Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Four-time National.Enduro Champion, Team Green's Terry Cunningham captured his second overall w in of the year at the Little Burr Natio nal. Yamaha YZ250WR-mounted Jeff Russell f inished second overall after dropping 1 1 po ints, two more than Cunningham dropped. . AMA National Championship Enduro Series: RoundS ' Cunningham dominates Little Burr National By larry Bell McARTHUR, OH, MAY 28 " I told myself don't m ake mistakes, clutch the bike hard, and basically, use your h ead. It paid off," said a very- calm and relaxed Terry Cunningham shortly after h e collected his overall win a t the 32nd running of the Little Bu rr I National Enduro. In dropping n ine p o in ts enroute KT M 's Kevin Hines is back in top content ion for t he championship t itle wit h another top fin ish. Hines carded a 12 for third overall. to the victory, the Tea m Green rid er a n d four-time Nati onal En d u ro Champion ca tap u lted hi m self into an elite grou p ofj ust a fistfu l of riders that have wo n th e enduro four o r more times. Fo llowing Cunningham across the card in the hotl y contes ted ride was Team Ya mah a' s a nd o ne of the local favorites, Je ff Ru ssell aboar d a Yamaha YZ250WR with . II points. One point off with 12 was th e remarkab ly smoo th Kevin Hines. The KTM p ilo t is rapidly d isplaying the effortless cont ro l he had severa l years ago whe n he won th e Nati onal crow n. Fourth AA rid er, al so on a T eam Yam ah a YZ250WR, was Mike Toole with 13 points. Toole is jus t now sor ting o u t th e mechanical gremlins of the past few races and is beginning to feel co mfo rtab le on th e local terrain. High Point A rid er on a YZ490 was a no the r local rider and series regular, Tim Shephard. Shephard had a few problems with the huge water holes th at pocked th e co urse a nd had begun to grow weary towards race end. H e too k High Point A honors over Toole du e to his better tiebreak er score. The eigh t a. m. key tim e wa s dela yed for an hour so th e hosting Endu ro Rider s Association Club co uld rero ute and remark portions of the tra il that were devastated .by th e heavy rains that inundated th e a rea for several day s. The a rea has seen daily rain since East er week end. Many areas fl as h -fl oo ded and strea ms were a t times chest high. Vi c Ely, cl ub spokesma n and la yo u t expert for the event said, " We' re going to have one single 165 mil e loop with 120 actual miles wit h the resets. The water and the mud and th e fact that it. will be sloppy wi ll be a major factor in weari ng down the riders. The guy who's going to win it is the g uy that's go ing to use hi s head ." T he defendin g Cha mp io n, Suzuki's ' Ran dy Ha wkin s, showed up as one of th e inside lead ers for the o vera ll becau se he took th e win last year here. The Suzuki rid er dropped ou r of content ion, alo ng with stablem ate Dave Bert ram , a nd a host of o thers after th ey too k a wro ng turn short ly after the first gas sto p and go t lost losin g seve ra l minutes. Hawkins would finish ninth overall. Tea m Green 's Kurt Hough also got way la id a t that point but recouped eno ugh stea m to drop 15 points a nd finis h sixth AA. This was despite recoverin g from a bou t with th e Ilu several da ys before th e event. " I got it (flu) just aft er Michigan a nd it lasted about four days, " said Hough. " It started up again Tuesday and Wednesda y a nd 1 was lying in bed sick. 1 started taking major antibiotics. I'm still pretty weak. 1 d idn't hav e too many problem s until 1 drowned o u t in th e last riv er cros sing. There was a reset with no chec k so it didn 't matter. 1 was panicking for a while. 1 sat in th e river for abo ut nine minutes." Ru ssell also go t lost th ere, but was able to make up tim e to th e next point. " It went pretty go od, " said Russell. " I didn't rid e as well as 1 wanted to rid e. 1 think just being in my hometown ca used me to be hyped up and 1 overt ired. The bike worked great and 1 just got caught in a co u p le of sectio ns where 1 got stuck a couple of tim es, pi cked som e bad lines when 1 shou ld hav e gone the other way." . Cunningham gave a brief recount of his view of a couple of checks . " I timed in at th e first emergency and they gave me a 30. The other time was in one of the tougher sections, four 1 think, 1stopped and my clocks were reading 02 a nd whe n 1 came u p th e guy j ust flipped to 25. The

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