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/126657
(Above left) Den Smith (left) end Den Ashcreft _re heppy fellows. (Top right) Scott end Kent Pfeiffer _re first 26OCC. (Above) Runner-up Scot Herden. HDRAICoOTS Off-Road Series: Round 4 Smith/Ashcraft take second Frontier 500 By Dale Brown Photos by Lance Bryson 'and Brown LAS VEGAS/RENO, NV, SEPT. 2 Dan Smith and Dan Ashcraft, aboard a Husqvarna 500XC, teamed up to conquer what civilization has not, 500 miles of inhospitable Nevada desert. Winners of last year's inaugural Las Vegas-toReno Frontier 500 the H usky, backed duo got out front early and were never challenged en 14 route to their nine-hour, 40.16-minute best overall time. Second overall went to another Team Husky entry, this one ridden by Scot Harden and Larry Roeseler. After spotting the leaders 15 minutes in the early going, they held the pace to finish 16 minutes behind the winners, garnering second in the Open class with a time of 9:56.51. Third went to the privateer Honda XR500 of Steve Beck and Kevin Steele. Their Art Lanier/Honda-Kawasaki of Las Vegas/M/C Tire Store-sponsored entry covered the distance in 10:32.12. The American Honda-sponsored team of Scott and Kent Pfeiffer overcame early troubles to win the 250cc class with a time of 10:39.16. Peter Postel and Kevin Hopkins, also out of the American Honda camp, turned in a consistent ride to win the 125cccIass, taking 11:34.28 to cfethed«d. . '. A.C. Bakken and former mo~ocross champ Gary Jones nogg~ theIr Husky on despIte a few flat tires to successfully defend their Class 30 championship win an II :54.58 clocking. Las Vegans Casey Folks and Max Switzer used yet another Husqvarna to turn in a bl ue-ribbon ride in the grey-hair division. Their II :43.52 was good enough to win Class 38 by a 27-minute margin. . . The second runm,ng. of the Htgh Desert Raang ASSOCiatIOn event featured a few course c~a~ges: The most notable was the ellmmatlon of the silt beds near Pahrump, n<:>t far from the start. WhIle not a major bother for the motorcycles, the silt beds claimed almost half the car e~tries in 1982. Co-wmner Smith descnbed the new route as, " ... pretty gnarly. It seemed like there were ditches every 20 feet or so." The bikes started shortly afterdawn, leaving two abreast every 15 seconds. Smith and Ashcraft had drawn the 10th starting position, and with Smith at the controls, they were out front by the 20-minute mark. The· American 'Honda XR500'of' Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller started in the 12th slot, but Ogilvie picked up a flat rear tire almost immediately. The Bob Rutten/Tom Kelly XR500 soon worked into second place. Behind them was the Husky of Harden and Roesler after starting a dusty 40th. The team elected to change riders every 50 miles to help counter the choking dust. By checkpoint three, where the course met Highway 95 at Lathrop Wells, Smith delivered the bike to "Book 'em, Dan-O" Ashcraft with a 15-minute lead. Rutten/Kelly and Harden/Roseler had almost identical two-hour, 39-minute elapsed time marks in getting to Lathrop Wells. Beck/Steele were through the check fourth at 2:42. Class 30 leaders Bakken/Jones and the first 250cc machine, a Husky ridden by Daryl Folks and Kent Miller, came through in 2:48. Ashcraft continued to press the team's advantage as the course made its way north. At the sixth check, the halfway point at Tonopah, Ashcraft gave the bike back to Smith with an 18-minute lead. Roeseler and Harden were still running second, but the Ogilvie/Miller effort was on the comeback trail and had closed to within three minutes of Roeseler and Harden. Kelly and Rutten ran fourth. Up front, the leaders were having little trouble. Their only mechanical ills came in the form of a cracked rear hub and a front wheel minus a few spokes; both were changed in a single pit stop. Although well clear of the competition. Smith reported a minor scare. "Every time I crested a hilL' 'd look back and see some dust. I don't know if they were dust devils or what, but I was really on the gas. Thm at the end of a long valley past GabbS. I looked back and didn't see anything. I cruised from then on." While the leaders were all alone. the battle for second was really heating up between the Harden/Roeseler Husky and the Ogilvie/Miller Honda. The former team was having troubles with their rear brake, and the latter had incurred still more flat tires. But they were going at on the way to Gabbs, until Ogilvie was momentarily halted when the rocker arm shaft came out of the cylinder head. Ogilvie had to pull the gas tank off to , make repairs, and that dropped him well behind Roeseler and Og' vie and allowed Beck and Steele by as well. The race was supposed to go all the way to Reno, buta last-minute change called for competition to stop at Virginia City. Ashcraft came through Virginia City before the finish Jine crew was ready, and he continuell on the way he'd pre-run. "I was ready to go to Reno, but a cop pulled me over and said that the finish was back in Virginia City," related AshcraEt. In taking second overall anei the only other time under 10 hours, Harden and Roeseler did have a few problems. "I got to a pit and neither the crew nor my partner was there. , bummed some gas and was about to take off and ride the final section, which was Larry's, when somebody came up and said Larry and the crew