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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IN THE WIND P28 MORE BLUE PRESENCE IN ENDUROCROSS? T he Atlanta EnduroCross saw more blue bikes in the field than it has in a long time. Most of them came with Randy Hawkins and his N-Fab AmPro Yamaha team that made the short trek to the Gwinnett Center Arena and rolled out a full team presence. "This is actually our first Endu- roCross in a few years," Hawkins, the former National Enduro Cham- pion, said from the Georgia race. "Really, last time we participated at all was when Jason Raines was running the series. Everything's been out west. We were really glad to see it come back here on the east coast." As one of the biggest factory- support teams in off-road racing, Hawkins admits he is entertain- ing the idea of creating an En- duroCross effort, if the series is planning to branch into the East and South. "I really think this is something these guys [EnduroCross] can build on into the future. These guys are doing a great job; I've seen nothing but positive re- sponses from it. This is a great venue and hopefully these guys will come back and grow this even larger. It'd be nice if the se- ries grows to the point that they can go east and west, and then it would make sense for us to get even more involved. We'll just have to see how it goes." There is already talk of En- duroCross events in the south in 2015, such as at Daytona Beach, which Hawkins sees as a great opportunity for both the series, and the local off-road racers. "There's a lot of off- road bikes ridden in this area," Hawkins continued. "SETRA, FTR, SERA, and Mid-East, Mid- South, SORCS, you have a lot of small series in this area. There're a lot of top east-coast riders here that normally wouldn't be [at an EnduroCross]. But on the other side, the East Coast racers, I think, are a little behind the eight ball. We haven't been racing this and our bike setup is a little bit off. No excuses—it's just one of those things. If we pursue this, then we will get set up to build bikes to race this. Just like I'm pretty sure they couldn't take these bikes and go GNCC rac- ing." Being admittedly "behind the eight ball" didn't dissuade Hawkins and the N-Fab AmPro team from coming out with the full rig and a genuine effort. Still, Hawkins kept his expections moderate. "The biggest expectation is to come here and have a good showing," Hawkins said. "We didn't come here to say we're going to be on the podium. I would love to say that, but as far as the expectation from us and Yamaha, we're coming with our GNCC bikes. If we had a three- hour race and had to make two pit stops, then that might make a PHOTOGRAPHY BY DREW RUIZ The East Coast-based N-Fab/AmPro Yamaha Team hopes to have a larger presence in Endu- roCross in the future.