Michigan Enduro

Tim Tabor and I started out the trip to northern MI Saturday morning but that quickly came to an end when Tim discovered there was no one to run Funmart Cycles. I dropped him off at the shop and started the 500 mile solo trip, luckily Tim just got a new diesel box van so it cruised at 70 no problem.

The speed average was set at 24 mph for the whole day so we knew it was going to be a tough one. I was riding on minute 21 with Mike Lafferty and Chris Gallt. Right off the start we entered a 14-mile special test, it was a mix of open single-track sand trails and tight slippery rocky woods with nothing really in between. My arms pumped up pretty bad but I kept pushing and finished the test dropping a point or so more than I should have. After the test we had our first gas stop. We entered the next test right after gas, I followed Chris in and he had a good pace going through the slippery woods. I stayed behind him until it opened up and then I checked out, Hawkins who was on the minute behind me caught me at the end of the test. Unfortunately the test was thrown out because the mileage was off at the check out. We had another gas stop and then entered a 21-mile test. I followed Lafferty in and hung with him until we entered the tight woods. This section had a little bit of everything, the most interesting part were these rocks the size of small houses, the club had spray painted arrows on the face of the rocks to show us which direction to go. This is where Steve Hatch made his error, he somehow went the wrong direction on one of the rocks and got back on course at the beginning of the section and then rode the whole test again. Lafferty and Hawkins railed the section both carding 2-4’s, I carded a 4-8 somewhat off the pace off the leaders but it was still a good score. At the end of the test we had a remote gas, our pit crew never showed up so Wally Palmers mechanic, Milt, helped me out. After gas we had a transfer section to the fourth loop. The fourth loop was 24 miles long with a reset in the middle. I rode hard though the first half of the muddy fourth loop dropping 2 more points than Lafferty, Hawkins and Hatch. At the reset I only had about a minute. The last 12 miles was super technical with a lot of flat rock slabs covered in mud, large rock drop offs, side angles on wet rock slabs, and more slippery mud through the woods. About a mile in I tried to pass a stuck rider by jumping up the face of a rock, I made it but stalled the bike at the top, lost my balance and took both of us out. As a result my front brake was stuck on, the lever had rotated and was locked on by the handguard screw. Not wanting to lose anymore time I kicked the lever open and freed up the wheel, the bike now rolled but I didn’t have a front brake because the lever was now stuck on the other side of the screw. I did the best I could without it and just tried to ride smooth. At the check out I dropped an extra 3 to 4 points due my front brake problems, luckily the check out was also the finish. When the scores were tallied Lafferty came out on top and took home a $1000’s for first, Hawkins was a close second, he donated his $750 winnings to the Blue Ribbon Coalition, David Lykee came in third, Fred Hoess was fourth, Rich Lafferty put in another good ride for fifth, Wally Palmer rode his 125 to sixth, Matt Stavish, myself, Mark Hyde, and John Barber rounded out the top ten. Chris Gallt had a pretty good ride going but some trouble toward the end slowed him down.

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