| Event Review - Curly Fern, Sandy Lane 2001 |
|---|
2001 Curly Fern Enduro
- March 18th, South Jersey Enduro Riders
- Indian
Mills, New Jersey
Top honors went to:
Grand Champion Aaron Kopp.
HI-Point A Michael McHale
Hi Point B Robert Convers
A-125 Mike Berenbak
A-200 John Robbins
A-250 Brian Russel
A-OPEN Ken Yankowski
A-VET Steve Larkin
A-SR. Terry Tucker
A-SSR. Bruce Dengler
Masters !!!!Ken Schaeffer!!!!!
(Last year's District 7 Enduro Chairman, Congratulations Ken!)
District 7 riders Jim Reynolds brought home first place lumber in
B-Senior, Frank Wilson 2nd - B-200, and Jack Lafferty Sr took 2nd in
the A Super Senior classes. Way to go, guys!
What a great club! These guys know how to throw an enduro. A wet
winter with plenty of south jersey bogs and tight woods, gave the South
Jersey Enduro Riders good conditions and trails to choose from to kick
off the 2001 Enduro season with a bang and 73 ground miles of awesome
riding in the Warthen State forest of New Jersey. Curly Fern had plenty
of mud bogs which turned out to be big factors in dropping points in
some of the longer sections of trail.
Tips from the pros before the
start were "Don't ride in the ruts, cross them and you will be fine"
This worked well, until you realized everyone used the same trick. Some
riders love their fellow man so much they would find deep mud holes and
plant their motorcycles as a warning for later rows who created work
around trenches through the briars and bushes to the left and right of
the trails. It takes an experienced eye to pick a line through a
Jersey enduro mud bog, and a tried and true technique when the
experienced eyes fail you.
The successful riders used those eyes to
spot the thickest vegetation and ride over and through it, providing
some traction in the soft loamy sandy soil. Others were forced to use
the tried and true technique getting out of the muck when the line they
chose didn't work out.
Technique for getting unstuck: If you've never given up spinning your
back wheel and become stuck in a sandy soil mud bog, you haven't
experienced sand settling around your wheels like cement. If you have,
you realize getting out quickly is the key to getting out at all. You
can't stop and rest and THEN work on getting out, and your first pull is
usually your best, so you have to make it count. First you lay the bike
down to break loose from the sand settling in around your rims, which is
becoming thicker with each second, then you do your power lift on the
BACK wheel lifting it free to set on either higher ground, or on top of
settled muck, THEN you work on the front wheel. District 7 rider Griff
Drew got to watch this technique being performed by one impatient roving
enduro reporter during the Curly Fern event.
So you take some long tight tree sections, some good mucky bogs, throw
in a ton of log crossings, long jeep trails full of deep water, a sand
motocross section, a flawless check-in/check-out system, gas back at
camp, then add finishing ribbons and stickers, good friends and food,
and you just experienced the Curly Fern Enduro. A great event to start
the season with.
Sandy Lane Enduro
- March 25th - Meteor Motorcycle Club
- Green Bank,
New Jersey
Meteor has thrown the best enduro on the East Coast the past 64 years,
and always attempts to exceed everyone's expectations. Riders come out
of the woodwork to run Sandy Lane and the Meteor Motorcycle Club knows
it. They outperformed themselves once again throwing a GREAT event!
The club gave everyone a short free zone the first 4 miles to get warmed
up then turned us loose at 24 mph all day long. The second reset of the
day checked us out of a nice long tight section with trees spaced well
enough apart to separate the riders, with few riders able to get into a
rhythm, so we were on our toes all day. Everyone caught up to their
minute at that point, but the rest of the day the faster guys were the
only ones able to get a rest at the mileage resets. The rest of us were
just working all day long, and LATE. The club apparently gained access
to some new areas and laid out some fresh trail that showed alot of hard
work and proved to be great riding. Early rows had fast smooth trail,
while the later rows got some nice whoops, braking bumps, and some mud
bogs that swallowed a few bikes.
The second tight section of the day
was long and REALLY fun, and the club took plenty of points with well
spaced checkpoints and nothing sneaky. Long sand trails, some fresh
fire cuts, nice tight tree sections, and less than 6 miles of road and
opening up for the ride back to camp with 7 miles of wide open trail
gave everyone a nice finish for a fantastic enduro! It's gonna be hard
following this show...
It was a stand up event by a stand up club.
Meteor recognizes the committment the A and B riders make and trophied
deep into those classes. Aaron Kopp once again took Grand Champion
honors with overall finishings for the top riders as follows:
Top 14
1.Arron Kopp
2.Jack Lafferty Jr
3.Terry Tucker
4.Frank Vanamen
5.Steve Larkin
6.Chris Smith
7.Dale Sweigart
8.Mike Bradway
9.Jeff Kirchner
10.Marc Grossman
11.Dan Sharpless
12.Craig Shenigo
13.Brain Carden
14.James Bowen
Next issue: The April 8th Greenbriar enduro review, by the Tri-County
Sportsmen.
Chuck Marler
District 7 2000 A-Senior class winner, turns up
the heat at Curly Fern PHOTO by Dawn Sands
Charging the turns at Sandy lane - PHOTO by Dennis Black
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
Go back to the Cycling East Archives page