Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Brief'Y··· Talk about service. Tim Taber used the trip out West to deliver three bikes from his shop in Illinois to the Beverly Hills home of Fabio, whose image graced many romance novel covers, "He's a good customer," Taber said, reporting that the Italian model is a true motorcycle enthusiast who has a garage full of bikes (both dirt and street). However, Taber gOt sick of towing the trailer behind his box van, so, after making the delivery, he left the trailer at a truck stop. Russell Pearson was one of many who waited until the last minute before deciding to make the drive to Coalinga, but he probably drove the farthest. He called the race hotline number to get the announcement at 5;00 p.m. on Saturday, heard the race was indeed on, left Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. and arrived at the race site at 3:00 A.M. Unfortunately, his day didn't go well, and he DNFed early. though he'd still end up sixth overall and the overall A-class winner, "It was a lot of fun, a lot like riding at home [in Illinois]," Taber said. "I just had that bad check or we would've had it won today." Lykke burned the tricky check by a My 26A minute, though most of the other top riders hit it on time. At the gas stop, of course, Russell knew he was doing pretty well, especially when comparing scorecards with others, and it fired him up. "When I found out I was doing well, I OWN RACE: Mike Lafferty 5th overall The six-time series champ admitted he blew it when he got stuck in the first-loop mudhole. "I kind of jumped the gun a little bit; I should've just waited a little bit." Lafferty said. "Once I got up there. I saw Steve [Hatch] and I saw David [Lykke]. and they were just kind of hung up a little bit. So I figured, 'Man, it's so bad!' Alii could see was helmets in from of them. I turned around and tried to make my own way [through the brush instead of the mudhole]. Once I got into the manzanita. I got into a position I couldn't get out [of] - I couldn't go forward, I couldn't go back, I couldn't do anything. I had to lift my bike up and turn it around, basically, and get it back out. I was just shy of being a minute late when I started doing that, and when I got out of there, I was 10 minutes late." 22A David Lykke 3rd overall eN CLEAR CREEK OHV RECREATION AREA COALINGA, CAUFORNIA "I was one of the ones who burned [the check at the top of the hill at the start of the second loop]. which is kind of a bummer," Lykke said. "I even was sitting there [at the reset], and I said, ·Well. I'm going to go over just a few seconds early, and I should be able to burn it off [if there's a check at the top],' but they had it right up on top. and I couldn't [slow enough]. Everything was totally fine there [as far as check placement]; I just messed up. I think it caught a lot of people [early] by a lot more than a minute," 27A held it wide open [on the second loop]," Russell said. "It was more open [on the second loop]; it wasn't tight trails." Indeed, it turned out that the second loop was more open and fast, but it was Russell alone who zeroed checks six, seven, eight and nine. Lafferty was the next fastest, carding 0-0-1- I , while Hatch went 1-1-1-0. "I definitely didn't know I was winning, but I knew I was up there," Russell said. "I think that knOWing the soil. because I've ridden down there in the mud before, and knOWing what type of ground there is, where traction is and where traction isn't, I know where to floor it." And in doing so, Russell rolled away the first D-36 racer in memory to overall the only local National. though the mechanical engineering student at San Jose State conceded, "This time everything worked out, and I got a little bit of good luck. We'll have to see how it goes [in the rest of the series], go race by race. It's much different back East." John Barber 13th overall The winner of the final race in the 2004 series. Barber wasn't able to carry that momentum into 2005. "The guy who usually comes to enduros with me, he wasn't here. and I don't really know how to set up my computer - and it isn't really my computer," Barber said. "So. I scanned it off somebody else, but apparently they don't know how to set up a computer either because I went into the very first check a minute or two hot. and [the computer] was saying I was right on time. Throughout the day. it was just like that; I had no idea where I was." RESULTS: FEBRUARY (AFTER 1 OF 9 20, 2005 With the mud and mileage (43.99 miles for loop one and 42.00 miles for loop two), a number of racers reportedly ran out of fuel. Gas Gas pilot Wally Palmer ran out on both loops. "I didn't know there was a reserve on it the first time, he admitted. It Paul Neff's day started out well, going 0-1 for the first two checks. At mile 12, though, a footpeg on his Gas Gas 450 broke off, and he rode the remaining 32 miles of the loop on one peg. Well, at least until he ran out of gas and houred out near the end of the loop. "It was a bummer, but I had fun, though," he said. "It was so much fun, just that mud and everyone was gooning out everywhere. I had a blast!" Due to some last-minute course changes, the Salinas Ramblers didn't get permission from one landowner to use his property and had to toss out a section of the course. That led to an error when they went to check mileage, with one reset off by almost three miles and making many late. David Lykke successfully protested the error, and the club threw out checks 10 and I I. That improved results for both him and Matt Stavish, among others, though it dropped Steve Hatch, Mike Lafferty, Tim Taber and others. ROUNDS) OVERAll: I. Billy Russell (KTM). 20; 2. Man Stavish (Han), 21, J. DaVId lykke (KTM), 25: 4. Steve Hatch (Kaw). 26; S. Mike Lafferty (KTM), 26, 6. Tim Taber (KTM), 27: 7. Bnan Jeltch (Hon). 36: 8. Ron Day (Hon), 37: 9. Russell Perelr.t (Yam). 44; 10. Mike Monroe (yilm), 46: II. Jeff Kirchner (KTM). 54; 12. Heather Wilson (Suz). 58: 11. John Barber (GG). 59: 14. Ken Netto (YMn). 59: 15. Chris Wagner·Jau

• Cover