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/141060
en .. .'" N • Q. M r- 5!! U"l . > ::< CIl ~ W Z W ...J U ALEAMES Th e 48th ISDT, " The Olympics of Motorcycling ", will tak e place over th e week of Septemb er 1 7-22 in the small, quiet N ew England co m m unity of Dalton, Massachu setts. Dalt on is a co m pan y town of abou t 6,000 residents and h ome of Crane and Company , manufactures of th e pap er stock o n wh ich all U.S. currenc y has been print ed for th e last 90 years. Asid e from this and c e r tain historical landmarks Daltons ' claim to fam e lies in th e fa ct that Dalton is th e home of "Mr. Berkshire" Al Eam es. Eam es is a f ortyish, friendly family man with three grown children, who sports dark rimm ed glasses, a grey ing crew cut and a y ellow Dodge Van (as AMA New England R egional Director) that can be seen for m iles in th e conservative surroundings. If the suc cess or failure of th e initial Six Days effort of th e U.S. can b e attributed to on e person th en Al Eames is that man. Eam es is d ep ending on his twenty odd y ears as a native of th e area, his expe rien ce gain ed in organizing and laying out th e fam ous Berkshire Trials and a mixture of preacher, teach er, psy chologist and super salesman to pull o f f an alm o st o l y m p ic feat : a challenging, success f ul l S DT. Just wh o is A l Eam es and h ow is he going to d o it ? R ead on and find ou t. >- U by Gary Van Voorhis The Man Behind The 48th ISDT ., . CN : How did AI Eam es get involved in bikes and the Berkshire? AE: I go t involved with bikes ab o u t 12 or 15 year s ago after my family was started and after I had developed responsibilities. I had an old 125 H-D rubberband job that I rode th e woods with and su ch. Th e thing that really got me go ing was seeing my fir st Scottish t ria ls It was a horrible experien ce , but it made me hungry for more . Of co urse , sin ce I've always ridden and walked the woods, the challenge of more terrain just came natura! to me. This is the area where I've really contributed to the sport : I relate to people regardless of where I meet them and because of that I h a ve a good relationship wi th the natives in the area. I enjoy doing it. CN: When did the id ea of h aving what has be come known as the "Berkshire" come ab o ut? AE: It was in 1964 when a bunch o f riders were sitting around after an enduro and Donny Loans suggested a 24 hour marathon event, which sounded n e a t but didn't really m a ke sense because you can't ride in the woods at night. We had read a little about the ISDT so I decided. vlet's try so mething along that line. . Our first try was a 90 mile .loop that w e ran in one di rection. and then reversed it ; it proved so tough th at there were no gold medals. This "defeat" showed me that I was thi nking too tough for an event of that length, sin ce our previous ones were only 60 to 80 mil es lo ng. .The next year I swung the other way and tried a two day format that produced som e 40 gold medal runners after the first day, so we ended up cancelling the second day. Every year has been a new experien ce and our trials have improved acco rdingly based on th at experience. Those f irst trials led me in to association with Bob Hicks and the New England Sports Committee. Bob was beginning to move out of the scrambles situation and into woods riding, and he began to offer both financial and personal backing for the eve nts. He and 10 ha ve been the rea l movers of the Berkshir e (Six Days format) two day trials. It progressed from th ere to the three day event last year. The idea came on t he return flight from the ISDT in Bri tian, It was a ch all enge to see if I could put together 500 m iles t hat co uld serve as a Six Days effort. I put into three days wh at normally sh ould have been a six day ~ent, an d it was a tough !?ne.. .... ,_ >C. £ • L ._ • , ~ • >. ~ •