Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD Enduro Series: Round 6 m Steve Hatch recorded his second win of the season at the Pikes Peak National End uro. Nearly 400 rid ers tu rned out for the event which started at the Wild Hom Ranch. Runner-up Kelby Pepper an d Ha tch cumpare each other' s scorecard after the event. Hatch scores Pikes Peak win By Kit Palmer WOODLAND PARK,CO, AUG. I eam Suzuki's Steve Hatch record ed his seco nd consecu tive and th irdca reer National En d u ro v ic tory and, w ith it, moved to w ithi n striking distance of teammate and series points lead er Randy Hawkins, who fin ish ed third over all on the day. By winning the Pike s Peak Na tiona l, Hatch reeled-in nin e points on the defending champ and now trails Hawkins by just five points in the nine-round, best of seve n, seri es . After "thr owing out" each of their two worst National finish es of the season to dat e, Hatch now trails Hawkins by only five points, 106-101. "I'rn ex cited," sai d the fac to rybacked Suzuki RMX250 rider. "I've got everything to gain and nothing to lose; I'm just trying to go for it. I' ve been training real ha rd , concen tra ting, a nd I'm really focused on the championship. I just have to pin -it and go!" Hatch's victory d idn't come easily, however, as home state hero Kelby T 38 Pepper, a Team KTM rid er, pressured Hatch every inch of the way. Going into the third and final loop, Pepper actually led Hatch by one point, b ut wh en the scores were tallied at the end of the day, Hatch had mad e up two points to edge out Pepper for the overall win, 11-12. Hawkins dropp ed 13 points, good for third overall, w h ile former Na tional Ch ampion Ke vin Hi nes o f Team Hu sqv arna carded a 14-poi nt score for fourth overall. Five poin ts off the pa ce with 19 was anoth er fo rmer cha m p, KTM's Jeff Russell, w ho finis hed fifth. Russell is third in the series point standings wi th 92. Th is year's Colorado National, ,held in the Pike National Forest, was hos ted by the Pike s 'Peak Enduro Club, and it wa s the club's first-ev er National event. Th e enduro consisted of th ree loops, including 12 checks, one of which was later thrown out due to a timing error. Only th e first and third loops took points away from most of the AA riders. Pepper proved to the rest of the field that he was a force to be reckoned w ith by bein g the only rider to zero the third check, the firs t 'check that took po ints awa y from the National contenders. Th ese wo u ld be the on ly p oi nts dropped by the AA riders un til the third and final loop. The fir st check of the th ird loop wa s a check-in , and the remaining four checks cost the AA riders po ints and d ecided the event's outcome . Pep per, Hatch, Hawkins, H ines and Russell all dropped two poin ts a t the next che ck, so Pepper s till main tained hi s slim o ne- p o in t adv antage o ve r Hatch and the rest of the AA field . Although Hatch dropped the sa m e amoun t of points as Pepper and the rest of the AA field there, it was the second check (o f th e third lo op) th a t Hatch effec tive ly won the end ur o. H e did so by clocking in only a few seco nds into his min u te, while the rest of the field arr ived we ll into the ir resp ect ive minu tes. By arriving early, Hatch wa s able to dro p a t least one point less tha n ev eryone else a t the next two ch ecks : Hatch wen t 3-1; Pepper 4-2; Hawkins 42; H ines 4-2, and Russell 5-3. With o nly one check remaining, Hatc h hung on to a precious one-point cushion over Pepper. Hatch, Pepper and Hawkins all dropped four points at the final che ck, which secured the overall w in for Hatch. Hines, meanwhile, clocked in with a five and Russell a six. "I just pinned it," said Hatch. "1 went as fast as I could for the whole loop and hoped my body wo uld hold up." • The results, however, we re still up in the air im mediately following the enduro d ue to a scoring discrepancy at a second loop check. Many riders burned that check by up to two minutes, including Hatch and Hawkins . Pep per bu rned it by one minute. " M y com pu ter and everything seemed to read okay, and I rod e into the ch eck 45 sec ond s into w hat should've been my minute, but they said I burned . it by two min u tes!" said Hatch. "Tha t was a weird feeling, but since I was sure abo u t my time-keeping and tha t it was so far off, I kn ew the check ha d to be messed up , so I d idn't let it bother me." It was later discovered that the check was, in fact, two minutes off and was "thrown out." Had the chec k not been tossed ou t, Pepper wou ld hav e scored the overall w in. "This wa s a real fast enduro," sai d Hatch. "There were some tight sections, but most of them were fairly wide open. Some places were dusty and slick, and it was like riding on BBs. It was definitely a go-for-it type of end uro, and that kind of suits my rid ing sty le. I'm glad I won here, because my last win in Mississippi came in th e sa nd, so people thought th at's why I w on, because I like th e sand. There was no sand here!" While mu ch of the course was fairly "eas y" by AA standards, there was at leas t one section tha t caused all of the . National contenders concern - a long and deep water crossing. "There were bikes drowned out in it all over the place," sa id Moose Racing/MSR/Trelleborg/Bieffe/Smith/ FMF/Powerbar/Cycle Gear/Gold Sport Cycle-supported Hatch. "It scared me to d eath . It was just luck of the draw, Russian roulette, a maybe yo u'd, make it, maybe you wouldn't type-of-th ing.

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