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.. . .,. Yamaha-mounted John Fero topped the Trask Mountain ISOT Qualifier. besting Suzuki's Tom Penton by nine points. f By Suzie Mann McMINNVILLE. OR. JUNE 3-4 Yamaha rider John Fero scored his first overall win in AMA ISDT Qualifier competition at the unseasonably hot, 415-mile-Iong Eighth Annual Trask Mountain Two-Day Trial. In addition to the overall win, Fero topped the 250cc class and teamed with Open class riders Carl Cranke and Jim Fishback _ 30 . both on IT400~ - to give Yamaha the Manufacturers Team Trophy. rai M C II Th erask M T sma d' d est filth I b oun am . " d t h t o a lei c u.s 0 fOS a t~o · . ay, I. an exce h fif h 0 d orgaruzanon . this ent Job r fi I . h year ror t e It an rna event m t e series which helps determine which id '1 1 . n ers · W hbe selected to I I represent the .. . I U .S . m t e prestigious nternanona · 0 T . I thi f II' S ed S IX ays na IS a In wen . rest CIu b Preside n t , CIe r k 0 f . t h e C curse I O ' an d ramrod for t h e tna , enms Bershaw said at the tro h t ti S d . h "W hP Y presen allon un ~y mg t , e ave come a ong wa y smce the first event when about 65 riders showed up . and none 0 f us were a II th a t sure a b out h t d - ,.. h b w TahweCwlebre omg · e u T earn T rop y was won y th e Trask Mountain M.C . team of S uzu ki nid er Chri Kems, Yama h ans I mounted Ken Maahs and Greg Mardock S dav' . course was Just over 240 '1atur ay s d I k I h rm es ong an too a most 10 ours to Iete as t h e wet , wet sc h e d u Ie was comp used . The course looped north , northwest out of town for several mil es on the pavement stru ck up into the hills using logging roads and trails in various states of deterioration , ran over on e 70 -mile sect ion (whic h included the 'specia l test for the day) twice ar .the far northwest end, th en struck sou th and east to return to th e im pound . Just 104 of the 196 rid ers com pleted th e gruelling first d ay's rid e . John Fero , on e of th e under-rat ed riders com pe ting in th ese even ts was very serious a nd going fast in th e special tests on Saturday. Fero has been competing in severa l of the east ern enduros with nominal su pport from Yamaha and ha s learned a great deal ~rom .his. experien ces. His h ard work IS begmnmg to pa yoff. . Fero actually led th e specia l test scores at .the r Michigan Two-Da y . Qualifier two weeks ago but was diIsqua lifi d at t h een d 0 f t h e fi d I ie rrst ay for pouring som e ga s he had carried in ' hi bik on e 0 f t hI ong sections . e into IS I e . H d it i h bik . h h e pour~ It m~o t e l e n g t a t t e checkpoin t (which was not a regular . gas c h ec k) t him ki h e ws Iega I m~ H d fi . I . . h e was e mite y gomg for t e II a t T rasx , and k new h e cou Id d 0 k overa h I' I . . . It wit a Itt e bit of luck. He was not . . very su re of hIS lead , how ever, until th e final scores wer e posted on Sunday evening since he . had been cred ited . h 300 ' hi wit an ex tra . pomts on IS Sa turday score , whic h was ch ecked out . a nd found to be a five rnmute mathema tica l error in th e scoring. W· h h d Id It t e . error correcte , Fero e day one wit h a score of 490 followed by 0 I KTM 'd F k G II a pen c afss AI b n er rd n . h~ o, winner 0 t h e a am a a n M IC Igan even ts, with a 499 , a tie for third bet ween T 0 m Pen t on an d C a r I C ran ke 506 a t , and Saturd ay's 175cc c Iass I d AID ' h 509 ea er an eyo wit . T ed Worrell , riding a PE250 Suzuki , broke a shift lever a nd h is chain tensioner ~>Ut got everyth ing ba ck together on time . Quite a few people had flat tires , but Ken Maahs topped th e bad luck list with a front a nd a rear flat eac h both days of th e trial. Maahs had to limp into th e fin ish Saturda y on a flat rear. He'd used th e tube he ca rrie d ea rlier in th e sect ion to fix his front fla t; th e loss of points dropped hi m to Silver Med al score for the event . " I ca n fix one fla t and stay on tim e , but the only rid er I ever heard of who had two fla ts in the same section of , trail and sti ll m ade it was Billy Uh l a few years ago," sai d Ma ahs. Carl Cra nke got to play the ro le of rescuer early on Sa tu rd ay a reversal of a simila r situation he was invol ved in a t Trask two yea rs ago after he hit a rock in the trail and fou nd himself 15 feet down a steep ba nk. J ack Pen ton (who was in Au stra lia d uri ng th is ra ce for a cou p le of international two -da y events th ere) came a long a nd helped Cranke. This ' yea r , however. Frank Gallo was th e one who hit a rock with h is front wheel and sudden ly found himself 20 feet down a bank in the trees! Cranke who was riding on the sa me number with Gall o, ca me along a half a minute later and , "he ard this voice yelling at me . Then I saw this track running 'off th e bank and real ized what had happened . At first when I looked over th e edge I couldn't even find Frank, he was hidden in a bush!" Another rid er a lso stopped to hel p an d betw een th e three of them t he y m a n aged to ge t Gallo's KTM ba ck on th e tra il. A slightly faster , th ough still wet sched u le was run on Sunday because so many rid ers had been eliminated and d ropped off Gold th e first day. The or ganizers a lso felt that to ask the riders to go faster wou ld prove nothing and m ig h t, in th e dust , ca use injuries. Basica lly the same loop was run but withou t re peati ng a ny of the sec tions. It was ru n in the opposit e direction th an Saturda y, and was a mere 172 mil es. It on ly took a bou t seven a nd a half hou rs to run Sunday's course com pared to just over 10 hours on Saturday. Husqvarna's La rry Roes eler d id not ha ve an ou tstanding weekend almost fro m th e start . although he finished sixt h in th e 250 cc cla ss. He almost didn't get started in tim e on Saturday morning, th en fouled a plug just after ge tt ing past th e mandatory 66 feet from th e start line which a rid er must cross within on e minute afte r his signa l . to sta rt under th e power of th e mo torcycle. Roeseler was riding on th e same m inute as John Fero . When th ey ca me to i' creek crossing a lmost toge ther Saturday m ornin g , Roeseler h it a slippery lurking rock a nd th e bike went upside down on th e ai r filt er side . of course . That delay put him into th e checkp oint on th e last minute of his grace as Husky team manager Buzz McQueen waved him through . On th e way int o th e finish on the road Sunday. ne ar d isaster struck in th e form of a little old lady in a big ca r who apparently cou ld n' t see motorcycles and turned left right in front of Roeseler as he ca me a rou nd a corner. He got the brak es on . laid it down and disappeared under he r fro nt bumper right in front of Ted Worrell , who was almost a fra id to go look. Miraculously th e bik e was ridea ble. sort of, and Roeseler had a b adl y scr aped righr a rm a nd some bruises! He m ade it to th e finis h wit h a bent frame. a hole in th e cases where the shift lever was p ushed throu gh a nd tot all y ino pe ra ble rear shoc ks! He th en pounded some things stra igh t a nd rode th e grass track a nd pulled up to th e chec k st ill (he was su re) on tim e . Som eh ow , th e backup ca rd a nd his route ca rd go t marked two minutes later a nd he .picked up 60 points for being on e m inute lat e a t th e fini sh! . Gallo a nd Cranke posted th e fastest tim es in the gr ass tra ck sp ecia l test a t th e end of th e d ay on Sunday with 223 eac h a nd fin ished in tha t or de r in th e O pen class followed by Barry Higgin s (who ran over a few m iles dow n the roa d and competed in a loca l mot oc ross after fin ishing the event on his sa me bike and took fifth) . Bob Pop iel , J im Fishb ack, a nd A .C . Bakk en . Fastest rider for th e day on Sunday wa s T om Penton who is ru nning a n RM cylinder but with th e new PE p ipe on h is PE 250 Suzuki. Tom was seven' seconds fas ter tha n Fero on Sunday but ended up a tot a l of ni ne seconds off Fero's pace for th e two-day score a nd sett led for second overa ll. "T h at new PE p ipe was really working , and I wish t he terra in tests (whe re Penton really shines) had been longer. I'd been using an RM pipe in th e other qualifiers but this new on e work s so good if 1 were a rnotocrosser, I'd want on e on m y RM !" -Pento n stated. Suzuki team riders Gary Edmond . Ted Worrell and Dav e Hulse filled th e next three places in th e 250cc cla ss. Drew Smith. also on Su zuki , cam e through with som e fast scores on Sunday to take th e 175cc class win again by five seconds over Dane Leimbach who was only on e second ahead of Don Cichocki. Saturday's 175cc leader Alan Oeyo took fou rth. Greg Da vis again topped the 125cc cla ss over Dennis Vandecar and Tom Krehbiel. Fred Cameron topped Ru ss Powell in the 350cc class with a score that would have put him eighth in the 250cc class and fifth in th e Open class . Bruce Ogilvie managed to overcome many sma ll problems a nd keep his Harley running for a Bronze medal. As the organizers noted a t the trophy presentation , it was th e first Harley eve r to fin ish T rask . • Resu lts BEST"A" SCORE: John Fero (Vaml l 081. 125cc A; 1. Greg Davis (Husl 1165; 2. Dennis Vandecar 1201; 3. Tom Krahbiel 1275' 4. Don Dillon 1275. ' 175cc A; 1. Drew Smith ISuz) 1120; 2. Dane Leimbach 1128; 3. Don Cichocki 1133; 4. Alan Deyo 1145; 5. Tad Uzzle 1158; 6. Bob Ayers 1170; 7. Ron Lamastus 1186; 8. Charlie Ha",;11 1188; 9. Garth Williams1231; 1O. Mike Rosso 1234. 250cc A; 1. John Fero (Vam) 1081; 2. Tom Penton ·(Suzl l 090; 3. Gary Edmond 1134;4. Ted Worrell 1141' 5. Dave Hulse 1163; 6. Larry Roeseler 1220; 7. Chri~ Kerns 1226; 8. Mark Mathews 1226; 9. Stephen Mathi eson 1239. 350cc A: ' 1. Fred Cameron 1265; 2. Russ Powell 1403. OPEN A; 1. Frank Gallo IKTM) 1093; 2. Carl Cranke 1106; 3. Barry Higgens 1114; 4. Bob Popiel 1125; 5. JIm FIShback 1141; 6. A.C. Bakken 1163; 7. Bob Mercil 1183; 8. Ed Davis 118S; 9. Lars Larsson 1186; 10. Chris Carler 1191; 11. Dan Amor 1209; 12. Steve Jsckson 1215; 13. Denny Reese 1234; 14. Reed 8right I24Q; 15. Ken Harrell 1249. 125cc B: 1. G. Brow n 6568. 175cc 8 : 1. Poindexter 1191; 2. J . Wadkin s 1223. 250cc B: 1. 8 . Hadfield 1203; 2. R. Rumsey 1296; 3. J . All n 1316. e OPENB: 1. C. Bethards 1359.