Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EVENTS .E by S dited cottRousseau' Wild West 250 Dual Sport Ride Sy Ann e Van Severen Pho to by Tom Van Severen LAUGHLIN, NY, FEB. 10-11 nseaso nably h igh temper atu res and a lack of rai n had d ual spo rte rs singi ng the summertime blu es at Laughlin, Nevad a. For two days and 245 miles, the riders sweated in the canyo ns an d foug ht the ir way thr ough cloud s of d us t, bu t the battl e was worth it to find some of the most spec tacular 'scenery alon g the Nevada / Arizo na / California border. Th e ride, whi ch was o rga nized by Jim Pilon ' s Tour ' n' Trail Promo tio ns a nd Ro n Lo om is of Tea m Loomis' "Dirty Entertain ment," dre w mo re tha n 150 riders to the Avi Hotel / Casino, 12 miles below the town of Lau ghlin on the wes t bank of the Colorado River. Saturday's ride got off to a leisurely start. With on ly 50 miles to the lunch stop in Searchlight, Ne vada, there was no point in hurrying and most of the riders began arriving for tech inspection in the Avi parking lot betw een 8 and 8:30a.m. The riders hit dirt less than five miles from the start of d ay one's course. Twotrack roads alterna ted with serpentine sandy washes littered with rocks that gave the novice riders fits, forcing many of them to struggle along with their feet stu ck out on either side of the bike like outriggers. "Rocks? What rocks?" was the helpful input from ve te ra n ' d ual spor ter Larry Woodruff . "There are no rocks in Neva da - just very l a r g e g rains of sand." Most of the r id er s o p te d for a sixmi le scenic de tour a bout h alf w a y th rough the m orn in g ' s rid e. The side trip took them up a switchback road to the top of Spirit Mountain and provided panoramic views of the Colorado River and the surrou nding desert as the riders stood ben eath cl us te rs of mic ro wave equipment. The roll chart started to go downhill as the course approached the lunch stop. On e in struction afte r another was U ~ ~ ~ ~ Dual sport riders who atte nded the Wil d West 250 Dual Sport ri de In laughlin, Nevada, enjoyed a summer preview during the two-day event. impossible to execute, and mo st of the riders aba ndoned the roll chart and simply followed course ribbon, which had been tied on most of the comers. There were lots of complaints as the riders gathered in the parking lot of the Searchlight Senio r Center. "Did anybody find the sewage treatment plant? We were supposed to tum when we got to it, but I never saw it," said one disgruntled rider. " I was los t way befo re that," said ano ther, "but it wasn't so bad . We could see Searchlight off in the d ista nce and we knew that's wh ere we needed to end up so we just head ed for it." Bob Tar tte r go t lost and ended up ridi ng backwards on the course trying to figure out where he went wrong. "I met some riders coming the other wa y and t he y asked m e why I was going backwards," said Tartter. "I said 1 was really tired and 1 figured that if 1 rode backwards 1 would be able to get back some of the energy I spent on that section. " . Follow ing the course would have been even harder if it hadn't been for the efforts of Joe Meyer. " So m e bod y h ad mov ed a ribbon about six m iles off the start," Meyer explained. "There was a fork in the sand wash and, when 1 followed the ribbon, the wash dead ended in a wall . There were ATV tracks going in to the wall and back out again, and m ore tracks right where the ribbon had been moved. 1 was one of the firs t ones out on the course so 1 m oved th e ribbon back to where it should've been." Bu t any complaints about the course markings were forgotten when the riders were gree ted by th e Searchlight Seniors, who p u t on a lunch to be remembe red a t no cos t to the riders than ks to KTM America an d Sportsman Cycle of Las Vegas. Man y o f th e ride rs spen t the lunch br eak stu dyi ng the cou rse map, trying to decid e wh ich of the three afternoon sections they wou ld tackle. The easiest choice was Option C, which cu t out a large northerly loop an d resul ted in a total of 110 miles for the day. The second-longest rou te was Option B, which took the riders 12 miles north of Searchligh t on the pavement and then headed into a challenging easterly loop that included a nine-mile uphill a nd stretched the total ride to 160 miles. The other ch o ice was Opti on A, which incl u ded a trickv sand / ro ck secti on instead of Option' B's 12 miles of pa vement, and stretched the milea ge to an impressive 175 miles. The first comp laint of the afternoon came from Dave Tonkis. " It wasn 't fair putting us out in a reall y sloppy sand wash with a full lunch in our stomachs and a full tank of gas. That part wasn't fun," said Tonkis. " Bu t 1 loved the res t of it. 1 had too much fun for one day ." At the end of the north erly run, the "A" riders turned east to join the "B" riders for a loop dow n to the bank of the Colorado River near Nelson Landing. a small se ttlement that was washe d in to the river in the 1960s whe n a flash flood came roaring down Eagl e Wash . The riders had plenty of time to think abou t what a 25-foot wall of wa ter would look like as thev doub led back to head eas t up the wash, an d then began the long climb up a rocky m ining road full of swi tchbacks and drop offs to rejoin the "C" loop riders. The rest of the course was a mixture of gravelly was hes and loose rocks, with occasional resting spots on two-track roads. Bill Sherman, a District Ranger with th e -Lake Mead National Recreation Area, got a helping hand from his fellow dual sporters. "There were a lot of courteous people out there. 1 needed a helping hand more than once an d people lined u p to help me along an d give me some pointers," said Sherman, a Gold Wing rider who took his first tentative shot at dual sporting on a borrowed 250cc Honda. There was plenty to talk abou t wh en the riders gathered for an afte r-ride dinner, courtesy of Riding Tiger and K&N Air Filters. The joking barbs about the morning's roll char t continued all through dinner. "Tha t was (j im ) Pilon' s worst roll chart . Heyjim, did you do it in a vehicle or on a bicy cle?" asked Jim Nicholson (XR600), who rode with h is XR200mounted wife, Jackie. "We rode the B loop. It was very nice - really slip pery and rocky. It was a great ride except for the roll chart ." Jim Pilon's after-dinner apology was brief: "Hey, about the roll chart. .. things happen!" Sunday's course was easier to fo llow and only 85 m iles long to ensure the ho meward-bound d ual sporters a quick geta way. The co urse heade d across the Colorado River into Arizona , made a loop to the northeast that led to the lunch stop in the h istoric mining town of Oatman, where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard are rumored to have honeymooned , and then headed back across the river to th e Avi pa rking lot. I~ Isaacs king at Kearney Indoor By Mike Zbrozek KEARl\'EY, NE,FEB. 3-1 A hearty group of Vintage Pro riders brav ed a temperatu re of 20 below zer o to challenge the day surface of the Bu ffalo County Fairgroun ds indoor arena for Roun d 1 of the VDTRAfTo tal Pe rformance Racers Vin tage Cla ssi cs IX Dir t Track Series and the final rou nd of Motor Sports of America Indoor Series. All we ekend the vintage machines resern bled Popsicles, sta nding in their pit stalls with oil as thick as [ ell-O, They took qui te a lot of coaxing to come to life, bu t eventually all were fired up and the racing began . Second- place honors in Saturd ay's MSA vintage Pr o 600« se ries were hotl y contested. The top spot wa s finnly con troll ed thr oughout by Johnny Isaa cs on his B50 BSA, clinchi ng the MSA vintage Pro 600 number-one p late for 1996. Sunday's races brou ght milder temperatures and mo re h eated com pe tition for th e VDTRA Pro season-opener as the 600cc field expan ded to 10 rid ers and Open Pro Twins to six. Two 600 he a ts we re run (or st a rtin g-line positi on s headed by Isaacs on his BSA and Bill Snyder on a Bu ltaco. Isaacs' Triumph headed th e Pr o Tw-in hea t as well with Eric Bland 's Yama ha in tow in the four-tap even t. As MSA's Ed Beckley wo rked the full-hou se cro wd to a lath er, the 10 600cc m ach ines pos itioned on the start ing line for the VDTRA mainevent. At the sta rt, Bob Loucks' Bultaco headed for th e fenc e, fr ont wh ee l high in air and Lou cks' feet dragging th e gro u n d, coll ecting a no the r rid er an d bri nging ou t the red flag . Loucks visited the medi cs wh ile the other rid er wa s able to restart his machine. On the restart, John ny Isaacs jumped into the lead foll owed closely by Bill Snyder, Rodger Ster ling and the Yamahas of James Vaug ht and Bill Hu ff. As the g to u p circuited the tigh t day su rface, Isaacs extended his lead wh ile the remainder jockeyed to impro ve their p o siti ons . Isaacs took th e ch ec k e re d flag w it h Sny de r, Sterl in g and Vaught behind him . In the Pro Twin main, Steve McGee mu scled his BSA twin into tum one first only to give way to the Triumph of Johnny Isaacs . Eric Bland kept his Yamaha on tw o wheel s to head off the efforts. of John Fike and Tom Laird. Isaacs' clean sweep on the weekend left him with not only the MSA series cha m pionsh ip, but the po ints lead in both 600 PrO and Open Pro Twin of the VDTRAI Total Perfonnance Racers Vintage Classics IX Dirt Track Series . Results 600 PRO: 1. Johnn)' b . ..cs (8SA); 2. Bill Snydtn" (8 u l); J. Rodg" Sterlmg (BSA ); 4. J.~ V

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