Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

o 00 0') Wry Roel.lar end Jack Johnson (I1lHtJ ware the ov. .Uwinnenl. SCORE Off-Road Series: Round two Roeseler/Johnson triumphant in closelycontested Mexicali 250 By Dale Brown MEX1CALI, B.C., MEX., MAR. 22 After 234.7 miles of racing, less than 15 feet separated Team Yamaha riders Jack Johnson and Bruce Ogilvie as they took the SCORE International. Mexicali 250 checkered flag at about 110 mph. Johnson got there first, and since he and corider Larry Roeseler had started one minute behind the Ogilvie/ 20 Chuck Miller entry. they took the overall and Class 22 victory in the timed event. In the 250cc Class 21. a privateer versus factory duel for the win was decided by less than an eye-blink's margin. Team Yamaha'sJim Fishback and Bob Rutten were named the winners over the Premier Yamaha/Roy's Boys Racing Team duo of Scott and Kent Pfeiffer by only three one-hundredths oja second.! A surprise winner in lhe 125cc Class 20 wars was Amateur·ranked D·~7 desert racer Mike Burke. who rode a Charlie's Raceway Cycle Yamaha to a two-minute margin of victory. In Class ~O, for riders over 50. only three minutes separated the leaders, with lhe nod going to RichardJackson and Iknnis DeCamp on their Kern Sport Cycles/ Anaheim Husqvama Husky ~90. There was another close battle in Class ~8, for riders over ~8, and two familjar faces returned to the winner's circle. Dick Vick and John Watkins pUI lheir Yamaha YZ465 in the top slot, defeating Parker 4QO winner Dave Miller by a little over two minutes. Racers left from downtown Mexicali starting at 6 a.m. for a loop that paralleled Highway 5 loward San Felipe, reaching its southward apex at EI Chinero and then running north through Tres Pozos. Cohabuzo Junction and back to Mexicali. Much of the first part of the course was roug~ with a lot of crossgrain, whoops and rocks, and the Lasl part of the course was exceedingly fast. Roeseler and Johnson averaged 57.80 mph. Miller and Roeseler were among the last of the Class 22 entrants to start, bUI they soon cut a swath through the pack, running about lhe same pace and leading on elapsed time as they hit check one, 42 miles into the race. Husky-mounted Mark Miller and John Imbriale had lhe advantage of an early start and were the first to checks one and two, but dropped out of the race afler check four. In Class 21, Fishback and Bill Tarling, riding a KTM with Craig Adams, sel fast time into check one, with Scott Pfeiffer about a minute off their pace. The Cartledge brothers. Chuck and Mike, set fasl Class 20 time into check one, bUI seizure problems put lhem out laler. Scott Coutts and William Whitener, aboard an R.C. Builders Husky, were only a minute behind the Cartledge brothers at check one. Rick Shirey, riding a Dick AIIen Yamaha/Lectron Carburetors Yamaha with John "Smokebomb" Gaeu, and Las Vegas 400 promoter Sam Bass, riding solo on a Husky. appeared to be running pretty close to even on elapsed time as they hit the first check, leading Class ~o on elapsed time. Vick and Watkins led Class ~8 into check one physically and on elapsed time. with a two minute margin over Miller. Check three, EI Chinero, at the 106mile mark, was more or less the halfway point and the spot where riders who were dividing the race in half, like Roeseler and Johnson, changed riders. Other teams, such as Ogilvie and Miller. broke the race up into quarters, and changed riders at check one, check two and Tres Posas. When the leaders hit EI Chinero, it was Miller in front with Roeseler just about a minute behind. as it had been since the beginning. Miller set out for Tres Pozos while Johnson took over the other Team Yamaha YZ465. Johnson was gaining on Miller, but between EI Chinero and Tres Pozos, he went into a corner hard and hit a rock which pitched him over the bars. "It was a minor fallover," said Jack later. "I got back over and the bike never quit running." Still, Johnson caught Miller before Tres Pozos and was just leaving the Yamaha pit past Tres Pozos when Miller came in to gas up and hand the bike over to Ogilvie for the final section. Ogilvie caught Johnson in a wash past Cohabuzo Junction, and the remaining 60 miles or so was a flat-out, side-by-side race. Bruce said later that he was riding as hard as he could trying to force Johnson into a mistake. Johnson said he was staying with Ogilvie even though he , had a minute's lead because that lead could slip away very easily. Their machines geared up from Parker to a 110·115 mph top speed, Johnson and Ogilvie were a blur as they CT'OlIIed the finish line on a highway at the outskiru of Mexicali. When SCORE President Sal FISh greeted them, he said, 'That was unbelicvablel" "You should have seen us out on the coursel" Johnson shot back, adding later, "We haven't raced like that in ages. .. The official gap between first and second was listed as one minute, 0.01 seconds. The lead duo had put over 20 minutes on the rest of the pack, which was seeing the developing battle between Fishback and Rutten and the Pfeiffer brothers. Fishback had a two-minute lead on Scott Pfeiffer at El Chinero, but Kent Pfeiffer quicltJy made up that difference when Rutten had a flat seven miles out of EI Chinero and had to ride it 50 miles to Tres Pozos. But Kent was to have his problems as well, and heading towards the finish, they struck. "I overshot a comer and crashed and (another rider) ran into me," he said afterwards. The bikes were tangled up and Kent had to struggle to get free. "It's gonna be closeI" said Kent at the finish line as he, his brother, family and friends waited at the finish line. The Pfeiffers, no strangers to finish line drama after winning the 125cc class here two years ago by only 22 seconds, kept eyes riveted to a watch and the road. They needed six and a half minutes; they just about got it. The countdown ~t into its fmal seconds as Rutten's bike became visible. "Six and a half minutes - I think we got ill" yelled one penon as Rutten roared by in a full throttle blur. The Pfeiffers' celebration wasn't lost on Rutten, downcast over his team's second flat in as many races. "When it means first place, it's kind of disheartening." Later, though, when the times ~ posted at race headquarters, Rutten and Fishback ~ listed as the

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