Colorado Mountain Scooter Race
COLORADO MOUNTAIN SCOOTER RACE
HAROLD MORTON
Which is faster on the trails — scooter or bike?
PEOPLE WHO USE TRAIL bikes, or "remote area vehicles" as they are sometimes called, find that they can cover rough terrain pretty quickly on their little lowgeared machines. Such proficiency naturally leads to competition and one place where the trail enthusiast can match his skill and his machine's power against others is the annual Trinidad (Colorado) Trail Riders-sponsored "Mountain Scooter Race." Held on a trail over rugged Colorado mountains, through gulleys and down rock slides, the course this year brought out the best skills the riders had to give and left more than a few entries panting by the wayside.
Classes were unusual as two-wheel competition categories go, but appropriate to mountain scooters. The race was open to 90cc spoke-wheeled motorcycles with any modifications allowed, six-horsepower, discwheeled motor scooters such as Bearkat, Tote-Gote, etc. and another class for fourhorsepower disc-wheeled scooters. There were 86 entries, 26 of which were in the 90cc spoke wheel category, including Bridgestone. Ducati, Hodaka, Honda and Yamaha. Among the riders was a 63-yearold man, F.. M. Christmas of Pueblo, Colorado and a 12-year-old boy, Randy Stephen of Penrose, Colo. Other participants came from California, Utah, Arizona and Texas. Riders started at two-minute intervals with a five-minute interval between classes. Ninety-cc bikes started last.
The results went a long way toward proving that on a rugged course such as this, the trail scooter has an advantage over the spoke-wheeled, lightweight motor bike. Winner of the six-horsepower scooter class and fastest overall was Darrell Nichols of Pueblo, Colo., riding a Mustang with a time of 48 minutes, 22 seconds. Fastest spoke-wheeled ninety was the Bridgestone of Eddie Grasmick, also from Pueblo, with a time of 49 minutes, 10 seconds. Winner of the four-horsepower scooter class was Paul Thorpe from EI Cajon, California, who turned the course in 52 minutes, 44 seconds. •
