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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126341
Larry Roeseler styled to win by 90 minutes along with Jack Jo.hnson. Jimmy Jackson on the Class 2O-winning Husky. George Erl eo-rode. SCORE Baja 1000k.m. Rainy runaway for By Dale Brown Photos by Dale Brown and Anthony DePalmer ENSENADA , B.C., MEX. , NO V. 10 Team Husqvarna's Larry Roeseler and jack Johnson pushed their Niles Ussery-tuned 390 through the 580-mile, half dry, halfwet.SCORE Baja 100010n course to win by an unbelievable . margIn of nearly an hour an~ a half over the 250cc Class 21 WInning KTM of Bill Tarling and Craig Adams. The victory mar- 8 . . gm h a d many peopIe sh a ki mg t h err ds i di b I' f h ea s m IS e re . . . . The race started m Mexicali a.nd wound do~n well .past San Felipe b~for~ heading back m a no!thwesterly direction towards the fims~ at the coastal town of Ensenada. Ram began to pelt the firs~ racers as they cleared the .San Matias. ~ass and started headmg . for MIke s Sky Ranc~o . Though It was not a sev~re storm , like the one that caused the 7~ 10~Okm to be delayed for 24 hours, It d id ~ause ~0n,tpetltors several problems, pnmar· ily m the four wheel classes, Out, of a t~tal. of 219 starters: onlr 5,8 fin ished within the 26 -hour time limit , Twenty motorcycles finished after 49 started. ' George Erl and J immy Jackson teame d on an ·Up ·T ite·sponsored Husky to win t he 125cc Class 21 , while the John Watkins /Dick Vick team made '78 a cleansweep year by winning Class !l8 again. But they didn't have an easy time of it this year. Vick crashed and Watkins ended up riding most of the race, including a section he'd never. ridden before, in the dark and .the ram. . . The first nder left Mexicali h B6 :15 d . at a.m. Scot Harden, teame Wit rent . .90 Waillngsford on a T earn H us k y" , encountered engine problems before the race was 50 miles old when the engine started getting hot and pinging hard. Roeseler , who had started one minute after Harden and two and a half after the first bike, had the lead by the time he got to the first pavement crossing. Jeff Kaplan and Rick Finger, also of Team Husky, found t heir ra ce ended very ea rly . While dicing with Bi!1 Tarling on a fast roa d about 25 m iles out , Finger had the 250 cc machin e seize up and they d ropped ou t of the ra ce . All the Team Husky riders wer e running '79 machines with th e '78 ported cylind ers. Sp eculation was that , th ough th ey were je tt ed richer th an ever , the new larger a irbox a nd exha ust pipe may hav e called for even higher je tti ng , espe cia lly in the mid range. Roeseler proceeded smoothly as he paralelled the Juarez mountains south through Cohabuzo Junction and Tres Posos . After Tres Posos the course was supposed to make an eastward bend , but it had been announced the night before that riders could go directly south towards the first rider changeover point at the Highway !I road crossing. Morgan Malocco, however, had his pits set up at Oasis, on the original course, and had to follow it. Malocco , teamed with Mike Maze on a C.T.I. Retreads/Fullerton Yamaha IT250 , was leading Class 21 at Tres Poses. He had to follow the original course for gas and lost upwards of 15 minutes on Tarling. Just past Tres Posos , Tom Lamar, who was teamed with Scott Coutts on a 125 Husky, fell hard. A finger on his right hand was caught in the chain and either completely sliced off, or very nearly so. Lamar was taken to San Diego , but it is unknown at this time whether or not his finger could be saved. Coutts continued on , and at the . road crossing , picked up' a new partner. Jeff Kaplan , whose bike had seized near the beginning, took over for Lamar. . "We didn't expect Larry to go that fast through the first section. He came th ough in two hours and forty-five minutes. We'd figured three hours and . 15 minutes or three and a half hours. When he came in I didn't even have my helmet onl" said Johnson later. This was at the Hwy. !I crossing, about 185 miles from th e start. Johnson ju m ped on and soon ran into trouble. He seized the bike momentarily, but it restarted and he made his way to San Felipe where the needle was raised a notch to fatten the mid-range jetting. A few minutes after Johnson left the changeover point at the road 'crossing. Harden arrived and gave the bike to Wallingsford. Their bike however would seize again near San Felipe and drop them from the race. The third bike past the crossing was the David ~hitely-sponsored 400cc Yamaha of Dennis Greene and Lee Scheffers, with Scheffers onboard, . Scheffers was supposed to give the bik e to Greene.at thIS point but there was one hitch-Greene wasn't there, so Scheffers continued on after gett ing gas from another crew and hit the next check. four, !l5 minutes behind the Roeseler/johnson Husky. He then continued on to San Felipe where he met Greene who took over to ride to the finish. The Dave Holeman/Todd Martella Husky was running well at this point, fifth overall and fourth in Class 22, . despite the fact that Holman had been fighting the flu all week long. Tarling followed them; he was running first 250cc. The Magnolia Radiatorsponsored Husky of Wayne Martin and Errol Clarke followed Tarling into the changeover area , ahead of Malocco. Jimmy Jackson led the 125cc brigade into the changeover point; hot on his heels was Class !l8 leader John Watkins. .. After hitting check four at Morelia Junction, the course made a loop south