First of the Isdt Qualifiers
FIRST OF THE ISDT QUALIFIERS
COMPETITION ETC
Boyd Reynolds
“Fellows would ask me did I see this or that, or some beautiful scenery, but I don’t see anything except two foot of trail. Carl Cranke. . .he does that because he is on a 250; he stops on a mountain top, looks around and then cooks it 80 miles an hour down the road to make it up. Me, I’m total concentration on that two-foot by fifty-foot piece of trail.”
To the nearly 300 competitors gathered in the Warren Grove, New Jersey, Fire Hall to hear the Penton Trophy Team seminar, Jack Penton’s words opened up the door to one of the major secrets of success —total concentration.
The seminar was a successful prerequisite to the first of nine ISDT qualifiers to be held across the country in 1975.
The pine lands of South Jersey in January have two diverse types of weather: pleasant (for January) and
horrible. It was pleasant, for awhile, but, three days before the qualifier, the thermometer plunged into the twenties and scant miles away the ground was snow-covered.
Shivering cold crews tried pushstarting frigid machines in order to make the 88-db static sound test Friday afternoon and evening, and then the technical inspections. The machinery was impounded until the 7:30 a.m. Saturday start.
Everybody was there except the West Coast riders—Malcolm Smith, Carl Cranke and Billy Uhl. There was all the color of an ISDT-type event, new to many of the riders and spectators.
The biggest concern as competitors headed off to bed was: “Is that engine going to start in the morning?”
Al Eames and the promoting East Coast Enduro Association relaxed the rules somewhat, allowing assistance in pushing after crossing the line if the bike would not start in the 60 seconds allotted time. Although it was cold, the humidity was different and engines that would not start Friday night, now sputtered into action with a few kicks.
The sun shone through cloudless skies, but that didn’t last long. By nine a.m., after the last of the riders had moved out of the enclosure onto the icy trails, cloud cover was obscuring the sun.
The trail was tight, perhaps too tight even on the “B” schedule (a graduated speed between 25 and 30 mph from check to check). All but the most seasoned ISDT riders were making the checks late.
The wind came up very sharply and as the front moved in, heavy rain began and lasted into the night.
A great many of the local riders were over their hours by the second check in lap two and had to retire, but almost 50 riders made it to the finish of day one. Because of poor visibility and near darkness under the black rainy skies, the specia1 test for Saturday was canceled.
Forty-two of the 276 starters arrived in the morning to break their iceencrusted motorcycles from the frozen ground.
Gary Edmonds had the best score so far (a 418), followed by Jack Penton with 616. Following this pair were Don Cutler, 731; Dane Liembach, 902; Doug Wilford, 902; and a kid from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, named Toplinski, with 975.
There would be only one lap on the two-lap course. Because of the high scores, there could be only one gold medal per class (except the 250), so the extra lap was unnecessary. The special test would follow the 75-mile ride.
Low scorer Edmonds dropped out with electrical problems and enduro champion Dick Burleson dropped into an icy water hole and it took more than an hour to get his Husky rolling again, ending his chances for a medal.
The event started and ended at Coyle Airfield, a state fire service facility, and the special test was held around the southern perimeter of the field. Jack Penton turned in an overall final score of 1072, to lead Ossa team rider Don Cutler from Rhode Island, who had 1124. Dane Liembach and Doug Wilford followed. As it turned out, there were silver medal winners with better scores than gold medal winners in other classes.
Organization, planning and course marking were superb. Member clubs in the East Coast Enduro Association manned the checks with expertise unparalleled anywhere. The weather and the tight course took their toll: there were only 38 finishers, who compiled seven gold medals, 11 silver and the remainder in bronze.
