Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Former National Champion Terry Cunningham f inished third overall. Cunningham is Husqvarna 'sonly factory enduro ride r. AMA National Championship Enduro Series: Round 1 Roeseler rolls to Quicksilver win By Mike Larson NEW IDRIA, CA, FEB. 21 Larry Roeseler rode his Kawasaki KX250 to an eight-point drop to capture the overalt'vlctcrv at the opening round of the National Enduro Series. Randy Hawkins took second overall. finishing one point beh ind Roeseler. Hawkins used to ride Huskys but now is riding a pr ivateer Suzuki RM250. Kawasaki T eam Green's Larry Roeseler piloted his en duroized KX250 to the overall victory at the 17th Annual Salinas Ramblers M.e.'s Quicksilver National Enduro. RoeseIer dropped eig h t points on the 109.4-m ile co urse and j ust ed ge d ou t former T eam Husqv~r na ri de r · Randy H aw kins .wh o is now riding a privateer Suzuki, for the victory. Husq varna's Terry Cunnin gh am ro unded out the top th ree wi th an II point loss. T his was the first Nation al End uro of the seaso n th at saw fami liar faces on un fam iliar machines. T he o nce domina nt H u sq va rn a team was redu ced to just one member, m ultitime National champ Cu nningham. La st year's Nati ona l Cha mpionship runner-up and form er Tea m Husky rider , Dave Bertram, who finis hed fourth a t the Q uic ksilver, is now mounted on a privateer Suzuki. Two other Team H usky riders from 1987 h av e a lso sw i tc he d brands, J eff Russell , is now riding a Yamaha YZ250 and four-stroke ace Jeff Irwin is now pi loting a KTM 600 th umper. The Salinas Ramblers M.C. of AMA District 36 had nearl y a total of 400 ent ries. This year's event was spo nsored by Kal -Gard and Malcolm Smith Produ cts. Roeseler, H awkins, Cu nningham a nd Bertram all finis hed wi thin four poi nts of each other and were fa irl y close thro ugh out th e entire run. Roeseler dropped the lowest tota l with eig ht points, close ly follo wed by H awkin s with a n in e-point loss, Cunni ngha m with an I I poi nt tota l a nd Bert ram wi th 12. Defending Nation al Enduro Ch ampion Kevin Hines had a not -sa -good day, he bu rned the II th check in the run by seven minutes, effectively pu tting hi m out of the ru nni ng for a top 10 spo t. " I didn't burn any checks all da y, my bike wo rked good and I didn 't cras h," said Roesel er. " T he Iirst loop, I started o ut prett y good, I did have a few pl aces where I go t hung up in tra ffic and one check I mi ssed by three seconds. There was ano ther sectio n wh ere Hines and I were the on ly o nes to zero it. T hey had a coup le of tricky checks and a coup le of peop le burned them . "T he last loop was th e A and AA loop, and th e speed averages were a lot faster and Randy (Hawkins) and I tied o n that loop," said Roeseler. " I dropp ed fou r poi nts a n d he dropped fou r, and we beat everybody else In that section, but I beat him by one in th e first loo p and we stayed the same after that. " I pl an on riding a lot of the National enduros th is year, so th is was a good way to start th e seaso n off," said Roeseler. " At the fourth check, Larry made it and I didn 't ," said H awkins. " I went through and I was at :58 or :59 a nd I th ought I made it. I loo ked and the card hadn't even flipped yet, but they said, 'loo k. at the clock.' Dave missed it by two seconds, too. " " I think yo u 're goi ng to see a lo t more of th e yellow bikes up front, " Hawkin s said. " It was my firs t ride on th is bike in a Nationa l and m y third race o n it. T hese bik es work grea t. I'm reall y, rea lly impresse d wi th th e Suzukis and I'm loo king forward to riding them back East." " I had a pret ty good ride," said Cunningh am . " My shoc k blew in th e first sectio n though , betw een th e first and second check and th at made it awfu lly bo uncy la ter on in th e da y. It hurt me a little bit on th e real rock y uphill s and th e hi gh -speed stuff, the y had some real cho p py, whooped out hills out there. Basically th at's where it hurt me the most, because tha t last

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