SE&TRA Enduro Series
Round 1 1 : Tomoka Farms
out some sections of the trail that had
become submerged in water and
impassible. But despite the lastminute changes. the enduro went on
without a hitch.
As always, the Alligator Enduro
had no problems reaching its maximum entry limit - this year, 500 riders. Those who entered this year's
competition included a larger number
of off-road heavy-hitters, including
Lafferty, Randy Hawkins, Jason
Raines, Barry Hawk Jr. and Russell
Pearson. Of course, many of the top
SE&TRA enduro stars were on hand
as well, such as Stephen Reed, Jason
Chancey, Russell Bobbitt, Allen
Gravitt and Bradley Hodges, to name
just a few.
Despite the wet and sloppy conditions, the sun was shining for the start
of the enduro, and it wasn't until the
third check that riders started dropping some serious points, most of
which had to do with one particularly
large, swampy mud hole that gave
many riders fits. Lafferty and Hawk
were a couple of the lucky ones who
got through it okay, as they arrived at
checkpoint three with two of the best
scores - each dropping six points.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KIT PALMER
DAYTONA BEACH, Fl, MAR. 6
he Alligator Enduro has always
been known as a survival run.
Riders bring lots of duct tape to seal
their bikes from the usually wet and
swampy conditions, and just making
it to the finish line was usually considered a win in itself. But dryer-thanusual conditions the past few years
started giving the Alligator Enduro a
"bad" reputation for being a walk in
the park, at least by Alligator standards. But the 53rd Alligator Enduro
was more like the Alligator of old.
Lots of rain leading up to the event
left the Tomoka Farms area nearly
submerged in water, and that's just the
way the Alligator die-hards like it especially Mike Lafferty, who captured
his second consecutive win this year.
"It was good," Lafferty said. "It was
pretty wet out there, and there were
some pretty big mud holes, but if you
picked your lines carefully, it wasn't
too bad."
In fact, there was so much rain
that the Daytona Dirt Riders and the
Florida Trail Riders were forced to cut
50
MARCH 19. 2003'
eye
I
e
n
eVIl's
