Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Husqvarna's Dave Bertram won round two ofthe National Endu ro C ham p ionship Series in Twaine Hart, California, on his 430cc Auto. Defending enduro c hampion Terry Cunningham crosses a rocky streamon his way to a second overa ll; three points behind w in ner Bertram . AMA National Championship Enduro Series: Round 2 going but spoiled it by hillin g check four , right before th e gas , o ne m inute ea rly. " Sometimes you j us t GII1' t go slow eno ugh," co m me nt ed Hines. j eff Ir win looked co n fide nt with a three-point loss for th e first loop. Husq varn a 's Mike Melt on, sti ll recovering from a serio us leg / h ip in jury susta ined in December, felt good, "j ust rid ing slow." Melt on was method ical a nd looked happy just to be th ere. Some problem s o u t on th e trail during th e fir st loop, including a front dis c broken by a rock , kept him out o f contention for th e win . T h e seco nd loop proved to be th e leas t rocky of th e th ree but at th e sa me time co n tained a sectio n that took a heavy toll o f points from most of the top riders. T he sectio n before check six was p lenty tight and Cunningham and Bertram cont in ued to clash swo rds with th e California rider edging out Cunningham once again. Bertram ca rded a two whil e Cunning ham slid in for a three-point loss. Bertram , riding five rnintues behind Cunningham on m inute 35, h ad th e mental adva n tage over Cunningham kn owing before th e third an d fin al loop th at he was ahead by two m inutes. Strategy was clearly in pla y as th e top riders pi tted during th e Hl-rriinutes layover fo r th e seco n d gas. Wh en a rider re moved h is gloves h e wo u ld cas ua lly la y them over the score cards (wh ich were taped to each rider's fro nt fen der) so fell ow co m pe titors weren 't quite sure h ow th ey stood before goi ng ou t o n th e th ird tra il section. Bertram ran into problems after che ck six wh en th e electronic odometer o n hi s Husk y sto p ped working . Using spare pa rts from ano ther Husky a swa p was ma de in a mailer of min utes an d Bert ra m was on hi s wa y. Wit h th e third loop in corporating much o f th e beginning loop plus so me new trail and th e longest dis tan ce between ch ecks, most o f th e rid ers were goi ng a ll-ou t. Rumors of rock-str ewn tra ils ahea d had a few of th e top riders, including H ines, fillin g a new rear tire an d wh eel to their bikes a t th e seco nd gas sto p . T he n ew ti re -was a hel p to th e KTM rider as he new through th e fin a l loop to ca rd a n o vera ll fina l ta ll y o f 12, good eno ug h for third o vera ll. On the third loop, Bertram o nce Bertram skins Little Polecat By Kevin Scott TWAIN HARTE, CA, APR. 27 Husqvarna rider Dave Bertram wo n round two of the National Enduro Championship, held in the cen ter of California's gold country. Carding a low score of seven for the day, Bertram served notice to defen ding champ Terry C un ningham tha t he was o u t for his ti tle. Cunningtham finished seco nd ~ overall, three points off th e pace with a sco re of 10. KTM 's Kevin H in es finished third, two points back and Husk y riders jeff Russell and john Haak er rounded OUI th e top five. Weather co ndi tions proved to be typically Californian for lat e April, with sunny', blue skies an d temperatures in the 70s. Trails which started out moist a nd sli p pe ry ea rly in th e morning quickly turned dry a nd dusty by 10:00 a.rn. Over 500 riders showed up to tak e on th e course laid out by Chuck Kri st and th e Merced Dirt Riders. A a n d B riders would tackle three loops and about 110 mi les of trail while the C riders , Seniors and Women would get it a little easier, being able to fini sh after the second loop (abou t Btl miles total) was comple ted . T he course had qui te a few speed ch anges with some average speeds for sections set as low a s six mph. Resets wer e th e order of the day a lso as riders sometimes found themselves si tting still for up to 20 minutes. Vot ed th e best District-Sf (n ort h ern Ca liforn ia ) endu ro for a co u p le of yea rs, th e Lillie Polecat drew crit icis m from so me of the to p National rid ers regarding th e speeds a nd len gths o f th e sectio ns. Cunn ing- ham in particular sai d that the di stan ce betwe en so me ch ecks was too short for a National-ca lib er event. Even so , most agreed the co urse was a cha lle n ging one a nd fU1,l 1O ride. The AA riders were a ll gro u ped wi thi n 25 m inutes of each other wi th ISDE ride r j ohn Haaker being fir st o u t on minute 16. He was soon fol low ed by La rry Roeseler riding a Husq varna 510 four- stroke and CanAm 's G eoff Ballard. Ball ard didn' t go far, how ever . as the hamstrin g muscle h e pulled las t weekend d urin g th e Shas ta Dam National H are Scrambles wa s proving too painful. By th e time th e.rid ers began to arrive at the firs t gas stop, Ballard was already th ere, dressed in stree t clothes to o ffer sup port to fell ow team rid er j ohn Martin . Martin was having some problem s a n d h aving burned a check by two minutes h e was down 13 points a lready. The bailie for the win , h ow ever , was betw een Bertram and Cunningham. Four checks were sp rea d o u t before th e first gas at 48 m il es, bu t onl y th e run 10 the fir st chec k was tight. Cunningham sliced through the tight woods and rocks to card on ly a one po int loss there, but Bertram was o n h is best form , in cred ibl y zeroing th e ch eck that was taking two and th ree point penalties from m os t o f th e other to p riders. Kevin Hines, rid ing a protot ype KT M 350 NIXE with a fu ll 350cc m otor, had a good ri de again rode his Husky 430 Automatic to a one point adva n tage over Cunningham , wh o fin ished with an overall score of 10. With Hines a t third. jeff Russell pil oted his Husky to fourth with a 14-pointloss and Los Altos, California rider john H aaker dropped 15 for fifth overa ll and th e A class win. Larry Roeseler rode h is Husk y four-stroke to sixth overall, fifth AA rider. Martin 's da y went from bad to worse as he lost 10 points on th e eig h th check to fini sh 11th AA rider with a score of 29. \_ In th e 200cc A cla ss Dong Hoagland took th e win with a 30-point loss ; one point ba ck with Mit ch Lenz. Grant Palenski won 250cc A, with Mark Lucas second and ISDE rider jim Norris piloting his Yamaha to third. Wit h john Haaker p icking up the overall A, Bria n Beatie placed fi rst in Open A followed home by Rob Sutliff an d Rand y Ca rlas. The Senior A cla ss was hotly contested with th e em ergen cy ch eck breaking th e tie between Rich ard Christ ian and Frank Showers j r. , Christian got th e wi n , a nd Cliff Glidden was third. The Merced Dirt Rid ers put on an event worthy o f th eir fir st a ttem p t a t a National Enduro. Disappointing. however , was th e result sco ri ng. With th e excep tion o f a n unoffi ci al overa ll one hour after th e event. the results were not avail abl e until Wednesday, three da ys after th e finish. Many riders wer e disapp?i/:lled with having to go home not even knowing how they finished. One suggestion for improvement wa s to use a leader board where every rider 's score is posted as he turns in his score ca rd a t the sign up table. • Results OVERALL: Dave Bart ram (7). OVERALL A : John Haakar (151 . AA: 1. Dave Bertram (1); 2. Terry Cunning ham (10); 3. K'Jvin Hinas (12); 4. Jaff Russall(1 4): 5. Larry Roaseler (1B); 6.Jeff Irw in (181; 7 . Mike Toole (1B); 8.J eff Fredene(22): 9 . Duke Lambert (22); 10. Men Cullins (27); 11. John Martin (29); 12. M ike M elton. 200 A : 1. Don Hoagland (30). 2. M itc h Lenz (31); 3. Donnie Simon e (34). 250 A: 1. Grant Palen ski (29); 2. Mark Lucas (35); 3. J im Norr is (35). • OPEN A: 1. Brian Beetle (261 2. Rob Sutliff (3 1): ; 3. Randy Carlos (321. SS: 1. Bud Ham ilton (46t, 2. Coloysa Holland Sr. (76); 3. Bob Sangalli (1051 · SR A : 1.R ichard Chr isti an (28); 2. Frank showers Jr. (28t 3, Cliff Glidden (29t 4·STRK A: 1. David Crovvell (381 2. Jo hn Ford.l< . ; (43): 3. Joh n Burw ell (51). 11

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