A ebASSIe
ENl9tlREI
,IJRINEiS EltlT
THE IJEST ElF
SI~-TIME
eHAMP RANI9Y
HAWKINS
By
PAUL ( UPPER/TRAIL RID ER MAGAZINE '
PHOTOS BY RAYMOND GUNDY
,
'T
here,s a lot to be said for longevity, ded ication an d de termination in the sport of
•.
enduro riding, and those three qualities paid '
off huge for one rider at t he Gre enbrie r
,
Nat ional Enduro. Am-Pro Yamaha's Randy
Hawkins hadn't had a Natio nal w in since Halloween of
'02, w he n he bagge d the overall at the season en'ding
Delawa re Enduro, his third National Enduro win that year.
"Since then it's been a lo ng dry spe ll," Hawkins said
after his Greenbrier w in. ''And it feels good to win again."
Haw kins, who can rightfully brag of six Endu ro
Nation al Ch ampio nsh ips throughout his illustrious career,
used experience and his natural fondness for tight, te chnical
trail to his advantage in New Jersey.
"Mr. Lafferty and his grou p puts on a real tough enduro,"
Hawkins said about the Tri-Co unty Sportsm en M.e., the sponsor ing club and the home club of the Lafferty family: "It
rem inded me of the enduros of the past, enduros we never see
any more. I think that's the reason my resu lts were good as
they were, because that's the type of enduro I like to ride ."
Hawkins started off the day on par with the rest of the pack,
with his characteristic slow-to-warm -up approac h to,the day,
" I've always to ld Michael [Lafferty] that I have to get up an
hour earlier than him just so I can get things moving befo re the
first check, and I'm still not moving well enough!" Hawkins said.
By the halfway point he had reached his stride and was starting to move ahead of the field. The crux of the enduro was a
, continuous 2a -mile trail section with two checkpoi nts back to
back, and it was plain to see it was the ty~ of t,,!il that
as
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46 APRil 14, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
