With his foot still tender and protected by a special carbon-fiber brace, Mike Lafferty gutted it out to win the fifth round of the AMA FMF Racing Enduro Championship in Marquette, Michigan, June 15. Lafferty, who sat out the previous round with a broken foot, matched teammate Russell Bobbitt on points but came out on top via his better tie-breaker score. Both riders dropped 19 points but Lafferty edged out Bobbitt by 25 seconds on the tie-breakers for his third win of the series. However, Bobbitt still leads the championship by 15 points, 126-111.

“I wanted to get back where I left off,” Lafferty said. “Even though I’m busted up and hurt a little bit, it still felt good, and the biggest thing was, I missed riding my bike. It’s only been a week and a half since I’ve been back on the bike, so it’s huge, it’s huge!”

Despite having to rely on his practice bike after his primary machine suffered from water ingestion in the OMA National the previous week in Iowa, Husaberg’s Nick Fahringer found himself locked in a race-long battle with KTM rider Cole Kirkpatrick. The two tied each other section after section, ending up with 22 points each, Fahringer emerged came out a little better on the tie-breakers, topping Kirkpatrick by 44 seconds. Kirkpatrick still holds third in the series with 90 points. Fahringer is fourth with 65.

Aaron Wegner earned fifth place after dropping 24 on his Yamaha YZ250.

Jeff Melik lost his transponder after crashing in the second section and was docked 10 percent, finishing with 26 points. “I think I only lost one position out of it, though; I still ended up sixth,” he said.

AA Pros Brad Bakken and Chris Gallt finished seventh and eighth, respectively, while Dylan Debel won the Open A class with ninth overall; 250cc A winner John Burgard rounded out the top 10.

Wonder what happened to Jeremy, looks like he only made it to the first check, that's too bad, long way to drive to have problems or crash out, hope he is OK. Didn't see Ginny's name either, mosquito's must've ate her.

Any word from them? C'mon, I KNOW someone has heard from Ginny!

His clutch master cylinder sprang a leak within the first mile. He made it back to the pits- fixed the leak and dumped in some power steering fluid. He raced about 40 miles- making up a lot of ground, but stopped once he caught up to the pro rows. He seemed in pretty good sprits considering. He said the course was the best he has ever ridden.

Brant

Ginny didn't go. (that is an excellent emoticon for her btw)

Amazing that Jeremy's bike made the 24hr race with very little issue then in the first mile the hydro clutch springs a leak. If he'd had his rekluse back in there this wouldn't have been an issue. Of course, he didn't have much time between last weekend and this to prep.

Here is something of a report for you guys,

First I have to say that you guys missed the event of the year !!!!!!! This race had hands down the best race course I have ever layed eyes on so far !!!! The dirt was this great mix of sand, loam, and some other stuff. You could hit corners as hard as you could and the bike would just stick like it was on rails. The bearms were strong and almost impossable to blow out and the mud was well diff. You could get traction in it but havein to ride from the rear it was deep if you jumped into the wrong line.

Well to the start............

I pulled up to the starting line beside Cbob's arch nemesis Johnny Futo Sorry I couldnt resist he he he. I noticed my clutch felt a little funny but didnt pay it to much attention since we had just ran the 24 with the bike and had no prob.. This was my first mistake of the day. Our min. came up for row 10 and off we went. Well we had some nice open grass track for the first mile or so and was having a blast railing the corners behind Futo. (The man is deadly in the open stuff or he was just having a great start ) But anyhow thats when I noticed the clutch wouldnt disenguage anymore So I quickly decided to just tough it out for the first section and shoot back to the truck and fix it at the reset thinking I wouldnt loose to much time that way.

Now this was mistake #2 and the demise of my race. Just past the 2 mile marker I droped off of a hill into a little marsh and got stuck. With no clutch to help free the bike from the mud I had to dig it out the hard way and finaly got it over to some decent ground. By this time the pros were blasting trough the pit and I must say it was spectacular to see them this up close and personal. So anyhow I put the bike in nutral started her up. With a good twist of the throttle and some fancy gear jaming I got the beast rolling again LOL. It was like jumping on the back of a bucking bull when it took off from the bottom of the hill and up the other side. I had to have looked funny with my feet hanging off the back of the bike as I was trying to get back up on the seat from the launch.

So I dug my way back out to the pits and started looking for the problem, thats when I found an empty clutch reservor. I cleaned up around everything and pulled the slave cyl. off of the bike and cleaned the o-ring and piston, then reasymbled it. The closest thing I had to fluid was Automotive power stearing fluid. So I said what the heck it was worth a try. I finaly got the system bleed out and working again.

I took off back across the pits looking for my route back into the trails and got back on track sort of. I was riding hard trying to make up for lost time catching a few scraglers here and there, I came through the out check at 13 miles and the worker screamed at me to keep pushing so I glanced at the clock as I flew by not realising what it said (row 81 so this is where I houred out). I ran hard through the short transfer and back into the the next in check. As I pull up for the worker to write down my number the flip cards said row 51. I start to think to myself man I might be able to catch up to my row with a couple more resets and the aux. gas stop.

This section was great fun with some grass track and big moon rocks to climb over and some awsome single track. I came out of that section on row 67 and pushed through the transefer. I cam up on the next in check on row 37 and was starting to get excited. I run into the woods and quickly get a dose of miles of UP single track from heck. When we wernt in the single track we were traversing big rocks and clear cut areas with logs and piles of limbs laying all over for added difficulty and another marsh pit for me to get stuck in. LOL this is #3 for the day, the 2nd one was in section 2 but I didnt loose much time in that one.

By the time I got my bike out and rolling again I was getting pretty tired. I hadnt stoped rolling since I got back on the course at about the 2 mile marker and my camel back was getting realy light. Finaly the out check and I came out on row 60. Now this transfer section was fun!!! We turned left onto an old set of RR tracks and ran up the center for a couple miles of strait taped out small whoops, it felt like you was riding on a rumble strip. Cool stuff. As I rolled up on the next in check at mile 36 or 39, row 21 was getting ready to leave and I wasnt about to get in the way of those guys. I would have been orange traction as tired as I was. I pulled off to the side to take a break for a few mins and let the pros get going good. Thats when I started thinking about my first outcheck time. I started figuring time stuck, time in the pits, time on the trail and decided I had to have houred out the first section. So I asked the course worker at the check what the trails were like in this section. I explained I had houred out the first section and didnt want to keep going if this section wasnt any diff. from the rest of the race. He said it was just like the section I had just ran so I oppted to head back to the truck.

I got a good fill of the UP race and a great 40 mile trail ride in for the day. So all was not lost plus I still got some points for the event and had a great time doing it !!!!

Good report Jermey

The c-bob arch-nemesis, aka Johnny Futo. He started well He was ahead of the 50+ B winner (they were on the same row) after the first section, then just after the start of the second section his throttle cable broke So he pushed the bike back a couple of miles out of the woods. He found someone with a spare throttle cable. He with the help of Greg Wallace and others replaced the throttle cable and he returned to the race..
Like you Jeremy he pushed hard, no time to stop at resets, filled his camelbak and gassed the tank at the gas stop and then back into it. He caught up with his row(10) at the start of the last check #10. Where he proceded to beat the eventual winner by a minute and a half in the last section He is still leading the National Enduro series 50+B class with 77 points, second place is c-bob with 50 points. Third is Kenneth Kreis with 48 points...

Also good showing from local SETRA riders Lee Logan, overall B winner and Hunter Wallace overall 2nd B rider.

Way to go Johnny!

WOW, I'm *STILL* in second place!

Sorry about the clutch issue, Jeremy. I TOLD Johnny not to fool with it!

just kidding. You never know how important those 9 points can be.

later,
- c bob

I realy had an awsome trip. It was fun to meet new friends for the trip up. Mark and Lee are great people. And also great to hang out with Futo, the Wallace clan, Mike Rynolds and I cant remeber the other guys name at the moment.

Cbob send me your entry for the PA trip.

Not at $4.00 a gallon!

lol

- c bob

If you go up with Jeremy, it's only $2.00 a gallon

And, I will pick up your SETRA trophy

Sonny, I remember when gas was 29c a gallon. Freaked me out when it hit a dollar.

I'll pick up my own $2 trophy, thank you very much.

Gas to Myrtle Beach - $150
Two nights in Barefoot Resort - $300
Picking up my own $2 trophy - PRICELESS

See you there!

- c bob

Don’t throw me under the bus just yet there OZinUS. I am the guy that won the 50+B class in Marquette. I know Jonny Futo from my trip south earlier this year in March. I rode the Sandlapper and Alligator and was out of shape sitting on the couch and looking at snow all winter and Futo beat me by a few minutes at both events. I introduced myself to him at Marquette once I knew he was on the same row as I and looked forward to a good battle, I was in better shape than I was in SC/Fla. and I’ve been winning the local races since last year in the 50+ B class around here in Mich and Indiana. I think we became friends that Sunday, he’s a great guy and a good rider. Plus he’s short like me.  He is going to send me his business card and I hope to ride the Sandlapper with him again next year-we can push each other and have some fun. If you talk to Johnny I think he’d say that we were pretty close in speed, we each had our better spots and it would have been a good battle to the finish. I hated to win the way I did but that’s racing I guess. I did look at his section scores and if we would have had a draw in the second section even though I had passed him, I would have had him by 5 minutes through the other sections for the day even though he got one back in the end. I took his check ins and looked at his raw speed through the sections with out carrying any “in”points-I wanted to see how we stacked up. Now I know he rode non stop and all so I really don’t know if that would have been different or not and by how much and if he would have erased that 5 minute deficit or not. I was having a good day in the middle sections and I knew it because I passed the second place guy in our class who was 2 minutes in front of me on row 8-3 times. When we took off at the start your buddy with the bad clutch jumped between Futo and I and I had to pass him on the grass track right away so Futo didn’t get away-which I did and Johnny and I were hauling good, I was getting pelted by his roost and was on his back tire, it was a blast. In the first section I passed him about third of the way in and he passed me back near the end and got me by 13 seconds which seems like a lot because I was right behind him. I fell asleep I guess. I’ve always been a slow starter and my first section is usually not that great. That was fun going at it together like that -I was ready for more in the second section-I let him go in first and rode on his back wheel-since he had a few seconds on me in the first section I knew I had to get them back so I was about to yell and see if he’d let me go by-I was feeling good and he pulled over and I took off. I guess that’s when his cable broke, but I was going to yell to go by anyway because I needed to make up for the first section. I never saw him again until the last section which by then I knew I had things in hand, I’m not good in the rocks either and took it easy through there, he asked me if I wanted to go first but I told him to go first - He led and got away from me for a while and I caught up and rode behind him for a while until we got to a large moon rock we both took different lines and he got hung up in my way and I had to wait for him, then I fell over after I got going and he got away. for good (For the record he got me by 44 seconds in the last section, not a minute and a half.) I ended up 20th OA in the “B” class at a National which I’m pretty proud of at age 53. I mean no disrespect to Johnny, or any body here but I just wanted to state the other side of the story since I was there and I think it was a better battle than you described - I wish it would have been the entire day that we rode together. That was fun riding with Johnny Futo – I look forward to it again. You certainly have a lot of gifted riders down there that’s for sure!!!

Fred T

Welcome to GOR, Fred

Not trying to put you down there mate. Johnny is a good friend, we try to ride every week together. He said he had met you before the race and he was looking forward to battling it out with you. Just a shame mechanical issues came into it.
Look forward to seeing you at the Sandlapper and the Alligator next year
And congrats on the First place at a National Enduro

Fred - I was chasing Johnny all year in the SE&TRA enduros. He / we kept it positive all year long and it was fun even though we both were taking it seriously. I couldn't lose to a nicer guy.

Congrats on your National win. Feels good, doesn't it?

Now about that OZ guy . . . .

later,
- c bob

C bob,
Thanks for your post. I have never enjoyed racing more than this year.You are a true gentleman ,a great racer and a friend.When you win on tiebreakers or only by one minute or by two that's racing. It doesn't get any better than that. What a wonderful racing season.

Freddie is a great racer and we had fun while it lasted. I was about to wet my pants in the first section it was that much fun. Jeremy has it right. If we were only as lucky to have dirt like that. Great conditions nice temp a little overcast great day. I meet him on Saturday and talked with him about Sunday's event.I enjoyed racing with him and I only wished that my throttle cable had not broke.Motion Pro longer cable not OEM. I talked with Lafferty's mechanic and he told me to use the stock one from now on out. A twenty dollar mistake. I finished a little ahead of Freddie in the first section by a handful on seconds. I knew it was going to be a dogfight all day long.Going onto the second section Freddie let me go in first, a couple of miles in my throttle cable broke. I had to push my bike out about two miles to the road and try and find help.If it weren't for my training and working out I would have never been able to continue. Thankfully , Greg and Mike were there. Mike had a stock throttle cable thank God and we were able to make the repair as quickly as possible. Boy I sure owe those guys allot credit for there help in getting me back out there. I had to ride straight thru no time to stop or rest because I was behind. I rode about 45 or so miles with nothing to eat, only my camelback. Lucky for me the next to last section
out check was close to the pits. There I was able to put a couple of bottles of water in my camelback, eat a banana and eat a power jell. It was a couple of miles to the last going in check and I had little time to get there.
I had the "three hungie " skint back. I got there in time to make the check and talked with Freddie and told him as to my problem . I suggested to him as to him going in first because my score wouldn't matter at this point.He wanted me to lead in at that was that.I wanted to race with him all day and the only thing I could think of was racing him in the last section. I was able to finish a little ahead of him in the last section making the race end on a good note. We both congratulated each other at the end and rode back together.He's a great guy and as good as they come. I sure wished things could have been different , but that's racing. I only hope to do it all again some day.
Travel to unknown places, meet racers from all over the country, racing the National Enduro series, living in the best country God has ever blessed man, priceless.

"Persevere Adapt Overcome"

Never Quit

Johnny Futo