Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ENDUROmA~~~~~~~_~ _ro_s_~_~:_R_ou_~_5_~~~~~~~~~_ _~ ' ~ - Teammates Randy Hawkins (left) and Steve Hatch finished 2-1 at th e Bent Wheels National Enduro in Michigan . Hatch rages at Bent Wheels National ROSE em, M MAY 3 I, ea m Suzu ki's Steve Hatch recorded his first-ever National En d uro overall victory by soundly bea tin g mo re th an 200 com petitors a t the grue li ng Bent Wh eels Nationa l Enduro. After more than 130 miles of sand, mu d, logs and snow, New Yor k's Hatch finished th ree po ints ahea d of h is nearest rival , tea mma te ' Randy H a wkin s. H at ch and h is factorybacked Suzu ki RM X250 carded th e low- point score of ni ne, as compared to Hawkin s' next-best score of 12. " I'm simply ecstactic," sai d Hat ch of the victory. " I wasn 't sure if it (a Natio na l win) was ever go ing to come . It seemed like I wo u ld n ever get through all th e bu rned checks, crashes and wh a t-h ave-you 's, bu t today it finally ca me together. Everything seemed to go my way." No t o nly wa s th e Bent Wheels National victory a career first for the 22-year-old Hatch, it also put an en d to H awkins' National win streak at three. Th e three-time en d u ro cham p , H awkins, was ra ttled early in the event r 20 when he burned the first check of the day. From th ere o n it was an uphill battle for the Suzu ki RMX250 rider, a battle he would eventually lose. H awkins, however, ended up second overall but it was close, as he nipped th i rd -p lace, defen d in g Natio na l End uro Ch ampion J eff Russell by six seconds o n the tie-brea kers, 12 (min ut es)/ 478 (seconds) to Russell 's 12/484. " I have no excuses," said Hawkins. " Steve rode well ; he beat me today , there's no doubt about th at. You just have to take the bad with th e good." Ru ssell , who p u t the skids to H awkin s' th ree co ns ecut ive Natio na l Cha mpio nship titl es run last year, said, " I' m glad to see that Randy didn 't win again, but I wish it was me who beat him." Kevin H in es, the 1987 Nati ona l Enduro Ch ampion , also dropped 12 po ints but lost o u t to both Hawkins and Russell o n the tie-breakers. The factory-backed Husq varn a pi lo t carded a 12/ 560, while KTM 's Kelby Pepper ro u nded o ut th e top five wit h a solid 13-po int score. Despi te finishing second, Haw kin s extended his poin ts lead, and boasts a series tota l of 115 poin ts. Haw kins en joys a 38-point cus h io n over ru nnerup Peppe r, wh o has 77 po ints . T hree points back is H in es with 74, and the defending cham p, Ru ssell , is fourth wit h 71. Hatch , who went into the Michiga n ro und in eig hth, is no w fifth in points wit h 48. The Bent Wheel s Na tional was ho sted by Michigan's Bent Wh eels M.C., who are per haps better kno wn for putting on ISDE Qual ifiers. This was th e first time the club hosted a National En duro, and most of th e ride rs compliment ed their efforts. " It wa s definit el y a q ua li ty Nationa l," said winner Ha tch . " Ha lf of it was time keepi ng and the o ther half go for it." The event was also th e open ing round of the AMA/District 14 Mich igan Enduro Series. Rain fell as the rid ers staged for the 8:00 a.m . start which, acco rding to club cha irma n J im McVicar, " . . .scared man y rid ers away. Becau se of the wet conditio ns, a number of riders who pr e-entered either did n 't show up or just decided not to ride o nce they go t here . After abo ut an hour the rain . stopped. Officially, 228 riders left the start line, and it wasn't un til 6:20 p.rn , when the last check was officia lly closed, which ma de for a long day. We were afraid a lot of the B and C riders wou ld hour ou t." The firs t half of the en duro proved the to ughest, as mudh oles, logs and tigh t trail wor e most of th e ri ders down early. The first 10 miles claimed man y riders, in cludin g two factory-backed pilots - Kawasaki 's Kurt Houg h and KTM 's Allen Gravitt. Hou gh bl ew o u t h is kn ee, a n d Gravi tt p ulled his sho u lder o ut of the socket wh ile tryi ng to yank his stu ck motorcycle ou t of a mud ho le. Plus, the first chec k of th e day was the one Hawkins burned. " I missed a mi leage marker," sai d H aw kins. " Ap pare nt ly it was on the o u tside of a turn next to a tree, an d if you didn 't look hard for it. you didn 't see it. I just rode right into the first chec k w i thou t a cl u e th at I wa s burn ing it. In fact, I almost burned it by two minutes! T hat's not a good way to start off an enduro ." Pep per a lso burned th e first .check. At the next chec k, all of the top riders carded threes, but it was the next sectio n that rea lly te st ed th e com peti tor s. " It was a 28-mile specia l test section , it was the section from hell," said Russell. " It was here wh ere Steve put ano ther point o n me," said Hawkin s. " I wen t 3:13 and he went 2:48. From then on we (H atch an d Hawk in s) rode pretty mu ch the sam e." Th ere were four more " p ointsro bbing" sections ahea d of the con tenders, incl uding ano the r long 30mi le sectio n , but H awk in s couldn't make up any time/points on Ha tch . " T h is was a really long enduro ," said th e Moose Racing/ MS Racing/ Bieff e/ Smith/ Acer bis/ An sw er/ Metzel er /EBC Br akes/Cob ra-back ed Hat ch . " Co nditio ning defin itely cam e into pl ay. I tried to pay attention on the trail th e whole ti me and j ust han g in th ere. But the course was a lot of fu n. It was easy to get carr ied away and possibl y burn checks . " At firs t, 1 wa s tryin g to hit all the chec ks at 01 or 02, bu t by the halfway point, wh en I kn ew I had a good cha nce of winning, I tried to start hitting th e chec ks o n 30. I didn 't want to burn any chec ks a t th at po int ," said Hat ch. Haw kin s ad mi tted that bu rn ing the firs t check ca used him to be paranoid abo u t possibly burning even more checks. " I guess I was a little 'burn-checkshy ," said Hawkins. '" started maki ng mi stak es; I was tim ekeep in g too much , if that mak es any sense. In stead of riding o n top of my minute like I usu ally do, I sta rted rid ing mor e towards th e m idd le of the minute, and that ca used me to mi ss a couple of chec ks that' wo u ld've nor mally hit on time." H e also admitted that he went into th e eve nt p erha p s a li ttl e over confident . " I don't kn o w," said H awkins. "I ju st wasn' t up for it. Maybe I thou gh t it was go ing to be easy (to win ) or something. Instead, today woke me up . H ey, these g uys are com pe tit ive and I can' t for get tha t. H alfway th ro ugh the day, I thought, ' Man , I'd better pick up th e pace !" T hi rd-p lace R u ssell sai d, "S teve wai led o n us toda y. But wh at really kill ed me was wh en I got stuck in a mudhole late in the day. It took me about 20 seconds to get go ing again an d ' carrie d th ose 20 seconds in to the next two checks, wh ere' went 3:03 and 2:05." Despite losing grou nd to H awki ns in th e points chase , Russell is op timistic on defendin g h is title. "There's five end uros left in the series and anythi ng can happen," said Russell. " I've just got to sta rt beating Ra nd y." Hines, riding a Husqvarna WXE350 fo u r-stroke, wa s a lso slo wed by a mudhole. " I got stuck tw ice, it was my own fault," said H ines. " Un like on a twostr oke where you can just blast th rough

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