Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

indoor off-road racing will ta ke off in the U nited States as wel l. And judging by the crowd's reaction to the unbelievably close racing and all of the, well , on -track carnage, Clark and Pe ro nnard just might very well see their hopes t um into reality. Many of world's top off-road stars tha t were invited to compete converged o n the O rlea ns Arena to give th is EnduroCro ss thi ng a try, w hile a few of t he to p veteran off-road riders from abroad also attended, including three-t ime ISDE overall win ner Mika Aho la o f Finland, seven-time Wo rld Endu ro C hampion And e rs Eriksso n o f Sw ede n, two-time World Endu ro/AMA Nati o nal Hare Scrambles C ham pion Paul Ed mo ndso n, and indoo r off-road ace David Knight of th e U.K. Some of the top U.S. off-road sta rs w ho part icipated included form e r off-road champs Ty Davis, Ste ve Hatch and Russ Pearson , and current offro ad champs Nat han Woods a nd Geoff Aaron. It certainly was the who's w ho of off-road rac ing. The racing format included three heat races, three semis, one last chance qualifier and an eight -lap ma in event. The top two from the heats transferred directly to the main, wh ile just the w inne rs of the semi and LCQ moved on to the final. The course was nearly a mirror image of the one used at this year's Barc elo na indoor off-road race he ld last mo nth, and it was tough , to say the least. Just making it arou nd each lap and getting ove r the o bstacl es without crashing, tipping over, ge tting stuck or getting hung up in a bottleneck, was an accomplishme nt in itself - let alone trying to go fast enough to sta y ahead of t he othe r guy. The riders were fo rced to navigate ove r logs, sm all rocks , tractor tires, a large rock pile made up of giant boulde rs, and they also had to w ade through a large wa ter "ho le," or pool, with a big log th rown in the middle for good measu re . All of the riders st ruggled at o ne time or another d uring the co urse o f the evening. Needless to say, there was plenty for the fans wa tch . And not only w as just watching the ride rs circulate the track somethi ng to behold, but also the racing act ion was remarkably close in t he hea ts and semis. Many o f the races were decided o n the last lap or, in one instance, in the last t urn . And getting t he holeshot didn't really seem to matter: Of the seven heat races, no t once did the rider w ho go t the hole shot go o n to win the race. So you might say that each race truly w asn' t over until it w as ove r. One of t ho se lat e-race vict ims wa s e ve ntua l main-e ve nt winne r Hughes, who was leading th e first heat w ith abou t a lap left and was be ing pres sur ed heavily by the Brit, Knight. Then he got stu ck and tippe d over in the rock pile , which pro ved to be the one obstacle that the riders dreaded most o f all. But Hughes managed to get going in time to salvage second behind Knight and make the trip straig ht to the main. Ty Davis and David Pears o n again kept the fans on their feet in the second heat I race. Davis, aboard a W R2S0 Yamaha (with an electric start, m ind you ), settled into the lead ea rly, whi le Pea rson worked his way to the front . T he two then engaged in a fierce batt le fo r th e lead , as they threaded the ir way around the many bottlenecks that had formed o n the rock pile. But Davis held on to win over Pearson. Kawasaki's Lance Smail was a frontrunne r in the third heat race, bu t he just wasn't as smoot h as the Finnish Mika Ahola and relin quished the lead to the Husqvama rider, w ho rode a nearly flawless race. KTM rider Brian Garrahan ended up slipping into the second -place pos itio n fo r a direct tr ip to the ma in. T he se m is produced mo re no nstop act ion, and o ne o f th e mo st ex citing races was in the first semi, where Ho nda rider Natha n Kanney ree led in lead e r Pau l Edmo ndso n and passed the Brit for the lead . Kanney soon fell, though, giving th e lead bac k to Edm ondson . Then Edmondson had WORCS C ham pio n Nathan Woods to contend w ith. Woods had the crowd on its feet one more time as he passed Edmondson on the last lap , only to crash on the feared rock pile. Edmondson went back into the lead and took t he checkered flag a few turns later. Woods was for ced to go to the LCQ, where he would again crash out. "Th at was t he craziest race I've ever been in," Edmondson said. T he sec o nd semi feat ured a shootout be twee n National Trials Ch am pio n Geoff Aaron and Homero Diaz, o ne of Mexico's to p o ff-roa d riders. Aaro n was en joy ing a big lead whe n he got stu ck in the bo ulders and Diaz got by him , but th en Diaz go t hung up ove r a log, giving th e lead back to Aaro n. T he two co ntinued to battle back a nd forth and, in the e nd, it was the Me xican tak ing th e hard -fought victory. T he third semi cam e dow n to a last- lap dogfight between GNCC star Cole Calkins and Anders Eriksson. Cal kins, wh o had come from be hind , he ld a small lea d over Eriksso n on the last lap , and the race a ppeared to be his - until Eriksson ma de a d espe rat e pass attempt in th e last turn and made it work. He cut insid e o f the Kawasaki ride r, force d him wide and emerged w ith the win . "T he young guy [CalkinsI was riding really strong and really good , like not trying to do anything stupid ," Eriksson said, of his battle with Calkins. "I just saw an opportunity in the last corne r and, how do yo u say it? He Briefly... I I There were a few riders on the entry list that weren't able to compete, one of whom was KTM's Kurt Caselli. Caselli broke h is foot a couple of weeks earlier at the Elsinore Grand Prix, but that didn't stop him from makingthe trip to Las Vegas to watch the Maxxis EnduroCross. ''Oh man , Iwish Icould ride," Caselli said. "This is definitely cool, and I think it's a great thing for off-roadracing. It giveseverybody a chance to see what they normallycan't see in off-roadraces." Caselli said he expects to be healed up and ready to go when the off. road season starts up againinJanuary New Hare & Hound NationalChampion Destry Abbott was on the disabled listas well. Abbott broke the T-12 vertebra in his back a few weeks ago at the final WORCS race of the year in Idaho, but he was still able to walk around andattend the EnduroCross. He, too , says he'll be ready to race againcome January. Accordingto promoter Tim Clark, five-time National Enduro Champion Mike Lafferty and Hare ScramblesChampion Jason Raines were invited but could not make the trip due to injuries. NationalEnduro Champion Randy Hawkins was, of course, also invited, but he insteadstayed home inSouth Carolina to be with hiswife and the couple's new, 2-weekold twin daughters. KTM rider Paul Krause had a busy day. Earlier in the morning, he competed in a D·37 hare scrambles race in Lucerne Valley, California,where he finished third and, more importandy, clincheda D-37 dass championship. He quicklyloaded up and made the 200-plus-mile drive to Las Vegas intime to participate in the afternoon's timed qualifying. Fanswere admitted into the arena free of charge to watch the riders participate in the aftemoon's timed qualifying, which determined starting positionsfor the evening's pr0gram. Each rider was allowed one sighting lap, followed by one timed lap. Keepingto offroad tradition, the riders weren't givenan opportunity to do much practicing on the track before aetually racingon it. Ryan Hughes posted the quickest time, getting around the short but technicaltrack in 50.28 seconds, followed by David Pearson, with a 53.86, and 8rian Garrahan, with a 53.89. David Knight was the top European, with a 54.7 1. Since the race was AMA -sanctioned, Ryan Hughes was awarded a number-one plate from the AMA following the race and was recognizedas the event's National EnduroCross Champion. Kawasaki Team Greerv'RPM's Bobby Bonds wasn't allthat impressed with the event. After qualifying 15th fastest, Bonds had a miserabletime inthe first heat race when he became hopelesslystuck in the rock pile. After that, he decided he had seen enough and calledit a night. Continued on page 15 www.cycleneW5.com CYCLE NEWS • DE MBER B, 2004 CE 13

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