ADAMS TWP — After nearly 39 years, Paul Danik is still revved up about the gold and silver medals he earned in a bone-rattling event known as the Olympics of motorcycle endurance racing.

Danik of Adams Township won the gold medal in the International Six Days Enduro in 1973, which is the only year the grueling competition was held in the United States. He took the silver medal the next year in Camerino, Italy.

The annual event has 300 riders who make up teams from several countries competing for six days on a 1,200-mile course that covers every type of terrain from country roads and goat paths to rivers and a mountainside.

The event, in which only the world's top riders can complete, has taken place every year since 1913. Riders do not test or even see the course until the race begins and must follow arrows to stay on the path.

Timed “special test” stops are interspersed throughout the course and include individual skill tests that cover a 3- to 5-mile stretch of the course. Fastest acceleration and shortest time over the course are the two main special tests.

Danik said the skill required to successfully compete in endurance racing is to “read the trail,” or look as far into the distance as possible to anticipate what terrain may lie ahead.

“The whole gist of this, originally, was testing man and machine,” said Danik.

Riders must compete in their own countries to earn a spot on the international team. That involves a series of two-day, 400- to 500-mile endurance races.

In the international race, checkpoints are positioned every 30 to 60 miles. Riders present a punch card to an official, who punches the time onto it. Arriving late to any checkpoint knocks the rider out of gold medal contention.

Riders gas up at the checkpoints, and guzzle some water if they have time.

Danik said rules must be strictly followed to avoid disqualification at the international race, known as the “Six Days” among riders.

Once motorcycles are inspected by race officials, only components that wear out, such as tires, chains or cables, can be changed. Riders must push their bikes to the starting line, then they have one minute to start the engine.

Although three riders are released from the starting line every minute, Danik said riders only see about 10 other competitors in an eight- to 10-hour day of racing.

“You're not in a sea of motorcycles all day,” Danik said.

When the day of racing is over, motorcycles are locked up to prevent riders from modifying them. The next day, riders repeat the starting routine and take off three at a time for their unknown voyage.

Danik said success in the Six Days depends on a rider's ability to pace himself.

“You have to go fast enough to do the job, but not overtax yourself or your motorcycle,” he said.

Danik's love of trail riding began at age 15, when he got his first motorcycle, a Honda, to ride in the now-disappearing woods and fields of the Mars area.

“I loved the woods, the smells, the trails, the challenges,” Danik recalled. “It's a relaxing sport to me.”

Danik said his boyhood neighbor, the late Bob Augustine of Mars, told him that if he was serious about off-road motorcycle riding, he needed to get a Penton.

“That's how I started riding Penton motorcycles,” Danik said.

The Penton was designed in Amherst, Ohio, by John Penton, who beat the cross-country motorcycle record on a BMW R69S in 1958, among other motorcycle exploits.

Danik said that in the past, endurance riders had to buy regular motorcycles and modify them to handle the rough terrain and distance seen in endurance racing.

Penton designed a bike that was ready for endurance racing “out of the box,” Danik said. The development of the Penton motorcycle allowed the U.S. to field a viable team for the ISDE.

Danik won both his medals on Pentons that the company loaned him for the race.

He still has the 125cc motorcycles today. The Penton that Danik rode in the 1974 ISDE, which was loaned to him by the company, was taken back by the manufacturer when the race was over, but Danik removed the headlight and number plate before it was whisked away.

Last year, he found the motorcycle on the Internet and snapped it up. Now the bike and its original headlight, complete with caked-on Italian dirt from the scenic and challenging course in Camerino that year, have been reunited.

The bikes were marketed as Pentons from 1968 to 1977, and have since been known as KTM motorcycles.

“John Penton was to endurance motorcycle riding what Richard Petty is to stock car racing,” Danik said of his friend, who is 87 years old. “Having ‘Penton' on your gas tank gave instant credibility to your motorcycle.”

Penton said Danik's natural talent for motorcycle racing back in the 1970s, as well as his physical condition, allowed him to succeed in many amateur races as well as his two Six Days wins.

“He's a good, honest gentleman and racer,” Penton said. “I can only speak very highly of Paul. He's top-shelf.”

Danik is the president of the 12-year-old Penton Owners Group, which meets monthly at the KTM headquarters in Penton's hometown of Amherst.

He said the U.S. ISDE teams meet annually for a reunion in a different part of the country, where they invite off-road motorcycle enthusiasts of any skill level to accompany them on the trail.

Danik looks back fondly on his years racing with the encouragement of Augustine and moving up through the ranks and achieving success in endurance riding with the help of his hero, John Penton.

At age 59, he still does some local trail riding, and rides in Marienville, Forest County, with his son and sons-in law in the summer.

He also is asked to talk at various motorcycle venues and takes his Pentons to about eight vintage motorcycle events across the country each year. Many of his motorcycles sport John Penton's signature on their gas tanks.

He won't divulge the number of Pentons he owns, but said he has enough to ride a different Penton every day for one month.

Danik, whose 1973 ISDE helmet reads “The Man from Mars,” said he never would have won the medals or competed at all in the ISDE events were it not for Penton, who he visited earlier this month.

“To me, he is a true American hero.”

Videos from ISDE races are available for view on www.youtube.com.