Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

KX125 rider Aaron Hough came within seven seconds of beating Roeseler for the overall victory. Instead. Hough settled for the 125cc class win. Larry Roeseler rode a specially prepared Kawasaki KX250 in the Open class and wheelied away to the overall win atthe Tulsa Two-Day Qualifier. AMA National Reliability Trials Series: Round 1 Roeseler rolls to John Zink win By Ken Harvey TULSA, OK, APR. 29-30 "I beat the little guy!" Larry Roeseler was obviously excited at the end of the John Zink ISDE Two-Day Qualifier. When the final results were announced, Roeseler had topped the Open class and taken the overall win by seven 25 se.con d s over I. cc c Iass WIllner Aaron Hough. - Roeseler was competing in the Open class on what was basically a large Kawasaki KX250. A new AMA rule allows this, as long as the machine displaces over 251cc. The bike used a 285cc bore kit prepared by Klemm Research. "The bike runs like a 250, but with more of everything," said Roeseler. "It has more top-end, more low-end, it's great. ~·think I do better on big bikes." For Aaron, it was his best overall finish in any National event. He had the best score of day two, and perhaps would have won the overall if not for falling in an MX-style special test at the end of day one. "I just slid out and got all £Iusteredo When I tried to get back on the bike, I fell over again. It cost me about 12 seconds. I didn't fall in any other tests; I even had a good terrain test for a change." Because this marked the first round in the Qualifier Series, there ~as a g<><:>d turn-out of Intent class nders trymg for a spot on the U.S. team gomg to the West German ISDE. And going into the event, the biggest challenge that the riders faced had nothing to do with Tulsa's infamous 'rocks even the level of competition. They had to get by the sound meter first. "We're going to have to meet the 94-decibel limit in Germany, so we have to be prepared," said AMA Amateur Competition Director Hugh Fleming. The strict standard had almost all of the riders worried before the start because the AMA proposed a lO-point penalty for every decibel over the limit. In other words, a loud motorcycle could costits rider a gold medal. But in the end, all of the riders did their homework and nobody was penalized. "We'r,e real pleased" said Fleming. "We were learning alot about soundtesting procedure right along with the riders. Now we know what we're up against." Out on the course, the riders had to face rocks, rocks and more rocks, plus five special tests a day. It was the terrain test, a long section of 0, fairly tight, wooded trail, that was most critical., The most amazing story of the entire event was Scott Summers' first ride in that test. On a Honda XR600 weighing probably 50 pounds more than the average enduro bike, he set a time that was over 30 seconds faster than anyone else's. With that one performance, he knocked most of the other riders in his class off gold-medal status. "I've always ridden XRs in the woods," said Summers. "I knew I had to go fast in the terrain test because I'm slower on the grass track." , Although Summer's grass track scores were nowhere near as impressive, he still had the best overall score at the end of day one. Day two was ,a different story. "I crashed ih the terrain test. I think I still had the fastest time, but not by much. I had to win by a lot to keep the lead for the whole day." Summers did' have the fastest terrain test, but his good-butunspectacular rides in the three grass tracks and the motocross that followed dropped him into third-place overall, first Open Four-Stroke. Still impressive, considering that the second-place Open Four-Stroke was former National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines. "I'll probably ride the four-str0ke KTM in Europe," said Hines. "I like. it, it's perfectly capable of taking an overall. I just started riding it last week." Hines will continue to ride his 350 two-stroke in National enduros, only riding Qualifiers on the thumper. His weekend in Tulsa was marred by a disastrous first grass track on day one, where he fell and it took him about a minute and a half to get going again. Lightweight Four-Stroke winner Jimmy Lewis also had a problem on day one, getting a flat tire just before impounding and dropping one minute. But Lewis came back to make up that time and more on day two, winning what turned-out to be the most closely contested class of the weekend. Aside from Lewis, 'everyone who finished in that class was a former Six-Days rider, and everyone of them ended up earning a gold medal in Tulsa. Second place was Scott Drafs, five seconds ahead of former Trophy Team member Brian Mull. Aaron Hough:s near-flawless ride in the l25cc class was unchallenged, although motocrosser Rich Taylor turned a few heads on the first day. It was Taylor's first qualifier, and he £arne out of day one 21 seconds behind Aaron in second place, mostly due to a slower time in the terrain test. But he crashed near the start on Sunday and had to drop out with an injured wrist. That left second place in the l25cc ranks to Terry Cunningham, who is still getting used to his new Team Green ride on a Kawasaki. "I love riding for Team Green," said Cunningham. "I don't ~et a salary anymore, I just get paId to win. That's why I've got a busy race schedule. " Cunningham's times were consist- ent throughout the weekend, and he wound up getting second place ahead of teammate Jeff Fredette and Drew Smith, who just started riding a Suzuki. By far, the most riders were in the 250cc Intent class, where Aaron's older brother Kurt Hough took the win and fourth overall. Kurt struggled with minor problems in some of the tests, but still had excellent times. But the iron man award in that class goes to Team Suzuki's Charles Halcomb who smashed his foot and broke his wrist in the very first test, and still managed to finish sixth in class. "I was having a great terrain test," said Halcomb. "I had just caught Randy (Hawkins), but I fell and just hammered my foot. My biggest, problem in the woods is that I see , a berm and I want to lean over and motocross through it. Then a tree peels me off. I've got to learn to keep the bike upright and brake-slide through the turns like Randy and these guys." Halcomb turned in fair times in the remainin~ tests and hardly even mentioned hIS broken wrist until after the event. His teammates David Bertram and Hawkins nailed down second and third places, 'respectively, followed by Kawasaki rider Fred Hoess and Yamaha's Jeff Russell. In the Open class it was all Roeseler. More than anything else, it was his .mastery of the grass track that gave him the win. The riders rode the same track in the same direction six times total (although one score was thrown out due to a computer glitch), and in virtually

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