Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Easte rne rs: Frank Piasecki and R o n Bohn. Compare th is pitiful situation with that of the East. The vic torious Penton team hasn 't even run the same team in an y tw o c o n secu tive Trial s, and y e t t he y 'v e w on three of th e five eve nts an d d on e well in the o th er tw o . T heir o ne team h as m ore q ualified ri d e rs th an w e h ave in the en tire reg io n . (In the vari ou s trials they've h ad Billy Uhl , T om, Jeff, and Jack Pe n to n , Dic k Bu rleson, Do u g Wilford , and Bob G rodz inski o n the trade team.) T h e Y ankee Team from Ne w Engla nd h as alm ost as much de p th. No te th a t I a m co mparing in d ivid ua l team s w ith th e entire S outhe rn Cal ifornia region. If l ' were t o com pare th e Ne w England ar ea , or the Great Lakes a rea, with California, the results w o uld be t o o dep re ssing fo r words. A s we move away fr om con sidera tio n of the top sp o ts , th e situation ge ts worse' and w o rse. The Berkshire was lim it ed to qualified riders, the equivalent o f Cl ass A e n d uro ri d ers. they had to tum away well over 100 qualified applican ts , In sp it e of the fa ct that it was b y far the toughest event hel d in the U.S., there were a Jot of finishers . H ere we can ' t even get entrants. le t alo n e finishers. As I see it, there a re two problems. T he first is that o u r endures, un lik e the eas te rn endures , do not produce riders who are capab le of do ing well in the IS OT . Desert en duros lac k ap propriate terrain chal lenge and mach ine challenge. It m igh I be expected th at riders w ho see no mo re than an occasional six-inch water splash wou ld be unp repared for two o r th ree days of riding in a downpour such as o ccurred in the S t. Louis qualifying round, and that they would have little idea of what is necessary to prepare a machine to withstand the onslaught of mud th at destro ys ch ains in on e d ay, cl o gs carburetors and ruins wheel bearin gs. su ch as is the case a t Berkshire. At Trask Mountain none of the se were a re al problem. T h e Speci al Tests a t. Trask Mountain were basicall y on fire roads su ch as we have in the An gele s an d Los Padres fo res t o n ly a few m iles fro m h ome . Only Gene Cannad y an d Lars Larsson fr om o u r area cam e w ithin 10 0 b onus p oints of th e top sco rin g Dic k Burleson . T he re al irony o f th is situ ati on is th at ten to fifteen years ago S ou them Californian s were the ISOT leaders. They wer e riding fire ro ads and w oods tr ai ls then, and no on e co u ld b eat b '1.IYs like Bud Ek ins, Eddy Mu lder and AI R odgers. Bud, as you m ight re ca ll, w on the first G o ld medal for the U.S . Now there arc few riders in the area th at even h ave any idea of how an IS OT is run, let alone know how to set up for it. With this sm all selection o f qualified rid e rs a n d no events o f this type in the are a, it follows that there is n ot much o f a pool of o rganizing ta len r, To run an IS OT · typ e event you need people wh o can run Time Control chec ks, Se cret field checks, Special Tests w ith sp li t second accuracy. do the scru tineerin g and catc h flagran t viol ators, run sound tests and do the ve ry complicated scoring. D oes an ybody in this area kn ow anyone who has performed even o n e o f those tasks? If y ou think that people can be trained during the event for these functions with satisfacrorv results , I suggest th at yo u talk t o the organizers of an y of the qualifying rounds held so far. Of course, setting up the co urse is an a rt in itself. An art I migh t men tion that is fully mastered by only one man in the entire co u n try: AI Eames. Given these co n d itio n s, we run h ead lon g in to the secon d p ro b le m . Si nce t!iere are so few riders h ere who kn o w w h a t they 're doing and so little ta le nt for ru n n ing the e ven t , you wo uld th ink that we wo uld start off wi th a small event that would help fa miliarize bo th riders an d w o rke rs with the procedures. But no . In typical California fash io n , we have to have a T ria l that is b igge r and better than th e Berkshire first time out. Th e whole town o f Las V egas is to be Involved and a co liseu m is to be rented for the imp o und a rea . Neve r mind th at you are asking ride rs t o participate in something they know nothing ab ou t h u n d red s of miles fro m h ome. Charge the highest entry fee in the co u n try . L ay out five hundred miles of tr ail. Make it three d ays instead o f two . Never mind that only one man (Ma x Swi tzer) knows the are a. It tak es Al Eames all year long to lay out th e Berkshire on trails he knows like the back of h is hand. Surely Max Swit zer can do it in three mo n th s. And to top it all off, h ave a mandatory tire ch an gin g lest , for riders who can ' t reliabl y ch an ge a tire in their own garage . A nd w hat about people to help with the thing? Some months ago when th e p roject was first an n o un ced , 1 wanted to get some clubs involved so that there w ould a t least b c som e warm b odies workin g on it. [ was told , b y Lyn n Win eland tha t I could n ot e ven b ring th e qu est ion up at Dist rict 3 7. lie said it w as a Bo ard of Directors fu nc tion an d, as such , the b o d y h ad nothing to do w ith it. S omeb o d y might ask the Board of Dire ctors wh e re th ey got the m oney for the initial effort. There were lots of plane tr ips, printing, me als and what have you that so m eb od y paid for. S in ce it w as p ur ely a Board of Direc to rs functio n m aybe th ey sp lit u p the loss? An y way it was cancelle d d ue to a lack of en trie s. Maybe the rid ers have be tter se ns e th an so me of o ur lea d er s. With this analy sis of th e Dist rict 3 7 effort , c o ns ide r Fo rt H o od. T o my kn owledge o n ly two rider s from Texas ' h ave even entered a Qualifyin g ro und . T he re h as never been an ythin g remotely like an ISOT event held there . Their enduros are in an e ven more p rimitive st ate of developrnen t there than th ey are here. Who would run th e event? The army . was in volved and they would fu rn ish labor. Great. Bu t what abo ut tale n t ? They asked AI Eames if h e wo u ld come down and run the event for them. O ne of AI's assets in lay in g out ·th e Berkshire is that h e knows all the people in the a rea and has secured permissio n to u se the trail s th a t h e h as painstakingly developed ove r the years. Of what use is this in Texas? Bes ides he has spen I a good p ortion of h is life groom ing the area and the people in Massachusetts for the eventual day when the U.S . would be privileged to hold an IS OT. Is h e 10 throw all this down th e drain an d st art over in Texas with o n ly a ye ar to wo rk ? T o say nothing o f th e n eccesity for givin g up h is job an d uprooting his famil y . T o even ask th at o f h im was presump tion be yond belief, bu t colossal gall seems t o be the o n e ite m that "th e Al\IA h as in copio us quanti ties. AI simply said no. I'd have told them to go to h ell. Th at left Mi ke V an cil to run the ISDT. Th at 's the only bit o f humor [ can find fo r th is colum n . V an cil sh o wed up at Berksh ire w ith tw o soldi er s from T e x as. Th ey we re to have so meth ing to d o with th e Fort H o od sh o w. Every time I saw them th e y were lo oking kin d o f grim. I d on't bl ame them. They were moto c ro ssers and I do n 't thin k th ey eve n h ad much o f an id ea of what w as go ing o n, let alone h ow t o su cce ssfully brin g it o ff in the Lone Star st ate . The reason th e Al\IA gave for Ih e sudden sh ift in plan s wa s that th e Berkshire terrain w as more in kccping with thc ISOT trad it io n. This cou ld hardl y h ave co m e as any st artling revel ation . V ar iation in terrain is th e h all m a rk o f the IS OT and th ere isn 't much a t Fort Hood. Neither is ther e an y variation in we ather conditions which plays su ch an importan t part in the su cces s or failure o f the [SOT te ams. It' s h ot an d flat. Terrainwise , th ey cou ld probably hold a better [SOT in Saddleback Park. Thev knew all th is before they ever select~d the site in the first pl ace. Eve ry one involved h ad been to b oth pl aces . The re as on the Berkshire wasn't selected in the first pl ace was that th e Berkshire territory isn ' t AMA territory . The even Is run there have not h ad A:\IA san ctions in the p ast years an d it was only by finding some little club th at doesn't even participate in the Berkshire and getting them to "sponsor" the event that the Be rkshire h ad AMA sancti on this year. AI E am es permitted it so that _ AMA riders wo uld h ave th e benefit of the Al\IA ins u rance. A ll the im portan t even ts in New Englan d arc san ctioned by th e New Englan d Sp orts Committee w hich has no ties with the AMA . The reason fo r th e switch back to th e Berkshire was tha t ' they h ad no reasonab le a lternate c hoice. T h an k God someone in the AMA h ad the fo resigh t and gu ts to make that decisio n . The Berksh ire h as its d iffi cu lt ies as an ISOT site . Most im portant is a la ck of h ousing for all the peop le wh o will attend the event. Having been t here , I d on't feel this is critical. They m ay well h ave to p rovide bus transportatio n fro m Sprin gfield which is 40 miles away for specta tors, or ch ange the headquarters to someplace ne arer Springfield, but there 's ce rtain ly adequate housin g there. Besides. if we run a go od even t with in adequate h o us ing I'm sure we will be forgiven. The best housing in the world, th ough, won't make up for an eve nt every one feels is a fias co . And that was the predictable outcome o f the Fort Hood ven ture. The Al\IA has made one corr ec t m o ve; let's hope they continue in that dire ction. .'" M EC128A ENDURO COMPUTER ..:... helps YOU hit check points on the dot! co '" ..... 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