Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ >- W ....I t:l Z ~ >a: a: ~ >- '" en 0 0 l.!") I- 00 C"l :I: l>. :.0 :"J Cl.! .... ...J ~ (A bove) Winners Scot Harden (left) and Kurt Pfeiffer. (Below ) Casey Folks Jr. (shown) and Max Switzer topped the Class 30 division . Scot Harden teamed with Kurt Pfeiffer to win the 12th-annual SCORE Baja 500 in the scorching heat. They also beat all the four-wheel entrants. SCORE Baja 500 Internacional .Harden/Pfeiffer win overall By Larry Langley Ei':SEi'\ADA. BAJA CALIFORNIA, J Ui':E 8 The team of Scot H arden and Kurt P feiffer overcame engine 'problems caused by a carburetor blowing out of the intake manifold twice (d ue to a broken clamp), to win the 12th-An n ual SCO RE Baja 500 on a factory Husq varna 500XC. T heir time of eig h t hours, 33 m inutes a nd 5.6 secon ds bea t all 12 the four-whee l en tra nts a lso. T he Bel-Ray/ Autolite/ H usqvarna / Metzeler-spon sored team 'was ru n ni ng 20 m inu tes behi nd team mat es Dan Smi th / Dan Ashcraft on the other Team H usk y 500XC when Ashcraft 's bike lost its coo lant in the scorching 1150 F h eat and seized ncar Mike's Skv Ranch. The heat wa s a facto r as Ixith bikes a nd bod ies had a hard tim e co p ing with it. , T he race start was dela yed briefl y , d ue to early morn in g fog but at 5:40 a.m ., the first bike, ridden by Frank Vettas fom Pep per Pi ke, O hio, left the line wi th th e rest of th e field start ing a t 3D -second intervals. Vreuas's ride ended 20 mil es later when h is XR 500 q uit. Later that n igh t, someone stole the bike from the Bah ia H otel par king lot. Partn er Lo nnie Ritch ie didn't even get to ride. Team H o nda member Randy Morales started third. an d h is CR500 seized solid when he shi fted int o third gear off th e sta rt. He replaced th e enti re top end but it took h im 2~i hours. Wh en he finall y got goin g . a bou t 50 cars / truc ks had started. " It was prett y to ug h passing th e cars" said Morales later. " Bu t once I got past most of them things went oka y." Mora les was team ed with Derr ick Pa iement and th ey even tuall y ended up th ird in class , a hell of a rid e. The course ran from th e coo l, fogshro uded coastal canyo ns near En senada to Oj as Negro , Tres Hermanos, Nu evo Junction, T res Pozos (Where it wasreponedly 117°.),down toEIChinero and on to San Felipe where th e co urse turned back towards Ensenada across Diablo Dry La ke (Where Dennis Grissom checked h is wat ch thermometer a nd saw itreadan in credible 1320.), up th e road to Mik e's Sky Ran ch before h eading back to N uevo J unction , El Ravo and back to Ojas Negros wh ere the riders picked up the same course as th ey rode in th e morning. The first word abo ut the race from everv riders was hoi. Vetera n riders said ' it was one of th e hottest races in th eir memory. Medics on the course were right on top of thin gs and on ly on e case of heat prostration was record ed. Bu t a n um ber o f riders dropped out or rode very slowly as the suffocating temperature took its to ll. Dua ne Summers usua lly rides a 125 Cagiva but was tea med ' wit h J ohn Rudder o n a Class 21 (25Oc 'Cag iva c) for th is race. T hey were ac tua lly riding a 1984 190cc motorcycle but it was eno ug h as they easily won th eir class in a time of n in e hours, 18 mi nutes and 38 seconds on the O 'Neal/ Scott USA/Sidewi nder/ Neo Oil -sponsored Cagiva. T hey replaced a wheel a t Vall e de T rin idad bu t had no other prob lems ot her tha n Rudder was weak as he had been fig h tirig the fl u a ll week. Early 250 leaders were Dave Chase and Brett H owell on a factory-su pported 250XC Husky, The bike started running poorly with Ch ase aboard and it expired soon a fter Howell took over while still in th e lead near San Felipe. T he next th ree position s in the 250cc class went to local Ensenada riders. Oscar Esp inoza J r. tea med with his brother Vito to take second pl ace just 20 minutes behind Sum mer/ R udder on a CR 250 H on da whi le Fran cisco Gonzalez a nd Art uro Vazquesz also rode a CR250 H on da in ano ther 20 m inutes back. The Mexican team s were instant celebriti es and were interviewed on loca l T V at the finish . Int erestingly eno ugh, the 250cc class had th e high est fin isher ra te with on ly th e team of How ell / Ch ase DN F' ing - the ot her five tea ms all finis hed. Four overall (bikes) went to the Class 38 (riders over 38 years ol d, aka "The Old Guys") team of Casey Fol ks Jr. and Max Switzer from Las Vegas, Nevada . They rode a 500XC Husky and were sponsored by Wh iskey Pete's Cas ino/ DuraIube/Sports ma n Cycle. Folks finished th e race with a finger that looked like it had been chewed up by a meat gri nder. Switzer had warned him a t th e last rider changeover that th e rear tire was getting slip pery and Fo lks promptly slid out and hurt his finger. Other than a pi pe bracket that brok e and Switzer edging off the side of th e infamous Sum m it, they did n 't have any major problems. Second in Class 22 (bikes over 25Occ) went to th e South African team of Neil Woo lridge and Roland Geiger on a Kawasaki 500. Their ride was worth m entioning for a number of reasons. The biggest is they had not pr e-ridden the co urse! The second was that they had no p it sup port. They had gas stashed at th e pits but no pi t person nel to help. T hey had to sto p and pour gas by th ernselves. Wh en th ey had flat tires (two of them ), they had to borro w tubes and cha nge them! They wanted to thank long time Baja racer Ron Bishop for his help and advice. They will be back but wi th more support. They finished over two ho urs behind Pfeiffer/H ard en a nd 26 minutes ahead of Morales/Paiemen t. The I25cc class (Class 20) was won by J am ie T ucker /Joe La ne on a CRI 25 H onda. Their win was not without p robl ems either. " I was chas ing the leader (johnso n/ Buckley) and was in thei r dust wh en I hit a ditch and cras h ed," said Tucker. " We dropped bac k a co uple of p ositions bu t go t th e lead back before Nu evo Junction. The on ly ot her p robl ems we had was the heat and a flat tire goi ng over the Summit." T he second-p lace bike was th e Steve Buckley/ Bob Johnson H onda, class winners at th e Gr eat Mojave 250. T hey had rear wh eel problems th ere when th ey finis hed on eig h t spokes bu t new Buchan an wheels solved that p roblem . " I h it a ditch so hard that it broke the tripl e clamps" said Buckley. " Luckily we weren 't that far from the pits and one of our crew rode a bik e bac k to us and we swapped th e ent ire front end but it took us an hour." "The hea t was

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