Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Honda's Dan Ashcraft and Randy Morales tried hard to top Smith's solo ride, but they couldn't catch the Team HU5qVarna rider. For the first time, SCORE started the motorcycl.es behind the cars, .a procedure most of the. motorcycle racers felt was extremely dangerous. Smith solos to Great Mojave 250 victory By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren and Dennis Greene LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, APR. 4 Dan Smith ran away with the SCORE Great Mojave 250, powering his big 510cc Husqvarna four-stroke to victory for the second year in a row, finishing the race witha lead of more than five minutes over Team Honda's Dan Ashcraft and Randy Morales. Smith, who had planned to split the 182-mile event with Husky teammate Garth Sweetland, was forced into a last-minute solo ride after Sweetland crashed in practice the day before the race and broke his left femur. "The other riders got pretty cocky when they found I had to ride solo," said Smith. "I got a lot of comments like,'you better eat all your Wheaties.' To be honest, I thought not having Garth ride was gomg to make a big difference. I was kind of worried and ne.rvous the t;'ight befo!e the race, but I Just gave It everythmg I had. Garth and I together would've really killed them." For the first. time in SCORE's history, organizers reversed the race format. In a move most motorcycle racers called highly dangerous, SCORE bumped the bikes out of their usual position at the front of the pack and started them at noon, putting them on the course behind the race cars, leaving them to fi~ht through slower car traffic and thIck clouds of dust. Last year's Mojave 250 win put Smith in the number one spot as the starting flag fell. Smith dropped the clutch on the starting line just off Camp Rock Road and headed into the first loop of the 91-mile course. The res.t of the field followed at 15second intervals. . The course headed noTthwest along Camp Rock Road and turned for an easterly run across the valley to the first pit stop at Bessemer Mme Road. Smith made shoTt work of the sandy terrain and jeep trails of the .early runnmg and had stretcfled out a time-adjusted Lead of two mimutes at the pit over hard-charging Randy Norman. Norman, like Smith, had an injured riding partner and was forced to ride solo. Morales pitted a few seconds behinq Norman. A rapid ride by Morales put the team's GOOR well up with the leaders on the run into the pit, and the Honda duo was only a few seconds shy of second as Ashcraft, who rode to victory as Smith's partner at last year's event, took over for the grueling 45-rnile southeast section of the loop that headed across Galway Dry Lake, south to Mikiska Road and then back to Soggy Dry Lake via Means Dry Lake. The lead in the 250cc class was in the hands of Joey Lane and Mark Vanscourt as the field swept through the first pit. The hard-charging Honda team from southern California's AMA/District 38 had broken through to the front of the 250cc division and were almost a minute .ahead of their nearest rivals m the time-adjusted standings. Some hard riding by Cagiva's Duane Summers had pushed him into second place by the time he handed his 250cc Husky over to partner John Rudder. The Yamaha team of brothers Kurt and Kent Pfeiffer screamed through in third. Way out in front of the 125cc class at pit one was the distinctive white and gold Honda sponsored by Coor's Extra Gold. Brett Howell got the Coor's machine off .to a sizzling start and was a full seven minutes ahead of the nearest Class 20 competition when he handed over to teammate Jeff Miller of Idaho. Out in front of the pack, Smith pushed hard all the way to the second pIt on Soggy Dry Lake, muscling the big 510 Husky through the rocky terrain and dodging past the slower car traffic that littered the course. Unknown to Smith, Team Honda had launched a determined bid to steal his number one spot. Ashcraft had taken over second overall and was working hard to whittle away at Smith's lead, despite tbe treacherous terrain. "We pre-ran the course all week, but when we got to it for the actual race it was completely different," Ashcraft said. "There were big ledges, whoops, holes with lips everything. It was pretty scary and I didn't like it at aiL I'd rather race _ in Mexico than do this. Today was just tryin~ to survive." At the end of the first hour and a half of racing, Smith came out of the 45-mile southeast section. The Husky ace was still out in front but his advantage had been cut by 15 seconds and he was less than three . minutes· ahead of ex-teammate Ashcraft. After a quick refuel and a change of riders for the Ashcraft/Morales team, the race was on again, headirJg west m a shott dash to Camp Rock Road. The two frontrunners were followed into loop two by Norman, in third overall, who had a huge 13mmute lead over the fourth running Open class machine, a Kawasaki under the command of Scott Mapes and Kurt SoCka. Some hard charging by the Pfeiffer. brothers had rocketed their YZ250 into the time adjusted lead in the 250cc division (fourth overall). With the LanelVanscourt Honda less than two minutes behmd, however, there was no time for the Pfeiffer team to rest on its laurels. . The Summers/Rudder team, which had been running second in the 250cc class half way through loop one, bit the dust in the 45-mile southeast section when Rudder had radiator problems that emptied the Husky:s coolant all over the desert. Rudder nursed the bike in for repairs at the team's second pit, but Summers got less than a mile out of the pits before the bike seized completely. The frontrunners in the 125cc class

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