Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dale Knapp piloted his 250cc Husqvarna to an upset w in at round five of the National Hare & Hound Series, held near Red Mountain. AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series: Round 5 Knapp scores Lost Angels upset win By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren R ED MOUNTAIN, CA, MAY IO Husky pilot Dale Knapp scored an u p set vic tory at th e Lost An gels National H are & H ound, holding off a stron g field of competitors and becom ing th e first rider to o verall o ne of th i s year' s champio ns hi p events aboard . a 250cc mot,?rcyc Ie. S0 far this year, the senes has been domina ted by r iders o n Open class mach ines. Kna pp, son of ex-desert racin g great Art Knapp, grabbed the lead fro m Team H onda 's Dan Ashcraft go ing into loop two of the 75-mil e event an d stayed OUI in fro nt to tak e the checkered flag wi th a co mfo rta ble winning m argi n o f a lmost two m in u tes. " Damn I'm happy," the 19-yearold, so uthe rn Ca l ifo rnia AMA I District 37 reg ular told Cycle News. " It 's abo ut time I got first a nd I did it in a National event. I feel so good." ~ ~ u n d five of the series was origin al ly scheduled for Cherry Creek , Utah, o n May 24, but was turned over to District 37's LOS I Angels M.e. whe n Cherry Creek organizers pulled out of the series in March. The Los t Angels drew a large field for th e Mother's Day event, and wh en the banner dropped for the nine a.m. start, the first bike off the line was pil oted by last year's series ru nn erup, Ashcra ft. In a n all-o ut p ush La grab the ear ly lead, th e Tea m Ho nda ' ace had trad ed hi s usu al four-stroke for a faster-off-the-line CR500. T he move paid off an d Ashcraft sm o ked the competition in the uphill cha rge towards the smoke bomb. . Kn app was pushing h a rd in Team Honda's Dan Ashcraft looked like a sure winner un til he got lost on a poorly-marked section of the co urse 'and was forced to backtrack. second overall as th e field swept past the bomb, with fellow 250cc hotsh ot Darin Cart wr ig ht (Yama ha) hard o n his heels. Fu rther back in th e pack , as the racers picked up the pink-ribboned tr ai l , wa s Paul Kra u se (Ho n da CR 500), the domina tin g force in the last two ro unds of the series. After overa lli ng ro unds three and four , Krause went in to round five determ ined to close th e points ga p held by defend ing cham p Dan Smi th. Sm it h, who has an imp ressive total of two wins, o ne second and o ne third iri the nin e-event series , was ' co mpeting in the l 4-day Rally de Atlas in Africa at the time of th e Lost Angels event. As th e racers headed into the 35m ile firs t loop, they left o ne of th e top co ntende rs in th e Vet Class behi nd. Paul Bennett , a 38-year-old ri der fro m P hoenix, Arizona , who had the seri es point lead in the Over30 divisio n with a n impressive two wi ns and o ne seco nd goi ng into round five, crashed on the bomb run a nd lat er died a t Ridgecrest Co mmuni ty H osp ita l. rep ortedl y fro m head a nd chest inj ur ies. Bennett, w ho cap tured eig ht h overa ll i n rou nd four of ihe National s a t Plaster City, wi ll be sad ly mi ssed by hi s friends and fellow competi tors. Loop one provided some challe ngin g riding for the cha mp io ns hip contenders, pi tting the race rs aga inst tight, rocky terrain , gr ueli ng cross grai n a nd a n often har d-to-foll ow co urse. As race lead er Ashc raft said, " I got a lot of sur prises in th e fir st loo p. There were very few danger markings out th ere a nd parts of the course were almos t im po ssible to follow. You 'd com e over a rise and the re'd be no markings a nyw here. No ribbon, no arrows - just no th in g." Krause, also had problems with th e co urse ma rkings. "T he markings were th e worst thing a bo u t the who le race," he sai d. "The trai l itself was reall y good - th ey just marked it poorly and tha t ma de it fru strating. You co uldn't go fast because you were afra id of ru nn ing into things that weren 't ma rked." Desp ite losi ng th e trail twice, Ash craft kept th e pace go in g throughout the rugged first loo p. . The T ea m H onda ho tsho t held the lead th e whole way a nd was ou t in front of second- p lace Knapp by almost a mi n u te whe n he stormed into th e p its. Cartwright was still holding o nto th ird, but th e hardcha rgi ng Krause had elbo wed his way into fourth a nd was ha rd on th e Yamaha pi lot's heels as they entered p it row. Ch arl ie Morris, J r. (Suzuki) was p ush ing ha rd in fifth , a nd Dan Daw son (Kawasa ki) had the lead in th e Vet di vision in six th overall. Kirk . Kovaleff conti n ued h is domination of District 37's Ama teur ran ks in 12th overall , with th e first l25cc mach ine, a YZl25 p iloted by l fi-year-old Ron J ennings, raci ng into the p its in 15th overa ll. The race look ed like a sure bet for Ashcraft as he head ed o u t into the 40-mile seco nd loop, but, just a few miles into th e course, th e leader 's lu ck cha nged. " I hit a sectio n where th ere were no course markin gs a t all," Ash craft exp lained. " I' d go t lost a cou p le of tim es in the first loop, and I th ought I was lost again , so I tu rn ed around a nd was riding back to try to find some ribbon. I was still looking when Dal e (Kna pp) went by me. I

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