Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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SETRA Enduro Series Round 1 1 : 50'" Annual Alligator Enduro Hawkins' win didn't come easily, as he was challenged hard by KTM's Mike Lafferty. The two were quite evenly matched, trading wins from special test to sp~cial test. Hawkins got the better score in the first test, dropping 10 fewer points than the KTM rider, and Lafferty's test-two score was seven seconds better. Hawkins had the edge, but there was one test that made the difference. "I knew I had a little bit of an advantage, so I tried to ride conservative while still going fast," said Cycle Gear/Factory Connection/White Brothers/Bridgestone tires-sponsored Hawkins. Go fast he did, eoough so to beat Lafferty by a point at the exit of the key test. "1 came out on about 55 seconds, so I figured I did pretty well," said Hawkins. "As it turned out, Mike was a few seconds into the next minute. I had a high three; he had a low four, so I beat him by a point, but it was still just a matter of seconds." Lafferty had earlier gotten lost in a morning test, and though he still managed to tie Hawkins on minutes there, KTM's Alan Randt thought he might have won the test by a minute if it hadn't been for the problems. "Everything went pretty good other than that," said Randt. "The bike ran and good, and the race went pretty smooth. Mike just got edged out." Many were surprised to see relatively unknown Joey Ambrosini round out the top three, but the fact that he's a good friend of legendary Jeff Fredette (on whose minute he rode) should give him some credibility. "He lives about a half hour away from me," said Fredette of the Team Green/Thor/Fredette Racing Products/Rider's Choice-sponsored Ambrosini. "He rides a lot of local enduros, and he went to the Six Days in Australia a while back." PHOTOS BY KINNEY JONES DAYTONA BEACH, FL· MARCH 9, 2000 I hat did the first three major enduros of this year have in common? Certainly not the conditions. The AMA/FMF National Enduro opener took place in the winter mud of Northern California; round two was in the rocky desert of Arizona; and the Alligator Enduro (not a National, but a part of prestigious Daytona Bike Week) was in the dry sand whoops and tight palmetto groves of coastal Florida. Showing that when it comes to enduros, he can do it all, Randy Hawkins has ridden his Yamaha thumper to victory in all three events. "When we put our boots on, we put our boots on to race," said Hawkins after the Alligator, explaining why he counts this win right up there with his previous two. The win was particularly sweet, considering that this was the historic 50th running of the famous event. 34 ·MARCH 22, 2000' C U ... I (Above) Randy Hawkins put an end to Mike Lafferty's Alligator win streak, and extended his own 2000 enduro win streak. (Right) Lafferty was within a few seconds of Hawkins's score, but he lost out by a single point. e n e vv s