For the fourth time, Team Green 's Larry Roeseler captured the overall victory at the Virginia City Grand Prix in Nevada.
Suzuki RM250-mounted Phil Douglas was Roeseler 's nearest
competition. Douglas took second overall ahead of Andy Segale and
John Haaker.
Roeseler wins Virginia
City GP
again
By Bill Spencer
Photos by George Ruiz
VIRGINIA CITY, NV, MAY 7
Team Kawasaki 's Larry Roeseler started
near the back of th e pack at the 18th Annual
Western States Racing Associa tion 's Virginia City G rand Prix, steadily worked his
way forward, took the lead
from Vet Expert P h il Dou glas
fi II
h
d
on the ma ap, t e~ powereo
home to collect his fourth
32
Virginia Cit y GP victory.
When the nearly 400 riders who
competed in the event departed th e
one-time silver mining city at the
start of the race, the temperature
hovered near 50 degrees and at least
two inches of fresh ly fallen snow
covered the rocky , 25-mile course.
" It was really good the first two
laps," said Roeseler, "but the last lap
was a killer. I fell fou r times and it
was p lenty rough. ' It was.,more
tech nical than other times and it was
better for me. I ca n make up and be
more creative in my catc hing up. I'll
be back."
.
Roesel er thanked his sponsors,
Kawasa ki, Malcolm Smith Prod ucts,
Sco tt Goggles, Dunlop tires an d
Tsubaki chain.
At the start of the race. the riders
lined up in rows of 10. T he first row
powered off the starting lin e at 10
a .m.. and the Io llow iri g rows
departed ~t 15-second intervals.
According to early reports , Ve~
Expert Douglas and his Suz uki
RM250 led Greg Searle, (250cc
Expert), Doug Taylor (250ccJunior),
Colin MarDonald, (Open Junior)
and Matt Cullins (Vet Expert) as the
. riders powered through check two.
AMA/District 36 number one cross
country rider Duke Dowell crashed
into some stragglers about this point
and was having clutch troubles, bu t
that didn't stop him as the pack
barreled thro ugh town.
It was a 47-minute la p for Douglas
with Searle in tow. Jim Holley ha d
moved up to third and took the
overa ll time-adj us ted lead with
·MacDo n a ld b lasting though in
fourth, whi le Bill Grossi pitted his .
YZ in fifth along wit h Bret J oyner.
Cullins and Steve Zanone blasted by
in seventh and eighth with Senio r
Expert Gary Vanderpool in ni nth
over Dana Boyer's ATK. Steve Silvestri was blasting by q u ickly in
quest of MacDonald wi th Mar k Fain
al so with the same thoughts.
The first three digi t, though. was
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