Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1980 09 03

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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r; ; Desert Hotline t o Lucerne Valley - Red Mounbln - Pla.ter City - Searchllcht - Sidewinder RNd - Superstition Mounbln - Jean - Rand Mounblna - Lucerne Valley - Red Mount 00 0) ...... Perfect scores for Adams, Bailey at D·37 night enduro By Helen Ajay BARSTOW, CA , AUG . 2 To win the Pasadena M.e. Lights On Enduro , you had to have a perfect score: zero minutes, zero seconds . And two riders managed it -Mike Adams and Jeny Bailey. Ad am s, a Maico rider, is District 37's Number One 250cc enduro rid er. Bailey, the D·37 Referee, holds the Number Two plate in his class. He rides a plain old IT 175. (Above! Mike Adams turned in '26 8 0.0. (Below! Jim fishback. (File photos.! Jerry Counts. . Honda rider and enduro clock manufacturer, was a distant third with one second off, Open A rider Grant Palenske and Doug Tullis, an A 200 rider, were right up there. They each lost only two seconds. So, in the end. it waa a very close race for the top positions, but as the story unfolds, you will see that it didn't stan out that way. At 9:01 p .m . on a lovely summer evening, the first four riders in a field of over 200 entrants embarked on their go -plus mile night journey. Not too far along into loop one, the trouble began. Just aa riders were beginning to get the feel of this nightriding stuff, between checks A and B, they noticed something funny about the course: it disappeared. At the time, they were on a jeep road running . parallel to the freeway. The course took a tum off the road. but the riders could not know this without making a diligent search up and down the road, riding slowly and training their lights in all directions to catch a glimpse of ribbon or arrow. Someone had pulled up the tum arrows; these were later found in a pile near the road. Riders who blithely continued down the road, ignoring the fact that there were no more course ribbons on it, got lucky . As it happened, the road merged with th e true course and whisked them straight into Check B. This was not the only instance of course sabotage on loop one. On a road after Ch eck C , the ribbons again ended abruptly. T his was very strange, since there were no choice points for turns anywhere around. Riden would conti nue qui te a way down the road. then become uneasy because of the absence of ribbon and tu rn back. Pretty soon , there was a mob of them. traveling in both directions on the road or generally milling around aim lessly. The right move at this po int was to courageously continue down the road. Eventually, the ribbons began again . Someone had simply Stripped out a sizable section of them . However , sabotage may not have been the onl y problem on loop one . In a couple of places, the club seemed to have done a poor job of marking turns. One possible example of th is occurred toward the end of the loop , where the course led onto an open plain so barre n and wide that the bike ligh ts could not read ily pick up the line of ribbon . After awh ile , th e course made aright-a ngled right turn onto a trail , but the turn was so obscure t ha t you pretty much had to stumble onto it by accident. Riden who missed the tu rn and went all the way to the end of this "landing strip" area were greeted by two signs saying "No." Can you begin to imagine the riders ' frustration ? We will mercifully leave the discussion of Loop on e shonly.The only other thi ng of note is that the en d of the loop was shortened by a couple of mil es a nd · rerouted du e to a lastm inute mixup with the BLM . (In case you managed to get that far and were wondering.) T he clu b reported that a number of the B riders ( and even some A's) turned in t heir cards in disgust after their loop one experience. Well , they muffed it, because loop two was a real treat. For one thing, the club used re flective stakes on loop two. The hardy A's and B's who ventured OU l after the break reported tha t th ese stakes made a tremendous difference in the ease with which they could follow the course. Now they could concentrate on their timekeeping and on having what the better riders think of as a "good time" - bounding through tricky downhill sand whoops, pushing along shabby rock-filled roads, twisting in and out between high bushes on a narrow, shadow-splashed trail. The report from the front waa that the 12 mph section following the loop two tiebreaker waa about the trickiest thing ever seen on a night enduro. There was a rocky. twisty trail, followed by a winding downhill through a canyon over rocks and sand. It was possible to get both early and late in the section unlesa you were very careful. At the end, there was a six mph sect ion that spelled doom for at least '10 riders who weren't paying enough attention to their timekeeping. They were disqualified for being more than 15 minutes early at the last check , After much thought, the club decided not to count loop one at all for the A's and B's. Those who quit after loop one will know better the next time: never give up on an enduro because of course problems. The poor C's , on the other hand , " took it in the shorts." They wer e scored on their loop one performance at all checks except the last one. Consequently , their scores we're attributable as much to luck as anything else. Those of you who have not yet tried a night enduro, don't let this story .deter you from do ing one. A night enduro is far and away the most pleasant form of din bike competition in the hot summer months. Anywa y, you 'have 'til next summer to think it over. Meanwhile, come to the next District 37 enduro , being put on by the Double Crossen on October 5 in Lu cerne. Results A OPEN: 1. Gront- . (.021: 2. lMry WoodruII U)61:3.Jim _ U 1 61. A 2SO: 1. M ilte Adamo 10.01; 2. Den McKinney 1.ll6l; 3. G o m . _e l.I 21 . A 200: 1. J . BaiIev (0.0); 2. J . Counts 1 ; 3. Doull .011 Tullilll.021. A 125: 1. Ston Green 132 . .101 A SENIOR: 1. Herry Keost l.131 2. PeteSmith (.30); 3. ; Ted Viers (1.071. B OPEN: 1. Bob Dobson n .071 2. John Peterson : (3.001; 3. Ben Ster k 1 .051. 3 B 250: 1. S,..... Pi.-ik 12.211: Z. James Ornelas 13.07~ 3. Mark lemensdorf 125.05). B 200: 1. Gary Williams 10.(6); 2. Roger Gauvin 13.261. B SENIOR: 1. AI Smith n2.061; 2. Doyle Pipins' 119.24); 3. NeelKeith (21.051. B WOMEN: 1. Candy Hand114.251. 1 loop. COPEN : 1. Ken Bunting 11 .131; 2. Roger AI.os ll .1SI; 3 . Chris Boesen12.141 . C 250 : 1. Ed Block 13.231 2. John Burnside 14 ; .13); 3. J ames Bonree15.181. C 200: 1. Ctaig lair 1 1.151; 2. Jim Kribbs 12.131; 3. John Cay 15 .06l. C 125: 1; BrIon Billyl2.101: 2. R_I Heck 110.231. C SENIOR: 1. Ed John 11.06); 2. Mel _ 12.051; 3. IIiI Coot 14 .161. C WOMAN; 1. Ann e.-l23.25l.

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