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Events
ECEA Endu
roSeries, R
ound 14
a.....
rooty, especially for lat er ride rs. A couple of for mi dable h illclimbs were the
o n ly technica l cha lle nges on the d ay .
Othe r tha n that, it was mostly open trail
tha t begged for a heavy throttle hand.
The Ithaca Dirt Riders la id ou t a
course of more than 90 ground miles with
fou r special tests, each tes t sandwiched
by checkpoints. A handfu l of top riders Hoess, Atkinson, Aaron Kopp - zeroed
o ne of the mo rning tes ts , while a lo ng
afternoon sect ion was disq ua lified when
a course worker rerouted lat er rows of
flound ering novice rid ers aro und a precarious hill climb th at w ould ha ve be en
o ne of th e few tech nica l challe nges all
day. Thi s precipita ted a decision by the
referee to d isqua lify the section checkou t
(chec k 10), leavin g th e even t w ith on ly
one e-check for tie breakers. Check seven,
a check-in, was also tossed du e t~ protests
as to when the check crew was taking rid ers' times . In ad dition to the timed t~ts,
and finished sixt h and seventh overall,
res p ect ive ly . A half-dozen 10-point
ca rds filled out the day's top finishers.
Eighth overa ll and first A Four-Stroke
went to Yamaha rider Sta cev Cla rk ,
ninth to Yamaha rider John Oeschle,
10th to Yamaha rider Jamie Wright, 11th
to Kawasaki jockey Pa u l Bitting, and
12th to Yamaha p ilot Bill Gilbert.
In B-class action, Honda rider Steve
Bowman earned the H igh Point B prize
by droppi ng 13 poi nts on the day. Bowman edged out B 250cc rival Mike Berenba k, on a KTM, on tie-break ing seconds,
455 to 486. Yamah a ride rs Jim Shainline
and Scott Sn yd er tr ailed the lea d pair
w ith 14-po int cards. High Poin t C honors
. w er e cla im ed by KTM 250 rid er Mark
Conner, wh o finished 23 points down on
the day. A poin t behin d and runner-ups
to th e Hi gh Point C we re KTM riders
Robert Limm er a n d Aaro n G riffin .
Kawasa ki-mou n ted iro n m an Fa rrell
Lord used a 22 card to ea rn vet another
Mas ter s-class vic tory, w hi le' Kawasaki
pilot Lisa Furman was the top (and on ly)
Women's-class finish er, earning the class
win with a wh opping 294 point score. CN
Speedsville Enduro
Speedsvill e. New York
Results: August 15. 1999 (Round 14)
GRANO CHAMP:' Froo HOt...~ {H u..;).
.
H·PT A: Aa ron Kopp {Suz).
H -PT 8: StL'Vt:' Bowman (Hun),
SPEEDSVILLE, NY, AUG. 15
efending ECEA en d u ro ch a m p
Fr ed H oess eked o u t h is fourth
_
overa ll win of th e 1999 season,
using emergen cy p o ints to n arro wly
edge KTM rid er Bill Atkinso n 237 to 259.
Each rid er scored five points on the day.
Th e win - Hoess' firs t since June and his
fou rth of th e season - help s him creep
bac k into the points chase, moving int o
fourth pla ce only a cou ple of points out
of third. The Husqvama USA /Scott Gog gles / Ara i/ Spectro / Mic helin/ Acerbis /
Answer / WE R/ Mo tio n Pro / A -Loop /
Fredette Racing-spo nsored Hoess said he
was happy to see thin gs fall into place.
"It felt good to win one," he said . "I
had tw o disap poi n t ing rid es befo re
Sp eeds ville w here s tu pid, u nforeseen
thin gs hap pened to m e o r th e bi ke . I
rode a little conservative at first, blew a
turn and fell down in th e firs t section,
but I felt fine from there out. Overall , it
was a good course - p lenty fast. The
g ro u nd w as th e b est I' ve ridden in a
while - beautiful traction ."
Th e rac e w as decid ed by emerge ncy
p oin ts at a n eve n t in w hic h o nly o ne
em ergency checkpoint was left standing
by the time the sco ring dust se ttled . The
re maining emergency check wa s at th e
end of a len gthy morning special test, a
ch ec kp o in t at which b oth Hoes s and
Atkinso n led th e field with benchmar k
four-point tallies.
"I had Atkinson beat by 70 seco nds at
the emergency checkou t to the long afterno on p o ints-takin g sectio n that go t
th ro wn out," H oess no ted. Rega rd ing
i '
en
en
en
~
as
...
.8
E
CD
ii
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48
(Above) Fred Hoess (29)
was t he Grand Champion
01 the Speedsville Enduro
in New York . round 14 01.·
the ECEA Enduro Series.
(Right) Scott Snyder
claimed lirst B Vet honors.
series points leader Atkinson, Hoess comment ed , "Bill's riding good, no d oub t. I'm
not going after the end uro title this year,
so everything 's a li ttle toug her. When
you're riding for the championship, it's a
different story. You need that motivation
to muster the extra effort need ed to win."
The Matto CvcIe/KTM factory /MSR/
Eli Lubricants/Scott USA /Enduro Engineeri ng /Sprocket Specialists/FMF/ Pirie
Co mposites / Dunlopad /Maurtco Powder Coat-sponsored A tkinson fu rther
cemented his grasp on the series championship lead with his second-place showing, as rival Jack Lafferty Jr. had an awful
day in the saddle. Laffer ty rep o rtedl y
tan gled wi th ano ther rider, crashed ha rd ,
busted u p h is b ike a nd fini shed well
down in the standi ngs at 13th ove rall.
The weekend had unseasonably cool
wea ther, with temperatures in the mid 70s un d er mostl y su nny skies - arg ua bly
the best Eas t Coast ridin g wea the r a ll
su mmer - and cond itions in the woods
w ere p erfect . Rains torms a co u p le of
da ys before the event had even the tricky
Speedsville so il watered just perfectly.
Some sectio ns were a littl e on the slick
side, w hile others w ere a bit dusty; however, the majo rity were just in be tween, '
pro vidin g perfect traction . Th ere was
plenty of off-ca mber trail tha t was very
there were a cou ple of othe r sections in
w hich all but th e top rid ers fell off the
pa ce. .Witho ut checks, no points were lost;
however, a problem typi cal of these "nonsections" was that of rid ers trying to catch
up afterward , racing over d irt track roads
throu gh sleepy farms and hamlets.
Hoess and Atkinson matched scores in
the remaining two po ints -taking checks,
d oing fours in the len gthy morn ing section and a one in the lone afternoon test
that wasn't tossed. Hoess an d Atkinson
fin ished in tha t o rd er , the H usky rid er
earning the victory on the merit of his seconds in the long morning section.
" I' m still thrilled with the H usky,"
Hoess said of his 1999 WR250. "It pulls
so hard th at m y biggest problem ha s
been blist ers and forearm pump ."
Rounding ou t the pod ium was Suzuki rid er Ko p p, w ho dropp ed seve n
point s to fill the third-overall seed w hile
cl aiming the H igh Poi n t A trophy . A
pair of eigh t-point cards vied for fourthan d fifth-over all honors. AA KTM ride r
Jeff Kirchner u sed tie break er s to edge
out A 250cc Kawasaki rid er Da ve Ferry,
298 to 329. Ferry, High Point A runnerup, wen t horne w it h th e A 250cc- cIass
wi n. A 250cc rival Mark Hummel, on a
Husq varna, and jou rn eyma n AA competitor Crai g Sheni go eac h carded nine
H-PT C: ~tark Conner