Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/105496
evening. tooth and nail for a few inches advantage on the track. Several other annual awards were presented as follows: The Ironman Trophy went to Bill Ryburn who rode a steel tank Penton at last year's Reunion in Combs, AR. The Oklahoma Trail Riders received the Marcia MacDonald Team Manager Award, and Dave McCullough was awarded the Dave Mungenast Memorial. The John Penton Silver Vase went to "Chicago Jerry" Grakauskas for all his help with the AHRMA Cross Country Series. 7-time Six Days veteran Fred Cameron received the Al Eames "Mr. ISDT" Award….Fred has ridden for the US, Canada, and Mexico….and 20-time ISDT/E veteran Drew Smith was presented with the Bud Ekins Pioneer Award. The final moto generally pitches the majority of the Six Days vets against each other, especially all who elect to ride modern bikes…but there are plenty of vets who love vintage racing and choose their mounts accordingly. Dwight Rudder and Greg Holder tore it up on their Pentons. Don Cutler rode his '75 Desert Phantom, got taken out in the first corner, but still finished near the top of his moto. Dave Campbell was smoking on an '82 Husky while his buddy, Joe Cartwright, got tangled up in a wreck and had to push his '86 YZ125 hard to get back the positions lost. Jerry Harris on a '75 Can Am, "Turk" Perepalkin on an IT 175, Gary Richards on his gorgeous 350 Hercules, Chris Graber astride an '82 Can Am, Kelvin Thomas on an early water-pumper Husky 250, and Aaron Sanders on another Canned Ham…all were hauling the freight in their respective motos and putting on a show for the crowd. Sunday's short course included some of Saturday's trail sections and two special tests before returning the riders to the parc ferme in time to grab a bite to eat and prep their bikes for the afternoon grass track. There were a total of 11 motos pitting riders of similar skill levels and bikes of similar displacement and vintage class against each other. It is always fun to race with your buddies, and even if they were running in a different moto, you could still root for each other as spectators. The grass track course was a twisty turny affair with a couple of places to open it up near the start-finish and about halfway through the course. Every moto featured several hard-fought mini-races within it, and often the best bar-banging racing went on in the middle of the pack….you might have 3 or 4 guys of equal caliber fighting it out for 5th or 6th place, but to them it might as well have been for high point. When the riders crossed the finish line there were lots of smiles, hand shakes and back slapping between friends who moments before had been fighting Everyone always enjoys the final moto which features a lot of Six Days vets plus some of the top individual scorers in the AHRMA Cross Country series. Hometown favorite Guy Cooper jumped out to an early lead riding a 1974 Penton 400 and never looked back. After 4 laps he had 20 seconds on Carl Cranke and Steve Travis, even though Carl was riding an '08 KTM 450 and Steve was on a CR250 Honda. Don't discount Jack Penton and Fred Cameron, riding a 250 KTM and a YZ125 respectively. And then there are some of the AHRMA experts thrown in, and not a one of them is a slacker when it comes to twisting the throttle. As talented as the rest of the field was, it's hard to keep pace with a former AMA motocross champ in his own backyard! Rick Yamane with his ultra-rare Italian Mazzilli. Rick works for Motion Pro when he's not racing. 50 Trail Rider www..TrailRider.com