Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"l ...... . The winn ing team of (left to right) Danny laPorte, Roeseler and Krause celebrated with champagne on the victory podium. Larr y Roeseler crossed the f inish line in Ensenada nearly 1 2 hours after the rac est arted , It was his fifth Baja 1000 w in. Krause, Roeseler, LaPorte score Baja 1000 victory By Tom and Anne Van Beveren EN SENADA, BAJA CALIFO RN IA, ME XICO , NOV. 11-12 , T h e Kawasaki .trio of Paul Krause, Larry Roeseler an d Danny LaPorte dominated one of off-road racin g's most p restigiou s events - the SCORE Baja 1000. The winning team basi call y led fro m sta r t to fin ish, cro ssin g the fin ish line . . h d f h . ru n e mi nu tes ~ ea 0 t en nea rest co m pe titors. 6 In a flawl ess 11 and ,a half-h our ri de th ro ugh th e wilds of th e Baja pe nins ula , th e Team Green riders never missed a beat. Despite booby tra ps , spec tator ve h icles o n th e cours e and a n a ttem p t by Mexica n po lice to arrest Krau se for spee di ng, the ha rd -ch ar ging racers kept th e pace goi ng for nea rly 700 m iles in a head lon g ru s h that ca p tu re d SCO RE's 1988 Class 22 Ch am pionship. For Roeseler, it's hi s un p recedented fifth win in theTegend ary Baj a 1000. "This feels grea t. It 's the best ou t o f a ll the tim es I' ve won it," Roeseler told Cycl e News after bringi rig the Team G reen KX500 entry in to take the chec kered flag first. " I a lmost sta rte d crying co m ing in o n th e pavem ent. It 's th e fifth tim e I' ve won thi s overa ll , but it's been five or six yea rs since the last tim e I won it. I' ve done rea ll y 'good racing in th e last few years but we haven't been ab le to put this race toge th er. T his wi n means a whole lot to a ll of us." Kaw asa ki a lso came o u t on top in Class 21 (motorcycl es l 26cc to 250cc) wh en KX250 pi lo ts T ed H u nn icu tt, J,r. . a nd. Brett H o well crossed th e fin ish li ne nea rl y an hour a head of the ir nea rest 250cc riva ls to repeat last year 's winni ng performance. "Two years in a row ,- we're pretty happy wit h that," sai d Hunnicutt. " We had no problems a t a ll. We had suc h a good lead we even went a hea d a nd d id some extra wh eel cha nges. We felt we sho uld ta ke ad vantage of th e lead a nd ge t some good whee ls o n th er e so n o thin g woul d go wrong." Eigh ty-seven mo torcycle team s were up befor e da wn prep aring for the start of this year 's Presidente Brandy-sponsored event. T he bi gnam e factory team s were o u t in force and top-ra n ked privateers ga thered from a ll over th e world to pi t the ir skills aga ins t Baja 's infam ous terra i n . T h e s tar ti ng l in e u p eve n incl uded a Suzu ki 1250-powered EML sidecar that was flown into Los Angeles a nd then ridden to th e even t by its two -man German crew. In a n a ttem pt to make the early stages of the race safer. th e starting line for mo torcycles a nd ATVs wa s moved out of th e streets o f Ensenada a nd down to Oj os Negr os, 25 mil es into the cou rse. " Cha nging the start.was the srnar- test thing SCORE's ever done," said Tea m Husqvarna 's Dan Smi th. " It was dum b to have us race up th e h ighway in a ll th e tra ffic like we used to. T here' re so man y po ssibi li ties to get' hurt with a ll the cars a nd the fog - it 's insan e. I clapped a t the riders ' meeting when th ey sai d they were moving the start to O jos." The green flag dropped for the first tim e just a fter six a.m. and th e racers powered o ff the line one a t a time every 30 seco nds to face the first sectio n o f the grue ling 679-mile cou rse. Tim Morton .la u nched an early cha rge tha t cata p ulted his KTM up past th e four earl ier starters a nd g rabb ed th e lea d a s th e racers powered th ro ugh checkpoint two at Nuevo Junction, 65 miles into the race . Last year's Baja 1000 winner Dan Ashc raft got hi s YZ490 o ff to a fast start a nd an all-out push ' by Roeseler had Tea m Green 's KX500 working its way stead ily u p th rough th e pa ck. T he Da n Smith/Garth Sweetlan d/ Da ve Ch ase H usky entry was going strong ' and the KT M pi loted by Dar yl Folks a nd brother Bryan was fractionall y ah ead of the Hunnicutt/ H ow ell Kawasak i in the 250cc division. For some o f the compe titors, the race was ove r a lmos t before it bega n. "The re was a Mexican ' truck wi th a camper o n it in the middl e of the course abo u t five miles before Nuevo Junct ion," said ATK pilot Don Lieb . "The rider in fro nt o f me came ro u nd the corner and ran righ t into it. I man aged to miss th e truck but I hit a roc k a nd the rear wheel went up in the a ir. I went ro u nd th e truck o n o ne wh eel then up into b ush es. I broke th e bike's fram e, bro ke both m y wr ists a nd di slocated my ri ght sho ulder." The racer in fro nt of Lieb was South African H ylt on Beattie. " I p ull ed over to the left figuring that' s wh ere you pass in America but th e truck p ull ed o ver o n me," sa id Beattie. The g u tsy Sou th Afri can rode hi s badl y tweak ed KTM in to the Nu evo Ju nc tio n p its and la ter learn ed th at he had brok en h is neck in two p laces. Out in fro nt, th e ba tt le for the lead was hea tin g u p. Ash craft grabbed th e lead from Morton going over Co ha b uzo su m mi t, but lost it a lm ost immedia tely to La Porte who had tak en over fro m Roeseler a t the 50mi le mark. " I was fifth wh en I got on the bike a nd I passed everybody after ,90 miles," sai d LaPo rte . " It's p retty scary o u t there. On a motorcycle you mostl y wo rry abou t other vehi cles. T he re were cars - American cars, sornbo dy's pit crew, going bac kwards o n th e co urs e in p laces. T hey were idiots and they rea lly made it dangerous." In additio n to tra ffic on the cours e, the racers a lso had to be on the loo ko u t for boob y traps built by ac tio n-seeking local s. "T here were boob y traps a ll over the pl ace in the new (for est) section ," sai d Las Vegas rac er Pete Shee han. " I jumped over abo u t 20 of them . T he Mexicans were o ut th ere waiting arou nd ca m pfires. T hey had camped out a ll ni ght so that th ey co u ld ' vis i t' u s this morn in g." Ashcraft survived the boob y traps a n d th e roc ky terrai n near th e su m m it, bu t was struggling with mechanical p rob lem s as he headed d own towards the cen tral desert region nea r Borrego. "The bike seized th ree times right off the sta rt, abo ut six or seven mi les in to it wh en it go t really foggy and cold," said Ashcra ft. " It was a brand new cylinder a nd p iston, and I think we didn 't break it in well enough. I was trying to n urse it at fir st but a fter a whi le it starting running good aga in. " ,. The Roeseler/ LaPorte charge had Team Green's KX500 o ut in fro nt by th ree time-adjusted minutes when Krause too k over a t the Borrego pits. As hcraft was th e second r acer th ro ug h, but third-placed Smi th was a hea d o n time wh en he appeared in pit row just 10 seconds behind the YZ490. The Ch ris H a in es/ J im Fishba ck /Chuck Mi ll er H onda tea m cleared Bo rrego in fo urth , jus t ah ead of Scot Harden , Kevin H in es a nd Ca rlos Serrano (KT M), and H u n nicu tt and Howell led th e 250s through j us t 24 m inutes beh ind the race "leaders a fter mech an ical gremli ns kn o cked the fa st -st art in g Folks brothers ou t of co nte ntio n. " I th ought someone was ahea d of me until I got to Tres Pozos dry la ke (abo u t 150 miles into the race) so I was go ing for it ," said Hunni cutt. " I as ked them where th e first 250 was a nd th ey said it was me, I was surprised. When I go t to Borrego

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