Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eENDURO AMAN~oo~ ~~~~~_En_d_uro_S_m_~_:R_ou_n_d8~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ' e ~ (l,) ..0 8 (l,) ;> o Z Though not fully used to American-style enduros, Czech Jan Hrehor was fourth overall. A second-place finish was enough for Jeff RUSlidI to clinch the championship title. Despite scoring the win, Randy Hawkins surrendered his number one plate to Russell, Hawkins wins but Russell rules By Michael Snyder BEAR, DE, ocr. 27 IO-year-old dream finally became a reality for KTM's J eff Russell who locked up the 1991" AMA National Enduro Championship titl e with a runner -up finis h to defen ding cham p Randy Hawki ns a t the Dela wa re Na tio nal. " It (clinching the championship) hasn 't rea lly sunk in yet," said Ru ssell afterwards. " I tried to be the most consistent rider th is year; tried to score points at every event, co mpared to previous years whe re I would go wide A 14 ope n , crash and end up wat ch in g fro m th e side lines. It mi gh t've looked lik e I was cho king on th e pressure a t the last two Nationals. But, in Texas I had a tou ch of th e flu , a nd in Ca liforn ia, I knew we'd be riding arou nd in a chim ney (dusty conditio ns) all da y and we had bike pro blems. I was still confident in m y ab ili ties and it pa id off." . T h ree-ti me National Enduro Ch amp ion Hawkins scored the o verall win, dropping 16 points to Russell 's 19. Rounding o ut the top five overa ll were de fendi ng Hare Scrambles and Cross Country National Champion Scott Su m mers (22 points), Czechoslovakian J an H reh or (24) a nd Husqvarna 's Fred Hoess. Former cha m p Kevin Hines, the only ride r who had a cha nce o f beat in g Russell for th e crown, was knock ed ou t of title co ntentio n whe n he cras hed near the end of th e enduro. H ines ended u p droppi ng 32 poi nts for 11th overall. " I had a lot of problems, today," said Hines. " I started out the morning going into sections just missing th e checks by seconds, and th en I got tangled up passi ng another rider in the afternoon. I hit a log go ing a t a p retty good cli p a nd br uise d up my arm. T h is happened in back- to-hack sectio ns, which proba bly cos t me a good six mi n utes . " I also go t lost in th e last sectio n," added Hines. " It was j us t a bad da y overa ll, which ruined my chances for the c ha m p io ns h ip. I g uess th at 's end uros. An yway, th ere's a lways next year." The 28th ru nn in g of th e Delaw ar e Enduro Rid ers-hosted event was th e seco nd-to-las t round of th e series a nd was a ttended by all th e maj or factory teams: Suzuki, H onda, KTM, Husqvarna a nd Kawa saki. Mor e than 500 riders a tte nded th e event in what many com pe titors referred to as th e " crea m o f th e crop" of East Coast Enduro Associatio n -sa nc tio ned even ts. All of the visi ting AA rid ers echoed th ese word s and many felt th at th is was th e best National Enduro o f th e season. T ra il boss Charles Stapleford said, " T he club ha s been putting on thi s even t for many yea rs; so we kn ow wh at th e top guys, as well as th e other classes, want. We mak e it tougher for this part icu la r run because it is a Nat ional. " . T he 130-mile trail wove through th e fores t sectio ns su rro u nd ing th e sta rt area, as well as up and down creek beds. There were a IOta I of 15 chec ks, two of which were th ro wn out d ue 10 mileage discrepancies. Ou t o f th e more than 500 entries, 300 made it to th e finish line. "T h ings went reall y well for me," said Suzu ki / Yo ko / Bieffe/ Metzeler/ Smith/Bel -R a y/RK Cha in /Factory Connection/ Uni Filter-b ack ed Hawkins. "The past two Nationals haven 't been very good 10 me. In T exas I ran ou t o f gas, a nd in California I co uldn 't see wh ere I was go ing becau se of th e du st. I was very lucky to ha ve even fin ished six th overa ll. But th is was a rea lly good endu ro. " My mechanic Dal e Segel pre p ped my bike a nd it wor ked great," add ed Ha wkins, who hadj ust returned fro m competing in Australia. " My th u m b (wh ich he had inj ured earl ier in the year ) didn 't bother me that much , today. I'v e o n ly got ab out 85-90% strength in it, though. So all in all , I had a lot o f fun. The club did a n excelle nt job wi th the sect io ns. We had so me tight stuff, m ud , a nd wide open . sectio ns ." Ru ssell a lso was happy with hi s ride. " My day went well except for o ne problem ," sai d Ru ssell , wh o rode a Dunlop/ Arai / MS Racin g /EK Chain/ Scott G o ggl es-spon sored KTM . "I timed into a chec k two minutes early a nd carried it into th e next section wh ere I lost five minutes. It happened in .a 12 mph section after a gas stop, I lost two m inutes a t th at check a nd three at th e next . My mileage was o ff; I could've swo rn I reset my od ometer at th e gas. " T ha t's where Randy beat me ," added Russell. "But overa ll I had a good da y and everyth ing went well , exce pt for th at o ne lapse in tim ekeeping. My mech anic Tom Komar did a su pe r job with my bik e and I had no mechanical problems at all. I was also lu cky to hav e Sco tt Su m mers running with me on my minute. We've been racing each o ther a lot in th e cro ss co un try races this yea r, and he was a good mot ivator for me. He pushed me right along and I pretty mu ch tried to keep him o n time, so it worked into a pretty good deal for both of us." Summers ag reed : " I had an o kay da y. I didn 't really enjo y th e deep sand a nd those ca ne field s. My bik e wasn't reall y set up for th at. "I don 't rid e end uros very mu ch , so I learned a lot ," said Su m mers. " I reall y have to say th at a big part of th is sport is your mental co nce ntratio n a nd th e abi lity to main tain it. I have a lot of respec t for th e rid ers that win

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