Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 00 O"l National Enduro:Champion Terry Cunningham and his automatic-tran..mission HUBqVII'Pa won the Delaware National Enduro. AMA #!lations' Chllmpionship Enduro Series: Fina'round Cu~~ingham rips to Delaware State win By Fran Kuhn BEAR. DE, OCT_ 28 Husqvarna's Terry Cunningham finished the 1984 season in style, 'riding his 500 Automatic to the overall win at the final round of the senes, the Delaware State National, which was organized by the Delaware Enduro Riders. Cunningham, who had the serie title c1iriChed going in, sealed his third cO!Jsecutive overall win with a IO-poiil.! score; finishing ahead of Husky teammal s Dave'BtY· tram and Mike Melton who completed the 112.I-mile course with scores of 12 and 13 points, respec· tively. Melton's score was enough to move the '83 series champ into second overall in the season's final PQint tally. Another Husky teammate - Kevin Hines - tied with ew Jersey privateer Donnie Tomlin at 16 points. but picked up fourth overall for the day by virtue of his 10-second advantage over Tomlin at an emergency checkpoint. Drew Smith completed a Husky sweep of the top positions by placing fifth with 18. Even with temperatures in the-mid80s - quite warm for this time of year - there were few complaints a bout condition at the event. Most riders agreed that the course, while not one of the most difficult, was still one of the year's best - combining tight woods sections with fast fire roads and stretches of QlackLOp in and around the north Delaware am· munity. Larry Curl ell, a mem ber of the D.E.R. club and oneofthe key people involved in organizing the event, explained the club's philosophy with regard to the layout: "We basically try to run a true enduro - one that require not only strong riding skills - but one that forces a rider to think. It would be ea y to layout a killer course, but only the top guy would be able LO finish. We want a course that's challenging, but doesn't sLOp the less experienced riders from fin· ishing."Cunningham agreed with Curlell's ideas, and felt the club's effort to lay out such a trail was successful. "It was a really good even!," said Cunningham. "The ~hing I liked mo&t about it was that it was a true enduro.. A lot of clubs put on enduros to test a guy on his riding ability - which is a good point. With so many fast guys today, they have to piake j't difficult, otherwise you'll have a bunch ofguys zero the thing. The difference today was th.at. they made you use your head .. : if you didn't, you got burned. LI was a real tesr of. a rider's' ability to think.' Melton concurred: "You always have to think when you come here ... it was a real}y good event." A 'prime example of the~intellec· LOsl ob~acles nco\llllered by the. competitors came at the. 72.I·mile mark, and Doth Mellon a'nd Hines found out about it the hard way. Club members had set up an observation check - but with a twist. "It was marked as an observation check," said Mellon. "but what threw me off was that they gave us our time out there, so I thought I had at least another three miles to go before the next heck - I just floored it. It was less than three miles LO the next timed check (laughs). and I burned it by a minutel" Hines also acknowledged that the check was clearly marked "OB," but was still not completely satisfied with the arrangement. "I wasn't aware of the rules. I think that Mike and I were the only guys that burned that one. II was about 2.2 miles from the previous check, and I rolled in four seconds early. I had a terrible ride Teem Husky's Mike Mehon finished third overall in Deleware, moving him into second overall in 1984 point standings. today, it was as simple as lhal." If that weren't enough, Hines had more unexpected difficulties when he collided with another rider just before the. third gas stop. Tqe encounter came as riders were wmed back along a section of lrailthatthey had run earlier in the day. "I didn't approve of them running us backwards through those reed's," said Hines. "They ran us one direc· tion one time, and then re-arrowed it ...in the opposite direction and I got hil --head-on. It cost me maybe five or six minutes. I overshot a corner, th.en went to turn around ana a guy just center-punched me. I jumped off to avoid injury,but it flattened my pipe and broke my water pump housing. Luckily, I had a half hour at that neXI _gas stop to repair the damage." Bertram also had problems in the same section. "We ran it twice, and a bunch 'of the guys were starting to get lost because the arrows were getting pulled down. I ran inLO a guy' and broke off my route sheet holder." Course steward Curlell explained that flooding of the area two weeks before the event had forced the club to close off pan of the original trail and re-use thal section of the course. One notable DNF was Can·Am's John Martin, who encountered transmission problems when he ran his shift lever into a tree stump. Another AA rider, Husky's Fritz Kadlec, elected not to make the trip from Colorado for the event since il wouldn't affect his placing in the final point tally. His bike ended up in the capable hands of young Jeff Russell, who rode the Husky 250WR to the overall A class win - nota bad wav to finish out the season. . In other A class action, Ray Mun· genast nipped fellow Husky riders Randy Hawkins and Alan Randt for the Heavyweight win by dropping 19 points to the 20s posted by Hawkins and Randt. All three were in the top 10 overall. • Results OVERALL: Terry Cunningham (Hus) 10. OVERAtL A: Jeff Russell (Hus). AA: 1. Dave Benram (Hus); 2. Mike Melton (Hus): 3. Kevin Hines (Hul); 4. Donnie Tomlin (Hus); 5. Drew Smith (Hus): 6. J.Lofferty(Hus): 7. Mike Toole (Husl. UW A: 1. A. Lapinski; 2. R. Lenover (Kaw); 2. M. Stinson (","w); 4. F. Soltner (Hus); 5. H.l..oppolmoier (KTM). MED UW A: 1. R. Pino (Vam); 2. P. Wetzel; 3. J. FI_(Vam); 4. M. Lombort (Kaw); 5. B. Dana (Hus). M/W A: 1. S. Vanasse fKTM); 2. J. Gahm (Husl; 3. G. Scherer (Hus); 4. J. Loffertv (Husl; 5. J. Gunselman (Hus). H/W A; 1. R. Mungonaot (Husl; 2. R. Howt

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