Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

th e kin d of race that a ny li ttle problem wo uld do you in." It wasn't until the third check when the top riders began dropping points. Hines and Bertram both dropped one. However, Hines was on the verge of zeroing the check, arriving four seconds after his rnin- : ute, But Hines said he tangled with another rider on the trail, costing him valuable time and that one point. The fourth check was the key to the whole enduro even though both Hines and Bertram zeroed it. It was a tiebreaker check and instead of slamming on the brakes and trying to arrive on second 30, Hines gambled and arrived at the check a little early on second 12, hoping the next check would be tight. Hines wanted a head start to check five, which was, in fact, tight. The gamble paid off. Hines ro lled through check five with only a few seconds to spare and zeroed the check. Bertram, on the other hand, went for the 30 at check four an d arri ved on 33, actually beating Hi nes by ni ne seconds . But Bertram ro lled through check five a few secon ds after his minute and dropped one full point. T h is turned out to be the differe nce for the overall. "I missed the check (five) by four seconds," said Bertram. "I stalled and waited for 30 at check four, and Kevin decided to arrive a little ear ly. He gambled and figured right." The same happened to Hawkins. "I stalled at check four as well," said Hawkins. " I guess I shouldn't have since I missed the next check by 10 seconds." . Hawkins was in contention with the leaders for most of the enduro until the late stages when he crashed. " I hit a tree stump," said Hawkins. " I went over the bars and hit my ribs on something and knocked the wind out of me. Then another guy came around and hit the same stump, then crashed into me. The stump also ben t my chain guide causing it to get jammed up. I lost about fo u r minutes. " . Both Hines and Bertram zeroed the next check (six), and it was abou t the same time w hen Bert ram 's odome ter unit q uit wo rking. " I just had to read off the corner markers and compare it to my comp u ter," said Bertram. At this point, all that Bertram could do was ho pe that H ines would drop at least one more point than him at one of the next five checks, bu t it wasn't to happen. At check seven, H ines and Bertram dropped three points each and zeroed the rest of the course, although check nin e was tight. Heading out of a woods section before nine, Bertram was 59 seconds into his mi nute; H i nes was 20 seconds into his . However, Ber tram and Hines made it on time, as well as Jeff Russell and Hawkins. They were the only riders to zero this check. With three rounds left in the series, two in California, and the last in New Jersey, Bertram is optimistic about catching Hines. "He (Hines) has the advantage," said Bertram. "He has more wins than me, and he has only one bad score and I ha ve two. Bu t two of the next three rounds are in Ca lifornia, and I 've got nothing to lose; Kevin has all the pressure on him, and pressure can play tric ks on your min d. I bet it'll come down to the final event in New Jersey." • Jeff Fredette dropped eight points and finished fourth overall on his Kawasaki KDX200. Dave Bertram's second overall keeps him in the points chase with Hines. There are three more rounds left in the series. AMA National Enduro Series: Round 8 Hines and Bertram battle at Pine Pen By Kit Palmer GOODMAN, MS, AUG. 30 KTM's Kevin Hines and Husqvarna's Dave Bertram continued. their season long, East Coast versus West Coast battle in the National Championship title chase at the Pine Pen Enduro and it was Hines edging 'Bertram by a single . h ' II p~)lnt to ,?apture t e overa V .lctory. H ines collected a low SIX pomts whi le Bertram earned a seven. The Weston, Massachusetts resident, Hines, maintains his series points lead over Ben icia, California's Bertram (218-190). • Third overall went to Darrell Bell who rode a 1985 250cc KTM to a seven point loss, just one point ahead of Kawasaki KDX200 rider Jeff Fredette. Three riders tied at nine points apiece, and when the tiebreaker points were added, it was Husky's Jeff Ru ssell getting the upper hand. H is tiebreaking score of 251 squeaked ahead of Greg Johnson's 258 tally. Ta king seventh wit h a 9.263 score was Darrell's bro ther Bob Bell. Rounding out the top were George Waller ( 10.224) and B. Rogers (11.257). Eleventh and 12th went to Dwight Rudder and Husky's Randy Hawkins. Most of the riders agreed that the Pole Pen Enduro, co-sanctioned by SERA, was a well organized event, III but the trail difficulty factor was low. "You could pre tty m uch ri de -the 24 mph speed average the whole way," said Bertra m . " The trai l could've been more difficult to separate the scores. I mean, you had to ride hard, but you could maintain the pace. O ther than that, the event was great." Up until the actual running of the Pole Pen Enduro, temperatures were very hot at Goodman, so the club ran a somewhat kick-backed schedule with the heat in mind; more than usual resets were used. However, at event time, the weather was cool and it was too late to change the schedule. Many short and tight sections were used over mostly sandy and woodsy terrain. There was a total of 10 checks, with checks four and five deciding the outcome of the enduro. The first section of the enduro was a three mile grass track course, and no one had any problems zeroing the first check. Check two was a zeroab le check as well. It was at this time when four-stroke Husky rider J eff Irwin began expierencing problems. "I had brake problems then m y right-side muffler began to blow out," said Ir win . "Early in th e enduro, the front master cylinder broke and I had no brake. Then, the muffler core broke and it started running like a sewing machine. The packing began deteriorating and sta rted to clog the muffler. No exhaust was coming out. This was Results - OVERALL: Kevin Hines (KTM); 2. Dove Bertram (Hus); 3. Darr ell Bell ( KTM~ 4 . Jeff Fredette (Kaw); 5 . Jeff Russell (Hus); 6. Greg Johnson; 7. B. Bell ; B. George Waller (KTM); 9 . B. Rogers; 1D. Dw ight Rudder; 11. Randy Hawkins (Hus); 12. L Carter; 13. J . Plunket; 14 . Jeff Irwin (Hus); 15. G. Holli ngshead; 16. M. Young; 17. K. Crenshaw ; l B. Ed Ar net; 19. K. Hutchkinson; 20 . G. Copeland.

• Cover