Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Above) Franklin Ramey III tum ed in a 10po int score card to w in t he SETRA little Brown J ug Enduro in Cllnlon , South Carolina . (Left) Ashley Brewer stayed determined Bnd fin ished second overall, first AA rider, with an 11polnl s core. By Ken neth King CLINTON, SC, AUG.31 r"I fter a disappointing third in the J/~ SETRA Enduro Se ries opener, KTM's Franklin Ram ey 1I1 put on a stron g ride and took the overall win at round tw o of the series, the Little Brown jug End u ro . The MSR-sp on sored rider dropped a total of 10 points to claim the victo ry . . '1 just rod e hard, tried to rid e smooth and fast and not make any mistakes," said Ramey. "I rode my '98 250E/XC for the first tim e tod ay, and the bike is awesome. It feels light an d the suspension is great. Irs bo ne stock." . Kaw a sak i-m ounted As hley Brewer took the seco nd o verall spot with score of 11. The round -o ne w inne r, KTM rider Allen Gravi tt, ro unded out the top three with an 11, losing out to Brewer on the tie br eaker. Yamaha' s Rand y Hawkin s, fresh fro m a gold -m ed a l finish a t the Internatio nal Six Days Endu ro in Italy, had his share of p ro blems and settled for fourth overa ll wi th a 12-point loss. This was the 44th running of the Little Brown jug End uro and that in itself should say some thing for the Greenville End uro Rid ers a nd th e q u ality of the race. For the second year in a row , the club u sed know n con trol s and restarts throu ghout th e ra ce . Th is me ant that rid ers could come up to the chec k, wait fo r th eir minute to come u p, and the n rid e as hard as they could un til the next chec k. The re we re basically six sections from nin e to 1 t mil es long each, for a total of almost 65 act ua l trail miles, an d there were only a few road s used to tie the sections togeth er. The terr ain in this particular part of Sou th Ca ro lina was quite varied , wi th anything from hard gro und sca tter ed wi th rocks and roots to bottom land w it h loose so il and clay. An d for this particu lar ra ce, th ere wa s ple nty of d ust. Th e first woods section came after a sho rt 3.5-mile ride down a road. Riders were checked in at 5.2 miles for the start of a 10.3-mile section. The trail was fair ly fas t, wi th its share of roo ts and rocks. Ramey, rid ing o n row 29, set the pace for the day, having the fas t time through with a tw o-p o i n t lo ss . Brew e r a nd Gravitt each lost three po ints in the section an d Hawkins dropped four poin ts. "I pretty mu ch los t the race in tha t first secti on ," Hawkins said . "My arms pum p ed u p bad , a p roblem tha t ha s plag ued me m y w ho le career . T h is caused me to make a lot of stu pid mistakes . I really d on' t like to make excuses, thou gh . Ramey rod e a good race." Th e club g ives th e w in n er o f th e end uro a trophy th at rotat es wit h each winner. If a rider wins the race for three consecu tive yea rs, he gets to keep th e covete d "j ug" trophy. Well , Hawkins has won the race for the past two yea rs, and a win this year would have given him the trophy for keeps. An d he wanted that trophy; a fter all, this is considered hi s horne turf, since his home in Travelers Rest is on ly a sh ort distance a w a y. Th ose few mistakes Hawkins made in the first section helped Ramey to make his success ful bid for the "j ug." After a reset and a chance to gas up, it wa s on to section two, at 24 miles, for th e sta rt of a sho rt 9-mile section. Th e trail wa s virtually the same asthe previous on e - rock y and rooty. There were a lot of abrupt drop-offs and small di tches in the trail that we re jus t enough to b reak up w hat m omentum you h a d goi ng . If d us t was o bscu ri ng yo u r vision, you were in for a surprise when the trail suddenly drop ped off. All th e AA rid er s dropped two po ints each in thi s sectio n . Th e typ ical lo ss fo r the a ve rage rid er was between fi ve a nd seven po ints . Section three started at 50.7 miles and led into an 8-mile section of tra il before the main gas. On ce agai n, the AA rid ers lo st tw o points eac h. At th e ' halfwa y poin t, Rame y ha d the le ad with six poin ts ov er G ra vi tt a nd Brewer with seven poin ts each, and Hawkins had an eight. Gravitt had his sha re of problem s in this section . "I got a front flat in that second section and had to ride up u ntil the gas on it," G rav itt said . "It slowed m e d ow n some." After a generous break for gas and a rest that was mu ch needed by the majo rity of the rid ers, it wa s on to section four at 672 miles. The section was abou t nine miles long and was probably the fas test of the da y. Wit h a wid er vari ety of trails being u sed here, th e fast guys actually had to s ta r t wa tc hi ng the cl ock. The mild er temperature s of the mo rning s tar te d to gi ve w a y to m u ch hot ter temps as the a fternoon approached. The heat, co mbined wi th the dust, began to take its toll on the riders. All the AA riders managed to stay on their minu te in this fourth section of tra il. At 85.2 miles, it was on to sec tion five, which wa s a tigh t, 1D-mile section of woods - prob ably the tou ghest of the day. There we re a few spectator area s in this sec tion, givi ng th e rid ers a chance to show off a little as they passed. Section six, the final one of the da y, started at 107.2 miles. It was nine miles long and a littl e on the fast side. All the AA rid ers ca me ou t with a o ne-poin t loss, while most everyone else lost from two to eight points. Ramey wa s able to maintain his lead, and Brewer had one of his best finish es to date with a second ov erall, first AA . "I' ve been working o u t this summer, tr yin g to ge t in better shape," Brewer said, "and it pa id off today . I've been working on my bike, and I've really got it dialed in . It' s fast a nd it ' s worki ng perfect . I just had fun and tried to ride fast." c, Linle Brown Jug Enduro Clinton, South Carolina Results: August 31, 1997 O /A : Franklin R.tl1lt"y III (10) . A k 1. A"hlt")' B~wn (11); 2. AIlt-n C ravi tt 01 }. O rEN A: 1. Michael C rizzle (16); 2. Mike Ma rti n (22); 3. Scott Riebow (29). . OP EN B: 1. Larry Griffin (23); 2. Joey Row land (24 ); 3. T im Bro wn (29). O PEN c : 1. Drew Rickey (34); 2. Chris Dor..n (37) ; 3. Bren t Be verly (40) . 200 A: 1. Ma rk Crozier (24 ): 2. Lee St~p h e ns (25); 3. Raymond Cotton (27). 200 8 : 1. Ma r'" Th om pso n (24); 2. Mikael Th oma s (27) ; 3. Curt Cu......(27) . 200 C: 1. Pa ul Thistle (36); 2. Ia n Frye (38); 3. Ddvid Reru il (38) . :ZSO A: 1. [a so n C hance y (15); 2. Do ug Ma sen cu p (15 ); 3. Scott Miller (1 6) . zso B: 1. [ascn Everhart (22 ); 2. Lester Partlo w (2S); 3. Johnny Campbell (27). 2SO C: I. Bria n W right (29); 2. Danny Ru h h ng (JO): 3. Troy Bu nch (3 1). 4-STRK A: 1. Andy 8.lrkley (25 ): 2. Richard Sox; 3. CuDt.'n Underwood (33). 4-oSTRK 8 : 1. Jeffrey W.Jll er (32 ); 2. Dal e Stegall (3..';) 3. Marl ThTt"lrold (42). ; 4-STRK C: 1. Creed Hashe (38); 2. Darren Groves (40); 3. Nik John-.on (42). VET k 1. Johnny McCoy (18); 2. Mitch McR_ (19); 3. Greg Roberts (21). VET B: I. Ma rk AUm.lR (2&); 2. Keith Smith (31); 3. Stanky Garnett (32) . VET C: 1. Mike C ullen (31); 2. David Holbrook (36) ; 3. Frank Ericson (44). SR A: 1. JOt' Roy al (27) ; 2. Mile Centry as}; 3. N ea l Hamilton (29 ). SR B: 1. l.t"t"Hermansen OS); 2. Mike Saravallt (40 ); 3 . Ceorge NOll.l'" (41J. SR C: 1. Gera ld CriWJm (44); 2. D.mny BurUw.ltt"T (5 2); 3. Bmny Hamby (53). Sl SR A: 1. Jo hn Kirb y (26); 2. John Kf'aley (28); 3. M ike Reynold . (43). SlSR B: 1. Steve Bran!oCOmb (46). SJ S R C: 1. Doug Coc hran (59) ; 2. Stua rt Bradow (bS); 3. Ray Cotton (82). M STR A: 1. Wa yne Beaty (23); 2. Jim Fo rd (30); 3. H.l ny Greenlee (31). MSTR 8 : 1. S teve Chancey ( 3 9) ; 2 . Richard ArgabriKht (44); 3. Stt"Vt" H UAAins (46). MSTR C: 1. Ed WM:ost (67); 2. Flliht>rCampbtc-1I(69 ). G LD N MSTR: 1. J H"It>y (47); 2. Jalnt'S Bra n!iofon.l. Ol"' (53); 3. Waltl"r Knigh t" (841. WM N: 1. Elaine Nobles (59); 2. Sue Heath (60). 1'-... 0\ 0\ ,..... 00 .... OJ .0 .B u o 59

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