Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Checkpoints Start E Alamo Road I 1 M ike's Sky Rancho 2 Camalu 3 S. of San Quintin 4 Rancho Santa Ines 5 Bahia de los Angeles 6 EI Arca W inners Roeseler (center) and laPorte (ri ght) share the spotlig ht o n the rostrum in La Paz. SCORE president Sa l Fish (far left) watches. . w heel a nd th e a ir filt er an d I gave th e bik e to C h uck." According to T eam Green 's race manager Marc Johnson: " Whe n th e H onda wen t into Carnalu , Chuck Mill er , ph ysi call y. wa s a head o f LaPorte by four minutes an d 30 seconds. wh ich put him two minutes ahead o f us o n adj us ted tim e. When Dann y a rrived a t Santa Maria , he wa s onl y down two m inutes physically which put us in th e lead by 30 seco nds the re. Danny th en ca ugh t Bru ce so mew he re between Sa nta Mar ia a nd Gua yqu il, At th a t point, Danny got lost going in to Gua yqui l pit a nd ga ve back a m in u te a nd a haiL " '.'1 go t lost co m ing into th e pi t and co u ld n ' t find m y gas," sai d LaPorte. " I o n ly pr e-ran m y sectio n once an d was n 't th at fa m ili ar wi th it a nd I ended u p doing loops inside this little area tryin g to find m y gas . Leavin g th e pi t, Bru ce was abou t a minu te and a half a head of me a nd I could n 't quite see him. We then got on the high way and I saw him dow n in a sa ndwash - h is b ike had bro ke. They were our ma m co mpet itio n." Ogilvie exp la ins : " It sna p ped a cra n ksha ft on th e righ t sid e, j ust in side the ca m gear. I ha d just g iven th e bik e to C h uc k a nd he was on a long sectio n of pavem ent a nd th en it broke." LaPorte rode th e first 350 miles, ap proxima tely 50 mil es sho rt o f Bahia De Los An geles. a nd handed th e bik e to Hunn icutt with a bo u t a n II-m inu te lead o n KTM-moumed Dan Sm ith, wh o was looking for h is fir st-ever , point-to-point Baj a 1000 wrn . Hunn icu tt 's 350-mile ride bet ween Santa In es a nd San juanico went smooth ly. .J ohnson descr ibed H un ni cutt 's ride as, " T he smoothest a nd ma s I flaw less ride by any body in th e race." Abo u t 250 mi les into Hunn icu tt 's 350-mi le sti n t, he sto pped 30 mi les short o f Sa n Ignacio to insta ll lig h ts o n the KX500. The KX fea tured a new k ind o f light in g system installed especially for thi s year 's race. "What reall y worked good o n o ur bike th is year was th e lighting system we used, " sa id Roeseler. " We used a sma ll ba ttery and street bike ligh tin g co ils. So right wh en ' yo u flick th e switch to turn o n the ligh ts, the ba tter ies kick in a nd the ligh ts a re a lways white. no matt er what rpm, Wh en you sh ut o ff for the corners, th e battery Ieeds the ligh ts and whe n you get bac k at h igh er rpm , the ign iti on rech ar ges th e battery. So yo u ca n ride reall y fast and smoo th an d keep a h igher gear, wh ere norm all y rid ing a t ni ght you're slip p ing th e clutch a nd keeping th e revs up. ·trying to keep th e light bright. Our new li ghts worked reall y, reall y good . It hel ped a lot ." In stalling th e new system, however, requires more work th an usual a n d th e team ex per ie nced nin e minutes .of down time before Hunn icutt co u ld ge t back o n th e trail. Just before reaching San J uanico , Hunnicutt handed Roeseler th e bike for th e last 350 mil es of th e race. Wh en Roese1er took th e reigns it was a lrea dy dark, about 7:00 p.rn. , an d he had a narrow time-adjusted , two mi n u te lead over th e n ew seco ndp lace team of Greg Zitt erk opf, Pa u l Krause a n d G arth Sweetl and, rid in g a 601 AT K four-st rok e. Kra use was ridi ng th e ni ght stretch. The ATK had taken over second place early in th e race from . the Smith/Hines/ Harden I ea rn whe n their KT M began running poorl y. " It ha p pened ea rly on a nd I don't know if it was jetting, car b u rerio n , or if d irt was comi ng th ro ugh the air filter o r what it was," said H ines. who was ridi ng h is seco nd -ever Baj a 1000. " Da n rode first, the n m e, Dan again. a nd then Scott. Whe n I got the bi ke, it .wasn '.t runni ng right." The Smi th / H ines / Harden KT M team was running thi rd a t thi s po in t with Folks, Hamm el a nd Mo rri s . cruisi ng in fourth. La ter in to th e ni ght, th ou gh . Krause had p robl em s and dropped b a ck 30 minutes, h andin g th e number two o vera ll p o sit ion to Folks, wh o was a p p ro xima tely 2030 minutes behind Roese1er. Roeseler was enjoying a co m for tab le lead u n til 50 miles from th e fin ish and 10 mil es from hi s last p it wh en th e drive chai n broke on the Kaw a saki. " Whe n I crossed th e pa vement for the last time, Mar c (Joh nson ) said I had abou t 28 m inutes on the nex t ride r," sai d Roese1er. "The n a bout 10 mi les before th e la st check m y cha in brok e a nd popped the circl ip off th e co u n ters ha ft a nd th e cou ntersh aft sprocket ca me o fL Luc ki ly it a ll, cha in a nd sprocket, stayed toget her - th e chain a nd th e sprocket were han gin g do wn by the Io otpeg. I didn 't h a ve a chai nbreak er with me a nd I had to so meho w kn ock o u t th e broken cha in li n k, b ut it was to ugh because the . p la te was brok en a nd the- pi ns were mushroomed. I ended up using th e tip o f m y sp ar e spark p lug to punch the pins through, so I could put on a new ma ster link. Lu ckil y I had my M cG yver knife a nd m y tool s in m y Milages 60.2 53,0 33.8 122.6 99.2 106.5 60.2 113.2 147.0 269.6 368.8 475.3 ~~"""\ ""'...... LA PURIS I\A S, A VIER < 6 ILOM ET\ C'UDAD CD~&1J San Ignacio la Purisima 9 San Javier 10 Cuidad Constitucion 11 Mile M arker 1.004 Finish la Paz 7 8 77.7 137.8 54.2 91.0 133.7 23.3 fannypack to get it go ing again," Roeseler joked . " I got the chain and sp roc ket back o n but I didn' t hav e a circlip to h old th e sp rocket o n th e coun ters ha ft, so I had to ride th e nex t 10 m iles ho lding the sproc ket on wi th m y boot," Roeseler adde d. " I putted a nd putted aft er th at u nt il I co u ld ge t a new circlip, w hich I d id a t the next pit. Ma n, I was swea tiri ' bu lle ts the re for a whi le!" The wh ol e ep isode cos t Roeseler approxi ma tely 15-20 minutes. But he was still th e first' rid er to cross th e finish line in La Paz, seven m inutes short o f I:00 a. m., with a little over six minutes to spare over th e seco n d pl ace team of Folks, Morris a nd Hammel. About 15 minutes later , Krau se crossed th e lin e a n d 24 m inutes after that H arden took th e chec kered flag. . Wh en Folks took o ver from Morris a t Sa n Juanico for th e final sectio n he wa s running fourth , a few minut es behind Harden a nd Krause. Bu t b etw een San Juanico a nd La Paz, a d istance o f approximately 350 m iles, Folks go t b y b oth H ard en a n d Kra use. " When I got on th e bike I didn 't go five m iles before I h it so me th ing th a t I th ink was a dog ," sai d Folks. " It was grey an d had shaggy hai r. Man , it sca red th e cra p o ut of me. Wh a t a way te;> warm up , h u h? " T h en I sta rte d making up tim e a nd I came across H arden ," said Fo lks, " I was in hi s dust a nd a ll of a sudden he was sta nd ing in th e midd le o f the co urse, he was ha vin g so me kind of problem." H arden sa id: " I ga l th e bi ke from Da n (Sm ith) at Sa n Javier a nd we wer e righ t beh ind Pa ul Kra use. I took o ff af ter Paul a nd abou t 12 m iles mi t of th e pit the bike j ust quit. I 553.0 690.8 745.0 836.0 969.7 992.0 K'L OM ETER 128 SAN L~UI S GONZAGA i" \ .. ....'-....... PUNTA CONEJ O .... FINISH · LA PAZ pulled th e spark plug out, no spark! I pulled off the tank, the seat - I pu lled every thing off th e bike. I co u ldn ' t fix it. I was there for 30 m inutes. Darryl ca me by a nd I to ld him to tell m y crew th at I wasn 't . co m i ng. Fi na lly, I was deciding whe ther to bu ild a fire or work on th e bi ke some more. Well, I decid ed to wor k o n the bi ke and I fou nd o u t th at the spark plug ca p ha d a bad con nectio n. It started bu t still ran cra p py therest of th e way, bu t I' m glad I'm here, I th ought for sure I wo uld be spe nd ing th e ni ght out in th e desert. " Once past Harden , Folks set out aft er second-place Krause. " I sta rted getting in Krause's dust, but all o f a sudde n m y front brake broke - it just vanished - for so me reason. I rode from Constit ucion to the finish (162 m iles) without a fro nt brake. That made th ings kind o f difficu lt. "And th en I saw wh a t I though t was Kra use, but I wa sn 't positive. I saw a guy behind a tree an d it looked like he was si tti ng o n a bike. " At m y last pit th ey sai d, ' Darry l, Roeseler's only five minutes a head o f yo u. ' I figured Larry was 30-35 minutes a head of me, because I had slo wed u p w ith m y fro n t brake problem , My crew sa id, 'O h no, he 's go ing abou t 20 mph , he's having so me kind of p roblem with hi s bik e,' So I went for a ll I was wo rt h trying to ca tch him , I knew whe n I ro de p ast R o es el er ' s pits a fter that , tho ug h, tha t wha tever was wrong th ey'd go tte n it fixed ." Co m ing into th e fi nis h a rea, Folks had p roblem s with Mexi can specta tors th row in g th in gs at h im . " I go t h it in th e side of my head by a beer ca n," sai d Folks. " I kind of saw it co m ing a t me o u t of th e

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