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···E D R ·.. . :.,;.:.., " ,. Round 2: Quicksilver National Enduro ;' N U O ,. . : AMANational Championship Eduro Series: n H INES bREAks ThE iCE mil eage was off. On Monday, club members went back out on the course to check the mileage, and found the check to be nearly three tenths of a mile off. Because rules only allow a check to be one tenth off, the check was thrown out after Tuesday morning discussions with the AMA. This meant that there were only four valid checkpoints left for scoring the enti re enduro, but one and two were emergency checks, so the two tiebreaker minimum was still met. The Tuesday decision had a significant effect on the enduro resu lts. Hines retained his win and former cham p Jeff Rus sell stayed in second overall, bu t KTM western regional sales manager Scot Harden was d ropped from third to seventh, Larry Roese ler slipped fro m fou rth to 11th, and Ma tt Stavish was moved from fifth to 13th. Meanwhile, Pepper, Smith, Danny Hamel and Ha tch advanced to slots three through six; all had been out of the top 10 before the decision. (Left) Kevin Hines Ignored the weather and rode to his fi rst overall win In over two years. Hines, 32, Is now ti ed for sec ond In the po int sta ndings. (Below) Jeff Russell was just a point off the pace, plac ing sec ond overall. He had fi nis hed sixth the week before. By Chris Jonnum Photos by Kinney Jones COALINGA. CA, FEB. 20 fter a dry spell of over two years, 1987 National Enduro Champion Kevin Hines slogged to the overall win at the abbreviated Quicksilver National Enduro. The Honda CRE imp orter's "ice-breaker" came under snowy, muddy and all-around miserable riding conditions which mirrored the trails in his home state of Massachusetts. East Coast riders may have come to the West Coast hoping for typical, sunny California weather, bu t several rain storms the week before the enduro, and a final snow storm the day before, combined to make for a tough event. " Th a t was great," sa id the CRE Imports/Manchester Honda/WER/ MSR/Shoei /Scott /FMF/Trelleborg / Fah-Q/ Acerbis/ICO/ Braking/ Regina/Spectro/Renthal/Enduro Engineering/PPS/Tecnosel/Moto Avent u ra / Factory Connection-sponsored Hines . "I love ridi ng in conditions like this. If they (the Nationals) were all like this, I'd be go lden. I' d have liked it to be a little longer, but other than that it was awesome. " When club members awoke early A Sunday morning and di scovered that their first and third loops were impass- / able, the start was delayed for two and a half hours to 10:30 a.m., and the de cision was made 'to complete the second I loop twice. Th is brought the mileage total to just 80 miles, which was short of the 8S-mile minimu m req uired for a National event. Th e AM A o p te d to waive the requirement, how ever, cons idering that the club had a longer course prepared, and that the changes were necessitated by an act of God. The decision to run the enduro was appreciated by most of the top riders, especially those who had travelled long distances. While Hines ' win was all but guaranteed by the evening after the event, several of the lower pos itions were in doubt up until the following Tuesd ay. Due to last-minute course changes. several riders had missed the third check on the first loop, so the club decided to eliminate it from the scoring. By the time the riders came thro ugh the same check on loop two, however, the necessary route markers ha d been posted, and most of the riders made it through the check. Still, several AA riders - including Steve . Hatch, Kelby Pepper and Chr is Smith burned the check by sev era l minutes, and filed protests clai m ing that the I Held on BLM land in the Gear Creek Recreation Area, the enduro featured snow, ruts, rocks and slippery uphills and descents. Because of the conditions many riders houred out on the first loop, and club members were busy retrieving stranded bikes up until dark. Of nearly 300 starters, only 81 riders finished the grueling event without houring ou t. The endu ro started with a makable speed averag e, and most of the top riders were able to zero the first check. The exception wa s Sport Cycle Yamaha's Terry Cunningham, who was experiencing trouble with his timekeeping equipment. Despite "riding blind," the four time National Enduro Champion was a only a minute late. At check two, the ranks began to spread out a bit. With a tougher speed average and a couple of slippery bott lenecks thrown in to keep things interesting, only Hines and Hatch were able to score twos. Russell, Pepper, Ty Davis and Smit h were all three minutes late, while Hamel dropped four points. The third check was thrown ou t, so at the end of the first loop Hines and Hatch were leading, with Hatch holding a narrow three-second advan tage on tiebreaker points. Loop two contained no emergency checks, so in order to win, the veteran Hines would have to best up-and-comer Hatch by at least a full point at one of the remaining two checks. One rid er who wouldn 't have to worry about loop two was defending champion Rand y Hawkins. "The Ja velin" had drown ed out midway through the first loop when he crashed