Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

miles in his longest race ever. Once he began his ride, Roeseler lost little time on the leading Honda, despite having to ride at night over terrain he had not pre-run. Amazingly, when Roeseler arrived in La Paz, he showed hardly any signs of fatigue. The reporters interviewing him at 3:00 a.m. looked more tired than he did. He finished with a total elapsed time of 19 hours, 54 minutes. Another ironman performance was turned in by Arturo Vasquez of Mexicali, Mexico, who finished third in class 22 on his Honda. Vasquez rode the entire distance alone, and finished in 25 hours 42 minutes. Turning in a fine ride for sixth overall and first in class 20 (l25cc) were Charles Halcomb, john Rudder and Duane Summers. The trio reported no problems with their Cagiva other than a broken light bracket. Summers, who rode the last leg at night and who had never before raced in the dark, said he got lost in the fish camps near the beach. "I lost about 15 minutes. Otherwise it was a nice, smooth race." The team finished in 21 hours, 18 minutes. Ron Gray and Mike Harper rode their Husky 500XC to first place in class 38 (for riders over 38 years old), while Richard jackson and Dr. john Etchart overcame major mechanical problems to finish second. Jackson said, "The bike arrived at Camalu an hour late. The cases had broken around the clutch hub bearing, and we had to put 10 screws in the cases to hold them together. That cost us two hours. Later, I diced with Walker Evans in his pickup, and left a nice big imprint on his right front fender. When john got on the bike, he let Evans go by so he wouldn't have to battle with him in the silt beds." Perhaps the most inspiring performance of the race was put in by David Farrow, jim jackson and je[[ Kaplan on their Harley-Davidson Sportster, dubbed "Harley's Comet." The team finished fourth in class 22, and had virtually no mechanical pro,QI,ems along the way. FarrQw, 57, is a Los Angeles television coIJppercial director who financed the building of the motorcycle. jackson, who won the 125cc class in the 1978 Baja 1000, built the bike using a C&j frame, a White Power front end, and numerous other custom parts. The bike was also ridden by je[f Kaplan, who won the 250cc class in the 1979 Baja 1000. Farrow, who has drive'n the Baja 1000 in a car but has never before competed on a motorcycle, rode the bike the first 340 miles to Santa Ines> jackson waited anxiously for his creation to appear and after 12 hours, Farrow arrived and turned the bike over to him in the dark. Later, jackson crashed in silt beds near EI Arco and had to spend 45 minutes fixing the bike. When he got going again, the lights fell 0[[ and he had to carry them in his hand for 10 miles. Kaplan also ended up carrying the torches for over 50 miles, and he lost the rear fender and the bike's supply of spare pans when the suspension bottomed over a bump at 100 mph and the tire grabbed the parts bag and locked the rear wheel. Fortunately, the spares were never needed. The Harley finished the race in 30 hours, 49 minutes. Tire selection was an important consideration for all competitors, especially those on faster, heavier bikes. Many teams, including winners Ogilvie and Miller, chose to use Michelin desert tires with the Michelin Bib-Mousse foam inner tube for []at protection. But the- Husqvarna team instead used Metzeler ecology tires developed for the ISDE. The ecology tires have very closely-spaced (Above) Scott Morris and Daryl Folks rode a Husqvarna to top the class 21 win. (Below) The Duane Summers/ Charles Halcomb/John Rudder team won class 20 on their 125cc Cagiva despite Summers getting lost in the dark. knobs, which Husky riders were counting on for better pavement performance. Towards the end of the race, Ivan Stewar~ ~A his class I Toyota pic~up threatened to take the overall win away from Milleran,~.Ogilvie. Atone point, he was running almost 30 minutes ahead of the winner's elapsed time, but his engine threw a roo near Ciudad Constitucion, 180 miles from the finish. Among the competitors were seven japanese teams, all of whom finishea. The quickest was made up of japanese country and western singer Mike Maki, his 15-year-old son Kurodo, and Dirt Rider magazine's Mark Kariya on a Honda XR250. They fini hed in 28 hours, 25 minutes, despite a crash by the younger Maki that left him with a broken jaw. The second japanese team to finish was made up of Yoshinori Matsuura, who is the japanese National Enduro Champion, and Hiroshi Takanaka. The pair earned a trip to Baja by winning a five-race Baja Challenge Cup series run in japan. . Of the 43 motorcycles that started, 25 finished within the official time limit of 42 hours. • Results OVERALL: 1. Chuck Miller/Bruce Ogilvie (Hon). CLASS 22: 1. Miller/Ogilvie; 2. Oan Smith/Lorry Roeseler (Hus); 3. Anura Vazquez (Han); 4. David Farrow/Jim .J8ckson (H-D); 5. Takayo/Kawamo,o (Han). CLASS 21: 1. Scon Mor(isiDaryl Folks (Hus); 2. Jeff Quinn/Bill Boyer/Gary Jones (Han); 3. David Callaway/John AlelC8nder (Kew); 4. Brad McKay/ Tim Morton (KTM); 5. Bob Johnson/Steve Buckley (Han). CLASS 20: 1. Duane Summers/Charles Hal· comb (cag). CLASS 30: 1. Bill Harris/Jimmy Sones (Han); 2. Neil Manninen/Les West (Yam); 3. Minoru Uchida/ Masahiro Uchida (Hon); 4. Jugatsu Toi/Shinji 1'aguchi (Vam). CLASS 38: 1. Ran Gray/Mike Harper (Hus); 2. John Etchart/Richard Jackson (Hon); 3. Ron Bishop/John WlI1kins(Hus); 4. Tom Vallely/George Lazenby (Hon); 5. Wayne Cornelius/Gary Nolen (HuI). 7

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