Big Dawg Enduro Opens up District 15 & 17 Enduro series 

March 25^th, 2007

Big Dawg

Presented by: Little Egypt Off Road MC

Marion, IL

 By Ryan Moss

 Photo by Greg Moss

 As we pulled into the Little Egypt Off-Road Riding Park for the first enduro of the AMA District 15 & 17 enduro series everyone in the truck had the same look: the look of “where are we”.  You see it was 80 degrees outside, sunny, and the end of March.  For us northern folk it seemed like we just pulled into the Summer Bummer parking lot in the middle of August.  We all look at each other and wish we had brought our Moose Sahara Gear. 

The Little Egypt M/C has a great facility, almost 800 acres of old coalmine territory.  This makes for some great terrain and a great place to have off-road events.  The club wanted to not only put on a great enduro but also get the families more involved this year.  So the club did a great thing and had a Saturday Poker Run for the Family.  The club laid out a couple different loops, one for the little riders on 50’s, and one for everyone else.  While the weather earlier in the week didn’t corporate fully and left the trails a little muddy, they were still a good time.  The club had some giveaways for all the riders and it turned out to be a great event.  Everyone I talked to had a great time and with the great weather it was shaping up to be a great weekend.  I hope to see more clubs have family type events on Saturday’s in the future.

 Over the winter the club was really trying to figure out a change of format for the closed course enduros that they have been running.  They tried very hard to make it a Qualifier style event but Mother Nature didn’t want that to happen.  The club spent

	One Happy Poker Run Rider.

 most of Friday and Saturday re-routing the course to make sure it would be enjoyable for all and not a survival run.  After some very hard work the club came up with an eleven mile loop that would be run 3 times by the C class / Super Senior riders and 4 times by the AA / A / B class riders.  Then the club had a 3 mile special test just for the AA / A riders.  Times were adjusted to make sure everyone would have an easy first loop and then a small break between each loop.

 At the end of the first loop all I could say is, wow, the club laid out one great course!  For this being a closed course enduro it had some of the best enduro trail that I have ridden in some time.  Many other riders had the same thought and were smiling at the end of the first lap.  While the course was slippery and technical in some spots, it was broke up into technical and open nicely.  It flowed well and the club did a great job of re-routing a couple muddy areas that weren’t holding up.  By the third lap the trail was broke in and became really fun.  The fourth lap was even better but for most of us the heat and the trail were wearing us down.  For some the fourth lap turned into “just finish” mode.  The final AA / A test was dreaded by some as most were already tired, but the three mile test was just more great trail.  There were some very technical off cambers and a “pond” area to get through but nothing that an enduro shouldn’t have mixed trail wise.  The club deserves a big thank you for putting on a great event. 

I know that some of the C class riders were struggling with the technical course.  Plus with this being the first race of the season many were feeling the effects of sitting on the couch (as were 95% of all the other riders) all winter.  But C Class winner Mike Baker thought it was a great format to run an enduro and enjoyed the technical aspect of the trail.  This was Mike Baker’s first enduro event and admitted that it was a little to technical for some of his MX riding buddies but he liked the challenge and was able to take home the win. 

Some of the Michigan Mafia made it down for the event again this year and Don Marsh was the unofficial champ of the Mafia taking home the class win in the Super Senior class.  Don had this to say about the event, “I had fun, the mud made the course much more challenging than last year. The rocks and slippery shale made it even more interesting. The virgin trail was different; it looked like you could blast right through it instead of sinking down and spinning out. I think the club did a great job with the reroutes. It was a long way to drive to race but when there is still snow on the ground you do what you can to race.” Don would like to thank Lakes & Trails Power Sports Yamaha, Leo Vince pipes, Unibiker radiator guards, Spectro oil, and Klim race ware for supporting him. 

The overall event winner was once again Jeff Fredette on his Team Green / Moose / FRP KX250F.  Jeff has won this event every year that the club has had the event.  Many thought that Ohio Native Cody Mastin on his Funmart / Moose YZ250 or Michigan Mafia Blair Bersano on his Moose YZ450F would be taking the win this year.  But Jeff should everyone that his many years (all 49 of them) of experience would put him on top once again. 

I’m sure all of the riders would like to say thank you to the club for putting on such a great event!  The club would like to thank all the riders that supported the event and to Moose Racing for supporting the District 17 Enduro Series.