Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IrtTERVI EW AMA National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins n 1986, Ronald Reagan was pres ide nt, Moamma r Khadafy was stealing t he headlines, Chernobyl blew up, oil prices were below $10 a barrel , Op rah Winfrey sta rted her TV talk show, th e Be astie Boys re leased "Fight For Your Right," the Bears won the Supe rbowl and Randy Haw kins sta rt ed racing Nat ional Enduros. And, not much unlike Oprah W infrey, Haw kins is stillgoing st ro ng. Yes, it's hard to believe t hat Randy Haw kins has be e n zeroing checks since 1986. And w hat' s even more re mar kable is th at he's still winning titles, too, such as th e one he just w rapped up for his Am-Pro Yamaha team a few months ago. It was the seve nth National Enduro crown of his career, and that ties him with Bill Baird for second place on the all-time title list, which currently belongs to Dick Burleso n, w ho has e ight. But w hat Burleson can't claim, nor can anybody else but Haw kins for that matter, is that he owns the record for having the longest gap - 10 years - between AMA titles, at least in t he same discipline. Oeff Ward won his last motocross title in 1988 and earned his first since then last month in supe rmoto racing.) Prior to 2004, Hawkins' last National Enduro title came in 1994 , when he rode for Suzuki. Of all of his seven championships, though, this one was probably the 38-year-old's most impressive, es pecially when you consider that th is was one o f the strongest enduro fields eve r. But w he n all was said and do ne , it was the veteran, Hawk ins, comi ng away with this year 's title , w hich came down to th e final round of the year. And to top th ings all off, not long after the final round, Hawkins' wife, Cathy, gave birth to twin baby girls. So, you might say it was a very produ ctive year for both Haw kins'. last week we sat down with Randy and ta lked with him abou t the '04 se ries and a little bit about his future plans. I ~~o.i v.V\~ t et,~ ~~ E' h teen yeaIS \a 19 ";\}.'t~ By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY RAYMOND GUNDY AND PALMER Wi nning the N a t ion al End uro title again a fter a ll these ye a rs m u st b e a t hrill fo r you, From my unde rstanding, it's the longest stint in between cham pionships. It's great, winning this championship was special to me. I mean , winning your first champ ionship and the seco nd champ ionship - they' re allspecial. But this ranks up there as one of my brightest championships. Any pa rticul a r r e a son why! I think one of the biggest reasons is winning on another manufacture r - with Y amaha. That was one of my goals, to have a championship with Yamaha. And then there' s the age thing, or being a se asoned vete ran, on top of that. All together, it was a special championsh ip. Plus, for me to say I had twin daughters born and won a Nat ional title in one year, that would be a stinkin' hard year to dup licate . Wha t were yo ur ex pectatio ns going into this ye ar 's Na tio nal Enduro Series? Going into th e seas on, the guy that I knew I was going to have to go up against was Michael Lafferty; he 's a phe no menal rider. And wha t was exciting about t his year was Steve Hatch coming into the se ason . In the past, it was myself and Michael pre tty much battling it out. But go ing into the season, we had Michael, myself, Steve Hatch and David Lykke , who rode really well. O nce we moved back East , we had the Yamaha guys, Barry [Hawk ) and Robbie Jenks, and Chuck Woodfo rd, so we really had a pretty talented field of riders , where we've kind of lagged in the past years , so I knew it was going to be to ugh. But I knew tha t Michael was going to be t he biggest competition. I worked really hard in the off-season, so I re ally thought I had a realistic chance to [win the title). I knew I needed to keep pressure on Michael and be there with him . If I let him get too far away from me,

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