- Oct 28, 2001
- 4,704
- 0
:cool: From the D-14 Newspaper...
Race Report for:
Tree Tops Enduro
6/11/06
By: Brian VanKoevering (brianvank@sbcglobal.net)
Beautiful blue skies and below average temperatures greeted the 100 plus riders that showed up for the first annual Tree Tops Enduro held near Kalkaska, Michigan. Nearly three inches of rain fell the week of the enduro making the sandy soil as perfect as its going to get for northern MI. The scuttlebutt in the enduro community was that Tom had been able to secure virgin trail on public land. Having heard the wind blow before, this enduro rider was convinced that someone was pulling my leg. Until we entered into the first section… Whoa! Look out! This is the type of enduro you hear the old timers prattle on about around the camp fire. ORV trail quickly gave way to full on enduro trail. I was all smiles until I caught a mouthful of leaves. Time to put on the race face and save the smiles for afterward. Coming out of the first section it was the usual District 14 suspects of Cody Mastin (Gas Gas), Leroy Keen (Gas Gas) and Blair Bersano (Kawasaki) leading the way.
The second section started off with more awesome trail but Mother Nature had an ace up her sleeve that would plague riders temporarily throughout the day. The heavy rains that week had caused much of the drought ridden area to spring up literally overnight. Several of the arrows were partially or fully blocked by vegetation. In addition, normal semi open areas turned into thick, confusing forest. Somewhere along in the second section Blair Bersano ripped a radiator off his bike, ending his day. This gave the later riders somewhat of an advantage because they were not knocking over the bushes to get through. However, this advantage was short lived because now you had 3 or 4 sets of tire tracks to follow instead of one unified burned in trail. It was a game of trail detective and you had to let your enduro Jedi instincts take over. One rider who was “feeling the force” was KTM rider Scott Luca. He made the most out of his ride and pushed hard to keep the other fast boys honest throughout the day.
Midway through the morning luck finally ran out for another enduro regular; Joe Mapes. The word was that he had clipped a stump and flew into a tree hitting his head and knocking him unconscious for a few minutes. I stopped when I went by and asked if they needed any help. Kim Manke, Aaron Papp, and Brian Woodward were already on the scene and were assisting Joe. He looked pretty out of it and had a nasty cut on his forehead. I asked if they needed more help and I was told that it was ok to ride on. Joe was later put on a helicopter and sent to the hospital to get checked out. He had suffered a concussion and laceration on his forehead. This is the importance of not skimping when it comes to safety equipment. This is a rough sport and sooner or later it pays to have the best protection you can afford. I am happy to report that Joe is one tough guy and he is doing ok. In a show of true off road racing spirit, the riders that stayed with Joe and helped him were awarded work points for event since they gave up their ride to help a fallen rider.
The afternoon sections proved to be just as elusive as the morning sections in regards to following the trail. With Blair now out, the action became a dog fight between Cody Mastin, Leroy Keen and the hard charging Scott Luca. Virgin terrain was expertly woven in with ORV trail to make the afternoon sections just as much fun as the morning. I happened to catch Super Senior rider “Factory” Fred Thompson (KTM) who was riding on the minute in front of me. When he recognized it was me, Fred decided to pick it up and not let me yard him. This afternoon push helped propel Freddy to a first place finish in the super senior class, edging out another afternoon regular Clint Southworth. Man, you have to watch out for those old dudes. They ramp up slow in the mornings but once the Centrum Silver kicks in they will blow your doors off late in a race. We didn’t see much of the other Southworth (Brian) except at the resets. He was too busy blazing ahead of us and finished strong with A Hi Point.
Cody Duzendang (KTM) proved that last years overall C championship wasn’t just a fluke and that he will be a force in the upcoming races. He finished with a score of just 23 and grabbed the B Hi point. The A class will be a knocking pretty soon! Wayne Hill (KTM) found his mojo on Sunday as well and shredded to the finish line with a score of 33 and the C hi point.
In the end, a mere 6 seconds separated the top two riders with Scott Luca taking the overall win, Ohioan Cody Mastin grabbing second place and Leroy Keen third.
Great job to Thomas Dunn and his crew for doing the leg work and putting on a great enduro!
Race Report for:
Tree Tops Enduro
6/11/06
By: Brian VanKoevering (brianvank@sbcglobal.net)
Beautiful blue skies and below average temperatures greeted the 100 plus riders that showed up for the first annual Tree Tops Enduro held near Kalkaska, Michigan. Nearly three inches of rain fell the week of the enduro making the sandy soil as perfect as its going to get for northern MI. The scuttlebutt in the enduro community was that Tom had been able to secure virgin trail on public land. Having heard the wind blow before, this enduro rider was convinced that someone was pulling my leg. Until we entered into the first section… Whoa! Look out! This is the type of enduro you hear the old timers prattle on about around the camp fire. ORV trail quickly gave way to full on enduro trail. I was all smiles until I caught a mouthful of leaves. Time to put on the race face and save the smiles for afterward. Coming out of the first section it was the usual District 14 suspects of Cody Mastin (Gas Gas), Leroy Keen (Gas Gas) and Blair Bersano (Kawasaki) leading the way.
The second section started off with more awesome trail but Mother Nature had an ace up her sleeve that would plague riders temporarily throughout the day. The heavy rains that week had caused much of the drought ridden area to spring up literally overnight. Several of the arrows were partially or fully blocked by vegetation. In addition, normal semi open areas turned into thick, confusing forest. Somewhere along in the second section Blair Bersano ripped a radiator off his bike, ending his day. This gave the later riders somewhat of an advantage because they were not knocking over the bushes to get through. However, this advantage was short lived because now you had 3 or 4 sets of tire tracks to follow instead of one unified burned in trail. It was a game of trail detective and you had to let your enduro Jedi instincts take over. One rider who was “feeling the force” was KTM rider Scott Luca. He made the most out of his ride and pushed hard to keep the other fast boys honest throughout the day.
Midway through the morning luck finally ran out for another enduro regular; Joe Mapes. The word was that he had clipped a stump and flew into a tree hitting his head and knocking him unconscious for a few minutes. I stopped when I went by and asked if they needed any help. Kim Manke, Aaron Papp, and Brian Woodward were already on the scene and were assisting Joe. He looked pretty out of it and had a nasty cut on his forehead. I asked if they needed more help and I was told that it was ok to ride on. Joe was later put on a helicopter and sent to the hospital to get checked out. He had suffered a concussion and laceration on his forehead. This is the importance of not skimping when it comes to safety equipment. This is a rough sport and sooner or later it pays to have the best protection you can afford. I am happy to report that Joe is one tough guy and he is doing ok. In a show of true off road racing spirit, the riders that stayed with Joe and helped him were awarded work points for event since they gave up their ride to help a fallen rider.
The afternoon sections proved to be just as elusive as the morning sections in regards to following the trail. With Blair now out, the action became a dog fight between Cody Mastin, Leroy Keen and the hard charging Scott Luca. Virgin terrain was expertly woven in with ORV trail to make the afternoon sections just as much fun as the morning. I happened to catch Super Senior rider “Factory” Fred Thompson (KTM) who was riding on the minute in front of me. When he recognized it was me, Fred decided to pick it up and not let me yard him. This afternoon push helped propel Freddy to a first place finish in the super senior class, edging out another afternoon regular Clint Southworth. Man, you have to watch out for those old dudes. They ramp up slow in the mornings but once the Centrum Silver kicks in they will blow your doors off late in a race. We didn’t see much of the other Southworth (Brian) except at the resets. He was too busy blazing ahead of us and finished strong with A Hi Point.
Cody Duzendang (KTM) proved that last years overall C championship wasn’t just a fluke and that he will be a force in the upcoming races. He finished with a score of just 23 and grabbed the B Hi point. The A class will be a knocking pretty soon! Wayne Hill (KTM) found his mojo on Sunday as well and shredded to the finish line with a score of 33 and the C hi point.
In the end, a mere 6 seconds separated the top two riders with Scott Luca taking the overall win, Ohioan Cody Mastin grabbing second place and Leroy Keen third.
Great job to Thomas Dunn and his crew for doing the leg work and putting on a great enduro!
