Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eVINT!GE AHRMA Steamboat S rings Vintag,--eF _es_tiv_al ~ -----,-- ~ Joe Busby (30 ) and Barry Higgins (12) diced in the Pre mier 500cc II Expert MX class. Da ve Rope r rode wi th in juries in the Steamboa t Sp rings road races, bu t still won a class. Steamboat goes big time By Matt Benson STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO, SEPT. 15-18 h e s ecre t is out. With nearly 1000 entries competi ng in vin tage dirt track, trials, motocross and roa d race Nation als, the American His toric Racing Motorcycle Associa tion's (AHRMA) four days of racing in this scenic Colorad o ski resort has gone big time. Each of AHRMA's ev e nt s en joy ed larger entries this year, bu t none more so than the motocross. After 1992's Vintage Iron-sponsored MX Na tional became unwieldy with ove r 300 entries, organizers decided to make th e 1993 race pre-entry on ly. Instead of 300-plus entries, they got 500. Officials from AHRMA and the local Timberline Trailriders joked about the big MX entry all week, but there was an anxious edge to the kidding and a lot of w o r ried looks. Then came Friday a nd everyth ing went well . Even though the newly surfaced pits were crowded, the lines for sign -i n and te ch in s p ec tion m o ve d qu ickly. The Dick Mann-designed track, which serves as a horse pasture the res t of the year, wo n rave reviews for its layou t an d lack of d us t. In previou s years, the racing has go ne on nearl y unti l dar k. This tim e th e last moto fin ishe d before 5:00 p.m ., and that incl uded two brief delay s w h i le the ambulance cre w attended to minor inju ries. Aft er that, getting 228 e n tries through th e n ext day' s road races seemed almost anti climactic. . All of the Steamboat races were preentry o n ly, a n d a s the d ead line approached AHRMA noticed over twodozen riders had signed up for three and even four different types of racing. Most notably , Vintage Iron ' s Rick . Doughty int ended to compete in the dirt T 14 tr ack, tr ia l, MX and road race on the same immaculate 1962 BSA Gold Star. At that point, the Iron Man competition was born. To be in contention, riders had to compete in at least three disci plines and in classes that had a t least five en trants . The scoring wa s based on a rider's best finish from each of th ree differen t types of competition. John McCl elland of Gill et te, Wyoming, emerged as the Steamboat Iro n Man after fi nishi ng first on a Yamaha in the +40 Novice motocross event, firs t on a Suzuki in the Mod em Cla ssic Intermediate trials cla s s and third on a Yamaha in the TT's Mod em Vintage 601-0pen divis ion . Do ughty, with a first and a pair of seconds among h is eligible finishes, was on ly a few points be hi nd McClelland. Jo ining Dough ty as the only riders to com pete in all four d iscip lines were Rich Baulch of Speonk, New Yo r k , and Fra nk Stroman of Florence, South Carolina. Dirt track The Cl a s s ic Bike-sponsored short track and TT were th e only rac es that didn't occur right in Steamboat Spri ngs. The ve n u e w as Hayden Speedway, a track 25 miles west of Steamboa t, and thi s was th e se co nd year an A HR MA d irt track has been held the re. Under the gu id an ce of ve te ra n d ir t tracker Ne il Keen, th e water truck made frequen t trips onto the track to keep thin gs from getting too dusty. The six dirt track classes ran firs t on the oval, then a pair of knobby tire class es. The process was then repeat ed on the TT course, which used part of the oval and the infield. Close ra cing was th e order of the day. Ga ry Da vis of Woodl and Hills, California, had both tracks d ialed , w inning the Mod ern Vintage 251-600 fIat track and TT classes and Modern Vintage 600-open TT. In the Mod em Vintage 251-60Occ flattrack eve nt, it was a race between Davis on h is 73 H onda 350 a n d Da v id Boyd stun on a Bu lta co 260 . Da v is gr abbed the lead jus t whe n it counted. M ick e y Alzo la, Da v is and Norm Lehfeldt stay ed close in the Mod ern Vintage 601-open class. As Alzola held on for the win , Lehfeldt moved his BSA past Dav is' on the final lap and made an unsuccess ful run for the lead. In th e Classic Vintage sho rt track classes, the 500 OHV /750 Sid evalve race saw Rick Doughty and his Gold Star in the lead for a lap before Arthur Carter got past on his trick 1950 AJS 500. BSA 441-mou nted Craig Breck on moved up to challenge Dough ty, but slid out while making his pass. Between break ing and falling, it wasn' t the Mic higan rider's best d ay. Classic 0-250cc was a good race between Bill Anderson on a HarleyDa vid s on C RS250 a nd Jack Surber's Ossa DMR. Surber prob ed and probed but just could n' t get past Anderson . Th e TT actio n was in t h e three Modem Vintage classes. In th e 0-250cc divisio n, Su ter a nd Bultaco-m ounted Davis ba tt led in the ea rly la p s, s had owed by Suz u k i- m o u n ted Ho ward Rantz. By the halfwa y poin t, Suter ha d opened a decent lead and Ran tz had disp laced Davis fo r second. Rantz th en made a run at th e Can-Am rider bu t came up short. Observed Trial After Wednesday's fren etic d irt track a ction, Thursday's British Bike magazine tria l was a pleasant cha nge of pa ce. As in th e past, the s it e was the Howelsen Park ski jump hill, just across the Ya mpa Riv er fr om d ownto wn Steamboat. The accessi bility drew p lenty of spectato rs, and rid ers enjoye d the paved p it are a and real restroorns . M otorcy cl e s v ari ed fro m Da le Schm u tzler's rigi d -fra me 1949 N ort on ZB34 to the popula r mid-1970s Japan ese and Spanish trials mod els. In betw een w ere a vari e ty o f Gree ves, BSA s, Triumph Cu bs, Fred Mork's ex- works 1957 Royal Enfield, a littl e '53 FrancisBarnett special that had a tough time with the high-altitude climbs, and a lone Wassell. Rid ers app reci a te tight, off -camber turns and the difficulty of picking on e's way through a slow, rocky section, but spectators like hairy climbs and mud. Consequently, there were crowds at sections 8, 9 and 10. Eig h t fea tu red a s teep cl imb up a rock ou tcrop , made more difficult by an abrupt step near the bottom. At the top, some tight turning kept rid ers from relaxing too much before the exit gate. N ine was a new hills id e section that splashed through an ever-deepening bit of mud caused by th e runoff from a nearby s u lp h u r sp ri ng . And 10 was a perennial favorite, traversing a hillside before turning and dropping, cros sing the sa me stin king su lp hu r sp ring, and exit ing via th e mucky w at er channel. N either 9 n or 10 was up to th e fe tid s ta n dards o f th e in fa m ou s a nd nowdefunct "Toilet" section, but riders who erred in the wron g p laces carried along a pungent reminder of their mistakes. The best efforts of layo ut man Derek Belvoir and a brief rain shower failed to kee p a few riders from posting exceptionally low scores . Both Chris Makynen and Doug Shepherd zeroed the trial in P re mie r Lig h tweight Novice, with Makynen doi ng so her first time out on a beautiful Dick Mann-bu ilt BSA C15. As the older rider, Greeves TFS-mounted She pherd wo n the tie- breaker. The s a me th in g h a p p en e d to Doughty on h is do-it-all Gold Star and Derr ell Johnson (Tri- Gre), w ho were tied a t two point s apiece with w inner Robe r t Ga nner a n d hi s Matchless in Pre mie r Heavyw eigh t Interm ed iate. "I've lost races by seco nds before, but this is th e fi rs t time I' v e lost b y six mon ths," Dou gh ty said after compa ring birthda tes, Motocross The soil at Stea mboa t does n 't hold its wa ter very well, and dust can become a p roblem. Thi s tim e, h ow ever, i t was hardly a factor, tha nks to frequen t rains in the days before Friday's mot ocross, generous watering after the natura l-terrain co urse was s taked out, and heavy fog on the morning of th e ev en t. The track s tarted out greasy in p ractice and wo und up with an ideal su rface. An d then the sun sta yed out all day long . The Tim berli ne Tr a il rid er s were n't above taking credit for all of it. Di ck Mann un v ei le d h is 1959 Monark, a 500cc OHV mach ine like the o ne tha t carried St en Lu n din to the World Championship in 1959 and 1961. The Swedish ma chine, with its distinct Go ld Star look (and a few BSA parts), attracted mor e cameras than any other motorcycle in th e p its. And when the rubberband snapped for the first mot o, it was ob vious th e motorcycle worked as good as it looked. Barry Higgins and his Rickman BSA 441 opened a n im media te lead in th e race, Premier 500 II Expert, but Mann was soon past and working on a lead of his own. On the third of four lap s, Joe Busby got aro und H iggins and headed after Mann. Busb y had just taken over the lead early in the final lap, when sudde nly Mann slowed and pulled off the course in the hillside section. The two-time AMA Grand National Champion ex pla in ed th at he felt the Monark's engine begin to tighten up,

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