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.' E D .R . 43rd Annual Alligator Enduro N U. O· .. ": .' . - -, .: 'Gator tountry btlongs to Hopkins (Above) SuzukJ's Guy Cooper finished eighth overall riding an RMX250; last year he finished seventh on a DR250S dual sport bike. Cooper was In the hunt for the overall win at this year's event before losing time in a mud hole. (Left)What's the Alligator Enduro without vintage enduro bikes? Low-point scorer Joey Hopk ins (120) turned the tables on last year's winner Steve Hatch (121). Team Green's HopkJns edged SuzukJ's Hatch by one point, 100 11. FLAGLER, FL, MAR. 10 eam Green ride r Joey Hopkins survived a tough course and a competitive field to score top honors in the 43rd Annual Alligator Enduro near Daytona . The 31-year-old Hopkins carded a score of 10, edging Team Suzuki 's endu ro vice-champion Steve Hatch and five-time National Endu ro Champion Ra nd y Haw kins. Hond a CRE rider Kevin Hines and Team Kawasaki desert star Ty Davis ran fourth and fifth in the final count. " I just had a pretty g o o d da y, I guess," said th e 31-year-old Ho pkins, who is backed by Team Green /Silkolene / MSR/ Michelin/Sprocket Specialists / Shoei/ Acerbis /EBC / Scott/ Aiken Motorcycle. "The wea ther was good and the trail wasn' t qu ite as bad as it was last year, so I rea lly enjoyed myself. The last sec tion was a real killer, maybe 15 miles long . That part was gruesome, bu t the rest was fine." The course for the Alligator Enduro measured ap pr oximately 65 miles not counting the rese ts - 32 miles in the first loop and abou t 33 in the secon d. The event w as organized by th e Da yt ona Dirt Riders and attracted approximately 350 en tries. : The trailboss for the end uro was Joe Van Seeters, a member of the club who oversaw the design and marking of the course. Unfortunately, the hard work of T the club and its volunteers could not combat th e effects of a wet winter. Like last year, the course was wet and ru tted throughou t, even though the sun was shining brightly and th e tempera ture hovered arou n d the 70-degree ma rk. The ride rs began departing at 9:00 a.!T!. an d d isappeared from si gh t for th e better part of the morning. Before entering the second loop, Larry Roeseler, a pr evi o us w in n e r of this event, remarked that the trail was "...d ryer than I thought it would be . It' s pretty rideable because they' ve been throwing us in and out of the wet stuff. It's been sort of fun. " "Hey, it's time for the second moto, right?" said Guy Cooper as he compl etely changed h is rid ing gear before the se cond and final section. . " I' m jus t havi ng a good time out there try in g n o t to get s tu ck in the mud ," said th e 21-year-o ld Danny Ham el, attending his first Alligator run. "It 's not as bad as I thought it wo uld be. In fact, it 's kin d of fu n . I've had no crashes, no problems - just a fun day." Team KTM's Jeff Russell decided to replace his brake pads between sections . "I d idn't wear th em ou t, but th ey were getting down the re a little, " sa id Ru ssell, wh o is also backed b y Th or / Moose/ Arai /Scott. "The second part of the trail might be a little worse and I guess I'd better be ready for it. I'm kind of fa r back for the AAs and the track is going to be bad ." Ind eed , the second part of th e trail was the m or e d ifficult. Th e ruts and mud continued but some difficult water crossings were added, much to the dismay of Cooper. "I drowned out in th e water before the seventh check and I lost a lot of time pushing out and putting a plug in," said Cooper."It was my own fault because I didn't follow a good line. I just dropped in and that was it. Mark Johnson told me that in the future I need to pay more atten tion to w here the sp ectators are standin g in pla ces like that. " "I tried to pass somebody in a deeprutted line and I got stu ck in a big hole," sa id Suz uki bo ss Mike Webb, a top-10 finisher here last year, who was forced out of th e race prematurely. " I had to pin it for about five minutes to get out of that hole and I think I just seized it up . I let it cool down and then started again and the thing locked up . It was the bike Guy used at Ocala and we just had the jetting off toda y." When it was all over , Hopkins had dropped a winning score of 10 points, edging Hatch by one. "The b iggest problem I had was probably my own self," said Hopkins. "I