Trail Rider Magazine

the top 5. Billy Vandervalk (40/1081) took B hi Point out of the B Vet Class and and Wayne York took C hi Point out of the C Senior Class with 50/1142 points lost. The Kemp Stewart Memorial Enduro The typical excitement going in to the final round of the NETRA enduro series was tempered by the passing of former NETRA Enduro Champion and Connecticut Rambler club member Kemp Stewart. Kemp was a fixture in the New England offroad scene and a long time Rambler, so it was Kemp Stewart, circa 1993 fitting for the club to rename this year's event the Kemp Stewart Memorial Enduro. Kemp was always quick to lend a hand or flash that trademark smile. He will be missed. With the Championship locked up, Jim Senecal sat this one out leaving the overall up for grabs. There were also several other class championship battles to be determined. As is always the case for this event, the pre-race discussion centered around whether to get on an early row and risk getting lost courtesy of the leaf covered trail or wait for a later row and let others burn things in. There are risks with each; with a later row comes bottlenecks and increased traffic. The general consensus for those involved in the debate was to wait for the later rows. In fact, most of the late rows were packed with AA and A riders. The official start was well short, oft used section that gets This rock garden wreaked havoc on the field. 28 Trail Rider the heart rate up early. There is one hill about a mile or so in that always garners a large crowd of riders as they push and spin their way to the top. The by the time the later rows make it, there is no direct way up. The only way to clean the ascent is to weave through riders and hope to avoid contact. Fortunately the hill is wide and offers a few different ways up. Once checked out of this section a few miles of road and double track preceded the next check in. Almost immediately the trails transitioned into a twisty-turny long tract of single track with no shortage of rocks to deflect off of. There seemed to be an unusual amount of short hills that were preceded by little running room. Even from the back row, portions of the trail were difficult to follow causing me and many others to blow through too many corners. Portions of this section offered gear grabbing straightaways that would turn sharply into wet, rocky lowlands or technical singletrack. The section before gas was used for the Somers Fun Turkey Run and included an unusual amount of fast (like as if in 6 gear) cart roads. With so many easy access points by car, most of the field time-kept in here. A few riders tried their luck and were rewarded with no check points. The final few miles took points from those of us that played it safe while the ones that pinned on the miles of car roads and ran hot dropped the fewest points. Regardless, this section was so much fun. It was also the section before the gas stop. The section after gas was also used for the Turkey Run that I rode earlier in the year, so I knew what awaited; a nasty rock garden that would be sure to garner a large crowd of riders. I was right. In fact, you could hear this and smell this section before reaching it. Once clear of this bottleneck the day went on in typical fashion as we alternated between rock gardens and cart roads. The club did include their infamous "little Berkshire" section that includes serious elevation changes - and an awesome array of single track. At the end of the day it was John Kelley (28 349) edging Brooks Hamilton (28 382) for the overall. Hamilton ended up taking the A Hi Point as well. BIlly Vandervalk dropped a 56 830 to earn his second straight B Hi Point and will probably get kicked up to A class soon. Mike Coleman too C Hi Point from the C Senior Class with 33 910 points lost on the Shortened course. As usual the Ramblers did a top notch job with this event. Whose ready for the Snow Run? God speed, Kemp.

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