Bobbitt Crowned 2006 National Enduro Champion

| September 20, 2006

KTM’s Russell Bobbitt clinched the 2006 AMA National Enduro Series title by edging out fellow KTM rider Stephen Edmondson in the penultimate round of the 11 round National Enduro Series sponsored by FMF. Going into the tenth round of the series 20-year-old Bobbitt needed to beat Edmondson by only one point, where he had a 30 point lead (the maximum series points awarded to each individual enduro’s winner) to insure his first national enduro title. Bobbitt carded a 27 for the win, his 5th overall in the series, while Edmondson tallied a 28.

Nick Fahringer (Gas), Travis Green (Kaw) and Rich Lafferty (KTM) rounded out the top five with scores of 32, 33 and 35 respectively.

“Right now I feel great,” Bobbitt said, “But up until that last section I thought it was going to take another round to find out the [series] winner. Going into the last section we were tied up [with 21s] and he had me by 15 seconds on tie breakers. I knew if I was going to win this [series], now I was going to have to take some chances.

“That last section just went awful for me,” Bobbitt continued. “I knew I had to make something happen so I rode over my head a little”enough that I crashed a lot. Each time I’d go down, I’d try that much harder and I’d crash again. When I got to the [out] check, I felt a little better when I just made the flip when I went 6:59. I figured if I lucked out I’d had a chance to beat him if he went seven [minutes].”

And that’s exactly what happened, Edmondson (pictured below) went 7:41.

Going into the last test section, Edmondson thought he was on his way to making up five points in the series by edging out Bobbitt for first. “I knew it was up to me to win,” Edmondson said. “If we tied again I had a 15 second lead. If I beat him on the card flip, I would have it straight out. Regardless, if I won I had to a chance to make up [five] points in the series.”

But Edmondson had his own problems when he got hung up in a water crossing when a submerged log threw him off his bike leaving both he and his bike lying down in a river. “I just couldn’t believe it,” Edmondson said. “It was mine to lose and I get stuck on a tree. At first I thought I’d just pick myself up and get going as quickly as possible only to find this log wedged between my spokes and my forks. I had to back the bike up while pulling on the branch just to get the bike to go. I bet it took 30 seconds just to get going.

“From there I tried to make up the lost time but I was wet from head to toe and my goggles where soaked,” Edmondson lamented. “I tried to make up that time but I kept crashing. Each time I would go down I’d push it harder and each time I would go down again.

Upland National Enduro Results

1. Russell Bobbitt (KTM) 27

2. Stephen Fahringer (KTM) 28

3. Nick Fahringer (Gas) 32

4. Travis Green (Kaw) 33

5. Rich Lafferty (KTM)35

6. Fred Hoess (Gas) 36

7. Cody Mastin (Gas) 37.1317

8. Jeff Fredette (Kaw) 37.1346

9. Blair Bersano (Kaw) 37.1365

10. John Barber (Gas) 37.1369

11. Leonard Keen (Gas) 39

By Steve Berkner