Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HENDURO~AN~OO~~~~_E_~_u_ro_S_~_~_:F_~ _n_d~~~~~~~~ _a_Ir_ou ~ Randy Hawkins (left ) clinched his third consecutive National Championship Enduro tide Walden captures win, but Hawkins wraps up third title REDDING, CA, ocr.21 onda rider Marty Walden, from nearby Woodland, California, edged out fellow northern Californian Dan Nielsen on the tiebreakers to capture the overall victory at th e final round of the National Champ ionship Enduro Series in Redding. Walden took advantage of a burned check by defending National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins at the last check of the da y to clinch the win. When the points were tall ied, H Walden and Nielsen had both dropped a tota l of II points, whil e Hawkins dropped 13. Rounding out the top five were KTM 's Allen Gravit and local rid er Tim Pfisterer. Perhaps the biggest news of the day involved factory Suzuki RMX250 pil ot Hawkins, who wrapped up his third consecu tive AMA National Enduro Championship at the Redding Dirt Rid ers-hosted event. Going in to th e final event of the series, th e only rider ~th a third overall finish at Redding. who had a chance, albeit a slim on e, to dethrone the champ was former National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines. In ord er to overtake Hawkins in the series, Hines had to win the event and Hawkins had to fini sh no worse than th ird. Heading into the third and final loop of the day , both Hines and Hawkins were separated by no more than on e point, but disaster struck Hines before th e finish when his factory KTM blew a right main seal in the engine. H ines had no choice but to try and replace the seal at one of the checkpoints, and the 20 minutes it cos t him to perform the surgery cost him any hopes of winning his secondcareer championship. The series was effectively over at that point. " I hated to see that happen to Kevin, " said Hawkins. "Any time a series com es down to the wire lik e we had , I hate to see it come down to a mechanical failure as the determining factor. It wasn 't Kevin 's fault - he was riding as hard as he cou ld and it was som ething he didn 't have an y control over. But the other way I look at it, I have to take it any way th at I can, sirice the series was so tight." " I'rn reall y excited abou t winning my th ird championsh ip," said Hawkins. "To me th e first one (champion ship) was a reall y exciting one - it was the best, my first cha mp ionship and al l. I though t that backing it up wi th another championship was good, but this one is really better than the second, becau se it was a tight year and Kevin really made me work for i t, " T he Redd in g Na tio na l En duro feat ured thr ee loops, to tall ing approximately 110 miles , and' for Hawk ins, the event got off to an ausp icious start. "The day sta rted off ro ugh," said Hawkins . " I went abo ut I 00 feet off the start line and bulldogged a corner right in front of everybody. T hen th ere was this downhill and the front end caught a tree and went down , and I h it th at check at 55 (seconds). At the next check, I got turned aro und on thi s steep, nasty hill and th e trail turn ed off to the left - I didn' t see the turnoff and kep t ridi ng to the top, but when I go t to the top, there was a turnaround mar ker! So I had to go back down and ended up hitting that check in the high 50s. Kevin , Dave Bertra m, Allen and those guys were hitting these checks right at 30, so I wasn 't off to a really good start. But rig ht after that I kind of go t settled down and began learning how to ride the terra in." As th e AA riders set out into the third and fin al loop, the event was far from being over. " I believe I had a one poi nt edge over Kevin goi ng into the th ird loop, the n h e ha d h is p roblems ," said Hawkins. With H in es ou t of th e running, Hawkins inherited a huge lead, one that looked like it would carry him into the winner 's circle unchallenged, but it wasn 't to be. At the final check of th e da y, Hawkins crossed the flags two minutes ear ly, resulting in a seven point penalty that cost him the overall win for the da y. "I was using both a mechanical and an electronic odometer and the electronic one was spot on all day long: ' said Hawkins. " We had just finished a tough sectio n and came to a check, where I reset wi th eigh t miles left to go. I reset my electro nic odometer and didn't bother to reset my mechanical on e. I didn 't go about 200 yards past the check when the electronic one went out, and sin ce there were no reference mileage markers on the trail , I had nothing to reset my mechanical odometer by. So I ended up burning the last check by two minutes. I lost more points at that one check than I had the whole enduro." Despite losing the o verall win Hawkins was happy that the series was over and that the championship was, once again, his to keep for another year. " I was down about 20 points 'with four rounds left to go, so it makes me . feel good that I could come back and win the championship: ' said Hawkins. "There was a lot of pressure, but I had a job I had to do. I had a lot of support from Suzuki and my bike was great, but I don 't think I could've done it without my mechanic Dale Stegall. He was always there when .I needed him. It was a great year." eN Results 0 / A: I. M=y Walden (Hon); 2. Dan Neilso n (SOl); 3. .Randy Hawkins (SOl); 4. Alan Gravitt (1CThI); 5. Tim Pfis= (Kaw); 6. Brian veaue (HO'l); 7. Joh n Nei lson (SOl); 8. Jason Dahnc:n(SOl); 9. Scott Lathrop (SOl); 10. Darren Dachand (Kaw),

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