Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Series: Round RTRIALS AMA/NATC National Championship-Observed-Trials - - -- - -1 -- -- - - -- - - - -- - -- - - - e Geoff Aaron claimed his second-ever national victory at the 12th Annual Schreiber C up, bea ting defendi ng three-ti me National Champion R yan Young. Aaron climbs to victory By Do n Williams P h o to by Jon Maeda LUCERNE VALLEY, CA. APR. 6 eo ff Aa r on to ok h om e t h e Sc h rei ber Cu p as he defea ted three-t im e d ef endin g No rt h Ame rica n T ria ls Co u nci l Na tion al Cham pio n Ryan Young with a convinci ng IO-point victory in th e opening ro und o f th e 1991 Na tional Ch am pions hip Series a m id the men acin g rock formations of J ohnson Valley's Co ugar Buttes, " Geo ff just o u trode every body tod ay," Young o bserved. " He had a great day ." Aaron, 18, wh o finis hed third in the .last year's series after wi nni ng th e Hi gh School Ch ampionsh ip th e year before, found th e huge hi gh-traction slabs 10 hi s liking as he took a five dab lead over Team Aprilia teammate Young after th e fir st loop. " It's just like last year wh en I won in Wyoming," the Tryals Shop/Spectro O il-sponsored Aaron explained. " It 's the same type of stuff; rock piles a nd perfect tra ction." _ " I kn ew that I was riding well ," Aaron said. "On my second la p I on ly had one stu pid lillie mi stake. Basica lly, I was satisfied with all my other rid es. I felt great , except o n ' the last lap where I was cramping up in th e sectio ns." G Possibl y because Aaron mak es hi s home in Redding, Co n nect icu t, when he's not attending cl asses a t Ne w Yo rk 's Ithi ca Coll eg e wh er he 's study ing Business Man agem ent, he was affected so mew hat by th e event's wea ther . " O n th e last loo p m y arms were pumpi ng u p real bad every tim e I tried 10 hop. If it weren 't for the breeze, we wo u ld ha ve been ha vin g a lilli e tro ub le wi th th e hea t," th e six -foot fou r-in ch , 200 pou nd, Aaron said. T her mo meters to pped out in th e upper-80s in th e m orning, befor e h igh clouds a nd a cool breeze mod erated the afternoon tempera tu res. Another New Englander , Beta a nd Northea st Trial s- spon sored Ron Co m mo of North Ferrisburg , Ver mont, said he was a ffected by th e wea ther. "The hea t was rea l abusive on me and in th e midd leof th e da y I had really bad cra m ping." Commo sugges ted , " I think everybod y did. " .T h i rd pl ace fini sh er , National number two, Mark Manniko, newl y mounted on a Co smopolitan Motors Beta Zero sponsored by Kal -Card, Shoei He lmets, Troy Lee Designs and Alpinestars Boots, said that keeping h i m self h ydrat ed wa s hi s key to fendi ng off th e eleme nts. T he 2 1-year-o ld Manniko 's third p lace was hi s lowest fin ish since 1989's fina l round. "This is my fir st Na tion al o n a bike ot her th an a Faruic, I rea lly like the Beta; it just took me a wh ile 10 ge t warmed up," Mann iko sai d. " My loop scores went d own tre m endousl y toward the end o f the da y, so that mad e me real happy." . Ma nn iko 's first two loo p totals were 32 and 28 poi nts , bu t the fin al loop claimed o nly 13 points o n hi s card. Aaron ta llied two 13-point loops and Young 's best loop was al so a bak er 's do zen. Manniko was not th e o nly rider settling into a new mount. Young, 23, Beta-mounted last year, rode hi s Tryal s Shop/Pirell i T ires/ AXO c1o t hl ng / B&J Ra cin g /Euro Sport Intl.ZYoung Enterprises-sponsored April ia Climber for th e first time in National co mpe titio n after beating Aa ron with it in a warm-up event in Florida a few weeks earl ier. Young rod e an Aprilia 10 a National Champi onship in 1989. A sus pe ns ion problem showed up for Young toward th e end o f th e first loo p , but he d id not blam e it for hi s fini shing posit ion. " I had some p roblem s with th e forks. No excuses. T he re just wasn't quite enoug h o il in the (rebo und ) damping side. It di d n't bo th er it mu ch , but it gav e a litt le pogo stic k effect," Young said. The top riders were sa tisfied with th e loop a nd sectio ns, a lthough they all th ought th a t, g iven the section difficulty level , th e wi nni ng scores sh ould have been lower. The loo p too k the riders no rt heast from the p its a nd. circled them bac k by sect io n.six, whi ch all ow ed th e riders 10 refres h th em selves befor e tac kling the fin al dozen tra ps. Young, in pa rt icul a r , seeme d to enjoy th e even t. "T hey did a g rea t job with th e sections a nd th e loop. They ma rked everything su per. I never got lost. There was pl enty o f time. They did a super job. Every sectio n was clean able and Iiveab le." Most of th e sectio ns were set up by th e spo nsoring Ameri can T rials Assn . o n th e area 's g ia nt rock slabs. This required th e riders to tac kle quite a few hu ge steps. . Manniko, wh o lives in Littleton, Co lorado , said th at man y o f th e a reas he rid es in have huge rocks, but.lacks Co ugar Buttes' slip less tract ion . "T he . sectio ns her e a re gene ra lly mo re rad ica l," acco rdi ng 10 Manniko, who has co me ou t to th e area 10 win p revious n on-Nati onal round Schreiber Cups. " You ca n get yo ur ad rena line flowin g a lot easier here tha n you can o n th e East Coast." O ne part icularl y stu n n ing sectio n sent riders u p an d down a IO -story hi gh roc k sla b, subj ect ing th e riders .to harrowi ng off-camber tu rn s. T he rock slab has been featured in pi ctures in , va rio us mot orcycle publicat ion s, but usu all y with a rid er riding stra igh t up, not turning or go ing down, th e sla b. Another unusua l sectio n was a lo ng, wid e, loo se' hillclimb th at sent the Championship class rid ers up to th e wind-whipped top via a rubble-like rock outcropp ing. Wh en the rid ers weren 't subjected 10 th e sla bs and steps, rubble and tight ' turns requiring extensive trick riding grabbed the remaining points. Aaron, Manniko and Young established themselves as the riders 10 beat in th e series as they easily outdistanced th e remainder of th e pack. Northern Californian Kip Webb, 'sp o n so red b y Miller Motorcycl es, finished fourth, but hi s best loop was competit ive o n ly with Mark Manniko's worst loop among 'the top three finishers. San Diegan T om Hamann, riding a fou r-year-old Beta TR34, was the o nly local rider entered in the Champ ionship class. Hi s seventh place was . his best National finish since 1989. Aa ron 's win put Young in th e unfamiliar position of trailing in th e National series."The last time Young was a ny pl ace ot her than th e top was in mid-1989 whe n he trailed Swed e J onn y Ander son before event ua ll y taking th e titl e. Aaron seemed anxious to hold the lead he ha s built. " My goal is 10 win the National Championship and do the best I can everywhere else. hungry to win and maybe that wi ll make th e difference," Aaron said. You ng. in addition to trying to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive National Championship, is a lso a im ing at Mariana Whaley's record of 27 career National victories. Young has 20 National wins and still trails threetime number on e Scott Head (21 wins) and 1979 World Champion Bernie " Schreiber (24 wins). Young, who rid es o u t of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, said, " I just want to win th e cha m p io ns hip a nd get as many wins as I ca n." Big wins were th e norm in the support clas ses. Colorad o's Ronald Schmelzle easil y u nderscored Arizona 's Greg Jones, 926, 10 take the Sports ma n cla ss win. Schmelzle moved down to th e Sportsman class after finishing 15th in th e ' a tionaI Champions hip Series last year, Schmelzle had th e best Sportsman loo p o f th e da y when he too k only o ne da b whe n riding th e 15 sections. The closes t com pe tition was among th e Senior Sportsman 35+ riders. Keith Adams of Oakl ey, Ida ho, defended his number one plate by beating Torr Motors-sponsored Fantic rider Mark Oldar who rides in the Championship class in loca l events. Adams beat Oldar, 25-33, wh ile cleaning 39 of the 45 sections he rode over three loops. R. Spruell cruised to a 50-point victory in th e Senior Sportsman 30+ class. John Husmann won the Super Senior Sportsman 40+ class by 38 points and Canadian Bill de Garis won the 45+ class by 23 points over Bob Pick of Colorado. Mt. H armon JHS (Price, Utah, ) 9th grader Cory Pincock, Washington's Bill Thompson and An Webster of Whittier, California, all rode to uncontested wins in th e High School. Vet eran Sportsman 50 + and 55+ classes, respectivel y. COl I'm Results ,...,rr C'SHIP: I. Aaron (Apr) 17 pts: 2. Ryan Young (Apr) 57; 3. Mark Mann iko (Bet) 73; 1. Kip Webb (Fan) 102; S. Ron Commo, Jr . (Ben 121; 6. Andy Saum (Il

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