Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kawasaki's larry Roeseler came from behind and stole the overall victory from three-time Sun Valley GP winner Ron Naylor. AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series: Round 7 Roeseler rocks Sun Valley Grand Prix By Mike Thuleen Photo by Mark Kariya HALEY, ID, J U NE 11-.1 2 Team Green/Scott Goggles /Malcolm Smith/Dunlop/Tsubaki/Renthal/Acerbis/ Pro Circuit-backed Larry Roeseler worked his way up through the blinding dust and rocks a t the 1988 USA P romo. tions' Sun Valley Grand Prix Ie d S ki d an d d e eate ~ zu i-rnounte Ron Naylor, wmner of threestraight Su n Valley Gra nds Prix and heavil y favored to mak e the 1988 race four-in-a-row. Nay lor too k the lead fro m Duke Dow ell a nd Kevin Bro wn but su ffered fro m pain ful stomach cramps shortly after. Roeseler caught Nay lor on the last 25-lap . a nd go t some b rea t h in g space w hen Nyalo r crashed whi le tryin g to repass Roeseier, a llowing the Ka wasak i rider the overa ll victory by 45 seco nds. T h is year's race too k plac e in H a iley, af ter a one year's hiatus at Bellevue , featu ri ng a Virginia City. style start, with riders starting in rows o f 10, at 15 seconds interva ls. Siltin g with the special number , " 00,'.' was the hare, Team No Sni velers ' Ray Neill. After last year's race , at a fu nd ra ising event for inj u red rider Daniel Huskey, Na ylo r auctioned off his overall tro phy. As the bidd ing went h i ~her , T eam No Sni veler s purchased It for $400. Neill scorched o ff the start, weaved th rough " Han na h 's Motocross," a nd di sap peared over the ridge. A minute later, th e o thers roosted o ff. Fro m the first ro w, Red Neck Rooster's Dow ell took ove r the lead j ust off th e sta r t from Utah's Corky Maughn. Despite a healthy rain wh ich fell in the morni ng, a nd threa te ni ng r~i n - clouds overhea d, th e course had dned o u t a nd no m or e rai n appeared th roughout the da y. Also on th e fro nt row, Dunlop/ Ma ier/ Sm ith/ Arai/ Answer/ Pro Circu it/M] USA's Kevin Bro wn had cras hed on th e sta rt, bu t nab bed Maugh n to p ursue Dowell. Dowell caugh t th e hare to win 50 b ucks, b ut was holdin g off Brown down the fast road to the ou t-check. R u nning in th e top five were local riders Ron Weh r and Ji m my Lyngar, bu t bo th encoun ter ed probl ems. Wei dl e r D yn ami cs / Sm ith /Hi Point's Weh r cras hed o n the swi tch. backs and was hit by ano ther rider. Weh r rode on with wat eri ng eyes and a severe headache, dropping back to 16th overa ll at the end, while Lynga r dro pped o u t with ca rb u re to r troub les. Team Husky's Ed Lojak a lso was u p in the to p spo ts a long with locals Steve and Bru ce Quale, b ut were being hunted down by the Open bikes of Todd Peu gh, Tony H endon a nd Cu rt is Dice, p ushing up fro m the second ro w. Wi th heavy clouds of dust already han g ing in th e a ir, Arai /S m ith Gogg les /Fator Cycles-s u ppor te d Naylor, in ac tio n for the seco nd time since a brok en co llarbo ne put h im ou t pri or to th e Shasta Dam National . Hare Scrambles, was aggressively passin g riders fro m th e rows ahead. On the th ird ro w, same as Nayor, Roeseler suffered a poorer start a nd . a te dust for two laps. " I rode patiently and conserva tivel y in the dust," said Roeseler, " the first lap was frustrating." Among th e early riders to DNF was Cagiva's T erry Cunningham , who bailed just off th e start. Cunningham was ap paren tly ready to keep going, but hI Sbike ca lled it quits with crash damages. T eammate Mark Hyde, however , was running in th e top 20. So me of the most aggressive riders from th e back rows were a lrea dy beg inn ing to surface in the top positions, desp ite th e dust. Am ong th ese were Washington ' s Da vid Rhod es, on th e Husky thumper, a nd tiddler pilot s J eff Miller and Bill . Perkins. Brown had th e edge on Do well com ing in off the first loop, but since Dowell didn 't have to p it, the y raced side -by-side in to th e . seco nd lap . Bro wn and Dowell diced heavily, wi th eac h taking ' ove r the lead n um erou s tim es. G oing up th e swi tch backs, th e Kawa sak i-mounted Bro wn managed to put some time o n th e Kal-G ard/Malco lm Smith/ Ar a iiSmi th / Acerbi s/RK Chain/ Metzeler/ Aftersh ock s 'Su spensionbacked Honda 250 o f Dowell 's. Na ylo r, however, roc keted by Dowell as he cres ted th e su m m it. Brown co ntin ued to lead at th e 50-mile mark, starting th e third loop, with Na ylor - a nd Dowell giving chase. Roeseler had fin ally broken loose from th e dust but was fighting to get by Mau ghn. Ya ma ha / Ma lco lm Sm ith /B el R a y/Sh o ei /Race T ech/R entha ll T subaki/ Smith Goggles-supported Fritz Kadl ec had mov ed past abo ut 40 riders in order to be running with Brown a nd co m pany but was battling with a flat rear tire, ridin g 15 mil es on it before pitting to fix it . in a two minute, 10 second sto p. H owever , Kadl ec quickly ca ugh t back up to Do well, both still a threat for the overa ll, alo ng with Lojak . Whi le almost a ll of th e to p slo ts were fill ed with 250s, in wh a t has traditionally been a n O pen bike race, th e firs t big-bo res were now j us t ou tside th e top five. Sm it h Goggles! All spo rt Producti ons' smooth a nd . fast Todd P eu~h was doing his best to break back mto it, despi te losing hi s brakes a nd wrong jetting. Dice sliced by ATK-mou n ted H endo n for control of th e third O pen Expert posi tion. T urn ing in a spec tac u la r ride o n an Al Bak er/Bridgestone/Tsubaki/ Sprocket Specia lis ts / S ports to w n USAIMa ier / Bell/ PJ I/Su pe rTrap p / Scott Goggles' four-stro ke Honda was Kent uck y's Sco tt Su m m ers. Su mmers rode wtih Sco tt Pl essinger mos t of th e firs t lap, " I caugh t a lot of ri ders , it was so dusty!" Entered in th e O pen Ex pert class Su mm ers had h is work cu t o ut for him . O n the second lap , Sum me rs th um ped by bo th H endon and Dice to h unt do wn CR500 -pilo t Peu gh. T he figh t for the 125cc Expert class was slo wed some wha t by mechani cal prob lem s by both Mi ller and Perkins. Mill er said, " T here was just massive du st the first loop, a nd I passed a lot o f peop le, bu t on m y second loop my sub frame bolts came o ut. I had to ride with m y knees tight aga in st the seat to keep it o n, it was a p rett y.wild style! That wasn 't the end of it - m y fork s h ydr aul iclocked , and it kind of beat me u p ." . H al fway th rough the seco nd loop H i-Po in t/ Sm ith G o g gl es-ba ck ed Per kin s' fro n t brak e hose broke just before the o u t-chec k, leading to some interesti ng descents down the steep downhills and flat-out fire roads on later loops. At th e end, Miller took th e class win over Perkins and Greg Fry. Just before the " Nasty Shortcut," Brown's ride came to an end. At the top of the thousand foot drop his p isto n broke, with a lmos t a twominute lead over Naylor. Naylor took over th e lead, but Roeseler had blitzed by Maughn and other riders, including Dowell a t the top of the switch bac ks for second. Arriving first off the third loop, Nayl or had a minute's lead over Roeseler, who was pushing hard. Dow ell was up in third with Kadlec seconds behind. Naylor was su ffering massive pains from th e cramps a nd Roeseler was' ga in ing time on him. Reports from th e ou t-check, halfway throu gh , had them handleba r- to-h andl ebar a s they fought ferociously for th e lead. Starting on th e same row, whoever was in front would take th e overall. Roeseler slam me d by going up the " Switchbacks o f Death" to tak e over the lead. Naylor desperately maneuvered to rep ass but cras hed hard. a llo w ing R oesel er to g et away. Naylor got back up, riding hard to make up th e distance, but came up short by 45 seco nds at the finish , giving Roeseler the overall. Dowell was th e next rider in, but Kadl ec had snuck up behind him and with correcied tim e assu med third overall. On th e big Honda thumper was Summers, who headed off Lojak by 24 seconds for fifth, and fir st Open Ex pert. Throughout th e third and fourth laps the battle over second Open Ex pert ra ged between Dice and Peu gh . As th ey entered th e final secti on : Dice had o nly scant yards on ex -P ro m o tocro sser P eu gh. " I thought he m ight get me th ere," said S m i t h / W h i te Bro s.lMai er/Maxi ma / AXO-back ed Di ce, " b u t he must o f bl ew a corner or something, because I looked back and saw Todd kicking his bike over." This gave Curtis some breath ing room as well as seven th overa ll, seco nd O pen. Rounding o u t th e to p 10 was S m i th /M a ier / 0 ' N ea l/ Ts u b a k il Acerbis-sponsored Sco tt Pl essinger, who rem arked " the course was too fa st, but every th i ng el se was o kay ." . • Results SUNDAY 0 / A : 1. Larry Roeseler (Kaw); 2. Ron Naylor (Suz); 3. Fritz Kadlec (yam); 4. Duke Dowell (Hon); 5. Scott Summers (Hon); 6. Ed Lojak(Hus); 7. Curti s Dice (Hon); B. Todd Peugh (Hon); 9. Scott Plessinger (Kaw ); 10. Corky Maughn (Hon); 11. Phil Dougles (Suz); 12. Tony Hendon (ATK); 13. Larry Joh nson (Kaw); 14. Mark Olberding/ Dan Lees (Yam) team ; 15. Mark Hyde (Hus); 16. Ronn Wehr (Hon); 17. Joel Huskey (Hon); 1B. Stev. Quale (Yam); 19. Bob Schield (Hon); 20 . David RhuJas (Hus). OPEN EX; 1. Scott Summers (Honl; 2. Curtis Dice (Hon); 3. Todd Peug h (Hon). TEAM ; 1. Dan Lees/ M ark Olberding (Yam); 2. Brad Childs (Hus); 3. Roger Neth/Shane Meredith (Yam). . _ 250 EX: 1. Larry Roeseler (Kaw ); 2. Ron Naylor (Suz); 3. Pritz Kadlec (Yam). 125 EX: 1. Jeff M ill er (Kaw); 2. Bill Perkins (Yam); 3. Greg Fry (Hus). . . 4-STRK EX; '1. David Rhodes (Husl . SR EX; 1. (TIE) Wh iz McNeal/Joe Wood (Hon/ Yam); 2. Eddie Ecyed (ATK); 3 . Don Toussaint (Hon). S/SR EX; 1. Charl es Galbraith (Hus); 2. Edd Haymond (M -S); 3. Gil Roberts (KRM). OPEN INT; 1. Bob Sch ield (Hon); 2. Mik e Dayton (Yam); 3 . Ray Neill (Hon). 250 INT; 1. Travis Ew ert (Yam); 2. Tom Ady (Hon); 3. Herb Nachtigall (Hon). BO INT; 1. Butch Veenstra (Suz). SATURDAY OPEN NOV; 1. Chris Cameron ; 2. Marty Smith (Husl; 3. Gary Yearsl ey (Yam). . 250 NOV: 1. Will iam Yorke (kew); 2. Brian Gafford (Hon); 3. Marc Clark (Hon). 2200 NOV; 1. Evan Myl 9r (Kaw ); 2, James Hoksin . 125 NOV; 1. Cody Sanders . . SR NOV; 1. Mark Huddl eston (Honl; 2. Greg Sm ith (C-A); 3. Dennis Haymore (KTM). SR INT; 1. Jerry Bischo ff (Yam); 2. Kenny Stewart (Suz); 3. Steve Cameron (Kaw). S/SR NOV; 1. Devid Adam s (Hon); 2. Jack Blunch. MSTR; 1. Bog Teylor ; 2. Jerry Rowley; 3. Fred Rucker (KTM). . 4-STRK NOV: 1. Alan Myler (Hon); 2. Alan Olaveson ; 3. Tom Hedgpeth (ATK). WMN ; 1. Debbie Dowell (Kaw); 2. Denise Sette (Kaw); 3. Beth Elwood (Kawi. DINO: 1. Robert Smith; 2. Jack Baughman. ANTQ: 1. Harvey Mushman; 2. Don Gross; 3. Dez-it ,

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