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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127732
ENDURO Rock IslandRiders M.e. M Ke auna a200 ' . tDU By Mark KariyaIDirt Rider • c U" e HiLa HI, MAY 27-28 heard the Duckies want my head on a stick, " Kevin Hines revealed several weeks ago. The Duckies referred to would be the Rubber Ducky M.e. who, in conjunction with the organizing Rock Island Riders, laid out the course for their first time in the 20 ru nnings of the Ma una Kea 200 Enduro. But when it was all over, even the Duckies couldn't stop the former Nation al Endu ro Champion. Held on the Big Island of Hawaii, Mauna Kea is noted as mu ch for its tough ness as for the variety of terr ain encou nte red in the two days and 200 miles ofracing. While typical ju ng le/ rain fores t trails make up the bulk of the race, there are also miles of loose bu t razor-sharp lava rock, sil ty climbs, hard -pa cked tw o-tra ck and a ride aro u nd the 13,796-foot extinct volca no the eve nt takes its nam e from. Ind eed , this was a tou gh race . Of the 84 entrants, 29 ma de it to the finish in one piece and wi thin their hour. "That (day two) afternoon section was tou gh er than most Nationa l end u ros, bu t the morni ng was pretty easy," said Hi nes. "That (last section) was National-caliber tough for 35 miles. Ther e was a lot of ph ysical, tuggin g the bike and just tight, tight, tight. " KTM's Alan Randt joined Hines on row one and was the only other Mainland rid er and the only other N ational AA . It was his first Mauna Kea, bu t the row 's other rider, Husk y 350-mo u nted Honolu lu resid en t Phil Oveland, promised to look ou t for him. Hin es has bee n absent from Nation als this yea r as he tries to get his business, CRE Imports, rolling. That ma y have led to a bit of ov er anxiousness on his p art at the start because he and Oveland burned the first l7 (Above) Kevin Hines came Irom behind to win the Mauna Kea 200 Enduro In Hawaii lor the third time. (Left) Third-place finis her Alan Rand! drags his motorcycle under a typical Mauna Kea 200 obstacle during the two-day, 200 mile enduro. 30 check by three minutes. Randt was the only on e to zero it, giving him the early lead. However, the first day's speci al test set the tone for mu ch of the race as Honolulu's Matt Lyman railed to th e fas t time on his Honda 125, the same bike, in fact, that he raced at last year's ISDE in Tulsa . H is 9:23 was a se cond quicker than Ove land , while Randt ranked third with his 9:29. Carl Kaui, from the Island .of Kauai, was next quickest with a 9:32 on his KX250, while KDX200 racer Darren Machado clocked a 9:34. Hi nes ' time was a relatively slowish 9:57, good for eig hth. However, Hines faced a problem: He