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/126298
; ~ol'ol'ol'ol'..· ol'''A'''''''..•..''..''..''''"",,''''''''''''''''''''''..''ol'ol'..•..''.. '..''..''..·ol'..''..• ' =Desert Hotline ol'ol' ",. "" "" ••••••"" ol' ol' . ~ t 00 r-... ~ ~ Riders awaiting the Prospectors Gold Rush start. Bruce "The Big 0 " Ogilvie poured on th e coals to win the Nutcracke r 4. Ogilvie, Jenkins top Desert SquiITel's Nut- cracker 4 By Gary Laud ig LUCERNE VALLEY. CA. FEB . 12 After a two-hour delay, the Desert Squirrels M.e. dropped the start banner for their Nutcracker 4 Hare and Hound. First overall at the '~8 Dodge in the sandwash was Ed Zarp, Number one Bru ce Ogilvie was right behind him showing no signs of fatigue from the long journey out of Mexicali to the Dez . The third bike through was Amateur Keith Smith. Angling across Johnson Valley. the course picked up the bomb run section to the right of Victor Pass. Ogilvie had surged into the lead as Ed Zarp "za pped" his engine. At this point, Amateur Dave Matus and Doug Winchell moved int o the third and fourth picking up eight positions in the process. Ogil vie worked his Harley through the tight rock canyon, diving down the twenty-foot drop-off into the wash heading the man toward check one. Mike Godfrey on his Motosport Maico was making up for lost time. By check one he had caught twenty racers and was going strong. Russ Jenkins was doing th e sam e. 14 Charlie Hamill developed a rear fla t and Jeff Robbins was losing ground , so John Foster was first C and first Amateur. RussJenkins was second. Ogilvie had Means Dry Lake in view when the course picked up th e first sandy uphill , th en heads into th e land of th e giant sand dune d ownhill. Cassin' th e powerful H arle y. Bruce flew down th e long wash , smoothed ou t with all the ra in , headi ng for t he sma ll mounta in ra nge on the other side of Means. T he co urse circled a round the m ou nt in past Means and p ick ed up so me wh oops t h at eventually turned int o rocky fire road . This was the spot Winchell and Prater got lost. Craig Adams didn't , and he took over second place . Bob Delliplaine was leading th e Senio r horde ; Earl Roeseler was lea d ing the two -fifty 's. Sh ooting down t he backside of the sandy hill Don Ogilvie gassed his thumper into the " a ll rock ca nyon" downhill just ahead of Marv Van Sickle. By this t ime Ogilv ie , Adams . Winchell and Matus were heading home. Blasting out on the second loop the Big 0 poured the coa l to the Harley and opened up close to a minute lead on second place . Matus and Winchell were so close on the second loop. a number plate separated them. Adams was about ten yards back, The second loop was really a dream . It had more variety than Rick Edwards ' fender friends. Rick Munyon , the National Enduro rider and Two-Day Qualifier rider. running his first-ever desert race for Honda Motor Co. , moved up 17 positions into 14th overall as he turned his red RC east into the virgin cross country terrain. Trudy Beck hates downhills but managed to maintain her lead over the fast- moving Sheila Hopkins. The other women involved in this race were Diane Blauer, June Elias . Kathy Campbell and Linda Christensen. Once the course crested a rise , it lead up a canyon into' a windi ng wash that fina lly emptied into a flatla nd sandwash. Adams made his mo ve on Winchell and Matus ut ilizing his big bike power. Ogilvie had made the hard left turn in to th e crossgrain that event ua lly dumped int o a wash abou t 100 yards wide. Ru ss J enkins a nd Mike Powers stayed in the wash for a bou t two m iles until the cou rse turned right hea di ng over a virgin kn oll into a tig ht windy wash. Instead of picking up the usual fire roads . the cou rse headed over a rise. across an off-camber downhill into two mi les of crossgrain washout. Arm s and legs would suffer on those who have skirked their workout routine. Jumping into the wash the course went about 200 yards then turned left aiming at a nasty rock uphill . By this time Ogilvie was heading home across the basin. Adams, about a minute back. broke his brake stay arm and had to stop and repair it. letting a great race slip by. He rode most of the second loop with no front brake and a flat front tire. Just as President Caner announced on national TV that th e Los Angeles area was declared a Disaster area , the checkered flag dropped giving Bruce Ogilvie his first overall win of the yea r . Bruce thought th e course was about the best lie had ever ridden. Novice/Beginner Paranoid after the long delay, th e LeMans stan only added funher fear as the you ng racers hoped they didn't jum p on the wrong bik e. First to the ' ~ 8 Dodge was Tony Epperson , Ste ve Miller and Pat " Killer" Cain: Cain cr ashed and Chris Harris took the lead , first 250 . First C was Larry Hentschel at fifth overall . As the racers headed up the old Sled Riders bomb ru n, Marty Pollard was passing riders in his quest for first place. When the racers entered the rollers, Jon Reese was still holding onto first begineer. The first sandy uphill weeded out the lesser spirited, and displacement handicapped individuals. Cliff Thomas still held first Trail Novice despite the hill . Bria n Hooper got him on the second one. Chris Harris was being pressured by Dave Wallace and Gary Millikan as the racers started across the valley to the ro ck pile . Turning right and heading for the campground , Tom Jones , Mike Martin and Mike Walters bounced through the deep rollers, crossed BMR and headed for the La va mountain. At the on e loop finish , Bill Sullen ba ch and Mike Bird , both In vad ers. took first and second overall . first and second C bik e. Brian H ooper held th e Tra il Novice lead to th e fin ish . J ohn Re ese took th e 250cc honors, fourt h over a ll . J ohn Vest ba gg ed fir st Open. L. D. Tygan was first senior . Linda Christensen became th e only gi rl survivor. Taking on th e seco nd loop woul d be q uite an expe rience for th e new gu ys, one they would n't soon forget. Rich Mays led the way for Jan Mor rison a nd Da nny Kir by, as the course hea ded the racers into the wash seq uence . Bob Clements. Bla ir Swa llow and Manin Pick made the clim b okay and fina lly exi te d a uto ' pi lot wash . so n amed because the front end of the bik e was not controlled by the racer. Passing the van. Pollard kept his lead on Harnbeck as the course took them through the washout , through Victor Pass and on into the Fry footh ills. Cruising into some deep wash ravines. the racers entered the old familiar wash with the deep whoops. The anger disapated as they knew they were heading home for good ; Marty Pollard chalked up a terrific' overall win making up 16 positions to do so. The racers either loved or hated the ra ce. The old time and hard core d esert racers loved it; so d id I. Well done , Desert Squirrels. L Ste ve Barklow gets the Aw -shucks award . Running first C Expert , his rear tire esca ped the rim . but he still finished. The determination trophy is) split between out two gu est stars Craig Adams and Rick Munyon . Craig finished ninth overa ll. Rick l Sth, both" with broken stay arms. The get-well wish from everyone goes to Dan ' Thordarson who was inj u red prior to the race . Thanks to Rescue 3 . Bill the now cone man who helped me at theU bomb and the Desert Squirrels for al~ their su pportl Res u lts in Results Section. d "B" rider Rogers wins Prospectors D-37 Gold Rush Enduro b '2 A By Larry Langley ANDERSON DRY LAKE, CA, FEB. 5 S Much to the surprise of the "An , riders, Prospectors M. e. rnern- 1 bers and probably to himself, T "a" class rider Dave Rogers (Hus) won the opening District ~7 enduro of 1978 . Dave edged out Team Honda's Jay Tullis by eight seconds at the two tiebreaker checks. A total of six rid ers? zeroed th e course which , on the surface , seems like it was a fairl y easy " event. Not so . The second loop was? fast a nd at times su per-cha llengi ng . Only som e q ues t io n a b le c h eck > placement by th e Prospectors all owed so m any zeros. U A very good tu rn ou t of over 400 riders assembled in Lu cerne Vall ey for what was advertised as an enduro for the "average" rider. . Threa te ning clouds were gathering as the first riders left the stan a t 8:0 a .m . T he first loop was as far as t he " C" riders wo u ld go and th Prospectors d id an excellent la yout. In fact , it was one of the best "C" loops