Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Right) Luca Trussardi (314) and Randy Hawkins (1 16) splash throug h a watercrossing en route to 10th-and eight-place overall finis hes, respectively. (Below) Barry Hawk ended up third overa ll on his Yamaha, taking the Middlebore Four-Stroke title along the way. Alt hough Smith d omin at ed the 91rid er field , no overall winner was offici a lly recogn iz ed . Acco rd ing to th e AMA's Hu gh Fleming, 'T he Tennessee Two-day Q ualifier is held primarily to declare individ ual class cha m pio ns in each of th e s ix recogni zed classes: 0125cc and 175cc-plus two-stroke classes; 0- 250cc, 251- 400cc, and 500cc-plus fourstroke classes; and the Sen ior (40-yea rsor-olde r) Class. Smit h's overall two-day score of 5096 gave him the Lightweight 1O-I25ccJ TwoStroke National Cha mpionship. Finishing second ove rall and claiming the Heavyweig ht (tTxc-plus) Two-Stroke National Championship was 10M-mounted lafferty, who scored a 5206. GNCC specialist Barry Hawk and his Yama ha were third overall with a score of 5290. Hawk won the Middlebore (251-400ccJ Four-Stroke National Cha mpionship. Other National Reliability End uro Series Class Champions included Works Enduro Riders Chris Smith in the Small bore (0-250cc) Four-Stroke class. Smith a nd his Hond a finished fou rth overall with a score of 5344. Summers Racin g Components' Scott Su m mers card ed a score of 5363 on his Honda to win the Big -bo re (500cc- p lus) Four-Stroke Championship. Summers finished sixth Sport Cycl e o ve ra ll behind Racing /Yamah a ' s Robbi e Jenks, wh o competed in the Heavyw ei ght Two Stroke class and carded a score of 5360. Fredette Racing Produ ct's Jeff Fred ette finished 19th overall and won the Senior Class Na tiona l Championship with a score of 5688 on his Kawa saki. "I think Rodney did an excelle nt job he re," Lafferty sa id . "I knew I would g ive up so me ground to h im on the g rass track , but I thought I could make it back in the longer terrain tests. I tell ya, w he n it comes to qua lifiers, he 's jus t unstoppable." Lafferty's grass-track tim es d id hold and he finished seco nd to Smith in four ou t of the two-day qualifier's six grass tracks. "That's w ha t we came he re to concentra te on," sai d Lafferty, the reig ning Na tional End uro Seri es Cha m pio n: "The o ther tw o qu a li fiers I rod e th is yea r were sco red as p art of the Natio na l Enduro Series , and the press ure was on me to win. Her e (wi th no end uro series poin ts on the line), I was ab le to back off a little and work on technique and bike set up for Six Days." Ya m aha' s Ran d y Hawkin s and Kawasaki's Des try Abbott scored the other two fastest grass-track times. Both of those tests we re held on da y one at th e Lo retta Lynn's motocross tra ck . Hawkins took the morning's se condfast est-time honors, fini shing just five seconds behind Smith's score of 380 seconds. Abbott took the afternoon runnerup slot with a score of 380 - 16 seconds behind Smith. "I really had problems getting things going here," said Abbott, who finis hed seventh overall and third in the 175ccplu s two-strok e cla s s. " I d idn 't even know I was coming until midweek , so I had to borrow a bike. I flew ou t here on Frid ay and brou gh t along m y suspe nsio n and stuff. Satu rday, I spen t most of the da y just getting used to the un famil iar bike . I'm not a tight woods rider and by midmorning I had to cut two inch es off my bars. I finally go t thing going on Sat urday af ternoon, and I was really looking forward to that final motocross test." Smith's biggest win in a special test came (juring Saturday's last terrain test (test 5), where he bested Lafferty by 26 seconds. It was her e where the Oakley, California, native took control. " l' rn rea l surprised tha t I di d that well," Smith said. " It felt like my wo rst test o f th e (t wo -day) even t. A bo u t halfw ay th rough th e test, 1 hit a tr ee head on. There was no thing I could do, so I just closed my eyes an d held on. It completely brough t me to a stop and really broke my rhyth m. And that's the last thing you wan t to have happen on a 125 . That' s th e biggest differen ce between riding a 250 and a 125 - keeping your momen tu m. With a 250, you can usually make up the difference with horsepower. With a 125, youha ve to rid e smooth and be aggressive all the time." Hawkins had trouble with a tree as well. "In the first test (on Saturday), m y rear tire bounced off a tr ee root a nd I cras he d ha rd when my bars cau ght a tr ee ," Hawkins said. " It w a s sca ry . I think I heard trees breaking. I recovered pretty good in the nex t te st and my times remain ed respectable, bu t it ultimately cos t me the (m id d lebore 400cc four -stroke) class champio nship." Hawkins finished that test 54 secon ds off Smith's pace of 779 seconds. Hawkins' ot her score did ho ld up for a firs t in class and fou rth overa ll after da y one, but his day-two scores finished jus t off the mark, wi th Hawkins' Yama ha teammate Barry Hawk tak ing control of the 400cc Four-Stroke class . "I rode with Randy both days and I kn ew he was hurting after that crash," Hawk said. "Saturday he hu ng in there, but Su nday wa s a different s tory . He led (in the trail sections) on Saturday and he wa s s till riding pretty smooth, but on Sunday he let me lead so he could read my lines." Hawk ' s sco re s also improv ed o n Sund ay, where he sco red the secondfastest terrain test in the first test of the day. Smith put together an 811-second effort, with Hawk posting a score of 824. "Day two wa s better for me," Hawk sa id . "This was my first qualifier ever and I d efinitely started to get the hang of it on Sunday." The two-day qu alifier, which was put on by GNCC series promoter Racer Productions . used 68 miles of mostly sing leand two-track trails with four fixed special test areas and thr ee check locati ons . The event consisted of two loops on Sat- _ urd ay, wh ere Parc Fe r me (t he sta rt /work a rea) serve d as chec k one , four and seven. Checks tw o, th ree, five and s ix w e re th e on ly "o u t chec ks ." Because of ra in on Su nda y, the da y-two eve nt was shorte ne d to ju s t on.e loop with fou r tests and four chec ks. "We took a little different approach here," Racer Productions' Jeff Russell , 1991 National Enduro Champ and sixtim e ISDE part ic ipant. explain ed . "Alt hou gh thi s is part of the Na tional Reliability Enduro Series (whic h quali- fies rid ers for the ISDE), we didn't think it need ed all of the co m p lex it ies th a t enco m pass an actual ISDE. We followed the b a s ic ru le s, like m arked p a rts, im po undi ng and no outsi de ass ista nt, but limit ed the number of checks a nd made the trai l pace easier. We also tried to put more emphasis on designing specia l tes ts to resemble w ha t ISDE riders would experience. Like Six Days, we let the riders 'rid e through' the ter rain tests (or Enduro Tests) the first time they see them (d uring their first loop.) The Grass Tracks (o r C ro ss T ests ) have been marked in advance and will be timed each tim e the riders ride through them." "J.R. (Jeff Russell) did an awesome job," Smith said. 'The problem with our qu alifier series in the past is, all it did was qualify riders for Six Days. lt didn't really prepare them for wha t Six Day s was goi ng to be like. Six Days consists of long days wit h plenty of difficult tests. Here we ha d exactly what Six Days is all about." c\ Lorrelta Lynn's Dude Ranch Hurricane Mills, Tennessee Results: Ju ne 21, 1998 O VERA LL: 1. Rodn ey Smith (Suz) : 2. Mike Lafferty (KTM); 3. Barry Hawk (Yam): 4. Chris Smith (H on ): 5. Robbie Jenks (Yam); 6. Scott Sum mers (Ho a): 7. Dcstrv Abb ott (Ka w) : 8. Rand v Hawkins (Yam ); 9. HC'dt h Bennett (Y.1m) ; 10. Luea Trussardi ( Kaw l. Brieflv... - All of the major off-road motorcycle manufacturers w ere represented . wit h riders getting support by KTM. Honda. Kawasaki. Suzuki and Yamaha. Aftermarket companies FMF and IMS also were represented. Aft er the race . the praise was unanimous for the Racer Productions-sponsored event. with kudos going to organizers Jeff Rus se ll and Rac er Prod uct io ns . " W hen we heard that the Twe-D Championship was ay available this year. we knew we wanted to get involved.- Russell said. "Last year we tried a one-deyevent and the response was We understand that the AM is looking at scheduling one of the World Enduro rounds (which resembles our Qualifie r Enduro rules ) in the United States. Racer Productions would love to host such an event at Lorretta Lynn·s.overwhehrunq . Two protests were fi led with the AMA in the newly formed Small-bore CO-250cc) Four-Stroke class . questioning whether c lass w inner Chris Smith and run ner -up Luca Trussard i were "legal." Both the Honda XR (Smit h) and Kawas aki KLX (Trussa rdi) had the proper - bore and stroke." After the teardowns, Smith said: "I"m actually kind of glad we got protested. I know people were probably wondering if we were stock (displacementJ anyway. This way we all know the answer." 11

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