Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

;- • ~ III E o 00 0') .-4 Minus his goggles following a collision with a Bronco going the wrong wayan the course, co-winner Bruce Ogilvie nurses the bike towards Ojos Negros. S CORE Of f -Ro ad S e r i es : Round three Ogilvie /Mi l ler battle to win Ba ja Internacional By Dale Brown Photos by Suzie Mann and Brown ENSENADA , B.C . , MEXICO , JUNE 7 Each surviving a head-on collision with a car corning the wrong way on the course , Team Yamaha's Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller kept the gas on their YZ465 to win the 482-mile SCORE Baja Internacional with a time of nine hours, 39 minutes and 25 .27 seconds, six minutes ah ea d of the runners -up , Kern 14 Pa rk and Terry Clark on a 390 Husky. T he accid en ts, which happened within 50 m iles of each other , force d the pair to replace a fro nt wheel, a nd the n the front forks , changing their I-l-minute lead into a on e-m inute deficit, but they gained ba ck much of the lost time. Neither rid er was injured , though Bruce could not rem ember rid ing the few miles from th e scene of his accident to the rider changeover point at Ojos Negros. T eam Yamaha's Class 21 (250cc) entry ofJ im Fishback and Bob Rutten made it three wins in three tries this year, topping the class by 13 minutes. In the I25cc Class 20, the Premier Yamaha of Kun Pfeiffer and Mike Goodwin emerged victors after a tough battle with the Yamaha of Bob Maxw elI and Randy Coulter . In Class 30 (for riders over 30) the win went to the Kern Sport Cycles/ Anaheim Husqvarna-sponsored 390 Husky of Richard Jackson and Dennis DeCamp after they made quite some said u nbelievable - a lat e ra ce charge . In Class 38 (ride rs over 38) Dick Vick and John Watkins con tinued thei r victory stroll, ta king the win on their YZ465 without significa nt opposition . Most riders were unhappy with the course du e to its short 241-m ile distance and the two-loop structure of the race, which for ced riders on their second loop to weave their way t hr oug h the slower fou r-wheel classes. Passing, due to heavy dust and the size of th e cars the mselves, was d ifficul t. Most riders said tha t once many of the cars saw th em , the car would pull over , but it often me ant working th rough a quarter-mile mo ving dust storm to get close enough . SCORE President Sal Fish admitted that he wasn't altogether happy with the course, but pointed out a t the riders'Zdrivers' meeting that " the days you can go anywhere you want here are coming to an end." Also adding to th e danger factor was the amount of non-ra ce traffic going both forwa rd and backward on the course - not only the Mexicans who live in the areas the course passes through , but American pit crews and spectators as welI. There were , unfortunately, more injuries than usual. Fred Hansen , Jr. of Las Vegas was ridi ng a 250cc Husky with Rick Finger when he hit a rock on th e way to Mike's Sky Ranch and suffered a lacerated throat , broken ribs, a nd a broken femur. He was air lifted to Uni versity Hospita l in San Diego. Husky's Scot Harden ap parently hit the sa me rock an d inj u red his shoulder . Class 30 ent ra nt Ivan Summers suffered a broken leg before reaching the highway to ValIey de Trinidad, but with the help of some of the four-wheel teams , was reached and then taken to San Diego . And finally, Larry Roeseler, co -winner in the Mexicali 250 , went wide around a corner to. avoid an oncoming car, got into some rain ruts and crashed, suffering a mild shoulder separation. " I knew that Jack would ride the rest of th e way, so I just rode one-handed until I go t it to him ," said Roeseler later. Racers started fro m downtown Ensen ad a begi nning at 5:30 a .m. , and rode the highwa y con nec ting Ensena da and San Felipe for 13 m iles before th ey headed off the road at Pied ras Gord as , or if you wilI, the Pepsi Stand . T he th ree m ost suc cessful teams in the past three years of SCORE ra cing - Ogilv ie and Miller, Harden a nd Brent Wallingsford , a nd Roeseler and Johnson were among the first fou r to start, going right after the first bike, th e Husky of Wayne Martin and Rusty Clarke. With the bikes starting 15 seconds apart , it wasn't long before Miller and Roeseler used the Yarnahas' top end to overtake Martin and pulI int o the lead. With Harden right behind them , the leaders began to hit traffic as the cou rse neared Ojos Negros and continued on to the first check at El Ra yo. "O ne guy in a Bronco, he raced us," said Miller after the race. "He was going pretty good, and we had to fight to get by him." Fishback and Rutten started off smoothly in Class 21, taking a onem in ute lead past check one, with the Dan Ashc raft/Mark ZolIer Viking Air/ Up -Tire Husky leading the pursuit. Scott Coutts (Hus) had the lead in th e one-two -fives at San ta Ca tarina , check two, wit h Max welI and Coulter four minutes in arrears. The Pfeiffer/Goodwin team was another four m inutes back. Charlie Conway and Lynn McGraw had the Class 30 lead at Santa Catarina, slightly ahead of Mac Douglas and Lon: Peterson (Yam ) and (on ela psed time) the late-starting Jackson/DeCamp effort. Vick and Watkins started next to last in Class 38 , but were running with the Rod Gilliland/Zane Prather Husky and the Bryon Farnsworth/Bill Friant Yamaha two hours int o the race. Aft er cr ashing past El Rayo, Roeseler dropped to a half nour behind Miller a t th e next check, and subsequently, dropped nearly a half hour more before he could get the bike to Johnson . Wi th Roeseler losing time, second place was inherited by Harden and Wallingsford, until Scot . got off and hurt his shoulder on the way to Mike 's. He got th e bike to El Rodeo, where Wallingsford took over for the remainder of the race. After the problems encountered by Harden and Roeseler, second in Class 22 was taken over by Park and Clark on their Husqvama-sponsored entry. In Class 21 , the lead was taken over briefly by Ashcraft and ZolIer when Rutten got a rear flat . but the Yamaha teamsters were quickly back out front and got some breathing room when Ashcraft bailed off and broke his throttle. , At El Rodeo MaxwelI and Coulter had the smalI -bore lead, with Coutts and Pfeiffer/Goodwin running in a virtual dead-heat for second. T he Can-Am of Ron Bishop and Mike Harper had the Class 30 lead a t El Rodeo, fou r minutes ahead of George Erl and George Luther on an Up -Tire Husky. Vick and Watkins had 10 m inutes on the next Class 38 entry,

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