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Honda XR600-mounted Drew Smith finished fourth in the Four-Stroke
class. Smith is still on the mend from a leg injury.
reached the first check two minutes
late."'
On this excursion, Kadlec lost even
more time when Mellon crashed hard,
and his bike went off the rrail. Melton, who is still recovering from a
serious hip injury, was ratLled by the
fall, and combined with breaking the
water pump on his Husky in the
crash, Mellon called it quits for the
day. "I stopped to help pull his (Melton's) bike back on to the trail," said
Kadlec. (According to Kadlec, Melton wasn't injlHed seriously enough
for officials to compensate him with
points [or stopping to assist an injured
rider). Kadlec dropped 60 points at
the first check, puuing him out of
contention for the overalL.
With KadJec losing rrail points,
the baule [or the overall continued
between Haaker, Bertram and Roeseier. None lost any points on the
rrail, so it came down to the special
tests.
Going into the first special test section, Berrram led Roeseler by 15
points, but Roesel'er chopped that
down by one second with a 362second time to Berrram's 363. Haaker's time was 367, which lost second
place to Roeseler by three seconds.
Chuck Miller took over the 250<:c
class lead after beating Hoess by three
seconds (371-374), giving Miller a
one-second lead. Halcomb had the
fastest time in the 125cc class at 372,
compared to the second best time o[
Postel's 387. Top contender in the
I25cc class was jeff Miller, who [orgot to turn on his bike's fuel petcock.
"I ran out of gas," said Miller. "It was
total brain fade." Miller was also
being hampered by his Kawasaki's
ignition, which caused his bike to
run rough at high rpm throughout
the day.
Next was the trail terrain test, near
the end of the day on a four-mile
. stretch of wide-open two-rracker rrail
filled with 100 e rocks and fallen rree
logs. just about every rider was caught
off guard by one particular log that
lay across the rrail early into the test,
and all had some kind of story to tell
about the It>g. Berrram's story preuy
much summed it up for everybody. "I
was jamming down the rrail when I
saw the log," said Bertrar.t. "I
slammed on the brakes, but I just
skidded into the log. I didn't want to
hit the log sideways, so I just tried to
jump srraight over it. I almost went
over the bars."' Some riders unintentionally went over the log, while others slammed into it (brakes locked
and sideways) and went around the
log.
This time it was Bertram and Kadlec
who clicked off the fastest times at
369 seconds each. Roeseler was second
at371; Chuck Miller and Haaker tied
for fourth at 377. Halcomb was fifth .
fastest on his 125 at 378. After the
acceleration test was completed where Roeseler had the fastest timethe stage was set for the final test of
the weekend - the motocross special
test.
The fight for the overall was still
up for grabs going into the MX special test with Bertram leading the
way; 15 seconds ahead of Roeseler.
Also undecided was the 250<:c class
bout between Hoess, Chuck Miller
and Hough.
In the first 250<:c moto, Hoess
jumped into the lead right from the
live-engine, backwards-falling-gate
start. However, Hoess crashed in a
turn when the front end of his Husky
washed out. Hoess was hit from behind by one rider, and as he raced to
pick up his bike, Hoess [ell over
again when another rider plowed
into him. "I was run over three
times," said Hoess. "My front wheel
hit a rock or something and it fell out
from underneath me. That was it there went my whole ride,"
Chuck Miller and Hough bauled
in the next 250cc mOlO. Miller led the
whole race with Hough pursuing,
and Miller went on to win the moto
and rake the overall, with Hough taking econd and Hoess third overall.
"Everything went real well for me,"
said Mi1ler, "except for falling down
Charles Halcolm rode his Cagiva to a ninth overall en route to the 126cc
class victory. It's his second class win of the series.
twice in the special test yesterday. It
feels real good to win."
Halcomb led from start to finish in
the 125cc motocross, securing his
points lead and giving him the class
win over Postel. "It was a great trail
and Ijust rode smoothly and tried not
to make any mistakes," said H'1-lcomb. "I almost lost it all on the rrail
today when I was following Postel
over one of the log bridges out there,
A tree branch caught Pete's handlebar
and caused him to wash out and
almost crash. I nearly ran into him
and just missed falling off the bridge.
I want to thank Cagiva North America for my bike, which performed
flawlessly, and my sponsors Arai Helmets and Metzeler tires for helping
me out, tOO."
Despite getting his left leg caught
on a rree stump and injuring his knee
while riding the trail on day two,
Perkins sewed up third overall after
finishing two seconds behind Postel
in the MX test. jeff Miller wound up
fourth in the motocross for fourth
overall, despite his ailing Kawasaki
(ignition).
With the overall still hanging, Kadlec and Berrram led from start to finish in the 500cc MX test with Kadlec
taking the win, eight seconds ahead
of Berrram. Bertram's time was 1029
seconds, and to take the overall, Roeseier needed a 1013.
In the final and deciding moto,
Roeseler shot into the Four-Stroke
molO lead and set a blistering pace,
finishing atl 004 seconds for fast time
of the day, beating Berrram's score by
25 seconds - far more than needed to
claim the overal . Haaker finished
second in the molO, 39 seconds behind
Roeseler, while Rhode ,Ogilvie and
Smith finished third through fifth .•
Results:
OVERALL: 1. Larry Roeseler (Hus); 2. Dave Benram
(Hus); 3. John Haaker (Hus); 4. Chuck Miller (Han); 5.
Fritz Kadlec (Hus); 6. Kun Hough (Han); 7. Jim Neilson
Chuck Miller (shown) topped Kurt
Hough for the 260cc win.
(Hus); 8. Fre