Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ENDURO '" ECEA E nduro S eries Round 5:Ridge Run Enduro ~ ~, ' I te rI in tfie one (Above) KTM's Mike Lafferty sco red the ove rall win at the ECEA Ridge Run End uro in New Jersey. (Above right) Mark Spence was seco nd overall but captured th e AA-elass win. (Right) Bill Atkinson took High Point A ho nors in third overall on a Honda XR400. By Paul Clipper, Trail Rider Ma,gazine STANHOPE, NJ, MAY 12 ichael Lafferty took a weekend off from his pursuit of the AMA National Enduro title to ride one of his home-circuit events and picked up another overall victory for his scrap book. Riding in conditions similar to what he'Il find at the Rhody National next month, Lafferty took control of the Rid ge Riders' 27th ann ual event right from the start. Although the Team KTM factory rider had to fend off challenges fro m Ma n assas H o n d a rider Mark Spence, as we ll as his two KTM-mounted b rothers, Richard and Jack, he still came out on top by a comfortable threepo int margin. Although the competition was toug h at th e Rid ge Run, th e real threa t was fro m th e weather. Eighty-five-d egree temperatures and balm y conditions early Saturday gave way to torrential rains and tornadoes as a cold front moved in. The resulting high winds' twisted and buck- m led a few of the circus tents erected at the start location. The rain put an end to a potential du st problem, but then slick ened up the top layer of soil into a fine grease that gave riders fits until better than halfway through the event. Sunday morning, temperatures barely topped 40 degrees and what could have been a hot, dusty ride became a slippery, cold thrash through a well-known and respected bon eyard. But that's why they caIl it "enduro," right? Lafferty started ou t at the top of his form Sunday morning, and quickly d emonstrate d t he value of s taying focused on the job at hand, regardless of conditions. Mark Spence, the ECEA 's second-place finisher last year, was riding on the minute in front of Lafferty, and he admitted afterward to "Falling asleep on the job. No excuse!" Lafferty . we nt on a charge immediately after the check-in to the long Allam uchy Mountain si de of the course, and qu ickly ca ught u p to Spence and passed h im before Spence could react. " Wh en that happened , there was nothing I could do," said Spence. "All 1 could do was chase him, and it was just a little too fast and tight to risk a pass." The section wound up covering two checks, and by the check-out Spence had netted two more points than Lafferty. A brief timekeeping section following the check-three check-out allowed Spence to get back on time, and then at the checkfour check-in, he puIled o ut all the stops. "I knew 1 had to get away from him, so 1 went crazy in the section, and wound up gaining back one of the points," Spence said. . So with just one p oint se parating them, the scene was set for an afternoon ba ttle between the ECEA number-one an d number-two riders; unfortunately, on the way to the gas stop, Spen ce got a little too anxious and blu ndered into check six a few seco n ds earl y . Th e resulting bum ad de d two more pointsto his score, whi ch would p rove to be a perman ent handicap. The afternoon half of the ri de fea - tured two points-taking sections for the fast guys (all the sections were points takers for most of the riders), but the .sections were short, and Spence and Lafferty tied each other on points at each check. Familiar scenery for most ECEA . riders were the gnarly rock uphill and powerline traverse on the way to the dreaded Spectator Hill, where all you r frien ds, relatives and pit crews can watch you blow a hillclimb and wallow around in the loose rocks. It was lucky for everyone that this late in the day the ground was actuaIly drying out, and mud was no longer a factor in the event. Lucky too that this year the club decided to forego the Black Hole mud section, instead byp assing it sligh tly higher up the hill. The final section was a mad cap threemile d ash arou nd Rid ge's famous MX spe cial-test section that was used in the ISDE Qualifier a few yea rs back. Just three m il es long a n d alternating between m addeningly tight, technical portions and wide-open sand traps, the

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