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/126294
; •••• ;I s t A·.·.·.· ·•·•·•·.••• ·•· · · ", · · . . . .,...,.. Desert Hotline . ••· ·.·A·.· · ·•·..A·•·•• ·•••·..............•.h1' - -•••••-..". . of one powerful bike co uld be hea rd echo ing through the ca nyon . Cresting the top , Roeseler coasted in for his seco n d co ns ec u ti ve overall win . Balentine fini shed about a minute later, followed by Brian Wright. Novice/Beginner race W InI18r I.JIrry Roeseler hustles down 8 boulder-strewn hill at the Desert Roeseler undefeated in '78 D-37 desert By Gary Laudig LUCERNE VALLEY, CA ,JAN . 15 H 10 usky's Larry Roeseler continued his domination of AMA D-37 desert racing, winning the Desert M.C.'s· hare and hound held near Lucerne Va lley . It was the second straight overall win of the year for Roeseler, who holds the number one plate in the Heavyweight division. Crossing the small valley past the bomb. Tom Kelly on a big red KTM had a bike's length lead over Larry Roeseler on the factory OR 390 Husqvarna. Bruce Ogilvie (H -D) was riding Larry's fender, followed by first Amateur Dennis Keaton . Heading towards the dune section , Bob Balentine passed Tim Fitzpatrick and George Erl . Three racers were very close together and a welcome sight in the dez: Andy Kirker, Kevin Hasten and Benny Padilla. Eri c McCracken , Bill Saltzman and Terry Davis rounded out the first 12. The dust-free trail headed up the narrow lane to the right of the now submerged Melville "W et" Lake. Max Eddy chased Saltzman up the long whocp-de -doo road leading into the small segment of mountains. Brad Henson and Charlie Hamill diced through the rock laced downhill and across some choppy flatlands . John Prater was just ahead of Tony Greaves and just behind Brian Wright as they entered the high banked wash. For a good mile, the racers blasted up one side a nd dow n the other, shooting t he high banks. The picture changed drastically up front. Roeseler was in the lead, Ogilvie second and Balentine third. Kirker, Kelly and Hasten seized, while Padilla's pipe broke in two. Steve Lindsey, Russ Collins and Ron Bebo cleared the top of a tracrionless uphill and proceeded down the huge M.e. hare ' n hound. dune on the other side. whi ch looked like it was imported from Arabia . Paul Christensen was trying to get a round Bill Tarling to do battle with the wounded Ken Miller just ahead . Larry, Bruce and Bob headed home down the bomb run section that leads to Victor Pass. Loop two was just superb , in fact it saved the good name of Desert M .C . The closeness of Roeseler , Ogilvie and ' Balentine leaving the pits. began to fester speculation. Knowing the course was demanding. one mistake and it could be any of the three's overall win . Brian Wright headed out running fourt h overall, first 250cc. his first ride for Yamaha Mo tor Corp. Charlie Hamill. riding for Yamaha also , took after Henson with new vigor. Another pair of raccers who cleaned up their act were "Killer" Kilgore , running 12th -overa ll, second Heavy Amateur with Don Boese right on his tail. Tom Kelly got his KTM "uri-seized" at the neat I OOth overall position. The determined desert ace pitted 28th and sure wasn 't going to stay there. After a segment of sandwash and a couple of d itches the course headed for th e Red Mountain. Cory Timms , racing after a long layoff, was being pressed by Craig Kinnaman and Jay Orendorff (riding Dick Burley's sa no Honda thumper). Monte Lee got zapped by Kelly moving Ed Whiteside into the vacancy. Ron Irby, Bill Becker and Rick Shirey mounted the access through the saddle to the left of Red Mountain before the powerline access road . Crossing the road, -the course picked up the windy sandwash road for three miles. The range cattle were removed prior to the race for the convenience of the racers. It was in this section that Ogi lvie and the Harley p ulled off .t he trail. Bal en tine shot by with his sights on Roeseler. The tra il made a hard left shooti ng across the desert on a narrow one bike trail. Once in a while some abrupt crossgrain would interrupt the dynamite zig-zag trail. The course dropped into a narrow wash guarded by boulders , making navigation a chore in spots. Ron Holst and Ray Sadd followed Monte Anderson but passing was out of the question. First Open Senior Gus Paull worked his Mono through a goat trail mountain section that worked out to the foothills into deep rolling rainwash ravines. A few bikes back , Joe Lockhart 's 100cc Trailbike was buzzing like a rattlesnake , keeping his lead on Tom Grant and Monte Lee. D. L. Dorman was try ing to close the six-bike gap between he and Kevin Sheehe as the 175cc " C " bike Amateurs headed down the super neat sandwash pointing in the direction of J ohnson "W et" Lake. The mudhole below the u p h ill entry to Sage Mountain spoiled the ot herwise spo tless racers. If Ken Maw cou ld get by Dorman, he could challenge Joel Parker for second 250cc Amateur. The course stayed in the rollers for only a quarter mile , then tooled off to the right heading for Camp Rock Road . Marv Van Sickle gassed his bike up the narrow wash that parallels Camp Rock Road, the one that has been there waiting for someone to run a race through. Marv had first Senior Open Amateur nailed down , but Bob Birch and Suzuki Art were moving along very quickly as the wash weaved its way to the flat ha rd plateau . The leader, Roeseler had cleared the long, fla t field sou th of Sage Mountain, and cleared the low hill section. Shooting down the wash Larry thought he was heading home, coming so close to camp he could see pit trucks. However. the course headed right into some terrain the racers will talk about for a long time : Roeseler worked the OR through the tight wash then made a right turn through some tricky rocks, finally approaching a downhill designed to test anyone's skill. Clea ning this in usual Roeseler fashion, he worked his way down a virgin wash . Ba lentine followed suit, taking the d ropoffs and q uick turns wit h ease. As Bob blasted the 400cc KT M up the left side of the wash to avoid a l O-foot dropoff, Larry was on the soggy Soggy Dry lakebed. Desert M .C. had finish line safety in mind, with the finish at the base of the small ridge to the left of the road. The crowd lined the boulder-lined trail and soon the sound Two pie-platers were scorching the wet sand: The leader, Beginner Randy Flemming and Jim Stagondollar. Rich Hall swished past followed by Adrian Ahuero , Pat " Kill e r" Cain , Rich Varner , Wayne Poore, John Chatters, Rick Puvogel and Ron Woods, leading a bunch of Beginners. When the racers headed toward the long sandy uphill , Dan Ashcraft was making his move on the frontrunner . Jeff Ca nnon charged the sandy uphill followed by Jan Morrison and Greg Pagan. Mike Martin , running first C , ha d a ha nd fu l cresting the hill , Pat Farris a nd Cliff Thomas thought it was a trailbike nightmare but managed to mount the top and fly down the big dune. Oren Beck kept his trailbike ahead of Open Beginner J erry jobe as the racers wound down the wash. Jen nings and Stagondollar stretched out a big lead heading into the Victor Pa ss bomb area . Begin ne r Brian Bu rski, third C , had two more C bikes behind him : Pat Henesey and Dave Herrera . Trailbikers Brian Reynolds and Don Love diced across the flats heading toward the rockpile and the canyon entry. Craig Weaver was the district leader heading for the finish . Steve Perkio, the 250cc leader, had second and third right on his tail , Cecil Drysdale and Wayne Rasmussen. Pie-plater Jennings bagged the overall but the district winner was Craig Weaver. John Chatters was second, JerryJ obe third. First Trail went to Pa t Farris, Cliff Thomas was second, Oren Beck third . Jeff Gifford bagged first C bike; Chris Crandall and Brian Burski were second and third . Pa t Cain, running third overall Novice, ran out of gas just before the pits and had to pass Rich Hall several times on the second loop. Da n Ashcraft of H BMC moved into the le a d past the long road whe n Stagond olla r centerpu nc hed a roc k . Larry Harris was lea d in g Brad Hunsinger, Tony Epperson, Chris Goolsby and Tom Jones. Heading down the neat wash past the mountain , Mike Martin, running first C , had Steve Brookshire running interference for him as second C Jim Rother was trying to get by. Third C Larry Zeigler had too much ground to makeup. The battle for second 250cc raged all around the second loop . Brian Sweeney and Marty Pollard charged up the narrow wash, ahead of Bill Parks , Rick Boyer and Bud Conner. Ashcraft had moved well into the Amateur/Expert ranks. running 78th overall. Jeff Cannon was just behind Sweeney as they shot up the left hand uphill. Ashcraft finished with a smile and loads of praise for the race. Swee ney took second overall, Jeff Ca nn on third. At the finish, Larry Roeseler stated he loved the second loop and wished the cl ubs would do more of the sa me. The Determ in a tion trophy goes to t hree people : Cha rlie Hamill who finis hed first C Expert on a rear rim (Brad Henson got lost to help th e cause); T om Kelly for coming from IOOth to fin ish seventh overa ll: and m e . Try to write a dese rt story sometime with the Superbowl on TV . The welcome back award goes to Mike Eckardt back after a year layoff. As far as the race is concerned about everyone loved it. •