Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127172
Despite a damaged odometer cable suffered early in the second loo p , Dave Bertram piloted a new Suzuki RMX250 to th ird overall. Hines wins Tecate 2S0K Enduro By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones T ECATE, B.C., MEXICO, DEC. 10 Last year, KTM's Kev in Hine s ra n out of gas at the Tecate Endu ro; th is year, he captured the overall victory with nine points to spare. Kawasaki KDX200-mounted Larry Roesele r finis hed second overall via a 61 point score and took the 1.25cc class w in over Jeff Fredette. " I was rea lly focused on winning and that's wha t I h ad to do," said former National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines after w i n n i n g th e 13th edition of th e Los Ancianos M.C.'s Tecate 250K Enduro. " It' s a good way to end the year." The for-A-riders-only, invitational end uro, which attracted so me of the Nation's top end uro rid ers from a ll across the country (255 riders in all ), saw Hines, from Massachusetts, drop a total of 52 poi n ts, nin e points better than second place rid er from so uthern ' Ca liforn ia , Larry Roeseler. Roeseler carded a 61 to claim th e 125cc cla ss win aboard a T eam Green-backed 1989 Kawasaki KDX200. Third pla ce fell to northern California's Dave Bert ram with a 71 and with it he d h 250 I' ca p tu re t e cc c ass victory. Fourth overa ll went to T exan Todd Harris with an 82 and rounding out th e top five was Illinois' J eff Fredette with a 93. The Senior class was headed by former mu lti-time National Enduro ch a m p Di ck Burleson, riding a Yamaha 250. Burleson dropped 143 poi nts, which gave him a comfortabl e advant age o ver the second pl ace Senior rider , K'TMcmoumed Mal colm Smith, who tallied a 203 point sco re. And in th e Super Senior class, it was Kawasaki-moun ted Ron Fry (434 pts .) taking th e win over Ro n Way (508) and Eldo n Kuney (569). The team competition was won by Smith, Joel Smith (Malcolm's son), Way ne Martin a nd Kent Richardson . The even t was based 14 m iles east of T ecate with Saturday morning dawning clear and sunny, which m eant unusually dry a nd dusty riding conditions at Tecate. The first wave of four riders left the start line at 6:46 a.rn., and the event ended three loo ps and 150 miles later with two ga s stops, including a lunch stop , in between. The first 50 mile loop proved to be th e toughest of the event with all the riders dropping most of their points in this loop. "The first loo p I think was th e most difficult, " said Hines. " Dus t was a factor in the loop. I lost time trying to pass a co up le of gu ys ahead of me that were pretty fast - just fast eno ugh to wh ere the y'd hold yo u up." Hines, Roeseler , Bertram, Harris and most of th e top riders dropped two poin ts at th e first check th en four at the second. It was at check three when scores began spreading out. Hines a nd Harris dropped five , Roeseler and-Fredette six , and Bertram seven . Check five proved to be th e biggest points-robbing check o ut of the to tal 26 check s in th e end uro . Hines dropped his single most points with a nine, while Roeseler, Bertra m and Fredette scored l Os, and Harris took an II. The first gas was 50 miles out which saw some riders running out of fuel before the end of the loop, o ne of which was T eam Green 's Kurt Hough. Hough found himself pushing hi s mount 10 miles before the gas stop. At the first gas stop, Hines was leading the field with 33 _points dropped: Roeseler had a 37, Bert ram 41, Fredette 44 and Harris 5 1. After the first loo p Hines' scorecar d read 2-4-5-8-9-2-0-1-0-2 (33 pts.); Roeseler's 2-4-6-9-10-0-1-2-0-3 (37 p ts.) and Ber tram 's 2-4-7-10-11-0-1-4-0-2 (41 pts. ). The second 50-mile loop, which featured nine checks, saw Hines score zeroes at seven of them, but he burned