Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ENDURO AMA National Championship Reliability Enduro Series: Round 1 ~ Lyle Duronso (309) recorded the Senior class win ; David Bowers was the runner-up. Jimmy Lewis, Steve Hatch, David Rhodes and Chris Smith were presented their AMA Amateur Athletes of the Year Awards for winning last year's ISDE Jr. World class. Larry Roeseler was in con tention for the overalI but settled for the 250cc class win . 12 lin e. H e ended u p runni ng out of gas - in th e test - which cost h im about two minutes a nd th e class wi n . Crashes in both tests a lso took Roeseler ou t o f the runnin g for the overall, though he man aged to hang on to th e class win for th e seco nd yea r in a row. It was smalI co nsolation : " I com p letely co ned," he sai d afterward dejected ly. H a wki ns sta yed on two wheels and, wit h class -leading times in both onloo p tests, held a ten uous grip o n overall honors. But now it wasn 't Roeseler who posed the great est th reat 10 Ha wk in s winning hi s first Qual ifier; it wa s Er iksson , who 'd been " back" in fou rt h, th en th ird. " H e' s right th er e," R o ese1er acknowledged th at mornin g. "T hat's who I' m worrying abo u t," he sai d, confident th at he co u ld o u trnoto Hawkins in th e fin al test. And sure enough , Eri ksso n clos ed th e ga p. H e undercu t H a wk in s ' a mazingly quick time in th e terrain test by ni ne points/seconds. In th e grass track, he wa s three points/ seco nds quicker than all but H ough , who by da y thr ee was feeling well enough to notch some class-leading times. That left H a wkins with just under four p o i n ts/ seco nd over Er iksso n go ing in 10 the fin al mot os. It would not be eno ugh for th e (so me what m yth ical ) overall honor s. H oess and Team Green's J immy Lewi s hoo ked u p in the first 125cc mo to. A pass by Lewi s didn 't stick, however, and in a crash a short time later Lewis suffered a bit o f bik e damage. H oess ended up with a n easy win over Lew is, th ough Pep per 's th ird ens ured h im o f th e clas s win. Following them in th e fin al standin gs for the only other gold medal s in clas s were Kevin Davi s, probably the co u ntry's fas test nea rly -40-year-old rea l estate sal esman, and you ng Dana Van Stee. In th e 250s, Roeseler surp rised no one by jump ing o u t front immediately and forging a good lead. H ow ever , H atch had him in sig h t a nd had pl enty of in sp irat ion: Suzu ki mot ocro ss sta r G uy Coope r had flown in from ge tting fourth a t th e Las Vega s Su pe rcross th e night before .to wat ch th e fin a l mot os a n d encoura ge h is Suzuki RMXmo u n ted o ff-road teammat es. In fact , th e o ff-roa d race rs had spe nt a co u ple ' days at Cooper 's home befo re th e Qual ifier a nd practi ced - with somewha t less £lair - 'o n hi s supercross track . " With Guy Cooper yell ing for me I knew I had to hold it wide o pe n a nd ca tc h R o esel er , ' Hatch sa id . " I co uld n 't let him down." H e didn 't. H at ch closed th e gap a nd tried a last-tu m pass th at ca me up 0.22 points/seconds short. H ough, Kawasa ki KDX200 spec ia li st J eff Fredette a nd Husky's Dan Nielson rounded o u t the m o te 's top five. H aw kin s's 500cc rnoto ca me up, and he launched into th e lead in hopes o f matchi ng R oeseler 's time to protect hi s lead . H ow ever, Team Green 's desert hero Danny H amel worked his modified Kaw asaki KX252 past th e yell ow mach in e a nd took th e rnot o win abo u t ni ne points/seconds a head sewing u p third in .clas s in his firstever Qual ifier. H a wki ns , however, was more di sappo inted tha t h is score was 36 .5 1 points/seconds slo wer than Roeseler's, No ma tter wh at Eriksson did now, Hawkins finished 0.22 points/seconds slower overa ll th an Roeseler. KTMmounted Phil Douglas was half a point/ seco nd behind H awkins for fourth in class, wh ile Chris Sm ith 's ban zai las t-tu m pass a tte mp t o n Team G reen's Paul Krause came up sho rt . Sm it h st ill too k seco nd in class easily. Di rt Rider maga zin e edi tor T om Webb ended up fifth in class after a first-tum cras h left hi m wi th a bike stuc k in seco nd gear most of th e moto. Husq varn a 's Kevin Hines took the early lead in th e 350cc Four-strok e race, but Hrehor found a way by him on th e dusty track a nd kept th e Massachusetts spe edster four seco nds back. Rhodes passed Hines a lso, but a giant £lip after hittin g a sq uare-edg ed hole in th e dust kill ed h is dr ive - and bumped him to third in class followed by Husky-mounted Dan Hart e, th e final gold in cla ss, a nd Kerry Clark on hi s H onda XR250. T hat's when th e O pen Fo ur -Stro kes ca me to th e line. After th e du st settled from this ra ce, Roeseler would kn ow j us t how cos tly hi s morning of mistak es were. As expected, Eriksson hammered hi s fi na l m oto , win n i ng easi ly o ver - H o nda-mo u nted C u rt Wilcox , Bertram (who was a llowed to reimpound for day four), Husab erg's Tim Sur dyke a nd Husqv arna racer Steven Ch apkovic, So far ahead in sco ring was Eriksson , however , th at Wi lcox was th e on ly o the r class en trant 10 earn a go ld. In . add ition, Eri ksso n posted th e day 's quickest moto time ou tright, besting Roeseler by over nine points/ seco n ds , to di stan ce him self even furth er fro m the field. In th e Senior mot o, Rust took th e win, th ough he'd dro p ped out on day three and was a ble 10 reimpound. Moto ru n ner-up Dwa yn e Taylo r, on a '91 H onda CR250, was n' t a factor in the fin al results ei the r, having dr opped 27 minutes on day one. No, it was Suzuki RMX250·mounted Lyle Duronso, th e third-place rn oto fini sh er, wh o ended up with th e class win. Dav id Bowers, a nothe r RMX rid er, took fifth in th e m o to a nd cla ime d seco nd in class followed on both coun ts by Huskym ounted T om Ebersol e. J.D. Bentley to ok his Ka wa saki KXl25 -framed KDX200 h ybrid 10 eig hth in th e m oto a nd fourth in fina l cla ss sta ndi ngs , th e last go ld; KTM racer Mik e Doughty fin ishe d fourth in th e m oto a nd fifth in clas s for th e event. Afterward, Arai/Bridgeston e/Husaberg/MotuIlSmith-sp onsored Eri ksso n a lmos t seeme d su rp rised by h is finish , his second bi g win in America. " It's different here because at a race lik e this in Eu ro pe I could not be in th e top five." Of his American com pe ti tors, he mused , " T hey're fast. H awkins - very fast. I th ink it's stra nge: Here, they're very fast, and in Eu rope (at th e ISDE, for exa m ple) they 're not even in the top 10. But it ta kes a while 10 get used to courses. I' ve been here three months, and I thi n k I' m getti ng used 10 the American courses." And if hi s performance at th e J oh n Zink Ra nch is a ny indication , hi s ada p ta tio n is probabl y co mp lete. c:N Resul ts SR: I . Lyle Du ron so (SUl) ; 2. David Bowers (SUI ); 3. Tom Ebersole (Hus): 4. J.D . Bentl ey (Kaw); 5. Mike Dou ght y (KT M). OPEN 4·STRK: I . J imm ie Eriksson (H bg); 2. Curt Wilcox (Han); 3. Tim Surdy ke (H bg); 4. Steven Cha pkovic (H us): 5. Jo h n Moody (H us). 350 4-STRK: 1. Jan Hr eh or (Suz); 2. Kevin Hines (H us); 3. David Rhodes (H bg); 4. Dan Harte (H us); 5. Kerry Cla rk (Ha n ). 500: 1. Ran d y Haw kin s (Suz); 2. Chris Smith (H us ); 3. Dan ny Ha mel (Kaw); 4. Phil Dougl as (KT M); 5. Tom Webb (Kaw); 6. Steven Sm ith (SOl); 7. Scott La throp (SUl); 8. Jos h Chandler (Ha n); 9. Bru ce Field (Han); 10. Eugene Springfield (KT M). 250: 1. Larry Roeseler (Kaw); 2. Steve Hatch (SUI); 3. Kurt Hou gh (Kaw); 4. Jeff Fredett e (Kaw): 5. Da n Neilson {H us ); 6. Drew Smi th (Suiz); 7. Alan Ran d t (KT M); 8. Darren San ford (SUI); 9. Todd Mathw ig (Kaw): 10. Keith Cay ton (Kaw); 11. Ken Brown [ Ka w ): 12. T om my Ady (Kaw); 13. Pat Flynn {Ka w }; H. Brad T ar im (SUl ); 15. Mich ael Haas (SUl). 125: I. Ke by Pepper (KT M); 2. Fred Hoess (H us ); 3. J im my Lewis (Kaw): 4. Kevin Da vis (Hon ); 5. Dana Van Stet (Ka w) .

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