Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127161
they said I had an 18 minute lead on the next 250." Kenny Parry a nd Scott Forward led the Over-30 racers (Class 30) through at Borrego, running neck-in-neck with Kevin Colan and Donald O'Kuly' s KTM on adjus ted time, a nd J ohn : Braasch a nd Ron J ennings headed up the 125cc lineup more tha n nine minutes ahead o f their nearest Class 20 ri val s. The co u rse turned so u th from Borr ego , heading into th e 260-m ile San Felipe loop with its infamous Matorni Wash a nd whooped -o u t bea ch section. Krau se mad e short work of th e obstacles in the first half of the loop but ra n o u t of luck as - he cha rge d throu gh San Feli p e towards the pits at Zoo Road. " I pulled o u t to pass a line o f cars on the highway and three of th em happened to be co ps. I jumped off the bike in th e pits ab out seven miles up th e road to cha nge a wh eel a nd here co me all th e cops chasing me," said Kra use. " O ne of them grabbed me a nd started yell ing a t me a nd whe n I tried to get back on the bike h e grabbed the front of i t and wouldn ' t let me go . Peop le pu lled out th eir wa llets and were th ro wing mo ney at them but they wouldn' t ta ke it. Then one of th em unbu ttoned hi s ho lster as if he was going to get out his gun, so we all stopped doing an yth ing. " Krause was finall y released when a fo urth police offi cer arrived at th e Kawasaki pit. " T hey wer e upset about me speeding - th ey sa id they kn ew it was a race but we had to respect th eir rules," said Krause. " We didn 't ge t a ticket bu t it was pretty scary for a wh ile a nd they held us up for abo ut two a nd a half min u tes after we'd fini sh ed in th e pi t." Krause was no t th e on ly racer wh o lost time in th e gulf coas t loop. " Garth (Sweetla nd ) cras hed rea lly hard .com ing u p th e coast 'abo u t 20 miles fro m San Felipe - about two miles fro m whe re he d id it in th e Baja 500," sa id teammate Smith. " He wadded th e bike u p pretty good and I think he broke hi s th u m b." . A pro mis ing run b y Harden , Hi nes and Serrano a lso bit the dus t in th e sou the rn sectio n o f th e course. " We were doin g reall y well - fourth or fifth physically , but (Serrano) crashed really bad in th e low er loo p ," said Harden. " T he bike was twis ted up, the silen cer was ri pped o ff and th e handlebars were so bent they were bumping into th e tank on one side - we rod e -the last 350 miles like that." Despite hi s nca r arres t in Sa n Feli pe , Krause was sti ll o u t in front as he handed the KX500 over to LaPorte at th e 450-m ile mark. Ash craft a nd Pfeiffer were four minutes back in se cond as th ey h eaded towards Mike's Sky Ran cho a nd the Paci fic Co ast loop of the cou rse, with the H a in esiFishback/ Mill er H onda , th e Al Bak er/ Scott Su mmers/ Rand y N orman H onda a nd the rath er batt ered H a rd en /Hin es/S erran o KTM not far behind. Chase brought th e T eam H usky en try through in sixth and Howell a nd Hunnicutt were wa y O ul in front of th e 250cc field in seventh, "We kn ew we had a big lead so we just concen tra ted o n no t making a ny mi stak es," said H u n nicu tt. " In th e first part of th e race we were rea lly working on go ing fast, passing a nd passing and passi ng, bu t la ter on we .were just trying to keep it together and ride the most flaw less ride we cou ld, knowin g that if we did , hopefully we would wi n." Hopes fu rther up in the pack were dyin g left and rig ht. Smith could not stan the to p -run n ing Husky at the Mike 's Road pit a nd lost more than an hour replacing the top end, and Kurt Pfeiffer takes over for teammate Dan Ashcraft during a pit stop. The duo f inished second overall . a time-ou t to replace th e clutch cos t H a ynes, Fish bac k a nd Miller more than half a n hour a nd their thirdplace sta nd ing going into Mike's Sky Rancho. T he su n was sett ing as th e. frontru n ners head ed up th e coas t from Cama l u a n d, as the h eadl ights started to come on, th e mech an ical mish aps started again. Class 30 ho pefuls Parry a nd Forward, who still held a healthy lead desp ite putting in 300 mil es with no front brake after a hi gh-speed crash, ran into trouble the second th ey trie d to turn th eir lights on. " T he switch had broken in side so I got no th ing," said Par ry. " I had to di sassemble th e light a nd sp lice the wires together. We los t a lot of Lime doing th at. " It was " ligh ts om" for Class 38 leaders Cas ey Folks and Barry H iggins (KT M), also. "We had an eigh t minute lead on th e next guy in our class when th e lights went o u t a ll of a sudden and I cr as he d m y brains out, " sa id H iggins. "T he n I got lost o n th e beach and was riding aro u nd o u t th ere in th e dark for a whi le." A bad ignition coil left Class 38 racer Todd Martella sitting in th e dark 80 mi les from th e fini sh line. " I kept trying to pi ck up a car or someth ing to give me some light to ride by a nd th en a bike came a lo ng side me. I j ust trailed li ke a dog all the way in . I was o n him like gl ue," sa id Manella. Out in fro n t of the 125cc field, Braasch 's lights were gi ving him a worko u t. "The bike won't run a light so I had to mount a battery up on th e fron t,' said Braasch . "T he headlight and th e bat tery add 24 pounds to the from of the bik e a nd that made it reall y toug h to ride in th e silt - it oversteered like crazy. I had a spare baneryi n my fanny pack a nd th at weighed me down too ." T eam Husky' s ill-fated journey finall y ground to a halt in th e da rkness 10 mil es north of San to T omas. " T he fro nt end j ust came a part o n us ," said Smith. " I was in fourth gear and the part wh ere the axle goes through came Oul. Man, did 1 take Yam aha rider J ohn Braasch powers out of t he p its. He and Ron Jennings te am ed u p and won t he 1 2 5 cc class. fin ishing 20th overall . a h ead -o ver -h ee ls tum b le o ut th rough the weeds - I scared myse lf \0 death . There was no way to co nti n ue after that so we dropped o u t abo u t 70 miles fro m the fin ish." P feiffer a lso had a close ca ll just ou tside of Sa nto Tomas. " I left there about five min u tes behind (Roeseler) and I though t that just maybe I could ca tch him," sa id Pfeiffer. " I hit fifth going up a fast left-hand turn and about three seconds later th e back wheel went, I went down and slid on my back like a tu rtl e until I came to a stop u p aga ins t a guard 'rail. I thought I was go ing to kill myself." Pfeiffer wore a ho le in his riding pants and ground the co rne rs o ff h is . fanny pa ck , bu t esca pe d serious damage. " T hey (Ka wasa ki team ) started behind us so th e o nly way to win would 've been to pass them and the n beat them by th ree minutes or some thin g. They had a ni ce cus hion , so I -just took it easy a fter tha t." Out in from, Ro eseler was also taking it a li ttl e easy. . "I got back on th e bike a t Camalu. - There was a lot of traffi c so I j us t tried to ride sm ooth a nd not make a ny mistakes," sa id Roes eler: " T he tires get a bit bald and it gets a bit skatey, yo u min hearing noises and you're gelling tired so that 's the tim e to be careful, but it went fine. T he 7