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West Point, Tennessee Round 3 June 17-18, 2006 JULY 5, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 44 AMA Two-Day ISDE Qualifier Series STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE BERKNER K TM's Russell Bobbitt put together two perfect days en route to winning the West Point ISDE Qualifier by a two -mi nute a nd 12-second margin. Bobbitt, the SETRA and National Enduro Series regular from Fayetteville, Georgia, set the fastest times in all 10 of the two-day qualifier's special tests, simply overwhelming the competition. He took a 132-point victory over second place finisher Jimmy Jarrett with scores of 3455 and 3587, respec- tively. Rounding out the top five were Suzuki's Wally Palmer (3609), ISDE vet- eran and E1 rider Fred Hoess (3618) and KTM-rider Clay Boering (3627). "I didn't do anything special here," Bobbitt, who rode in the premier E2 class, said, "I just tried to ride consistent and stay up on two wheels. All of the tests were short so you just couldn't make any mistakes. I had a couple of bad line choice here and there but I kept things moving. The tests were tight and very technical, more like a National Enduro." The biggest motivation for 20-year-old Bobbitt was the chance of him riding on a world-class ISDE Junior Trophy Team this year. Presently, the 23 and under Junior Trophy Team division has a list of riders vying to represent the United States. in New Zealand this November. Eligible rid- ers for this year's ISDE Junior Team include Kurt Caselli, Ricky Dietrich, David Pearson, Palmer and Bobbitt. "There's only room for four riders and I'd like to be one of them," Bobbitt said. "I've ridden on a couple of Junior teams in the past, but we were always considered the B team [behind the six-rider U.S. World Trophy Team]. With a group of rid- ers like this, we have an honest shot at a podium finish." While Bobbitt ran away with the over- all, less than 40 seconds separated the next four finishers. "Bobbitt was just too much for the rest of us," second-place finisher Jimmy Jarrett said, "[After day one] he had something like a 60-second lead on me, and I knew I wasn't going to catch him, so I just tried to hang on to second. I rode the 'Big Girl' here [an RM-Z450, instead of the RM250 he usually rides in the OMA and GNCC series], and it cost me in the woods. All of the special tests were tight, and I never had a chance to let the Big Girl dance. "I also had an early number [row 3]," Jarrett continued, "and that wasn't the best place to be. An early row should have been the hot ticket on Saturday but the first 10, or so, rows got lost when a ribbon didn't get taken down on the sec- ond loop and we rode that section again. When we finally made it back to main gas they let us reassume a new minute, but then some of us had to ride with five or six other riders on a minute and that got a little crowded, especially in the tests where sometimes we had to wait in line. Being on row three on [day two] was also Russell Bobbitt is a hot prospect for this year's U.S. Junior World team after he dominated both days of the Tennessee Qualifier.