Trail Rider Magazine

knowledge of the rule book, and ability to maintain the proper speed averages in each section, which is essential to any competitor that wants to do well in a typical "old school, time keeping enduro". As you could imagine, in all of those fifty years of hosting their event, they've had to endure all kinds of adversity, mostly in terms of extreme weather, but that never stops them from holding the event. Heck, I can remember riding in some of those events years ago (going back to the early 1980's to 1990's here), and also at times helping the club, and some of those years we had torrential rainstorms, some years it was unseasonable cold, other years we endured thick fog in the a.m., making it nearly impossible to keep our goggles "fog free". And of course, some years the event was held in oppressive heat and humidity, that just sapped the strength from even the most fittest of enduro racers. But this year, on the historic 50th running of the Delaware enduro, Mother nature was simply smiling on the riders and crews hosting the event, as she dished out beautiful spring weather in the low 70's, on a perfect sunny day. Simply stated, the weather could not have been any more perfect for an awesome day in the saddle. Oh, wait. Remember that part about adversity? Well, this year it struck again. At "the last minute", the club was unable to secure the use of most of the usual land they've used that borders the C&D canal. Not to worry though, as like I said, enduro riders are a tough bunch, right? Well, the DER boys are the types that would NEVER back away from a challenge, and no way were they letting anything stop them from hosting their 50th anniversary event. So they rallied together, and put together a plan. And in just a short four week period, they designed, laid out, and cut an almost entirely new race course, that consisted of ten timed sections that had about 90% of fresh cut, virgin trails! Not stopping there, another notable change was the format of the event itself. DER has typically had the reputation of having one of the most demanding "ECEA time keeping enduros" that tests a riders ability to maintain the proper speed averages that change throughout the day, as the trail winds through everything from slow, tight trail and/or extreme sections, to the more wide open sections. Similar to last year, the DER club decided to run the same type of format as that of the National Enduro series, which utilizes all "start controls", which essentially takes all the tricky timekeeping of an typical "old school enduro out of the equation. As in any changes to a typical race format, there are pros and cons that can be argued but in this instance, with the limited time at hand, I really think this format fit the situation considering what the club had to deal with, and as a side benefit, I believe it attracted some fresh riders to the series. One rider that really likes the start control race format, is Kyle McDonal, and he used that enthusiasm, coupled with his experience and speed, to take the Overall win of the historic 50th running of the Delaware Enduro. He's been a regular speedster in the ECEA region for a while; I've watched him since he was a youngster tearing up local Hare Scrambles, then as he continued to carry that speed into the adult HS series. Like a number of HS riders, he transitioned into enduros, and has been continuing his successes. I had a chance to catch up with Kyle, and congratulate him on his win, and get a few words from him on the event. Here's what he had to say: "We decided that Friday before the race to go to it because it was a local event on an off weekend and we had been hearing good things about all the new trail the club had added. I started back on row 46A, and was just loving the trail. By the time I reached it, everything was cut in just right. The track had a little of everything with tight trails, mud, grass track and even some rock sections." When I asked him about the race format, he said: "I'm racing the National Enduro Series so the start controls were good for me. The DER club members did a great job getting the race together after losing the property they had just a month prior to the event. It was actually one of my better races where I had only made a few mistakes and Rich Lafferty carves his way through the grass track. June 2013 9

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