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/126416
IAbove) Bernie Schreiber climbed and spluhed Unset) to win by nine and a half polnta.IAbove right) On the Honda. Rob Shepherd finished second. IBelow) Martin Lampkin. on the rocks. World Championship Observed Trials Series.round eight Schreiber blasts the field for sec'ond straight Wagner Cup • vvln By Dale Brown BUEHLAH, CO,JUNE 17 Bultaco's Bernie Schreiber 'blasted the Inter. national field of'the FIM/ AMA-sanctioned Wagner Cup observed trials, the U.S. round of the World Observed Trials Championship 14 series. "Bionic Bernie" was nine and a half points ahead of the I runner-up, Honda-mounted Rob Shepherd. 61.5-71. Schreiber's victory. combined with a sixth· place score by points leader Yrjo Vesterinen, and a third placing by series runner-up Martin Lampkin, tightens up the race for the title between the three Bultaco teammates. Vesterinen still leads the series with 74 points. followed by Lampkin (71) and Schreiber (69). The Wagner Cup Trial. also the fourth round of the AMA/NATC National Observed Trials Championship Series was held at Christmas Ranch. a scenic Boy Scout camp west.of Pueblo. Most of the 20 sections were very rocky, often run through gullys. In the AMA/NATC portion of the competition. Schreiber handily defeated Bultaco-mounted Lane Leavitt (riding in the National class only) and Montesa's Marland Whaley, who at eighth overall in World competition. was second American behind Schreiber. Wiltz Wagner and the Rocky Mountain Trials Association 'hosted the Cycle News·sponsored event. For the riders entered in the World competition. the seven and a half mile. 20 section loop was ridden three times. Time for the event was six hours, plus an hour's grace. At the end of the .first loop. Schreiber and Shepherd were tied for the lead with 19 points lost apiece. One of thejsectio s where Schre/'ber .. f- '1'1', I '." I lost no points was section six, dubbed by the RMTA as "Motha and Child." The trap started out in a gully with a good climb over a log. and then proceeded through the rocks until riders were faced with a four-foot pile of large rocks and a quick right tum. a straight. and a steep climb up a rock bank. Schreiber, Montesa's Malcolm Rathmell. Montesa-riding American Jack Stites, and 17·year·old Belgian Eddie Legeune. riding amazingly on a 200cc Honda, scored cleans on the first round_ Most of the other top riders scored ones or twos in their first attempt at this section .. Senior and Sportsman class riders rode sections 1·15. with 16-20 as National and World Championship class sections only. Laid out nearly nose to tail in a gully. they began with "The Waterfall," section 16. To get out of the section. riders had to charge ~O yards through knee deep water, and then up an eight foot, near-vertical, notched bank. With water going down it, of course. Section 17 and 18 were a dou ble section. called "The. Cave 11 & 12." Seventeen did start out underneath a cave formed by an overhanging rock ledge. but what the entrants will probably remember most about it is the wet. slippery rock step exit that caught many for fives. Eighteen had a pool of water and a sdection of offcamber rock slabs littering the exit