Cycle News

Winn er Dan Smith (far right) jumped into the early lead after the dead- engine start. but D err ic k Paiem ent reached the bomb in f irst place. Smith dusts 'em at Barstow-to-Vegas Hare & Hound By A nne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Kinney Jones. Bernadette Phillips and Anne Va n Beveren LAS VEGAS, N \', NOV. 25 Four-time National Hare & Hound Champion Dan Smith left the competition in the dust en route to the overall and 500cc class win at the 17th running of the AMA District 37 Bar stow-to-Vegas : Hare & H o u nd. Smi th ro lled hi s bi g KT M across th e finish line . . approxima tely two minutes 6 ahead of 1984 B-to-V winner Chris Crandall , who was aboard an ATK 604 four-stroke. Still seeking h is firstever B-IO-V win, Team Green's Larry Roeseler ca rded third overall, whi le last yea r's win ner Bruce Ogilive and 250cc cia s winner Mike Baker rounded out the top five. Winning the I25cc class in seventh overa ll was Yamaha rider Eric H allga th . In a l48-mile spri nt through so me of the to ug hest terra in B-IO-V racers have ever faced, KTM 's Smi th dorninated th e to p-class field a ll th e way. H e grabbed the lead 40 miles into th e course an d was still o u t in fron t ' when the chec kere d fla g fell three hou rs lat er. " I had a grea t ride all th e wa y," the KTM 540 E/ X C p ilo t told Cycle N ews, a fter taking his third overall w in in th e presti gious even t. "U n fortuna tely, th ere's so much (dese rt) tortoi se (p ro tection) stuff going o n tha t th ey ca n' t get all o f th e good trai ls. But it 's still fun -and it's still B-IO-V. It 's the bigges t Distr ict 37 race of the year a nd th at mak es it important no matter what the co urse is like." Other riders obviously agreed. The 1200 entries perm itted by the Bu rea u of La nd Manageme~t we~e snapped u p fast, and the starLIng lineup read like a who's who of off-road motorcycli ng. The event was shrouded in secrecy right up to the banner to avoid a repeat of last year's sa botage by radica l env ironmentalists, and B-IOV officials had nothing 10 say about it even whe n the race was over. "Our officia l position is 'no commeru;' ' said Bvro-V cochairman , R ic k H a m m e l, when as ked abo u t sabotage attempts a t this year's event. H owever, a "dum my " co urse was set up near the start area o n th e m ilitary base, a nd it was re po rted ly sa bo taged wi th tireIla tten ing sp ikes. It was also reported that th e military ca ug ht three peop le o n th e co urse th e n ight before th e ra ce a n d that o ne p erson w a s arrested. The on ly thin g o fficia ls would ad m it is that organizing the race gets' h arder every year. " Ba sica ll y it's beca u se o f th e torto ise issue, " said H am mel. " We pai d better tha n $ 10,000 j us t i n co nsulting fees, mainly regardi ng the to rto ise and the stipu lations th e BLM and Fish and Wil dl ife were handing down got to be a real bear." " From the riders' po int of view, th e only thing that had changed was th e starting area . a nd that caused some nervo u s faces as race rs lined u p fo r the 7 a.m. start. The new bomb run insi de the Fort Ir win Army Base was ruued a nd silty, an d wi th p ra cti ce cut short by h igh wi nds th e day before the race, many of the sta rters had li ttle time to p rerun th e tricky open ing section . " I rode th e bomb o nce," sa id 250cc Ex pe rt G ra n t Pal en ske, " I got th ere lat e a nd they closed it ea rly, so I had no idea wha t I was doing whe n th e race sta rte d. I j us t pl anned 10 foll ow everyone else's dust. " T he re was pl en ty of dust to follow whe n th e banner dropped for the first tim e. T he Expe rt wave di sappeared un der a thick bro wn cloud as it head ed across the va lley an d visi bi lity was cut to zero. "T he bomb run was ridicul o us," said Vet race r M ik e McD on a ld . "There was a lot o f stu ff out th ere that was da ngero us whe n you ca n ' t see in the dust. There were bus hes with big mounds in fro nt of them , road crossings with sharp lips and coils of wire." KTM's Scot H ar d e n was n o t impressed either. "It was like riding in a co nstructio n lon e." sa id Harden. " I wa s really disapppointed with th e start area ," said Smith. "T here was one graded road going to the bomb. Everybody used the road so it wasn 't a rea l bomb run. " Despite .some co m p la in ts, the race got off to a fas t sta rt . Kawasa kimoun ted Derrick Pa iemen t was out in fro nt as th e Expe rt racers reached t he bomb a n d pr ev iou s B-t o - V cha m ps Smith, Bru ce Ogi lvie and Ch ris Cra nda ll we re hard on h is heels. J ohn Rudder and Ted Hunnicutt d ra g-race d to th e Iront of th e 250cc divi sion. Th e slo w er st art ers co u ld see nothin g but dust a nd co n d itio ns go t worse as th e bomb-run con verged o n the ribboned trail. " I don't kn ow what th e co urse was li ke - I co u ld n ' t see it ;" sa id Yamaha-m ounted Bak er , wh o was left behind by a two-kick sta rt. At th e fro n t of th e pack , things were far from ca lm , " I go t a good start a nd I was thi rd at the bo mb, but' we nt backwards from there whe n ' go t in th e dust," said O gil vie. " Paieme nt and Sm ith were righ t in fro nt of me, going every wh ich wa y, so I slo wed down a bit a n d Crandall passed me. " Crandall kept go ing right past Smith a nd the n grabbed the lead from Pa iem ent j us t 10 miles into th e ra ce, a nd while he enjoyed a dustfree ride , everyone el se co ntin ued to su ffer. SiIt and dust gave wa y to rocks as th e miles flew by, and th e battle for th e lead never let up for an i nsta n t. Roeseler was pushin g hard from well back in the pack ; H onda 's Chuck Mill er wa s pl aying ca tch-u p from a . di smal " 20-kick " sta rt , an d l25cc rider H a llgath had hi s YZ runnin g w ide ope n. '" was in fo urth for a whi le unti l we got i n to a rea lly tigh t ca nyo n a bo u t 10 miles into it, " said Ogi lvie. " I slowed down fo r a co rner and H all ga th ra n into the back of me in th e du st. H e knocked me right off , the bike a nd when ' fell , bent the clutch lever and twisted a few thi ngs arou nd. , rode like a sq ui d for the next five or six mi les an d then I SLOpped and bent things back into place. By th e time' got going again I was ba ck in about 15th ." While Ogilvie was struggling to ge t back in sync, Smith was set tli ng into stride. " It took me a whi le to get goi ng but I started feeli ng better a fter the first few miles and things we nt better after th a i," sa id Smit h. " T h e first part was different fro m, th e u su al Bto- V co urse a nd that was pretty fun , a nd af ter th at we go t on to so me tank trails a nd so me virgin terrain." . Smith mad e up time fast a nd was soon runn ing shou lde r- to- shou lder with Cra nda ll. '" led it for a bo u t 20 miles th en Sm ith o u r-ho rsepo wered me o n an uphi ll ," said th e ea rly ra ce leader. " He just o u t-man ned me and that: was it. I follow ed him for a while th en' found one rock in one sandwash a nd ' hit it and crashed ," Smith was hard on th e gas a ll th e way to p it o ne a nd th en took advantage of so me fam ilia r terrain as th e redesigned sta rti ng area merged with

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