Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

5th Annual Leroy Winters Memorial ISOT Reunion Ride STORY AND Dave Mungenast still rides very fast, as he demonstrated in winning the Vintage 60+ class at the Leroy Winters Memorial ISDT Reunion Ride in Missouri. PHOTOS BY JEFF DEBELL PARK HIll.S, MO, OCT. 26-28 he Fifth Annual International Six Days Trial (ISDT) Reunion Ride was held in Park Hills, Missouri, the site of the famous Flat River GP. The two-day event was both a reunion of former American and foreign ISDT riders as well as a vintage crosscountry competition sanctioned by the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA). Over 40 ISDT veterans were among the ] 50 entrants this year, and the list of wellknown American off-road heroes included such famous riders as Dick "Bugsy" Mann, Malcolm Smith, John and Jack Penton, Dick Burleson, Billy Uhl and Carl Cranke. The Reunion Ride featured a large gathering of former Penton teammates and the first reunion of the 1973 American ISDT Vase Champion team of Malcolm Smith, Ron Bohn, Dick Burleson and Ed Schmidt Sf. Also in attendance was Tommy McDermott who won the first ever U.S. gold medal in the 1949 Isle of Man ISDT, and Dave Eames, son of AI "Mr. ISDT" Eames, who was responsible for the success of the first ISDT held on American soil, the 1973 ISDT in Dalton, Massachusetts. Larry Maiers of Speedvision, himself a former Six Days competitor, covered the event, which should air on Speedvision later this month or in early December. The ISDT Reunion Ride was originally created by Dick Mann and Leroy Winters. Now in its fifth year, the Reunion Ride has grown to become the premier off-road event of the year. There is no other event where so many motorcycling celebrities gather. T 24 NOVEMBER 21,2001 • cue It was truly a reunion, as many of the former teammates had not seen each other in decades. Consider Billy Uhl and Carl Cranke. Billy works full-time doing ORV trail system development and maintenance for the State of Idaho and he had not seen many of his Penton teammates since the mid-'70s, when he stopped riding competitively. Carl Cranke admitted to getting on a motorcycle about once a year and was thrilled to meet many of the riders he spent time with overseas and in the qualifiers and National Enduros in the United States, men such as Doug Wilford, Dwight Rudder, Kevin Lavoie, Ron Lamastus and Mike Lewis. Tom Clark hopped on a bike for the first time in 20 years and had to duct tape the tops of his work boots as he didn't even own a pair of riding boots anymore, yet he had a great weekend with guys like Jim Simmons, Jim Fogle, Denny Vandecar and Mike McGowan. Lars Larsson, "The Old Swede", could be found talking excitedly with Dave Mungenast, Jack Penton, Chris Carter, Jeff Heininger and Ron Ribolzi. Another Swede, Stellan Tingstrom, attended last year's Reunion Ride as a spectator and was so enthused that he spent the off-season locating and restoring a 1973 Monark 125 identical to the one he rode to a gold medal for the USA in the 1973 Dalton ISDT. Stellan's Monark was perfect in every detail, however it would have I • n e _ so had stiff competition for "best of show" as there were dozens of other magnificent vintage bikes alongside it in the impound area. The Reunion Ride took on a true international flavor this year thanks to the hard work of former German and Canadian ISDT veteran Helmut "Uncle Speedy" Clasen. Clasen made the trip down from Canada and brought with him three vintage enthusiasts who had traveled over from Germany specifically for this event, Leo Keller, Hans Theis and multi-time German ISDT veteran and German Enduro Champion Burchard Lenz. Also in attendance were former World Motocross Champion and British/Canadian ISDT veteran Jeff Smith, riding one of his trademark Can-Ams, and former British Six Days rider Brian Slark, who is now curator of the incredible Barber Motorsports Museum. The Missouri Mudders Enduro Riders Association, under the guidance of club president Mike Silger and ISDT veteran Ron Ribolzi, served up a fantastic weekend of riding and comraderie. The course was challenging with many tight woods sections and some rocky uphills, but also included fire breaks and powerline sections where riders could "get up on the main jet" if they desired. A relaxed time schedule was established to allow riders time to work on their bikes at the known controls as well as visit with the Six Days heroes in the pack. At the checkpoints there would often be 15 to 20 simultaneous conversations taking place. Leroy Winters and Dick Mann intended for such fellowship to be a part of the Reunion Ride, and the Missouri Mudders organization came through with flying colors in meeting that goa I. The easy trail speeds meant that few riders dropped route marks for late arrival at the known controls, so Billy Uhl anxiously waits his tum to take to the course. class standings were established with a set of daily special tests. Day one included two timed terrain tests through the woods, acceleration and braking tests, and one timed lap around the grass track course. Vern Street, veteran timekeeper for numerous National Enduros, qualifiers and the ] 994 Tulsa Six Days, provided accurate scoring to 1/1 OOth of a second. Jeff Fredette, 21-time Six Day medallist, easily ran away with fast times in his special tests, but he had plenty of competition in the ranks behind him. In the grass track special test, only nine seconds separated the top 10 riders in the Six Days veterans' class. Some of these men have not actively competed for years, but they still remembered how to twist the throttle when the old racing instincts returned. After 44 miles of challenging trail and four special tests, the riders headed for the showers and then to the evening awards banquet. The banquet hall seated 250, yet it was standing room only with an overflow crowd gathered to honor America's Six Days veterans. Speedvision's Larry Maiers emceed the festivities and called upon many of the ISDT veterans to step forward and share their fondest memories of the Six Days experience. Malcolm Smith recalled his first encounter with Edison Dye, who was trying to recruit him to ride Husqvarnas. Malcolm was a dedicated Greeves rider at the time, however Edison finally talked him into taking a spin on a Husky. One quick ride and Malcolm told him, "You've just found yourself a rider." Carl Cranke told of making "semilegal" repairs to his Penton in the alleyway behind the team's hotel on the Isle of Man and having to ride through the lobby of the hotel to

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