Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Green 's Kurt Hough captured his first National Enduro overall win of the year, edging Suzuki 's Dave Bertram by eight tie-breaking seconds. AMA National Championship Enduro Series: Round 9 Hough cooks at Caney Creek National Enduro By Kenny Jones File photos by Kit Palmer NEW WAVERLY, TX, SEPT. 3 Team Kawasaki's Kurt Hough edged out Team Suzuki's Dave Bertram in the Texas heat to take the win at the T rail Riders of H ouston Caney Creek National Enduro. Hough, dropping only five points, sq ue a ked ahead of Bertram by eight emergency points at th e tie-breakers. 20 Despite winning the even t, H ough had problems early in th e day. " In th e fir st 15 miles, I hit my pipe a nd push ed it up into the gas tank , a nd th en th e pipe burned a hol e in th e tank." sa id H ough. " We go t lucky becau se my crew borrowed a ta nk and p ut it o n a t th e gas stop. I rea lly th ough t my day was going to be over earl y." T he event was held in the Sam H ouston Nati onal Fo rest whi ch is located app roxim a tel y 60 mil es north of H ouston. T otal gro und mi les was 115.6, whi ch gave everyo ne a challenging rid e. The co ur se was laid o ut on a mainl y perman ently marked trail with severa l excursions into virgin and tight' piney wood s sec tio ns . According to Ch ri s H ardy , who was th e event cha irman : " I reall y underestimated the AA rider s, .I tho ug ht they wou ld 'v e d ro pped a lot m o re poi nts. We dropped the speed avera ge o n th e last 26 miles to 18 m ph thinkin g they wo uld be tired a nd lat e. In stead, mo st of the AA riders zeroed the checks." Defending Na tional Ch ampion Randy Hawkins finished third overall with a six-point ride. " I had everybody early on; I dropped a 1-40 at one of the early ch ecks and the next closest one was a 2-10," said H awkins. " Everyth ing was go ing fin e 'til I clipped a tree and jerked my shoulder out. That slowe d me down so me." Although Hawkins didn't win the event, he did cont in ue to expand his series point lead over KTM 's Kevin Hines and Yamaha's Jeff Russell. " I didn't hav e real good luck, I ran out of gas in th e first section and th at cos t me six minu tes." said Hines wh o fin ished fifth overa ll with an I I- p oint ri de. " Besides that , I th ought th e event was to o easy compared to th e 1986 National. The whole last sectio n we zeroed , I don 't call th at a test section. " The weekend of th e even t happen ed to be o ne o f th e h ottest weekends of th e year with tempera tures in excess of 98 degr ees. Th is too k a toll o n riders and eq u ipment. Four-tim e National Enduro Champi on Terry Cunningh am had made it to within two mil es of the fin ish but cou ld not com plete th e co urse a nd had to be carried o u t of the woods and tak en to th e hospital for hea t p rostrati on. Cu nni ngha m was released lat er that even ing fro m the hospi tal. After h is recent win a t the J ack P i ne Cowbe ll Na tio na l, T eam Ya maha 's J eff Ru ssell had a disap po int ing day. " It was a good event, at leas t what I rode of it; early on I had an intermitten t ignition problem. I dropped 26 po ints in the morning, but I kept o n going thinking the ex treme heat and length of the race would help. I really thought it was going to be a survival of the fittest race," said Russell . Kawasaki 's Joey Hopkins finished fourth overall, repeating his performance from the Speedsville National two round ago, with a six-po int ride which tied Hawkins but was broken a t th e tie-breakers. Other notable finishes were native Texan Todd Harris who finished sixth overall with a 13-point ride. - He was followed by KTM's Allen Randt who had a 15-point ride for seventh overa ll. The weekend was labeled as an Enduro Extravaganza Weekend with two events on th e schedu le. The da y before th e National, the Trail Ri ders of H ouston put on a Texas State Enduro Ci rcu it in conjunction with the Sabine Enduro Circuit Enduro, All of the trail used o n Saurday wa s used for th e National. Several AA rid ers rod e thi s event to get a n idea of wh at was in store-Io r ' Sunday. H arris took the overall honors with a 0-19 score over th e 50.7-mile co urse, followed by Larry Crane, wh o had a 0-21 score. T he Trail R id ers of H ouston wo uld like to express th eir thanks to the personnel a t th e Sam H ouston

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