Event Review - Beehive enduro 2002


District 7 Championship Enduro Series Round 8 of 10

The 32nd annual Beehive Enduro August 25, 2002
Mauricetown, New Jersey
Hosted by the Competition Dirt Riders

Driving into Mauricetown, you see a big sign as you go over the Maurice river saying "Home of Mike Lafferty, Enduro Champion". I thought this was great, but my local chamber of commerce declined my offer to have a sign erected for me... go figure...

Many people don't realize how much work goes into an enduro, and how much the local community support of enduro makes the sport possible. Without it, these events would not be the great family experience they are. The Mauricetown Fire department is no exception, serving up hot food and cold drinks for all the competitors on Saturday and Sunday, and being just downright unbelievably supportive of our enduro clubs and the Beehive enduro. This year, the Fire department dining menu featured a unique clam spaghetti. It tasted alot better than it sounds. YUMMY!

These fine folk treat us grizzly mangy dirt bikers as honored guests, too. At the risk of losing my camping spot next year to a reader of this article, I'll tell you. I spurned my buddies and went to camp under my favorite tree, which just happens to be next to Fire Chief, Freddie Hundt's house. If it was me, I'd curse the ruts every year, but this man stops every year to chat, talk about the gazebo he built, his new garage going up, and even showed us where the water hose was. Thanks Freddie!!

New Jersey's state troopers came out in force to cover the road crossings making for a very safe and enjoyable run. It's nice to see a cooperative effort, and a big "hat's off" to the Competition Dirt Riders club for working so hard to retain a beautiful trail system and a good relationship with the local populations.

No matter how you slice it, it always comes up FUN! Although the pictures are all from the gas stop, there was plenty of hard and fast trail action at Beehive. With a little emergency re-routing by the club a few days before the event, the early morning resets and speed average changes seemed bizarre but provided a little timekeeping training to the new enduro riders, and some make up time for those riders who discovered a few "to-do" items in the first section. For those riders who have ridden the Beehive enduro before, the trails were familiar and friendly, with the first section being the only surprise by being a non points taker to warm up before two test sections before the gas.

Tight loamy sand trails, fresh burns, firecuts, and sand roads gave more than a few people trouble, but not the top riders, who were dropping 3 points pretty consistently in the first section, and 7 points in the second section. Top notch performance of the checkpoint crews made for no questions, but lots of laughs. After a short gas stop it was back down the road into a brand new section of trail and two more test sections separated by a short reset. Top riders dropped 4 minutes in the first one, 3 in the second one, and 1 at the known control to a well deserved rest back at camp.

A very nice course layout, and a commendable job. This enduro is the first for many an east coast enduro rider and is almost always the fondest memory, with great sweeping woods turns everywhere with very few surprises.
It's hard to say enough nice things about this run. It's just the best enduro, and the most fun trail we have ridden all year.

Some riders get surprised when they come out to what is advertised as an "easy" enduro, however and I heard alot of complaints from C riders that the tight section was so long they couldn't get out of the way of the faster riders 8 rows back.

Last year, Jack Lafferty beat everyone and took overall at Beehive, but this year Aaron Kopp, of the South Penn Enduro riders came out to show everyone he could kick butt in the New Jersey sand as well as he does in the rocks of Pennsylvania. Aaron beat his closest competitor, Mike Bradway of New Jersey by a full two minutes. Well, actually, he beat Mike by only by a couple of agonizing flips as Mike rolled into two checkpoints just outside the minute while Aaron rolled into those checks just before the flip. Congratulations, Aaron Kopp!!

As of this writing, Aaron has sealed the 2002 ECEA Enduro championship and is training his eye on the remaining ECEA Hare Scrambles events in an attempt at a 2002 two-fer, going for both championships in the East Coast Enduro Association's series. Aaron dropped 18 points on the day, with the rest of the top riders dropping 20 points. Speaking of top riders, Paul Bitting won A-125 with the same score as the top AA riders of the day, coming from an off season full of rest and recuperation from a season ending broken leg last year. Turning in the kind of scores we have seen from Paul, we can be looking for him to do great things at the upcoming Delaware National enduro and next season. Way to go and congratulations to Paul!

The rest of us are resigned to mere mediocrity in the face of greatness such as this. This year's Beehive enduro was another in a long line of tradition. CDR hosts a fantastic event every year, with the usual cast of characters full of piss and vinegar whooping and hollering the night before the event.

A thunderstorm rolled through the quaint town of Mauricetown on Saturday night, driving the drunks indoors and allowing the rest of us to rest peacefully until the drowned rat contingency came "a-knocking" looking for a dry place to sleep.
Water doesn't affect Beehive trails, since South Jersey sand drains really well, but it did fill up one single mudhole on the course which Chris Watters managed to fall in, not once, but TWICE, much to his chagrin. Luckily it was all captured on film, which you can order and watch over and over on DVD from Dennis Black's newest off road video venture at http://www.dephcon.com

BEEHIVE ENDURO CLASS WINNERS
AA-ARRON KOPP GRAND CHAMP
A-125-PAUL BITTING
A-200-DOUG ALLEN JR.
A-250-JOHN ROBBINS HI POINT A
A-OPEN-STEVE GUERS
A-4LIGHT-MARK ROLL
A-4HEAVY-MATT SPIGELMYER
A-VET-DAVE MACO
A-SR.-FRANK VANAMAN
A-SSR.-SCOTT WOFERSBERGER
B-125 DONALD HAUGHT
B-200-CHARLES CIAURRELLI, JR.
B-250-MARK FISCHER
B-OPEN-WALTER WHILDIN
B-4LIGHT-AL ZABROSKI
B-4HEAVY-MARK J. PASQUALE HI POINT B
B-VET-TIM MAURO
B-SR.-DOUG ALLEN
B-SSR.-BILL COSSMAN
C-200-DAN BALDWIN
C-250-CHRIS COLLOM HI POINT C
C-OPEN-WILLIAM FARWELL
C-4LIGHT-ALBERT KLONDA
C4HEAVY-BRUCE CRONEBERGER
C-VET-MIKE ARMBREWSTER
C-SR.DENNIS FITZGERALD
WOMEN-NICOLE PENNYCOOK
MASTER-CHARLES STAPELFORD
DUAL SPORT-DANA RUSSELL

Delaware National Enduro Round 10 and the final round of the District 7 Championship Enduro Series
Delaware National Enduro - Oct 27 2002
Delaware City Delaware
Hosted by the Delaware Enduro Riders
P.O. Box 25St. Georges, DE 19733
Newark, DE 19702
(302) 834-4411
http://members.home.net/delenduro

District 7 enduro riders, check your District 7 Enduro points!!!
http://www.enduro.4t.com
Trophy classes and points have changed since you last looked.
Call Chuck Marler if you have any questions or problems at (301) 391-6539
See you at the banquet!!!

Photo by: Jim Henderson - Delaware Enduro Riders
Dan Stoppi - 2nd place A-125. You can tell by the grin at the gas stop this was fun. Dan, get your District 7 Enduro card next year...


Photo by: Jim Henderson - Delaware Enduro Riders
Don Billing, DER rider. This is at the last reset before the run to the finish. He looks fresh as a daisy for an old guy, doesn't he?


Photo by: Jim Henderson - Delaware Enduro Riders
Mark Schleeweis in panic mode at the gas stop on his way to a 2nd place finish in A-4Stroke.

More information on these, and all the ECEA enduros, Hare Scrambles and more can be found at the

East Coast Enduro Association Web page

More information about A.M.A. District 7 can be found at the
Motorcycling Unlimited of A.M.A. District 7 home page

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