Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ind iana's Kurt Hough, ri ding a Kawasaki KX250, claimed his secon d overalllSDE Qua li f ier victory th is year. Terry Cunningham rode a Cagiva 125 to second overall, f irst 125cc. He finished 17 po ints behind Kurt Hough. AMA National Reliability Trials Qualifier Series: Round 2 Hough on top at Idaho 4-Day By Kit Palmer IDAHO CITY, ID, JUNE.3-6 Two weeks after claiming the overall victory at the Michigan Three-Day ISDE Qualifier, Indiana's Kurt Hough came to Idaho and continued his domination by capturing 20 th.e over~ll vi~tory at the Boise RIdge RIders Idaho Four-Day Qualifier. Hough, ridi ng a T eam Green Ka wa sa ki KX2 50 n ever rele n q uished hi s early ' lead which he obtained after the first special test o n Friday, althoug h 125cc Cagiva rider T erry Cu n n ingham a nd Suzukimo u nted R a n d y H a wk in s kept H ou gh h on est each day. H ough dropped a total of 6905 po ints to edge Cu nni ngham 's 6922 grand total. for th e overall win . Cunningham too k secon d follo wed by Hawkins' 6939 score. Fou rt h overall went to Kurt 's brother Aaro n , who collected a 6983 total aboard a 125cc Kawasak i, wh ile fifth overall went to H onda CR 250 rider J oe Zierman with 7008 points . T his year's ISDE Qualifi er series features a sligh tly different qualifying format than pr evio us year s, with em phas is on dai ly fin ishes rather than overall finishes. With three events on th e 1988 sched ule (Mich iga n T hree -Day, Idaho Four-Day, Orego n T wo-Day) the rid er 's seven best evalua tio n poi nt scores, out of a to tal of ni ne days, will be used to determ in e who will represent the U.S. at the ISD E in France this fall. Absent in Idaho was last year's ISDE top American Dave Bertra m, w h o also m issed th e Nation al enduro in Ohio, May 29, du e to an illness. Defendin g National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines al so was a no-show in Idaho (and Michigan) because of a knee inj ury. Both riders will most likely make the ISDE team via th e "i nj ury clause." The event covered approximately 150 miles of trai ls, usi ng the same three terrain special tests each da y. T he course was the same for each da y, as well, so by th e end of the four days , t h e co u rse h ad beco me extremely choppy and fairly exhausting for some of th e rid ers. Eve n so , the tra il p ace was extremely lax, with j us t about all the Intent class riders having six to 10 mi nu tes free time a t all the checks, so it soon becam e evide nt th at th e 12 total (terrain ) special tests wou ld be the major factor in determini ng the o u tco me of th e eve nt, si nce hardl y any route po ints were lost. A fina l mo tocross specia l test was origi nally sched u led to be a part of . th e Four-Da y but was even tuall y dropped from the event after AMA's H ugh Flem in g inspec ted th e track and fel t it to be un safe. T here were no accelera tion tests. Taking th e 125cc class win was Cunningha m, wh o was third overa ll beh ind Kurt H ou gh and H awkins after the first day . But Cunningham steadily moved forward th e followi ng th ree days . The four -ri me Na tio nal Enduro Cha mpion took over seco nd p lace after day two, lead in g Ha wkins by 12 points. Aft er da y three Cu n ningha m extended his advantage over Ha wkins to 13 points, but was losing ground to leader Kurt Hough, who had developed a co m forta ble lead . H owever, Cunningham gained 47 points o n H ough when H ough ex pe rie nced tw o cra shes in the co ntro versia l fin al special test of the event on da y four. But Cunningham came up 16 po ints sh ort and settl ed for second overall, which is on e of the highes t 125cc overa ll finish es in a U.S. ISDE Qualifier. The o n ly rider to give chase to Cun ni ng ham in the 125cc class was Aaron H ough, who was just 13 seconds o rr Cunn ingham 's pace after day one. Hou gh , in fact, beat Cunn ingham three times in the speci al tests, once on Friday, Sa turday and Mond ay. The ot her nin e times, Cun ningham aced H ou gh . 'H ough ended up fin ishing 61 points behind Cunningh am. Third in the 125cc class went to j eff Fredette wh o cla imed the fastest 125cc special test th e first thi ng Frida y m orn in g, an d tied Cunn ingham for the fastest score on Sunday's first spec ia l test. T he rest of th e way, Fredette p layed thi rd fiddl e to Cunningh am and H ou gh. Idaho 's J eff Mill er pi loted hi s Ka wasaki KXI25 to fou rth 125, despite taking a hard first-da y getoff. Miller fin ished 520 po ints behind winner Cunningh am . Rounding o u t th e top five was Kawasak i rider Robb y Neeley, wh o fini shed 42 points beh ind Mill er. Kawasaki rid er Donnie Sim on e had a good ride go ing before mi sreading hi s ro u te chart and burned a check by nine m inut es. Si mone also had his rear suspension str u t bolt brea k on his two-yearold KX on day fo ur and that cost him even more valuable time. . The extremely competitive 250cc class battle was primarily between H ough, H aw ki ns, Charles H alcomb, Zierman and Fritz Kadlec. H ough pretty mu ch led the whole wa y w i th H aw kins second a n d H alc omb p ushi ng hard in third. By da y four, H alcomb had th ird place p retty much loc ked u p until th e final special test of the event, which was

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