Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

In his f irst race since breaking his back. Honda rider Greg Zitterkopf finished fifth overall and captured the 2 50 cc class win. Ho nda-mounted Ed Arnet screamed his CR125 to seventh overall. w inning the 125cc class over Fritz Kad lec and Jeff Fredette. Riders prepare for the start of the 128-mile desert race . National Endu ro Champion Kev in Hines (3 15) fin ished th ird overall. Open Pro s Gri ewe, Krau se a n d Steele, with a rather-battered Zitterkopf still out in front of the 250cc Pro class in eighth overall. " I was first to the bomb and the rac e was going really smoothly until 1 ca u g h t up to the 500s ," said Zitterkopf, who rode the second half of th e race with blood streaming from a cu t above his right eye. " A couple of th em roosted me really bad and 1 got hit in the face. 1 ran out of gas in the second loop and had to push as well." Serrano had broken through to claim second in the 250cc division and raced into the pits in 13th overall, just seconds ahead of third p laced Grant Palenske (Kaw). But the biggest mover in loop two was 125cc leader Eddie Arnet, who blasted up from 33rd overall going in to the loop to 16th overall coming OUl. 20 "It was right on the borderline of too fast for a 125 and that makes it hard, " Arnet said. " You go so fast into the corners you run righ t off them, plus coming from behind (in th e third starting wave) you ha ve to sta y off the course and go through the bushes all the time to pas s people." KX 125 pilot Fritz Kadl ec held second in class (25th o vera ll), with Honda CRI25-mounted Sean Steele just two places back in third. The battle continued to rage ,th ro ugho u t the 25-mile third loop, with the most exciting racin~ out in front where Ashcraft and Smith were locked ' in a do -or-die duel for th e overall honors. ",I was ahead of Smith going into pit th ree but we had a '33-seco nd pit because my lever s came lo o se, " Ashcraft said. "T hat p ut me behind leaving the pit and 1 crashed too, which didn't help much. " Once Smith hit the front of the pack. th e 24-year-old rider from Visalia, California, never looked back. " T h is race was different from what Casey (Bes t in the Desert Race ' Director Casey Folks) normally puts o n and that helped me toward th e end ," said Smith. " Us uall y, on the last loop, he makes it reall y fast but this time he threw in a lot of tight stuff. It kind of took me by surprise but I'm really glad he did it , 1 like that sort of stuff and 1was still feeling fin e at that stage. 1 kn ew it was a prett y long race going into it so 1 tri ed to be really smoo th all the way so 1 wouldn 't wear myself out. That made 'the last section work out pretty well for me." Smith kept cha rg ing throughout th e tight, rock y terrain o f the final 30-mile section and still had an 18second margin over Ashcraft as he sp rinted in to cla imthe win. " It was pretty good. I had fun," said Smith, who thanked Cagiva North America, Tsubaki, Autolite, Goldbelt, Alpinestar, Scott USA, Sp ectre, Ren thal , Z Ra cing, F&:L, Arai a nd Acerbis. ..And I didn't have any problems at a ll, excep t for my start. They roosted the heck out of me there, but a fter that 1 just rod e hard all the wa y a nd caught up." Second-placed Ash craft described th e co urse as, " good and cha lleng ing, but kind of fast, " Casey usuall y runs all tight stu ff," said the YZ490 pilot, who thanked Pro-Circuit," JT, Yamaha, Spectra, F&:L and Dunlop. "There were a lot of roads and lots of fast ' stu ff across open desert but it was marked really good. I'm bummed because 1 really wanted to win this one, but we had a heck of a race anyway. " . An all-out battle for third overall that raged between Kevin Hines and Griewe throughout the second half of the race seemed to be over when Griewe p ulled out a two minute lead with less than 10 mil es to go. But, as the Team Husky p ilot found out soon afterward, the race isn't over u ntil the checkered flag drops. . " I thoug h t 1 had it for sure, " sa id G riewe. " I was in third overall with a two min ute lead over H ines and 1 was on ly abo ut five miles from th e finish - 1 co uld see the ho tel (and the finish) just ahead. Then 1sheared the sprocket bolts off and destroyed the hub - what a mess ! It was all over for me, just like that." Griewe's misfortune left third overall wide open for Hines, who thanked KTM America, mechanic Brian Farnsworth, Duralube, MS Racing, Tsubaki, Pa ul Thede's Race Tech, and Scott USA. "I rid e on e desert race a year and this is it. What 1 want to do is cha llenge these guys to come back east to the Blackwater. 1 come all the way out here and ride in the desert but they never try tobeat me on my terrain." H ines was followed in by a rather dazed Kevin Steele, whose hard-onthe-gas-bid to ea rn enoug h points in BeSI in th e Desert's four race series to repeat last year's overall series victo ry led to a major end o just short of the ha lfway point of the race. "There were rocks everyw here o ut there and I crashed into one tha t wa s hiding behind a bush," said Steele. " I rea lly nai led it and all of a sudden 1 was on m y head . I was a bit out of it righ t up to the end of th e race, but 1 still got past all the people that passed me wh en 1 was down. " Zitterkopf crossed the line in fifth overall to take a wire-to-wire victory in the 250cc divi sion. , " I haven't raced in a year because I broke m y back ," Zitterkopf said. "This is my first race back and the first one I've ever done in the desert. 1 ran out of gas twice in the second loop and had to push, but I had a great time. " Open Pro Paul Krause finished hard on Zitterkopf's heels to claim sixth overall, and hard charging Arnet pushed his CRl25 across the finish line to take a wire-to-wire 125cc Pro win in seventh overall. "T he whole motor just locked u p about a quarter of a mi le from the finis h and 1 had to push it in - it felt li ke two miles," said Arnet. "T he bike ra n really well for most of the race. They usua lly do just before they blow up. 1 cou ld hear it starting to make strange noises fo r th e last 10 mi les." Arnet's nearest 125cc competition was KXl 25 racer Fritz Kadlec, who finished 17th overall despite going into the race wit h a se para ted shoulder and endoing twice a long the way . Jeff Fredette and Sean Steele took third and fourth in the class.

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