Lafferty Returns And Wins

Mark Kariya | June 16, 2008

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.