Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

2R~~~~!~I~J!§TrialsSeneS' Rounds 2/3: Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders (Left) Aaron Young saw his points IeRd dls8ppear after posting third- and fou~lacesfinishes st the illinois National ObservRd Trials two-day event. (Above) Six-time chan,p Ryan Young movRd Into the series points lead. He topped the field on Sunday. By Larry Toby WHITE OTY, IL, JUNE 30 fter a three-month.layoff, the AMA National Championship Trials Series headed east to the hot, humid and heavily wooded, flat country of southwestern Illinois where the Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders played host to the second and third rounds of the nine-round series.. Gas Gas riders Mark Manniko and Ryan Young traded wins over the weekend with Manniko starting things off with a victory on Saturday and Young finishing up with top honors on Sunday in what was his 50th career National trials victory. SATURDAY 30 "Magical" Manniko surprised everyone in the rocks of Southern California with his fifth-place finish alter three years of being away fro~ competition. Manniko puzzled everyone again by winning round two of the series in the relatively fIat and rockless terrain of minois. "Today's event required extremely good execution of the basic fundamentals ... the things I continued to practice while being away from competition," said Manniko. Manniko was very smooth and fluid, dropping only four points in three loops to beat longtime rival and six-time (Right) Mark Mannlko recordBd his first National win In many years on saturday. National Champion Young by two points. "It was good to see Mark retum to competition and ride so well," Young said. "It was an easy event which could've been won by anyone not making costly mistakes. I had a 5, Mark didn't."· ' Young rode very well, losing points on only two sections. He turned in loop scores of five, zero and one. Manniko turned in more consistent loop scores of one, two and one. Manniko's minder, Stan Hensley, predicted a win before the start: "Mark is riding with 50 much confidence, I like him to win today.' In practice he has looked smoother than the other riders." Hensley may have felt overly optimistic as Manniko dropped the first championship point on the relatively easy second section. In the only rocks within the area, the club laid out a section where riders rode across a side hill fuJI of loose boulders. "A rock rolled under Mark's bike," said Hensley, "and he had to dab." The dab on the second section must have caused Manniko to bear down and concentrate harder, because he was flawless in the loop's remaining sections. The first real test of the loop came at the "Cliffs of Dover" section seven, designated as championship only. The riders had to climb a nearly vertical face with no run at it. If they made the face, they had to drop into a hole to climb another steep face with lots of roots. Scorpa-mounted Raymond Peters was the first to get through the section needing a single dab. Manniko cleaned the section next and others followed. The next challenging section was the "Wicked Garden." The 10th section was alongside a hill with many big logs. Once again, Manniko pleased the crowd with his smooth, graceful dance over and around the obstacles. Two-time and defending ational Champion Geoff Aaron got his Beta Motor Italy-sponsored Beta over an elevated log but was unable to hold on and went over the bars. Section 10 claimed several other championship riders, as well. The last sections to take many points from the top riders was the 14th, "Enter Sandman." The section weaved in and out of a stream before finally requiring the riders to launch their bikes out of the stream, using the bank as a kicker to . their. bikes above a large, elevated log. A few chiun,pionship riders didn't make it to the top of the log the first time around. A couple of riders more made it to the top of the log only to go over the handlebars coming down the back side, including Young. Beta-mounted Lonny Hallsted and Gas Gas-mounted Jess Kempkes. Mannik.o and Aaron cleaned the tricky section all three times. The end of the first loop had Manniko leading with a score of one. Ryan Bell of Canada trailed with four, while Young had five and Aaron had nine. With the determination of a champion, both Young and Aaron turned in perfect scores on loop two. Manniko scored two leaving him with a firm twopoint lead over Young. The two-point margin had Manniko remembering, "I've led Ryan on man occasions only to have him turn in incredible third-loop rides and take the win away." History would not repeat itself on this day as Manniko's score of one matched the third-loop scores of Young and Aaron. Impressively, Peters turned in a perfect score on the third loop to edge out Aaron for third by one point. Manniko and Young's scores of one ensured their standings at first and second, respectively. Manniko won six years after winning his first National t.rials. "It felt really good to beat Ryan today," said Manniko. "I hope I can do it again." "It was an easy event today, but I loved it," Solid Young. "With the hot weather and another round tomorrow, I'm glad it was easy. Most importantly, I beat Aaron, which puts me in the points lead. "It was too easy," said Aaron. "The club needed to put in a lot more splits to make the championship lines more challenging." Aaron added, "It's been six years since this club put on a National and they may have a hard time knowing what's possible and what's not." SUNDAY With the previous day's winning scores in the single digits, and after hearing several complaints about the trial being too easy, the Cahokia 'Creek Dirt Riders took steps early Sunday morning to ensure a more difficult round. Tighter sections, larger obstacles, more extreme heat and humidity combined to produce a vastly more challenging round. Six-time National Champion Young was up to the challenge and recorded his 50th National win. The most dominant rider in U.S. trials, Young was the only rider to finish with a score in the double digits. . "Today's event was much more difficult," said Young. "We had to punch out (take an automatic 5 instead of

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