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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126516
.... l.!") M P-4 < Overall winner Darryl Kuenzer lIeft) talks with top 200cc AA Jack Penton. Dick Burl_on had the seconcIlowat score and won the Open AA c.... AMA National Championship Enduro Series: Round 3 Forked- River ransacked by Kuenzer By Henny Ray Abrams COLUMBUS, NJ, MAR. 29 Michigan's Darryl Kuenzer gave Team KTM their first win of the National Enduro season by dropping only 15 points in the Forked River National. Many riders, Kuenzer included, likened the South Jersey pine forests to the 10 Michigan woods, which· gave Kuenzer an advantage, as he URd to live in Michigan. "It's just liIte Michigan. I do good in tight woods and long sections," Kuenzer said. · . lEd ham R elgnmg N a t' lona n uro c p Di~k Burleson dropped 17 points w!Uch was good for the AA ?pen class WID. Jack Pent<~n top~ a t~ght bu~ch of AA 200cc nders with his 20 POll~t tally, one better that teammate VIC Ely and KTM's Rod. Bush. The OveraD A WID went to another rider with a lot of local trail knowledge. Frank Vanaman of nearby MiIlviDe. New Jeney, rode his 250cc Husky to top honors, leaving Husky's Mike Melton at the top of the 250cc A class. Two other local favorites abo took ~ class wins with Bruce Kenn~'s 25 poIDts good for the Open class WID and Mike McHale's 28 the best in the 200cc A class. Gary Simpson took the 125 A . S~~da;d;.wned bright and sunny, possibly the nicest day here this year. Temperatures into the low 70's by the afternoon and caused a dust problem. The Ocean County Competition Riders and South Jersey Enduro Rid. ers, who co-sponSored the event, cut five miles off the end of the run giving the A and B riders a 144 mile run. Ihe C riders and women went 100 miles. George Lustig topped tbe C riders by dropping only 15 points. One feature of the event that was liked was that the pits were gas stops. A and B riders doubled back twice to fiD up with the otbers only coming in once. Nit's a ~al good ;pea," Burleson said of tbe set-up. "You'~ nOl using up gas sending people out to gas stops. And for something liIte this ~ a t don't need a pit ~. You kind of get det11Ded waiting around for a half hour(atlunch stop)." ''When it's 150 miles like this we try to make it a cloverleaf," OCCR club president Beth Cooper said. "When it's 100 miles we make it a figure eight." Coope.r abo mentioned that some Ohio riders had phoned earlier in the week wanting to know if they would have to make jet changes due to Forked River Mountain. "You don't want to know how higb the mountain is," said Cooper. "It's 184 feet high." Although be didn't bave any jetting problems, Kuenzer did have another bike problem. "1 lost my kickstarter," he said. Kuenzer started tbe enduro with a crowd· pleasing wheelie up the long start chute into the first woods section. Like most of the others he found the third loop to be the hardest and most fun. ". was waiting for that lap." 200cc AA class winner Jack Penton a~ after the run. "They did a nice thing and had some ~al beautiful trails. Everything was where it was suppo&ed to be. I should have done ~ty weD. Rod Busb and Vic Ely did ~ty good abo." Penton was right in p~cting the success of Ely and Bush, who took second and third, respectively. in the class. "Well, I thought I had a good day, but Jack beat me," Ely said of his Kawasaki teammate. "The tbird loop was the hardest. I dropped 15 points on the last lap. After they let the B riders and women out they decided to drop the hammer on us... "I enjoyed tbe third loop. It didn't seem like we did anything, " Bush explained. His only real problem came at the finish. "There was a guy laying at the finish line in the Qust and • hit him. • endoed and bent up the handlebars," he said as be attended to some scrapes on his shoulder. Another rider who showed prescience' was Team Yamaha's Larry