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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127863
AMA/NETRA E
nduro Serie Round8
s,
By Paul Clipper
Photos by Cheri Alix and Clipper
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U1llADAMS, MA, OCT.5
t would have been an absolutely perfe ct da y in the Berks hires, if it
weren't for the line of thunderstorms
that wailed down on us while we were
sleeping the night before. Last weekend
was th e Rubber Cow Endu ro, and it was
d ry as yo ur tongue o n the starting line
of a mo tocross. Today, we had already
gotten a litt le sample of the woods right
off from the dub hou se, and it was defin i tel y goi ng to be a tr ia l by sli me.
Tommy Norton and Jason Cayer were
the subjects of the enduro bat tle, going
in to th e Mohawk; Tommy the brash
new end uro beginner and Jaso n the
reign ing NETRA Champion. They both
blew through the first section, uph ill,
downhill, power lines a nd mud, with
the best scores. Norton sa id that every
hill loo ked like the beginner slope at a
local ski area, with dozens of bikes stuck
or cras hed . Rid ing back on minute 25,
he had nearly eve ryone in front of him
on those hills, but he still went through
and dropped a five at the ch eck-out.
Five wa s good, but four was the score to
beat, se t by Cayer and enduro veteran
Rick Claxton. Joining Norton with a five
card wa s fell ow AA-class competitor
Bob White, originator of the Tech Tube,
a nd Jim Burns, who r id e s the Fo urStroke A·dass on a Husaberg 350.
Following the fir st check-o ut were
th ree checks that were zeroes for the top
guys, although the second two we re a
little tight for us morta ls. The next really
tricky check was at the end of a I2-mph
section, and the check was placed just a
li tt le short in m ilea ge - all wit hin th e
rul es, thou gh . A large number of rid ers
burned this chec k, just putting down the
trail, in cluding Cayer and C lax ton,
adding tw o unnecessary points to their
four-point scores and handing the frontrunner p osit ion over to Norton a nd
White, who w ere s till both ca r ryi ng
fiv es. Jim Burns, who dropped a fiv e
also at the firs t chec k-o ut , had the bad
lu ck to bum this check as well, bu t he'd
also lost a point at the tight check preceding the 12-mph section, putting him
off the lead poi nts.
Af te r th e I2-mph sectio n the cl ub
handed us all a good po ints-taking section to warm up in, indudi ng a wet hillclimb tha t ma ny in attendance found
impossi ble. This part of th e Berkshires
features ou tcroppings of a type of shale
here and there, and w hen it's wet th e
stuff offers just as m u ch tractio n as a
skinned log. You can be roos ting up the
hill with relative case, hit a patch of this
stuff and s i mply stop, with the rear
wheel spinning like mad. Assuming you
can keep the bike upright, which mos t
can't manage. Most of the hills turned
into "stoppers" because of this, and all
bu t three of the C riders never. made it
to the check-out of thi s section, which
wa s check seven . Qu ite a num ber of B
riders as well were done in by the hills,
and only si x made it to the finish at
check 11.
Bob Whi te got up th e hill in fine form.
After starti ng out on min ut e fou r he wa s
(Left) Bob Whit e scored the ove rall win at
the AMAINETRA Mohawk End uro In
Massachusetts.
(Abo ve) Tommy Norton l ook second place
In the AA c lass.
wi th 18 po ints lost, good enough for the
class wi n but also the best A·dass score
p osted , giving him hi s seco nd High
Point A of the season. Ram Peterson
again b la zed through the D ran ks, in
spite of a cou ple of bums, and pos ted
the best B score with a 42. and his seco nd Hi gh Point B win i n so many
weeks .
Scott Loring did the best of all the C
riders, getting to the seventh check with
55 points lost, and of course none of the
C rid ers mad e it past the seven th check did we mention it was mudd y? Kevin
Co rbeil came the dosest to him, with a
56 at the seventh check. Likewise, Keith
Goodell topped the Super Seni or class,
being the on ly o ne of the G ra nd Old
Ge ntlem en of the sport to finish th e
Super Senior's shortened course, wit h a
50 to check 10. Heidi Landon topped the
Women's class again, making it to check
five and ensuring her the Women's class
cha mpionship for the yea r.
.:-
all but breaking trail at th is point, and
didn't need to con tend with traffic. He
hit th e chec k-o u t at check se ve n with
o n ly a one-point loss. The o nly other
rid er to match his sco re here was Ban tam A rid er Ha ns Neff, who had been
caug ht napping at the second check and
at the I2-mph check, and wasn't a thr eat
for the overall. The next best score was a
two point loss, po sted by Claxto n and
Bantam A rid er Kev in Howley, w ho
were all runnin g close to the fro nt as
well. Traffic claimed Norton and Cayer,
who finish ed the section with a four and
a three, res pecti vely, and most o ther riders' scores descended from there .
At th is point No rton and Cayer were
tied w ith nin e points ea ch , but th ey
were hardly a factor in the overall any
more. Wh ite was raging up front , with a
total of six po ints lost, trailed closely by
Claxton , wit h e ig ht. The course was
heading for the gas stop, with o ne more
timekeeping section to be careful in, and
most a ll slipped through unsca the d ,
except for Cayer. who was gambling on
one mo re points-ta ker before gas, and
blu nde red into che ck eig h t a mi nu te
early, bringing his points tota l up to 11,
an d ensuring him a fin ishi ng position
well down in the points.
C hec k nine w a s a known co ntrol
restart after the gas . Following this was
a sho rt section of d ifficult two-track that
managed to take a poi nt from all the top
riders excep t Paul Milliken, w ho had
b ee n o ff th e pa ce until thi s sectio n,
a ltho ug h he ha d little hope of cracking
into the ove rall. Immed iately following
was the next section , a new piece of single-track trail rolli ng up and down th e
hillsides above Brodie ski area, a nd it
would have b een wo n derful in dry
wea ther. As it was, it was a greasy ribbon of virgin mud that spooled up o n
your tires like duct tape, and took all
remaining energy fro m A and B rid ers
alike