Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

vtI1ley ~ RH'MbUiItlr Hotline Miller unscrambles D-37 hare scrambles By Shirley Upp LUCER NE VALLEY, CA , J AN. 10 Lucerne Valley a nd some col d wet drizzle never stopped Chuck Miller (Hus) from tu rn ing in a super rid e and winning the first 26 District 37 desert race of th e year , the Sled Rid ers hare scrambles. Everyone it seems showed up for this race and at 10 a.m. all rid ers were on the starting line eager for the banner to drop . It was a fast open start out across the valley and at the bomb it was Chuck Stearns (Hon) , Miller and Ken Upp (KTM) all getting there together. Stearns overs hot the bom b and Miller jum ped into the lead while Upp started having problems. Abo ut a mile past th e bomb it was Miller, Stearns, Larry Roeseler and Senior rider Gary Charters. Bob Balentine, riding a four-stroke Honda, was fifth after bei ng last off the line and havi ng bike problems . First 250cc Amateur Tom Willis was running sixth at th is po int. Eigh th was Cliff Thomas (Yam) and ninth was Murray Kapko (Yam). Tenth was Dan Smith. The Novice/ Beginner start was at 10:26 and all rid ers were ready. A m ile past the bomb it was Ron Shuler (Open rider) leading the pack with J oh n Sarrail (Open) on th e th rot tle . T hird was Ron Hetherington, Jr. and Beginner Glenn T am ura was coming on strong. Rider #212 followed by Mark Molina were ne xt. First C bike. at this point was rider . # 133c. Next were Bill McInnes and Troy Swafford. Coming into home check after a very rough and demanding 43-mile course it was Miller with th e lead well in hand . Second was Stearns with Balentine running third . Dan Ashcraft (Hus) was running first 250cc and had moved up to fourth overall, followed by another 250cc rider , Cliff Thomas. Ch arters was sixth and first Open Senior through home check. As th riders headed out for their last loop they were in for some cold drizzle and more rough riding. Let 's face it desert riders are a hardy group and they look forward to anything , bring it onl A few positions ch anged but after going this far most riders stayed in for the finish . Miller , with a fine lead, too k the checkered with ease . T hanking his sponsors Up-Tite Husqvarn a and H iPoint Racing, Ch uck said that after he took the lead at t he bom b he j ust held the th rottle all the way on u nt il the fin ish. It was the ha rd riding Stea rns (Hus) in for second with Balentine ta king third . Having bike prob lems , Bob sai d every time he wou ld catch up to Stearns he would ha ve to back off to let his bike clear out. Fourth was Ashc raft and Dan was first 250cc today. Fifth was another 250cc rider, Cliff Thomas. Sixth overall was Bill Mattox who had a great ride today . Who else in for sevent h overall bu t number 7777 , Ken Upp . Eighth was Da ve Wasden. He bailed hard at check two so was glad to see the finish . Ninth was first 250c c Amateur Tom W illis. After fa lling a lot Gary Charters stayed in there for first Open Sen ior and tenth overall . Eleventh was Lee Scheffers . Twelvth overall and first C bik e was Paul Palmer. Second C bik e was T om Elias. First Open Vet was Bill Saltzma n . Second Open Senior. ~as Morris Norman. First 250cc Vet was Jim Bringhu rst. Ho lding first Open Ama teur was Gu y Kibbe. First 250cc Senior was Al Guzman with Dick Postma taking a close second. Taking first Open Novice today was hard charging Jo hn Sarrail . Grizzly Harris took first 250cc Senior honors today with Mark Gorgone taking first in the 250cc Novice class. Mike Monterone was the first C bike Novice today . First Open Vet Novice was Ron Nelson . Lori Farmer, riding a 125cc instead of her 250cc didn 't slow down a bi t and took first in class and first girl. First Overall Beginner was a 250cc rider, Glenn Tamura . Second rider in was Joe Rath , Super rid es today for these two riders. Third overall was a pie pla te 1. Akin . Fourth was another pie plater, R . Wizginton . Fifth overall was Tim Champness. Stearns stomps Jack Rabbits H&H great finish after playing catch- up. First Open Amateur was John Rudder and ninth overall and first C bike was Paul Palmer. Rounding out the top 10 was Garry Conner, having a super ride today . First 250cc Amateur was Larry Brown. First C bike Amateur was Derrick Paiement. First Open Vet Amateur was Rod Wheeler. Al Guzman was first 250cc Sen ior and first Open Senior Amateur was Bill Healy. Dick Postma took ' second 250cc Sen ior today . First 250cc Novice was Mike Fitzgerald , while first Open Novice went to Oliver Rathlein. First Vet Novice was Dave Sweeney and second Vet Novice was hard rid ing Ralph Wight. First C bike Novice went to Dave Schnider . Jol en e Payn e t~ok first in class a nd Laurie Hammel a very tir ed seco nd . Keast tops CRC Santa Claus Erxluro By Larry Woodruff By Shirley Upp LUCERNE VAL LEY , CA, DEC. 13 FREMONT VALLEY, CA , DEC . 13 W heelsm it h Maico pil ot Harry Kea st (O pen AA Senior) fou nd the fast way through the "Specia l Test" sections on his 490 to win Fremont Valley, after the dust and confusion cleared up , saw Chuck Steams and his hot Honda take anot her first. The starting area was rough and many a rider never made it to the bomb and the ones who did had many problems. Dan Smith (Hus) and Bob Balentine (Hon) were leading early with Bill Mattox third . Cliff Thomas (Yam) and Stearns were fourth and fifth . Ru nning sixth was Ken Upp (Yam). Twenty minutes after the Experts headed for the bomb it was the Novices' turn . Leading a mile past the bomb it was 250cc rider Mike Fitzgerald leading th e group. Rider #443x and Oliver Rathlein wer e next with up-and-com ing Beginner Ron Shuler moving up. Coming into hom e chec k it was Dan Ashcraft (Hus) , Stearns and Bill Mattox . Bob Balentine after having a few problems was fourth . Howard McCasland (KTM) was next followed by first Amateur #389 . Running seventh was first C bike Paul Palmer. First Open Vet was Richard Ja ckson. First Senior 'a t this point was AI Guzman. Second C bike was Bobby Charters. First Woman was Jolene Payne. The second loop was one big enduro course and almost all the riders enjoyed it, especially the old enduro riders . To everyone's surprise the Jack Rab bits even had a new downhill thrown in for good measure . Stearns a nd his H onda were having prob lems, th e rear shoc ks had blown and Chuck had to do some slowing down. Ashcraft seized a nd fou led a plug but after ge tti ng go ing ag ain he cau ght up to Stearns. Howard McCasla nd was moving up now as was Bill T a rling . At the fini sh it was Ashcraft first but it was all for nothing as Dan was d isqualified for no t walking his bike across a paved road . So Stearns was first overall but it was McCas land who took first desert points an d seco nd overall. Third was Mattox. Fourth was Bill T ar ling (t his was Bill's first race' in a lon g time a nd he sure had a good race; di dn 't forget how it was do ne d id you Bill?). First Open Vet was Richa rd J ac kson who j ust d id some good old ha rd ridi ng. First 250cc rider in was T ed Hu nnicu t a nd Ted was sixth overall. Seventh was a no ther Vet , Rick Sh irey, who had a the annual Californ ia Racing Club 's Santa Claus Fam ily En du ro. Proving age is no ba rri er , Keast was the only two looper to "zero" t he 90-plus m ile course. He also won the nu m ber one Senior plate for the seco nd year. Kurt Butler (250cc A) , having wrapped up the 200cc class championship earlier in the year, borrowed a PE 250 to ta ke hom e second overall with the only one point score. First B rider Brett Morgan (Open B) led 10 other riders with two po ints dropped. Morgan's 120 seconds lost in the tie break ers was the lowest for third overall. Can -Am 400 mounted Kenny McLean (Open A Vet) finished just two seconds behind Morgan and was followed by another Can-Am rider, Doug Douglas sponsored Craig Lar (250AA) . Craig's first in the 250cc points class wrapped up the number one 250cc plate to go with the number one 200cc pla te he earned in 1980 . After a very cold and windy Saturday, Sunday greeted the 600 riders with a little better riding weather; breezy a nd in th e 60s. The first loop headed east at 8 a .m. up the big who op- dee-do wash at 18 per with a speed cha nge at the th ree mile marker to '24 m ph. T he first check at 5. 0 caught most of th e riders either sleeping or running a litt le ho t . 1980 nu mbe r one Open Bre tt T illy came in 20 seco nds late an d Harry Keast tried to turn his Maico into a tria ls bike. He still came in 12 seconds early. Nice try , H arry. . The only rid er to come in rea lly hot and still scrub off a lot of seconds was young Kurt Butler. He made it on the "30." Two guys who really im pressed all at the check po ints were two long time Senior riders , Ed Butler and Ed Mazenko. Side-by-side they crested the rise before the. check and rode slowly in to receive perfect tim e scores . The course led over miles of easy but fun trails and fire roads. The Santa Claus is traditionally a bit easier than the average CRC enduro. At the finish of the first loop, Santa Claus was there to greet all youngsters who rode with goodies and 100 % fin isher trophies. Ginger Smi th (125cc A-W ) beat all other one loopers with her excellent score of only four seconds. Second overall was Devon Seward (200cc C-16) at seven seconds dropped and Scott Jacobsen (Mini C) a close thi rd with eight seconds. One tick away stood Pat Crask (250cc C-16) followed by a th ree wa y tie for fifth. Thad Don at (second 250cc C-16 ), Kathy Herndon (second A-W), a nd Eric W icker (Mini B) all lost 10 seconds. ; Warmer but still breezy, the second lap p roved as enjoyab le as the first. Many new and old trails were ut ilized by CRC fo r a fun , challengi ng bu t not difficult loop. Althoug h pr edi ct ing no zeros, Harry Keast de monstrated th a t i he knew his way around Lucern e , Valley as well as anyone. Coming in one second behi nd Crai g Lair was second O pen B Gregg Lusher . for sixth overall. W ayne Sta nfield dropped 2.127 en rout e to sevent h overall and first O pen B Vet, followed by first 250cc B Leo Vandermerlan three seconds back. Maico ride! Ma rk Cook (second 250cc AA) came in ninth with Mike Johnston filling ou t the top 10 with a first 200cc B. . O ther apparent 1981 nu mber one plate ho lders beside Ku rt Bu tler (200cc), Craig Lair (250cc). a nd H a rry Keast (Sen ior) were 16-year-old Husky rider Rob bie Mesecher(Open) an d Jeff Br ake (Vet) on his Can-Am 400 . CRC has announced a full cal endar of enduros for 1982 with an event in every mo nt h of the yea r starting J anuary 17. New for CRC is a Super Senior class for those who a re lucky enough to st ill be ridi ng past the age of 50. Also new is the four rid ers per m inu te ru le, d own fro m a previous six. This was done to help alleviate traffic in the special tests and at the checkpoints. A warning was issued by CRC to playriders who ride and disrupt th e enduro while it is going on . T hose who are not officially entered ru n the risk of disqualifying their riding com panions if they are ca ught on the course while the event is ta king place. CRC advises them that they are free to ride the cou rse at their own risk one hour after . th e run is over. Information concerning rules and enduro dates can be found by calling CRC at 714 /689 -6114. Have a good and fun -filled 19821 • Results TWOLOOPS OA.: 1. Harry Keast; 2. Kurt Butler; 3. Brett M organ. AA: 1. Craig La ir. AA SR: 1. Harry Keat. OPEN A : 1. Lucky Freeman. OPEN A VET: 1. Kenny McLean; 2. J eff Braka. OPEN A SR: 1. Robert M esecher; 2. Edm undsonlT Merritt. om mEl Jim 250 A: 1. Kurt Butler. 250 A VET 1. Joe Holmes. : 200 A : 1. Mike Fricke. 200 A VET: 1. Kurt Deitrich. . OPEN 8 : 1. Brett Morgen ; 2. Gregg lusher: 3. Trent McGee. OPEN B VET: 1. Wayne Stanfield: 2. John Jacobean: - 3. Ed Bresnik. OPEN B SR: 1. Winston Beaumont: 2. Paul Watkin•. 250 B: 1. LaoVandermer lan: 2. John Burkhart. 250 BVET: 1. Kurt Morris. 200 B: 1. Mike Johnston: 2. Brett Robertaon . 200 B VET: 1. Tom Mitchell. 200 B SR: 1. CllffOfd Dysart 200 B-16: 1.-Dan Olson. OPEN C: 1. Jerry Funk; 2. Tom Giamanco: 3. 0.... AllO'don. OPEN C VET: 1. Joe Dien: 2. Robert Bortreo; 3. Gaofflie_. OPEN C SR: 1. Herry Mulder: 2. Ed Schiedl ...: 3. Ed l.apeIuaa. 250 C: 1. Gary Schiedl ...; 2. Mar il ArnendotI: 3. Bob Farr . 250 C VET 1. Gregg Turk ; 2. Merrill Lane. : 250cc SA: 1. Thomea Briatol. 200C: 1. Joe Wiiaon : 2. John MOfgan. 200 C VET 1. Robert Banon. : 200 C SR: 1. Dan Kemp. 100 C: 1. Robby McCleUan. ONE LOOP Ok 1. Ginger Sm ith : 2. Devon Seward ; 3. Scott JlICObI..->. 125 A-W : 1. Ginger Smith. 200 B-W : 1. Kay Hopk ins. 125B-W: 1. Unda Valentine . MINI A: 1. Robert Wranosky. MIN I B: 1. Eric Wicker. MINI C: 1. Scott Jacobaen : 2. MicMeI Ceo

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