Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Mike Melton took the overall win in Michigan. a mere one point/ second ahead of Frank Stacy (above right). A.A ISDE Qualifier Series: Round 5 Melton splashes by Stacy and Roeseler in Michigan By Merle Acord ROSE CITY, MI , MAY 22 Open Intent class Team Husqvarna rider Mike Melton, with the best individual score of 939, edged teammates Frank Stacy by one second and Larry Roeseler by two at the Bent Wheels M.C . hosted fifth round ISDE Qualifier at Rose City. Melton is on a roll and pres.'. ently leads the point standings 10 .. . in the N ational Enduro cin;u iL H e had Team Husky manager Dick Burleson liter.all y jumJ:ling wiIh exci!ernent dunng the final MX special test. " Di d yo u see iliat? Did yo u see th a t?" screa.med Burleson. " He took th e center line through atl that slop a n d p~ssed three guys. He's charging. Go M ikel " Melton co ntin ued to charge, comin g from back in the pack to finish second behind Stacy's 250WR Husqva r n a. U n k n o w n to Melton or Stacy at th e time. Melton had a six second bulge. a result of being two seconds faster in the acceleration test and four seconds quicker during the early morning one-lap timing of the 1.7 mile grass track. He also had a four second lead over Roese1er. Getting all the special test times so that final results could be tabulated would be a major problem. Th e sco r ing wa~ co~p';lterized. Fine when everyth~ng IS right, but bad when something g oes w rong. There was an error in the .second MX results. Still nothing that couldn 't be handled, just use the back-up sheets- enter Murphy's Law. They co u ld locate only pan of the back-up sheets and could not locate the person who was running the check . Rumor had it he was en route to h is home in Detroit a .three hour drive from Rose City. ' Th l b ' . hei e c u ~as very sm cer e m t err ~ffons to stral~hten out the m ess, ~ut 11 w~s not unul9:3 p .m, th a t sconng chairman Wade Lighrh eart.. an":ounced.to th e ~~rge n,';Imber o f mtent n~ers. sull ;-valtmg, We ca n no t .at ~IS ume grve yo u results. We will find the .back- u p sheet~, a nd results al~ng Wll~ your trop?,les o r medals wtll be mailed to yo u. There wa s a lighthearted moment during this period. T he i m pou nd and starting line this year, was located within th e city li m its o f Rose Cit y, at the W in djam mer Night Club a nd Bo wl ing All ey. O wner J im Benj amin ge nerous ly a llowed free use of th e facilities for scori n g a n d served a buffet d inner Saturday night a nd ea rly Sunda y m orning breakfast. Ro se City has th eir o w n TV chan nel a n d Berry Stutesman, from the sta tion, m ade a 15 m inute tape (pan o f w hich wa s used fo r the even in g news) an d later ca me by a nd p layed it a t th e cl u b for th e rid er s. T he tape was fu n, but the qual ifier res ults were the p ri mary co ns ide ra tion. T he eve nt would deci de for ma ny riders if th ey would need 10 go 10 th e Q uali fier in Oregon, to ge t a spot o n th e the tea m. In the l25cc A class. Ma rk H yd e was n ' t worried a bou t m aking th e tea m fo r he has won eac h o f th e six qu al ifiers he's ridden. Ther e ha ve been seven includin g Michigan. Tulsa was a three-da y qualifier with each da y sco red sepa ra tely. H yd e didn ' t ride T exas , but d id rid e Ohio a nd was the o n ly 125cc class r id er to fin ish withi n his h our. " I lo ve Michiga n qua lifiers, " sa id H yde be fore t he ru n . " We' ve h ad so much bad wea ther th at I' m j us t g lad 10 be somewhere that it d oesn 't matter if it rai ns . In Michigan , th e rai n help s pack dow n a ll o f th is sand ." T he cl u b, on advice fro m th e wea ther ser vice who sai d ra in was o n the way, p osted the wet sch ed u le Su nday morn ing. T h e rains ca me, but n ot until th e Intent class, riding o n th e fir st 20 number s, had co m pl eted 104 mil es of th e 156 m il e loop. T he rain had little effec t o n thei r ro ute po ints. Most o f th e rid er s were av eraging n ine to 12 minutes ea rly a t a ll except o ne check a fte r the gas sto p , T here, they we re o n ti me. o r two 10 three mi n u tes ea r ly. None of the rider s, unl ess th ey had eq u ip ment fai l ure, lost a ny rou te p oints. G old a nd si lver m ed al s would be decided in th e sp ecia l tests. T he l25cc Intent cl ass and a few 250 s ran first , a n d Mark Hyde's perfect score a p peared to be j eopardy. J ack Pen ton 's Cagi va was fir st off the lin e in the dead engine stan. with Dwight Rudder in row . Hyde wa s next 10 last in the ten m an field as they ro u n de d th e firs t turn. H yde closed 10 a distant third fo r h is m oto finish . Rudder got a rou nd Penton while d oing a beautiful job of roostin g Ron R ibolzi, a n d went on to win th e moto with a time of 644 . P enton wa s seco nd with 661 , a nd 18 seconds later wa s H yde. P enton didn 't think th e 18 seconds would be enough, since during the morning grass track test he had gotten into the course marking banners and wrapped th em a ro u nd his front wheel. By the time he stopped and cle ared th e problem. his score ballooned to 307 seconds. Hyde. as they wer e 10 find out later, turned a 286 . Penton picked up one second in the acceleration test, but i n the final co u nt came up two seco n ds behind H yde . " T ha t's the story of my life," sa id th e five -foot-ni ne-i nc h Pen ton. " I' ve a lways been j us t a li tt le short ." l25cc Inten t Ya m aha ri de r Scot Hogen sen from Pl ymo u th . Minneso ta, was only three secon ds off th e pace in th e ea r ly m orning r u n. bu t had problem s with the MX. Aft er coming o ff th e line near the back , H ogensen tri ed to m ak e up ground too quickly and sl id o u t, co mi ng up with a 714 count, 39 seco n ds down from the class winner. Stacy grabbed the holeshot in hi s rnoto, a nd put hi s MX experience to good u se. " Fra n k is reall y good a t th e special test," sa id Burleson, who was thoroughly enjoying himself. The Kevin bo ys, Brown a nd H in es, wer e second and third in th e 250cc Intent cl ass. Brown assured his p lace on the tea m with today's ride. Hines will have 10 go 10 O regon. for he needs o n e more stro ng ride to ins u re a team slot. Tom Kell y, with an XR300 Honda , turned in a more than respect abl e 1077 for his silver m ed al. Kell y, the sleeper o f th e field, with on e more strong ride co u ld be bumpin g a twostroke for a spot o n the ISD E team. " H ey, yo u don ' t ha ve to lik e mud to ride in i t," sa id P enton to Joe Loj ak. H e was refe rri ng to the fact that Ca li fornian La rry Ro esel er , wi th the bes t O pen Intent class MX score o f 625 (Melton had 627 ), lik ed to r ide in the m ud. " It's a lrigh t," sai d a g ri n ni ng Roeseler. " It 's a lo t d ifferent th an th e Baj a ." Terry C u n ni ngha m has a lready qualified for th e team an d wasn 't reall y co ncern ed when he lost a sp lit second ge tt ing th e Husq varna 430cc Aut omat ic in gear a t th e sta rt of th e MX, a nd was d ro pped 10 last p lace . Cunningham fin ish ed in si xt h with a 704, good for a go ld b ut 85 seco nds o ff th e pace. Pat Ma roney, a n ex-MXer, had the race of the da y with Ed Keen , a Michigan expert r ider. Keen rode wit h the Intent riders just to fi ll o u t th e ten ma n field in the next to las t m o to , Keen took the ho lesh o t but Ma roney was less than a bik e len gt h beh in d. As the pair went through th e tigh t switchback s a nd o ff-ca m ber turns before d ivi ng in to th e woods, th e lead cha nged twice. When th ey em erged from th e woods, Keen was st ill in th e lead wi th Ma ron ey 's fro nt wheel stu ffed a lo ngside. Wh en th ey ca me o ut of th e woods o n th e seco nd la p, Maroney had th e lead a nd carried it 10 th e timer 's sta tion . . All three mem bers o f the H onda team in the O pen 4-Stroke Intent class won gold med al s. Vern P ach olke headed up the class with 1077. Bob Rutten seems healthy agai n, after su ffer ing a twi sted knee in T u lsa, he turned i n a 1088 for h is gold, a nd Chuck Miller fini shed third with a 1123. • Result s 1 25cc Intent GOLD : 1. Mark Hyde IHus) 1010; 2. Jac k Penton (Cog) 1012; 3. SCan Hoven sen (Yam) 1049. StLVER: Dan SinkoH (KTM ) 1163; Richard Baulch (KTM) 1253. 250Cc Intent GOLD : 1. Frank Stacy (Hus) 940; 2. Kevin Brown (Hus ) 9540; 3. Kevin Hines (Hus) 963; 4 . Dwight Rudder (Hus) 972; 5. JeH Russell (Hus) 9B 2; 6. David Cra in (Mai ) 995; 7. Ron Ribalzi (Hus) 1009; B. Blair Sharpless (Hus) 1010; 9 . Corl Hand IHus) 1015; 10. Ray Mungenast (Hus ) 1023. SILVER: Alan Rand! (Hus) 1036; Tom Kelly (Hon l 1077; Frank Sunon (Yam) 1055; John Hoffman tHus) 1102; Jim Stevens (Hus) 1122; Jerry Harris (Kaw) 1157; Vic Ely (Yam) 1212. BRONZE; SCali Ely (Yam); Com Wh iHlong (KTM); Bruce Eckles (Honl . Open Intent GOLD : Mike Melton (HusI939; 2. Larry Roeseler (Hus) 94 1; 3. Pal Maroney (Hus) 971 ; 4 . WallyWil· son (Hus) 975; 5. Ray Cosgrove IMai) 100 3; 6. Randy Mastin IKTM) 1016; 7. Terry Cunningham (Hus) 1024. SILVER: Joe Lojak (Hus) 10 34; Kevin Davis (Hus) t08O; 3. Bruce Ogi lvie (Hon) 1127. BRONZE: Dwayne Taylor (Hus); Joel Latlay(Yam~ Open 4 -S _ Intent GOLD : 1. Vern Pacholke (Han) 1077; 2. Bob Rut · ten (Honl 1DBB; 3. Chuc k M iller (Hon) 1123. BRONZE: Dan Habuda IKTM).

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