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Cam Roos dominat ed the Mid-Atlantic Regio nal Sp rints by w inning six
classes at the event held at Rockingham M otor Spe ed way .
Ouray , Colorado m ay or C.W. M cCall (left ) acc epts a check from Colorado
500 orga nizer Wa ll y Da lle nba ch (right) as actor Kurt Ru ssell looks on.
13th Annual
Colorado 500
Benefit Run.
By John
~a n
Barriger
BASALT, CO, SEPT. 13-17
Everybody in attendance knew
it. It was the talk in the pits.
The reason everyone looked
frequently to the tops of the,
mountains su rr ou n din g th e small
Colorado town of Basalt, A condition that even warranted a significa n t part of th e rider's meeting.
Because, while it was cool and
overcast in th e valley, th ere was
snow, and in some cases a lot of it,
almost everyw h ere over 10,000 feet.
For the 192 riders invited to
participate in the 13th Annu al
Colorado 500, that snow a m ou nted
to both good n ews and bad. While
it added to the beauty an d ch allen ge
of the ride, it a lso closed off a number
of passes for th e majority of th e riders
until the last two da ys of the event,
For-a number of participants, however, this year's 500 was their person al favorite.
" For the adventu re of it, I preferred
this yea r," said Joe Shedron of
Denver, Colorado. "My group was
the firs t one over Taylor Pass by
taking the long way up. It was brutal.
We were just plowing through
sn o wdrifts until somebody found
their way through. Then we'd spread
-o u tth rou gh th e field until someone
else found a way. It was fun , though,
we leap-frogged all th e way to th e
top."
.
The Colorado 500, co n trary to
what it might sound like, is not a
ra ce. It's a n o ff-ro ad ch arity ride that
begins in Bas alt, works its wa y
sou th west via pavement, dirt roads
and trails to Ouray, and then co n cl udes four days and a p prox im a tel y
550 miles later in th e ski resort of
Aspen.
That's n ot to say th at there isn't
some mighty fast company on th e
500. This year' s crew included riders
su ch as former ISDEveterams Malcolm Smith and Dav e Mungenast,
h are scrambles a nd motocross cha m p
Barry H iggins and auto racers suc h
as Wally Dallenbach Jr.
One of th e biggest reas ons for that
good will is Wall y Dallenbach ,
administrator of th e Championship
Auto Racing Team (CART ) racing
. circu it and host of th e ride. Dallenbach wisely co llects donations from
th e riders - many, of th em fellow
auto ra cers, . motorcycle industry
n ot ables an d cele brities - to foster
go od will a lo n g the wa y. These
ch aritab le donations go to everything from school system s to trail
m aintenance and even to search-andrescu e teams.
Not th at sea rch- an d-rescue teams
are utilized on th e run. Each rid er's
$400 en try fee includes, in addition
to a ll motel rooms, several meals, and
a banqu et, a numb er o f radioequipped chase crews and medical
personnel on the run. Couple that
with local riders th at act as guides,
an d you have one of th e best organized - and safest - even ts in the
nation.
" It 's th e adventu re of th e year,"
said Jim H eidere of Princeton, New
J ersey. "You get to go out and thrash
around the Rocky Mountains with
your bi~; and body. It 's like a gi ant
enduro.
.
There's little doubt that it's th e
combination of th e riding a nd th e
companionship that m ak e the invirational event so popular. While th e
field was fill ed at 192 riders, th e
even t's organizers a nn ua lly receiv e
letters from ano ther 80 to 100 riders
requesting an in vitation. As a result,
it's not uncommon for riders to have
to wait several years to be asked to
ride.
One rider who ha s been tryin g to
a rran ge his own sched u le for n early
five years to be able to attend th e ride
is movie star Kurt Russell.
" I was surp rised by th e snow arid '
a ll th e different terrain we ran into,"
said Russell. "But that's wh at made
it so fun . The neatest thing abo u t
it is all th e guys I rode with. I'm
always amazed when a nyone knows
how to do an yth in g mechanical. And
whenever a ny th in g would happen ,
the ~uys were there to fix it . So
nothing ever stopped us. I've never
been involved with a n yth ing where
th e people were so helpful. They
really went out of their wa y."
Mu ch of th e riding in th e Ouray
area consists of rocky jeep trails th at
wind their way up to the top of a
pass. In many instan ces, suc h as with
Imogene Pass (l3,1l4 feet), the road
then disappeared and riders had to
make th eir way over trails that were
covered with snow and ran two feet
from the edge of some rather serious
drops.
"I think going down through th e
sn o w off Imogene , wa s th e most
challenging trail I rode," sa id Tim
Sundgren of Grinnell, Kansas. " I
thought it was great fun. It was a
beautiful day, an d if yo u took it easy,
it was fun ."
But there were other trai ls that
. p rov ed m ore difficult to the riders.
Malcolm Sm ith and his crew rep orted ly tackl ed a tight, single-track tra il
with over 100 switch bac ks, possibly
a folk ta le in th e making. And on
th e final d ay, the snow finall y
relinquished its hold on Pearl Pass
when Don Riggle's group crested th e
top.
By th e a wa rd s ce re m o n y a n d '
banquet , th ere was alot of talk about
riding next year's event, training in
between time and getting on the
motorcycl e more often (for so me
riders, th is is th e only event they
make time to ride). But perhaps the
most n ovel approach to riding next
year's event ca me from Kurt Russell.
" If it's snowing next year on
T aylor Pass. t'.he joked, "I'm taking
a h eli copter over it."
,
•
AMA 600 National
Champ"ionshipDirt
Track Series: Round 1. 7
Carr rolls on at
Devil's Bowl
MESQUITE, TX, OCT. IS
N ewl y crowned AMA 600
National Dirt Track Champion Chris Carr showed the
speed that won him the title
when he took on all comer s Saturday
night on th e half-mile dirt oval at
Devil's Bowl Speedway a nd scored
hi s sevent h victory in th e n ext to last
race o f th e l8-race series.
Carr actua lly secured the title back
in late Au gust. Although th e factory
H arley-Davidson rider missed severa l events in order to concentrate on
the AMA Grand National Championship Series (in which he finished
third), h e h as dominated m ost o f th e
600 Nati onal ra ces h e's entered .
Saturday night a t Devil's Bow l was
n o different. After sett ing a n ew tra ck
, record in qualifying with a time o f
20.588 seco nds , Carr easily 'wo n his
heat race with Erik G raybeal a n d
Will Davis taking seco n d and third,
respecti vely, to join Carr in advancing to th e fin al.
T he second heat race wa s won by
T exan Bill y Herndon with Peter
Hook taking second and a no the r
T exan, Scott Scherb, finishing third.
Heat number three went toDave
Du rell e with Kevin Atherton crossin g th e finish line in second and
Scott Adams taking third. .
. The fourth and fin al IO-lap h eat
race wa s won ' by vet eran T erry
Poovey of T exas. Marc Gifford and
Darin Balderston took second an d
third, respectivel y.
T wo l O-Iap semi-final ra ces were
run with only, th e winner of eac h
advancing directly to the Nationa l:
The m an in th e a dva ncement spot
in th e first semi was Garth ' Brow
while Steve Morehead grabbed the
win in th e second semi.
The Last Chance Qualifier saw
T exan Charlie Orr tak e th e win a nd
th e final starting slot in the 20-lap
final.
H-D Motor Co./ShoeilHap
J ones / RS Taichi z Tsubaki-sponsored Carr scorched the field in the
final. Donahue H -D/ Al Muth H -D/
Wood Racing /Shoe il Bell lnd./
Gen eral Engin eering-sponsored,
Wo od-Rotax-mounted Durelle battled with Shoei/Marioneaux Racing/Hap Jones/Sisemore/Tsubakisponsored, Honda-mounted Poovey.
Durelle took the runner-up spot
while Poovey had to settle for third.
While Carr has wrapped up the
title, second place is still up for grabs
- barely. Kevin Atherton, who
finish ed fourth at Devil's Bow l,
holds th e runner-up spot in the series
point standings with 131 points.
Will Davis is third in the point
stan d ings with 112 points, 19 behind
Atherton. With a first-place finish
paying 20 p oints, Davis faced a mustwin situation going into th e final
round of the series, the October 23
Woodstock, G eorgia, ra ce, but h e not
o n ly h as to win , he has to hope that
Athe rton br eaks down or fails to
qualify for th e final.
Results
20 -LAP FINAL: 1. Chris Carr (H-D); 2. Dave
Durell e (W-R); 3. Terr y Poovey (Hon); 4. Kevin
Ath erton (W-R); 5. Pet er Hook (W-R); 6. Wi ll Davis
(H-D!; 7. Charlie Orr (H-D); 8. Marc Giffo rd (H-D);
9. Erok Graybeal (W-R); 1D. Scott Adams (H-D); 11.
Scott Scherb (Hon); 12. Dar in Balderston (H-D); 13.
St eve Morehead (H-D); 14. Billy Herndo n (H-D);
15. Gart h Brow (Hon).
.
TIME: 7 mi n.. 00 .264 sec.
_ POINT STANDINGS: 1. Chris Carr (208); 2. Kevin
Atherton (131); 3. W illi am Davis (1 12); 4. David
Durell e (1 02); 5. Dan Ingra m (101); 6. Bryan Vill ella
(72); 7. Pete Hames (69); B. Don Estep (67); 9. Ricky
Graham (65); ' 10. Steve A seltin e (54); 11. Br ian
A th ert on (4 7); 12 . (TIE) Ronnie J ones /St eve
Morehead (45); 14 . Charlie Orr (41); 15. Bubba
Shobert (40); 16. (TIE) Garth Brow/Andy Tresser
III (36); 18 . Scott Pearson (34); 19 . Aa ron Hill (32);
20. Steve Eklund (27).
Roosrocks
Rockingham RR
By Evel yn Chadwell
Photo by Andy Chad well
ROCKINGHAM, NC , ocr. 8
Georgia 's Cam Roos dominated the AMAI
CCS Southea s t/M id-Atlant ic Reg ional
Sprin ts o n the hi gh banks at Rockingham's
North Caro lina Motor Speedway. tak ing hi s
first ever six-out-of-six sprin t race win s.
Roes' fir st win came on Saturda y aboard
his Roswell Honda/ Sam Yam ashita Unlimited/ Dunlop / Phil Flac k Ra cin g / Arai /NGKI
Engines by Ps ycle Racing/Dad -sponsored
Yam ah a FZR 400 in th e Lig htweigh t GP
Co mbi ned race.
.
Roos got th e ho lesh ot a nd never looked
back, beating th e 19 rid er field of novices and
experts.
The Lightweight Superbike race was won
. by David Murray aboard hi s Skyline Honda/
Sta teli ne RaCin(:/Pughs Auto Service / Dunlop / AG V / En g ines by Ordel-sponsored
