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ENDURO AMA N ational C hampionship Reliability E nduroSeries R ound 1:TexasT wo-DayQualifier N'T ESS ITH DAVIS (Left) Kawasaki's Ty Davis sco red the overall win at the opening roun d of the ISDE Qualifi er Series in Texas. (Right) Defending champ Rodney Smit h finished a clos e second to Davis. (Below) Suzuki's Guy Cooper was in flying form In Texas, as he took third-place honors. By Steve Berkner . NEW WAVERLY, IX, MAY 1&-19 y D avis tied up th e Texas TwoDay ISDE Qu alifier by posting five of th e fastest t im e s du r in g th e eve nt's nine special tests. Davis' score of 4257 gave him a 27-second victory over three-t ime series cham p Rodney Smith, both of th em competing in the Heavyweigh t (200cc to Open ) Two-Stroke class at what was th e openin g ro un d o f the three-r ace Nation al Championship Reliability Enduro Series. The event was held in the Sam Hous ton National For est and was made up almos t entirely of tight, sandy, singletrack trail. "The trails here were real technical," said Davis, "a lot like th e East Coast enduro s - something they say I'm not supposed to be good at. So I'm pretty happy with m y res ults. It was a tight rac e. If thi s would' ve been a Nati on al Enduro it would take plen ty of points." Keepin g Davis' performance on pa r were Suzuki' s Guy Cooper an d CR E Im ports' Kevin Hines. Coo per finished third, 51 seconds off Davis' pace, while Hines w as fourth ove rall jus t 13 seconds T [i a ~ 26 behind Cooper. Both Cooper and Hines competed in the Lightweight (0-175cc) Two- Stro ke class. KTM's Jason Dahners finished fifth wit h a score of 4366. Dahners rode in the Heavyw eigh t Two-Stroke class. The two-day qualifier ran a to tal of 164 miles w ith 96 m iles scheduled for day one and 68 miles for day two . The event's nine tests made up over 25 miles. Davis said after the event, "I really didn' t h ave any p rob lem s here. 1 just cruised along. I'm real surprised that Kevin and Guy finished this close to Rodney and I, considering the long tests an d how tigh t it was. In most tests, we jus t swapped fastest tim es by as close as a few se conds." "The 250s' and 125s' typical ad va ntage/disadvantages seemed to be canceled ou t here," sa id Smith. "The trails were mad e up of a mix of hard-pack and light sand with plen ty of roots. But the. tests were tight, sandy and rut ted , mostly first- an d seco nd -gear st uff. Wh at th e 250s made up for in speed the 125s took back in qu ickness. It came down to rid ing the berms and just pinning it." The event was also affected by th e recent drought conditions in Texas. The hos ting Trail Riders of Houston 's Chris Hard y, the event's clerk of th e co urse, said, "It's bee n real hot and dusty here. We're over seven inches behi nd in rnoislure and the course is extremely d usty. We're expecting temperatures in the 90s with 90-percen t hum idity . We d on 't expect to see any br eak, so we've given the riders plenty of time." Davis said, "It (the wea ther) made for a tough event. There weren' t man y road sections and the course was more like a ational Endu ro with plen ty of resets . It actually felt pretty good while we were riding, but the long w a its before th e checks were pretty hot and sticky." The two-day qualifier was held in the east e n t ra n ce of the Sam Houston National Forest, located five miles west of New Waverly. The trails used w ere part of the 57 miles of public single-track located on abou t 100,000 acres of land su rroun d ing Lake Conroe. The trails are d e sign at ed for m otorcycl e s, AT Vs, m ounta in bikes a n d e q u estri a n use . Hard y said, "By the time we're done on Sunday w e will h ave u sed eve ry trail availa ble. Some three times." DAY ONE Davis wo n the first terrain test, a 4.2m ile -long single- track tes t that wa s sched uled just 12 minutes after the 8 a.m. start. Davis edged his competition by just two seconds, posting a test time of 653 seconds. "I was real su rprised that I wo n that test," said Davis. "The bike was not set up for this terrain at all. The last time I rode th is bike was at the Lo u isiana Na tional Enduro and it w as still set u p for those conditions. It became apparen t right in to the firs t test th at we didn' t have it right." Th e secon d terra in test w as located directly after the first lest. It was 2 6 miles long and was "rea l technical wit h fresh trails ." In comparison, the first test was staged on more established trails. "I wanted to make so me susp ension adj ustments for th e secon d test, but 1 didn't have any time," said Davis. "So I just tried to rid e smo oth." Davi s fell off the pace finish in g fou rth , five seconds behind Cooper's test-winning time of 497 seconds . "I w as reall y focused on th at test," said Cooper. "It seems that I always do