Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Festival By Matt Benson PARK CITY, UT, SEPT. 16-19 ver th e course of 18 years, th e motorcycle week at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, grew event by eve nt into on e of the most-anticipated motorcycle gatherings on the calendar. For AHRMA vintage racers, Steamboat meant dirt track , trial s in a city park, a Dick Mann-d esi gn ed natural -t errain motocross and road racing through the streets - all against a gorgeous Rocky Mountain ski-town backdrop. Thanks to an explosion of new building construction, 1998 marked the final ed it io n of Steamboat. But th e n ewl y for m e d Park City Mot or cy cl e Club d ecid ed to try to host the sa me sort of event in their own ski-resort town about 30 miles ea st of Sa lt Lake City in th e Wasatch Ra nge (si te of m any of th e even ts in th e 2002 Winter Ol ympics). And th ey pulled it off in exceptiona l fashi on, particu larl y conside ring it was a first-time eve n t. Though the club had hoped to draw mor e spectators, the racers were there in abundance - 141 for the trial, nearl y 100 for the dirt track, 460 moto cross entries a n d 270 at t he ro ad r a ce - r iv a li n g Steamboat at its best. There was also a m otorcycl e co nco u rs in a lo cal art g a llery, a ven d o r ex po th at featured everyth ing from Du cati d em o rid es to accessories, an d motor cycle-relat ed display s in many local bu sinesses. All that was missing was a swa p meet. A popular fixtu re at Steamboat w as the Iron Man, a contest to see who could perform best in any three of the four different type s of competition. That tradition also continued at Park City, with 17 riders signing up and eight participating in all four d isciplines. Goin g in to Sund ay's CD) 38 Park City Motorcycle Week motocross, seven competitors still had a realistic shot a t the Park City Iron Man trophy - Robert Borg, Mall Burge, John Eas ton, Mark Eric kso n, John LeFevre, John McClelland and Beno Rodi. However, with wins in dirt track and road racing and a ninth in the observed . trial, Sturgis, South Dakota's Bur ge was the fron trunner, and he remained so by finishing fou rth in the Spo rtsma n 250cc Exp ert class during Sunday's MX. His combined po ints total was 2590, ahea d of McClelland ' s 2499 (he was a lone amo ng the top seven in not com pe ting all fou r d ays, s kip pi ng th e ro ad race) , Eas to n a t 2235, Rodi wit h 212 4 a n d Lefevre rounding out the top five with an eve n 2100 points. The invadi ng vintage mot or cyclists we re genera lly well-received b y th e locals (the newspaper published an arti cle, lett er a nd ed itorial critica l of th e road races). Par k City is a beauti ful location and it's easy to get to. The question on everyone's mind now is, will there be a seco nd -annua l Park City Motorcycle Week? Righ t n ow it ' s p en ci led in on AHRMA's 2000 eve nt calendar. OBSERVED TRIALS Park City's ski ru ns will be the province of th e w orld's best downhill racers in the 2002 Winter Olym p ics, but on this day all atten tion was on the vintage trials ride rs who took to the slopes to open th e in a ugu ra l Par k City Mo torcy cl e Week. Low-poi nt hon ors in the Na tional-Championship classes went to a pair o f r id e rs w ho droppe d ju st a ma rk apiece - Tennessee's Bob Gind er, riding a Gr e e v es in Premi er Lig h tweig ht Exp ert , a n d M od ern C la ssi c Novice rid er Cin co Young , wh o journeyed from Hawaii to compe te on a Bu ltaco in his first AHRMA trial. AHRMA organizers had a huge area to work with, and the result was 16 sections laid out around a 5-mile loop, with about 2000 feet o f elevati on ch a nge. Specta to rs could take a free ride up a chair lift for easy access to a half-d ozen of the sections up on the mountain. For rid ers a nd s pecta to rs alike th e vi ews from the mountaintop were spectacular. Most of th e sec tions we re set up at th e edges of th e s ki s lo pes, fea tu ri ng ab ru p t climbs, wi nd ing paths through s ta nds of a spe n , and tricky draina ge d itches. Th e o n ly thin g trial s mas te r Mike Fenner lam ented no t having much to work with was we t stu ff. Each section featu red four lines of varying difficulty, with riders assigned to a lin e based on the typ e o f ma ch ine th ey w er e rid in g and their skill level. Fe nner co nti n ued his tr adition of naming sections. "Rocky Horro r Show" was a long, mostly straigh t sho t up a di tch filled with round rocks of various sizes . As th e d a y wo re on, th e rocks becam e looser and throttle contro l more im por tan t. Up o n the mo un tai n, " De re k's Key ho le" twis ted back a nd forth on itself through closely sp ace d aspen. Closest to the pits was "Tee terTolle r," w here rid ers had to negotiate a thick pl an k teeter-toll er se t in a ditch . The amo u n t of d ist anc e a rid er had to se t up for th e rid e ove r the un iqu e obstacle depended on the class an d rid er skill division . Ginde r, one of the trial layout crew, mad e his day's only dab on the first of two loops. Tha t bested the six points lost by Premi er Lightweight Expert secondplace fini sher Brid Caveney from California ab oard a Tr iumph Cu b . Th ird was Tennessee's Mike Parsley on another Cub, wi th nin e points. Dennis Brown came from Ohio to win the Intermediate The beloved Steamboat Spr ings AHRMA event Is now a thing of the past, but the vintage Motorcycle Week's new home in Park City, Utah , is ju st as beaut iful. di vision on a Greeves, losin g 17 marks a hea d o f th e 24 tu rn ed in by Rober t Baker from England on a Collo n. Just o ne p oint ba ck fro m Baker wa s BSA rid er Claud e Mc Elvain. Ut ah ' s James Lipscomb wo n the Novice divi sion on a Triumph. Am on g the Mod ern Classics, Hondamounted Sco tt Finlayson from Maine lost six point s to Young' s sing le mark. Keith Campb ell Jr. and Joseph Pinney each turned in scores o f eig h t, with Ca m pbe ll wi n ning the tiebreaker for third b y clea n ing tw o more sec tio ns than Pinn ey. Bultaco-riding Ryan Davie ea rned th e In termediate w in with a total of six, and the nex t four competito rs were se para te d b y ju st a p o in t a piece. The Mod ern C la ssi c Exper ts must rid e a trial's m ost d ifficult lin e, and Colo rado Bultaco rider Mik e Renfrow lost 24 point s for the da y, 16 on his fi rst loop and eig h t the second tim e aro u nd . Michi gan ' s John East on wo n th e sectio ns-clea ned ti ebre ak er over Tennessee Honda rid er Graham Foster t o ea rn s e cond . Eac h rid er h ad 33 points. H oll ywood s tu n tma n Gary Da vis had a n exce llen t rid e o n hi s Roya l Enfi eld to ta ke the Premi er H ea vy weight win with a score of seven . Eigh t p oints ba ck was Wisconsin ' s Ron Winget on a BSA Gold Star . Husqvarna specia list John LeFevre also turned in a score of four to earn the Classic Novice win a h ead of Don Kell ey and Dav id Brown. r

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