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was one of the riders that had trouble in this section, injuring her ann and taking a five. Fortunately she was able to continue the trial. Trap eight was called Box Canyon, and boxes have vertical sides, which suggest a description of the trap. Most riders attempted an off·camber climb up the right side, picking up threes and feeling like they had gotten by with a good ride over the loose footing. A straight shot up the solid rock wall of the box canyon got a lot of speculation. Many riders bunched.up to survey the situation, huddled up at the base of the sheer rock climb, talking strategy and discussing possible lines. After Texas State Champion Ron Fields tried blasting up the right side of the canyon and throwing his bike desperate,ly part way up the hill while' skydiving back to the canyon floor, other riders began considering different lines. An unidentified rider took the escape roule out of the section and rode around 'to the scorer at the top for a five while clucking like a chicken. Lane Leavitt ent~ed the section and approached the sheer rock wall of the canyon, gassed it and scaled the wall, taking it dab at the top where the footing was shaky. The scorer. gave Leavitt a one and the crowd gave him a big cheer. ' Schreiber attacked the wall on the same line that Fields had tried, with better luck. The go·degree tum to the left in loose rock at the top of the initial climb was where Bernie picked up a dab on his try. Whaley cleaned' trap eight on his second loop. The 15th trap was reserved for National riders only and was called Sky Dive because it was such a steep' rocky downhill. The direction of the trap' was changed, so the name was very inappropriate unless you made a mistake. From the trap entrance on 'the right side of the ravine, the riders dropped to the bottom and straight up the other side where there was a rocky step up. After the step they entered something that looked like one half the inside of a barrel with rock walls. With a burst of power they tracked the front wheel on the barrel wall and guided to the right, up a steep incline scattered with dirt- and loose rock to the exit. Pretty section - tough but cleanable. Leavitt rode two consistently good loops (9·10) for a 19 point total, beating Bernie Schreiber (15·12) who picked up 25 points. Finishing 'early and relaxing under the shade of a ceda r tree, the riders waited for others to ,finiSh and the scores to be compiled and posted. After several requests, Debbie Leavitt pleased the 'Crowd of spectators and cameramen with her headstanding balancing act on her Bultaco. Whaley, who had picked up eight 'points on the first loop was obviously in the ~nning for the overall honors. It turned out that he had been very stingy about seting the soles of his bOots on the Texas hillsides during the second loop as the scorers posted a fantastic four points for an overall win with 12 points all together. Whaley's lIlird win with a second and a third boosted him into the points lead ahead . of Schreiber, who has two wins, a pair of seconds and a third to his credit. Leavitt now occupies third place on the points standings. Bob Hopkins rode his Bultaco to a pair of 22·point toops for fourth overall. Scott Head, of southern California, who received the Bernie Schreiber Award for youngest Expert ever -in southern California, placed fifth with 22·27 loops. Gpod riding for a rider who rode only one National last year, finishing 15th after being an Expert for only three months. Andre Plouffe came around in the second loop with a 21 after a 28 point first loop to tie Head with points, but the . tie was broken favoring Head, who had 17 cleans over Plouffe's 14. • Results NATlONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS: 1. Ma'iand WhlIIey IMonl; 2. lane loovitt (Bull; 3. Bernie Schrei.... IBuII; 4. Bob Hopkin. IBull; 5. Scott Heod IBull; 6. Andre PIouIfe IBull; 7. Billy Bu,geoer; 8. Keith Adam. tBuII; 9. MOIll"n Kawneugh IMOnl; 10. Oen SufIIn tBuiI. • • NATlONAl SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS: 1. Wiltz Wes- IBuIl; 2. Bud Myterberg; 3. Glenn McNeIl; 4. Gilbert Smith; 5. Robert Mickel; 6. Jim Peterson; 7. Gene Tuck; 8. Arthur W_er; 9. Tom Cullen; 10. len Weed. SPORTSMAN CLASS: 1. Ron Field.; 2. Guy Bpdin; 3. Debbie l-m; 4. Ron 1latcheIor; 5. Mortie Mcleod; 6. Rendy Hemlin; 7. Tom Batchelor; 8. Gary Sher,vood: 9. Merk Older; 10. 00neId Cralt. Bernie Schreiber climbs 8 tall rock slab in South Texas. L AMAIN ATC National Championship Qbserved Trials Series .Round six By Marilyn Wicker Photos by N. E. Wicker MILLSAP, TX, JUNE 24 Round six of the AMA/NATC National Cham• pionship Series got. underway at 10:01 with Bob Hopkins first man' out. The -Texas heat wouldtake its toll as the day progressed, and the temperature climbed to· cl_n energy-sapping 99 muggy de· grees. Two loops of 18 sections were laid out for the champion. ship class, while the sportsl"(lan and. senior classes rode the first 15. . Wick had to do double duty for this trial. Not only the photographer, he also seTved as an observer on section 15. This proved to be an interesting vantage point as all riders but for one each loop lost marks in this section. An 'S' and a half 'S' uphill climb through large embedded lava rock with a rock wall on one side, the section was .flagged wide enough to provide a variety of lines. It was also supposed to give the rider some advantage over the terrain, but 1 suspect many would question that theory. Bernie Schreiber, first rider to test the seetion, had a beautiful ride requiring only one dab to make it to the top of the hill. The most brilliant. ride on 15 was posted by 16·year·old Scott Head from Chatsworth, CA. Scott, competing in his fourth national, was the second rider through and chose a line with a higher degree of difficulty. He proceeded to clean the section with Marland Whaley intently observing his performance. Marland elected to \I'Y the same line and lost three of the eight marks he would post for the first loop. The best ride of the day on section 18 was posted by Morgan Kavanaugh. One of two water sections, it began with a creek crossing, then ran over scattered rocks, around a large bOl,llder and up a loose dirt step to a left turn between a huge rock slab and a tree to the uphill exit. Morgan got' squirrelly over the rocks but with a masterful display of skill regained control and cleaned the section. ,At the end of the first loop, Whaley was clearly in a domina..nt position with only eight marks lost while his closest competition, Wayne Galvin had lost 15. Lane Leavitt aDd Bobby Micket dropped 16 each to tie for the third place spot. . The intensifying heat would have a strange effect on the championship riders in the second loop. The top five finishers would half or better their first loop scores wh.iJe the rest of the field , slowly ran out of energy. Whaley turned in a mind· boggling two-mark loss to leav.e no doubt in anyone's mind that he is deadly serious about regaining the U.S. Championship title. Bernie Schreiber, after dropping 17 in the first' loop came back strong to drop only six in the second which shot him into second place overall. Unofficially, Bernie had the fastest lap time for both loops. Lane Leavitt, steady and consistent finished third, while Jack Stites was fourth. 'Scott Head, a young rider to watch, was fifth. -In the Sportsman class, Debbie Leavitt, fully recovered from her firey movie stum crash, showed the form that has given her the title of top woman trials rider, and claimed the overall win. In the Senior class, the competition between ,Bud Mylerberg and Wiltz Wager for the overall title remained fierce. Unused to Te«as heat and suffering every inch of the course. Bud managed to take top honors for the da);. The gas shortage had reached critical with 1)J~ counties to begin the odd·even purchase system on Monday. Because of this and because of the distance of the trial site from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex., spectator turnout was very poor. T.here were some rider complaints about section layout, but the club had deliberately tried to avoid spectacular downhills, which may entertain spectators but provide little challenge to the rider. An.attempt was made to layout more European type sections with uphills over rocks. Two weeks agao there were some water sections but a week of hot and dry weather had reduced them to little more than wet spots. • Results NATIONAl CHAMPIONSHIP: 1. _ WhlIIey 10" lMonI; 2. Bernie Schr_ 23 lBull; 3. lone loovitt 26 lBulI; 4. Jock S _ 29 lMonl; 5. Scott . - 31 lBull; 6. Keith Adorns 32 lBull: 7. Morvon ~ 35 l8uI); 8. W _ Gelvin 40 lBull; 9.1Iobbv Mieleel 41IBut); 10. Oavid Burke 42 iBull. SPORTSMAN: 1. Debbie loovitt 42 lBuIl; 2. Gorfv _ 44; 3. Mike Corten 44; 4. Oonnio Crllfl' 48; 5. Cherteo Mellow 53; 6. Guy Bodin 53; 7. Gory Sherwood 56; 8. David Russell 57; 9. Mortie McleoCl82; 10. Dave Cooper 65. SENIOR: 1. Bud MyIerberg 31 tBuIl; 2. Glenn _ 44; 3. Woltz W _ 44; 4. Robert MicIceI 52; 5. Gtl Smith 63; 6. Tom Cullen n; 7. len Weed 94; 8. Art W_er95. 13