Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

WILL GENE CANNADY STAR IN THE NEXT BRUCE BROWN FILM? N '" 0> '" '" N .... en 0- ,,; .g u, ~ w Z W -J C,) >- C,) The Novices were having a. rough time with the rocks . Or a time with the rough rocks. By Ron Schneiders Photos by Ron and Ellen Schneiders ADELAl\TO, CAL ., Jan. 3D, 1972 Ge ne Cannady, who's beginning to rival Malcolm Sm it h as California's t op all-around ri der, scored a few mo re m otorcycle deca thalo n points today by beatin g Nu m ber O ne d esert racer J. N. R ob erts a t h is ow n game. T he game was a flat -out haulin ' th rough th e boonies Hare n ' Hou nd h ost ed b y Th e San Bernardino Vall ey M.C. Many of th e contesta nts in tod ay's b ash b egan th eir w eekend a differ ent wa y this wee k. T hey ap rt icipated in a desert c lea n-u p e ffort sponsored b y SoCal, the Dir t Diggers and th e Los Angels . Th e gu ys w en t out and c o llec ted tras h and garb age in a bi g circle aro und Hi Vis ta, n ot fa r fr om th e race site. They filled an eno rmo us ga rbage disp osal unit e, mad e ano ther gigant ic p ile n earb y, and filled a 1DO-fo ot deep min e sh af t right to the brim . And all agr eed th at t hey h ad b ar ely made a d ent in the m essy desert. The coordinator of the event tho ugh t it was a b ig success. He tho ught we needed one of these abo ut once a mon th for the n ex t year or tw o . " Most of the clubs came o ut and h elped," he said. "All except the Ch eck ers. Be sure to mention that, wi ll you? We invited them especially." 1 noted that the Shamrocks were out in force, seeming to outnumber the smaller host club . The next morning the racers gathered . There were 972 entries. To give them a chance to sort themselves out, the club had two smoke bombs, one about four miles out and the other two miles farther on. Most of the Experts and Amateurs had heard about a super short-cut where you went way off to th e right of the bomb and picked up a good fast road and beat everybody. So ma ny had heard about it, in fact , that only a relati vely few riders actual ly went by the bomb . T hose few incl uded Gene Cannady, J .N . Ro berts , Larry Pfutzenreuter, Mitch May es.. .so me guys just never seem to get in on the hot set- up. The first check was on t op of a rocky hill. It was n 't mu ch of a hill , actually , but w hen 600 scared , angry, det ermined, 90%-o ut-of-control Novices h it it, it was something else. The trail up the m idd le had been scoured by the Expert and was about as ro ugh as a bowling alley but riders were con tinually fa lling down on the smooth lane and forcing the ones behind them into the rough w here ropes and pitons would have been m o re use th an knobby tires. Four by four they passed, for what seemed like an hour but was probably only 15 minutes. And the battle moved o n, leav ing o nly a dozen or so casualties lit t erin g the hill. I m o ved o n too , rid ing the lo o p o n m y trials b ike because my d esert b ike had suffered a slightly busted shock. I found that 1 had already seen the best part of the course. From there on it was just open desert, fast and dusty. If 1 had been asked I would have described the course as flat, rather dull and uni nteresting. But fortu nately there were h u nd reds of racers o ut there t o supply descriptions and they said things like "super!" , "really fas t ", "a fu n course," and so on. A stiff breeze made th e d ust problem somewhat m in ima l, wh ich was n ic e because it was quite dry . From re p or ts, th e second h alf o f the race was mu ch lik e th e firs t with p erhaps a few m or e rocks and three h ills instead of tw o . The course was supposed t o co nsist o f tw o 4 0 mil e lo ops. I seriously doubt if th e first lo op was over 3 0 mil es but n o o ne th at I sp oke t o th ou gh t th e cours e was to o short, so 40 it is. First rid er to th e bomb, first rider in to th e p its and firs t rid er t o fin ish was Gen e Can nad y. J.N . ap paren tly go t off to a p oo r sta rt, and W-dS ra th er far back (for hi m) at t he b o mb, b ut he h ad ca ught up and was only a mi n u te or so beh ind at mid-point but h e never managed to improve that. Much m o re of that st uff and J.N. will be try ing to talk Ric h Thorwaldson into comi ng back to the desert and get Gene bac k into motocross! Third place went to Howard Utsey on a S uzie and fourt h t o the transp lan ted t railbiker Mitch Mayes on 400 Husky. Two Wrights we re in 5th an d 6 th . Forrest Wright was first Amate ur in 5 th o verall and J eff Wrigh t , lo o kin g like a psy ch ed elic Puch pro mo, was firs t Div, 11 Expert , o n a Puch , nat ch. First N o vic e was David Williams . O ther resu lt s at th e b ottom o f th e page. Re scue 3 was no t at todav's race, lead in g t o all sorts o f strange ru mors . In just com m itted fac t , t h ey h ad th emselve s to co ve ring another event befo re th is one was announced. Fill ing in wa s the Intern at ional R ad io Racing crew. These two organizatio ns are not func tionally equivalent. Rescue 3 p laces the emphasis on medical aid for the injured. The IRRC is a communications group. Some of their members have First Aid Ce rtificates, but that's not really their bag. They did quite a job of getting information about stuck riders from the field to their ho me b ase an d recei ved high praise from a n umber o f peop le who received information ab o u t th eir downed rid ers quicker th an th ey ever had before. T hey b lew it with o ne rid er , h ow ever . Ch uck Shadley, a R ed Do t, lay injured, eigh t mile s fro m c am p fo r o ver tw o h ou rs afte r the IRRC had d isc over ed h im. C ommunic ations brok e do wn so mewhere because no o ne in the club was n o ti fied t hat h e h ad b e en hurt. But o n the wh ol e they d id a good j ob and it 's reassuring to see anothe r group doing this kind of wo rk. It 's getting to where they are three and fo ur eve nts every weekend in the desert and more than o ne service group is needed. Maybe more than two. The IRRC supports itself with a yearly raffle but they never have time to see! tickets . They rely on people to ask for them so do it, if you like to see them out there.

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