Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~. HARE &H UN» AMAINational Cham~ionshi~ Hare &: Hound Series: Round 5 0 ~ , . . . . . - - - - -- Dust was a major p roblem for all the racers except T ed Hunnicu tt who jumped out to an early lead and roosted awa y for the overall win at th e Colorado National. J imm y Lewi s (N I ) and J oh n Braasch (N2) diced for the lead in the 125cc division. Braasch eventua ll y p assed th e defend in g cla ss ch amp for the win. Hunnicutt dusts 'em off in Colorado By Anne Van Beveren CRAIG, CO, SEPT. 16 eam Green 's Ted Hunnicutt raced 95 miles at the head of th e pack to win th e dust-ma rred Sand Wash National Championship Hare & H ou nd near Craig. The KX500 pilot rocketed off the line when the banner dropped and stayed in front of the dust all th e way to th e checkered flag. " I th in k I finally go t my bad lu ck ou t of the way at this race," said Hunnicutt, who crashed and fini shed well back at the Little Sna ke M.e.sponsored race in 1988 and '89. "T he points help, too. I needed some more to keep me in the running for the championship." Hunnicutt's win put him one point ahead of four-time National champ. Dan Smith in the race for the overall T 16 title and just five points behind current series points leader teammate Larry Roeseler. "This was going to be th e decid er for me," said H unn icu tt. " If I didn't do well in this race then that was it for the series, but we've all got a shot at th e title now . There're on ly two rou nds left and I'll be going for it. " . Land use restriction s made a mass start impossible for the I44·strong field a nd the racers lin ed up in rows of IO for a staggered sta rt at one minut e intervals. Open and 250cc Experts made up the first four rows, with l25cc riders in row five and Vet class competitors in rows six and seven. Many top cont enders were unhappy with the first -come, first-served Fo ur -time Na tional H are & Hou nd Champ ion Dan Smi th cras h ed earl y in the race which effectively cost him the win. Inst ead, Smith finished secon d. ap proach that orga nizers use d to determ ine starting posi tio ns for the time-adj usted event. "They stuck me in the th ird row . I do n 't kn ow how they came up with that ," said Roeseler, " Being in the th ird row at .one minute int erval s in thi s du st - it was all over before the race started." Dust was a major factor right fro m the word go . The first wave of riders disappeared in a clo ud of silt less than five feet from the starting lin e and the zero-visibili ty dust was still han ging when wave two started on e minute later. "T he dust was ridiculous," said AT K's Garth Sw eet land. "You cou ldn 't see where you were goi ng , you cou ldn't ca tch up and you couldn't pass . It was pretty dangero us and it was like that the whole way." Smi th got the holeshot when the bann er dropped for th e first time at IO a.m., but hi s bid for the row one lead did not last long. T he KTM pi lot went down in a heap just two corn ers into the starting wash and Hunnicutt swep t by to take the lead. " It was right off the start," Hunnicu tt exp lained. "Sm ith was ' on th e o u tside and he started to slide. I tho ugh t he was going to save it but it came around on him. T hat left me with clear air and the 500 up that wash cou ld really haul. " Brandon Gerber's KTM led th e dusty charge off row two and Roeseler was hard on the gas when row thr ee's tu rn came one mi nu te la ter. " I got my start but it was so du sty I couldn' t do anythi ng ," said Roeseler. " It was so frustrating. You're following slower riders in the dust and there 's nothing you can do except wait for the wind or hope that some tigh t stuff come~, up. That's it - j ust wait and hope. Jimmy Lewis led the l25cc charge off row five but his lead las ted only three corners further than Smith's. "Abo u t five turns in I hit a roc k and lan ded on my head ," said th e l25cc series po ints leader. " I spent about two m i n u tes puttin g the b ike b a ck toge ther. It was all bent u p and so was I. " Local favorite Fritz Kadlec made it through the star ting wash but dropped out of the ru nning just five minutes into the 95-mi le cou rse. " It wasn't a race," said Kadlec. " For Hunnicutt it was because he go t out front, bu t I was on th e th ird row and by five minu tes ou t I didn't ha ve any interest in taking chances like that du st. It was rea lly bad and I don 't like riding like that. It scares me so I quit." The dust cont in ued as the Vets raced off lines six and seven. It hung like a th ick brown fog for 20 mil es up the . Yello w Cat Wash and kept speeds down as the cou rse pi cked up a series o f windi ng cou ntry roa ds and twotrac ks. Nevada hotsh ot Danny Ham el was charging hard in second tryin g to make up time in the leader's dusty wake and CR250 pilot Dan R ich ardson was po uri ng on the pace in thi rd. Gerber opened up a lead on t he row two sta rters and Roeseler was doing hi s best to make up time at the head of ro w th ree. Smi th was struggli ng to get back into stride. " I got a good sta rt - I just fell down in the second turn and everybody on the row got in front of me," said Smith. "I had a lot to make up and the dust was prett y bad going up the first wash , but I hung in there." Smith passed six riders in the wash and tucked in behind Ri chardson as the pace picked up on th e high-speed roads . The casualties grew as the mil es flew by. ATK racers Chris Crandall and Paul Krause retired halfway through loop one with mecha n ical problems, Davi d Porter dro pped out of the top IO when his Honda developed eng ine trouble, and Ji m Clark spent most of the loop, " J ust cruisi ng along being a nice guy ." said Porter. Out in front , H unn icu tt was flying through the high-speed sections and making time all the way. He was still goi ng strong as he tack led the endurotype terrain near the end of the first loop an d charged out of the hill s towards pi t row. A q u ick sto p for gas and the KX500 was back on the trail , heading into loop two a minute and a half ahea d of second p laced Ham el on a KTM250. Ri chardson charged into p it row in th ird but Smith was all over hi s tail and a record setti ng pit put the KT M ace in fro nt as he raced into th e second loop. " I got Rich ardson in the pits but they told me I was still th ree and a half minutes behind H un nicu tt," said

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