth noting were SCOll McKin ney (Yam) who dropped seven seconds (SCOll is th e son of OCMC's Dan "Go a t" McKi n ney) in winning t he 175cc C class a nd Frank Nainoa (Suz) who dropped j ust five seconds in win ning the 25 0cc C class. Some very good B sco res wer e accomplished by Grant Pal en ski (Yam) who too k th e O pen B class win with just one point lost and P .G . Miller (Ya m ) who won t he 175cc class with two points dropped . J ohn T ownse nd was tryi ng ou t his automatic 390 Husky when he lost the front brake wh en the ca b le broke . This m ak es tr anversin g downhills rather tricky as John found out the hard way when th e bik e ende d up on top of him, John recei ved a rather painful leg injury th at he tried to ride with but fin all y had to pull out of the endu ro before the last loop , Harold Hoisted's Yamaha wouldn't start Sunday a fter he had zeroed Saturday's course . He fou nd out la ter that his ro ute chart holder had been p laced over his kill button wire, shorting it out. Who put th e ro ll chart holder on? His riding partner , who sha ll go unnamed but did win the 175c c A class . Ron Wells (H on ) pulled into one of the gas stops , gassed up, and kicked his bike over when it was time to leave. It wouldn't start. His mag had shorted out. He was happy it happened at the gas stop inste ad of out on a loop . Roy Sheridan came upon a check sign not far from the fini sh (no checkers) and figured he had it made all the wav to the finish but he miscalculat';d , There was a check just about five m iles from th e finis h and Ro y h it it three m inutes early. H e was pretty hot until he figured ou t the error was his a nd th e club wasn't try in g to pla y tri cks on him with a phon y check sign . The finis h of th e end u ro differed fro m Sa turday's finis h as the course was routed u p into th e hill s behind Anderson Dry Lak e where a challen ging uphill and a very steep downhill provid ed a last m inute ob stacle for th e tired riders, Most of the riders were at least a minute late. Poor Go rdon Dickson (KTM). He had the cou rse zeroed and figured he had it made. However , he had trouble getting around som e rid ers on th e uphill a nd dropped two minutes at the finish . Pasadena M.C . received a lot of , shall we say , constructive criticism co ncerning chec k pl acement , They'll have a whole yea r to co n tem p la te it wh ile th e riders ca n look forward to the '79 'H orn .. .. It 's a tradition , • Unofficial Results OVERALL: Ken LOWIs . Jr .lYaml 0 .15. A.QPEN: 1. Ken Lewis . J r. 0.15 lYaml ; 2. Mike Wyr ick 0 :28 IVaml; 3. Larrv W oodruff 1:40 IVam l. A·25O: 1. Randy Liebig 0 :68 IKTMI; 2. Mike Adams 2:21 (Honl; 3. Punk Wilson 2:5 1 IKTMI. A-175 : 1. Reggie Krong 0:35lYaml; 2. J a y Tu llis 0:38 IHonl; 3. Ron R";nholdson 1:55 IC·Al. A SR : 1. Harry Keast 0:39 IMail; 2. J .T. Clark 2:49 IVam); 3. Dave Baker 6:45 1HonI. B-OPEN: 1. Grant Palen sk i 1:75 IVa ml; 2. Doug Clark 4 :37 IHus l; 3. Wa yne S tan field 5:38 lYaml. B-25O: 1. Tracy Walters 7:9 7 IC·AI; 2 _ Tom DiDomenico 11:237 IS02I; 3. Mineshaft Prutzman 12 (Y am) . 8- 175: 1. P.G. Miller 2 lVaml; 2. Pat Hen esey 3 lYaml; 3. Butch Nelson 10 IVaml . B S R: 1. Ceci l Hollenbeck 4 IHusl; 2 . William Miller 28 (Va ml; 3 . Neal K";'h 351Vaml. C 175: 1. Scott McKinney 0 IVaml ; 2 . Bruce North 4 IKTM); 3. Greg Whit ehorn 16IVam) . C-250: 1. Frank Nainoa 0 (SUl) ; 2. Fred Blanton 3 ISuz); 3. AI You ng 10 (Vaml. C-oPEN : 1. Bob Zinn 0 (Yaml ; 2. Ron Dunning. 1 IHusl; 3. J im Broomfield 6 (Yaml. C-SR: 1. Eric l ehman 2 tHus); 2. l en Tygart 15 IVaml; 3. Del Shurl ey 44IVam l. A WOMAN: Dan a Be ll 308 IVaml . B WOMAN: 1. A nn M ennell 0 (Yaml: 2. Jill Ashlock 140 1V aml. C WOMAN: Nancy Nielson 91. A TEAM : 1. J .T. Clark. Dou g Clark. Gary Woodling , 0; 2 . Larry Langley. J erry Counts. Terrv Sw es t 15; 3. Dave Wood. Si eve Ellard, Ron Smith 79. B TEAM : 1. Ron Cole. Butch Nelson, Mineshaft Prutsman 42; 2. Doug Taft . Pet er Post al, Bill Posta l 104; 3. Chuck Adkins, Howa rd Markh am. Len McClure 216.