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/127172
Yamaha -mounted Thomas led from start to fin ish for the w in . Cliff Thomas (2 2 2 2 ) and Scott Stearns (2 1 ) le d the start of the bomb run at the Winter Hare Scrambles. Thomas tops Winter Ha e Scrambles' By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren RED M OU~TAIN , CA, DEC, II Yamah a pilot Cliff Thomas poured on the pace over 70 miles of fas t, open deser t to score a wire-to-wire win in the 3rd Annual Dirt Diggers Winter H are Scram bles held at Charlie's Pl ace near Red Mo u ntain. Th bb d hI d omas gra e t e ea on the bomb and never look ed 18 back. His YZ490 was out in fron t all the way and when the checkered £lag fell at th e end of two-and-a-h al f hours of open th ro ttle racing, T homa s took the honors in the last event on AMA/Dis trict 37's 1988 calendar with a comfortable lead of more than two mi n utes. " It went /?reat from start to finish, " the Micheli n/ Dick Alle n Yama ha / PSI!AX O /Sinisalo/ IC RT-backed racer to ld Cycle News. " It was fast and it was fun , and everything went well. I never fell , never got lost • not even any close calls." Thomas go t th e drop on th e rest of th e field and led the way in th e dash to th e bomb with Chuck Mill er, T eam Gr een 's Kenny Parry, Dale Knapp and Scott Stearns ra cing through in a long line behind him. A slow er than usual start had Husky pilot Tom Willis back in midpack as he swep t past the bomb. " They dropped the banner on 30 seconds ," said Willis, who wa s expecting to see the banner for a full minute before the race got underway. " I was sitting on the bik e not read y to start and all of a sudden th e banner dropped and everybod y left. That pu t me back in th e d ust for th e first section which made it hard to pas s." Amateur ho tsho t Randy Mosely got o rr to a roaring start but went down in a heap less than a mil e o rr th e start, and even the top running Expert s were not immune to early prob lems, a s 250cc leader Dal e Knapp found o ut just minutes after he rocketed up to fourth overall. " He' (Kna pp) passd me just past the bomb but th en went dow n in so me ro cks and I went by him aga i n, " said R M250 pilot Scott Stearns, wh o inherited th e class lead after Knapp's spi ll. " H e came back pretty fast though. I was only about five mil es out and th ere he was aga in, going by me. " . Thomas continued to lead th e way as the fast-as -you -can-go trail led th e racers southwest alongside H ighway 395 and then turned east toward Red Mountain. " It was prett y fast," 'said CR500 pilot Chuck Mill er. " I' ve go t stock gearing on a stock bik e and I was scream ing it th e whole tim e." T he course tightened ,up in the second haI£ of the loop bu t Thomas did not m iss a beat. Mill erco ntinued his headl on g ru sh in seco nd and Knap p, Stearns and Parry duked it o ut for th ird. " I had a great rid e going unt il a bo u t three-quarters of th e way through the first loop," said Parry, "then the c~urse markin gs go t reall y po or. I spen t more time trying to stay on the course than anyt hi ng else. At one stage Dale Knapp, Tom Willis and I all got lost togeth er. We were r iding round in th e middl e of nowhere looking for ribbon." Tom Willis, wh o overca me his slo w start and rocketed up to join the frontrunning bunch before th e halfway point in th e first loop, was also disappointed with the course markings. "T hey left a little bit to be desired," said th e Eric 's Motorcycles/O'Nea ll Thick and Thin ' Raci ng -backed rider. " When you're going th at fast you need a lot of danger markings and th ey didn't hav e en ou gh of those. I th ought it was a bit dan gerous in so me places." Out in front , Thomas was having trouble with th e markings too. " T he second haI£ of th e co urse was marked kind of bad and there were a few tou gh spots," said th e race leader. " We wo uld be going reall y fast down a road or something a nd they wou ld have a turn with no dan ger sign o r anything." Despite his pr obl ems , Thom as was still out in front when he raced into th e pits' at th e end of th e firs t lap of the 35-m ile co urse. Miller 's CR500 was one mi nute beh ind in second and Knapp led th e 250cc competitors th rough in third. Parry 's KX500 hit pi t row th ree minutes beh ind th e leader in fourth, wi th Will is, Stearns and Char lie Morris, J r. comforta bly spaced beh ind him. " I got a terrible start," said Morris. " Everyone beat me to my trail and I had to work my way up. I never rode so hard in my life." Phil Cloward's Husky was out in front of the Vet division when he hit pit row in eighth overall , J ohn Braasch hea ded u p the 125s in 14th overall, and Ron Ha ll led the senior _ co mpetitors through in 20th overall. The front-runners hit tr affic almost as soon as loo p two bega n. " We were la ppin g ri ders rea lly quickly," said Parry. " I was sur - prised how soo n we caugh t up to them." Thomas co n tinued h is spri nt out in fro nt o f the pack and soon stretched hislead o ut to al most two mi nu tes over Mill er, who was still chasing hard in second. Parry, who had abando ned th e Vet division in favor of the Open Expert class for the day, was duckin g and diving trying to improve his posit ion and Kna pp , Stearns and Morris were still raci ng handlebar -to-handlebar for th e 250cc lead. The a ll-o u t rus h continued m ile a ft er mi le, t hrough thick dust, aro und slow er riders and up tricky h ill s. "T here was a real bottleneck ou t th ere on the second loo p ," said Mill er. " A whole bunch of people were stuck on o ne o f the h ills - th ere were stuck riders everyw here." " You shou ld've seen it ," said Morris. " T here were people lyin g all over th e hill. You had to pi ck yo ur line really ca ref u lly to m a ke i t through there." Parry survived the bottleneck hill but ran into trouble about 20 mi les o ut £rom the finish. , " I was paying mo re attention to th e lapped riders than to wh at I was doing an d I gla nced orr a rock ," said Parry. " I came orr the bike and la nded ,on my arm , right on a p iece of glass . It was probably left there wh en th e area was used for target practice. I was wearing forearm pads but it went right th ro ugh everything. " I knew somethi n~ was wro ng bemuse I cou ld feel It getting wet and ru nny, so my goa l was just to get to the finis h. I j ust wadd led in from there. It turned ou t I had q ui te a long cu t and it was open wide so you co u ld see my forear m , bo ne protruding through it, but it rea lly hasn 't given me much trouble. I've got abou t 19,000 stitches in there now bu t it feels fin e." O ut in front, Thomas was still enjoying a trouble-free ru n and did no t let up for an instant as the fina l stages of th e race began. T he YZ490 pilo t kep t the pace going all the wa y to th e chec kered £lag and ra ced in to take the honors with a com fortable two-m in ute margi n over Honda's Miller. " I had an excellent start. I was first at th e bomb and I just led it fro m th ere," said Thom as, who thanked Pam and Lauren , and the Ch eckers M.e. " There were a couple of tight sectio ns but it was prett y fast most of th e way. I never fell or had any prob lems. T he on ly thing I did was lose my viso r in one of th e h igh speed sections." Secon d-p laced Mill er , wh o than ked Ame rican H onda, Sco tt, Honda line, Michelin and Will, raced in to claim second overa ll an d second in the O pen Expert class. " I was seco nd orr the sta rt and follo wed Cliff all th e way. I had a pretty goo d ride," said the CR500 pilot. Ru mor s were £lyin g after th e race th at Mill er mi ght be di squal ifi ed fo r missing a check bu t a spokesman for th e Dirt Diggers M.e. lat er said th a t th e rum ors wer e unfo unded. " H e got second as far as we're concern ed, " said th e spokema n. " We haven 't heard anything th at wou ld change th e resu lts." Kn a pp' s co n sistent cha rge brough t h im in to the fini sh in third overall and earned h im o vera ll honors in the 250cc division. " I lik ed i t but it co u ld' ve been marked better," said th e Pro-Circuit/Suzuki of Van uys-backed racer. " I got lost a co up le of tim es out there but I didn 't have any problems at all. " , Scott· Stearns brough t his RM 250 hom e in fourth overa ll with racelon g riva l Will is hard on his heels. Parry raced in to claim six th overall and the n raced off to take ca re of his injured arm. " I wo uld've liked to have fini shed better overa ll bu t that's the way it goes ," said th e Kawasaki/ Scott's Perfo rm ance/PJ I/Sin isa lo/ Sm ith / Ren t h a I/ T r ic k/T su ba ki -ba ck ed rider, whose fini sh earne d fourt h in the Open Expe rt class. , Seven th overa ll went to Ch arlie Morris desp ite a terri ble start. To m Kelley's ' YZ250 captured eig h th ' overa ll and Phil Clo ward contin ued h is race-lon g do m ination of the Vet Expert division in n inth. Cloward's nea rest Vet class com p etition wa s KX500 p ilo t Mike McDonal d in 15th overa ll. "A ll I had to do was fin ish today to get number one Vet, so I just tra il rode," said McDonald. Vet 250cc honors were clai med by J oh n Tobin (Ya m) in 20th o vera ll with Eric J ensen 's KTM hard on his