Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

z' w ~ ~ !I I! 00 ... z ~ en c.o 0 ~ 0 - :I: 0') ~ c.o C\l ..c: u l-o ~ :E Dan Ashcraft finished second overall, two minute. behind Smith. Despite getting lost for two minute. on the first loop, Husky'. Dan Smith won the 0-37 hare and hound at Lucerne Valley, Califomia. Huntington Beach M.C.jD-37 Seventh Annual Hare and Hound Smith dominates Means Dry Lake By Anne and Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, MAR. 9 _ Team Husqvarna's Dan Smith once again dominated District 37 desert racing with a convincing win at the Seventh Annual Hare and Hound hosted by the Huntington Beach Motorcycle Club at Means Dry 'II h · L~ k.e. B ut It w~sn .~ a smoot sallIng for SmIth m the early stages of the race as he took a 10 two-minute scenic detour after losing the course near Anderson Dry Lake, and also had to fight o£( a strong challenge from the tenacious Ed McCoy, who was snapping at his heels throughout the first lap. Smith took the lead at the end of the short, choppy bomb run and as the riders started to sort themselves out up a sandy uphill and through a rocky section with bike-swallowing whoops. It was Smith in front,followed by 250ccclassrider Paul Krause (Suz), with Ed McCoy's Open-class KTM in third. Chris Crandall, Ken Parry and Dan Ashcraft were next through in the Expert class, with first Amateur rider MiKe Johnson a high seventh overall at the bomb, McCoy worked his way around Krause and then Smith for a look at the lead very early in the first lap, but with little desert riding under his belt the ex-motOCTosser [rom Montan~ was happy to [all back and let the experienced Smith read the terrain [or him. The twO were still playing followthe-leader when Smith missed a turn and lost the course. McCoy, trusting the Expert's leadership, als? missed the tum and followed Smith away from the course. After spending about two minutes looking for ribbon, the wayward twosome spotted Ashcraft and Crandall on the course, and once again rejoined the hunt. Smith and McCoy worked their ~ay b~ck up to take the lead a!1d h~ld It until the end of the 47-mlle ~Irst loop, whIch took the leaders Just under one hour to complete. But when the pit stop was over, Smith headed out on the second loop alone. ~cCoy, who had crushed .his header pipe on a rock drop-o£( dunng the first loop, was forced to drop out of the runnmg. . "I don't know where It happenedsomewhere after the second check, I think," said McCoy. "I smashed the pipe in and didn't have the power to pull Smith after that. "We also got lost for a couple o[ minutes out there. It su.cks when you're lookmg for the trail and you know everyone else is still on it and getting ahead of you agam." With McCoy out of the running, Smith had a clear shot.atthe checkered ~Iag and started to b.. l1d a commandmg lead over Ashcraft, Crandall and Krause, who were still fighting it out neck in neck as they came through the check at the end of the first loop. Dale Knapp, who was eighth at the bomb, raced into the pits in sixth place overall, second in class, just ahead of fellow 250cc class competitoI' Ken Parry. Knapp, however, dropped back to seventh overall after a slower stop for gas letting Parry slip out of the pits in front. Knapp was one of the many riders who took a little extra time to ensure that their tanks were filled to the brim in the hope of avoiding an extra stop for gas on the long 55-mile second loop. By the end o[ the second loop there had been few changes in the running order. Smith took the £lag with a full two minute lead over Ashcraft, with another minute back to Crandall in third. "My big problem was that I got lost," said Smith at the finish line. "I probably lost about two minutes out by Anderson Dry Lake. I went straight instead of going o£( to the right. I thought it was going to go out on the old SCORE course. And then I had to pass both Ashcraft and Crandall back out there. "It was a fast course, and a long one too," said Smith, who had to stop near the end o[ the second loop to add an extra quart of gas to his tank. "The second loop was a long one so we carried some gas just in case we ran out. I had to use an extra quart -and I think I'm about on empty now. It was close! The course was fast and it could've been a bit tighter for me -I like that better. But I won, so I can '( really say any thinK bad." Ashcraft, who had to contend with a nat [ront tire and also had to add extra gas to finish the second loop, said he was constantly looking for extra gears. "There wasn't much to the course really," he said. "There were a few tight spots in the second loop that were fun, but it was mostly wide open all the way. I couldn't have gone any faster. It was sixth gear all the way across the valleys, and I was always looking for another gear. I'm not into that fast stu£( - the cross grain with the ditches. That's where Smith passed me." Third-place finisher Crandall said he also thought the course was fast. "The course was challenging, but a little bit fast at times. I didn't have enough top speed," he said. "I got o££ course a few times on the corners too." Crandall also said he enjoyed the change of scenery provided by HBMC. "It was a fun course and it was di££erent [rom what everyone else runs us through. It took us through some new areas," he said. Fourth place in the Open class, and fifth overall, went to Ron Shuler (Yam), who was nearly taken out o[ the race by a cactus. "I hit a cactus somewhere out there, and fell. I had bits in my knee and in my hand, and I had to try to pull them out, but my knee's still [ull o[ it," said Shuler. "I thought about giving up because I was in such pain." Shuler was one of many riders who complained that the course was badly marked in places. "There were some big ditches that I was hitting that weren't marked," he said. "One was at the end of a dry lake bed and that's a big danger because I hit it going full speed." One of the Senior Open class riders complained that the course markings were inconsistent. "The danger markings were inconsistent,''' he said. "Sometimes there was no reason for them, and sometimes when they were needed, they just weren't there." The 250cc Expert class was an easy victory [or Paul Krause, who led [rom start to finish and was way out in front of the rest of the 250cc competition at the checkered £lag. Krause, who was in fourth place overall at the end of the race, said he just couldn't keep up with the Open class bikes. "It was so East there was nothing I could do," he said. "The Open class bikes just went zipping on by." Krause was one of the few riders who said he liked the short, cross-grain bomb run that took many riders down in the early running. "I liked the bomb run because I got a good start," he said.."It wasn't wide open and there weren't many trails to [unnel down so it gave the 2505 a chance." Krause wanted to thank his sponsors Allied Suzuki, U.S. Suzuki, O'Neal, and Neal Enterprises. The race for second place in the 250cc class was a closely fought battle - between Dale Knapp and Ken Parry in the early running, and between Knapp and Kenji Gauthier late in the second-loop. Knapp and Parry went into the second loop together, but at the checkered flag, Gauthier sq ueaked through for second in class, passing Knapp as he was pushing his bike up to the finish line. Parry held on to take fourth in class. "I was pushing my bike in when he passed me," said a tired Knapp at the finish. "I probably seized the transmission. I've got oil all over the place - I think it all ran out of the transmission. I nearly made it too." The first C class bike home was Duane Summers, in nimh place overall, and with oil all over the bike. "I think I have a hole in the case," he said on the finish line. "Oil kept spraying out everywhere - all over my foot, and it got so slippery that I couldn't keep my root on the peg." The race was an easy victory for Summers. who said hedidn't even see another 125 while he was out on the course, despite losing about five minutes changing a flat front tire in the pits. The first Senior home raced in to take 10th overall. Richard Jackson (Hus). who said the hare and hound was his first race in a long time, told Cycle News that he was riding Dan Smith's old bike. "This is Smith's old bike and he taught it well," he said. "It really knows how to finish!" jackson described the course as a "very good old man's course. With all the rain out here yesterday we didn't have to push the dust, and we could sit down a lol. It was like Mexico and I loved it," he said. The first Super Senior across the line in the Amateur class echoed Jackson's sentiments. ].T. Clark, whose son jim Clark jr. took fourth overall in the Novice class, said the race was "just right for an old man. There were places to rest and some places to work," he said. "In this class we look (C'ullt;lIurd to pflgl' 25)

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