Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

" He was lyin g th ere all crumpled up in the middle of th e trai l a mi le or two past the first gas," said Smith. " He wasn' t ta lki ng or brea thing too g ood and h e rea ll y sca re d m e. " Sm ith rod e a quart er of a mile back to the nearest check to get help and then waited with Hunn icutt for almost two minu tes. " He fin all y started breathing bett er and he told me to go, so 1 left once 1 kn ew he was going to be okay," said ' Smi th. Roeseler arr ived j ust a fter Smith head ed ou t and th e KX250 racer spent a min ute a nd a half with his dow ned teammate' before he set off to chase th e new race leader. X-rays after the race showed Hunnicutt suffered a broken fing er in the cras h but was otherwise in on e piece. " I hit a rock in fift h gea r going down a road ; 1 just thank God 1 had all my gear on ," said H unn icutt. "Smith and Roeseler stopped and spen t a lon g time making sure 1 was o kay - those guys are my heros." ATK's Paul Krau se ran into trou ble trying to ma ke up time in th e tig h t sections. " omewhere betwee n gas one and two 1 h it a tree with my hea d and ripped myself off th e motorcycle," said Krause. " I wok e up lyin g under th e tree. 1 don 't kn ow how lon g 1 was there." Smith kep t th e lead a ll the way to pit two and, as the halfway point flashed by, the KTM pil ot was 56 secon ds a hea d o f R oeseler, wit h an other two mi nutes back to Searl e who had recovered from a slow star t to elbow his way th rou gh to th ird. T here was a gap of a lmos t eigh t minu tes back to fourth overa ll, filled by Husab erg mounted Swede J im my Eriksson , who won the Fou r-Strok e class at th is year's ISDE. Palen ske brough t his YZ250 th rough in fifth and Lewis' 125cc KTM h it pit row a startling sixth overall. "I got a pretty good start," said Lewis. " It was so dusty 1 couldn't see anything but I passed a bunch of guys that were bro ken do wn or fall in g off." - Over 38 contender Bill Ma x im turned heads whe n he flashed through pit two in the top 20. The 35-mile section fro m pit two to pit three took the racers from 4000 feet to th e top of Spruce Moun tai n at 11,262 feet and th en headed do wn Screamer downhill, a two- mi le, 40OO-foot dro p that gave the race its name. "That's one of the best downhill s I've ever been on ," said Smith. " You go straigh t down the face of a mountain, the n it goes into the trees and it 's still reall y steep in there." Smi th was still ou t in front when he hi t the bottom of th e downhill but Roeseler was starting to close the gap. Roeseler made hi s move five mi les past pit thr ee, just 30 m iles from the checkered flag. " I was on ly 30 or 40 seconds beh ind coming out of pit three and we got into some reall y Cast, ch oppy stu ff," sa id Roeseler. " It was all little bu mps and very si lty a n d th e win d was blow ing the dust aw ay, so 1 went wide ope n and 1 passed Sm ith th ere and 1 dusted h im out .when we got to th e .canyons." . Roeseler made the most of the clear air all the way to the fin ish. H e sta yed hard onthe gas through the Gosh ut e Moun tains and was a minute ahead of Smi th when he started the 12-mile sprint acr oss th e las t rocky valley towards the fin ish lin e at Wendover's Nevada Crossing Cas ino. T he KX250 flash ed across the finish line after three hou rs and 23 mi nutes of racing, slash ing 27 minutes off last year's wi nni ng tim e and giving Roe- Team Green 's La rry Roeseler (2) won the Wells-to -Wendover National and clinched the 250cc cla ss Championship. Sweden's Jimmy Eriksson finished fifth overall in hi s first-ever desert race. Roeseler (left) congra tulates Smith (right) after the race for clinching his fifth consecutive National Hare &: Hound title. Smith finished second overall in the race. seler the. Nation al title in th e 250cc division. "I had a reall y good ride all day and the bike worked reall y well ," said the Kaw a sakil Acerbis/ JT I Pro-Circu it, Bel- Ra y/ Bridgestone/ Renthal /CTi l T rick/ T su ba ki/N G K-bac ked racer. "T here was a lot of silt so dust was a problem all th e way, but it helped me at the end. O nce I got in fro nt of Smith there was nothing he could do. " Smi th crossed the line a minute behi nd Roeseler to claim the Open class win an d sew up the G ra nd Nati on al and O pen class championship titles. "The cour se was a lot of fu n ," 'said Smi th, who thanked KT M, Z Racing , Malcolm Smith, Scott, Metzeler, Maxima, Acerb is and Ara i. "T h is has been a good series - a real tough one th is time. I'll have to come back and try to make it six in a row next year. " Greg Searle flashed home 15 minutes behind the leaders to claim thi rd overall desp ite a slow start a nd mechanical problems for most of the race. "Somethi ng's wro ng wi th the bike; it started just afte r p it two," said Sear le. " I couldn ' t get an y top end ou t of it and it 's ma kin g some fu nny noi ses." Searle was foll owed in by Lewis, who took th e l25cc class win and his second 125cc champ ionshi p title in a row in fourth overa ll. " I wish it was abo ut 100 mi les longer," said Lewi s. "The on ly way 1 can catch people is if th ey get tired . 1 hea t th e Swede (Eriksson) thoug h. I feel good abo ut that after wha t they did to us a t th e Six Days thi s year." Er iksso n wheelie d h is Husaberg across the lin e to collect fifth overa ll. " It was too straigh t ·for me," said Erik sson. "I didn' t li ke it. It was too fast." Palen ske brough t hi s Yam aha home in sixth overa ll, just ahead of the H usaberg rider Rhodes. "T here were some good tight sections bu t there was a lot of long, fast. stuff across the lakes. It reminded me .of raci ng in Baja and I kep t gra bb ing for sevent h gear," said Palenske. The next racer home was Krause in eighth overa ll (first in the Four-Strok e division) , with Brad Childs and David Porter racin g home a bik e len gth apart to rou nd ou t th e top 10. Max im finished with 11th overall to comp lete a seven -race sweep of the Over 38 class. T he Amat eur class was overa lled by Suzuki pil ot Chance Mau ghan, wh ile Idaho's Mike H inoor josa topped the Novice field. Resu lts 0 1A: I. Larry Roeseler ( Ka w); 2. Dan Smith (KTM); 3. G r'J1 Sear le (lio n); i . Jimmy Lewis (KT M); 5. 3 Jim m y Eriksson ( H bK); 6. Gram Pal enske (Ya m); 7. David Rh od es (Hbg); 8. Paul Krause (AT K); 9. Brad Chi ld, (Yam); 10. Da vid Po rt er (SUI): I I. Bill Ma x im (Ka w ); 12. Alan Peterson; 13. P. Fun ara: 14. S. Meyer: 15. Corky Mau gha n (SUI ); 16. E. Larson; 17. Mark Lu ndgree n. 18. D. La mbe r: 19. Sam Tay lor {Hon ): 20. Steve Silvestri (Ho n). O PE.'i' EX: I. Dan Sm ith (KT M); 2. Jimmy Eriksson (Hbg); 3. David R hodes (H bg). 250 EX: I. Larry Roese ler (Ka w ); 2. Gr og Sea rle (Hon ); 5. David Po rte (Suz). t25 EX: I. Jimmy Lewi s ( KT M); 2. J on Almberg. VET EX: l. Grant Pal en ske (Ya m); 2. Ala n Peterson. SR EX: l. Bill Ma xim (Ka w) ; 2. Proton Gerber (KTM); 3. DaY< K

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