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Round 1: Moose Run PARTS UNLIMITED OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES .- ' · · · ,· . .. • (Left) Paul Edmondson leads Tim Taber and Matt Stavish late in the first lap. Edmondson went on to score his second Moose Run win. (Top) Though Fred Andrews (2) led off the start, Mike Sampson (7) quickly stole the lead - but he got stuck in the mud. Andrews went on to finish second. (Above) Ty Davis made his Moose Run debut and finished third after getting stuck in the mud. By Mark Kariya FENTON, It, MAY 2 ould a British world traveler find' happiness in the heart of America? Evidently so, as Paul Edmondson took the $1000 offered from the $2500 Pro purse following his win at the fifth annual Moose Run. This was his second • Moose Run win in a row. In what is billed as "America's Tuffest Race," this year's three-lap, 32mile-per-Iap race was somewhat less challenging than previous events, but it still took the winner more than four hours and 20 minutes to complete the 96-mile race. And of the approximately 270 racers that entered, only 17 finished. The race.also marked the first of five rounds of the new Parts Unlimited OlfRoad Championship Series. The 100miler series will visit courses in Min- C ~ :;: 42 nesota,. Wisconsin and Missouri before returning to Fenton for the 23rd annual Illinois Cross Country Championship essentially the late-autumn tand original) version of the Moose Run. Whil~ the race through the "timbers" - as promoter Bill Gusse of the United Off-Road Racing Association calls the comparatively small woods sections nestled between cornfields - may have been less taxing than last year's muddy event, Edmondson still utilized the same strategy. "I rode virtually all the race with Fred Andrews:' the three-time World Enduro Champion revealed. "We just . helpecsl each other and just used our heads. They say in mud races, it's not won on the first lap. We kind of trailrode the first lap. About halfway through the second lap, we picked up the pace and dropped maybe 30 seconds. The last lap, we left the pit together, and I kind of made a stupid mistake: I didn't jump the mudhole 'near the pit properly. I crashed and got my gloves wet. My friend got a clean pair of gloves for me, so he came running over and helped me out. That made a big difference, because when I actually got going, I could feel all the controls and everything. I caught back u.p to Fred and we started riding together again. Then I think Fred's back brake went out. I just kept going. My front brake actually kept going out as well." The start of the race saw Team Green's Andrews kick his 10<250 to l1fe and jump into the woods quickest, though he conceded the point to Mike Sampson and his TM 250 within two miles. "I just got the start and let everybody go," Andrews said. "I was in no hurry." La ter on, Andrews found himself in a predicament. "I got stuck on a hill," he related, "and Paul stopped, got off his bike, came down the gUlly and helped me get it out. So we just rode together like we did last year and weren't really worried about who was ahead of us. We were;,'t worried the first lap what was going to happen, because this race is way long." A suspected blown master cylinder thwarted Andrews on the last lap, however, leaving him without a rear brake. "Then I just started going as fast as I could in the woods," he said. "Luckily, the ruts are so deep, you don't need brakes, but when you get out to the roads, that's when you need 'em. Ty (Davis) rode with us for a while. He was first, actually; then he pu.1led over and waved me by, so I took over the lead. I got through a creek, and he got stuck. Then Paul got through it." Andrews went on to describe the course. "It was not as tough as last year," he said. "The mudholes were still bad, but the trail itself was so good. Last year it was so deep and so rutted; you fought and fought and fought. Today, you could actually rest. But when you came to the mudholes, they were still bottomless. There were people out there stuck up to their handlebars." Andrews picked up the $500 nmnerup prize for the second time in a row. Making his Moose Run debut, Yamaha YZ250-mounted Ty Davis said before the race that he wished he had a 125 available, but he did take advantage of the 250's power more than once. 'The first two laps were a lot of fun," he said. 'There were like six of US going