Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

IA bove) Forward Scott. Ken Lewis. Jr. and Don Lewis. Jr. made up the top UAU team.IBelow) Chaparrals' Mike Adams givea Hannon the trophy. Team Honda's Rick Munyon pours it on t hrough the wide open stuff. chan ces for a sixth straight National Championship title. The host , Chaparrals M.C .. District 37's top' ranked enduro club , moved their date. up this year from their tradi tional March date in order to host th e first endu ro , thinking it would draw th e top riders west. Their re ason ing paid off with 10 of the 14 AA riders p resent , many at th eir first desert event. The Chaparrals always ha ve hosted a good tough event and thi s yea r's run follo wed that pattern. The eas te rn r iders were som ewhat apprehensive about th e sch edule (Look at all those spee d ch a nges!) and the higher speed avera ges (30· 32 mph). The AA riders were spaced out every other minute sta rt ing with minute three, and each had th e minute to himself. Th is resulted in far less tr affic for both the A a nd AA rid ers. The first loop was rumored to be th e loop to ta ke away po ints, and sure enoug h most of the po in ts were lost th ere. Ther e was a che ck-in a t th e first possible point past the t hree -m ile check and before the riders even h ad a decent cha nce to warm u pthey were in th e first special test. The Chaparrals . did an outstanding job of scout ing in a very tight , cha llenging sect ion t ha t took awa y points from all th e riders . The next check was a t ie-br eaker , and three points dropped seem ed to be th e best score. Most of th e District 37 A rid ers dropped five poi nt s. Aft er a reset to let eve ryone catch their b rea th , it was tim e for a noth er specia l test. The Chapa rrals seemed determined to settle things qu ickly. Again a reset was used after the section to let everyone rest and ca tc h up . Very sma rt. The fini sh was tough to make for th e ave rage A rid er b ui a ll t he AA seemed to make it on time . The second loop was the "C" loop with the Novice enduro rid ers j oining in for the ir chance a t a National Cha m pio nshi p finis her pin . T he 54 m ile.l ? op ::,:,s ~e t upj~.st a bo u.t perfect for C riders and the A & 'B riders had to watch their step a time or two or drop an unnecessary point due to mental lapse. The AA riders thought th e loop rather boring but figured th e third loop would make up for it . Top Crider was Joe Zuniga , Jr . (Ya m ) who dropped just one point edging out Randy Landreth (Hus) at the tie breaker checks. Team Suzuki rider Drew Smith som ehow picked up th e third loop rib bo n at the start of t he seco nd Ioop and went t h ree m iles be fore he rea lized -his m istake. By the time he backtracked and picked up th e seco nd loop, he was late to th e first two chec ks and was rather disgusted with himself. Roy Sheridan was very impressed with Drew's 250c c Suzuki when it ou tp ulled Sheridan's 390cc Husky up some sand hills . A soft uphill about four m iles out with a rock y downhill into a wait ing chec k sta rted things off 'on the third loop . The AA riders were hoping for some fast spe cia l tests to sort th e scores ou t a bit more, but th e loop. while challenging for local riders , was easi ly zeroable by the top riders . The loop d id cost Don Sanford of Team Maico a cha nce at th e overall when just 10 m iles from the fini sh , the rear wheel locked up solid and spit him off in a rock field . Don was rea lly puzzled . He picked h imself up to check things ou t but cou ld n' t se~ a nyt h ing wrong . When he got goin g t he b ike was barely m ovin g . Don droppe d three points at th e last secret check as the bik e slowly picked up speed . At the fin ish , a close inspection turned u p a huge rock wedged in between the air box and swingarm which had locked up the rear wheell As Don rode along , the ro ck wa s tearing the knobs off the tire until it could spin freely! A tough break after putting in suc h a good ride . . T ea m H ond a's newest member Ted W orrell debu ted on a fa ctory X R500 b uilt by Bill Bell a nd dropped five poi nts, th e same iis Dick Bu rleson . The tie-breakers will determine the break . The other half of Team Honda , Rick Munyon . on a XR250 factory bike had his problems when he arrived . at the first check on the first loop two minutes early! Rick ate seven big points rig h t off the bat, otherwise • might have been righ t in there behind Hannon. Rick m isfigured the 32 mph average and had th e first possible check pegged further on . T eam KTM's Billy Geier dropped six points for a good ride. Some good local rid er scores were turned in with Tra cy Wal ters (C -A) leading th e way wit h just five po ints d ropped in a su per nde to win th e 250cc A class. Tracy ju st ea rne d his "A " ca rd a t the start of th is sea sonl DMG Ma ico -spo nso red Ken Lewis, Jr. d rop pe d six points to take home th e first place trophy in the Open A class. Ken is D-37's #1 rid er in the Open class, and th is race showed why. Ken edged out T eam Hu sky's A .C . Bakken who a lso d ro p ped six po ints. A.C . was mounted on a very potent '79 390 OR. T he Sen ior clas s received . a mild ups et when Pet e Smi th (C-A) took the hon ors. Pet e ha s been riding th e 200cc class b ut picked up a Kolbe Honda/ Can -Am sponsors hip a nd a new 250cc Can -Am . Pete dropped 10 points to edge ou t Roy Sh er id an (H us) who dropped 13 point s. T he 200cc A class win went to Team Su zuki's Kevin Snapp who edged his team m ate Mike Rosso for th e win . seven point s to nine. T he 125cc A class win went to Cou n td own Engineeri ng 's Jerry Counts (C ·A) with a loss of 22 points. Most of the AA riders were using the Countdown Engineering end u ro clock , includi ng the winner. (Plug). Best B class score was Steve Eckard (Ya m) with 13. Steve earned a n automatic transfer to the A ca tegory for his fine effort . Fifteen -year-old B.J. Olso n (H us) finally put it all toge ther a nd took t he 25 0cc B class win d ropping 18 poi nts . Brad Zim merman rode his PE -175 Suzuki to the 200cc B class win losing just 14 po ints. T .D. Swets rode his RM-80 Suzuki to the 125cc C class win dropping just two points in another fine ride for the 13year-old. When t he dust had settled and the scores promptly posted and trophies handed out, it was generally agreed that the Chaparrals had earned the respect of the eastern riders for a well run AMA National Championship Enduro. And that has been a long time coming. • Result s OVERALL: Mike Hennon, 3 U

• Cover