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Soon Johnson and R~ler had 20
minutes on Ogilvie as Bruce turned
the bike over to Miller at Oasis. Since
the carb was still acting up, Ogilvie
headed down the pavement to. meet
Miller at EI Chinero. where they
replaced the carb with one from another bike.
Between Oasis and EI Chinero,
R~ler hit a rock in a sandwash and
cracked the front hub. "I hit something
>.and it went crunch. The wheel started
shaking and I stopped and looked
down and there were cracks all over.
So I went about 10 miles an hour into
.our pit just past El Chinero, and we
decided to put both front and rear
wheels on it. I had a real good ride
from then on," said R~leT.
The third place machine, the WalIingsfordlHarden Husky, was also having problems. Wallingsford had to
ride the bike 40 miles in to Oasis with a
flat rear tire that eventually came off
the rim and took the silencer, side
plate, etc., off with it. Harden had lost
some time earlier when, unaware that
you could either take a sandwash or
the Baja 500 course into Santa Catarina,
he had opted for the longer 500 route.
At EI Chinero R~ler had a 22
minute lead on Ogilvie, with Harden
another eight minutes back.. Seven
minutes later came Fishback and Rut·
ten leading their class, with the Class
22 Husky of Clarke and Timms, sponsored by Rossetti Construction and Up
Tite Husky, 10 minutes behind.
The lOth bike through EI Chinero
was the Maxwell/Howard Class 20 enny, with a very secure lead after
Wayne Martin had seized the machine
he was riding with Case, and it was
nhree hours before he could finish
changing the piston and get going
again.
Shirey and Staats had 10 minutes on
Class 30 competitors Douglas and Peterson at El Chinero, while Vick and
Watkins were still leading Class 38.
Johnson got on the lead Yamaha
when R~ler returned to El Chinero,
and then took it for the second time
past San Felipe and on towards the return route. R~ler picked it up at
Valle de Trinidad to ride to the finish,
and going past Nuevo, still had the
,daylight with him. But just before
Pjos Negros, near disaster hit when
the 465cc motor spit its spark plug. "I
,guess it just worked loose - the hea t
.and the compression or something. I
managed to get a plug in and get it
tightened as much as I could. I took it
easy from then on and just cruised,"
said Roeseler at the finish in Ensenada,
where he was interviewed by Jim McKay
andJaclUe Stewart for the Wide World
ofSports broadcast.
Miller was the next rider to finish,
after encountering a car on the course
near the finish. "All the way from EI
Rayo to EI Coyote in the dark I was
chasing this Bronco that was bookin'
down the trail. I got by and he got
roosted. I slowed down twice," said
Miller, who also added that he felt he
and Bruce had locked up the Class 22
points championship.
Wallingsford, third into the finish,
was a little down. "We just had all
kinds of problems. "
Fishback's trouble·free ride finally
ran into obstacles between Valle de
Trinidad and 'Nuevo when his light
went out. He navigated into Nuevo with
the light from the miner's lamp on his
helmet, and they replaced the ignition
and lighting coil at Nuevo. Knowing
he had a big lead, he just cruised into
the finish for the team's fourth straight
win in 1980.
Clarke and Timms finished next,
and were the top privateers in the
overall motorcycle finishing order.
The Maxwell/Howard Class 20 machine had seized near San Felipe and
lost some time, but were still leading
the class handily. But disaster hit near
Santa Catarina when the connecting
rod broke. Maxwell had to spend a
cold night in the desert before hitching
a ride back to Ensenada the following
morning.
In Class 30, Shirey had to take over
for his partner Staats, when Steve
crashed near E1 Chinero and was
unable to continue. The engine suffered
a seizure on the Diablo Dry Lake, but
the bike kept running and Shirey
brought it in for the win. Rick was one
of many entries to encounter thick fog
on the nine-mile pavement section between the Pepsi Stand and Ensenada,
where visibility was near zero.
Douglas and Peterson continued on
to place second in Class 30, despite a
hairy time when they lost the lights be·
tween Diablo and Mike's Sky Ranch.
They were two hours be.hind the
leaders at the finish.
•
Casey Folks continued his solo ride
right into the finish for third in Class
30, having spent 17 hours and 35
minutes on the bike. "It was a very
personal thing with me to run and
finish this race," he said later,
Richard Jackson and Dennis De
Camp, two-time winners this year in
Class 30 on a Kern Sportcycle Husky,
placed fourth in this event. They spun
a flywheel and had to replace it, welding a new unit right onto the shaft and
using clothes hanger wire to shim it.
Vick's and Watkins' Class 38 win
hopes ground to a halt when the piston
did likewise on diablo Dry Lake. Vick
managed to get the 'machine to a
Yamaha pit in the vicinity and
changed the piston, but the time lost
dropped them to fourth in cl.ass.
Davidson and Grant also seized on
the San Felipe loop, but their machine
kept going, albeit losing its lights
t':Vice on the way in, and they picked
up the class win. Don Teeters and Lee
Hamby took second on a Lakewood
Honda/Watering Hole-sponsored
Husky.
Perseverance paid off for Case and
Martin, as they finished in the wee
hours of the morning to take the Class
20 win, and Case later thanked Mike
Goodwin for prepping the bike, Goodwin was to have ridden the bike with
Kurt Pfeiffer, but Pfeiffer was injured
in another race and he sold it to Case,
The Coutts/Folks Husky recovered
from four and a half hours of downtime when they broke, and then replaced, the magneto, to finish 57
minutes behind Case and Martin and
place second in class.
Six teams from France were entered,
and four finished. Yann Cadoret and
Michel Merel had the best placing, a
sixth in Class 22.
Many-time ISDT medalist Herbert
Schek of West Germany was entered
on a BMW with Tom Sachenacher,
and they finished with a time of 19
hours and 48 minutes. Scheck reportedly got lost coming' into the finish and
spent an hour winding his way through
the streets of Ensenada.
.
Of the 52 motorcycles that started,
29 finished within the 28 hour limit. •
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(Abovel Jim FIShback (shownl and Bob Rutten made it a 1980 sweep of
Class 21. IBelowl Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller Ishownl took second
overall. They probably locked up the 1980 Class 22 championship.
Results
CLASS 22 IOPENI: 1, I..arTy Roeseler/Jock Johnson
IVamI12:45:13.91; 2. Bruce OgilvioiChucl< Miller IVam)
13:04:4021; 3. Brent WaiingafordlScot Harden (Husl
13:20:13.85; 4. Rusty Clarkol Cory Timms IHus); 5.
Randy HoIlenbecklPoul Eddy IHusl; 6. Vann CadoretJ
Michel Meret (Yaml; 7. Jeff Preoch/Bill Conroy IVam);
8. Torry Clart