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ENDURO ~~j:~r:1~~~:~~~~/~~~L Rounds 4/6: Northfork Two-Day Qualifier CHAMPIONSHIP ENDURO SERIES By Matt Freeman Photos by Kinney Jones and Freeman BELLL "JGHAM, WA,JUNE 6-7 hose con ten di ng the Acerbis Na tio na l C h am p ion shi p En d uro Se ries cam e to Bellingh am with hop es of w inning the second day of the Northfo rk Two-Day Qu alifier. Thou gh both days of the eve nt w er e ac tua lly scored as round fou r of th e N at ion al Reli abili ty Ser ies, rid er s such as Mike Laffer ty, Rand y Ha wkins and Doug Blackw ell mad e the trip from east of the Mississippi to try their ha nd at the third Nationa l Enduro in a row to be run in a Qu alifier form at. But local Washi ngton rider David Lykke thr ew a twist into the event by bea ting most of the enduro series regu lars .and actua lly posting the bes t score for d ay two of the event. Wh en it was all sai d an d done, however, KTM Spo rtmo torcyle'sLafferty was th e overall victor of bo th th e combined rounds. "It was a hard race, and you couldn't be too aggressive," sai d Lafferty, who won fo ur of th e event's eigh t specia l tests. "You had to be consistent becau se it was so gnarly and techn ical, and you had to know w hen you could go fas t and when you couldn 't:' Lafferty started Saturday off by winning the first terrain tes t with a score of 392, only three seconds faster than Team Green's Destry Abbott. Lykke turned in a time of 398 to claim thir d in the same te st , even th ou g h h e h ad prob le ms throu gh the 2-mile test. "Ac tually, my d ay started off bad ," the Yama ha YZ250 rid er sai d of Satu rd a y ' s fi rs t test. " I fouled tw o s p a rk p lugs. And th en, in th e fir s t t est, [ cras he d an d go t my foot caug ht u nder the bike:' Ridin g almost on the last row of the 250s , Mont clair Yamaha ' s Ty Davis posted a time of 400 in the first test, just ahead of Hawkin's score of 411. "It's pretty tight, as far as a qualifier goes," sa id Davis abo ut the 83.6 miles of course on Satu rday's schedul e. "The tests could be marked be tter and the trails cou ld have been cleaned up a little bit - either that, or p ut so me danger markings here and there. " Rega rdless of his results in the first test, Davis came back and won the second test of the d ay, which consisted of 3.6 mil es of straight tra ils and logging roads. Davis' score of 452 edged Abbo tt out by three seco nds. Lafferty hung in with 457, and Idaho's Brian Brown finished fou rth 250cc bike in the test with 466. 40 It was the fastest test of the event and the scores reflected it. Se veral rac er s hailing from the Sout hwest posted their most compe titive tim es of the event. "Tes t number tw o w as aw esome," said Tea m Gree n 's Steve Hengeveld, who sw itched from his normal KX250 to a KX125 to rid e the qualifiers . "I started behind Russell Pea rson, Eric Du Cr ay a nd Rob Z im m erma n . I p a ssed bot h DuCra y a nd Zim m er m an a nd the n I caught up to Russell's du st, so I think I ma y ha ve w on th at test , as fa r as the i 25s go. It was just wid e open and fun because we go t to ju m p th o se wa te r bar s." Hengeve ld was half rig ht : He and Pearso n tied for the 125cc-test win with a score of 477. Davis ' teammate Donnie Book moved up from a bad first special test to score the 251-400cc Four-Stroke wi n in test two. Just after the midway poi nt on Saturday is where the third speci al test bega n an d , o nce again, Lafferty a nd Lykke were back on top. The 3.5-mile ter rain test sui ted bot h rid ers' sty les, and their su per-fast test times reflected it. Lafferty ' s sco re of 567 a n d Lykke' s of 572 topped Davis and Abbott 's tied score of 577. Ha wk ins and Blackw ell were next wi th times of 589 and 594, respectively. In 125cc action, KTM-mou nted Zimmerm a n pos ted a tim e of 603, whi ch was 20 seconds faster than Pearson and David Porter, who tied in test three with a score of 623. Luca Trussa rd i, on hi s fM5-ba cked KLX, wa s the top 251-400cc Fou r-Stroke in test three, topping Wash ington's Jon Nielson by one second. XR400-mou nted - Cole Marshall's test-one win in the division was no fluke , as he consistently ran times near the front of the class. Marshall's score of 653 in test three and second-place class showing in test two put . him in control going in to the last tes t, even thoug h Trussardi appeared to be on a roll. On the final loop and terrain test on Sat urday, the wea r-and- tear began to show on ma ny rid ers. Team Green's Oakley Lehman d ropp ed ou t of co ntention late in the d ay when a cras h and a naggi ng w r is t in ju ry was ju st too mu ch for him to hold on to his KX250. And his tea mmate Hen geveld was not farin g well, either. "The w ris t pin just sha ttered ," sai d He ngeve ld , w h o r e turn e d ba ck to Sou the rn Californ ia a d ay earlie r than planned. "Back in th e last loop, it just qui t. My dad and Dave Chase and I had to push it ou t of that section all the way to a road:' KTM's Mike Lafferty rode to the overall vict ory at the Northfork Two- Day ISDE Qualif ier in Wash ington. In the final test on Saturday, Lafferty pus hed himself to a 14-second lead ove r Lyk ke's 876 sco re . Ha wk in s' 878 gave him the boos t he need ed , and Pat Carra ha n fina lly showed the speed th a t he has possessed all year long by finishing four seconds behind Hawkins. "I mes sed up on th e firs t tw o test s a n d go t s tuc k," sa id th e KTM 250moun ted Garrahan, wh o used his grace to bum p up to the front row. "Tha t hurt me in the overall, bu t I made up a little time in test fou r. I bumped up to the first minu te so I could sta rt the last spe cial test ahead of everyone else. It paid off." At the end of d ay one , Laffert y was in con tro l w ith a 45-second lead over Lvkke and Ab bot t, w ho w ere tied for second with a score of 2323.