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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126935
Riding a Kawasaki KDX200. Garner Palenske wound up taking first in the
200cc A class and 16th overall.
Basically the first two loops went·
fairly smoothly for the most of the
riders, especially for Fredette (Hallman Racing) and Mesecher. After
zeroing the first loop, Fredette and
Mesecher were tied for the lead. both
one second off the tie-breaker. Then
foJlowed Palenske five seconds down
and Bertram with a six.
Loop two saw only two top contenders drop any points. Both Hawkins and Spiva lost a minute at check
two, while Bertram, Fredette, Mesecher, Palenske, Irwin and many riders zeroed the loop. Palenske, how-.
ever, came close to losing a point at
the first tie-breaker check, which
probably cost him second overall.
"Right after the start of the second
loop," said Palenske, "I got lost and
reached the check 55 seconds into my
minule. "
It was the third loop that was the
turning point of the race. The loop
started off with a·15-mile section that
ran riders down and up extremely
rocky hills. It was- here that Cunningham called it quits after he crashed. "Everything was going pretty
good," said Cunningham, ·"but I
only made it about a mile and a half
into the third loo~ They bad a real
rocky ravine, and my front brake was
real touchy on my lWs.e; Ijuststooped
down over the rock~nd I wanted to
make a sharp cutback,over a rut. I just
touched my brake and my front wheel
nosed right into a rock at the same
time, and the bike just went right on
over. It smashed the throttle, bent the
handlebars down to the gas tank and
bent my front rotor a little bit." After
the crash, Cunningham headed back
to the pits and sat out the rest of the
enduro.
. It was also in this section where
Fredette lost his chance for the overall. "I bailed twice really good," said
Fredette, "and I lost 10 points at the
first check. I fell off in this one section and my hand didn't work too
good after that. It swelled up and was
reall y sore. The second crash (the one
Ile injured his hand) was· a good one.
I was coming down this rocky hill; it
was one of those fields that was
nothing but boulders, and I was
doing real good, then all of a sudden
the bike just went sideways. It suddenly was gone and I just slid down
on my hands.
'{jfhe first two 1fN.ps. were a lot o~
ftml but after I cr.ilittteJi a.couple ~
times in the third loop, I was prelj\Y;
pissed," said Fredette. "Then they
ran us down a stupid creek thing that
was nothing but boulders. I mean the
guy who layed out the course must
have a tin can for a motorcycle nobody can ride down that thing
without wadding their' bike. I got
about halfway down and my bike
started getting bounced from rock to
rock; a couple times it went down the
hill upside down. It was fun I guess
- for out here."
"Those first 15 miles of the third
loop were the toughest of the whole
enduro," said Bertram. "I lost six
points in this section. It was real
rocky and had a high speed average,
so it was just tough to stay on schedule. There was one check during the
Loop that I burned and so did everyone else. I think they might throw it
out, because everyone that I know
that was around me burned it and
was 3/iOth off.
I
"Basically, I thought it was a pretty
easy enduro for a National," said Bertram. "They had that one section in
the third loop that Lasted for 15 miles,
but after that they had a section that
had a 18 mph speed average, so we
just putted for a long time. Then they
ran us in a 42 mph section that was
only four or five miles long and that
was the only other place in the third
loop that we dropped any points."
Hawkins, who's never really ridden a desert enduro before and dropped 15 points in the third loop said,
"Being the first time out here in the
desert, it's definitely different. I reaJly
don't know what to think of it. I've
never ridden on the moon, but this
has to be like riding on the moon or
something. It sure is different. I
would've liked to have seen some
water at the resets, because my throat
got pretty dry out there. The only real
problem I had in the third loop was
the check we all burned. I was a full
minute off in the 18mph section, and
J,guess I just went a little slow where
Dave and those guys gassed it up. I
had a little problem with dust, especially in this one long section. I
caught some guys ahead of me on
bigger bikes in this sandw'}sh or little
dune-thing section with all the
whoops in 'em, and they just outmotored me down through there. As
soon as I would get close to them,
they would just dust me our. I'm just
h