Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

place finish," Dahners said. "We a ll knew where Shane was going to end up, so it was jus t a matter of where the rest of us were goin g to pla ce." The Lone Wo lf Reliab ili ty Enduro w as put on by th e Lobos Motorcycle Club an d run in the Tillamook State Fores t, located about 45 minu tes west of Portlan d . The two-day event ran two double loo ps each da y, with day one' s m il ea ge to ta li ng 112 miles a nd d a y two's 108 m iles. Eac h day had eigh t checks an d four terrain tests. "This year, we decided to run double loops, primarily d ue to the fact that we ha d so much re pair work to do to the ORV trail system here after last year's heavy rainfall," said Clerk of the Course Barret Brown, explaining the course. "Last year, we had to cancel this event when we lost approximately 60 percent of our trails and trail bridges to flood ing. It basically took all year to get our course back to th e len gth tha t we ran this ye ar. We ran opposite d irections each d ay, and sched uled four te rrain tests for each day. Becau se we had to concentrate so hard on gelling the trails rea dy, we were unable to sched ule our ' traditional final motocross te st in Tillamook." Most of the riders agreed th at th is year' s vers ion of the Lone Wolf Qualifier was much eas ier than in prev ious years , Ninth-place overall finisher Don Knapp said, "I've ridden this event since '94, and I' ll ha ve to admit that I dread coming here each year. Usually coming to Tillamook for a two-d ay qualifie r means one thing: two days of total carnage. When it rains here - an d it always seems to rain here - it gets nasty, and so does the DNF rate, It's almos t be come legendary, This year' s tra ils and tests wert! of the same difficulty as in other years, but the weather was just perfect. And it actually ended up being one of the most fun qualifiers I've ever ridden." Eighth overall finisher and first-time Tillamook Qualifier participant Sam Buffa said, "Yeah, I was a little worried about coming here, too , All I had ever heard about were things like mud-covered killer downhills and giant bottlenecks. But, without the mud, it actually turned out to be kind of fun ." Buffa finished se con d in th e lightweight Two-Stroke class behind Watts. . "At this event, we usually try to take the rider to the limit," said Brown, explaining the Lone Wolf legend. "We try to put on a qualifier that's worthy of being called a National. In the past couple of years, rain has always turned our event into a survival run for most of the riders, bu t we feel that's what the qualifier series is for - to give our potential Six Days riders a taste of what an ISDE ca n be like. Normally, we know we wouldn't w in a popularity contest for this strategy, but it seems to keep them coming back. "This year we didn't have the rains," Brown continued, "and the event turned into a trail ride for most of the riders. We ran an A ti me schedule, but th a t wasn't fast enough for guys like Watts, Dahners and the Garrahans. We're not sa dists or any thing, but seeing riders having u p to 20 minutes of free time at a check is not ou r club's strategy. But, wi th the recent dry spell we're having. it just wo rked out that way."

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