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/126418
I AMA/NATC National Championship Observed Trials Series - Round five ~ E 0') l' 0') ~ ~~ =' ~ reezes rOll exas By John Rallnikko. Jr. HELOTES; TX,JUNE!5 lAbovel Melland WhlIIey,lIhown here In North Texas, guldec:l his Mont... 10 two wins. CBeIowII.ane leavitt 1IICkIes. South Texas rock step. . Marland Whaley rode his Montesa over the blistering hot Texas hill country rocks to a decisive win, putting himself into the AMA/NATC National Observed Trials Championship Series pointS lead. Whaley, who'dropped 12 poirits in the fifth round, bumped Bultaco-mounted Bernie Schreiber out of the points lead 12 as he earned a third place behind smooth·riding Bultaco rider Lane Leavitt. Wiltz Wagner of the Rocky Mount.ain Trials Association of Colorado rode a pair of excellent loops to the Senior class win on a Bultaco. With a score of 55 points, 39-year-old Wagner bettered all the Sponstnan class riders, too. Texas State Champion Ron Fields dropped 57 points to win the Sportsman class. On the previous weekend he had wOn the Sportsman class at Colorado. . Clerk of the Course Britt Blum, with the aid of three Texas trials clubs _ San Antonio Trials Association, Gulf Coast Trials Association and Central Texas Trials AlISOCiation - was responsible for a challenging, safe and well·run trials. The spectator loops were well-marked and laid out with minimum walking distance between sections, while the rider loops snaked through the Texas hill country's cedarcovered hillsides. The ice water bottles placed along the loops got a good workout by the riders and spectators in the 95-degree'weather. The Texas trials club had laid out a two loop course of 19 traps for the National Chllmpionship riders, of which the SportsllRn and Seniors had . to ride two loops of 14 sections. When the riders left on their starting minute, they had five hours plus another hour grace period with 60 penalty minutes to complete their two loops. . The first trap was a dry waterfall called Triple Step. Appropriately named, the riders had to step onto a three-foot wide ledge, which protruded from the side of the creek bed about two feet above the floor. From there, it went up an over-hung .three-foot rock lip onto a shon flat section before the fmal rocky step_ The trap was challenging but cleanable, as the second rider through rode it flawlesaly. Leavitt was talking a lot as he spent a long time walking and studying the first section. As he walked back to his Bultaco he mumbled. Mit's a good one," got on his bike and cleaned it easily. Schreiber also cleaned the first trap. The second trap b.ad a slightly greasy basis from where the riders.had to loft the front wheel and climb a rocky lip and set up for a very loose rocky climb to the right for the trap exit. There were two lines up the rocky uphill, with the far right being the easiest with the toughest approach. However," the rider had to be in perfect . control when he came out of the pit and had to do a very tight righthander to set up for the uphill. If he wasn't in perfect control coming out of hte pit, he was committed to the loose climb on the left, where many riders picked up everything from ones to fives. piting the pit was extremely lough for some riders - as they throttled to loft the front wheel, the rear tire would spin in the grease without any loft, sending them into the rock wall. Debbie (Evans) Leavitt