Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126015
,....., ,....., l-< ~ ..0 e ~ > o Z Gene Cannady heads south in the sharp morn ing air en route to an overall win on t he Long Beach Honda, co-riding with AI Baker (inset!. Gene Cannadx & ~l Bak~~ zing it . to the tune of Lil Honda 1 By John Huetter 801 miles of mud, dust, rocks and powder, mostly in the dark, and they pay plenty to race it. Fame, fortune and favor await those who make it all the way. Adventure and excitement befall every man and woman who manage to get their hands on the bars or steering wheel of a Baja 1,000 racer, for it 's balls or whatever to the wall on the section you've pre-run . It's where pass or be passed is the name of the game. It is bikes versus cars through Punta Prieta and Valle de Trinidad, pit stops and driver changes on a lo osely-de fined course that swallows the Mexican peninsula, and chews up the racers. ENSENADA, MEXICO, OCT. 29 -31 A couple o f hours before a golden sun poked over the peaks 0 f th e Sierra Juarez mountains, Detective Sergean t Gene Cannady of the 8 L.A.P.D . roll ed out of bed in ch ill darkness and put on his riding gear. Approximate ly 19 hours after Cannady left the start line of the S.C.a.R .E. 1000 : AC-Delco sp on sored Baker co -rider AI Baker pushed the 4 10 four-stroke from Long Beach Honda across the finish line first overall , climaxing one of the faste st, mo st devastating rides in th e history of Baja off-road racing. . It wasn 't at all clear that the fin al standings would shape up that wa y . It was Mark Maso n on a 360 KT1Il wh o wa s cutting through th e little village s in the n orth of Baja California to the cho ru s of barking dogs and grins o f admirin g, envious Mexicans standing by the roadside. Mason held the lead o n th e distributor-sponsored 360 until just the second checkp oint. before Husqvama-mounted A.C. Bakken, Jr-. th e reigning SoCal desert ace, passed him near Camalu , ab o ut 150 mile s o ut. Mark was pl enty ticked ab out t ha t, p itted quicker, an d go t go ing again in the front. But A.C. held a nine-m in ute elapsed time advan tage that had to be made up. Carl Cranke was sufficiently recovered from his Six Days hurts to bring the sole 125 KTM in to the gas pits way out in front . He was in good eno ugh spirits to pop a fairl y long wheelie an d give us a V-sign o n the way o ut. Car l w as co -riding the 12 5 he'd p repared with another ISDT ve teran , Eric J ensen. Bill Uhl ca me screaming by several minutes later, sm iling bushily from behind his fine, fu ll beard and Scott goggles. He was aboard the Petty-Miller 125 Honda CR taking Preston's place in the saddle. The Honda so un de d and behaved like it had the horsepower. An SOO-mile lo n g duel between these two fast teams was sha p ing up . By chec kp oin t Three , far down th e co urse at Santa Inez , Uhl kep t a lead of 15 minutes actual tim e over Carl C. and wa s running ab o ut sixth overall. Bakken had averag ed over 50 mph by the time he reached Checkpoint Two , whi ch was a lo t faster th an we could average on the p aved highway . He stretched his lead over t he Mason/J ohnson KTM to seven minutes by Check Three. J eff Wright, ab oard th e o the r 3 60 KTM, was third at th at po in t and Larry Ro eseler , riding th e ot her r ISOT medal winners Carl Cranke and Eric Jensen teamed on a 125 Penton/KTM to win the smallest cc class. Carl takes on pre-mix from KTM pit crew Gary Hymes and Gary Zweifeld. distributor-sponsored 3 60 Hus qvama along with Howard Utsey, was fourth. Th e predicted KTM.Husqvam a hattie lines had been drawn. It was also beginning to seep into the general co nscio usness about th is time (2 p. m. of the first day) that t he bikes were running away from any and everything o n four wheels. S.C.a.R.E. Director Bob Martin had said the course would be " ch allenging." It was. Bill UhI began turning consist ently faster sec t io n averages than Carl. This refl ected tw o th ings: Billy is a much better rider than almost anybody, exc ep t those who co mp ete against him, has acknowledged, and t he re was mo re history of Baja preparation with Dick Miller's Honda. A.C. came into Checkpoint ' Fo ur at 6 :1S p.m, to hand off to Mitc h Mayes, his winning co -rider on other Baja occasio ns. Gene Cannady overcame a 20-minute deficit between Checkpoints Three and Fo ur to arrive at 6 : 21. The Honda was suddenly very much in the running for an o verall win after covering som e very gnarly terrain. Past the