Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Scott Morris (right) and Jeff Phillips, the 250cc winners. (Below) Chuck Steams (shown) and Anthony Pasqualotto rode to fourth. Dan Ashcraft on the runner-up machine near Beatty. Note the missing front fender as a result of partner Dan Smith's crash. running. By the time Pfeiffer turned it over to Roeseler at the Highway 95 road crossing, 70 miles from the finish, they had six minutes on Ashcraft. "Book'em Dan-a" was riding from 20 miles before Gabbs to the finish. With the Pasqualotto/Stearns machine suITering transmission troubles, and Harden having seized it up real well in a sand wash past Gabbs, third became the property of the Morris/ Phillips entry. Roeseler lost three minutes of his lead taking care of a problem in the final pit, but he still brought it across the line for the overall win. It has been a busy week for the veteran offroad star; who arrived back from his gold medal-winning ride in the ISDE on Monday evening. Roeseler arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday, pre-ran the course Wednesdy and Thursday, jetted and impounded the bike on Friday and rode the race on' Saturday. "The race went really good - well, after a hundred miles," said Roeseler at the finish line. "The dust was pretty bad off the stan, and 1 tipped over and lost some time. After that Kurt got on the bike and we started moving back up. Everybody had their share of troubles and we just kept climbing back up. owedidn'treally have any troubles, except for the slow start. '~ Pfeiffer echoed his partner. "Great ride. 1 had no problems. We were going to change wheels at Tonopah, but we took a look at them and 'decided to skip it." Ashcraft, riding an 1984 500XC like the winners, took the flag three minutes after Roeseler. "I had a real good ride through the last section, except for the last 10 miles or so when 1started getting tired. Larry passed us in the pits there while we were changing wheels and we never did get him back. If we hadn't have changed the wheels 1 think we could've stayed in front of them all the way," said Ashcraft. Although he was still hurting from the crash, Smith managed a slight smile. "We were down 20 minutes at one point. We made a little of it back." Third overall, first in the 250cc class, went to the Western Cab Company/Macon ConstructionlTriangle Surveying/Sportsman Cycle-backed Husky of Morris and Phillips. "We had a pretty good ride," said Morris. "Our silencer broke and we had some chain roller problems but that was it. jeff got a helluva start and passed a bunch of people. We broke it up into 50-mile sections so we had a fresh rider on the bike at all times." "Put in a good word for Glenn Wi chmeyer," said Phillips. "He did all the work on the bike and that was the fastest 250 I've ever ridden." Pasqua lotto was the next rider to fi nish. "Excellent - everything went well and 1 was really smoking," he said, "We just had a few problems and that was it. Maybe next time." He and Stearns were sponsored by Hercules Distributing, Vegas Cycle and O'Neal. Harden, who put in 350 miles altogether, was the next rider to cross the finish line. "We had a lot of seizures. The final one was between Gabbs and 95 in a sandwash. Dead. I had to get it towed to get it started, and 1 crashed twice doing that; over the bars both times. We probably would have gotten third if it hadn't have happened, but everyone else was riding excellently. 1 am really happy we finished. " Arizonans Mark Hildebra.n

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