Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAlFMF Racing National Enduro Series Round 1: Quicksilver National Enduro race, forcing the Salinas Ramblers Motorcycle Club to reroute the course, so that it essentially used all fire roads.) "We got here Wednesday, and everything was dust," Lafferty said. "I never would have guessed, especially leaving the start line. Heading up the hill, we knew it was raining, but then we got into snow! That was crazy." On the other hand, a few like Hawkins preferred the wet weather. The South Carolinian, said, "I think the race would've been much more dangerous if it had been dusty. The better riding was on top of the mountain, where it hadn't rained. It had snowed, so the dirt hadn't frozen underneath. Maybe it would've been easier if it had dried out." Just under 200 riders started the race, and a lot less than that finished. The 41-mile first loop took competitors up a few miles of fire roads before turning off onto the Alpine Mine Trail and heading toward the Spanish Lake area. After the loop's five checks, Lafferty, Hawkins and Hoess all had three points on their scorecards. (Left) Defending champ Mike Lafferty dominated the opening round of the National Enduro Series in Coalinga, Callfomla, with a seven-point win over Randy Hawkins. (Below) Hawkins dropped 30 points to Lafferty's 23. By would've thought favored the lighter, zippier two-stroke machines. Fred Hoess put his Motion Prof Answer/DNKY Husky 250cc twostroke into third with 42 points, despite running out of gas twice, edging Lynwood Motoplex/Motopro Suspension/MSR Yamaha YZ250 racer David Lykke, who also carded 42 points (though he lost out on tiebreakers). Gas Gas North America/ Trelieborg/MSR's Matt Stavish rounded out the top five on his 250cc Spanish mount, despite riding with a broken hand suffered a couple weeks earlier. It was a weekend of surprises, and perhaps the biggest surprise was the weather. It was sunny, cool and dry on Saturday, but during the night rain fell, changing the whole complexion of the enduro. The early-number riders encountered snow by the time they reached the four-mile mark. The snow meant a cold day that many of the competitors weren't ready for. (Last year, it snowed well before the MARK KARIYA AND JILL PATTERSON PHOTOS BY JILL PATTERSON COAUNGA, CA, FEB. 17 - our-time defending AMA/FMF ,.. Racing National Enduro Champion Mike Lafferty proved several things at the Quicksilver National enduro at the Clear Creek Recreation Area. First, the Georgian proved that he's now comfortable riding in California, especially if it's a sloppy mud run. And second, he proved that he can win on something other than his 250, as he took h.is Enduro Engineering/Big Gun/Moose-backed 400cc EXC four-stroke to the win with a 23point day. In what is perhaps an indicator of how the sport of enduro is changing, runner-up Randy Hawkins, a six-time series champ, took second overall with 30 points on his Factory Connection/Bridgestone/MSR-sponsored WR426F. This meant that a pair of four-strokes took the first two positions, despite conditions that you 32 MARCH 6, 2002' cue I • n e _ s Six checks comprised the 42-mile second loop, with the Ramblers ratcheting up th.e difficulty factor a notch and taking more points from everyone. Lafferty collected six more points, with Hawkins dropping nine; scores slipped from there. As Hawkins put it, "I was expecting the first couple loops to be easy and the last loop to really hammer us. Man, when I left the start line, they started hammering usl" Due to the rain, snow and mud, maintaining vision became as big as a problem as maintaining speed and dealing with the cold. "I went through five pairs of goggles [during the day]," Team Green/Red Line Oil/Moose KX 125 racer Heather Wilson, the eventual Women A winner, said. "I kept stopping, cleaning and swapping goggles, so I could see where I was going, but it was almost useless." Many decided to forego the protection of goggles for at least temporary vision, but Lafferty wasn't one of them. "I didn't want to mess around with taking my goggles off," he said. "I saw a lot of guys were doing that, and I wasn't going to do that - not around here." Tim Stowe agreed. "Goggles were the key issue for the day," he said. "Keeping spares and keeping them clean was a must. I learned my lesson two years ago when I couldn't see for two weeks after the event."

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