Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

showed up Fr iday a fte rnoon a t three p.m. a nd began lowering cra tes to th e ground l T he n th e fun and excit em ent began. Tools flying. th e seven Suzuki team riders began assembling th eir new bikes, j ust flown into Los An geles that morning fr om Japan. Talk about rid ing ou t of th e cra te motorcycles! Rid er Mike Rosso and team m an ager ' Joh n Morga n exp laine d t hat the fac tory had cha ng ed the new bikes so mu ch it had p roven im possible to ge t them a ny sooner. O ne of th e bigges t su rprises was the all new 400 PE which will not be available u ntil the 1980 p roduct ion ru n . The Suzuki tea m does a ll th e test ridi ng and competing on p re ·product ion m od els which are a lways on e step ahead of th e ac tua l following product ion run . One of th e biggest cha nges on the new PE 's is the incorporation of th e rea r sprocket to th e same sid e as the rear brake , making for neat a nd quick tire cha nges on th e new bikes. They d id have a few teething problems for the weekend as the team riders. who a re a ll from the east coast a rea. cope d with unfamiliar terrain while getting used to the bikes on their shakedown ru n. T he good silencers had to be welded on th e pipes. which were brought out of im pou nd with the ride rs Saturday afternoon , work ed on them re-install ed on th e bikes du ring the ma inten an ce per iod Sunda y morning .. It shows th e quality of th e bikes that"all seven riders fin ished the event wit h Su zuki tak ing second and th ird in th e Manufacturers com pet itio ns. T op Club T eam honors were taken by Pa cific Performance for th e fift h yea r in a row! They were the only Club Team to fin ish all th ree riders. T wo of those riders have been on the team for all five years , Ru ss Powell (KT M) a nd Fred Cam eron (SW M) . while the third member of th e team this year was La rs Larsson (H us) who ' fin ished fourt h in the 500cc cla ss. Saturday As th e rid ers pulled into th e first ga s stop Sa turday morning it became ob vious tha t th is was going to 'be d ifficult event . Many of th e good desert riders were coming in either on their minute or with jus t one or two to spare. They a lrea dy appeared to hav e been through a rough dust war and it was barely eigh t in th e morningl Fishback was in with five minutes to spare, Burleson had four m inutes, Ogilvie five, and fast Chuck Miller had seven ! Many riders were already out for th e day. Charlie Marshall . top District 36 Cross Country rider, was out with . ma in beari ng problems in his Husqvarna. Many riders were com ing in on flat tires and - muttering something about rocks . rocks and more rocks. One rider commented that this place had to ha ve more rocks than Vegas, apparently thinking it to be the rock ca pitol of th e world . Mike Bell had decid ed to ride th e even t for fu n and exercise . He was on the same number with Team H onda's enduro ri de r Rick Munyon on a prototype XR 500 Honda. Their pit crew was headed by Bill Bell, of Honda 's race and R&D Department, who is also Mike's dad . Unfortunately a lot of Mike 's exercise came in the form of tire changing and as he pulled into the third gas with his third flat tire for th e day he decided to hang it up . " I just came out for 't he exercise and the fun . If I was serious about all of thi s I'd go on ," he said . T hough Munyon fin ished the day he did not start the next morning . "T here's no po int in keeping Bill and everyone OUt her e so I can go trail riding ," he commented. Munyon lost a lot of po ints Sa turday; firs t the screw on his front b rak e ba cked OU t in th e spe cial test , a nd whil e gla ncing do wn to hold th e lever Munyon hit a rock and bent th e rear brake lever leavi ng him with no brakes fo r a while. Lat er in th e th ird speci a l test th e chain ca me off and ta ngled so badly he had to remove the rear shoc k to fix it . T ea m Kawasaki rid er Mike H annon also was not ha ving a very good da y. He got a fla t in the first speci a l test then had a throttle ca ble b reak in th e last one . Ha nnon was back on time a nd goi ng well on Sunday, till he hit a excavation just ou t of the second gas sto p on T rona Road . a bou t hal fway throug h t he day, a nd bruised his left forea rm an d wrist so ba dly he ha d to re tire. Chuck Miller had to ret ire when a rock put a hole in th e oil line of his mo noshock and all th e oil sprayed out onto his flat rea r tire. By the aft ernoon many more riders were gassing after th e fla gs a t th e gas tim e co nt rols than before it , as th ey ca me int o th e chec k on or after their m inute. Fishback, A.C . Bakken (H us), Fero , Ogil vie. Hamill and Davis were a ll do ing well a nd had no real problems. Ogil vie was still a bit sha ky as he had gotten out of bed just th e d ay before from a ca se of the flu . When th e scores were posted Satu r da y eveni ng th ey showed A.C . Bakk en in th e lead. but it was d ue to a scoring error. a number tra nsposi tion from th e first special test of the da y. Fishback led Ogilvie ' by j ust 16 seco nds (points) with A. C . in third , 72 po in ts down when th e scores were re o figured. Bu rleson was fourth . 113 points down . J oh n Fero was leading the 250cc class by 79 poi n ts over teamm a te T erry Davis. follo wed by Team Suzu ki's Drew Sm ith 190 points down . C ha rlie H am ill who was feeling mu ch better t his year, after riding thi s class with t he flu last yea r, ha d pu t the . blit z on th e 175cc class a nd led second place Mike Rosso (Suz) by 417 po int s. Rosso had ga ined 180 of th ose points on th e route by be ing three m inutes late to a che ck in th e afte rnoon after the last special test, He figured he was held up five minutes at th e traffic jam at the sta rt of th e test and asked for conside ra tion and to have th at time reinstated. Apparently he d id not get it back , though one other rid er. Ken Maahs, (Hus) who approached th e scorers as soon as he impounded his bike , with a similar complaint , d id have his score adjusted. Dan Dillon was the class leader of th e 125cc class which had fou r of its 14 starters still running. Sunday The weather was very good Sunday morning as the first riders left the line at 6:39 a .m. A breeze kept th e tem pe ratu res do wn through the d ay which was a help. T he heat , com bi ne d with the rocky uphills and th e trails full of whoop-de -des tha t jo ined th em , . had been a big factor in the nu mber of reti rem en ts on Saturda y. M ik e Godfrey. T eam Ma ico, got stom ach cra m ps so bad he had to lay by th e trail for 20 minutes before riding int o a checkpoi nt. H e was forced to retire. Quite a few ot her riders compla ined of cramps a nd problems with t he hea t also on Saturday. One rider to overcome a rather disastrous problem Sunday was Tom Schell , who had a very bad case of d iarrhea. His pit stops Sunda y consisted of gas and Pepro-Bismol , th e only remedy his crew could locate. Schell hung in there for ninth in th e 250cc cla ss and a silver medal! Su nday's course was the same as Sa tu rday's, one long northern loop and one short sout hern loop (from Randsbu rg) ru n twice during t he d ay for a m ilea ge total of 159.5 each da y, Burleson entertained the crowds at several pit stops with this tire dance. excep t Sunda y's wa s run in the opposite di rection . Abo ut 15 of th e 90 Sunday mo rn ing starters never m ad e it to chec k one . m ost of t he m dro pped ou t with mec ha n ic a l p r ob lems . When the sched ule is as tight as the Sham rocks' , ma chine mainten a nce and the ab ility to keep you r bike togethe r bec ome s very im po rtant . Fish bac k was having a very good d a y a nd again ha d no real prob lems. He had no flats all weekend a nd figures one of t he reasons is that he runs 30 pounds of air in his rea r tire . " I ran that pressure in all of th e qualifiers last year and never had a flat ," he sai d . Pushing hard to overtake him in spe cia l test times were Ogilvie and A.C. Bakken. Ogilvie was do ing a good job , though he had lost a couple of gears. until th e last check of the day 10 miles before th e finish . He lost all of th e gears in the gearbox and was forced to retire. This bumped Bakken into second in cla ss and overall ' beh ind Fishback . Bakken on ly d ropped 19 poi nts on Sunday but Fishback made no m istakes and had no problems. By th e time the rid ers came over the hill two m iles from the fin ish he was th e first rider event hough he was riding on the 11th minute! There were som e holes out the re by th e end of th e trial , between the riders, big enough to move an army th rough! John Fero copped the bad luck award of the weekend. He had the 250c c cla ss well under cont rol until the last 40 m iels of th e event, Two m iles out from th e th ird gas stop for th e day he had to change a flat tire and was two m inutes late to the ch eckpoint. Then he had two more flats before th e finish , plus ' th e magnesium sidecase, clutch side, broke and he had no oil left as he rode h is third flat into th e fini sh 25 minutes latel He finished on a silver med al out of the top 10 though he was on th e winning Manufacturer T eam . Fero JUSt made the switc h to th e EI Blue Magnum ca rbu re to r and says he likes it so well he d oesn 't ever want to pu t the Mikuni ba ck on. Doug Beisner (Suz) fin ished second in the 25 0cc cl ass. fo llowe d b y Randsbu rg local Kern Pa rk . Drew Smith dropped from t hird in class to fift h when he got lost in the last spe cia l test of th e d ay. For the first tim e in th e seven year h istory of the Shamrock's Trial two women/inis1}fd,.BQth Rh e.Helms (250 Su z) and Trudy Beck (250 Yam) com pleted th e roug h two da ys. They were greet ed by a speci al celebratory bottle of champagne at th e finish line . The thi rd member of their Women 's Team whi ch e nt e re d the trial , spo nso re d b y To rco Oil, Diane Holeman houred out on Sunday from fatigue; but they plan to fini sh as a team in next yea r's eventl The 500cc class had 108 starters and 28 finishers ; the 250cc 70 start ers and 22 finishers ; the 175cc class 36 starters, and 13 finishers ; whil e th e 125cc class started 14 and finished three . There were a total of 18 go ld medals won in this tough trial. The Shamroc ks d id a very good job this yc:ar and if th ey could incorporate a "grass track" type specia l test next year it would make a good event even better. . On top of tha t, next year t hey a re thinking of giving th e riders what some of them want to see - trees! If they really want trees we ca n give them trees ; but I don't know if they'll end up liking them more than th is year's rocks • - smil e one club memberl Results 500 ,CLASS: 1. Jim Fishback 4078.45 (Vam); 2. A.C. Bakken 4169.88 (Husl; 3. Morr is Norman 4434.20 lYam); 4. Lars Larsson 4475.25 (Hus); 5. Bill Saltzman 4486.35 IHusl; 6. Chris Carter 44B7.95 IMaij; 7. Ken Maahs 4552.90 IHus); 8. Grant Palenske 4606.45 (Yaml; 9. Tom Rafalski 4666.50 (Yam); 10. John Miller 4729.45IMail. 250 CLASS: 1. Terry Da,"s 4373.95 (Vam); 2. Doug Beisner 4622.25 ISuz); 3. Kem Park 4626.00 (Hus); 4. Greg Thomas 4628.40 (Vam); 5. Drew Smith 4750.30 ISuz); 6. Jeff Fredette 4754.75 ISuzl; 7. Hoyt Statham 4938 IHusl; 8. Russ Jon es 5054.40 IHon); 9. Tom Schell 5506.65 ISuz). 175cc CLASS: 1. Ct1ae 10.429.9 IHusl. 9

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