Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

-. • The·team of Garth Sweetland and Scot Harden rode their Husky to the overall win in the 13th Annual SCORE Baja Intemacional off-road race. SCORE Baja 500 Internacional Sweetland/Harden top Husky Baja sweep By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Trackside Photo Enterprises E SEN ADA, MEXICO JUNE 7 After 492 miles of grueling racing in the back country of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, Team Husky made a clean sweep of the prestigious SCORE Baja Internacional, taking first, second and third overall, more than 25 minutes ahead of the nearest competition. The California!Arizona team 32 of cot Harden and Garth Sweetland, ridinga 40Occtwo-stroke Husky,took the time-adj usted win after more than eight-and-a-half hours of racing, just two minutes ahead of Larry Roeseler. and Kurt Pfeiffer on a prototype 1987 liquid-cooled 510cc Husky fourstroke. Finishing four minutes behind them was the 500cc Husqvarna twostroke piloted by AMA District-37 aces Dan Smith and Dan Ashcraft. The entry list for this year's Baja Internacional read like a who's who in desert racin~. and provided some of the closest racing in memory. The Team Husky hot shots, regarded by man) as the pre-race favorites. faced stiff competition from such well known rider as Hdnda's BruceOgil- vie, teamed with Chuck Miller, the M-Star factory team of Derrick Paiement and Kern Park, and well-known fellow Husky pilots Carlos Serrano and Randy Morales. More than 50 rideI:S lined up before dawn in downtown Ensenada for the tart of the 492-mile race, which was the 13th annual running of the event. The green nag dropped for the first rider promptly at 5:30 a.m., and the race was on. The riders left the start - wbich was lined with spec'tators and the Mexican military despite the early hour - at 30-second intervals, ignoring traffic signals as they powered down the pavement of tbe city streets and out o.nto the dusty trails leading towards' Valle de Trinidad, almost 100 miles to the south. . The first section of tbe course combined dust with early morning fog to make visibility difficult for the riders, and crossed Highway 3, one of Baja's The near-legendary Husky team of Dan Smith and Dan Ashcraft finished third after encountering a rear flat early in the rece. few paved roads, three times, calling for alert and cautious riding. Even at ·thatearly hour, the course had already been tampered with by locals looking for extra excitement. "There are Mexicans out there making booby traps - branches across. the trail, rocks, all sorts of things," said Team Cagiva's john Rudder, who was leading the I25cc Class by a full six minutes when he handed the bike over to Duane Summers at Valle de Trinidad. "You have to watch yourself," said Rudder. "1£ you see a lot of Mexicans.sitting around way out in the middle of nowhere there's usually something waiting for you on the course." The first bike to reach the pits at Valle de Trinidad was the Park-piloted M-Star of the Paiement/Park team. A rapid and trouble-free ride in the early running had put the duo more than 10 minutes ahead of the nearest com petition. As Paiement took over the M-Star and raced off in a cloud of dust to tackle the 156·mile "P,acific Loop" that ran out through Colonet to the Pacific Coast and back to Highway 3 via Mike's Sky Ranch, the Team Husky duos of Roeseler/Pfeiffer and SmithlAshcraft arrived at the first pit in a neck-and-neck battle for second overall. Smith had run into trouble with a rear flat soon after the starting nag dropped, and had ridden almost 30 miles before changing the wheel at an intermediate pit at Ojos Negros. ''[t's kind of scary riding on the pavement with a flat tire - I've never done that before," silid a dusty Smith at the Valle de Trinidad pit. "I had a good ride except for the tire and crashing once. And the dust - it was terrible -'pretty much the worst dust I've ever ridden in anywhere!" The CR500 Honda piloted by Steve Walker and Tom Moen was in fourth overall going into the Pacific Loop, with the Sweetiand/Harden'duo hi . fifth, and already starting to make their move. High in the running at the first rider change was the 250cc entry of Bob johnson and Steve Buckley (Honda), with Bob Prickett and Mike Hainey (Yamaha YZ490) running first in the Over 30 Class, and john Etchart and Richard jackson (Honda XR600) leading in the 38-or-older Class. Out in front of the pack, the Paiement/Park luck had started to run out. Only 10 miles into the 'Iong Pacific Loop, Paiement lost the rear brake on the M-Star. A flat tire forced the team to take time out for a wheel change at Colonet,. and just when it looked as if nothing else could possibly go wrong, Paiement seized the bike on a wide-open straight. Ashcraft showed his usual talent in the mountainous terrain that made up the first part of the Pacific Loop, and had gained a lot of ground by the time the front runners hit the coast. With Paiement hampered by mechan· ical problems, Roeseler and then Ashcraft were able to slip by and were soon fighting it out for the number one position. The lead switched back and forth as the riders went up through Mike's Sky Ranch, opening gates and dodging cows along the way, and as they hit Highway 3 at the end of the loop, Ashcraft was out in front. "I liked the Pacific Coast bit - it was a lot more challenging than most Baja courses," said Ashcraft after handing the Husky over to Smith for the next loop out to San Felipe. "I had a really good ride and pulled up on everyone. I had some problems though. I stopped at Colonet to change a wheel. I had the bike up on a crate and everything and then we found they didn't have any tools. And then Roeseler ~ent by. I forgot the wheel change, grabbed the bike and got going!" . With a slim lead of 45 seconds (two minutes in adjusted time) over Roe-

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