Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

B ~DURO~AN.~Q~~~~_fu_d_~_S_m_·~_:R_OO_~_8 _ ~ ... O"l .... V ..0 o .... u o Kurt H ough was nagged by mechanical problems but sti ll scored second overall . Kevin Hines scored his first National Enduro win of the year at Caney Creek. Hines back on top at Caney Creek By Robert Hough NEW WAVERLY, TX, SEPT. 22 eam Suzuki's Kevin Hines kept his slim hopes o£ capturing h is second career Nat ional End uro Championsh ip title alive by scoring his first overa ll win of the year after nipping Kawasaki's Kurt Hough by two points a t the 23rd Ann ual Caney Creek E n duro . Un fo rtunatel y for H ines, thoug h , KTM's Je ff Russell , the series points lead er, put in anot her co n sisten t ride by landin g th i rd overall. Hines, wh o was slowed earlier in the season by a h ip injury, had a tro ublefree ride, while Hough, Hines' closest competi tor on th e day, was hampered by mechan ical hassles. The event or ganizers also had thei r p rob lem s. T raditio nall y, the event stages next to a bank in town , wh ere th e compe titors ride o n three mi les of state highway befor e ent ering th e trails in the Sa m Houston Na tional Forest. Two days befor e this year's event , T 20 however, the Depar tmen t of Public Safety anno unced that the road co uld not be used . " For a long tim e, we had no problems ," said referee Chris Hardy. " Last year we didn 't ask and they got prett y upset so we tried to get it approved this time and, on Thursday , the y turned us down." T he ru lin g left the Trai lrid ers Cl ub of H ou ston with a course just under the AMA set minimu m of 100 miles. T he result was a reset just af ter the start that left riders sitt ing amo ng th e T exas pines just a few miles after th e start. Despite coo le r temp er atu res throu gh out th e wee k, th e 1987 National Enduro Champion Hines said, " Yo u wa tch , this enduro will co me do wn to co nd itioning. Even thou gh I'm older than most of these guy s, I th ink I'm in the best shape." Cl ouds of loo se, sa ndy g ro u n d swirled as line after lin e of competitors pow ered away. Co mi ng into the first gas stop, Ho ug h leap t off his Kawasaki and said that his rear brake was "going away." Official rules allows only th e riders to work on the ir bikes, as H ough immediately bega n a frantic effort to repl ace the entire rear brak e u nit. Less than two hours into the day, clouds had giv en way to brill iant sunshine, as H ou gh and othe rs drank considera ble amounts of water and soa ke d th emselves down , a lready battling the heat . As H ough worked furiously to get the rep air work don e in the 15 minute free tim e, Hines leisurely replaced his rear brake pads, ins talling heat insu lators. "T he da y's heatin' up, I just want to make sure the back brake lasts," he sai d. Non e o f th e front-runners had burned any checks, and Russell and defending Na tio na l Enduro Ch ampion Randy Hawkins both reported no problems. Russell poured wa ter do wn his boo ts, tryi ng to keep his feet coo l. At a reset o n the second loop, a relaxed H in es said, " Everything 's fine, we've had a lot of slow sections so you get into a cruise mode, but you have to be read y for th e fast section. " . Hawkins was ready for a fast section and pushed hard, expecting to gain a big advantage. Instead, the section ended with a reset and Hawkins ran ou t of gas befo re th e loo p was over. " Run ning out of gas pretty much cost me th e end uro," said the threetim e cha mp. " I went rive, the other gu ys-did two on tha t sectio n. Hawk in s said he pus hed his Suzuki for more than a quarter-mile through sand y grou nd before KTM 's All en Ran d t sto pped and gave him some gas . Randt' s gen erosity created a little bit of a stir back in th e KTM cam p, but after the event Randt said, " I know he (Hawkins) would've done th e same for me. I' d do it for him again." Randt 's teammate Alan Gravitt's ride ended on the second loo p after he h it a tree stu m p that he said was abo u t three feet high and eigh t inches across. " I was going real good and I was coming up on what I thought was a hu nch of li ttle bushes," Gravitt said. " I leaned over a bit and thought I'd just brush 'em . I never saw the stump un til I hi t it, I went straig h t over th e bars." Gravitt was unhu rt but the impact pu t a hole in the bike's exhaust pipe and heavily damaged the rad iator. With th e enduro still up for grabs after the second loop, Hough came into the gas stop with another mechanical problem. As he got off th e bike, he said, " I lost a bunch of spo kes. The hub's in bad shape. " Russell's problems were purely physical. The warm morning had given way to a hot afternoon and the Texas heat took a serious toll on the Ohioan. Seve ra l longtime endu ro observers sai d they had never seen Russell look so worn ou t. Again, Hines had no problems and replaced hi s brake pads once more. H ough's p robl ems weren 't over yet. Well into the th ird and decisive loop, hi s rad iator started to split, After the enduro he said, " I had abou t nine miles left and it started pinging real bad. I had to take my drinkin g wa ter and put it in th e radiator." With Ru ssell ridi ng in what he later called, " The surv ival mode," H in es clos ed o ut his prob lem -£ree da y and scored the wi n , posting 17 po ints . T he Suzuki /Metze ler/ Malco lm Scou/ Shoei/ Scot tlSprocket Specialists / Bell Ra y/ Un i£i lt er /RK/ Cob ra/P ro Circu i t/ Fa ctory Connectio n / Re nt ha lsponso red H in es said, " I got Russell in the tie-breaker. I did a I:40 and he did a 3:40. Then, coming in at the end I got a I:20 an d he did 2:00. " I kno w conditioning would come into pl ay," Hines said. " I actually conserved energy. I £ down once, I ell just lost concent ra tio n for a second and the front end went aw ay. I pi cked it right up and kept going. The bike wa s £lawl ess. It was a good day." After a trouble-fill ed day, Hough was glad to fini sh second after tallying II points. " Instead of sitting and relaxing a t th e gas stops, I had to worry about my bike, I had a lot of problems," said Hough. " It was a real eventful da y. For the problem s I had , I'm happy."

• Cover