Radical Protesters Fail to Slow Motorcycle Race Across Desert

Despite efforts by Earth First!, a radical environmental group, to sabotage the event by scattering metal spikes along the course, the annual Barstow-to-Las Vegas cross-country motorcycle race was staged Saturday without major incident.

Last year, the group forced a 13-minute delay in the start of the American Motorcycle Assn. race by blocking an underpass along the route with railroad ties.

This year, a man claiming to represent the group called the Barstow Police Department about two hours before the race to announce that the hand-made spikes, fashioned in such a way as to assure that one prong is always pointed up, had been scattered under the sand along the course in an effort to force cancellation of the event.

The man, who refused to identify himself, also called the news media, including The Times, saying the group had acted “in defense of the desert and in defiance of the American Motorcycle Assn.”

Personnel from the Bureau of Land Management, which granted permits for the race and was responsible for monitoring the event, said they assumed the call was genuine because the spikes had flattened tires on several of their off-road vehicles the night before.

“We found about 50 or 60 of those things, made out of four-inch nails, on Friday night,” said Tim Read, Barstow branch chief of the BLM. “The AMA sweep team went out but they didn’t find any others. As far as I know, the race started on schedule. I’m not aware that any of the racers had any problems.”

Earth First! has no formal membership, instead relying on independent activists who believe in the credo of “No compromise in defense of Mother Earth.”