Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.RELIABILITY ENDURO . AMA National Championship Reliability Enduro Series Round 3: Idaho.C ity100 Two-Day Qualifier win ner Sm ith. "It takes an aggressive th ir d - and fou rth-g ear s ty le to rid e some of these high mountain trails and win. Sometimes it' s kind of hairy - but that's what it takes." "I' ve had suc h a grea t tim e at th is event," ad ded ru n ner- up Chris Smith. "Anytime yo u can ha ve this much fu n and still be on, or near, the top - it's the -bes t. The tr a il co nd itions h ere we re excellent. The soil condi tions were perfect. You cou ld really find your rhythm. It' s probab ly the best off-road event I've ever ridden. I'm happy I 'could run wi th Rod ney. Here it's more high-sp eed riding and h e' s go t that d ialed . Knowing ·th at I can ride w ith him, I know that I'm on track for Finland. I'm real happy ." Bot h Rod ney and Ch r is h ave b een p reselec ted by th e AMA and its ISDE selection comm ittee / board of d irectors to rid e on th e 1996 U.s. Finnish ISDE World Tro phy team. Joining them will by Randy Ha wkins, Ste ve H at ch, Ty Davis and Scott Summers. The two Sm iths trad ed the top tw o special tes t scores in all of the eightspecial tests, with Rodney winning five of the tests. Rod ney won both grass tracks an d three of th e terrain test s, one o n da y one and two on day two. Chris wo n the thr ee remaining terrain tests, two on (Left) Rodney Smith f in ished out the Qualifier Series wit h ano ther wi n, and with it, his fourth title. (Below) Chris Smith led going into day two's com peti ti on but woul d end up finishi ng second ove rall . 28 IDAHOCITY, !D, JUNE 12 u zuki' s Rodney Sm ith overca me a two-seco n d d a y-one defici t to w in th e th ird and final ro und of the N at iona l Reliabili ty En duro Series a t th e Idaho Cit y 100 ISDE Qua lif ier. Sm it h , wh o trai le d Works End uro Rider Chris Smith after ' d ay-one, soundly took back the lead by betteri ng Chris' d ay-two efforts by 22 seco nds . Rodney's tw o-day tall y gave him a comb ined score of 3825 seco n ds, w hile Chris tu rned in a score of 3845. Finish ing behin d th e tw o Sm iths we re Guy Cooper, Ja son Dahners a n d Patri ck Ga rra han, with sco res of 3909 , 3942 an d 3958, res pectiv ely. Rodney, Ch ris, D ah n e r s a n d Garrah an rod e in th e H e a v ywe ight Two-Strok e (176cc to Open) class, while Cooper rod e in the Lightweight Two-Stroke (0-175cc) di vi sion : . The 200-mile two-da y Qualifier, with 15 chec ks and eig h t spe cial test s, w as th e fi nal even t in the three - round "w hirlwind " series that started in Texas thr ee w eekends ago, went to Oh io and finish ed in Idaho. Th e w in also se aled Rodne y Smith' s fo urth con se cuti v e N ati onal Reli ab ility Enduro Se r ies Championship; Smith won the Ohio eve n t and finished second to Ty Davi s at the seri es-opener. "The trails h ere were fast, especially the road sections and two-track, " said d a y one and th e o the r on d ay tw o . Cooper tied for second -fas tes t overall honors w ith Chris on both grass tracks. The larg est ma rgin of victory was by 12 second s, on terr ain test one on day two, when Rodney took ba ck the overall lead from Chris for goo d . "That test seeme d to go real well for me," said Rodney Smith. "I didn't have the traffic to worry abo u t. Yesterday, I rode w ith Coop an d w e h ad a lot of traffic to d ea l with. Th e speeds we re fast. Pa ss in g slower ri ders was hard and I kno w it hu rt some of my overall test scores a littl e. Guy wo u ld usually go into a test in fro nt of me by about 15 or 20 secon ds and I was always able to catch him. But it was difficult to pass h im safely . Overal l I d on't know if it cost me mu ch tim e because sometimes two rid ers can ride better together." "When you' re moving along in third gea r, especially on the sing le-track, it's hard to 'let a rider by an d not pen alize yourself too m uch ," explaine d Cooper about the du o. "But some times you can eve n ride faster if you freig ht trai n and ride together. Ridi ng in fron t of someone like Rod ney can actually help lift yo u to hi s level. Th e second rider can learn from the first rid er's lines and the first rider can pic k it up a litt le to try and ou tru n the seco nd . It usually wo rks until the lead er overshoots a corner and yo u've bo th just m ad e a m ajor highs p ee d m ista k e. I k new Rodney was going to be ab le to catch me in the long terrain tests so I gave him the option to go fir st but he waited . I th in k it was basica lly hi s strategy to try an d catch me first and then make a goo d pass . Bu t I w asn't going to pull over and let him by." "Beca use of th e traffic on th e firs t da y, I decided to bump ahead of Coop er and the majority o f the other 125cc riders (on day two) so I co uld avoid them," con clu ded Rod ney. "I probably shoul d've d one that yesterday. It definite ly w o r ke d today - I was pre tt y much ou t there all by myself. I actuall y didn't feel any faster, bu t I didn 't have the traffic to worry about. I struggled a little bit to fin d traction so me times so my test scores didn' t seem to be as fast as they cou ld . I wasn't real pre cise on any of the m . But I was consistent and th at' s wh at it takes to wi n a long test. On ~e short grass track I just let it hang out. J Ken ley Hinrichs, cler k of the course, said the Boise Rid ge Ride rs had laid out a completely new event this year. "We've basically added 91 mil es of newly restored trails for this event," he sai d . "Day one w ill be 117 m iles long with eigh t checks. There wi ll be four speci al tests, a short 2-mile terrain test, a 1.1-mile- long grass track, followed by a 6-mile long terrain test and a five-mile long terrain test. "Day two will be 91 miles long, with seven checks an d four special tests," co n ti nued H inrichs. "All fo u r of th e tests will be staged in the afternoon and will basically occu r in the last two hours of the eve nt. The first terrain test will be 4.9 mil es long, th e. seco nd is 6.2 miles long and the th ird an d final ter rain test is three mile s lon g. The last sp ecial test o f th e da y will b e the 1.1 -mile -lon g grass tra ck, but th is tim e it will be run in the op pos ite direction." . On e of the most int eresting sections of the trail was H amrn's Rid ge, wh ich climbed to 7500 feet. . "It's basically a three-m ile-lon g trail th at climb s over 3000 fee t," sa id Hinr ichs . "We h ad to w ork real h ard to reopen thi s tr ail after a for est fi re clos ed it a few yea rs ago . All of these trails are classified as multi p le-use

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