Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~-==-""---- ---~-- --- Kevin Hines rode well through three days to collect the best individual score and win the 500cc Intent class. Mike Melton was 61 points/seconds off Hines' pace for second overall and second in class. AHA ISDE Qualifier Series: Round 2 deteriorated into rut running through the mud and up and down every illli. The special test took place on the first loop between checks three and four. All it was, basically, was a fire road that sloped downhill then climbed gradually. Hines boogied through second fastest, according to the official score sheet, completing the test in an astoundingly quick 332 seconds (points). More than 40 econds behind was Melton at 366; 250cc Intent class entrant Ed Lojak blitzed through in 368. Hyde turned in the quickest 125cc time with his 382 while in the Four- !roke class, Roeseler's 396 beat Honda-mounted Drew Smith by two second. OHicially, a 250cc A rider posted the fastest time of the day with a 308. A number of rider D F day one, or at least came close to it. Frank tacy had been running well until the second loop when the ignition on his XR250 began playing games. Rather than risk it dying in some remote corner of the course, he elected to come back in. Keith Moore was another who was running respectably, but a fall wiped out the radiator on his KXI25 (to which he had fitted a rear disc brake). And one mudhole worried Drew Smith when it wallowed his XR500, costing him a few minutes before he could free it and dry things out. Hines takes Trask • again By Mark Kariya/Dirt Rider McMINNVILLE, OR. MA Y 26-28 The record books shall show that Team Husky's Kevin Hines topped the Trask Mountain Three-Day Trial for the second year in a row, thanks to three days of outstanding riding. More than a few riders questioned the official scoring, however, and suspected it contained several errors. Au tra- 14 !ian Geoff Ballard, for instance, left Trask believing that he'd actually had the fastest times in the event. The Can-Am rider instead had to be satisfied with the 250cc Intent class win and third overall with 2724 points/ econds, behind Hines (2619) and Husqvarna's Mike Melton (2680), both on 400WRs. Husky's Mark Hyde and Larry Roeseler took the 125cc and FourStroke classes, with 2879 and 2760 points, respectively. "What I hate is, if you (the rider) put a big eHon into something, I'd like it to be run fairly," claimed Ballard. "Somebody can't beat you by that much (in shon, simple special tests). The difference is incredible. And you can't prove it because they say, 'Well, here's the numbers,' but to me, it'll never mean that's right." Even Mel ton admi ued, before scores were posted, ''I'm sure Ballard will win it .... He finally didn't have any problems and showed how he can really ride." Others, naturally, were nOl convinced. aid Roeseler, "Ballard went really fast in the track te ts here, but we really don't know how he did in the terrain tests. They were rather short, but you can still bobble there and something can happen." Day one Unlike last year's event, held under sunny skies, it rained for a week before the start at six on Saturday morning. As the 158 riders (36 would finish all three days) headed out of Mulkey ORV Park - siteofimpound, the motocross course and start/finish - a light mist continued to fall. Locals and those who had ridden Trask in '81 knew what lay in the mountainous trails ahead - some of the slickest mud to be found. Actually, the first loop of this approximately 150-mile day wasn't too bad, as only a few rider had problems. Things got more interesting the second time around as the trail Day two The toughest part of the run was past, it seemed. Gone were the clouds and rain; with the promise of drying, tacky trails. Day two used many of the same trails but ran the loop backwards and was planned as a 170mile day with a three-lap motocross at the fini h. Melton's day didn't start well as he dropped 10 points oH the bat with an engine that wouldn't tan in the required minute. Roeseler 10 t 10 points in a similar manner. "Snake" made up most of that deficit in the special test, though, his 320 score was the day' faste t. Lojak and Hines tied for next be t at 32 while jeff Fredeue 'turned a 334 on his KDX200. To no one's surprise, Hyde po ted a 344, veritable light years ahead of the next 125, Huskymounted Brian Mull with a 368. Similarly, Roe eler's336eclip edSmith' 352 and KTM rider john Haaker's356. Unfonunately (or Lojak, he got lost after the special test, claiming that course markings sent him the wrong way. He lost 240 points, or four minute, for the error. Still, that was beller than Wally Wilson's [ate. The 500cc Intent winner at Tulsa dropped into a soupy hole and almost didn't make it out. By the time he pulled his Hu ky out of the slop, there was water everywhere. He pulled the air [ilter, wrung itoutand reponed, "It looked like a chocolate milk hake!" By the time he reached the next check, Wil on was 52 minutes late; he also got 10 t shortly after that and houred out. Randy Hawkins, a surprising second in Tulsa, also received a DNF. A large hole scooped in his Husky 125 and pinned it upside-down with the throllle wide open. He managed to kill the engine before it fragged, but the slight l6-year-old couldn't free the bike from its trap without help. Finally, Fritz Kadlec, jeff Fredeue and a Canadian rider stopped and helped. Less than a mile from the finish, though, Hawkins' engine seized, putting him out of the race for good. The motocross wins went to Hyde, KTM pilot Reed Bright, Can-Am's Kevin Brown, Ballard, Lojak and Smith. Ballard's 638 was the fastest; Hines, who was in the same heat, came out with the day's second fastest time - 642. Day three A slightly shorter "north" loop u ed meant-that day three would be about 320 miles, plus a three-lap final moto. Except for a few water

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