Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round·S: Arcadiana Dirt Riders r es e ts ) sta rted wi th a 30 mph tight, woo ds sectio n t hat wo u ld ta ke out man y rid ers befo re the first check at 3.5 miles out. Tea m Green's Davis and Peppe r both carded th rees w ith most others ca rry ing fours an d fives. The second woods check burned Davis and Ho nda fou r-s troke rider Kevin ' Benn ett by one minu te for tw o ea rly points. No t to be ou tdone, M r . En d uro hi m self, Team Suzuki's Ha wkins, gained seven points for arriving tw o minutes ea rly . Chec ks four an d five took a point from only a few, w h ile a tie-breakin g sixth check t o ok n o p oint s fro m th e t op rid e rs. Reigning cha mp, Tea m Suz uki's Hatch ro de into th e tiebreaker to per fection , right down to the second, wi th Hawkins a n d Pepper only one secon d off hi s score. Pepper, wi th a th ree, held a twopoint lead early in the even t, followed by Da vi s, H at ch a n d Kaw as aki rid er Jerry Gibson with fives, Mike Lafferty and Geo rge Waller carrying sixes . Local SERA heroes Gibson and Wall er wer e defin itely stak ing claim for to p positions By Ela ina a nd Mike Reynolds Photos by Reynolds and Bo b Cornell FOREST HILLS, LA, APR. 23 o rren tia l rains flood in g central Lo u is ia na fo r severa l hours prior to the start greeted the large turnout of rid ers who attended the fifth round of the AMA National Enduro Series in For est Hills. Having several speed changes ranging from 20-30 miles per h our, a course overly blessed by Mother Nature would prove to be more of a ch allenge than many riders had imagined. Top contenders had their first mud run of the series to contend with . But when all wa s sa id and d on e, Col orado's Kelb y Pepper rose to the occasion to become onl y the second d ifferent rider thi s year to win a Nati onal Enduro Series round. Pepper, riding a Kawasaki KDX200, put an end to Ty Davis' winning streak by turning in an im press ive score of 13 amid the mud and muck to earn h im high point honors. This was Pepper's second career National win . Pepper' s victory, however, hard ly puts a dent into Da v is ' series points lead . Of the five ro unds held thus far, Davis has won four and finished second once, and when you figu re into account that only seven rounds of the nin e-event series count tow ard the series cha m pionshi p, it' ll be tou gh for eve n defending champ Steve Hatch, who is third in the series, and five-t ime National Cha mp ion Ran dy Hawkins, who is currently Second, 43 points behind Davis, to reel the Californian back in. The 120 -mile Nationa l (i ncl u ding T (Above) Rid ing a Kawasa ki KDX200, Kelby Pepper put an end to Ty Davis ' win streak at the wet and muddy Nat ional Endu ro in Lou isiana. It was the second National Enduro win of his career. (Right) Desp ite seei ng his perfect record go down the drain, Kawasak i's Ty Davis still claimed seco nd overall , tw o burned checks and all. (Below ) George Walle r Jr. get s his scorecard marked at lhe first check. He rod e well and fi nished third overa ll. of the day. After a morning of mishaps, Hatch moved int o a tie with Pepper at the 10th chec k. Hatch sm oked this section, being the only rid er to card a one . Davis, Hawkins and Waller each collected twos, with the other lead ers dropping three or mo re points. For the second time of t he day, Davis, h a v in g comp u ter prob lems, burned the 11th check to gain two ad dition al unw anted po ints o n h is sco recard. Zero sco res for Ha tch, Hawkins, Davis and Waller at check 12 and Pepper picking up a one, Hatch now carrie d the low est score with six ahead of Pepper w ith seven, Waller with eight, Davis wi th nine and Lafferty wit h 10. "The more ru ts the better I do," said the d efen d in g champ Hatch. " Everything was going wrong from the beginning, after crashing 200 feet off the start, flip ping my bike on the first hill wh ich

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