Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ENDURO Round 7: Paul Bunyan National AMAIAC ERBls NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPE R R ~-----------------------------NDU OSE IES KTM's Mike Lafferty collected his third win in a row at the Paul Bunyan National End uro in Minnes ota. By Steve Berkner AKELEY, MN, JUNE 2B 24 TM's Mike Lafferty made it three wins in a row and left no doubt in anyone's mind that he' s now in con trol of the AMA / Acerbis National Enduro Series by bettering his nea rest competi tors, Ho nda-mounted Ma tt Stavish and Yama ha's Randy' Hawkins, by 10 points. Lafferty, wh o carded a 31, need ed only two ch eck s to es ta blis h himself as the ride r to bea t on this day . The final tally had Stavish and Hawkins tied wit h a score of 41, but it was Stavi sh getting the nod on tie-br eaker points to claim ru nne r-up ho nors. " It was no secret that we had o u r work cut out for us ," said Lafferty of the second ru nn ing of the Paul Bu nyan Na tional End uro. "Las t year I won this event wit h a 47 and dropped 23 points in the last AA sect ion alone, so I knew it was going to be a battle all day. When they take that many points fro m you , you have to s tay foc used and ha ve a good a ttitu de or yo u can get you rself in to trouble. "That first check kind of caught me off guard ," he co ntinued . "I was su r- prised when I dropped one (poin t.) That sectio n was lo ng 0 7.2 miles), but we had pl e nt y of tim e . They dumped us into the tigh t woods a few miles before th e chec k, a n d a ll o f a sudden I've d ropped a point." As it turned ou t, check one took at least one p oint from every body, with Sta vish , Hawkins a nd KTM rid er JonErik Burleson matching Laffert y' s mark . That w a s th e la st tim e the c u r re nt a tio na l Enduro Ch ampi on had an y real competition all day long . Lafferty, the de fending champ, said : "At the time, I figured I had scre wed up a n d that I w as already down (o ne po int .) The ne xt reset was at 32.8, so I just put my head down and floored it." Laffer ty' s hard-charging efforts paid off, as the 23-yea r-o ld resid en t of Port Elizabeth, New Jerse y, established himself as th e rid er to beat a t ch eck tw o when he talli ed a four, w hile Sta vish, H awkins an d Burl eson ca rded seven, eight and nin e po ints, resp ectiv ely. "From that point on, everything wei>t jus t perfect for me ," Lafferty added. "1 jus t tried to stay focused ." Lafferty conti nued his winning ride by p osting so lid sco res a t th e next 10 checks. Stavis h ga ve u p seven mo re points to Lafferty, while Hawkins surrendered si x po ints du ri ng those 10 ~ checks. " Mik e is such a fas t sta rte r, it's a lways hard to make up a ny tim e on him if he takes a big lead in the mornin g, " Hawkin s, th e s ix- ti me Na tio na l En d u ro Champi on , sai d . " I h ad m y sha re of prob lems. I got hung up before check three a n d dropped one point, w hile everybody else zeroed. I car ried that one po int through to chec k four. Tha t's tw o points ri gh t there. Then I p icked u p some more points when I missed the ca rd flip a couple of times by fou r or five seconds. Problems like that reall y start to add up and before yo u know it, you' re d ow n by five . After.a while yo u start to lose your concen tra tion and you go flat. We've all got the speed to win, but Mike's putting together some excellent rid es. I've been there before, and once things start going yoyr way, yo u become hard to beat." "Everything just started to click out there," Laffert y said. "Eve n thou gh my score doesn't show it, I had some problems , as well. These tra ils her e are real h ard to read . The thi ck o ve rg ro w th makes it hard to recover from mistakes. The tra il is on lv 12 to 16 in ch es wide and , once yo u get off th e tra il. it gets in teres ting, becau se yo u ca n't always see what' s in there . I lik e to ge t m y rh ythm go ing, and when you ge t o ff your line a little bit, you just let her drift back onto the trail. But her e, look out: Hidden in the undergrowth are things like roots , rocks and dead falls, and they just want to ge t in your wa y." St a vish fini shed s e co n d in the ational Enduro Series last yea r and hails from nor theast Minneapolis. "N inety percent of the trail he re is well-defined sing le-tra ck, but it's the th ic k und er g row th th at ad ds a n ew d imension ," Stavish poi nted out. "Riding her e tak es a lot of concen tra tion. It takes a real aggressive ridi ng style. Mile fo r m ile, that second sect ion (before chec k two) was prob ably the tou ghes t. It ' s so tight tha t yo u ca n' t kee p any rhythm going. You ge t off the trail an d yo u jus t look for so me thi ng to bo unce off o f ju s t to keep yo u r m om en tu m

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