Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eENDDR0 e AMA National Championship ReliabilityE nduro &ries: FinallOund Dave Bertram (18) topped the 500ccclass at Minden and clinched the in augural National Championship Reliability Series title. Aaron Hough scor ed the overall victory , hi s first ever Na tional win , His older brother, Kurt Hough, failed to fini sh the even t do to a broken clutch, " It (the champ io nsh ip) feels gr eat,:' said Bertram . " T his is an important series for me, because it's the one I' m primarily spo nsored for by Suzuki, and I Iike this type of racing. It mak es a cha nge from all the years of riding Nati onal enduros, It feels good to win this o ne." Kurt Hough was obvio us ly disappointed wi th hi s DNF o n th e day and wi th the o utco me of th e series, whi ch he had led for mu ch of the year. " I cou ld' ve done it today. I can run wi th Aaron and he beat Bertram ," said . Kurt Hough. " I kn ow I cou ld 've don e it. It's j ust o ne of thos e things - you never know ." For Aaron H ou gh , overalli ng the fin al round of the series was a dream co me tru e. Aaron Hough wins, Bertram's the champ By Anne Van Beveren MINDEN, NV OCT. 27 , he fina l ro und of th e Nati onal Reliability Enduro Series was a spec tacu lar show with Suzu ki's Dave Bertram topping the 250cc class to edge o ut series long rival Kurt Hough for the National Championship title, while Hough 's younger brother , Aaron, scored th e o vera ll victory, hi s first-ever National win. Going in to the fina l round of th e series, Kurt Hough had the strongest sho t at clinching the title. Points throughout the season were accumulated by class finishes, not by overall finish es, as is the case in the AMA National Championship Enduro Series. Kurt Hough had 155 po ints wi th four wins and one second place class finis h under hi s belt go ing into the Minden En d uro , wh i le Bert ra m , Hough 's nearest compe titor , had 140 T 12 poi nt s, with three wins and two second p la ce fi n ishes to h is cred it. Aft er tossi ng o ut eac h rid er' s two worst scores (an AMA rul e) of th e six -event series, H ou gh an d Bertram wer e act ua lly ti ed in points (a fter fiv e rounds, both riders officia lly had three wins api ece). If Ku rt H ough and Bertram had won th eir respective classes a tie would 've resulted. As it turned o ut, tho ugh, Bertram did win his cla ss, but Hough's clutch went out and he did not finish the end uro , wh ich gav e "both riders the sam e amo unt of class win s at four for th e season. But sinc e Bertram had two second p lace fin ish es, and Hough had only o ne runner-up performance and a cost ly DNF, Bert ram was declared the series champ , based on tiebreaking rul es. " I fina lly did it. I finall y won a Nation al overa ll and it feels grea t," said Aaron Hough . " I' ve been reall y close befor e. I go t beaten by- seven seco nds in Oklahom a and by 20 seconds in Oregon and I got third in Idaho, but th is is the first time I act ua ll y wo n. [ j us t hope they han d out the trophies today . I want everybody to see that I won." Mor e th an 400 en tries lined up ou tside Mind en 's Car son Vall ey Inn for the start of the event , whi ch was orga nized by th e High Sierra Motor cycle Club . For riders like Bertram an d Kurt Hough, the final ro und of the series was a last ditch effort for seri es po ints, but for o thers, like three-time Nati on al Enduro Cha mp ion Randy Hawkin s, the I30-m ile event was ju st for fun . "The o nly reaso n I rode th is series was to quali fy for the Six Days. That's over with so I'm not trying for any po ints here. I'm just ou t to ha ve fun ," said Haw kins, who headed o ut with Suzuki teammat e Cha rles Halc omb o n a pai r of RM125s. ..It's the first ti me we've ridden the 125s. We'r e j ust doin g it for someth ing different," said Halco mb . The first riders left Minden at 7:45 a.m ., heading directl y into the rising sun o n the 15-m ile run to gas one. T hey were pl agued by du st all the way. " It wou ld've been more fun if it hadn 't been for the dust," said Hawkins, wh o was back at number 18. " Some times you couldn 't even tell wh ere you were. It probably wou ld've been a n interest ing co urse if you cou ld've seen it. " Closer to the fron t of the pack, running number five, Marty Wa lden, wh o overa lled the final round of the AMA · - National Championship End uro Seri es th e week before in Cal ifornia , had no comp laint s. " T he trail was rea l good," said the Ho nda -mounted A rid er, Wald en . ..It was pretty ru gged o u t there but being up near the fro nt , there was no dust at a ll. T hat 's what saved me." Ch eck two caugh t Halco mb and Hawkins napping and added 60 ro ute poi nts to Kawasaki ace Larry Roeseler's card. " It' was a bit in consistent," said Roeseler. " Yo u had 10 reall y hu ssle to get th ere on you r min ute but at ot her chec ks yo u were 15 minu tes early. You didn 't know how fast to ride." Bertram kep t his sco recard clean as he cleared . check two and began the 29-mi le run to chec k three, and 125cc ri va ls Aaron H ough and KTM ' s Jimmy Lewi s did the sam e. ." It' s du stier than a hareS; hound out there, but I don 't th ink I lost any route points," said Lewis, who was hoping to top Hou gh to add a 125cc Reliab ility titl e to his 125cc Nat ional hare & hound titl e that he clinched two - weeks befor e in Nevad a. "I think a lo t of people were a bit late becau se th e dust slowed them down." Check two spe lled dis aster for series leader Kurt Hough. . " My clutch went out righ t after th e check," said the Kawasaki pilot. " I pu t a pi ece of rag in it to keep it engaged all the tim e so I cou ld keep riding, and I made it almost all the way to gas two. I was using the transm ission to jam it into gear and fin all y th at let go. I had to fix the bik e and keep go ing to get a fini sh becau se I didn 't kno w how they were going to do the series points. I had earl ier ca lled the AMA but they cou ldn 't tell me, so I had to try to finish. I thought if th ere were o nly three or four guys in ,my class, any kind of fin ish might give me th e overall cha m p io nship ." Even wi th Kurt Hou gh o u t of th e runni ng, Bertram could not relax for a second . " It helps because he isn' t 'in the ru nning for the class win any more, but I still have to beat everyone else in th e 250cc division to win th e cha m pio nship ," said Bertram. " Even if Kurt doesn 't finish and if I get second, he wins it. " Aa ro n H ou gh a n d Lewis both avoi ded ro ute points o n their way to gas two and a ll th at sep arat ed them was the first two speci al tests. "The first one was trees and stu ff and ended up o n a coup le of mil es of reall y fast, scary fire road s, and the seco nd o ne was wate r," said Dave Porter. " It was slick rocks, really na sty stuff. T here was no way you could control the bike. You were a ll over the place." It was clear th ings were not going Roeseler's way, as he limped aro und the p it at gas two. "La rry hurt hi s good knee. Now Larry has two ba d knees and he's reall y bummed, " said Roeseler. " I fell over, It was no big deal, I ju st mad e o ne lilli e mistake bu t my kn ee's not good." Bertram contin ued to fl y as he left gas two and head ed into th e 50-mi le second loop , as did Aaro n Hou gh who was leading the pack. Back a few minutes was Lewis. " I was doing prett y good until the second loop," said Lewi s. " I broke th e front brake off and th en I broke the shifter off and then my time was reall y bad. I just pretended like the bike worked and I made it to the end of the loop, but that's all she wrote. I cou ld n 't do the motocross section at the end." Wh ile Lewis battled with his bike , the o ther co ntenders were bat tling the. terra in in special test number three, a 20-min ute sprint that included a virgin downhill strewn with loose rocks. The end of th e second loo p brough t the riders back to Minden , wh ere the final motocross sectio n was laid out in a grassy field beh ind the Carson

• Cover