Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

. Bruce Ogilvie. riding a Honda XR600, won his f irst-ever Baratow-to. Vegas and cla imed the Vet Open Expert class win as well. AMAjDistrict 37 Barstow-to-Vegas Hare & Hound Ogilvie victorious at B-to-V ,thriller By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Anne Van Beveren and John Thomas LAS VEGAS, NV, NOV. 26 " I've wan ted this for a long, long time," said American Honda's Bru ce Ogilvie as he • sa t on the finish line at the 1988 AMA/ D-37 Bars tow-to-VegasHare & Hound. " It always feels good when you win but this one is something . I" speCla . "It's a big race - one of the 6 biggest of the year and I've always wanted to win it , but they quit having it when I was in my prime as a racer, " the Over-Sf class entrant told Cycle N ews. "I've led it a couple of times and I finished second in 1983 but I never quite made it to number one. Now I've finally done it and it feels ~reat. " Ogilvie 's long-awaited win came at the end of one of the hardestfought B-to- V races ·in memory, The front-runners were closely bunched all the way in the 165-mile event and it was still anybody 's race as the top three headed in to th e last 30 miles with less than two minutes between them. A do -or -die sprint in the final ro cky section gave the XR600mounted Ogilvie the edge he needed and brought him in to the finish a scant ~wo minutes. ahead .of Team Green s ~~ Hunnicutt, with fellow Kawasaki pilot Paul Krause hard on his heels in third The closely co~tested race was also one of the . most demanding events that Bvto- V racers have ever seen . In addition to the 1200-strong field and the cream-of-the-crop competition that AMA/D-37's most prestigious event always draws, this year 's racers also faced a revamped course. The wide-open running that made B-toV a test of courage as much as skill had been rethought and 1988's competitors ran' headlong into some of the toughest, rockiest terrain that District 37 organizers could find. " It was tougher than a two dollar steak - a real killer," sa id Novice class racer Larry Naston. "T ha t last section was so bad I thought they had to be kidding. Me, ride through that? It was nothing at all like Bto-V usually is. " "The change really happened . Team Green's Ted Hunnicutt battled with Ogilvie for the lead. but came up two minutes short at the fin ish . He ended up second overall. because of the BL M," said race coch a irm a n Rick Hammel. "They closed th e sceni c area · tha t we used to use. The BLM said they wanted us out of the scenic area, so we had to move the course. We were left with a ISO-foot wide corridor and we did the best we could with it. We didn't reallyplan to make it tough, it just worked out tha t way ." But while the tough terrain spelled disaster for many of the racers , Ogilvie used it to his advantage. "That rocky section right at the end won it for me," said Ogilvie. "It was like riding an enduro - rocky, gnar ly, tight stuff, and the bike worked flawlessly in that. Everyone else had problems there so I got a bit of a lead." . The radical environmentalist group Earth First claimed responsibility for scattering small wooden devices spiked with nails on some sections of the race course and on access roads into the pit sections to cause flat tires. However, most of the spikes were found by the pre-race sweep crews, and none of the racers reportedly ran over the spikes. Most of the racers had no idea what lay ahead as they lined up in the starting area 30 miles east of Barstow, California. "I was totally unprepared for what we rode through," said Team Green's Paul Krause. "I expected it to be the same old fast stuff but it was a lot of virgin, twisty, turny stuff - real desert racing for a change." . The starting banner dropped for the Amateur/Expert wave just after 7.30 a.m. and the racers hit the throttle with a vengence. Rain the week before the race provided dust, free running all the way to Nevada and brought some of the fastest bomb-run speeds ever seen at B-to- V. "The conditions were awesome," said Team Husqvarna's Dan Smith, who got the ho leshot in the starting- line drag race. "With the wet ground, it couldn' t have been better. " Krause and Ogilvie also got off -to £lying starts and it was close to a three-way tie as the racers powered past the bomb. "It was pretty exciting," said Smith. " It was like motocross where they play dirty and stuff each other into the berms but we were in sixth gear going for it." ~ The close racing a lmost spelled disaster when Smith and Krause locked handlebars at full cry and Kawasaki nearly lost its two top Open class .racers when Krause and Hunn icutt came together just past the bomb. "We were both trying to pass at the same speed a t the same . time. We were side by side up in the air and Ted's wheel ran over my brake lever," said Kra use, pointing to the black marks left on the lever. "I had to yank my hand off the bar or he would've run over it. I thought we were history. It scared me to death. " . Some of the slower starters also had a few worrying moments. "I fouled a plug righ t when the banner dropped and couldn't get the bi ke started, " said Kawasaki's Grant Palenske, " I had to stop and change the plug, so I was dead last off the line. Nobody was sitting there by the time I left and I had to pass a million people to catch up again." YZI25cc hopeful J o h n Braasch also had an interesting bomb run. . "This isn't the bike I was going to ride - I broke that one in practice ' yesterday," said Braasch. " I went home and got this brand new one and the bo m b run this morning was my break-in. I think it did a pretty good job - the bike ran well all day." Some o f the racers did not make it as far as the end of the bomb run. Idaho's Ro n Dillon earned special mention in the " longest drive for the shortest ride" category when he broke his bike just one mile ou t-

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