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most of Saturday on the course. securing turn arrows. checking conditions of the terrain. verifying check mileages and any other detail he could think of to insure the run would be perfect. He has a reputation on the Black Jad. circuit as being a master at check placement and he didn't want any of the problems which had developed at Nationals in Indiana and Washington earlier this fall cropping up here. (To achieve this he repositioned three and turned check four into an observation check.) 00 0') The Husky team devoted Saturday afternoon to bike preparation and PR with area Husky dealers and riders. An outward air of calm and casualness belied the internal pressures being felt by each team member for different reasons. For 'Burleson. a commitment that was one race short of eight-yearsold was on the line. For Cunninghant. it was the knowledge that to earn full recognition for a season that in many ways was rightfully his. he would have to dethTone the person who was responsible for helping him hone his skills razorsharp in a relatively short time. For Melton. it was the struggle between the bonds of friendship and the strong desire to win -- a desire that had been intensified during the close association with Burleson throughout the season. Sunday would be the perfect test for these three riders_ Dick Burlaon Cleft) _ runner-up, but It _ good enough for h'- eighth netlonal championship, Terry Cunningham Crlghtl got the win although It left him two pointe shy of dethroning King Richard. AMA National Championship Enduro series: Final round CUnningham's win, Burleson's title at Tulsa National By Brian, Ann and Cindy Palormo TULSA. OK. NOV. 8 Husqvarna rider Terry Cunningham laughed in the face of a day-19ng downpour as he won overall honors at the R.M. Wheeler Na'tional Championship Enduro. He dropped only ten points in this final event of the . b th·· s~nes to ecom~ ~ wlI'~nmgest nder o~ th~ clrcu~t W1t~ five overall vlctones to hiS credit. 8 In spite of that accomplishment. Cunningham would have to settle for second place in the 1981 ~ational Championship contest. For the eighth straight year that honor belonged to Dick Burleson. the leader of Team Husqvarna. who now carves his own place in the AMA record books with the longest consecutive string of titles. surpassing the one established by Bill Baird be,twl'en 1962 - '68. The run was· a showdown for the Husky trio -- B~r1eson. Cunningham and Mike Melton -- as the point spread between them was so narrow that scores from this event would determine the final standings- for the year. Burleson had a narrow lead. but only two overall wins to his credit. while Cunningham and Melton each had four. The only other person to capture an overall win in 1981 was KTM's Darryl Kuenzer who had picked up one early in the season. In the standings to determine AA riders for 1982. the spread between Husky's three aces and the rest of the pack was insurmountable at this point. which no doubt contributed to the absence of several of the season's more familiar faces. The Kawasaki crew of Jack Penton. Mark Hyde. Ron Ribolzi and Vic Ely were all on the scene. However. they were one rider short on the starting line Sunday after Hyde broke his elbow in a fall Saturday afternoon. Kuenzer won the luck of the draw for this run as he would be first AA rider on the line. Drew Smiih was also on hand although he was riding for himself after Suzuki pulled the rug out from under the enduro team. Another rider back on the private effort was John Fero who rode a Husky for this event. Speculating on the 1982 enduro scene was a game everyone was playing Saturday. "There's a ride out there somewhere." Ribolzi said ... It just may take some looking and it may mean focusing on events closer to home where local riders can identify you and your bike." That probably summed up a lot of riders' thoughts at this point. For the sponsoring Tulsa Enduro Riders Association, this run had a special personal meaning also. For six years, including three Nationals. this has been one of the outstanding runs on the Black Jack Enduro Circuit which covers Missouri. Arkansas and Oklahoma. AnXIOUS to preserve their reputation for putting on quality events. no effort was overlooked in preparation. However. R.M. Wheeler's tragic death in May 1981 has ended the club's access to this 12.000 acre riders' paradise. Knowing this would be the final event: they wanted to make sure this one would be the best yet. Its importance in deciding the National Championship only intensified their desire. Saturday it seemed like this would truly be an ideal weekend. Riders streamed into the ranch from Colorado to the west. Michigan to the northeast. Louisiana and Texas to the south and all points in between. A record number of pTe-entries (380) led the TERA group to expand the number of "C" class entries they would accept by 50. Earl Schnell. president of the club and trailmaster of the event. spent The stage was set. but a last-minute script change nearly undid everything -- Rain. Riders were just beginning to crawl out into the pre-dawn darkness when it started at 5:30 a.m. A chance of light showers had been predicted, but even the Tulsa natives were su.rprised at the intensity of these "light showers." The sky seemed to brighten around· 7 a.m .. the rain slacked off and everyone was confident that things would clear. "No dust this year," Cunningham quipped. That had always been a problem in previous years. Burleson was accused of praying too hard for rain (his preference for bad weather is known to all) and his wife Jill admitted to helping with those prayers. It soon became apparent whose prayers were going to be answered and to what degree. When the rains began again, it was with an intensity that was going to complicate matters for everyone. The course was laid out in three loops. Everyone rode the first one which was 24.6 miles long and finished at the gas stop. Rid.ers age 13 and under finished at this point. Honda rider Mike Lewis was the top rider in this class with a loss of 20 points. The.second loop was 60 miles long. included several rocky uphills. tight woods, fast trails and tricky checks. It wound around figure-eight-style. crossing itself and back-tracking on the first loop into the gas stop. where women and "C" class riders completed their stint. Jill Reynaud. riding a Kawasaki. took top honors for the women with a loss of 151 points and Gary Walkup took the overall C award on a Can·Am, losing only 62 points. The third loop. known to be a killer in dry weather. would truly separate the weak from the strong. AA. A, B and Senior riders were supposed to cover the final 40 miles, but only the hardiest in this grou p even ventured out from the second gas. Uphill trails collapsed. water spilled out of normally dry creek beds and ordinary roads developed a six inch topping of gooey mud -- but every time Cunningham passed spectators (in spite of everything there were a few) he seemed to be smiling. "I loved it." he remarked afterwards. "The mud never seemed to be a problem for me -- or the rocks either." He made it seem so simple you almost wondered why