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/141064
N BUZZ WHO? b y Rick Kocks pho tos by Kocks and Curtner N '" .., " c: '" :;: w Z W ...J :.J > :.J CO L U~l B US , OH., May 27 - La st year covering national en duros was rel ativel y easy. If y ou had pictures of Bill Kain, Ron Bohn o r the Pen tons, you were p retty safe in assu ming t hat you had a sho t o f t he w inner . This year, however enduro co ver age is a bi t tougher: relatively unknown riders ar e putting it all together and scoring overall wins . After this year's Fallen Timbers National , it took reporters nearly an hour to locate Art Blough an d snap a heat shot. Then, th ere was Dr . Joh n Cl ar k at Burr Oak an d John Staley at Lo nesome Pin e. This trend is co ntinuing wi th t he Lit t le B u r r National ru n thro ugh so uthern Ohio o n Sunda y , May 2 7. Nearly 40 0 riders started t he 25 0 mile event b ut at the end of t he da y there were o n ly 1 7 fi ni s he rs . O v erall highpoint see me d to be bet ween Bill Uhl and J o hn Thomas. (G ood , I've got lots of pictures of those guys!) T he nex t day , how ever, it was announced t hat "Buzz" Whitlat ch had scor ed the ove ra ll win . (Oh n o , it's hap pened again. . .no picture of t he winner!) . T he first wave of riders lef t th e Lake Ho pe area at 7: 0 1. And rig ht from th e start t he rid er s go t little rel ief. Les s th an 5 0 yards fro m t he start line th e trail cu t into t he woods and up a ru tted hill. . T he entire d ay was a series of water, m u d a n d swamp crossings , usually fo llowed by an up hill climb . To mak e ma tters wo rse , a steady rain began falling aro und noon and lasted th e rest o f th e da y . II i ll s became nearly impossible to cli mb . Swamps and w at er c r o ssings filled up with di sgru ntled rid ers and flo oded mach ines. To say the least , it was a rough afternoon of riding . Last year's wi nne r, Bill Kain, retired in t he afternoon with throttle problems and Tom Penton crashed af ter 170 miles an d wit hdrew with a dinge d leg. But the h ard luck st ory of the day goes to J ak e Fischer (known in so me en d uro circles as " Crazy J ake" ) who ran his ho ur out b y getting arrested . It see m s th at he di d not stop comp letely for a stop sign an d local police arrested h im. T his year's run ni ng of th e Little Burr mar ked it' s 16th anniversary. Bu t like ot her Ohi o end uros, its future is un kn own sin ce m ost Oh io land is closed, " T h is year , we wer e lu cky ," st at es organ izer Bill Kaepp ner. " We starte d w o rk o n th e run before th e clo sure an d we were permitted to stage the ' run . Even at th at, tho ugh, there was a lot of lan d th a t was un avail abl e. It's ha rd to say about next year. . -" t THE LImE BURR NAnONAL ENDURO RESULTS : O V ERALL: " B u zz " Whitlatc h . 'A ' LIG HTWEIGHT, B i ll Uh l , MEDIUM , P h il lip Patterson . LlGHT /H E AVV: Ja ck Pen t o n . HEAVY : Ji m Fogle . T o ry c r e e cn . 'B ' H I G H PO I N T: BA N T A M WE I GH T : Harold Ha l l. LIGHTW EIG HT: D enn is G ass . LIGHT /M E D IUM: Tom Wilso n. MEDI UM : Millick Nelson. LI GHT /HE AV V : Joe Sta ley . HEA VV : C hris Settler. , Jo hn Pe nton e xpla ins t he ti me sit uati o n. Bill Uhl p lows t hroug h o ne NEW • CUSTOM • USED MOTORCYCLE 'EQUIPMENT TO SELL? PRIME EXHIBIT SPACES STILL AVAILABLE o AUCTION CONSIGNMENTS 0 P NOW BEING ACCEPTED ~ P P COMPLETE MOTORCYCLE SHOW (~ ~- P o R T U N I ~ AUCTION. ~I r ' 0 R ~W 7if~ /II I~ U N I SWAP SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE~ l. A. County Fair Grounds July 8 open to public 9:00 am to 6 :00 pm ~F~ I ACT TODAY! 9 Discounts on Early Reservations HURRYSPACE IS LIMITED! 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