Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Despite S unday m orning commuters, part of the enduro trail ro ut ed riders over the. Delaware- Chesapeak e canal - twice. Russel roosts Delaware RegiQnal Enduro By Paul Clipper/Tra il Rider Magazine BEAR . DE. OCT. 25 J eff R ussell join ed Terry Cun ningham for the long drive to Delaware from O hio this weekend and wound up taking the Delaware State Enduro overall trophy, The two came Husqvarna 's Jeff Russell scored 1 3 points towards captu ring the overall v ictory at the Delaware State Enduro . Th is downhill, called the Delaware Dive, was one of few hills encountered at the ECEA-promoted enduro . u p " j ust to ride in Delaware! They pu t o n a good nduro h e re , o ne th at mak es Y OU think!" sa id Russell. Russell's sco re of 13 pu t h im five points a head of th e nearest EC EA co rn peri to r. ¥Z2.~ 0-m oulll ed Kevin Benn eu. who rook [irst in th e ECEA AA class with 18 poin ts lost , just 40 seco nds a head o f Hu sk y rid er Ch ris Puff. C u nningh am has been h illing cnduros here a nd th ere since hi s broken It'g ha s heal ed , j ust rryin g to ge l in sh ape fo r next yea r's Na tional seas o n . H e, too, admi tted to enjoy ing th e Del awa re rid e, but a ny hopes he had o f winnin g we re wiped o u t hy th e tw o burns he rece ived during th e day. The to p five was ro u nde d o u t by a gro up o f AA rid ers sepa rated by sca n t seco nds. Honda 's Drew Sm it h it'd the third- through -si xth pack o n hi s XR280, fo llowed by J ohn Rogers o n a KT;\I a nd ECE A's 1986 C ham p io n Jack La ffert y J r. , r idi ng a H uskv 250 WR. "Trickv" wou ld he a cha ri ta ble word used 10 descr ibe th e Dela ware co u rse. One co mpe titor compared riding Delaware wit h p lay ing wit h ma tches - " If you do n 't watch w hat you 're doing, yo u' ll bu rn yo urse lf bad!" "We've o n ly got two week ends a year 10 put together th is end uro ," said Trail Boss Charles Staplefor d , " a n d we' re go i ng to m ak e sure everybod y rern em bers it next yea r!" By fa r. the mos t no torious sec tio n of th e run was th e sect io n preceding chec k number eig h t: a chec k th ai is cu rre n rly bein g p rot ested a nd wi ll probabl y li ve in infam y for th e res t o f th e cen tu ry! Th e sec tio n sta rted at th e chec ko u t for a tough section. T he th ree m iles of free territory were nothi ng special. but yo u co u ld fa ll behind if yo u did n 't Slay o n th e gas. At th e ver y end of th e th ree mil es, th e cl ub p laced a n observ ation check, .identifi ed by [h e proper fla g s, but they a lso h appen ed to put a set of flip cards and a clock in th e check! You ca n imagine wha t happen ed next. Th ere was a speed cha nge ri ght .u th e o bserva tion chec k 10 12 mph , a nd then th e co u rse skirted a ro und t he edg. ·s o f a m-wly- cu t co rn Iie-Id . It was a sim p le mailer to CU i the co u rse, and at lea st a quarter of th e riders th ought th ey were in another three m iles of free territorv, followin g tilt' "sern- t" chec k. w-i). exac tly two miles from rhc observati on chec k th ey found a real serret check, a nd a ver y la rge number of riders had to tri a ls-ride who le minutes a way in order 10 zero th e check. Most co uld n ' t po ssi hly zero it. " Yea h, that' s wh ere I blew it bad! " la ug hed Cunningham afterwa rds. "I kn ew il was a n o bserva tio n ch eck , but wh en I go t to th e field I saw so me buddi es o f min e o n th e other side, a nd I th ought ' Hey , I ca n zip rig h t across and ge t the mi lea ge from th em a nd just si t for a hit!' I rode up to th em as th ey were peg-wa lking into th e check!" Cu n ni ngha m ad m itted •• 10 scru bhi ng off ti me u n ril th ey , "o n ly" ca ugh t hi m two minutes hot. Ru ssell , who was ridi ng a m inu te beh in d C u n ni ng ha m o n minute 89, d idn ' t burn th e check. Th e ch eck ca ug h t do zens of riders ea rly. as th ey s pe d thro ugh the sen ion or cu t off the co rn ers . Among th e stu ng were Drew Sm ith , who was carryi ng a n excellen t score up unti l th at poin t. and J ack Laffert y J r. . Cu n n ingha m gave up a ll hope a fte r m isreadin g hi s ti mekeepin g eq u ip me n t a fter a gas sto p a n d blundering into a chec k seven min- . u tes early . " T he chec k wa s rig h t on," he said, " I just wasn 't watching what I was doing." For an u nw ary rider, the whole day wou ld go lik e that, as th e cl ub p layed games with late sectio ns and earl y sections. You co u ld easily lose seven points co m in g out of a nasty reed section late, and th en run seven minutes hot into th e next chec k! R iders were a lso burned by the infamous De laware Sluice section, an uphill run through a rock- lined water sluice in Lums

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