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(Left) Jared Green powers his big
KLX650 throu gh an off-camber
tum, on his way to the
Heavyweight Four-Stroke win.
(Right) Benny Richards motors
away from the start. The two-day
event featured a 27D-mlle course.
(Below) Chris Smith was the top
Ughtwelght division rider,
finishi ng s ixth overall.
make-able sections, and then it's time to
go to work (in the tests ). The grass track
was very Europeanish, d efinitely a good
Qualifier even!. "
cv
LIttle Burr Qualifier
"It was getting real muddy at that
crossing during the first grass-track test
this morning, so we decided to route it
around the mudhole so nobody gets
stuck," explained event worker Scott
. Ely.
"Nobody told us that there had been
a change, and I came flying up to the
creek-bed crossing just like we had done
that morning," said Hoess. "By the time
I noticed that it had been ribboned off, I
couldn't react fast enough and I crashed
right through it."
Cooper saw the arrows for the new
route and followed them, while
Hawkins and Conner both missed the
arrows' and blazed the old course, making it through the mud without any
problems. Hawkins and Cooper tied for
fast time, though Cooper would probably have been quicker had he taken the
, shorter route. No official protest was
filed, so organizers counted the test.
At the ninth check, more confusion
awaited - though no check personnel
did. .Riders - panicking after being held
up by a long mud hole located ju s t
before the scheduled check - raced on in
an effort to find the phantom check. "1
got stuck just before check nine, and I
d idn't have any time to play with," said
Conner. "So I pinned it like a wild man
all the way to check 10."
The day was like a re-awakening for
Rodney Smith, whose score for Day
Two matched that of Hawkins. With
Smith's mediocre first day', however,
H awkins was more concerned with
Cooper. "Guy and I were riding on the
same minute all weekend," sa id
Hawkins. "1 knew I could hang with
him in the grass tracks. I was jus t waiting for the tight terrain tests ."
Hawkins' confidence in staying with
Cooper paid off when he pulled to within one second of his teammate by bettering the Oklahoman by 10 seconds in the
first grass track of the day. Hawkins
posted the second-fastest test time of the
day, then tied Cooper for the fastest
time of the day in the controversial second grass track.
Hawkins' off-road talents shined in
the final terrain test of the weekend,
where he beat Cooper by five seconds.
"It was a real good test," said Hawkins,
whose score was the third-fastest of the
day. "It was long with a
lot of tight stuff, just like I
was waiting for."
Cooper started the test
just in front of Hawkins,
but had trouble getting
around a slower rider.
Hawkins caught up just
as Cooper was m aking
the pass, and the two
. freight-trained
until
Cooper overshot a comer
and Hawkins went flying
by.
Andrews had his own
problems
when
he
crashed hard during the
cancelled first terrain test. At the time of
the crash, Andrews had taken the overall lead from Cooper by posting th e
fastest time on the first grass
track."When we got to the test, we had
no idea that they had cancelled it. In
fact, they even had somebody gi vin g
start times. I was pushing real hard
when I was coming down this hill, and I
crashed hard when my rear wheel hit a
log. I hit a tree with my shoulder. That
ruined it for sure. It really sucked, when
they had already ba sically thrown out
the test."
Chris Smith held onto his lead in the
Lightweight division, but advanced a
spot to sixth in the overall standings.
Terry Cunningham wa s second, while
Hoess was slowed by two flat tires and
finished third . Fredette to pped th e
Lightweight Four-Stroke category, bes ting former National Enduro Champion
Jeff Russell. Fredette benefitted from the
cancellation of the first terrain test, as he
sta lled his mo tor and was ove r a minute
slower than Russell through the section.
Ja re d Green a n d H usaberg s ales
manager Greg Surdyke battled for the
Heavywe ight Four-Stroke wi n, b u t
teamwork helped secu re the victo ry for
Green. The two buried themselves in a
mudhole, and helped each other out.
Ron Ribolzi dominated the Senior .
class by bettering second -p lace finish er
Tom Ebersole by 129 secon ds . "1 think
Vic Ely and the club did a real good
job," said RiboIzi. "This type of enduro
reminds me of the old days. This was a
lot like what the European enduros are
like. They tie special tests together with
McArthur, Ohio
Results: May 28-29, 1994 (Round 6 of 8)
. 0/'" I. Randy Hawkins (Suz); 2. G uy Cooper (Suz);
3. Duane Conner (Yam); 4. Fred Andrews (Yam); 5.
Rodney Smith (Suz); 6. Chris Smith (Hon ); 7. (TIE) Terry
Cunn ingham (Yam )/Tim Shephard (Ya m); 9. Fred
Hoess (H us); 10. Ross Bensen (Suz ); 11. Jeff Fred ett e
(!