Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

· ·» RELIABILlTY.ENDURO ··.. -: Round 5: Puget Sound Two-Day Qualifier : Enduroseiies : A ANational Championship Reliabir M eomes ae or more By Steve Berkner OLYMPIA, WA, MAY2I·22 u z u ki 's Rod ney Smith scored his second consecutive National Relia bility Enduro win with a 2G-second advantage over runner-up Ty Davis at the Puge t Sound Two-Day Qualifier. Smith sa t in third place after day one bu t ca me back to re cord a 3160 to tal poin ts over Davis' 3180. Sm ith tr ailed the Kawasaki rid er from Italy , Davide Trol li, by 16 points and Davis by three points after the first day of comp e tition, bu t the American Suzu ki/Thor / Bieffe / Smith/ FMF/ Race Tech / Pro Taper /Uni / Alpinestar / Power Bars / Acerbis/Motion Pro/Dunlo p /Devo l-backed rider clicked off some of the quickest special test times to move out in front afte r the final da y. The course used 81 miles of state ORV trails that consisted almost entirely of single-track trails. The Puget Sound Endu ro Rider's Greg Toms, event coord ina tor and referee, said: "Th is entire even t is laid out on well-established trails he re in the Capitol State For est. Th e y 're very fa st and hav e a lo t of whoops, rocks and roots . The trail conditions can be very slippery at times ." Two loops over a 6G-mile trail made up day-one' s cou rse and was highlighted b y th ree terrain tests that were approximat ely two and a half miles long each. The even t was run on a B schedule to give the riders extra time. S 4 (Top) Overall winner Rodney Smith (114) Is chased by rival Ty Davis (105) In the final MX s pecial test. (Left) Davis pushed hard but came up 20 seconds short of Smith In the weekend's final points tally. Runner-up Davis said: "It was really slick ou t there with a lot of whoopedout trail. There are rocks and roots everywhere, and there's no way off of it because the trails are so narrow, After a while, the trail just hammered you." Davis' teammate Dann y Hamel, who fin ished fourth ov e rall, said th e .tra il speeds where challenging to maintain. "They almost caught me sleeping at the first check," said Hamel. "I stopped to change my goggles before the first test an d I jus t barely made it to the check on ti me. So I turned it up a little to sta y ahead of schedule the rest of the day." Sit ting th ird after day one, Kev in Hines said : "The first check was reason ably tigh t for time, mo s tly because of the terrain test. But the rest of the schedule see med to be a little more relaxed. Th e tra il was rough . If you went too slow you got beat up . So you have to keep you r speeds up ." In fourth over all after da y one and leading th e 0-125cc cla ss was Hondamoun ted Scott McLa u gh lin. H e had posted fourth-fast est times in s pecial tests on e and th ree, a nd had fin ished fifth ove rall during special test number two. Kawas a ki Team Green rid er David Rhodes said: "The trails were so snotty and slippery out there that at times your rear wheel was spinning when you were just id ling in gear." Rhodes ran into tro uble at the end of da y one when he wasn't able to finish a rear tir e change in time . "I just d idn ' t ha ve enou gh tim e to fin ish before impound. The Mousse had go tten real hot and it expanded to the point tha t I couldn't get it to drop into the center of the tire." An ex ha us ted Rh od es pu shed his bike, without a rear wheel, about 100 feet to the final check and impound. Day two used the same course as day one but ran in the oppos ite direction. An additional two minutes were add ed to each check to all ow th e rid ers a little more breathing room. The course was also shortened to abo ut 100 total miles (two 50-mile loops) to allow extra time for the staging of the final MX test. Trolli continued hi s winning wa ys and increased his lead another five seconds over Smith by logging the quick est time in da y two's first special test. TrolIi pos ted a time of 770 seconds o n the three-mile terrain test; Davis finished eight seconds back. Smith got the upper hand in the second test, however. He easily clicked off the quickest time, beating the Italian by 23 seconds and taking ove r the overa ll lead. "I'm starting to become more of a technical rider," said Smith . "Th ose sections don't seem to bother me anymore. In fact 1 even look forward to th em now. " Smith had indeed set the pace by elapsing a time of 948 seconds over the five-mile long special test and had beaten Trolli by 23 seconds. Trolli sa id , "The gro u nd wa s ve ry dangerous tod ay. Yesterday the tra il was very rough and whooped out and by the end of the da y th e y had big square edges. Today, when we went the other direction, it was very impo rtant to use your b ra in and no t the thro ttle so much." Davis fell back another 21 seconds behin d Smith in the second test. "1 really tried to make up some time tod ay, but things d idn 't seem to go my way. This morning I noticed that my fron t Mousse hadn't seated the tire and I had to ride with a flat front tire. I fixed it at the gas stop. "Th en 1 beat myself to dea th on the

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