Trail Rider Magazine

The weekend always ends too soon and sentimental goodbyes are said as the bikes are loaded and the riding gear packed away. Thanks to the Moto Tally scoring system, most riders barely had their bikes on the trailer before the shout went out that it was time to announce the final results and hand out the medals. A few final goodbyes and it was time to hit the road for home and leave the Zink Ranch and another great Reunion Ride behind. Thanks to all who helped put on this wonderful weekend. A lot of riders are looking forward to coming back to ride at this historic site again. Results for this year's Reunion Ride can be found on the AHRMA website, www.ahrma.org, by clicking on the Cross Country section. In the meantime, let's start getting prepared for the 2013 ISDT Reunion Ride which will return to Jim Hoellerich's farm in Cheshire, Mass. This is the site of the 2003 Reunion Ride and will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Dalton ISDT. Lots of us New England riders have special memories of 1973, and this will be an opportunity to step back in time to relive the one event that defined the 70's for so many NETRA clubs and members. Many unique and special events are already being planned for this celebration, so stay tuned to Trail Rider, the AHRMA website and the various other vintage web sites such as the Penton Owners Group and the Vinduro Yahoo group for more information in the coming months. See you there! Riding With My Heroes By Jeff DeBell O ne of the great thrills of attending the ISDT Reunion Ride is the opportunity to meet, talk and ride with some of the guys who I looked up to when I was a teenager in the early 70s. When I was banging my 125 Suzuki in the first years of NETRA's Junior Enduro series, I never thought in a million years I'd get to meet and be on a first name basis with the top enduro riders of the day…guys like Jack Penton, Carl Cranke, Don Cutler, Charlie Vincent, Dick Mann, Preston Petty. Likewise, I never thought that, thanks to my continued involvement with the ISDTRR, I'd actually get to ride with these guys. Fast forward 40 years, and my wildest thoughts have become reality. At this year's ISDTRR at the John Zink Ranch in Oklahoma, I got to ride on the same minute as Carl Cranke (10 ISDTs), Fred Camerson (7 ISDTs) and J. D. Hammock, Oklahoma native Six Day rider. I turned 55 this year, Carl is 64, and Fred just turned 70. Shouldn't be too hard to keep up with some "old guys", right? After all, we all slow down as we age and get to the point where we all remember when we used to be fast. I'll start out by saying that these guys have aged gracefully….which is putting it mildly…and let me put this into perspective for the doubting Thomas folks out there. First of all, I'm an admitted B rider for life. Some guys just "have it" in the woods, others have to work for it. I never really "had it." Oh, I did OK in the junior enduros and even in my 40s I could manage to place well at the end of the year depending on how many events I rode, but I always had to work for it. On my best day of riding, where you and the bike are one and everything is working great, I can sometimes hang with an A rider who's having a crappy day. Needless to say, I wasn't courted for factory rides or spots on America's Six Days teams. Still, we all like to think we can hang with guys 10 or 15 years older than us, even if they were way better riders than we were back in their prime. Age is the great equalizer…yeah, keep on telling yourself that. Here's a snapshot of reality…. Fred Cameron is a really cool guy. He just turned 70 but you'd never guess it by looking at him as he looks easily 20 years younger. He's always been a small bore guy and he was riding a YZ125 at the Reunion. I spent most of the weekend riding with him and here is what it takes to keep up with him on the trail. You know how it is in the woods when the rider ahead of you is someone you need to beat for points for this enduro or maybe to wrap up your series championship. You're doing a good job hauling down the trail and you catch that whiff of 2-stroke in the air and you know it's "that guy." All of a sudden you go into special test mode…you're up on the tank, charging all the corners, heavy on the throttle and taking chances you know you shouldn't. You attack boneyards you'd normally slow down for and pray your bike doesn't go wacky underneath you. You blow over blind hills and into blind corners with reckless abandon and pray some sort of stopper doesn't materialize in front of you. In short, you're going for the gold with every bit of adrenalin-infused energy you can muster and hoping that you don't auger in before you catch your prey and put the pass on him That pace, that "going for the championship" speed, is what it took for me to stay on Fred's back fender on the trail sections between the special tests. I had to work my tail off to stay with him and hope I didn't do something bone-headed, while Fred just motored smoothly along ahead of me like it was just another day in the park. Smooth, effortless, no wasted motion, and an uncanny ability to read the trail. Don't get me wrong, I was having a ball but I spent most of the weekend moments from disaster. Lady Luck was on my side and I didn't do anything really stupid, but Fred just impressed the heck out of me, especially when I considered that he wasn't really pushing it or riding over his head….and he was fully capable of doing this all day long for 6 days if he needed to. Impressive to say the least! Fred and I were pretty close on special test times, but that was more a matter of terrain and displacement. On the wide open stuff, I had 400cc to play with and bested Fred's times by a few seconds. In the tighter stuff his 125 gave nothing away and his superior ability gave him a decided edge that my extra horsepower couldn't overcome, and he topped me in every one of the technical tests. Again, one bobble on my part and it was all over. Fred held plenty in reserve and for the most part toyed with me. Carl Cranke was also on the same minute with us, and one minute behind were Jack Penton and Guy Cooper. Those guys January 2013 51

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