Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141006
By R on Schneiders Photos by Ron and Ellen Sc hneiders It> ,,; " "en :: w 1 z W ,- ..J U > U It's almost 8 : 13 and time to go. If they ignored t he "wat erpr oo fi n g" recom mendation. th ey ' re in trou b le. by Els inore Chamber of Commerce Apri l29 &30 Saturday (Nov - Am - Ex) o -100cc 101 - 250cc Powder Puff Sunday (Nov - Am - Ex) 251 - Open 250 (Expert only) Side Hacks 100 miles of paved city streets, county roads , sand washes , mountain roads and trails. Course changed from last year to make a full 10 mile loop . Scoring by video tape and key punch. Entries open Feb. 20,1972 - 8 am, in person for own entry only, at G.P. Headquarters, located at: 132 W. Grand, Elsinore, Calif. $15.00 per rider. Postion determined by lottery - draw your own. (No.1 postition reserved for John DeSoto) Mail entries accepted Feb. 21,1972 on official entry blanks only. To obtain official entry blanks, write: Elsinore Chamber of Commerce 132 W. Grand , Elsinore, Calif. Entries close March 15, 1972 Entries limited to 1,000 riders per day. All bikes impounded prior to race. Bikes for Sat urday-impound open Friday, April 28 from 3 pm to 12 am Bikes for Sunday-impound open Saturday, #ril 29 from 6 pm to 12 am CONTINGENCIES (winner required to use products to be eligible) KAWASAKI: Saturday - 250 Kawasaki Sunday - 350 Kawasaki HUSQVARNA : $1 ,000 to overall winner Add itional contingenc ies from: BATES SILENCERS OR MUFFLERS REQUIRED. All entries for those under 21 must be signed by parents and be Nota rized. ABC TV WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS COVERAGE Anyone ca ught riding on or about the course o n any bike other than actual participants will be cited and his bike will be impounded . NO BIKES STARTED ON FRIDAY . HARVARD. CAL., Feb. 6. 1972 After the re cent series of enduros that were so difficult and unrelenting that they bordered o n the sadistic, riders in this ar ea were ready for a change. They got it this week at the Prospector's annual Goldrush Enduro. The first indication that things were going to be different was right at the start : We didn't head o ut straight into the su n a nd d ust go ing up an im possib le rock hill. Ins tead was some easy road a nd cross country lead in g to the water crossing. Wh en th e Prospector's sa id U\Vate!"?Toof" on their instr uc tion sheet, one friend of m in e thought it was a joke. "The run is la id out fifteen miles east of Barstow, in the driest desert in California ", he said. " If there's any water on that course we'll have to thank Sparkletts for it!" If so, the Prospectors better complain because th at was some of the blackest, muddiest swampiest soup that I've seen in a long time. And deep . Those who ign o red the Prospectors' warning found themselves spending a lo t of time drying out their scooters . •T he spec tators lo ved it. I stopped alongside a fellow a ways up the trail and asked how he liked the ru n so fa r . "M ighty fine!" he said enthusiastically, "I only wish th ey had more of t hat mud! " Now I might have described it a lot of ways but that wasn't one of them. That didn't sound like a desert racer's attitude either. I asked hi m h is name . "M y name 's Cash Regist er. I' m from Florida, origina lly" he says. That figured. Shortly after the wa t er we got to an eight mp h section wi th some fa irl y d if fic u lt rocky hi lls, so me ca nyo ns an d diffs and other good t rials-type stuff. But eigh t m p h h our was reall y slow fo r the t errain , an d a lo t o f guys go t b ur ne d co min g into the seco n d echeck, 1 was riding No . 1 7 , pr etty much o n tim e but sitting nex t t o me at the c heck was a guy in th e 3 0's. " Th ose ' Prosp ec t o rs a re prett y clever , aren't t hey? " sa id h e, p ull in g t he h o o k o ut of hi s gill. They were ind eed. \\"e came up to an u nderpass that looked p refectly innocent . Yo u co uld see riders on t he o ther side going off t o th e rig ht an d it didn' t seem possib le t ha t th er e could be a check within five m iles. But right under th e und erpass th ey had you make a h ard left a n d th er e, h idden beh in d th e e m bank men t were abou t 20 green-shirt ed Pro sp ec to rs . It was a b eautiful job. 1 w as glad I was a bou t o n ti m e: b ecause I su re n ev er eve n guessed they were there. Near th e end o f th e m orning sec tio n was a hill th at d id n 't loo k terrib ly im posing, except tha t m o st of th e tracks that went up it , o nly went ha lfway. I charged it , got h alfwa y a nd p rom ptl y stopped. b ur ied to the h ubs in loose sand . Fortunately it was p o ssib le to angle up sidehill but I was gla d to have a bit of power at my command. :'Iy ridi ng partner on a smaller bike had a rough go of it. That was th e p rev ie w of th e afternoon section. The seco nd lo op was mos t ly a mixtu re of deep sand and ro c k , no t nea rly as spec tacu lar as the m orning section which got in t o so me prett y h airy tra ils. In th e afternoon th ey were reaso na ble, b ut not mu ch slow. On ly a few spots allowed a brief rest. A t o ne of th ese , after we had crossed a bo ulder field about 15 miles lo ng a fe llow looking obviously pretty beat ro de up alongside and recognized me. "You're go ing to mention these rocks in your article, aren ' t you?" He looked pretty anxious about it but I figured I had better live up to my reputation a little bit, so I said , "Well , I don't know. c.Thevre not rea lly very big o ne s..." I n ever go t a chance t o elaborate b ecau se he looked at m e like I had su d denly sp routed horns or someth ing and rode off mu tteri n g to himself. I thin k h e ge ne ra ted enough mad-energy to finis h th e ru n ri gh t on the spot. Near the e nd of the run was a canyon wit h soft, sandy sides that we nt up forty o r fifty feet and got steeper as they went up. As you rode up side you could ge higher and higher until you were almost horizontal. Then you'd sweeop down to the bottom and go up the other side. I nicknamed it "Airplane Canyon" because it felt just like you were flying. Coming at the end of the run lik e th a t , a lo t of riders we re j ust too bushed to enjoy it but for t hose with some su rp lus e ne rgy it was the hig h spot of the day . After the run 1 was si tt ing with th e CERA b u nch drinking Ed Wigh t's b ee r wh en Dave Evan s came along just b ubbling over about how m uc h fun that canyon was . ••J don't even care