Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series: Round 2 Griewe grabs victory in Moose Run H&H 00 00 Q') 1'"'"""4 By Anne & Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren R ED MO UNTAIN, CA, FEB. 14 T eam Husqvarn a 's Don Griewe held off a top-class field over 115 miles of fast-paced terrain to take overall honors in the Moose R un Hare & Hound, held at Searles Station. After three and a half hours of back-and -forth dici ng, Griewe took the checkered flag just 18 seconds ahead of Dan Husqvama-mounted Don Griewe captured the first National Hare & Hound victory bf his career at the Four Aces M .e. Moose Run . Team Yamaha's Dan Ashcaft was disappointed with his second overall f inish. He felfthe course was, "way too fast." , Ashcraft to cli nch his first win ever ' in a National event. . " Dan was catching up toward the end because I started taking it a little easier. I didn 't want to fall down or do a nything silly when I was winning," said Griewe. " T he number of seconds that you win by doesn't matter; all you have to do is be in front. " Round two of the National series (the 38th Annual Moose Run, sponsored by the Four Aces M.C.) drew the large, high-caliber field that is fast becoming customary at National events. More than 470 racers turned o ut for the race. When the banner dropped for the first starting wave, Team Husqvarna 's defending National Champion, Dan Smith, was out in front of the pack. After being knocked out of co nt entio n in round one by a bout with the flu, the two-time National . ' e holder was determined to make mark in round two and things were looking good as he led th e way past the bomb. Griew e was pushing h ard in second as th e starters headed into the first 40-mile loop. Kawasaki's Ted Hunnicutt, a board a KX500, and Larry Roeseler, riding a KX250, Yamaha ,YZ250 pi lot Darin Cartwright and Yamaha's Dan AsHcraft also were at th e front of th e pack. Smi th's numb er one position didn 't last long. "'I came over a rise and instead of h avin g a turn arrow vli ke they sho uld' ve had, th ere was nothing," sai d Sm ith. ~' I th ought the co urse went strai gh t so I did too - straigh t into a big rock p ile." Smi th's " roc k and roll" experience left him with bent bars, minor cu ts and bruises and a tweaked wrist . " It's just as well I sat th ere for whi le o r, 20 other people would've go ne into it too," Sm ith sa id. After th e race, Smith was presented wi th a trophy for winn in g the 1987 AMA H are & H ound N at ion al Cham pionsh ip. The presentation was made by Roger Ansel , Amat eur Competi tion Man ager for th e AMA. " I do n't kn ow if I' ll be seei ng a no ther o ne of these trophi es. Things a ren 't go in g too well so far," Sm ith told Ansel. " We're o nly two races int o th e series and I'v e alread y used u p my two th row- ou t races." Another early casua lty was Paul Krause, who was runner-up in the battle for th e 1987 champ ions hip. . Krause dropped out with a stomach com plain t two days before th e race and was flat on his back wh en th e Moose Run got underway. While th e two top contenders were dealing with problems off the co ur se, a 18 things were starting to heat up among those who were still in the race. Griewe had stepped in to fill Smith's shoes, while Ashcraft and Cartwright had moved through traffic and were ba ttli ng it out for second. H unn icu tt bent his rea r disc brake and had dropped off the pace. T he ill-fated Hunnicutt later lost almost 15 minutes backtracking to pick up a missed check and was out of contention by the time the racers headed into the pits at the end of loop one. Griewe was still enjoying a trouble-free run at the end of the first 40 miles and raced into pit row more than half a minute ahead of secondplaced Cartwright, Ashcraft was just IO seconds back in third. Roeseler 's green machine raced into the pits in fourth but lost a couple of places while minor repairs were made, and ATK-mounted Ro n Naylor was hard on the gas in fifth. Cliff Thomas, who had traded in his usual YZ250 to try his luck on a YZ490, was the next racer through, with Kawasaki rider Grant Palenske, 125cc class lead er Eri c Hallgath, Honda-mounted Todd Peugh, Ro n Sh uler and Garth Sweetland rounding out the top I I. . A m ulti-kick start a t the beginning of the race had left American Honda's Bruce Ogilvie well back in the pack, but a consistent ch a rge through the ~nks had pushed the XR600R pilot to the head of the Vet division in 12th overall by the time th e racers hit th e 40-mile pit. Kenny Parry's YZ250 was the next Vet-piloted machine through, less than a minute behind Ogilvie, with Kawasakipilot Charlie Barney pushing hard to ca tch 'u p from third. Dave Kersting and Steve Thompson were racing neck 'n' neck for th e Senior division lead going in to th e pits a nd George Pennington's YZ250 led th e Am ateurs through , just seco nds a head of Open Am at eur leader Mik e Kornwinder. Kelley Pate was out in front of the Amateur C race rs yet again, but for th e fast time. " M y stewa rd said that if I overa ll the clas s today I'm getting bumped up to Expert, " said Pate, who has dom inated th e 125cc Amat eu r class for m onths. " I ma y never w i n a ny th ing ag ai n." The second loo p was a 75-mile marathon that ran th e race rs' o ut to N av y R oad, east a lm os t to th e military base a nd back via Randsburg, with fast-paced terrai n almost all th e way. " T hey had abo ut four miles of tigh t stuff in th e hills up there, but th at was abo ut it ," said Ashcraft. "T hey took us through some little tight secti ons a bo u t half a mile long, but th e rest of it was way too Iast,

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