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1977 Rattlesnake IDST Qualifier |
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This time the weather was great, and we all got off to a good start. There were some fairly fast sections, and a few challenging spots, but nothing terrible. Everyone was having fun until Doug’s bike experienced a carburetor problem. Something got into the low speed circuit. He was able to fix the problem, but hour’ed out. Cliff and I had a good day arriving at quite a few checks with time to spare. We finished Day One without any problems, but were disappointed that Doug didn't finish. The weather for Day Two was again near perfect, it is amazing how much different things were with nice weather. We had fun dicing with a 2-stroke on some narrow twisty roads until Cliff pulled along side me shaking his head and yelling at me to cool it before I crashed. (His exact words were actually much more colorful) For some reason, if you pass a 2-stroke on a XR125 4-stroke, the 2-stroke riders are ready for an all out race! I got lost and, as a result, got yelled at again. I had been running behind Cliff, and somehow got off course, then back on course ahead of him. When he caught up with me, and we figured out what had happened, and that I had not missed any checks, I was told to get on his tail and stay glued there. (His a actual words were again much more colorful.) We kept putting the miles behind us and before we knew it we had finished Day Two. After we ran the MX, the event was all over.
Of the 190 entrants, 98 finished. The 125cc class had 18 entrants. Cliff finished fourth, and I finished seventh. In the second special test of Day One, Cliff tied for the best time in our class. We both received a silver medal. Al Pedro
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