Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

AKA ISDE Relfa"ilit~ Q1UIlifier Series: Final round Roeseler edges SIl'Con Two·DIl~ By Kit Palmer BELLING HA M, WA, JUNE 27-28 For the second wee k in a row, T eam Creel Kawasaki 's L arry Roesel er captured al ISDE Qualifier overall victory, an d for th seco n d week in a row i t was a cliff hange of a battle right down to th e fini sh. T hro ug h o u t m ost o f the Saxo n Two -Da y Q u a lifi er, Larry Roeseler came from behind and captured the overall v ictory on his Kawasaki KX250; his second overall of the series. Mark Hyde returned to action following an ankle injury and easily topped the 125cc ranks on a Cag iva . Here he beg ins day one. hosted by the Mt. Baker Motorcycle Club, it was prett y much a two-man .show betw een Roeseler a nd Suzuki's Cha rles H alcomb , wi th Husky riders J ohn Nielsen, J ohn H aaker a nd Dan Smith always lurking in th e shadows clo se behind. H alfway through the second day , duri ng a terra in special test sectio n , one slight bu t cos tly mistake by dayone leader Halcomb was all Roeseler needed to wra p u p th e overall victory and for .Nielsen to slip into second overall. H alco mb wound up finishin g third ove ra ll (fo u r seco n ds beh ind Nielson ), followed by Haa ker and Smith. Only 13 points separated second th rough fifth overa ll pl aces, wit h Roeseler finishing 26 seconds ahead of Nielsen. Nielsen 's second overa ll gave him first pl ace in the 500cc class over Husky's Dave Ber tra m a nd Ca lifornian Rick Daniel, riding a Yamaha YZ490. R oesel er , H al co m b a nd Honda-mounted Todd H arris took the top th ree p laces in th e 250cc class , whi le Cagiva 's Mark H yde wrapped u p the 125cc class victory oyer Sha un Scar lett and Coor s Extra Gold's J eff Miller. Drew Smit h, ridin g a H onda XR 250, ca p tured th e Ligh tweight Fo u r-S tro ke win , w hi le H aak er top ped the Open Fou r-Strok e division over Dan Smith and J eff Irwin. The Saxon Two -Day fea tured nearly 130 mi les of tria ls a nd fireroads eac h da y over mountainous terrain just o utsid e of Bell in gh am . Seventeen checks were used Saturday a nd 16 on Sundav, a nd no final motocross speci al test was used at the end of th e event; there was no room to facil itat e a motocross track. So th e Mt. Bak er M IC reli ed mostl y on terrain special tests both da ys. A total of eight spec ia l tests were used (four each day) but o ne test was th rown o ut o n Sa turday. Day O ne T he first day go t off to a rocky start. The first sp ec ia l test wa s th ro wn o u t wh en th ere were no workers keeping finish ing times a t the end of the test . In stead , rid ers - found a chec kpoint and had to wait for th eir keytime before co nt in uing. Then ma ny riders found themselves late to the next check, which was la ter found to be two mi les off, thus th e chec k wa s thrown o ut. After these two con fusions, however , the rest of th e event ran smoo th ly. T he first two loops of th e event proved to be th e toug hes t of th e who le two-da y. The loops featured an ex treme ly tigh t and twis ty downh ill section ca lled Lile's Revenge th at led riders to a fla t, tall grassy meadow which turned into a huge mud bog after th e first few rid ers ro t th rough. Immediately fo llowing tI mud bog, th e trai l turned into challengmg uphill climb over w logs and sli ppe ry tree roots, requi ing many ri ders to step off th e mounts a nd push . Da n i el 's sto ry throu gh Lile Revenge was typical. " T he root hi got me. I didn 't lose a ny points, bt I worked my butt off to ge t up it, sai d Dan iel. " I got stuc k in tl: mudhol e at the bot tom of it, go t 0 \ of th a t, got up the hill a nd go t stu c three times o n that sucker beh in people, in fro nt of peopl e and besid people. I didn't th ink..!. was goin, to get up it, but , boy, I kept pushin , and kep t p ush in g, but I mad e it. " It was in th is sectio n whe re Aaror H o ug h , ridi ng a H onda C RI25 dropped ou t of the event wi th a r injured kn ee. Ho ug h has wo n the I25cc class twice this seaso n and wa: looking for his thi rd good fini sh te secure a sp ot on th e U.S. ISDE team but his DNF in Washin gt on will most likely ruin h is cha nces. Ano ther rid er to drop out early in i he day with a kn ee injury was former six-days ri der Da vid Cran e riding a n Open class Husky. Crane has been hampered by kn ee probl ems the last few ro u nds . Sh ortly a fte r Li le' s R even ge , Ho nda CR 250-in ounted Paul Krause m ad e an un expected excursio n off th e tr ack , p u tt i ng the so u the r n Ca lifornia desert racer o n bronz e. " I was just riding o n th e trail, " sa id Krause, " and I clipped a log an d somehow got the fro nt whee l turned sidewavs and endoed off a 25-foot cli ff. ( sat aro und a nd wa ited for someone who was having other problem s to help dig me out. Yo u co uld barely just walk up the cliff. I watched everyo ne go by, a nd after a while, Jimmy Lyngar came alo ng . and gave me a ha nd . We had to push th e bike down a creek then drag th e bik e up a hillside, andI d ropped 57 minutes. It destroyed my rid e." H u sk y four-stroke rider Davi d Rhod es fro m Washing ton, dropped o u t during th e first da y after cra shing a nd injunng hi s hip. Yamaha-mounted Greg Surdyke, wh o fini sh ed second in the 250cc class a t Trask, lost 540 ro ute points on Saturday and eventually drop ped ou t of the event du ring the fourth loop on Sunday with bike p robl em s, T he first scori ng speci a l test of th e day ca me durin g the th ird of four loops, in which Halcomb a nd his Suzuki RM250 cla imed th e fastest tim e - eig h t seco nds faster than Dan Sm ith, 10 seconds faster than Nielsen a rid Bertram , a nd II seco nds faste r th an Roeseler. Quickest 125cc score went to H yde, who topped Scarlett by five seconds. Many riders rode this special test th e first time conservatively. Prior to

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