Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 0') ft 00 1-0 CLI .0 8 CLI > o Z (Above left) CowIno_ BrentW"lgSford chergea through. stream..- Mike'. Sky Ranch. partner Scot Harden at the finish. (Above right) Early leader Larry Roeseler _ second. SCORE Off-Road Series: Final round Harden/ Wallingsford fake grueling Baja J.OOO By Dale Brown Photos by Lance Bryson and Brown ENSENADA. B.C .. MEXICO, NOV. 6-7 As darkness fell, the battle for the lead of the 805-mile SCORE/Pernod Baja 1000 raged hot . h d'S and h eavy, But In teen Husqvarna s cot ' £ H ard en and Brent W a nIngslord put t h' N'les eu I Ussery-prepared 1982 430 XC across the Ensenada finish line first, defeating chief combatants Larry Roeseler and Bruce Ogilvie 8 crop rlght)W"'lgSford'. The second of three Husky factory entries won Class 20 (for 125cc machines) as California's Dan Ashcraft and Arizona's Mark Miller brought their '82 125 XC in with a time of 19:59:54.22. Las Vegans Max Switzer and Casey Folks. riding a Sportsman Cycle/Dura· lube-sponsored Husky 450. came out atop an early challenge from the Dempsey brothers. Gene and Sam. to win Class 30 (for riders over 30). Their time was 21 :39:52.88. Class 58. for riders over 38, was settied well after the flag had dropped. The Yamaha-mounted team of Ron Bishop, John Watkins and Dick Vick had appeared to have scored a clear victory with a time over five hours better than the next team. But in using a plane to shuttle the riders around, they ran afoul of SCORE Rule G35. which prohibits use of aircraft to assist vehicles or to have radio contact with them (emergency safety situations excepted). So the win went to the team of Ron Gray, Nick Q.uackenbas and Cliff Scott. Their Yamaha completed the course in 27:09:00.83. The course. the longest loop that SCORE has used since 1976. started in Ensenada and followed a familiar route through EI Rayo and Valle de Trinidad to Mike's Sky Ranch. From there it turned southwest and ran to Camalu. where it turned south and paralleled Baja's Hwy. I to Rancho Santa Ines. From there. the course . turne d west agam an d h ea d e d toward s Punta Blanca and further south before heading north to Punta Prieta. Between Rancho Santa Ines and Punta Prieta was the killer section of the course. Huge silt holes. bordered by thick cactus on either side, featured bottomless traps with ruts on the twotrack trail running up to four feet deep. The fine-textured silt clogged air cleaners, got into machinery and buried scores of can up their door handles. At day morning, 165 vehicles had left Santa Ines. Sixty·three had made it to Punta Prieta. The silt beds turned into an automotive graveyard, and even the three-wheel class winning Honda ATC250R of Mark Weixeldorfer. Dean Sundahl and Mike Chester. with its balloon tires, had to be dug out on several occasions.. After Punta Prieta the course went north through EI Crucero and hugged tbe Sea of Cortez up to San Felipe. Tbe section included another rougb assignment: conquering the rock·laden Three Sisters. a particularly rougll job considering that the vast majority of tbe bikes hit the area in the middle of the night. After San felipe. the course returned to a familiar path, going up through Diablo Dry Lake. San Matais Pass and Valle de Trinidad, where it rejoined the outgoing course. The fU'St bike. the Bob Prickett/Tom Parker Yamaha, left the line at 7 a.m. Of the three major Class 22 contenders, however. Larry Roeseler and the Ron Heben-tuned factory YZ465 was first to EI Rayo. check one. Bob Balentine. handling the first stint on the Al Baker/ Balentine four-stroke Honda, was second into EI Rayo, two minutes in arrears of Roeseler. Wallingsford and the Up-Tite Husky entry of Chuck Miller and Jim Fishback were both three mintues behind Roeseler. By the time Roeseler reached Mike's Sky Ranch. 155 miles into the race. he had a three minute lead on Balentine and was averaging 55 mph. Wallingsford was another three minutes back. one J!linute ahead of Fishback. In Class 21. Scott Pfeiffer was the fU'St to reach Mike·s. but the factory Husky of Tom Kelly and Dan Smith. with Kelly aboard. was ahead on elapsed time. The two bikes were eight minutes ahead of their nearest competitor. the Rick Schumaker/Mark Zoller KTM. The Premier Yamaha/Ha11manIEastWest/Roy's Boys Yamaha of Kurt Pfeiffer and Mike Goodwin had five minutes on the Ashcraft/Miller Husky at Mike·s. for a lead of about three and a half minutes. Another three minutes back was the Scott Coutts/Daryl Folks Husky. but as the day wore on their machine went through two ignitions and DNF after getting to Punta Prieta. Pete Kinney put on a charge with the Yamaha he was co-riding with Brad Nelson and Hurley Wilvert. and led Class 30 at Mike·s. He was followed by the Gary Drean/Bob Lucke Honda and the Steve Bell/Denby Dailey Husky. Folks and Switzer were about 10 minutes off the pace at this point. "I didn't think anybody was going to win the race between the start and Valle de Trinidad," said Folks. who had been bothered by dust and the early morning sun. "I thought the race was going to be won between Rancho Santa Ines and the finish line." First to Mike's in Class 38 was the Honda of Lynn McGraw and Bob Maynard, physically six minutes ahead of the Bishop/Watkins/Vick entry. but only one minute in front on elapsed time. The Gray/Q.uackenbas/Scott machine was lying another minute back in third. Of note in the dash to Colonia Guerrero, the next check. was that Tom Kelly moved himself to within two . ~...l . mmutes 0f t h i d on e Iat'~~ time. e ea At Colonia Guerrero. Roeseler had a seven-minute lead on Balentine. with Wallingsford running third. 14 minutes behind Roeseler. At this point all three riders had nearly 200 miles under their belts. And this was the point in the race where strategy really paid off for Harden and Wallingsford. At Santa Maria, shortly past Colonia Guerrero, a fresh Harden spelled Wallingsford and while nearly 60% of the bikes fin· ished, less than 20% of the four-wheel entries finished within the allotted 35 hours. Of 280 starters, 81 made it. In the 250cc Class t 1, Scott and by 22 minutes and taking the Class 22 and overall win with a time of 17 Kent t'feiffer made it a perfect sweep hours, 14 minutes and 5.81 seconds. of the year's SCORE events, nursing in The torturous nature of the event. their Yamaha and its blown trans· with the distance magnified by the mission for a time of 19:27:41.28. rough, rocky and inhospitable course, With this win. driver of record Kent was testified to by the times and by the apparently. sewed up the overall motorfinishing percentage. 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