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"After seeing the day's results, I was su rp rised th at I was tied fo r secon d overa ll," said Abbott. " I had an okay da y but nothing spec tacula r. Th e tests were tight; the Six Days is totally opposite. That's w hy I did so well in Italy last year. I rode wit h Lafferty today an d he showed me quite a few thi ngs." Davis sat in third after fou r tests wit h a score of 2326, fo llowed b y the tw o other Yamaha r id ers,' H a wkin s and Blackwell . "The course was well-laid -ou t, but I was hoping it wo u ld be a little tou gher, because I do mu ch bet ter in that situation," sai d H awkins. "My test sco res were good but not as fast as 1 wanted them to be ." Sixth for the day belonged to Brown , who chalked up 2408 points, and KTMmounted Jason Raines used consiste nt test times to sit in sev enth. Th e 125cc lead belonged to Russell Pearson, wh ose score of 24 62 wa s g ood e noug h for eighth on the da y. "I tipped over on the first da y a cou ple times , but nothin g m a jor, " said Pearson, who w a s 41 secon ds faster than Eri c DuCra y, hi s nearest 125cc compe titor. "I just wasn' t used to th e rocks and roots." Regardless of g etting st uc k a few times throughou t the d ay, Garrahan finished the first day with a score of 2465, w hich pu t him in ninth place. Marshall rounded out the top 10 and bested the 251-400cc Four- Stroke division with a score of 2489, over Trussardi's 2496. "After the first day, I didn't think 1 was doing that well ," said Lafferty, who thought he may have been in second or third place before seeing the scores' Sunday morning. " I was s w ea tin g it all night Saturday." Sunday's course was run backward from Saturday's course and was short-' lined to 71 miles, and some new trail sections were put in. The first test of the day was new, virgin and tight , and Lafferty smoked through it with no sweat. The 22-yea r-old National Enduro Champion beat second-placed Lykke by 15 seconds. "The first test on Sunday, 1 was kind of ne rvous," said Lykke, who chalked up a time of 768 to Lafferty's 753. " I blew off the trail a couple of times, and then I just told myself to settle down. I kept fouling plugs throughout the day, tho ug h. I was jetted for motocross, and 1 guess it's just not u se d to going so slow." Test six on Sunday was the same as . tes t two on Satu rday, bu t run in the opposite d irecti on . Once again, Davis p ut his YZ250 to the test and it passed with a score of 445. Lafferty turned in a time of 452, and Lykke and Abbott went 455 an d 457. Hawkins and Book turned in the fifth-fas test time with a tied score of 465. "My bike has too much horsepower for the rest of the course ," said Book, who rod e a YZ400. "It worked great in bo th of the fast tests , though. 1 led the class in both of those (tests)." Rod Kriess and his RMI25 presented a time of 479 in the fast test, besting the othe r 125s. Russ Piggot, riding on the sam e minute as Kriess, flew in just two seco nds behind him. "Satu rday 1 rod e horribl e," Piggot said. "I forg ot that the key to rid ing in Washington is not rid ing fast, it's rid ing safe. I even lost ro u te points on Saturd ay. But tod ay I pulled ou t all the stops. 1 put on my Six Days helm et and just stayed focused ." . Pearson ' s tim e of 487 p u t him in third for the test , but h e still held th e overall 125cc lead , ridi ng safely and consisten tly in each test. Even in test seven, w he re Pear son had p roblems, h e s till pulled it togeth er to 'finish within 45 seconds of the class lead er . "S u nday, th e first tw o test s we nt good, and th e th ird one (tes t seven), 1 tippe d over an d landed on the foot 1 broke earlier this year," said Pearson. "I hurt pretty bad, but then w e had a transfer section and it loosened up a little bit there." While Russell Pearson was having problems in test seven, Lykke was making up serious time on Lafferty and the rest of the field . Lykke's score of 722 bested Forrest Tobin's second-place 739 . score. Lafferty was 25 seconds slower with a score of 747. Abbott and Davis posted times of T:>6 and 768. Trussardi was back on top of the Four-Strokes with a test time of 784 . Marshall filed in behind his class competitor with 828. Eleven miles before the eighth and final special test of the event, an unfortunate mix-u p se nt so me riders on the wrong trail. Some riders were forced to rid e a few extra miles before they were actually rero u ted to the right trail where the special test lay. Becau se of the mixup , even t coordina to rs t h rew o u t a checkpo in t o n w hich so me riders los t ro ute poi nts due to the confusion. Even thou gh neith er lost ro ute points at that p ar ticul ar check, Lafferty a n d L ykke were among the group of riders that had to ride the ex tra mileage. It d id no t, how ever, affect their final test sco res, as Lykke went ou t and won the test with tw o-seco nd lead over Lafferty. Davis scored a 575 , 11 seconds behind the fastest time. Eric Cleveland was the sixth Lightweight Two-Stroke to win a special test in the 125cc class . On ly Zimmerman and a (Above left) Kawasaki KLX rider Luca Trussardi was the top finis hing four-s troke rider. (Above right) KTM's Russell Pearson was the class winner In the Lightweight TwoStroke division. (Left) Wash ington's David Lykke was the top rider on Sunday, technically, giving him the overall win in the regular National Enduro Series portion of the weekend . He also finis hed second overa ll for both days . Pearson won more than one test ap iece, and Pearson's test-two win on Saturday was a tie with Hengeveld. Regardl ess, Pearson finished second to Cleveland in the final test, sewing up the class win for both days. In the last test, Cleveland scored a 622 to Pearson's 624. Marshall barely edged out Trussardi in the final test with a sco re of 594 to 599, but Trussardi won the war, edging out Marshall by 61 seco nds on Sunday. Lafferty's two-day combined score of 4796 earned him both ational wins. "Sunday, I knew I only had a 45-second lead an d that it wo u ld be easy to blow, so 1 just rode as sa fe as possi ble," said Lafferty, wh o is well on his way to a seco n d co nsecutive e n d u ro ti tle . "Lykke rode well, especially on the second day, and on test seven he just flew com pa red to me." Lykke's two-day total of 4832 bested Da vis' by 68 seconds with a score of 4900. Abbott an d Hawkins rounded out the top five in the Heavyweight (250ccp lu s ) Tw o-Stroke class as well as th e ove rall. A total of 45 seco nds sepa rated the two and Abbo tt's score was 31 seconds slowe r than Davis' . Tru ssard i used his yea rs of qualifier experience to finish top Four-Stroke in 10th ove ra ll with a score of 5190. Marshall finished second to Trussardi some 54 seconds back. Russell Pearson's two-day score of 5243 was good enough for 12th overall and ' first in the 125cc division. DuCray and Zimmerman finished se cond a nd third with 53 01 and 5344. Pearson 's wins at the Northfork and Texas Tw oDay qualifiers almost guar antee him a trip to Au stralia come November. . 1:Northfork Two-Day Qualifier Bellingham, Washington Results : June 6-7,1998 (Rounds 416) O /A: 1. Mike Laf fer ty ( KT M) ; 2. D.l~ i d Lykke (Y4l m); 3. Ty Davis (Yam) ; 4. Des try Abbott (Kaw): 5. Randy Ha wkin s (Ya m); 6. Brian Bmwn IKaw) : 7. Pat Ga rrahan (KTM) ; 8. Doug Blackwell (Yam) ; 9. Jaso n Rai nes (KT M ); 10. Lu ea Tr u ssa rdi (Kaw): 11. Ga rv Furre nes : 12. Russe ll Pea rson (KTM); 13. Co le Marsll.lh (Ho n); 14. Eric D uC ra y (Yam); 15. Rub Zimmerman (KT M); 16. Nick Pearson (KTM); 17. Tim Sto we; 18. To m m y Ady (Kaw) : 19 . Fo rrest . Tob in : 20. S ie ve Ha ugland . AMA ACERB IS NATIONAL CHAM P IONSHIP ENDURO S ERIES POINT STANDINGS (Afte< 5 of 10 ro unds): 1. Mich ael Lafferty (126 /2 win s); 2. Do ug Blackwel l (87/1); 3. Jason Da hners (71); 4. [[IE) Rand y Ha wkin s (l) / Pa trick Garrahan (65); 6. Matt Stavis h (48); " 7. Ty Davis (30/1); 8. (TIE) Kelby Pepper/Fred Hol. SS (25); 10. (TIE) Chris Smi th /Kevin Bennett (21). Upcoming Rounds: (AMA Championship Reliability Enduro Series) Round 5 - Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, June 2()'21 (AMA Acertlis NaIicrlaJ Championship Enduro Series) Round 7 - Akeley, Minnesota, June 28 Round 8 - West Greenwich, Rhode Island, July 12 41