Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Yamaha 's Jeff Russe ll scored his first overall v ictory of the year at the Jack Pine National. He finished one point ahead of Terry Cunningham. Illinois' Jeff Fredette pi loted a Kawasaki KDX200 to a fourth-place overall finish, j ust one point behind KTM 's Kevin Hines. Cunningham, . a four-time winner of the Jack Pine Enduro, gets his time card marked at a checkpoint en rout e to a second -place finish. AMA 'National Championship Enduro Series: Round 8 Russell reigns 'at Jack Pine Cowbell National By Merle Acord MOORESTOWN, MI Aug. 20 Yamah a YZ250WR-mounted Jeff Russell, with a one-minute lead going into the last section of the 63rd Jack Pine Cowbell National Enduro, kept looking over h is 14 shoulder expecting to see the I Champion, Randy Hawkins, defending National Enduro make a last-minute charge for the event win. Instead, Suzukimounted Hawkins fell off the pace wi th rear brake prob lems, dropping six points at the home check. Russell took advantage of Hawkins' m isfortune and zeroed the last two checks and captured the overall honors with a nine point tota l. Team Kawasaki's Terry Cunningham, who has his name etched on the Jack Pine Cowbell traveling ' trophy from four previous overall wins , dropped 10 points for second overall , whi le KTM 's Kevin Hines finished third with II points. The Hunt brothers, Jeff and Jim, (Jeff was course chairma n) with the help of John Spence and other members of the Lansing M.e. filled o ut and filed all the proper forms and permits before laying out 160 miles of trails only . to have th e military pre-empt 40 miles of the trails for its war games four days before the Nationa l. "We still have a quali ty National," said Jim Hunt. It 's 101 ground miles with 10 checks and four observation checks. We stayed away from all of th e two-tracks that we could. The section we lost was at the end of the run where we were going to drop off the C and B riders, then let the A and AA riders fight it out." "The trai ls were as fast as you wanted to go," said Yamaha/Scotti Dunlop/ Acerbis/White Brothers/ Answer-sponsored -Russel l. "It had rai ned during the night and it was dr izzling when we left the line. It was really hard to see out there, with the grou nd being so dark the roots just blended right in. I tried to get between two trees where there wasn 't room; the tree grabbed the handlebar and I twisted the throttle then I unloaded. I unloaded a couple of more times but luckily they weren 't bad enough to take me out. I had a good morning and I was almost sure they wou ld throw out the ninth check. It was a minute off. But even though I had Hawkins by a minute it was still 'iffy.' I didn't know what T.e. (Terry Cunningham) had." (The ninth check was found to be a minute off and was thrown out). "If you on ly knew what Greg Quador (Yama ha 's motorcycle technician) and I went through to be here," said Russell. "We were up unti l three o'clock Friday morning putting the motor back in the bi ke. We had to go completely through it after I hit something hard at the National in New York and dented the clutch cover and sucked sand and whatever in the lower-end." "I rode good . today," said fourtime National Enduro. Champion Cunningham who was competing on a KXI25, "especially in the afternoon when I was real aggressive. I guess I should have been aggressive in the morning, too. I was a little surprised that Jeff (Russell) went one (minute) at the second check - I figured that he would zero tha t. I went 14 and I thought those guys with the 250s might have got into it (the minute) more. They have a littl e more punch on the two tracks and the sand. At the third check I went 09 and took a four, while Jeff went 58 and took a three. Bu t the 125cc machine doesn't hinder me that much. " T he way the count worked out at the tie-breakers," Cunningham continued, "Jeff beat me by 14 seconds at the first one and I beat him by nine seconds at the second, so that meant that even if I had tied him I still would've had to pick up two minutes, but Jeff was ridi ng too good today for anyone to do that. He deserved to win. J eff has had two seconds and a third in the last three races , so I'm not surprised that he picked up an overall. "I'm not too disappointed with my finish today," said Cunningham. "Two weeks ago I dislocated the third metatarsal bone and cracked the fourth one in my left foot and I wasn't even going to ride today. Bu t I was hanging around the house and finally my wife said, 'If you 're not going to straighten up you might as well go racing.' So here we are. The foot d idn't bother me all tha t much except once I h it it on a stump and then I thought about it. I mean for a few seconds I really thought about it." "The day didn't go well," said 1987 National Enduro Cham pi o n Kevin Hines. I hit or snagged the front brake line on something and fractured it and had to ride the next 50 miles without a front brake, and those were the toughest sections. But thanks to To m Co m ye r , my mechanic and good frie n d, we replaced it for the last section, bu t it was too la te - I had already

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