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out of the event early. Hawkins, who is a
new father of twins, was only riding his
second race this season.
Riders from the sanctioning East Coast
Enduro Association are very familiar with
the lay of the land at the Greenbrier, and
National competitors are becoming more
aware of the way things are done. The
riding is extremely tight, and in order to
do well, riders need to be on their toes.
Unlike many of the National enduros
now, there is no place on the Greenbrier
course to sit down and take a leisurely
look at roll charts. Instead, riders find
themselves looking intently ahead, trying
to find a spot to take a second's break
while sawing back and forth on the handlebars like one of those Amish lumberjack windmills. Although there are bits of
sand road and resets along the way, it's
just never enough.
By the first gas available, 37 miles into
the course, many of the riders were
already displaying the glazed-eye look of a
person wanting to be somewhere else,
trying to drink Gatorade slowly enough to
keep it down.
By the time the second gas was available, the riders, along the side of the
road, might have been mistaken for a
funeral procession if it weren't for their
bright clothing.
Riders were given 129 miles on the
route sheet to negotiate. After resets, this
worked out to 97 ground miles. The B
and C riders were taken off the course
after 6B ground miles, and then an Mand A-rider only loop followed. In all, the
loop was an additional 2B miles. There
was much talk before the event about
that final 28 miles, and the club even had
some B riders complaining, saying they
wanted to ride the whole thing. After the
event, the talk was all about how used up
everyone was by 6B miles, and it is doubtful that any B riders found the need to run
the last section for fun. The final section
was 28 miles of tight but fast trail, with a
check in the middle to keep everyone
honest.
Michigan's David Lykke finished sixth
overall with a total of 43 points. Lykke is
the other KTM rider at all the Nationals,
and for this event, the KTM riders had
jack Penton and jack's father, john Penton,
on hand to lend moral support and
help out, as well as the KTM big rig from
the canceled North Carolina GNCC.
Seventh went to Wally Palmer, riding a
Gas Gas this year and happy to get into
the top 10. With the respectable finish,
he broke a bad-luck streak his team
has been suffering so far in 'OS.
Throttlehead.com/Kawasaki's Steve
Hatch finished eighth overall with a total
of 48 points dropped. He was lucky to finish at all follOWing problems with bad fuel
during the day and a Kawasaki that would
barely run. NETR.A:s enduro champion
and Mason Racing KTM pilot Anthony
Geraci finished ninth overall after dropping 50 points, and ECEA rider Brian
Carden rounded out the top-10, dropping 51 points. The High Point A trophy
went to Bobbitt, and the High Point B
went to Suzuki rider Gerald Ringler III,
who dropped 27 points over a shortened
B course.
The next event on the AMA National
Enduro tour is the Leadbelt National
Enduro, on May 23 in Park Hills,
Missouri.
eN
O'k I. M,ke Wfeny (KTM) 28; 2. RKhanl Lafferty
(KTM) ~ 3. Russel Bobbitt (KTM) ~O; ~. K..,;., Bennett
(Hon) ~ I; 5. Fred Hoeu (GG) ~2; 6. D.YMl Lykke (KTM) 43;
7. WaJla