Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Events (Left) In M organt on, North Carolina, Stephen Edmondso n (24E) took the overall victory at the Brown M ountain Lights Enduro, round three of the Carolina Enduro Ser ies. (Above) In the Exhibition class, Montesa-mounted Pam DeBruin tac kled the toughest line at the PITSGranite Bas in Trial high in the Plumas National Forest in northeastern California. Carolina Enduro Series Round 3 B nMountain Lights E : row nduro Edmondson short and sweet By Kenneth King Photo by Erica Gossett MORGANTON, NC, OCT. 3 hort an d swee t - that's how Virg inia's S te p he n Ed mo ndson described his victory at the Brown Mountain Lights Enduro. "It was a fun race - kind of differ ent , lots o f big r ock s," sa id the Valley Kawasaki Mot osport s & More /Wood s Heating and A ir / Ma ir / FMF/ Fa ctory Connection/Pirelli-backed Edm ondson . He took the win with a 15 - one point over the SETRA regulars. Kawa s aki -mounted Rod Stu ck e y claimed second overall. Stuckey usu ally rid es hare scrambles, but this season he decided to bran ch ou t and try his hand a t keeping up w ith th e tim ek eep in g crowd. He d ropped 16 for the day. "I had a real good rid e, a lot of fun," Stuckey rep orted . "I had few probl em s her e and there, but overall, things we nt well." KTM ' s Allen G ravitt p osted good scores, only to com e up sho rt by a point, tying with Stuckey with a 16 but coming up shor t on the tie br eakers. He settled for third ove rall. "The race was a little short, but it was the bes t Brown Mountain I can remember," sa id Gravitt. "It's usually rainin g or something up here." Held in t h e scenic mountai n s o f North Carolina, this enduro is definitely considered challe nging. Hosted by the Uni fou r bike clu b, th e en duro's trails traverse the side of a small mountain . Serious off-cambers , ro ots and ro ck s, along wit h countless water bars greeted the rid ers - w ho fac ed mos t of th ose obstacles when goin g either up or down the mountain. Luckily, the weather wa s S ...: ~ s E ell > o Z 20 p erfect; ra in would ha ve been disa stro us. The course was on the sho rt side, only 45 or so actual miles. They wer e all woods m iles, no road s, and the club used available trails from the ORV park for the cou r se. Even with the low mileage, scores in the 20s and 30s we re the no rm for the A and B rid ers . To ge t to th e fir st section, a tr ick y access roa d was u sed . It was rocky an d rutted, and riders dared not miss a turn for it was a long way down. The firs t section was 6 miles long . It started very tight and twisty. It was ru tted ou t and littered wi th roots and rocks, and mostly off-camber . It was a tough first section. Edmondson posted a 2:14. "I bent my shifter in the first section," Ed mondson re ported. "I wa s s tuc k in third gear. I came up to a hill riders were all stuck on. I had some trou bl e ge tting around them and crashed . The n the magnet for my com pu ter came off. I had my share of proble ms in tha t first section." Stuckey managed a 2:21 and Gravitt a 2:28. "I had a pretty good ride in the first trail ," Gravitt said . "The way m y arms pump up, I felt pretty good I managed to stay with everybody." Kawa saki-m ounted Dani el Morrison fini shed the section with a 2:38, a nd T eam G r een ri der To mm y Vea to r d ropped a 2:51. Michael Gri zz le, on his big Husab er g, had a bit of tro uble and dropped a 3:28. "I was go ing good, but the trail was tricky and I had so me trou ble passing a few rid ers, and it cost me a point," said "Griz." Th e seco n d sec tion o f tr a il was longer, and just as tr icky. It inched along t he s ide of the m ounta in , s low ly d escendin g tow a rd th e gas s top . The club fooled quite a few riders, as there was n o going-in chec k. Rid er s crept a long to each p os s ib le , expec ti n g a chec k. Stuckey poured on the gas a nd dropped the low score wit h a 5:51, followed by Gravitt wit h a 6:01. Ed mo ndson went thro ugh wi th a 6:08 and Morriso n posted a 6:23. Veator h ad a 6:57. Gri zzle drop ped a 7:12. " I be nt my s hifter b ack a t a res et b efore sec ti o n two, " Ed m o n ds o n exp lained . "I didn't have my computer and I thought I was rid in g too fast. I knew I would be early. As it turned ou t, I w as six minutes lat e a t the che ck. I could ha ve go ne faster." A nice break was given at the gas, and then it was on to the start of the third section. Section three was a sho rt 7 miles. The trail carried riders bac k u p the mountai n, and it was loaded with off-cam ber a nd n umero us wa ter b a rs . The trail meandered throu gh lar ge rocks in spots, an d th ose with tim e to sto p found the view spectacular. Edmondson w on the race in this section, pos ting a tw o-point loss to everyone else's thr ee. "It just wasn' t my day on the checks ," said Gravitt. "I got behind so me riders that I had trouble getting around, and came into the check wi th a 00." Section four was perhaps the most fun and possibly the most difficult of the race. Nin e miles long, it was covered in hu ge clu m ps of exposed roo ts. It was fas t in places, bu t for the most part it was rather tight and tec h nic al. Once again, so me tricky check placement caused some early and late point s. The go ing-in check was located well into the trail. After se veral mi ssed p ossible locati on s, so me riders assumed it to be like check two, with no check-in; those riders wer e fooled and got hot points. Others just got tied up in the tight trail and came in late to the check-in. Either wa y, it was good check placement. Gra vitt and Ed mo ndson were the only riders to drop a five in the section. "The last sec tio n was a lot d iffer ent tha n the othe rs ," sai d Edmondson. "I thoug ht it was the most fun of the day. I jus t tried to rid e smooth and keep m y speed u p." "I feel I had my best rid e in the last sec tio n ," sai d G rav i t t. "Me a n d Edmo ndson w ere the only ones with a five, so I felt pr et ty good abou t that:' Stuc key and Mor rison d ropped six, Veator d r o pp ed seven, a n d Gri z zle dropped eight. Even with the relatively sho rt course, most rid ers fel t they had gotten their money's worth . eN Brown Mountain Lights Enduro M organton, North Carolina Results : October 3, 1999 (Round 3) 0 1A: Step hen Ed m ondson. 200 A: 1. Travis Hayes; 2. Martin Pru ett ; 3. Wes ley Mille r; 4. Scott Mount. 250 A: 1. Mik e Douglas: 2. Lee Stephen s. O PEN A: 1. Mitch Mck e : 2. Larry Griffin; 3. Chris e Do ra n; 4. Steve Har d eman; 5. To ny Par ker. 4-ST RK A: 1. jeff Harris; 2. Glen n Hol comb; 3. Jim Sparr ow; 4. Pau l McCo ll; 5. Richar d Paxto n. 200 B: 1. Du sty Tindell; 2. Sam Nelso n; 3. Ma rk H utch inson; 4. Ma the w Gillard . 250 B: 1. Eric Rentsch le r; 2. Iva n Ha y nes; 3. Blair Jackson; 4. Ari Relford ; 5. Wes Vinya rd . O PEN B: 1. Heath He nderson. 2. Poon er Powell; 3. Mel Sm it h; 4. Ladd Sanders; 5. Edd ie Royal s. • 4·STR K B: 1. Philli p Sims ; 2. Chase Furnas; 3. N ik Johnson; 4. Aaron Ma jor; 5. Dwight Sutphi n. 200 C: 1. Jamie James; 2. Mike Fraser; 3. Steve Alley; 4. Grt"g Annour; 5. G rog Da rnell. 250 C: 1. It·ff Qu een : 2. Dan Lane; 3. Ma rk Shrout; 4. Pet e Berry; 5. Ma rio Cia co mozzi. orEN C: 1. Johnny Coggi ns; 2. Scott Presnell : 3. Darrell Gaskins: 4. Paul Gira rd; 5. Da n Sampson. 4·STRK C: 1. Johnn y Th o m a s; 2. Rob Mie lk e; 3. Kurt Sclkingho us: 4. Allen Youn g; 5. Duane Tucker . VET A: 1. Terrel l Ho lloway; 2. Kim w atson . 3. Jeff Bu rchfiel d; 4. Richar d Morabito. V ET B: 1. Jo hn C arver; 2. Tim Aki ns ; 3 . Clin t Jo h nso n; 4. Jim Green: 5. George To lson . VET C: 1. C ree d Ha she: 2. Je ss Co nway ; 3. Joh n Wilson ; 4. Denny Liegerot . 5. John Fisher. . S R A: 1. Terry Hughes : 2. Da nny Mo rrison; 3. Stan C han tt; 4. Phil Ellis; 5. Ricky Den nis. SR B: 1. Ph illi p Dorle ; 2. G reg Ti ndel l: 3. Fran~ Shoe nbeck: 4. Steven leWIS; 5. Lee Herm sen. an SR C: 1. Anth o ny Lewis ; 2. Perry G ibbo ns; 3. John Pa rker; 4. John West ; 5. George Cuy. S/S R A: 1. Ro bert Neeley: 2. Gil G riggs; 3. Barry Lee: 4. Lewis Smit h. S/S R B: 1. Richa rd Shi pncr: 2. Ga ry Bish op . S/S R C: 1. Steve St ra nge; 2. Fish er Campbell; 3. Stuart Brado w: 4. william Our-hol m; 5. Je rry Dupuy. MSTR A: 1. Jim Ford : 2. Bruce Triplett ; 3. Ron Hale : MSTR B: 1. Micha el Thompson ; 2. Steve Sti rew alt; 3. Joe V" nSt..ek r- 4. Bill Watkin s . s; MSTR C: 1. Kennv Hardee: 2. Sonny Rob ert s; 3". ' Sam Sha w: 4. Ken K.lst·f; 5 . Paul Mclfonald. • G LD N M STR : 1. [ames Bra nsfo rd : 2. Jim Armitage; 3. Pa ul Richardson: 4. Dick Warren ; 5. Marvin York. D/S PT: 1. G reg G ibso n; 2. Robert Kent. WMN: 1. Karen Ne lso n. CL 6&: 1. Thomas Barr. PITSVintage-B eginner Series Round 1 0:Granite Basin T l ria DeBruin claws his way back By.John Silva GRANITE BASIN, CA,OCT. 2 on DeBru in had a grea t return to PITS tri als co m petitio n, w inning th e Mo dern Bike Maste r class at round 10 of the "Good Old Days" Vinta ge-Beg inn er Series. De Bruin is still limping fro m a leg injury that kept him o ff bi kes fo r most of th e yea r, but a recen t experience in Europe helped him g e t b a ck in s ha pe fo r comp etition . DeBruin recently accompan ied his wife, fell ow PITS member Pam DeBruin, to the Euro Cup International Tria ls Competition in To rre Pellice, Italy. Chasing af ter the Ame rican team, he also got a chance to ride the rugged Italian loop and retu rn to his old form . He clear ly dem onstrated that form in his smooth rid e on the challenging one lin e, besting a se ven-rider field with a 23-point total fo r th e da y. The ev erimproving Pam DeBruin also pa rticipated at Granite Basin, and put in a fine rid e in the Exhib ition class. ; The even t was o rga nize d by Keith Park er and marked the PITS series' firstever visit to this area, which is located in the heart of North ern Californ ia's Plumas Nation al Forest. At an eleva tion of 5000 feet, the terrain, with gra nite rock, was a trials ride r's dream, an d despite a relatively sho rt loop and only six sec tions, the all-new sections were clever, and the requisite four laps thro ugh the tapes pn r. vided plenty of challenges and fun. DeBrui n card ed ni ne points on the first lap, an effo rt matche d by Modern Bike Mas ter-class favo ri te Shawn Frei ing. And so the race was on. DeBrui n came in with a two on the second loop, vs. a four- poi nt effort from Freiling. Th e leaders were n't th e only riders p resenting improved score card s' Bob Williams came in w ith a seven on R

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