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/126454
had the biza= experience of try· ing to find their way out of Vegas in the early morning hours through a thick, soupy fog. Groundshaker honcho Casey Folks announced at the rider's meeting that parts of the coune were virgin terrain - never raced before. Because of rain in the canyons overnight, it was going to be a little rocky, he said. Use caution ... Two hundred and twenty-nine racers (including many from California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona) lined up for the 9:00 a.m. start in an area just off 1-15 near Moapa. The Experts got off at 8:59, and for the first 10 miles found themselves in what resembled the first tum of a motocross. In the battle for the lead, everybody diced like crazy, passing, and getting passed back. Positions shifted wildly among the front runners. who included (among, probably. others it was hard to tell) Harden (Hus). Chris Howard (Yam). Kevin Davis (Mai). Tony Pasqualotto (Mai), Butch Laswell (Yam), Utah ace Don Fuller (Yam), Brian Aden (Yam), Kevin Welch (C-A), Kevin Bogue (Yam), Jeff Harper (Kaw) and Sid Tarbett (Hus). They went into a rock canyon and found some of Casey's rocks. "Some of the boulders were a foot in diameter," Laswell reported later. (Such as the one that destroyed the exhaust pipe on his brand new YZ 465. Riders were bouncing all over the place, half on their bikes. half off - sometimes walking their bikes at a dead run. A Groundshaker sign, asking innocently, "What Rocks?" got quite a reaction. The coone took them up a mountain, where they had to grope their way through more fog. Down off the mountain the leaders began to string ~ut, and Chris Howard, turning in a great performance on his Yamaha 250, led Harden into the first gas. Laswell followed on his ailing Yamaha, with Kevin Welch and Utah's Don Fuller right behind. Then came Kevin Jones, Tony Pasqua lotto and Fred Hanson. Word filtered in that MRAN ace Kevin Davis had crashed and broken his wrist. <:rews o 00 0') IAbovel Winner Scot Harden b1e1tS down the trail with only 40 miles to go. lBeiowI Riders _it anxiously for the start. . Rarden takes Moapa-to-Vegas RUR By Patricia Warhol MOAPA/LAS VEGAS. NV,JAN. 13 Riding a flawless race, Team Husky's Scot Harden took first overall in the Groundshaker M.C.'s 10th annual Moapa-to-Vegas desert race. The gifted Harden and his trusty Husky 390 made it all look so easy, coasting into the finish 23 minutes before second overall Tony Pasqua lotto appeared. Harden 8 grabbed the honors 'back for Husky. making it the ninth win for Husqvarna at Moapa in the last 10 years. It was a typically excellent Ground· shaker race. "One of Casey's good runs." according to Nevada great, Max Switzer. Switzer, a vete.ran of all 10 Moapa races, thought th,s one the best yet. Even the weather was excel· lent: the terrain was damp but not muddy. Perfect traction. No wind. No dust. Temperature cool but not too cool. The race was so clean that one pit crewman commented that you could have done it in a business suit. The air was more like the California coast than Nevada. and riders and Shortly after the first gas Harden passed Howard and never looked back. Everyone moved up one position as Laswell's bike gave up. Keith Adams. back after a seven·month injury related layoff, moved his battered Husky up among the leaders. Mean· while, Welch had thrown a chain, and broken his center cases. Hanson over· shot a turn and crashed, and Howard broke a throttle cable, putting him out and giving. Adams the first 250cc position. At the second gas. Harden had increased his lead by several minutes over a hard-charging Pasqualotto, who made his way on his Maico through the boulders and broken bikes, riding the best race of his career - the first 108 miles of it on a flat rear tire. Next came the consistent Fuller, followed by Sid Tarbett and Adams. with the eventual250cc winner, Utah's Kevin Bogue on Adams' tail. The last pit saw Harden's lead increased to 10 minutes ahead of Pasqualotto, who finally couldn't stand it any more and spent seven minutes in the pit changing his rear wheel. To his and everyone else's amazement, he was still second overall when he left. The leaders' positions remained the same, except for Adams, who had broken the transmission on his Husky, moving Jeff Harper to second 250cc. Harden pulled in for the win 23 minutes ahead of second place Pas· qualotto. having made the 150-mile trip in exactly four hours, one minute. The venerable Max Switzer (Mai). riding in the Over·30 class, made his genial way through the ranks and finished third overall. ("Who was that masked man?" a dazzled out-of-state Expert asked about Max at the third gas.) Troy Fitch (Yam), first 125cc Expert, had a nine-minute lead over Doug Stadtlander (Suz) out of the last gas, which Stadtlander managed to narrow to !lO seconds, but Fitch poured it on and beat Stadtlander to the ii nish. "I rode as fast as I could ..." said Stadtlander, a little out of breath .. Kevin Bogue, one of 15 members of Sugarloafers M.C. who made the trip down from Utah, made a very strong showing, finishing fourth overall, and first 250cc. Second 250cc finisher Jeff Harper came in fifth in spite of (or maybe because of?) the fact that he had no rear brakes the last 70 miles. "At first it was hard." he admitted afterwards, "But then I kind of got used to it." Proving once again that desert racers can get used to almost anything. First Amateur Dennis Boone (Hus), a former Expert class trials rider who hasn't been racing desert for very long, steadily worked his way up. finishing 17th overall. Rex Harelson, up from Tempe, AZ, with five other members of the Sun M.C. finished second Amateur. it was Harelsoo's first MRAN race; he thought it was "Wonderfull" and he hopes to get back for more. John Tracy (Yam) took first Novice honors, apparently not slowed down too much by riding 149 of the 150 miles with a flat front tire, Tracy finished 38th overall; 39th was Bob Sweet (Hus) who, riding his first race ever. took second Novice. Two young Mini·MRAN racers, Ron Purvine and Pat Cockrum, amazed the fans by finishing on their loocc bikes. They came in 138th and 1415t, but they finishedl MRAN (and new Team Yamaha) star, Jack Johnson, sat this one out following surgery on his wrist, but he was on the scene pitting for a friend and squeezing a tennis ball in his spare time. The sight of Johnson hauling a gas can around brought cheers and applause in the pits. Jack just smiled and poured the gas. With 229 racers, there- were (at leastl) 229 race stores, but 125cc Expert Steve Abbott had one of the more unusual ones: Abbott broke his bike not a boulder, like everybody else, but on a mountain. See Abbott for details; you'll find him somewhere rebuilding his Honda. Most Memorable Moment, accord. ing to finishers, was "George's Gorge," a narrow canyon on the last leg almost wide enough to get a bike through, with the ever-present Groundshaker sign asking this time. "Who Loves You?" "George who"'- Racers, ready to attack, wanted to know. Another Groundshaker goodie. this time for real, was a new section through beautiful Valley of Fire, a ride so pretty that even Harden and Switzer acknowledged slowing down for a while just to look.. "It was a primo course. and Expert's coune. Demanding - a lot of comer· ing, not much straight stuff, but well laid out and extremely well·marked. I e,njoyed it," said Harden at the finish. All the finishers seemed to agree. They all say they'll be back for the II th run next year. Results OPEN EX: 1. Scot Harden IHusl: 2. Tony Pasqualono IMail; 3. Bob GabrielIBul). 250 EX: 1. Kevin Bogue IVam): 2. Jeff Harper IKawl: 3. Kevin Jones IKawI. 125 EX: 1. Tray Fitch IVaml: 2. Doug Stadtlander ISuzl: 3. Darryl FolksISuz). OPEN AM: 1. Dennis Boone IHusl; 2. Re. Haretson IKTMI: 3. Sheldon Dna IVaml. 250 AM: 1. Crocken Wirthlin (Husl: 3. Gtlorge White (Honl: 3. Reb WaliacelVaml. 125 AM: 1. Floyd Bradley (Husl: 2. Scan Morris (Suz); 3. Danny Ozuna !Husl. OPEN NOV: 1. I';erre LaGtand IHusl: 2. Jeff Dinsdale (Vaml: 3. Mark Lovell IVaml. 250 NOV: ,. John Tracy IVaml: 2. Bob Sweet (Husl: 3. Richard Wilk (Hust. 125 NOV: ,. Charlie Harvey (Han): 2. Todd Johnston IVaml: 3. Ed Bozarth (Husl. CLASS 30' 1. Ma. Sw;'w IMail: 2. Don Fuller (Yam~; 3. Chuck Gnmstev tHusl 229 entered. 143 fInIshed.