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E ITEDBYCAMERON COATNEY
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ECEA Hare Scrambles Series, Round 8
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Mill
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sl owed him and eventually had him
pushing the b ike back to the p it>.
Undaunted by th is setback. however,
Lafferty saddled up a KTM 620R/XCe_
dual sport bike and set back out on the
trail for not hing bu t fun .
On the second trip aro und. Rich Laffe rty an d Ben ne tt co n ti nued to build
. the ir cushion. Benne tt, main taining the
nu mber-two position , stuc k to Lafferty's
fender. seemingly satisfied wi th d rafting . However, somewhere around midlap , a major cras h ended this little due t.
It wa s reported that Benne tt' s Honda
deflected off a trailside stump, throwing
him headfirst in to a tree. Gross ma n,
a r r iv ing seco n d s later, found him
un conscious and stopped to lend assis-tance. Eventually, Bennett was brought
around enough to be ridden ou t of the
That's how things ended. Top ride rs
completed five tri ps around the cours e
as Richa rd Lafferty coasted to the easy
victory. litera lly leadi ng the event wire
to wi re. Yamaha r id er s Leatherwood
and Gunsel man com pleted the podium.
finishi ng second and th ir d overall ,
respectively, A se mire tired Ed O'Flynn
pu t in a su rprising performan ce, good
enoug h for fourth ove ra ll seed ing. while
C R250 d river Da n Sha rp less rounded
ou t the top five ove rall.
In other action. CD R club member
Kevi n Reed overalled the Youth-class
races, finishi ng first in the / 2- to 15-year old class, while Jason Lawrence topped
."
the 10- to ll-year-olds.
Lumls Mill Hare Scrambles
Millville, New Jersey
Results : November 9, 1997 (Round 8 of 9)
(Top) Rich Lafferty
rode to a conv in cin g
overall victory at the
By Mark Ul hITra ii Rider Magazine
MILLVILLE. NJ. NOV.9
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18
ich Lafferty cruised to an easy win
at the ECEA Lumis Mill Hare
Scrambles afte r o verc o m in g an
ea rly-race challenge by XR250 pilot
Kevin Bennett.
Campaigning his KTM Sportinotorcycle / Ami Hel me ts /M oose Rac ingsp onso red 250E /XC, Laff erty led the
e n tire race a nd finished with a nea rly
five-minu te margin of victory. It was not
all cake. however. as for the first lap and
a half Benne tt kep t his Honda glued to
Lafferty's rear fender, seemingly content
to let Lafferty break trail and lead . However , this stra tegy came apart a fter Bennett suffered a horrific crash d uring the
second trip around the 9-mile course.
Dazed, he was unable to contin ue .
Af terwa rd, Lafferty commented on
the technica l demands of the course.
"I did n ' t really wan t to hammer.
because of the slick conditions, ruts and
stu m ps," Lafferty sa id. "The best plan
was to simply keep a steady race pace . /
did that throug ho ut the race - managed
to keep it upright and cruising."
No doubt the fav orite a t th e s ta r t.
Rich's brother. Mike Lafferty.Tined up
aboa rd his factory-sponsored '98 KTM
250, ex pecti ng a good d og fight from
the locals. H owe ver. Mike Lafferty
ended up completing but a sing le lap.
pushing his bike ou t of the wood s and
retiri ng with ignition problems. ISDE
ve te r a n Marc Grossman ' s day al so
went awry, as he was the first on th e
scene to s to p a n d lend a id t o the
se verely injured Bennett. As a result.
Grossm an fell well behind the leaders
and finished uncharacteristically down
in the standings.'
t u mis Mill Hare
SCramble s in Millvill e,
New Jersey. Lafferty Is
the brother 01 AMA
National End uro
Champ io n Mike
Lafferty.
More than 200 entrants entered
the day's event . despite the marginal weather conditions. All day long.
there were pa ssing showers and
thi ck. sou py mist under overcas t
s kies. Fortunatel y, temperatures
remai ned in the mid-50s for the
duration. making for decent racing
weather. The Competition Dirt Rid-
(Left) Steve
Leatherwood went on
to card a second-place
finish after Kevin
Bennett (not shown)
ers p lanned a three-card event,
wh ich Included morn ing ATV and
Youth racing. followed by the main
event at nooo . ATV aod You th
even ts used the sa me 3-mile-p lus
co urse a nd raced an ho ur each .
Af te rward , the course was
re-marked to pro vide a loop for the twohour main event. d uring which the A. B
aod C classes would compete simu ltaneously.
At th e so un d of the starter's gun,
Rich Lafferty bolted to the fro nt of the
pack and assumed the lead as riders
d epa rted the grass-tra ck a r ea s and
entered the woods. Lafferty charged off
into the woods, trailed by the Honda
XR25o-mounted Bennett. who pla yed a
game of cat-and-mouse. letting Lafferty
lead while keeping him close at hand .
This went on for the entire first lap. as
both riders scooted into the barrels just
se co nd s apart while distancing themselves bv more than a minute from the
othe r f ~o n t. ru n n e rs, who i ncl u d e d
Yama ha-mo un ted Steve Leatherwood .
AA rider Grossman. vet ace Jim Guoselman. CR500 hammer Edd y O' Flyn n and
B-class phenom Dan Sha rpless.
The lead pair managed to set a sub25-minute pa", the first time around the
course, in s pi te of the blan ket of slick,
we t lea ves th at covered the co u rse.
Na tional Enduro Champion Mike Lafferty had trouble almost from the onse t,
as ignition problems wi th his KTM first
crashed while chas ing
Lafferty.
woods to EMTs a m! a wa iti ng ambulance . Cha ngi ng co u rse con di tions
migh t have been a factor in the crash, as
the greasy soil and techni cal tra il qui ckly became extreme ly rut ted as a result of
soft con ditions fueled by the previou s
da y's rains.
With Bennett out of the running, Lafferty assumed a comfortable lead, which
in ensuing laps was built to several minutes as he continued posting consistent
28-minute lap times .
With first place all but decided by the
end of the second lap, ind ivid ual battles
fo r subseq u e n t p lacings raged on.
Leatherwood had a tenuous hold on second place in the second and third laps,
tra iled closely at times by Sharpless.
During the closing stages of the third
lap , Sharp less go t arou nd Leatherwood
to ass u me the number-two slot - for a
br ief pe rio d. However , thi s surge wa s
sho rt-lived, relinquished one lap la ter
when Sharpless pitted for fuel. Jim
" Bip" Guns elman a n d Ed O 'Flynn
rema ined in the hunt throughout and
moved up while Sha rpless pitted. but
were unable to challenge for the nu mber -tw o slot.
OI A:. 1. Rich Laff erty (KT M ); 2. Stev e l...e",thl'l"W()Ot.i
(Y" m) ; 3. j im Cu nsetma n (Yam); 4. Ed O' Hynn (H(m); 5.
Da n Sha rp less (Hen] .
UW A: I. Greg Davies (Yam); 2. M. Dean Spe ncer
(He n): 3. Ron Lucas (K.1w); 4. Brandon Sex ton 5. Albe rt
Mooney.
H /W A: 1. Rich Lafferty ( KTM); 2. Steve
Leatherwood (Yilm); 3. Ed O' Fly n n ( Ho n ): 4. Jolm~
Wri ~ht (KTM); 5. Bob Solomon (KIM).
.
V£T A:. 1. lame Gunselman (Y
s
am); 2. Robert Kin~
(KTh.t); 3. Slew3.rtC rouch (Suz).
VET B: 1. Bob Sch wegel; 2. Dave Myers ; 3. Donal d
Va\'a ILi (Hort); 4. Bru ce Lowman; 5. Jd f Rutl edge.
U W B: 1. Lewi s Robbins (5 uz) ; 2. Eric Co rbi n
( K.1w); 3. Willidm Hess; 4. Joseph Newman (Hon); 5.
Sleve Bro wn.
HtW 8 : 1. Da n Shupless (H o n ); 2. Bill GUbfort
(Yam); 3 . Rob. rt Mikulsk i; 01 . Lance ThomM>R; 5 .
An thony Fisch"",.
4.STRK: 1. Doug Graff; 2. Mi ke G.Jg.li.udi; 3. Scot
t
Tellone