Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Randy Morales and Derrick Paiement took the overall w in at the year's Baja 1000 when larry Roeseler was penalized for missing a check. Roeseler/ Pfeiffer win Baja 1000, get disqualified By Larry Langley ENSENADA, BC, MEXICO, NOV. 8-9 The team of Larry Roeseler and Kurt Pfeiffer looked to have won the 1985 SCORE Ba ja 1000 off-road race bu t -were penalized ~for missing checkpoint three; the penalty was one-ninth of th eir fin ish time (beca use there are nine ch ecks), and that moved th em back in the sta ndi ngs to third in class . 34 and fifth overa ll. Roeseler was on boa rd the Husky fou r-stro ke a t th e time a nd tol d SCORE officia ls tha t a po lice ca r was sta tioned o n th e h igh way with its lig hts on a nd a policeman wa ved Roeseler throug h the wrong way. " I j ust figu red th ere was someth in g wrong, a n acci den t or so meth in g so I followed hi s directio ns . Wh en I got to the fin ish line. I to ld Sal (Fish ) abou t wha t happen ed immedia tely. We didn 't gai n any time fro m mi ssing the chec k," said Roeseler afterwards . The scoring deci- sian ga ve th e team of Randy Mor ales and Derr ick Pai em ent the o vera ll victory on a factory Ho nda CR500 eq uip ped with a wide-ratio tra nsm issio n a nd a very trick ligh ting coil set-up to allow the mo tocro ss bike to run two very br ight quartz lights. T he 822-mile course was th e same as used in 1983 an d started a nd fin ished in Ens enada, ru n n ing th ro ug h Ojos Negros , EI Ala mo , Sant a Ca ta rina , and Valle de T rin ida d , where it made a turn up th rough Mike's Sky Ranch over to Ca ma lu a nd the Pacific side, down throug h Sa n Qu intin to Sa nta Maria, The Virg in Shrine and the n to P u n ta Blan ca a nd Pun ta Pri eta, wh ere the course tu rned North for the re tu rn leg up th ro ugh Gon- zaga Bay, the infamous " T h re e Sisters," San Felipe and back to Valle de Trinidad where the course was the same back to Ensenada . The co urse of sand, pavement, rocks and silt was a true test of man a nd mach in e. T he first bik e out a t 6:09 a.rn . Friday morning was the XR600 of Chuck Mill er and Bru ce Ogilvie, ATC team man ag er for Ameri can Honda. Just 30 seconds lat er , th e Husky fours tr o ke of Roes el er and Pfeiffer th u m ped off the line in pursuit. The fac to ry BMW team of Tom Kell y a nd rnotocrosser Warren Reid left soon th ereafter. Dan Smith and Dan Ash craft drew a number near the end of th eir class, but quickly mad e up time off the st art. By th e time the riders hit Hi ghwa y 3, Roeseler had put his Husky r ig h t on Miller 's rear fend er, a duel that would last well into the race; in fact, a four-bike duel developed betw een Ogilvie/Miller, Roeseier/ Pfeiffer, Kelly/Reid a nd Ashcra ft/ Sm ith . At one checkpo in t, all fo u r teams pitted at on ce! Their . ela psed times had them apart a' bit but wh en th ey were a ll right together ph ysically , they a ll w ere pumped up to race. At checkpo int three near . Santa Maria, Ash craft had pulled a 1.5minute lead over T om Kelly, wh o was 30 seconds up on Ogilvie, with R oeseler just one m inute back of Ogilvie; and anot h er 60 seco nds back was Moralesl Meanwhile, 17-year-o ld Mark H ildebrand from Parker, Arizona cra shed h is Husky and had to be airlifted out with a severe backinjury. His partner, Garth Sweetl and , tri ed to cont in ue but had to drop ou t. . The Cl ass 30 en try of Gaston Rah ier a nd Eddy Hau, riding th e factory BMW , esta bli shed a n ea rl y class lead in the ir effo rt to repe at Rahier' s class victory in last yea r's race. Their main co m pe titio n was th e entry o f Chris H a ines an d jim Fish back on a fourstro ke H onda. H aines/Fishba ck were seven mi n utes do wn a t check three bu t pu lled a head before checkfive by a hu ge mar gin o f 14 m inutes: j apanese ri der jugat su T oi from Tokyo was trying to finish his second Ba ja 1000 bu t o nly made it to check three. T oi is a well-known magazi ne a nd adventure wr iter in japan. He is regarded as th e George Plimpton o f h is co u nt ry. For th e first ti me in recen t years, a side-car was entered . Ronny Ren ers/ Mari e-j eanne Van H avwerrneiren and Butsen Clarr/ Michel De Beeck en tered a BMW rig th a t wo n th e sidecar class in th e Pari s-Dak ar Rall y. T hey go t as far as check three. Ent ra nts had a 35-ho u r tim e limit to fin ish a nd be co nsidered an off icial fin ish er. The Class 38 team o f Ron Bishop and john Watkins led th eir class th rough check three wi th the Dempsey brothers just 13 minutes back. The Frontier 500 Class 38 winner john Etchartand Ri chard jackson were almost an h our down but hanging in there; there wa s a long way to go, and th e co m m on thought was, " It 's a long race a nd a nyth ing ca n happen ; don 't give u p! " As th e racers spe d toward Punta Prieta, co m m u nica tio ns became verv sketchy and as da rkness fell it was un cert a in wh o was in th e lead. Spe ctators wait ing for the bikes in San Felip e a t check eig ht finall y saw the ligh ts o f a bike - it was Smith o n th e factor y Husky! Bu t less than a m inu te lat er, in slid the factory four stro ke of Roeseler. It look ed to be a race between Husky riders to th e finish, but that race evapora ted shortly th ereaft er when Sm ith return ed to th e H usky pi ts with a very sick bike. Reportedl y th e ro d seized, pu tt in g the yo u ng tea m o u t, again. T hey had led every major off road race this year and then broke. Their bad luck continued , much to their tremendous disappointment. At the finish , Ashcraft waited an xiously not kn owing that hi s partner was o u t of th e race. Then Husky su p port- tea m member Scot H arden arrived and told Ashcraft that Smith was out. Pain a nd dis appointment showed in Ashcraft 's eyes a nd manners as he qui etl y went o ff to one side to contempla te an other bitter DNF. Soon th ereafter, th e sounds o f a four-stroke echoed down the main drag of the resort town and it was Roesel er in first for what they thought wa s a n ov erall vi ctory . A huge crowd was on hand a nd surged forward , surrounding th e " win ners" while th ey were being int erviewed. About 26 minutes lat er, Paiement pulled in on his Honda CR500 and figured th ey had nailed down second overall. Pa iem ent is a very fast desert racer a nd is qu ickly becoming known in SCORE off-road racing. Man y co m pe tito rs didn 't known who he was at the Frontier 500 but they do by now. Morales was happy but in a bit of pain. H e was passing blood briefly though his urine a t th e finish but it cleared up qu ickl y. " I just took a lot of pounding a nd got off a couple of times" said Morales . "We had a pretty good race but th ey had just a bit better (referr ing to Roeseler/ Pfeiffer)." The next bike in was the BMW entry of Tom Kelly arid Warren Reid with Dave Ch ase relieving for the last section. " I signed up as a co-rider in case I was ne ed ed ," said Chase. " Warr en rode th e Three Sisters section a t nigh t a nd th en bail ed on a stra igh t so we decided I wou ld ride the bik e in. " Reid sa id he had a gr eat time. H e rod e in Baj a th e firs t time wh ile preriding. "I'll be back; it wa s a lot of fun ," sa id Reid a fterwa rd s. "T his race is a real cha llenge . We ca n win it a nd ne xt year we will ! We had a few problems th is year bu t we proved the Beemer can run with th e o the r bikes." Fou rt h in Class 22 was th e team of Miller/ Ogi lvie. T hey were sti ll in contention for th e o verall when Miller brok e a rea r wheel a nd lost two hours ' wa itin g for a p it crew to reac h him. Class 21 (250cc) ac tio n had th e team of Mark Vansco u rt and j oe Bo lto n taking the victory o n their American Honda / Pro H onda Oil /Honda line/ Scott/Simpson/ Mugen/ H illtoppers/ P et e ' s R a c i n g / Yo koh a m a /RP Sspo nso red H onda CR2 50. T heir finish in gt im ewas 2l hours, 21 mi n u tes a nd 46.4 seco nds, abo u t fo ur hou rs dow n fro m th e winn in g Class 22 bike. " I had a rea l d ice going with th e Wasden /Al exander team ," said Van sco u rt , "We were neck-and-neck all th e way to Punta Prieta when we had a front flat a nd Alexander got by. Then we saw him com ing ba ck. They had broken their ligh t support bracket and had to get it fixed. Then, leaving San Felipe, we hit some reallv horrible wind through San Matias Pass. I actually got blown 'off th e bik e once! Then we hit some reall y den se fog befor e th e fini sh . It was so bad we had to ride with out go ggles. We're real g lad to win. T his is o ur first rid e o n th e 250 af ter ridi ng 125s for so long. It's gr eat. " All seven entr ies in Class 21 finish ed. T he o nly Class 20 fini sher was . th e team o f Steve Buckley/ Bob j oh nso n on a Hond a CR I25 to com p lete a sweep of the I25cc/ 250cclOpen classes for the red mach ines. Buckley an d j oh n son als o wo n t h e SC O R E Lucern e Vall ey 250. It 's been a good yea r for th em. T hey a re spo nsored by Ame r ica n H onda /H ondalin e/Pro H o nd a O ils/ G ran d Sport T ires and the Hillto p pers M.e. In terestingly enough , their time was o nly four

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