11 Injuries, Sabotage Attempt Mar Race

A 135-mile off-road motorcycle race across the Mojave Desert that had been opposed by environmentalists was marred Saturday by almost a dozen injuries and an attempt at sabotage.

Officials of the American Motorcyclists Assn. contended that someone had tried to interrupt the race from Barstow to Las Vegas by dumping four-pronged spikes along the course. The attempt was unsuccessful, however, because the spikes were dropped on a dummy course that had been set up to fool those protesting the race, association spokesman Ken Boyd said.

He added that saboteurs also moved some of the course markers.

A spokeswoman for the Wilderness Society, which opposed the race, said that instructing the 1,100 bikers to stay on course and avoid the tortoises was just “a few token bones tossed to the tortoise for a one-day joy ride.”

“We’d like to see this be the last race,” said the society’s regional director, Patricia Schifferle.

During the race, 11 bikers were injured, three of them seriously, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Barbara Maxfield said. BLM officials went over the course before and after the race and found no desert tortoises, she said.