Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

after losing time w ith a broken clutch cable, and new KTM recruit David Lykke, the opening-round w inne r, finished third w it h a 27 on his 10-day-o ld Moto Pro/ Miche lin/ MSR 2S0 EXC. Local hot shoe Patrick Garra han took the A overall win wi th 29 po ints on his Maxxis Tires/Ara UMotion Pro -backed KTM 250 SX, while Steve Hatch, broken foot and all, gut ted out a 32-point effort o n his Throttlehead.comITeam Green/MSR KX250. Briefly... Pe rhaps the biggest news of the day was the absence of de fending enduro champ Mike Lafferty. According to KTM's off-road manager Ron Heben, Lafferty suffered a torn ACL and damaged meniscus in his knee at the Ari· zona National a week earlier. Lafferty's brother Richard said, "Right now he's doing therapy for the meniscus. He's doing three weeks of therapy, then the ACLwill be operated on . They can't operate on that until they get the flexlbility in the meniscus." Lafferty actually initiated the damage while riding on New Year's Day, and it remained more uncomfortable to walk than ride. "To know that I'm going to be out half the year, it kills me, absolutely kills me ," laf- For once, it seems, inclement weather didn't raise its ugly head, w hich so many times in the past has made the Quicksi lver National a survival run in the mud . Instead, perfect e nduro -riding weather greeted the over 400 riders w ho turned out for the long-running eve nt. A light sho wer ea rlier in the week mad e for some muddy condi tio ns on south-facing slopes, w hile drier and du stier conditions were fou nd on the no rt h-facing slopes . The Ramblers too k it easy on the field for the first 4O-plus-mile loop, which primarily tested the riders' timekeeping skills. The second loop was more physically challenging, wh ile the final loo p was a pure test of throttle and balance, not to me ntion stamina. Davis knew he had a good ride goi ng by the second loo p. "We did a special te st right away, and we drop ped down to a reset ," he said . "There were on ly two of us that zeroed it," he said . "It made me feel con fident like , 'O kay, I've got one grace point. There's only o ne other guy that's tied w ith me.''' Championship contender Hawkins, on the other hand , lost time - once because of a broken clutch cable and a couple of times for being just a second o r two late to the checks. He adm itted , however, that even if he had those points back , the best he would've expected was a 22 at the end of the day, still three po ints shy of Davis. Luckilyfor Hawkins, he had fellow Yamaha rider Kevin Foley riding on his minute. ''Things were going pretty decent; I do n't know what happe ned ," Haw kins said. "We actua lly bro ke the clutc h cable where it goes into the cases. I had just pulled out of a chec k, pulled my clutc h in, and th e thing went flat. I went and gra bbed the cable, and th e [inner] cable cam e out! That cost me a po int comi ng into the sec ond gas. Kevin Fo ley was on t he row with me , and he gave me his [cable] , so he sacrificed a point . Th e n we couldn't ge t [his cable] o n in time, so we bot h rode [into the gas] with out a clutch. He was try ing hard to take care of me, so I wanted to make sure I thanked him!" And then there was Lykke, who, with a first place at the opening round and a third here, has definitely announced to his fellow competitors that he' s a serious threat for the cham pionship. Had it not been for a few "mental" mistakes and a stuck throttle, Lykke might have finished even better. "It actually started out really we ll; I'm not usually a good starter, but I felt pretty good right away and was doing okay," Lykke, the early series points lead er, said. "Then I made a cou ple mental mistakes and tipped ove r on ferty said in a recent pho ne conversation. "I'm bummed. It's not good , but you've got to deal with it, Iguess. You know, I've been lucky in a lot of different ways. Stuff like this, I honestly believe it happens for a reason . When all is said and done, I'll come back faster and stronger, hungrier and everything else." Lafferty hope s to be back racing again late r in the year after the summer break in the offroad season. "Iguess having a kid doe sn't mean you get slower," Ty Davis jokingly said while loading up his box van at the end of the day. He admitted , how ever, that he' s not sleeping as much nowadays after having his first child last month . But he also admitted that his wife, Andrea, has taken most of the night shifts . The day before the race was Valentine's Day, wh ich also happens to be Elmer Symons' birthday. So how did South African spend the double "holiday"?Stranded on the side of the road . The alternator in his van expired on the way there, and he somehow talked a stra nger into letting him borrow his truck . Symon drove to the Central Valley farm town of Hanford , found an altemator, bought it, and drove back to his van. After replacing the part, Symons said the good Samariitan offered him a job on the spot. When Symons asked why, the man said he'd never see n anyone work that fast before . Sunday went much better for Symons. He finished seventh overall and earned top 250cc A-class honors. Pro motocrosser-tumed-off-road racer Scott Myers said that he had a ball in his first National Enduro. "I was going to ride with Mike Laffe rty on his minute," he said. "He's been stayingat my place [near Temecula, California], and he said, 'Y should ride the Quickou silve r. Y can ride on my minute, and ou I'll do the timekeeping.' Since then, howeve r, Laff rty has been sidelined e with a knee injury, so Myer had to fend for himself. With no time-keeping equipment, Mye rs soldier ed on and had a fun trail ride. In the end , he e nded up 21st ove rall on his Te mecula Motor· sports CRF450R. After breaking his foot in Arizona at round one, Steve Hatch made good on his vow to race the Q uicksilver. To do so, he wo re a size-I 0 Sidi boo t over t he injured foot ; he norm ally wears a size-nine boot. He faces the possibility of surgery to fix the injury. "I do n't have time to let it heal," he said. "I've got to go racing! Next weekend's off, but then I've got seven weekends in a row, basically." the last loop and got stuck under a [manzanita] bush, wh ich I think is pretty normaJ for here. I could not get the bike out. I lost a lot of time , and it was right at the start of a section, so you end up carrying po ints through all the checks after that. Even worse, it knocked my hand guard into the throttle, so I had a stuck throttle for the rest of the day!" Turning a lot of heads at Northe rn Coali nga was Patrick Califo rnia's own Garrahan who has been get ting faste r and faster ever since getting back on his bike follOWing a leg injury. The KTMrider put togethe r a solid fourth -place ride . www.cyclenews.com If you would've to ld David Lykke a few weeks ago that he'd be leading in points after the first two rounds, he probably would have laughed . "It kind of blew me away to win the first race because I didn't even think I was going to be riding the se ries since I'm working full-time," he said. "My boss is reallycool; he loves bikes himself. He's like, 'If you get a ride, I'lllet you go to the races whenever.' In fact, he has a KTM of his own, and he let me borro w it and use it as a pam bike ." CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 3, 200 4 43

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