Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

emooww~~~~~_~_~ _ro_s_~_~:_R_OO_~_5 _ ~ Defending champ J eff Russell finished second overall for the third time this season. Fonner champ Terry Cunningham scored his first National Enduro win in three years. Cunningham snares Little Raccoon Classic win By Davey Coombs P h o tos by C.J. Coombs WELLSTON, OH, MAY 10 our-time National Enduro Ch ampi on Terry Cunningham recorded his first National Enduro overall win in three years at the Little Raccoon Classic. Cunningham dueled wi th defending champ J eff Russell, until Russell made a "mental error" in the middle part of the enduro and dropped two points, effectively handing Kawasaki KDX200-mounted Cunningham th e win. Cunn ingham dropped a grand total of 29 points to Russell's second-place score of 33, Finishing in the number three position was another former National Enduro Champion, -Kevin Hines, who card ed a 35 aboard a Husqvarna 350cc four- stroke. Rounding out the top five overa ll were Russe ll's KTM teammates Kelby Pepper (44 points) an d Allen Gravitt (46). F 18 " I haven't won a Na tio na l En duro si nce 1989," admitted a su rp rised Cunningham. " I qu it the National Enduros two years ago to concen trate on th e National Hare Scrambles and Cross Country circui ts, bu t it feels good to come and sh ow these gu ys th at I can still keep time wit h the best of them. " . Cunningham's win was hi s first in five tries at the Little Raccoon Classic, which is hosted by the Appalachian Dirt Riders M.e. The trail measured 154 mil es o n the route card but resets brought the tru e distance down to approx im ately 130 miles. The course vari ed in degree of difficulty; mos t of the early tra ils were tight and virgin , while the afternoon paths travers ed several existing trails and a few graveled access roads, plus a three-mile trip down the main road. Most of the riders enjoyed th e design, th ough several admitted that overall th e sli ck tr ai ls offered minimum trac tio n . Cunnin gham was one of the first to ente r the trail. Even with hi s past record of four ti ties and hi s current ranking as th e number three Grand National Cross Country rider, A class rider Cunningham enjoyed an open trai l a ll day long. Th is marked the second year in a row that a non-AA rider has won the Little Raccoo n Classic, as Canadian Blair Sharpless pu lled off a similar "upset" in last year's even t. He, too, had an early start time . " It didn ' t surprise me a bit that T erry wo n, because wh en you start up front on a wet and narrow trail like this, you have a definite advantage over the guys between (m in utes) 20 and 40," said Tea m Su zu ki 's three-time Natio na l Cha mp io n Randy Hawkins, who failed to fin ish th e event du e to an electrical malfunction. " Before th e end uro, ]. R. (Jeff Rus sell ) and I were saying th at he (Cunn ingham) would probably wi n. I don 't mea n to tak e anything away from T erry, but we stayed even wi th him all da y long, even though we had ru ts and traffi c and everything else." Hawkins, who has won three of the first five series events to date, dropped o ut in the la te stages. "T h is is the first breakdown I'v e had in about four year s, which is a pretty good record," said Hawkins. " Unfor tunately for me, it happened so late tha t nobod y was around to help me. I had just started on the AA loop near the end of th e enduro. By the time I go t back to my truck, th ey had already given o ut all the trophies and everyo ne was go nel" Even wi th the DNF, Hawkins maintains hi s lead in the series point sta ndings. After five rounds, he has an un offi ci al total of 115 p oints to Ru ssell 's 96. Pepper and Hines are tied for fou rth with 95 points each . Russell 's runner-up placing cam e on th e heels of a mental error at th e seco nd gas stop, which was located ap p roxi ma tel y 100 miles into the even t. " I knew that we had a split trail com ing up for the AA riders and everyone else and I thought it might be a good idea to put on ~ new rear tire and redo the jett ing ," said Russell . "I tho ugh t that I had I I minutes , but it turned out to bejust o ne minute. We had the carb apa rt and everything when I real ized the tim e mistake. We had mud everywhere but we stuck it (the carbure tor) back on and I was only ab out three minutes late gettin g o u t." Unfortunately for Russell, a checkpoint was located just a few miles down th e tra il; what should have been a zero on his scorecard but became a " two" ins tead. He carr ied the same two -minute penalty through the next two checks and th e mistake thus cost him a six-point deduction on his total sco re. " I th in k the second gas made the differen ce," said Cunn ingham . "J. R. and I were running practicall y even all the way through unti l he took too lo ng in the pits. His pit crew should've kn own th e cor rect time, but it all comes down to the rider. In an end uro like th is you control your o wn destin y an d you have to know what's go ing on at all times." H owever , Cunningham m ad e a mental mi stak e of 'his o wn earl ier in the day. " Righ t after chec k six, th ere was a creek cros sing tha t looked prett y bad because of all th e ra in they had here earl ier in th e week. A guy o n the ot her side of the water po inte d me one way and said ' that he saw someone walk across without any problem. I usu all y never listen to people bu t he loo ked real sincere. I dropped into the water and sunk it over the seat !" Cunningham lost 18 minutes in the process of floating his bike . Once out of th e water he had to pump it out three times. " I wasn 't carrying a spare spark plug. vso the same g uy loaned me his lig h ter to dry myoid plug," said Cunningham. A 20-minute reset du e to th e water crossing saved his score. "After the creek I really pinned it," said Cunningham. "A few times I had my KDX200 pulled all the way to the stop. I know that it 's hard to ever get the full use out of a motor, even a 200, but I was using every bit of the motor. That was the only time all day long that I felt like I was at a disadvantage to the 250s." Pepper, the fourth overall finisher, was one of the riders who mentioned

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