Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

be tter when I can just concentrate on being smooth. The first test was more like a wannup for me ; I w as trying to ride fast and I made too many mistakes." From the end of the second test, the riders contin ued on to check one - a gas check - 15 miles away . From there, the riders were run through a very tight 12mile section of single-track that required an IS-mp h speed average to reach check two and clear the sec tion without any penalty points . "This section might take some points from so me of the rid ers but was necessary to keep the schedu le moving so we coul d use the previous section for a 'reloop: " said Hardy. Where tests one and two were long terrain tests, test three was designated as a special test "grass tra ck." Hardy sai d, "Actu ally it's more like a tree track. It' s la id out in a hea vily wooded area. It's about eigh t-tenths of a mile long and is located righ t after check two . "It's been ribboned off on both sides, using only the existing trees as posts. It's virgin terr ain in ther e, and, for the first few riders thr ou gh, it' ll be u p to them to establish the lines. The test is sched ules to be run twi ce on day one, back-to-back; first time through they'll ride one d irection and the second time thr ough they'll run the other. It will also be run once on day two." On the first time throu gh, for special tes t three, tw o seco nds covered the top five riders. Tyin g for fastest times were H ines, Smith an d Cooper all of who m rode the section in 124 seconds . KTM's Mike Lafferty and Davis tied for second fastest times at 126 seconds. "We didn't ha ve the bike se t up for these conditions," sai d Hines. "1 really struggled in the first tw o tests, because 1 was set up for th e ro cks. We had th e wrong suspension set tin gs and gearing, and w e didn't get a chance to change them until the first check. Then we made a few more adj ustments at the secon d check and it really paid off." The second time through - special test four - was a charm for Davis and Lafferty, as they sw apped tim es with Hines and Cooper. Davis and Lafferty both posted 124 for second-fastest times, while Hines and Cooper settled for 126-second efforts in a tie for third. Smith posted a 12S-secand run to retain second-fastest time. Davis said of the test: "We finally had the bik e set up for these conditions . At the prev ious checks we m ad e th e requ ire d suspen sion ad justmen ts and cha n ged the flywheel weight for bet ter acceleration." . "That test w as jus t killer," said Lafferty. "Especially wi th the quick turns and the sand y berms. By the secon d tim e through, it was starting to get burned in and the ex p ose d roots made it real gnarly." The last terrain test of th e day, test five, was 5.2 m iles long an d was made up o f a combination of established tra il and fresh trail, and was the lon gest test of the two-d ay event. Scoring overall honors for test five was Smi th wi th a time of 842 seconds, followed by Hines with 844. Davis , Coop er an d La ffe r ty fo llowed with 847, 863 and 876, respectively. "I'm real surprised 1 did that we ll," said Smith. "I caught tw o slower riders right away. It w as tight, and findi ng a place to pass was tou gh. I finally made it by them, and then 1started to catch Coop . Tha t' s w he n 1 h it a log with m y rear wheel and bent th e brake rotor. Fro m then on I rod e without a rear brake." "Th at w as m y best test of the day," said Hines. "1 literally had that 125 going as fas t as th e m ot or could carry me. 1 cou ldn' t have asked for anything more." Scoring top five honor s for th e day (Left) KTM's Jason Dahners put himself In the hunt to win himself a s pot on this year's U.S. Juni or World Team after finishing fifth. (Above) Mike Lafferty put together a s ixth-place ride on his KTM. He, too , is vying for a position on the U.S. Junior World Team. were Davis (2252), Hi nes (2254), Smith (2261), Cooper (2270) and Lafferty (2296). DAY TWO Day-tw o started similarly to day one. The first rider left at 8 a.m ., an d the first terrain test w as located about 12 minutes ou t. Once again, Davi s se t th e fas test overall test time with an elapsed time of 788 seconds, beating second-place finisher Cooper by 12 seconds an d Smith by 14 seconds . Day-on e second-place finis her H ines fell off of the pace, finishin g fourth with a time o f 811 seconds. "I 'm a real slow s t a r te r, " exp lained Hines . " I' v e go t carpal-tunnel syn d rome, and I've a real hard time holdin g on. Especially on the second day." Davis continued his winning ways by taking the second terra in test of the day. "I t w as a fairly tight test w ith a lot of sand," said Davis. "1started too soon and cau gh t riders right away. We had u sed the trail the d ay before (as a trans port section), and it was 'easy to read ." Davis posted a time of 436 seconds in the 2.9mile-long test, edgi ng out Cooper by tw o seconds and Smith by three. "The tra ils an d tests really started to slow d own on d ay tw o, an d th e 125s start to give up their quickness advantage:' explained Coop er. "It took more horsepower to get o n to p and th at' s w here the 250s started to shine. 1 knew 1 was going to fall short in the long ter rain tests, but 1 w a s hopin g to m ake back some time in the short special test." Cooper' s stra tegy d idn' t pay off for special test three, where he finished fifth with a time of 133 seconds . That test was won by Smith with a time of 127 seconds. "As a whole, day two actually went better for me," said Smith. "I've been getting over the flu this week, and 1 had a hard time getting m y energy level u p in the morning. By the time I got to test thr ee, I finally felt like 1was ready." Davi s finished two seconds behin d. "I fo rgot to tu rn the g as on," admitted Davis of his d emise . "I made it abou t four corners in to the test, and the bike sta r te d to run lean an d fad e . 1 knew im med ia te ly what I did and reached d own and tu rned it back on. Bu t th e damage was already done." Davis got back on track during th e fin al test of the d ay w her e he posted a time of 652 seconds. Smith finished three seconds back. "The last test was kind of scary," said Davis. " It wa s full of stumps an d blind corn ers . 1 almost cra shed so m any tim es, bu t I a lways seem e d to recover . These kinds of events (w ith the lo ng tests ) always come d own to w ho can come thr ough it without makin g the m ost m is takes . Co m peti ng h ere w ith gu ys like Rodney (Smi th ), Cooper, and H ines yo u know they're going to keep you honest. It all comes down to who can recover the qu ickest." Davis finished in first wi th a score of 2005 se co n ds followed by Smith w it h 2023, Cooper with 2038, Hi nes and Dahners both w ith 2070, and Lafferty w ith 2088. "You know, one of th ese days I' m goi ng to break one o f th ese qualifiers wide open and w in an overall," sa id Dahners after the event. "I just keep beatin g m y self up. Sometimes I'm falling down two or three times during a test. I kn ow I'm getting faster, bec ause m y mi leag e is goi ng down. So as soo n as I figu re out how to go fast wi thout falling down -look ou t." "Day two was a new experience for me," said seventh-place finisher Lafferty. "This is m y first qualifier and m y first tw o-day event ever, an d it was hard to get going (d ay two). But I h ad a re a l good time. The club did an excellent job h er e and m y first experien ce w ith th e Qu alifier Series has got me pumped." fX Texas Two-Day Qualifier NewWaverly, Texas Results: May 18-19 (After1 of 3 rounds) O/A, I. Ty Davis (Kaw ); 2. Rodn ey Smi th (Suz); 3, Guy Coo pe r (Suz); 4. Kev in Hi nes (e RE); S. Jason Dah ner s (KTM); 6. Michael Laffert y (KTM); 7. Dou g Bla ckw ell (Yam); 8. Da r y l Co n ne r (Yam) ; 9. Jo sh Whitaker (Hus); 10, Dan Hart e (KTM), Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - McArthur, Ohio. May 25-26 Round 3 - Idaho City, Idaho, June 1-2 ,BriefIy -,•• .•.~---,--, --:---, . Selection of the four- rriernber J unior Team has not been made yet: Tuniing in exceptional perfo rrnances in the 23.and.younger category ' were KTM's Mike Lafferty. Sport Cycle Yamaha's Darryl Conner and Husqverna' s Josh Whitaker. who finished .sixth. eighth. . and ninth,overall. respectively, All three competed in the Heavyweight Two-Stroke class ,' .Riding in 'the .lightweight (0·40 0cc) FourStroke class. KTM,mounted Don Kna pp fin· . ished 17th and' Honda rider Vinc e nt Davis finished 20th. . . A special Mdri';e-by s ound testM , wa~ eli;"i: . nated from the event following dissent aniong .the riders. after the posting of the test scores put the top ride";' in the rniddle' of the s tandings after day one. Trail Riders of Houston club member and Clerk of the Course .. Chris " Hardy, explained. "All of the riders knew of . . the special sound test coming into the event. It was' on the sign·up sheet and we talked , about it during the riders' meeting. We set 'up a too-rneter speed test with a sound meter placed at the halfway point. abour: 00 feet off Perennial ISDE competitor Jeff Fredette ', to the side. We then took each rider's decibel showed up at the event and "shadowed" Ty ·reading and multiplied it by 100 and then Davis as a chase rider Fredette said.' "I'm still : added it to their elapsed time for the' test-The . recovering from.my'knee surgery last 'fall and, lowest sound reading was around 82 db. with don'tfeelj Oe -percentfor an ISDE·this yea r.' : the highest 'readingat 98 db. The 'test time; 'So I'm going 'to go asTy's support rider.". ranged from around 10 to '16 seconds. but ISDE veteran Ala n Randt also rode the ' with the sound penalty points the scores var- . 'event as a chase rider.for Mike Lafferty, Randt , ied by over. 1600 points. or nearly one-third of said, "I'm p'rimarily he re to help Mike 'g'e t . the day's .cverall scores . It was obvious we ' through the qualifier. se ries. If he 'makes the ' . hada -problern.i so we decldedtothrow' it ' . clunior Team. I'll be his s upport rider." ' out.." · ' . '

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