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Fortman Secures Pine Ridge!
RMEC Pine Ridge Enduro
April 27, 2008 | Chadron, NB
Story by George Pennington
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Ho-hum, just another typical day at the Pine Ridge Enduro in Chadron Nebraska, you know what I mean if you’ve ever been there. It’s just another day of perfect trail conditions; tight, loamy singletrack through the woods, greasy, clay based river bottoms, fast grassy sections, no dust and near perfect organization and execution of the event. Yea, just another primo day at Pine Ridge, like every year!
Perfect conditions don’t make for perfect racing though. In enduro racing there is no such thing as perfection, just the on going quest for it, and on this day the closest to perfect was AA freshman Brian Fortman, who nabbed his first career overall victory. The KTM mounted Fortman battled his way to the front, dropping only six points on the challenging course, holding off the likes of Ian Blythe and Bernie Frederick who rounded out the podium in that order. With the retirement of perennial RMEC champion Ron Schmelzle, the door has been left wide open for one of these up and comers to assume the title of “Champion” for the 2008 season. While most bets have been split between the AA veterans Frederick or Blythe to take the crown, Fortman’s win today show’s that he’s also a contender and a force to be reckoned with as the season progresses.
Contributing to Fortman’s win was Blythe’s bad luck. Entering the event weakened with a case of pneumonia, Blythe also had some problems reading the course markings and spent some quality time off-trail. “I had some issues with getting lost later in the day and I found out that being the first AA rider is a bad deal. Whenever I got lost, I’d find the trail and keep the guys on the minutes behind me from getting lost. One time I missed a turn and then came back and collected Bernie, and then we found the trail just in time to lead Brian Fortman in the right direction so all three of us were battling.”
Fourth overall on the day and winner of the Senior +40 class was Yamaha mounted Matt Stavish. It wasn’t too long ago Stavish was a fixture on the National Enduro circuit, consistently finishing in the top ten in that series. Apparently age hasn’t slowed him much as he finished just four points shy of Fortman. Rounding out the top five overall, KTM’s Scott Bright finished just seconds off of Stavish, tying in score but losing out in the tie-breakers.
The “B” class was lead to the finish by Vern Stokey, the Honda mounted rider’s 33 points dropped just edging Suzuki mounted Christopher Welch’s 34 point score for the 250cc and overall “B” victory. Senior rider Kevin Van Engelenhoven rounded out the “B” podium, piloting his Honda to a 35 point score, just seconds ahead of 4-Stroke class winner Tyler Heggie and his Kawasaki.
Jeff Salvo topped the “C”s, maneuvering his Open class KTM to a convincing four point victory over Dillon Salvo who in turn topped the 200’s.
Kudos go out to the Pine Ridge Cycle Association for another job well done. Not just for all the hard work executing the event, but for all the efforts involved in acquiring the use of the Forest Service land. If you’ve been here, you’ll probably agree that this event is arguably the crown jewel event on the RMEC schedule.
If you’ve never been, well you are missing a special race and you need to put it on your to-do before I die list. To help insure that this race continues into the future, the Pine Ridge Cycle Association asks that we all send a letter of support to the Forest Service in an effort to keep these trails open to us. So please take just a minute and send a short note outlining how far you traveled, how much you enjoy the trail system and how much money you may have spent in town to attend this event and send it to:
Nebraska National Forest
Pine Ridge District
1240 W. 16th St.
Chadron, NE 69337