Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ENDURO '. . . A National Championship Reliability Enduro Series MA Round 3: Idaho City National a bid at ISDB, the sho rt five-race schedule an d lack of centra lly located events prompted the AMA to take a rider' s best fou r d ays to qualify. For clubs like the Boise Rid ge Rid er s, this has m ean t a smaller turnou t. For rid ers like Smith, this has required far less time and travel to qualify. "If , d o well at Tillam ook," Smith agreed "I wo n' t rid e at Trask the following week.... Rounding ou t th e top five pl aces were 250 riders Eri c Mashbir, Rhod es and Scott McLaughlin. Mashbir actually finished beh ind Rhod es aft er th e first day of rid ing but after a consistent second d ay and some bad luck for Rhodes, fi nished a hea d of the South Prairie, Washin gt on , na tive. .., had a pretty good ride except for the secon d terrain test," Rhod es later comm ented abo ut his ' backward slide in to fourth ..., had a hard tim e fo ll owin g th e co u rse and we nt off the side of the trail twice. Then , stalled my bike on a sidehill where the upside was on the kick starter side and ha d trouble ge tting the b ike started again. It wasn' t marked real well either, and' was trying to go rea l fast and' would co me around corners and the trail would just be gone." In the heavyweight four- stroke category , Honda XR600 mounted Italian David Trolli finished well ahead of the pack by falling only one minute, 20 seconds behind Rodney for both days. Next in the class Joel Smith, who bounced back from a terrible fifth-place finish on day one to finish second overall. Since Trolli 's finish only counted toward the Reliability series and not toward evaluation points for qualifying, the ever-soluc ky Smith garnered a good start for attending Six Days. On the small-bore fou r stroke side, Don Knap p surprised himself by roosting his Husq varn a 350 to a d ay-one victory and the overall. "This is my first qualifier win ." Knapp said proudly. "On the 250, when you' re competing against Rodney and guys like that , you can never expect it. This is just great. If I go to any National and win my class, it's great wi th me." Pa trick Garra han and John May rounded out the top th ree , while KTM rider Jim Gray won day two but lost trail points on day one to finish well out of a podium finish. l~ By Joel Smith IDAHO OTY, ID,JUN. 3-4 n a limited field of factory rid ers, form er World Championship Gra nd Prix m otocrosser a nd current AMA Nat ion al Reli ab ility Series cha m pion Rodn ey Smith won his second qu alifier of the yea r in Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest. With th e w in , th e Su zu ki rider ex te nded hi s overa ll points lead over teammate Steve Hatch, who along with Kawasaki's Ty Davis, are the only riders to pos t a victory against Smith. .., rod e a t a bout 80 to 85 pe r cent," Sm ith claimed of th e two-day even t. "1 knew a ll o f th e guys w e ren' t h ere (Tea m Kaw asaki nor Team Su zuki) so I just w a nted to ha ve fun and n ot hurt myself." Ab sentees Hatch a nd Da vi s skipped the third round of the Reliability series to race the GNCC and Baja 500, re spec tively . Hatch pos te d a perfect score on day one in Ohio while Davis ru led round one in Texas. In s pite of Rod ney' s lackad aisical attitu de, he came u nder stiff competition from former Husaberg and Suzuki fo u r-stroke rider Da vid Rhodes and New Jersey native Chris Smith early on. Chris Smith and Rh od es m an aged to beat Rodney Smith in the second terrain test on da y one by mere seconds. I 36 Alth ough Chris took the nod over the now two- stroke m ounted Kawa saki pilot Rhod es, this would be the last the tw o rid er s would see of firs t place as Smith boun ced back and completed his rou t of the competition by posting convinci ng victories of every other special test . Chris continued his string of second-place finishes to Sm ith, finishi ng second overall and first 12Sec. " I ha d a grea t tim e," brother of Work s End u ro Rid er Drew Smi th beamed after two days of perfect scores in the 125cc class. "This is the first time I was ever ou t here (in Ida ho) so , didn 't know what to expect, but it was great. I a m trying to win th e 125cc class this year. It's been tough at times, like when I was beating Rand y (Hawkins) on the first d ay in Texas. Then it rained and he got me back on the second day." Not a newcom er to Si x Da ys, t he Honda CRl25-mounted Smith has pa rticipated in the last four international even ts on a variety of bikes. "Last year, , rode a 125 but the yea rs before that' was on either a 250 or open bike . Now, , have been riding a lot of motocross on m y 125 trying to get my grass-track times up for Poland and learn how to climb hills better." Unl ike previous years, where a full six days of riding we re requ ired to make Team Suzuki's Rodney Smith recorded his second National Reliability Enduro Series wi n In as many tries, this time It happened at the Idaho City Two-Day Qualifier. Brieflv.... - Idaho City Qualif ier Idaho City, Idaho Results: June 3-4 O/A.: 1. Rodn ey Smit h (5uz) 3211 poi nts ; 2. Ch ris Smith (Ha n) 3264; 3. Eric Mashbir (Ha n ) 3283; 4. David Rhodes (K.tw) 3291; 5. Scott McGL1ughlin CH ). on sonaand did some sports therapy. Now It's back to 1QO-percenl." Fully healthy, Rodn ey Sm ith promises to . . Improve the chances of a strong U.S. Trop hy Qu alifying fo r the ISDE has changed for Team finish but hasn't given a solid commit1995. For starters, riders only need the best of four days to qualify (down from six) and the ment to joining the prestigious core of top number of total riders to be picked has been qualifiers. "We haven't talked to the AMA or Suzuki or anyth ing , but me and Ra ndy increased from 34 to 37. Accordi ng to the (Hawkins) have been hinting arou nd about AMA , the qualifying s tandards have bee n Steve (Hatch) , Randy and I do ing a club lowered because of the short five-race schedteam : said Smith , who then commented ule and lack of centrally located events. The about the forthcoming selections. " Right now additional three riders, on the other hand, will co nsist of active-duty mil itary members . we don't even know who's going to ride Six' .These riders will be picked by the 'AMA com- Days: We don't even know if Ty's going or if mittee Six Day qualification. 1I,Ieft unfilled, . Guy's '(Cooper) going. Right now we don't the,empty spots will go to the person with the have any four-stroke guys and we would be better 011 going over and winning as a club next-highest evaluation points. teamthan losing as the trophy t~am : Although current National Reliability Champion Rodney Smith finished the Tulsa ISDE as While it's difficult 'to conceive that Rodn 'ey the second Top 'American, it wasn't without . Sm it h rod ~. "80 to 85 pe ~ce nt· to win th.e certain pains. One of these, a wrist injury sur- . Idaho Qualifier. The short. lost 9f factory pros fered just before' the U.S. Six Days, forced make. the statement a lottie more comprehenhim to take the whole winter 011. "I had a,ten- . Sib le. Guy Cooper, Steve Hatch and Randy ,don problem but from the pain I was' !laving, ' Hawkins were a~ay. comp~ting in round si.x ?f the doctors kept thinking it wasmy navicular I .. the. GNCC .senes In . Elk inS, West Vlrgln!a , broke. They kept x-raying it and x-raying it whll~ the ~wasakl nders were at the Baja 500 In MeXICO. and then finally, we shot It with "some corti- on

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