Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

My S7 OWN RACE Ryan Dudek 17 6th .. Cycle World magazine editor Ryan Dudek had a long but excItIng weekend. Riding a 2006 Kawasaki KX250 test bike, Dudek got IOto Saturday's program by making the 33-rider cut during Friday's amateur qualifiers. He then had to ride Saturday's timed qualifiers (used to determine start picks), where he clicked off the Brd-fastest t,me. After riding the evening's heats and semis, Dudek officially made it into the main event after passing Yamaha rider Nathan Kanney on the last lap of the Last Chance Qualifier for the win. In the main event, Dudek battled all race long in the middle of the pack and eventually finished a hard-earned sixth. S Kurt Caselli 7th KTM's Kurt Caselli had a long night as well. He had an interesting battle in his heat race with teammate Mike Lafferty, where they battled handlebar to handlebar for much of the race. At one point, Caselli was running second and when he got held up In the rocks by another teammate, his team boss Kurt Nicoll. This allowed Lafferty to get by, which forced Caselli to ride the semis, which he ended up winning. In the main, Caselli got a bad start, made a couple of mistakes and ended up seventh. "It was awesome," Caselli said. "I had fun, but I didn't do very well. Me and lafferty went at it, and I think it was a good crowd-pleaser. I won my semi, so I'm happy about that." 22 Mike Lafferty 8th Seven-time AMA National Enduro Champion Mike Lafferty was competing in his first EnduroCross and managed to finish eighth in the main, despite suffering a couple of hard get-offs over the course of the evening, one ofthem coming in the afternoon's timed qualifying, and one during the heat race. In spite of all the crashes, he was happy to make the main event. "Holy smokes!" Lafferty said. "That was by far the craziest... well, that was the most fun I've had in a long time. The adrenaline and heart rate went right to the max. I thought I could calm down pretty quick, but it would never go away. I just could never calm down. In the main, I had a pretty decent. start, and then I went into the first turn, slid out, fell down, and It was pretty much catch-up from there on out. I just had little problems here and there. I'm just glad I made the show." 1S Barry Hawk DNQ Former GNCC Champion Barry Hawk made his first appearance in the EnduroCross, but he came away a little disappointed. After setting the eighth-fastest time in the qualifiers, Hawk struggled all evening and failed to make the main. "I had fun, but I'm disappointed that I didn't get in [to the main]," Hawk said. "It's way different than anything I've ever done, but it's just disappointing that I didn't get in. The first heat, my arms got tight and I faded back, and then the second one, I got the holeshot, and on the second lap, I made a little mistake in the rocks and about four guys went by. I knew that was the key - not to make any mistakes - but that's what I did anyway." Randy Hawkins DNQ Like Hawk, former National Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins struggled in his first EnduroCross. Riding one of the yellow-andblack limited-edition 2006 Yamaha YZ250F four-strokes, Hawkins, who recently retired from full-time racing, had a hard time coming to terms with the indoor off-road race. "I think it's interesting," Hawkins said of the EnduroCross. "It's a great format, but not a great format for me. I had fun and I'm glad I did it and to say I was a part of it, but riding enduros for so long, I'm not used to - on the gate, [going] full out for a short time. I'm more used to a longer [race]. If I was younger, I'd work more on my motocross skills." 19 Nathan Kanney DNQ Yamaha rider Nathan Kanney missed making the main event by one position. He was leading the LCQ on the last lap when Ryan Dudek passed him, which closed the book on his evening. "I almost had it," Kanney said. "The only way I was going to lose it was if somebody beat me, [because] I'm not going to crash. When Dudek caught me, I thought I'd outsmart him - block his lines - but he beat me in a game of chess. When I thought I was blocking him on the right, he'd pass me on the left. I give him all the credit - he earned every bit of it the way he passed me." 2 was in a transfer position Briefly... Geoff Aaron DNQ Trials champ Geoff Aaron came into the event with high hopes after an impressive but problem-filled ride last year. This year, he again looked capable of finishing well on his a Gas Gas EC250, but an encounter with a first-turn pileup during his heat race kept him playing catch-up all night. "I ended up getting hung up with David [Knight] on the first lap and we couldn't get our bikes unstuck," Aaron said. "By the time we got going, we were too far back to recover." The mishap aJso bent Aaron's front rotor, something that he wasn't able to sort out in time for his semi. "I bent my disc real bad during the David Knight thing, and we were scrambling to get it fixed for the second race and never quite got it right. I ended up moving up into third after a mid pack start and was riding steady. But I went through the water hole and jumped out into the rocks and hit a bowling-ball-sized rock a little wrong and went down. When I picked up my bike, I was still in third by a ways, but I couldn't get my bike to start." Aaron was unable to salvage a transfer to the LCQ. Continued from page r7 McLevy, Patrick and Brian Garrahan, and trials star David Chaves, among others. One surprise no-show was Finland's Mika Ahola who finished third at the EnduroCross last year. The former World Enduro Champion reportedly wanted to come to Las Vegas, but Husqvarna, for which he rides, was unwilling to finance his trip. Ryan Hughes was one of many riders that hurriedly packed his bags right after the race and headed north to Mesquite, Nevada, to compete in the final round of the WORCS series the following day. "Yeah, I've got to go to Mesquite tonight," he said. "I'll shower first and try to rest, wake up tomorrow and race [the WORCS finale]. After that, I'm going to take a break for a while. I've been racing a lot lately, and that's not what I really wanted to do. I've been racing a lot the last four weeks and I'm kind of tired now." Only three riders who made the main event last year also made it into the final this year: David Knight, Ty Davis and Ryan Hughes. Two-strokes were the engines of choice at this year's Maxxis EnduroCross. Of the 10 bikes in the final, only two were fourstrokes. Quite a few of the riders, including Ryan Hughes and Ty Davis, ran trials ... _ tires on the reM. "They're awesome," Davis said. "They're definitely the tires of choice here. They hook up so much better on the logs; you could just fly off the logs. It really grabs good. Even on the dirt, I got good starts." It seemed as though all of the riders had good things to say about this year's EnduroCross and the whole indoor offroad·ra.ce concept in general. "It's unbe- lievable," Destry Abbott said. "It's like no other race; I mean, it's the best spectator motorcycle sport that you can watch." Kurt Caselli said: "I think it's awesome. As rar as the spectators go, I think it's going to be huge in the years to come. As far as riding it, there's nothing like it." For John Dowd, it was a completely new experience. "It was fun, really cool," he said. "I really enjoyed myself. I was nervous coming here, because I really didn't know what to expect. I haven't done any enduros, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I did do a little playing around at home in the woods and stuff. I'm pretty happy about it." For David Knight, this was a pretty profitable trip to the United States, as he'll go home to the Isle of Man $20,000 richer. He also pocketed $10,000 for winning the Red Bull Last Man Standing contest a week earlier in Texas. CYCLE NEWS • NOVEMBER 30, 2005 19

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