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ft; "- - OFF -ROAD AM ATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AN RELIABILITY ENDURO SER IES A-By Steve Berkner 32 TILLAMOOK, OR, JUNE 7ยท8 TM's Shane Watts wo n the sixth and final Intern ational Six-Day Enduro-qua lifying round of the AMA National Reliability Enduro Series at the Lone Wolf Two-Day, and he did it in impeccable style by topping all eigh t of the event's all-importa nt special test sections. The visi ting 24-year-old Austra lian, who is keeping his form in top shape between roun d s of the World Champions hip End uro Series, amassed a 137seco nd lead over his nearest compe titor en route to a perfect eva luation sco re of zero . Watts, who competed in the Lightweight Two-Stro ke (0-12&c) class, do minated the 65-rider ISDE Letter-of-Intent (LOn field , wit h a score of 3799. Fini s h ing w ith top-fi ve honors behind Watts were Heavyweight TwoStroke (J 75cc to Open) riders Jason Dahners, Brian Garrahan and Patrick Garrahan , all aboard KTMs, and Lightweight Fo u r-S troke '(O-400cc) r id er Luca Trussardi, who rod e a Honda . "Over the last couple of weeks, I' ve rea ll y en joyed being a ble to ri de in Round 6: Tillamook TWO-Day Qualifier America," Watts said . "Especially here a t Tillam ook. It' s pro bably on e of the mo s t per fect ridi ng area s I've e ver ex perienced, and the scene ry is picture-perfect, as we ll. It rem inds me of so me of t h e trail s near m y h om e except tha t, here, they see m to go on forever." Watts, wh o prese ntly lea ds th e World End u ro Series in the U ghtweight Two-Stroke class, added , 'This type of e ve n t (Till a moo k) is pretty basi c, as com pa red to the World Enduro Serie s. Th e brea ks were a little lo ng, but th e tra ils we re excellen t and the tests good. Like I said, my ride went perfect. fn the end, it was almost like a good trail ride for me. I got to cruise around and have fun with the boys." Alt ho ug h Wa tt s d om in ated the eve nt, Dah ners and Brian Garrahan duked it out for second - and third -place ove rall ho no rs . Dahners finished d ay one seven seconds ahead of Garrahan, while Garrahan took back two seco nds from Dahners on day two . Dahners finished with a score of 3936, while Garrahan tallied a score of 394I. " Day one w ent almos t p erfect for me," Dahners said . "And by the end of the d ay, I had a seven-second lead over Brian. I didn 't really have any problems on any of the tests except test thr ee. Up until then , I had abou t a 20~o nd lead ove r him. I got caught up in tra ffic (on test three) wh en I had trouble passing some riders. He smoked me there by 15 seconds. But I took back a coup le of seconds on the fourth test to hold on to my lead for the day." Whil e Dah ners put together a good da y-one effort, disas ter nearly struck as the Washington State rid er suffered two major mechanical problems. "Whe reas d ay one went almost perfect for me, da y two was a nightmare," Dahners sa id . "First, I sp u n a ha nd guard in -the morning and sheared off the fron t- b ra ke h o se . It was right before the second test of the da y. I rode that test the best I could, but I figu red my cha nces for a go od fini sh were ove r. "I repaired the problem at the main gas, and then we heard that they were going to throw ou t th at test and res chedule it for the end of the d ay. I figured my luck had cha nged and 1 still had a chance to hold on to second ." Dahners' luck only seemed to last for a few minu tes before cha ng ing agai n. "Once aga in, 1 was able to finish the first Austra lian Shane Watts was perfect at the TIllamook Two-Day Qualifier In Oregon. test before disaster struck aga in," Dahners said . "I must've picked up a stick or a rock or something. But wha tever it was, I had a split radiator tube that was leaking a ll over the place. Luckily, it happened on the trail. I borrowed some inst ant epoxy and repa ired the rad iator a t one of th e che cks . A t tha t p oint , I thought 1 was just going to be happy to finish. After a day like that, I figured it was the only stra tegy to take without getting rattled." Of Dahners' misfortune, Brian Garrah a n sai d , "I knew Jason was havi ng trouble on the trail, so I just decided to let it out and really go after him. Sometimes, w hen you start havi ng trouble like that, it takes you down. But it' s all part of racin g. What's bad for him can be good for me. My day wen t su per right up to the last test, where I cras hed prett y hard once." Brian Garrahans' efforts netted him a two-second, d a y-tw o ad vantage over Dahners, but the overall still rema ined with Dahn ers. -"I' m really happy w ith my seCond "