Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

At the John l in k Ran ch near Tulsa. Kawasaki's Kurt H ough wrapped up his seeo~d ISDE Qualifier win of the season. Former National Enduro champ Kevin Hines kept H ough honest throughout the three-day event. The New Englander finished second. 153 points behind Hough. Hough blows through Tulsa By Kit Palmer 30 TULSA, OK, APR. 28-30 n what was described by many as th e tou gh est ISDE Qualifier th ey've ridden in yea rs, T eam Green 's Kurt Hough walked away with I hi s second co nsecu tive wm of th e season with a 153-point victory o ver KTM 's Kevin Hines, 5222-5375. Czechos lova kia n IS DE Troph y T eam rider Bohumil Posledn i pow ered h is bor ro wed Suzuki RMX 250 into th ird overa ll (5475). wh ile Suzu ki's two-t im e Nation al Enduro Ch ampion Randy Hawkins (5424) a nd 12-time ISDE Kawasak i rider J eff Fredette (5572) ro unded o ut the top five. In additio n to taking the overa ll win , Hou gh also topped th e 250cc class, wh ile KTM 's J immy Lewi s and Suzu ki 's Dave Bertram won the 125cc and Open classes, respectively. In the 350cc (Ligh twe ig h t) Four-Strok e class, Suzuki DR 350 rider Drew Smith was the winner and th e o nly four-stroke rider 10 finish all three da ys. None of the O pen (Heavy weig ht) Four-Stroke class riders com pleted all three da ys. No n-finis hers included desert racers Dan Smi th and Paul Krause, ISDE rider Greg Sur dyke and hare scrambles ace Scali Summers, a ll du e to meeha nical prob lems. "This one definitel y separates the men fro m the boys," said Bert ram. after day o ne. " It's toug h. bu t it's good." A combinatio n of thick mud and slippery rocks sent ma ny riders packing before the first day was thro ug h. Out of the 66 riders who started o n Sat urday morn ing, on ly 15 man aged 10 fini sh all three days. Other riders who bro ke were allowed to re-im pound their motorcycles and conti nue 10 ride the event , altho ugh their daily scores were not calculated into the overall fin al results. However, each day fini shed does count toward ISDE qu alif ying. The event was held on the 3 1,000acre J ohn link Ran ch , appro xima tely 30 mil es o u tside of Tulsa. Heavy rain pri or 10 th e event turned mu ch of the course into a quagmire. Just surviving all three days was a goa l for man y of th e rid ers. The first da y thinned o u t the field in a hurry. Forty-five rid ers never made it 10 th e last check, includin g every rider in the Non-LOI (Le tter of Intent), Senior and Open Four-Stroke classes. I " T he hardest sectio n of the course started abo ut 50 feet int o the ride and ended right at the in pound at th e end of th e day," sai d Bertram. " It's either quagm ire or slick rocks ou t th ere." "The terrain test is th e hardest," said Hines. " It 's so muddy. I'Id like 10 see someo ne go th ro ugh there smoothly - you j ust can ' t do it." Hough had the lowest scor e and to pped the leaderboard foll owin g th e first day. T he Sinisalo/ Dunlop/ Scou USA-bac ked Kawasaki pil ot had a to tal score of 2424 po ints, foll o win g two grass track and two terra in special tests. H e lost zero points o n the trail. Second overa ll was H in es aboard hi s factory KTM 250 E/X C. H e wa s . exac tly 20 poi n ts behind H ou gh, wh ile third overall was Hou gh 's younge r brother Aaron. wh o wa s ridin g a highl y modified Kawasaki KX80 in the 125cc class. Aaron H ou gh had accumul at ed 2506 points a nd was th e class leader o ver Lewis, KTM rider Alan Randt and Kaw asak i-mounted Brian Lowhman . In fourth overa ll was Posledni with 2587 points, wh ile Bertram led Team Green's La rr y Roeseler in the 500cc class in fifth overa ll with 2596 po ints Roeseler, wh o dropped 60 late-stan penalty points, which event ually cost him the class win . was second in class with 2633. Desp it e a ho rs epo wer-rob bi ng power-va lve problem in h is KX, which he" later fixed, Ho ugh still managed some of the q ui ckest times in the · spec ial tests. In fact. Hou gh had 'the fastest tim e in the first special test; H in es in the second and Posledn i in the third and fourt h tests. The thick m ud and rocks took its 10 11 o n the rid ers and machinery, as man y top com pe titors dropped out for the day or for the en tire event. KTM 's Smith and ATK's Krause failed to com p lete the first day, bu t both did finish days two a nd three. Summers bailed o u t of the event a ltogether with sproc ket and o ther assorted problems with hi s Honda XR 600, and ATK riders Mat t Stavish and Joe Zierman both also called it quits. Stavish stalled his eng ine in a mudhole and could n' t get hi s mud-jammed kickstarter lever o ut 10 start it back up. and Zierrnan 's ma chin e reportedly had .m u lt ip le p robl ems. J ohn Ni elsen , from WashinglOn, had hi s o ver-bo red 285cc Kawasaki 's top end seize, and Tim Surdyke had hi s Husaberg 's rear wheel break - both Nielsen and Surdyke reimpound ed a n d fin ish ed th e remainder of th e even t. "The smart th ing here is 10 just keep go ing and go ing , and keep your bike in o ne pi ece," said Hines. ' 'I'm not trying to go fast," The abras ive mud a lso took its toll , on the motor cycle's brake pads . H ines, on day two , repl aced seven sets of brake pads, while man y o ther riders went throug h almos t as man y. Fredette, who swi tched to solid discs, though, on ly had to repl ace o ne set a day. " Whenever yo u had a ny extra time at the chec ks, wh ich was n't very often , you had 10 put new pads in, " said Roeseler. " I rod e mu ch of the loops witho ut an y brak es at a ll, as did just about everybody else." Warmer temperatures greeted the rid ers on Sunday, but th e trail didn 't get an y easi er, for much of Sunday's trail w as th e sa me as the alread y deteri ated course of Saturday. Hough extended hi s points lead to 47 points at the end of th e second day, but was less than ecsta tic abo ut hi s performance, " Oh, I fell down a bunch of time s and just wasn 't riding my best," sai d Hough,

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