Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kurt Pfeiffer teamed with Larry Roesele, and finished fourth overall. Despite suffering a flat tire. the Scot Harden (shown) and Garth Sweetland Husky team topped the Las Vegas 300 desert race by six minutes. Best In The Desert/Duralube .Las V~as 300 Harden and Sweetland win in the rocks • By Anne and Tom Van' Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LAS VEGAS, NV, MAY 4 Consistent and determined riding by Team Husky's California/Arizona combination of Scot Harden and Garth Sweetland took top honors at the inaugural running of the Best In The Desert/Duralube Las Vegas 300. The tenacious Harden/Sweetland duo held off a continuous 18 threat from M-SlaT's Nevada/California team of Anthony Pasqualollo and Grant Palenske to take the checkered £lag in the 240-mile team race held at Jean Dry Lake, just south of Las Vegas. The race, which was spon ored by the Best In The Desen organization headed by Casey Folks, with suppon and a generous package of oil and a souvenir haLCoreach rider from Danny Hopkins of Duralube, allracted a total of 7\ teams for its first running under the new fewer miles/no-prerunning formal. The race was formerly run as the Mint400 until race organizers banned motorcycles in 1977, after which it was run for nine years as the La Vegas 400, a 400-mile team race with pre-running of the course allowed. The n'ew format was adopted this year in an effort to reduce costs for riders and organizers after the race lost its major sponsor, and in order to reduce damage to the desert. The riders were up before dawn to begin practice on the bomb run which opened at5:110 a.m. - only one hour before the race began. The sun bad barely risen when the banner dropped and the first wave of riders set out to tackle the dust in a drag race across the £Iat, wide-open bomb run on the southern edge of Jean Dry Lake, and out iJllo the 90% virgin course, which covered a variety of terrain ranging from fast, open desert to rocky mountains and trees. As the first wave of riders £lashed through the flagged chute that served as the smoke bomb. the pre-race favorites - Team Husky's winning combination of Dan Ashcraft and Dan Smith - were in the lead. First loop pilot A hcralt screamed off the line in front, and with the advantage of no dust, led the Open and 250cc Pros out into the 36-mile first loop with a few seconds to spare. Pasqualollo was running second in the Open Pro class at the bomb, with Jim Thompson (KTM), who paired with Arizona's Pete Sheehan, hard on his heels. The first 250cc Pro past the bomb was Husqvarna-moumed Eric Hallgath, who was paired with Charlie Morris, Jr. to form a team regarded by many as the major comender in the 250cc class. The Vet, Senior and 125cc wave went off four minutes later, with the Yamaha of Vets Rick Shirey and Jeif Bouchillon only inches ahead of fellow Vets Lee and Keith Pearson (Husky) at the bomb. The Iron Men and Sportsmen started in the third wave, with the Randy Carney/Aris Melonas duo out front on their 250cc Husky, with fellow 250cc entrants David Stouard and Paul Skeary in second. The first Open Sportsman team past the bomb was the Paul Rankin/Tom Voss combination on their Yamaha, with Nevada's Gary Prater leading the Iron Men out into the loop, Ashcraft continued to hold the overall lead well into the first loop, until disaster struck with only II miles to go. "I don't know what happened, she just quit," said a disappointed Ashcraft, who spent three hours silling out on the course "freezing to death" until he was rescued by some race spectators. "It was running good, and it just stopped. We were probably about a minute ahead when it happened." Ashcraft said the race had been going well up to that poinl. "Me and Tony (Pasqualollo) were having a good race," he said. "He passed me about four or (ive miles from the stan. He looked like he berserked it to get around me, then once he was in front he started to go slow. I guess it's easier to follow. I got him back about five miles later. I think he overshot a turn or something." And at the same time as the major contenders in the Open class were put out of the running with engine problems, the main threat in the 250cc class also bit the dust as Eric Hallgath seized the Hallgath/Morris team's 250cc Husky. "He didn't fall or anything he just got some cactus stuck in the radiator," said teammate Charlie Morris Jr., who had waited geared up and ready to take over the bike for almost two hours before giving up hope. "We lost all our antifreeze and the bike seized. Everything looked so good too." Morris thankeo Grant Sport Tires for their help. "We've got their eight-ply tires so we weren't planning on gelling any £Iats - but we didn't even get a chance to try them!" With Ashcraft out of the race, the Open Pro lead was taken over by Pasqua lotto, who led through the alternate gas stop by a few second over SCol Harden. But when the leaders stormed out of the pits at the end of the first loop, just over an hour after the banner dropped, the Harden/ Sweetland Husky, now in the hands of Arizona's urn ber One desen rider Sweetland, was in front by a few yards. Working its way into third overall going into the 44-mile second loop was the Team Husky entry of Larry Roeseler and Kurt Pfeiffer, followed by the evada entry of Kevin Steele and Randy Honeycutt (Honda). The lead in the 250cc class going into loop two was held by the Folks/ Morris team in fifth overall, with a typically fast first loop performance by Cagiva ace Duane Summers putting teammate Bryan Folks into loop two in eighth overall, and first in the 125cc class. A promising stan on an Open class Husky for top-ranked desert riders Carlos Serrano and Randy Morales, who was riding his first team event on a Husky, was held up for almost 15 minutes going into loop two when Serrano was forced to return to the pits to work on the engine before rejoining the race, which dropped the team back to 32nd overall. Serrano turned in the ride of a lifetime to regain 12th overall by the end of loop two, but the team's shot' at the prize money was over when the bike developed problems in the gearbox late in loop three. "I've onl y got first and second gears," explained Morales as he idled into the pil. "The others aren'tengaging. I just rode about 15 miles in first gear coming in - is that ever slow'" With help from Husky's Dan Smith, who was also sidelined with bike problems, the team tore the gearbox apart in the pits, but the white machine never made it back onto the course. The Open class race heated up in loop two, with Palenske taking the lead, leaving Sweettand, who had gOllen a £Iat tire early in the loop, to fall back and battle with Daryl Folks, who was holding onto the lead in the 250cc class. Loop two took the leaders just under 90 minutes to complete, and when the trail of dust reached the pits, it was Palenske in front by a twominute margin, with Folks and Sweetland neck alld neck. The 250cc team of Tom Ross and Darin Aldridge had worked their Husqvarna into fourth overall, and some rapid riding by Bryan Folks aboard the quarter-liter Cagiva had taken the Summers/Folks team into a high fifth overall, only nine minutes behind the leading Open class bike. Only four bikes back, riding brilliantly. was the l25cc team of Nevada's Mike Palmer and ScOll Underwood on a Honda, who had started to put some pressure on Summers and Folks. The stan of loop three saw Larry Roeseler on an Open class Husky thumper holding sixth overall, a scant 10 seconds behind Summers' 125cc, with fellow Open class entrants Thompson/Sheehan not far behind. The first Vet team..;lt the end of loop two was the Rick Shirey/Jeff Bouchillon combination out of California, with fellow Californians Wayne "I can break that bike" Carlton and Wes Anderson Jr. running second in the Vet class in 13th overall. The end of loop three marked the halfway point in what was shaping

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