Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

':,AMA NationalB EN UEilduro series' Round 7: Trask Mountain Qualifier 'R LIA. Championship ReliabilityR .: E ILITY D O:, e e e wtce l" atce tra ck and overgrown single-trac k. Just over 100 Letter of Int en t riders we re entered. Day One featured two identical 75mile loop s that served up two terrain tests during the morning loop only. Test one was run about five minutes after the start, and featured a two-mile fire road before turning onto a very rutted twotrack, known as "Heartbrake Hill," for another two miles. The test finished a few hundred yards before check one. Test two was located just after an alternate gas stop, featuring a rutted jeep tra il and a winding fire road. The test wa s very technical and the soil a slippery, clay-based type. Both tests were extremely fast, and each was approximately four miles long. "W e believe that you don 't test a rider by running' him down impossible trails because it hurts the sport and is tough on terrain," said Trask Mountain M.e. president Mike Poe. "We also run an amateur event at the same time, so we have to keep them on schedule. For the Expert rider, it becomes very technical at speed. The tests may be short, but they will be challenging 'for all types of riders ." . On Day Two, the riders did another two loops on the same course, bu t in reverse. Test One was aga in located right after the start, and tested the riders on single-track; dirt road and a very rocky two-track called "Whit e-Fa ce Bypass." Test two wa s Day One's first terrain test, and was jus t before the end of loop one. Some trail sections were rerouted from Day One to save the terrain . "On Day Two we bypassed the sections that could be whooped out if we used them both days," said Poe. "With the amateur event, we have to be awa re that 1800 sets of motorcycle tires will be going o ve r some of th ese trails, an d we'd , like to keep them fr om going away." (Left) Rodney Smith wrapped up his second-straight title with an overall win at the Tra sk Two-Day. (Bel ow) Randy Hawkin s (left) and Rodney Smith ready their bikes for Day Two. Hawkins finished third behind David Rhodes, and lost any hope for the title. MCMINVILLE, OR, JUNE 25-26 s the riders prepared for th e Trask Two -Day, all bets w ere o n Su zuki's Rodney Smit h to clin ch the title one round early. Smith, th e d efend in g champion, ha d won the event the pr evious two years. The Californi an's main competition for th e ti tl e wo uld co me fro m Ran d y Hawkins, who was much farther from home. As if that wasn't enough, the conditio ns favored Smith, whose only other two w in s this year ha d co me in the Pacific North west. Still, expectations like those can do more harm than good . "People don't see the pressure that we' re under to repea t and win," Smith said . " It's th e same of all Na tio na l Championships; somet hing migh t happen and you might not have the ed ge anymore. I got off to a slow start thi s . year, and trailed Randy during the first three rounds." _ Afte r that inauspicious beginning; Smith came on strong with back-to-back wins, but had problems with a blown shock in Ohio. "This week, when I found out that Randy was coming out here to challenge me for the Championship, the pressure star ted to get me a little and I started to do ubt if I could win the Series Champi- A 28 onship; the pressures to repeat as champion are incredible." Whe n th e fina l po in ts were tallied, h ow ev er, Smith had overcome th os e pressures, scoring his third win of the series. That win sewed up the title. Hawkins would have had to finish second to keep his title hopes alive, but he was in th ird behind Ho nda's Scott Summers after Day One. Hawkins overtook the Hon da rider on Day Two, but go t a surprise in the form of spoiler David Rhodes . Tied for fourth after Day One , Rhod es won two of Day -Two's three special tests to secure the ru nnerup position. "I was on row 12, pretty much all by myse lf," said Rh odes, a resi dent of Washington. "Riding back in the pack, I had to pa ss a lot of people in the tests, so I had to stay focused. When I was on the tra il it was burned in, and I made fewer mistakes than the riders out front. It also helped that nobody wa s able to keep an eye on me . Nobody expected , me to finish this high up in the standings. I' m always a better second-day rider, and I really concentrated on making clean, quick passes in the tests. This is my. best finish ever. I guess I finally came alive. After riding a four-stroke for so many yea rs, it just took a while to adjust to the two-strokes." The 24th Animal Trask Mountain Qualifier was held under special-use p ermits that were obtained from Willamette In dustries, Boise Cascade and the BLM, and was run out of the Flying M Ranch near McMinnville. The ,nation 's oldest q ualifi er offered two days of riding over approximately 80 miles of trail, including fire roads, two- Scott Summers fell off the pace in the special tests, dropping from a Day-One second place to fourth overall. "I didn 't make any big mistakes today, bu t it's such a fine line running with these guys," Summers said . "With the short test and fast trail conditions, you didn't want to go too fast and fall down and take yourse lf out of it. But you can't be

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