Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

J immy Lewis was fourth overall. first in the 125cc Expert class. Greg Searle grabbed the lead 10 m iles from the end of the 134-mile race to take the w in barely one minute ahead of Garth Sweetland. AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series: Round 5 Searle sizzles'to Wells-to-Wendover win By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren WELLS, NV, AUG. 27 H'onda privateer Greg Searle survived a a grueling 134-mile sprint . cross northern Nevada to take the honors in round five of the champion ship series. On a rugged point-to-point course that most racers des. h h h d cnbed as ~he toug ~st t ey .a ever seen In the National senes, 24 the CR250 pilot was charging hard all th e way . He pushed through to grab the lead just 10 miles from th e finish line and sprinted in to complete the dash from Wells, Nevada, to Wendover, Nevada, in just over three-and-a-half hours, barel y one minute ahead of CR500 pilot Garth Sweetland. "T h is is great - it really feels good to win ," sa id Searle, after taking his first- ever National overall victory. " I had a good ride even though I fell down a few times, and I thought it was the best course I ever rod e." The race, which was the seco nd round o f Nationa l competiti on organized by Ron Dillon 's USA Ra ce Promotions, got rave review s from all o f the finishers. "I think th at's the best course I'v e ever ridden, th ere must be hours a nd hours of wo rk in it ," said top-ranked Vet Pr eston Gerber. " I don 't kn o w how Dill on ever put th a t much cou rse toge t he r . We want ed a Na ti on al -caliber course a nd we go t it." The race drew an eq ua lly en th u siastic response from th e people of Wells and Wendover. Half a page o f race information and a co m p lete map of the course appeared in the local newspaper, and th e even t dr ew sponsors that ranged from th e Nevada Commission on Tourism to Donna's Ranch, a local and legal brothel. Even th e local Highway Patrol tumed o u t for the start of th e event, trying to keep traffi c moving o n Highway 80 which was less than 100 yards downwind of th e starting ar ea and com p letel y blanketed by the dust kicked up on the bomb run. One hundred and six ty-th ree riders were on the line wh en th e banner dropped for the first ti me a t 7:30 a. m. " T he start was terribl e," sa id YZI25 pilot Jimmy Lewis, who is us ed to AMA District 37's oneminute interval banner drops. " T he y dropped the banner after ab out 10 seco nds a nd I didn't.even.have m y foot o n th e starter. Ever ybod y left befor e I got starte d a nd th e d ust was so bad I didn 't see an yth in g but helm ets for a lon g tim e." Even those who were read y for th e fast banner had p ro blems wi th th e du st. "I did okay off th e start and I was probably in the top 10 at the bomb, but the dust made it really tough," said Sweetland. "The dust was bad a ll the way to the first gas - at least for the first 25 mi les. If you weren't lead ing, it was really hard to see." The start of the race spelled disaster for southern California's John Braascli, who was tied for the 125cc points lead going into the event. Braasch reportedly crashed hard on the bomb run and was forced to drop out of the race , leaving archrival Jimmy Lewis with a clear shot at the 125cc series lead. Other racers were lucky to make it to the start of the race at all. " O ne of the Utah riders got the name of the race mixed up," said organizer Ron Dillon. " He thought it was Wendover to Wells, not Wells to Wendover, so he woke up in the wrong town and only just made it to the starting line in time." Utah's Brandon Gerber won the drag race to the bomb and headed out into the first section of the course with a large cloud of dust tucked in behind him. , "It was so dusty that you really didn't know where you were off the start," said defending National cham p Dan Smith (KTM). "We were all bunched together. I think I was about fifth or something." The riders started to spread ou t as they tackled the first downhi ll and turned towards Wood Summit, and the tri cky course started to take its toll. Smith wa s one of its first victims. "I crashed about 20 miles into it and that was it for me," Smith told Cycle News . " I just hit a rock I didn 't see. I banged my head pretty hard and I think I bruised a rib or som ething. " Kawasaki 's Paul Krause dropped out of th e running soon after. " I was about fourth at the bomb and worked up to second but the lower end went out abou t 30 miles into it and I just had to sit th ere," said Krause. " Da n (Smith) came by after a while so I hooked up a tow rope and he towed me into th e first ga s." Gerb er was still out in front as the racers went into the trees, down a short rocky downhill and into th e first pit at th e 43-mile mark. The Yamaha pilot, who was racing in the team division with Brent Fox, had a solid five minut e lead and was heading out into the second section o f th e co urse before Greg Searle and Washington's Dan Harte reached the pits in an all-out battle for seco nd. RM2 50 pilot Danny Hamel was th e next racer through, with Sweetl and a nd Idaho's Curtis Dice hard on h is heels, and Lewi s led the 125 clas s in seventh. . The top Over-30 ra cers wer e closely bunched as KT M 's Scot Harden led the way through in eighth overall. Kerry Fow ler was pushing hard just 12 seconds back and Lee Pearson was in striking distance less than two minutes behind. The pace picked up as the course headed west from the first pit and Searle started to get into stride. The battle for the Vet class honors was still going strong as the racers cleared gas two, 67 miles into the race, and headed into the tight trees and slippery shale that led into section three. " I was with Harden in the first section and we were getting pretty close together , but then I got lost in the trees and I end ed up battling with Fowler "in the second section," said Husky pi lot Pearson. "I ended up running into him and I think I hurt his leg." Hamel was closing in on the Gerber/Fox KTM as the co urse headed towards Spruce Mountain and started the climb up to I I ,262 feet. But the best was yet to come. "If they think going up there is interesting, wait until they see what they ha ve to come down," said organizer Dillon. There's a 3500foo t downhill for them. Fresh, a guy would go right down it, but by the . time they get there they 'll be tired and it'll be a real test of man and machine." Hamel took over the lead halfway down the hill when Brent Fox missed some markings and went down hard, and Searle lo st his brakes halfway down the hill and made it to the bottom in record time. The pace picked up even more as the course turned into the Black Forest section , ran through the Pequop Mountains and then hit a fast road leading to gas three at the 98-mile mark. . The racers faced a new challenge as they left gas three and tackled the final 36-mile run to the finish. Amateur and Novice racers, who had run a short loop from gas one to gas three to avoid the treacherous downhill, came back onto the main co urse and the 59-mile short cut put the front-running amateurs out in front of the long-course competitors. "It was a lot of fun unti l we got into the novices and amateurs," said ATK pilot Steve Pitts. "We were back in the dus t a ll over again and it's hard to deal with a lot of slower traffic wh en you 're start ing to get tired. " . Out in front, Hamel was battling mechanical problems as well as the extra traffic. " I was leading the race 'p ro bably 110 miles into it. We were nearlyat the end and th en my carb fell out of the back of the airbox and my throttle stuck wide open," said Hamel. Hamel's misfortune gave Searle the break he was looking for. The CR250 pilot powered past the ai ling Suzuki to tak e over the number-on e spo t and poured on the" pa ce as the race drew to a close. Sweetland swept past Hamel into second and Harte sped by to tak e over third. , " I was trying to cat ch (Sweetland) but there was a 19 t of rough, £lat stuff right at the end and I'm not as strong as he is in that,': said Harte. "We don't hav e any lo ng flats where I normally race and my arms needed to be a bit stronger. I guess I'll have to go back to th e gym. " Further back in th e pa ck, the Vet class battle was a lso heating up. " I was seven th overall a t the last g as a nd every th in g was looking good, but th en the reed petals sta rted going out and it wouldn 't tak e any

• Cover