Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

last year's IS D E J un ior World rider Kurt Hough pi loted his Kawasaki KX250 to the overall victory at the Three-Day Michigan ISDE Qualif ier. Suzuki-mounted Randy Hawkins led most of the event until the final MX special test where he was beat by w inner Hough. Team Green's Grant Palenske (138) leads Kurt Hough (1 25) andLerrv Roeseler (2 3 9) during the final 250cc motocross special test. Palenske lat er bobbled which gave Ho ugh the lead and moto w in . 1988 ISDE Qualifier series: Round 1 Hough hangs tough in Rose City By Dick Burleson RO SE CITY, MI, MAY 20-21-22 Kurt Hough, who has recently been second overall in what appears to be every race he rides; broke his jinx by taking the overall victory a t the Bentwheels Club 's Three-D ay ISDE Qualifier. difi d H oug h.' nidi mg a mo I ien Kawasaki KX250, was the fastest rider in the ma jority of th e motocr oss a nd terrain tests. A lost route mark on day one, however, forced Hough to spe nd the next rwo days trying to catch a young Randy Hawkins on his modified Suzuki RM . The determined Indiana rid er co nsistent ly kept on th e pressure in th e tests and kept clean marks the rest of the event to come within striking distance for the final rnotocross test. In that test, Hough got a second place sta rt to T ea".l Green te.a mmate Grant Palenske with Hawkins back in fourth. When Palen ski made a n a ppa rent bobble in a tight turn H ough took full advantage to stor~ to a co mma nd ing lead, while Hawkins and Larry Ro eseler stru ggled to ga in ground in th e heavy dust of Pa lenske's KX250. It onl y took a wait for the official times of the other two terrain tests of the third day to be posted , to see that Hough had won th e overall. The qualifying events , like th e Six-Days itself, rea ll y starts before th e first rid er leaves. On Thursda y the small town of Ros e City welcomed co mpetitors from all over th e U.S. and even a few from Canada for thi s . ro und of three events to determine th e riders who represent th e United States in the ISDE in France in September. The sayi ng, " Everyth ing 's th e sa me, o n ly differ ent" definitel y a p p lied to th e team s and riders present for impounding. New was th e presen ce of Kawasa ki T eam Green, head ed by manager Mark Johnson. The squad was in full force with veteran Roeseler on a modified KX250, al ong with Hough, former Husky rider Fred Hoess, Californian Pa lenske and Idaho's Reed Bright. On modified KXI25s were Jeff Fredette, th e " Lone Kawboy" who wa sn 't a lo ne . anymore; Aaron Hough , aft er an unsuccessful season so far o n Cagiva; Robbie Neely, Plus 25 class Mot ocross Champion and recent National Hare Scrambles class winner; Jeff Mill er , and Donnie Simone. In the Open class, T eam Green was represented by National H are & Hound racer Paul Krause, and Six -Day vet J o hn Nielsen . The only other tea m of note was Suzuki 's .development squad on modified RM250s, head ed by Charles Halcomb, manager and racer, with current National Enduro Series lead er Randy . Hawkins and Dave Bertram riding along with Dirt Ri der's Tom Webb . The omnipresent Husky team will from th e past years was gone, with Terry Cunningham so loing on a 125 Cagiva. Noticeably absent was Ed Loj ak and.Mar k Hyde. California's Big John Haaker was th ere on his four-stroke Husky along with Husky dealer David Rhoades. KTM was su p port ing Dirt Bike's Ed Arn et, with KTM 's sta r Kevin Hines a bsen t with a rep orted kn ee injury su ffe red from mountain biking. KTM dealer Bob Bean was riding a modified 250 motocross KTM . Fritz Kadl ec was th ere o n hi s new YZ250, a nd Ca lifornia end uro ace Rick Daniel was also present wit h hi s Yamaha YZ490. A new face in the cro wd belonged to . Yam ahamounted Jimmy Lewis of Californi a; Lewis had sn uck awa y from co llege for a week to try hi s hand a t th e qualifiers. J eff Irwin sho wed up.with a used Er i k McKenna H onda CR500 ; Texas ' Todd H arris was also Honda mounted, a CR250. The 0-350 FourStro ke cla ss featured an all Honda XR lineu p , led by Drew Smith on th e bike he rode in Po land last year, wi th southerner Dwight Rudder, Californian -Bill Fullmer J r., Michigan 's form er trophy rid er Brian Mull, a nd the wild Taz Harv ey. In th e Over 500 Four-Stroke class, Sco tt Summers, recently off a fourth overa ll performance in Washington a t the National Hare Scrambles, was a lso here to give it a try. There was no team from Honda, but the en try numbers showed Honda to have the most bikes entered. It had been dry in Michigan, and day one started wit h a light mis t. T he riders immediately went to the firs t motocross test, and th is the Bentwheels Club had prepared the formerly grassy field to motocross specs, com plete with tabl etop jumps: Dust was a prob lem for the MX and would stay a problem for the ent ire event. Following th e test, th e only real trai l problem encountered in the event occured. Part of the course from day two and day three used the same sectio n , and riders unfamiliar with the markings thought they were lost and wandered around look in g for th e proper trail. Those who just continued rejoined the day one arrows again wi thout losing time. In addition, there was a mud hole that consumed more than one Californian, although ' Roese ler came through clean. Noteworthy riders who lost time in the sectio n were Cu nni ngha m with 12 points, Kurt H ough with one

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