Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Suzuki's Drew Smith squares off a corner on the way to an overall win. R ock lover Drew S m i t h /t o p s R.M. Wheeler . National Enduro -- . 10 b ! V J ea nie Flippin OUNDS, OK, NOV. 12 • T eam Suzuki's Drew Smith won the R.M. .W;heeIer AMA N ational Enduro staged by the :};;u;lsa Enduro Riders As.socia~ion with a s~ore ot o12. After the run Smith said, "I have been 1 ~U "'f ~ looking for a rocky run all year. h fin ally found it at the .last run o'fJ U the season. I love those l:kS." Smith may love the lQ.!S.l ahom a rocks but he looked equally as good passing riders as he flat-tracked around the corners in the op~-woods sections. . . Coming into rhisrun Suzuki's Ted Worrell still had a chance to win the Ni~ ional Enduro Championship . Had he - won and Husky 's Dick Burleson fiOish'ed fourth or lower , Worrell iV'ou ld have the title. But Worrell's Clllurt pionshi p hopes were lost when he had a flat tire about 60 miles out, just !i~f9re the worse part of the run . ~.wleson finished second a~d first in ~h~ ;AA class , dropping 1~ pomts. u JVinning hi~ fifth straight National ~ I1d uro Championship, Burleson said, _ ~ ~y pre-game plan was caution. To ride on the back of my minute , to have I,l!> bflats , . no crashes, no DNF, no ~~ything. " Burleson's winning m argin i {jar, less than in the past when he had Ib title sewed up before the end ofthe 5!=ilson. Perhaps because Burleson was iP ured in Ma rch an d missed some j runs . Also a factor may be the number . of com petitors on ' the Na tional level has increased th is year. In addit ion to, the regulars, many Six Days riders have started rid ing the National. circuit-as is the case of Drew Smith. The . Black ' J ack Enduro Circuit versus the Texas Enduro Circuit championship was also settled at this run. Team Texas beat the BJEC Team . by one point. The BJEC team took the win here but lacked one point to ' compensate for the Texans' win at the Post , TX , National in March. J .R. _ Horn of Hi Point Central who has been one fo the supporters of this contest presented Team Texas with . " Meritorious Ach ievement" medals . Having a super day was Team Texas' Perry Davis (Mai) who tied Suzuki's 'Mike Rosso with 18 points for best " A" rider of the day . Rusty Reynaud, who just became an " A" rider at the Hillbilly Nat'l a month ago , was the top BJEC rider 'd ro pping 2~ points. With onl y one enduro left the Black Jack points are critica l. Black Jack leader all season , Ern ie Walker (Suz), placed himself in a position to possibly lose the title. Walker rode half tbe run without a seat. ' W alker said, "You ju st can 't stand up all th e time. I dropped 40 points but gained a lot of blisters ." Walker's nea rest com petition . T om "King Richard" Burleson earned his fifth National Enduro title. Dennis, could win the Championship at the last ·event of the season should he do well and Walker doesn't. The Tulsa Enduro Riders organized and planned the Wheeler National to the last detail. As a result not one protest' was registered after the run. Little things like a test area away from the pits were provided . Even the cool and overcast day with just a mist of rain . to settle die dust was perfect riding wea ther. At the riders' meeting, TERA 's Earl Schnell said, "T he 105 mile course is all established well marked trails. There are no virgin trails. In some places it looks like nothing but knee high grass . But you best stay ' on the trail because hidden in the grass are the infamous Oklahoma knee high rocks ." . ' . . The 140 "C" riders plus the Women and the 1~ and Under classes started after all the other 259 riders had left. They rode only the first part of the run. Up to this , most of the points dropped were early points. Jack Penton surely won the Observed Trials award when he "slow raced" a quarter . of a mile, feet on the pegs , to avoid early points. After the gas at 60 miles all the points dropped were rate points. At mile 70 the speed average changed to 24 mph. For the next 49 minutes, if you were on tiine which no one was, there was no timekeeping, just riding 'flat out. At the end of this 49-minute moto the best score was Dick Burleson 's four. At the reset which followed Burleson said "Good, 1 need it, I have no clutch. I ~ Even though most riders dropped a lot of points, 11 trophies had to be settled at the tiebreaker check. In both the Open B and Women's classes first place was a tie . Wayne Beindorf (Hus) bested Texan Wayne Cooksey (Mai) when they both dropped 27 points. Terri Herman took the Women's class over Jill Morris in that tie of~ points. T he hard luck story of the day had to be Team Suzuki 's Herluf Johnson . Johnson's riding clothes didn't arrive in time. He thought .getti ng size 11 boots would be a problem but it wasn't. Getting a helmet small eno ugh for his head was. He rode with gauze and d uct tape wrapped around his tI head to make it big enough to fit the borrowed helmet. Then Johnson crashed and broke his bike . The TERA club expressed its thanks to the Tulsa Four Wheelers and the Repeaters Ham Operators for help with emergency transportation and communications during the run. And, sincere appreciation to Roger Wheeler for the use of the R.M . Wheeler 12,000 acre ranch. Mr . Wheeler is not an un interested landowner . He and his son were at the run and furnished gallons of Gatorade .at the check points. · Res ults OVERAll: 0._ Smith 12lSuzl. AA: 1. Dick Burleoon. 13 (Hull; 2. Bob Popiel. 15 CHuol; 3. Jock Ponton(leTM). 125A: 1. Ruoty Rorynoud. 23 (Hull ; 2. Jock - . 30 .' lCAl; 3 . Jeny S _ d . 32IHuol. 2OOA, 1. Mike Ro.>. 13 (Suzl; 2. KOIIin Devil. 25 IKTM); 3. Rod Iluoh. Z7 CKTMI; 4 . Ricky Plna. 2B IKTMI; · 5. P8uf StoddIrd. 29lKTMl. 25OA: 1. ~ Pock. 20 CSuzl; 2. Don Dowdy. 24 ISuzl; 3. Rid

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