Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I S.C.O.R.E. Internacional 400 By Charles Clayt on ENSENADA, B.C ., JUNE 13 Sixty-five racing motorcycles le ft the starting line outside this little Mexican boomtown, competing for the largest purse in Baja history. Eight hou rs, 16 minutes and 53 seconds later Bruc e og!'1 VIe, nidimg a H I Da":l'd s~n ' ar ey SX 250, crossed the same lme in the oppos ite direction, to the chee rs o f thousands o f o ff-roa d racing fan s and natives, Moments later 20-year-old Gary Standridge o f Ra m o na, Cal ifornia cro ssed the lin e a nd was uno ffici ally named the winner of the 400-mile "AC-Delco Baj a Internacional " race, b ased o n tim e-interval co mp u tat io ns. Standrid ge 's partner and self-sp o nso r, J im Ellis, 5 1 of Imperial Beach, Cal ifornia had sta rted las t of all th e bikes, worked up to sixth by th e halfway po int, and handed it over to the kid, wh o co m pleted the di stan ce in eight hours and 12 m inutes. This much is clear, but what happened between the halfway m ark and the fin ish is d isputed. S.C.O .R. E . 's s c o rers missed Standridge a nd t he 197 2 Honda 410 at Check Six and at two secret " visual checks, " one be fore and one af te r the sixth check po in t. What is worse , Standridge lost the official beer can co n ta in ing his ch its that might have proved he made all the checks against scoring errors. S.C.O. R.E . officials disqualified the Ellis-Standridge Honda and aw arded the fir st overall honors to a dune buggy that had been p ushed across the finish line by a pi cku p truck after its power failed th ree miles fro m the finish . Such assistance is permitted u nde r S.C.O. R.E. rules. The H-D SX team o f Bob Ogilvie and Larry Ro eseler were declared the overall moto rcycle winner upon the disqualification o f Ellis and Standridge a nd t hey collected $2,600 in prize money plus contingency a ward s. Friday, J u n e 13th had been a day of mixed luck for J im Ellis. A six-year veteran of the Baja motorcycle battles, he had placed th ird in the Baja 1,000 and had carefu lly p repar ed h is 19 72 Honda to win this o ne. His co -rider Standridge, is a talen ted, if unsung, desert hero from San Diego 's District 3 8. "I th ink we 're ge t ting ripped o ff, " Ellis told Cycle News Saturday. " Three wi tn esses signed a sta te m en t th at they saw us go th rough Check Six ," he said . His strategy was t o pit b efo re the chec kpoin t to avoi d the cr o wded co n fu sion at the gas stops, a n d this m ay have ca used th e checke rs to m iss his num be r. Ellis insists that nei ther he nor Standridge had c u t the co u rse. What happened to h is proof, in t he form of written eviden ce given the rid er at eac h check? " They t ap ed the be ercan arou nd th e ai r bottle , th e S. C.O. R.E. o ff icials d id, and Gary had 10 us e th e air on th e last leg. I guess that lo o sened it. It ca me o ff ; it 's lay ing ou t th er e someplace . so I guess th at d oe s it fo r us. ,. Ellis ac cep te d hi s fa te t hil hi 11 " b ut I d on ' t Ilik e p eop Ie p I a sap l e a y . rk th inking we c hea ted" he said. • ' . 'We were geared higher than AI Baker. We even risk ed ru n n in g witho ut the metal plate th aI protects th e ca ses so we co uld fit a 16-t ooth co u n te rshaft . • , sprocket WIth a 4 2-t o oth rear . If we d ve b ro ke n a c hai n it c o ul d 've take n the . . . • who le e ng ine WIth II..... e co uld h ave P ulled h igh er gearing • still." Ellis cred its . . Chuc k Mclntosh fo r building the powerful 4 10 cc Honda XL. E llis m issed h is c hance to p rotest S.C.O.R. E.'s de cision because he was hung up at the Ensenada police statio n, reporting t he theft of his pit bike , All in all it was a rough we eke n d for Ellis an d Standridge , Ro eseler and Ogilvie , on th e Dale 's Modern Cycle Harley, led most o f t he way afte r overc o ming t he early start ers . Their m otor so un ded goo d aft er 400 heavy d u ty mil es. Roeseler h it Chec k Two in a d ead heat with AI Baker , who st arte d th ree m inutes ah ea d an d by Ch eck Six Ogilvie had six seconds lead on Ba ker's co -pilo t Gunnar Lind strom, according to the official cl oc ks. Eri c Jensen a nd earl Cranke beat al l the 125 cc bikes with their Pen to n a nd co llected $1 . 180 from the purse. which totalled $ 12,0 4 5 fo r b ik es alone, Baker and Lindstrom topped the Open class with t heir punched-out XL and wen t home $2,9 0 0 richer, th an ks to S.C.O. R.E .. plus more th ousands of co ntingency cas h from sponsors. Second big bike and fourth o verall was th e CZ 400 of Bill Conroy and Kevin Hasten. They were nearly three seconds beh ind th e Honda, and the Yamaha 250 of Andy Kirker and Ron Wright was about 12 seconds slower than the winners' Harley. Mary McGee rode all the way solo in a bid for the Pennzoil "Iron (Wo )Man Trophy." She placed officially 33rd bike overall, after losing he r rear shocks before the first checkpoint. "I though t 1 would di e ," said the lan ky lady. "It felt like the frame was breaking constantly! 1 was ju st bounci ng fro m cactus to cactus! I fell off twice." Husband Don McGee was able to replace the su spenders :' t the halfway st,op after r.:t~ had ridden over 200 miles on a rigi d Husky. , . , Mary}ell s us wh at she IS thinking out th.ere : I co nc en trat e on. wh at to do WIth my body an d my bike. ....'hen m y b ut t st ar ts to sag, I p ick up m y p ac e so I have to co ncen tra te more. Makes m e ge t my weight off my b u tt onto the balls o f my fee t." , . Her f:,vonte P:ut of th e course IS the mounta in ous tra il th roug h the Vall e d e T rin idad. " I'd wonder ab o u t th e tra~ ks ~hro ugh th e cact u s off th ese sh eer cli ffs 10 so me o f th e turn ~. Mu st be where some.o~~ was p re·ru nn lng.th e cour se :md los t It, Mary McGee said, shuddering, O ne tragedy dar kened the fun of th e Baja 4 00. Ro n, Pe~erson , 17, of Cres!'en ta , California crashe~ while leading the race ab o u t 100 mi les o ut. Ron B ~~h op Slo pped to help, as di d Andy Kir ker , b UI y o u ng Peterson had di ed doing wha~ he, liked best. It --:as t he o nl y race r fat al it y 10 S.C.O .R.E . hi st o ry , !..a Results CLASS 20-125cc OR UNOER, 1. Eric Cranke (Pen) 8.59.19 . 2 . Joe Padilla/Mark yBarber li ch (Pen) 10 .0 1.Charlie (Hus) 9.07.12, 3, 6 4 . 4 . H ammll /Larr Froe Paul Eddy (Vam) 10.40.20. 5. Lee Fab ry/ R. Devonshi r e (Hus) 11.04.45 . CLASS 21- 250cc OR UNDER, 1. Larry Jen sen /Carl R~esle r/Br uce Og .il v le (H · D) 8.1 6.53 . 2 . An.dY K irk e r /R on Maze/Ben Wrigh t. 8.2 9 .06. 3. B i l key /R. McCa lli.ster (Bu l) 8.4 3.86. 5. Halbert /R i ch ard Finger (Hus) 8.44 .88. CLASS M ike Maze (Bul) 8,32.48. 4. Jo hn B ill 22-251cc O R OVER, 1. AI Ba k er /G . L1.n d st ro m (Hon) 8.29.89. 2. Bi ll Con ro y /Ke vi n Ha st en (eZ) 8 .3 1. 9 2 . 3 . S t eve 5taats/W1I1 Staats (Vam) 8.34.70, 4. J, B. Wis,:,/ R i ch ard Harri s (Hus ) 8 .4 5 .60. S. A d am Pa d illa / James J a spe r (H us) 8 . 5 2 .98. " Hours, M inutes. 100' s ot m i n u tes. Ensenada inspecti on area a few hou rs befo re th e entry dead line. For the Honda team of Jim Ellis and Gary Standridge Friday the 13th lived up to iu reputation.

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