Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Mike McDonald scored a surprise. upset win in the Check Ch.... riding a Kawasaki KX500 to beat 280 riders. It was his first Check Chase. AMA D·37 33rd Annual Chuck Stearns M.emorial Check Chase Hare and Hound Mike McDonald nabs upset win By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA. MAY 17 In a surprising upset victory, Mike McDonald kept up a sizzling pace for over 230 miles in a dash from Lucerne Valley, California to Parker, Arizona to take the checkered flag in the 33rd Annual . Ch uc k Stearns Memona I Check Chase. .. McDonald, of the Vlewfmders M.e.. was riding a Kawa'saki 10(500 in his first attempt at completing the point-LO-poim event. hosted by the Checkers M.C. and sponsored by Grand Spon Tires. Bef th be h :s was not But after more t~an lour-and-ahalf hours of gruelmg racmg•. l\;fcJ?onald he1~ on ,to cross the hnlsh hne a full five ~mutes ahead of the n~re~t compeutor. The roug~ terram sldel!ned !,"any of theevem s top contenders wllh me0anlcal proble~s, a!1d !;tad others miles off course. rldmg m Circles and lookmg for pmk courst;-markmg rlb.bons. . A held of 280 riders hned up at Soggy Dry Lake for the stan of the evcmt~ which is one o.f t~e fe:w poimto-pomt races remammg mAMA desert racmg. The evem, whIch was cancelled for the last two years due to land use problems. was recently renamed m memory of well,known racer Chuck Stearns, who died after a long illness last year. The banner dropped for the Amateur/Expen slanat8:30 a.m .• and the swarm of riders powered off into,the re;;~ed ~a~ajorg~n;eat~ 30 cross-grain oflheearly running, then spread out on thefast-paced hre roads that followed. The pink ribbons followed the course of the SCORE Great Mojave 250, cut off on.LO a (X>werline road. and then I~ rider I!1 LO a .Checkc;rs M.~. faVOrite - a lrIcky elght-m.tle secuon of lava rocks. c<;>mplete Wllh uphill le~ges and loommg dropo££s. The hrst secuon of the course. ~~;ra~~~t~~efi~~~:s~~~;a~r~W- low, was a long 50-mile stretch that proved disasterous for many racers who had not topped off their gas tanks after practicing on the bomb run. Despite a warning in riders' instructions regarding the range needed for some sections of the race. many promising rides bit the dust in the long sand wash that led imo the first pit. . Charlie Morris. Jr.. who was considered one of the major threats in the 250cc Class. was running third overall as the course neared the first pit. but ran out of gas with less than one mile to go. "I was in third. but by the time I got gas I ended up leaving thefirst pit about 30th overall." said a disappointed Morris, who dropped out of the race competely at the second gas stop after losing more time with a flat il'ear tir~. Kenny Parry topped the 250CC cia.. and finished third overall on his VZ250 Vamaha; Parry is reigning 0-37 250cc Champion. The first' rider to arrive for gas at the first pit was Arizona's number one desert racer. Husqvarna-mounted Garth Sweetland, who completed the 50-mile section in just over one hour. After a rapid pit stop, Sweetland powered off up the wash with a halfminute lead just as the second-running bike, the Open Class Kawasaki of Don Griewe, came into view. Surprised by the length of the first section, Griewe took the extra time to top off the lank of his green machine. then set off imo the 40-mile second section in pursuit of Sweetland. Third through the pits was Derrick Paiement, riding an Open Class Honda with a bent rear fender revealing signs of a fall in the early running. Close behind were Ted Hunnicutt of the Shamrocks M.C., struggling into the pits with a flat front tire, and McDonald. m fifth overall. ' The first 250cc to arrive in the first pit was the familiar Yamaha piloted by District37's 250ccclass champion. Kenny Parry. Hot on Parry's tail were two Open Class KTMs piloted by Ken Oviatt and Cun Crandall. Noticeably absent among the from runners at the fi~st gas stop were Team Husky favorites Dan Ashcraft and Dan Smith. Ashcraft, who led at the bomb and had opened up a sizeable lead by the IO-mile mark. seized his Hu ky on a wide-open road section. The ill-fated ace, whose run of mechanical bad luck seemed to be over with his win at the Lost Angels Hare Scrambles last week. was forced LO sit by the side of the trail and watch as other riders .f1ashed by. Pre-race favorite Smith also had mechanical problems early in the first section. but reportedly struggled as far as the second pit before throwing in the towel. Sweetland cominued to hold his lead in the rough lava rock terrain of the race's second section. and used fast poleline roads to draw even further out in from of the pack. He had built his lead LO more than four minutes over Griewe by the time the second gas SLOp came into view. As Griewe stormed out of the second pit in a bid to gain some ground on Sweetland, all eyes turned LO the three-bike duel shaping up for third overall. The Open class machines of Hunnicutt, Crandall and Mike Mc· Donald were locked in a life-or-death struggle 10 minutes behind the race leader. The three third-place comenders left pit two neck-and-neck, and raced out across the deceptive crusty·onLOp, soggy-underneath dry lake bed that led into the third section. Just as the race appeared LO be settl ing down. disaster once again struck the race leaders. After running across the dry lake, the trail made a sharp right turn, a turn that many riders missed. including Sweetland and Griewe, who sud· den ly lost their chance LO lead across the line at the checkered flag. The twO frontrunners missed the marked trail, and headed out on a trail of their own that completely bypassed the third pit and ran them wide, straight into pit four. ..After the lake they had a 100 mph road, and we ran on that for ages until we figured we must have missed the course," said Griewe when he finally rntIde it to the finish line. "On the roads they only had ribbon every' mile or so. It would've been okay with arrows, but there were about 80mph winds out there that had blown them down. Without those it just wasn't marked well enough." Griewe said he and Sweetland finally joined up to search for the course_ "We messed around for about 15 minutes trying LO work out what LO do," said Griewe. "We knew we had LO go south. but we were a bit off because we never made it to the third gas - we ended up at four. From there we rode all the way back LO the third gas so we could get the check. We were going LO try LO keep going, but when we found out the 43rd rider had gone by. we decided to quit." With Sweetland and Griewe roaming around in the desert in search of pink ribbon, the way was clear for a new leader to take command of the race - the three-way tussle between Hunnicutt (Yamaha), Crandall (KTM) .and McDonald suddenly had become a battle for the lead. As the trio entered pit three, McDonald was out in front. Crandall thundered through the pits in second, with Oviatt hard on his heels in third. Hunnicutt had been pushed back into fourth by Ovi-

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