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/127365
eOFF·ROAD e SCORE International Parker 4 00 Larry Roeseler, who teamed wi th Ted Hunnicutt, makes a pit stop en route to the overa ll wi n . Garth Sweetland and Paul Krause chased the Roeseler/ H u n nicu tt du o the entire rac e, com ing up one minute and 17 seconds short in finishing seco nd. Roeseler /Hunnicutt squeak out Parker victor y By An ne and Tom Van Beveren Phot os by T om Van Beveren PARKER, AZ, JAN. 26 a wasa ki teamma tes Larry Roe seIer and T ed Hunni cutt survived 244 m iles o f neck-and-neck racing' to ta ke th e overa ll win a t th e SCO RE Int ernational Park er 400. K 10 T he KX500 du o was hard o n th e gas for almost four hours, fighting off a stro ng cha lle nge from Kawasak i teammates G arth Sweetl and a nd Pa ul Krause. Sp eeds averaged almost 60 mph as the T ea m G reen entries ba ttl ed for the lead, a nd whe n the checkered flag finally fell, Roeseler and Hunni cu tt gr abbed the pr estigious victory by a margin o f o n ly on e minute and 17 seconds. " It was touch a nd go a ll the wa y." said H u n nicut t. " We knew they (Sweatland and Kra use) were the com petition ri gh t from the sta rt and we were with in five seconds of each o ther for most of th e ra ce. " It 's great raci ng when things are that clos e. You ca n 't let u p fo r a minute a nd it feels rea ll y' good when you ge t th e win . " T he 18th Ann ua l Parker 400 dre w 27 mot orcycle team s 10 th e sta rt ing lin e at Park er 's Blu e Wat er Marina. Desert torto ise co nce rns pr evented racin g o n th e Ca lifornia loop for th e seco nd yea r in a row a nd 1991's racers faced two loops of th e l l5-m ile Arizona loop run in a clockwise d irectio n fo r th e first ti me. T he reverse loop was made even more cha lleng ing by a ban o n hig h-speed p rerunning, whi ch was designed 10 m in im ize impact on th e en vi ro n me n t. P rer unn in g was restricted to street- lega l veh icles only a nd speeds were li mi ted to 35 mp h. " R u n ni ng the co u rse backwards mad e it a litt le more int eres ting but th e slow pr erunning was a mi stak e," said Kenny Parry, wh o was defend ing his 1990 victo ry in Cl ass 30. " Slo w pre ru n ni ng a l mos t m ade i t m ore da ngerous th an no pr erunning a t all because yo u kn ew whe re 10 go a nd wha t lin e 10 tak e, but yo u didn 't kn ow h o w to handl e th e speed. Th e y shou ld ' ve ju st el i m in a ted it altogethe r." T he mot or cycle teams took th eir place o n the sta rti ng lin e just before ' da wn a nd every racer in th e field had a yello w ribbon taped 10 th e back o f th eir helmet in honor of U.S. fighting forces in th e Persian G ulf. The flag dropped for th e lead -o ff bik e just after 6:30 a.m. a nd Paul Os tbo led th e charge down the pav em ent from th e'marina and east to war ds the start of th e main loop a t Shea Road, T he rest of the field followed o ne bik e a t a tim e every 30 seconds. T he ea rly m orning co ld p lay ed havoc with some o f th e en tr ies and cos t Roeseler precious seconds wh en he co ld-seized his KX500 two mi les o ff th e start. Co lds o f a diff erent sort plagued so me of th e top co nte nders throughout th e race. " A lot of us had nasty colds a nd were feeli ng pr ett y tig h t and ac hy when the race started," said Ostbo, wh o was shari ng a KX500 with SCO RE rookie Da n Rich ar dson . " I was all clogged up a nd find ing it ha rd 10 breathe and when we go t into the du st it go t even worse. I kep t looking over my shoulder because I didn't th in k I'd be ab le to ride fas t eno ug h to sta y in front o f everybody." Derr ick Paiem ent had some early exci tem ent when he oversho t th e en d o f the pa veme nt a nd ended up in th e trees b ut t h e ea rl y r u n n i ng wa s u neve ntful for mos t o f th e racers, wh o op ted for ca u tion as th ey battled thick du st a nd blinding early morning sun. . "T he sta rt is always th e worst part because th e su n' s just com ing up," said Pai em ent, a five-tim e Parker com petitor. " Yo u' ve go t th ick dust and th e su n 's righ t in you r eyes. You ca n 't see a thing. You 're hitt in g a ll sorts of stuff, overshooting co rne rs and just tryin g 10 su rvive th rough th e roc ks. If you ca n make it through th at first part, th e rest o f th e race is easy. " The first sectio n of th e course head ed north to the Mineral Wash pit a rea , turn ed eas t 10 Swansea a n d then head ed sou th 10 th e p it a t Midway. An a ll-o u t cha rge in th e dust-free number one spot p u t Os tbo on e a nd a half minut es a hea d on adj usted tim e wh en he handed over to Richardson for the 40-m ile sout herly loo p from Midway back to Midway, but the lead -off bike's cha rge ca me to a n end just 10 mil es past th e Midway pit. " I overshot a tu rn, " said Ri chardson. " I was dri ftin g up th e berm and j ust as I wen t o ver th etop, I hit a clump of sage brush. I flew a long wa y and I landed pr ett y hard. That fin ished the race for us." . Krau se, number two in th e starting lineup with KX500 partner Sweetland, a nd Hunnicutt, paired with Roeseler in th e number three spot , sto p ped 10 , check o n Richardson , but th e racing. was on wi th a vengence soon after. "Roeseler stuc k th e bike a co u ple o f tim es in th e morning because of th e . co ld but once it brok e in and th e day start ed 10 heal up a bit, it worked flaw lessly," sai d ' Hunni cutt, " T h e o nly problem after tha i was th e dust. The co urse was so fast a nd I just wasn't willing 10 hang it out on th e roads a nd mak e a dumb pass. You just had to hang back o n th e edge of th e du st a nd wai t for th e right tim e." Fu rth er back in th e pa ck, sol o rider Mike Bak er was moving up fast from th e back o f th e 250cc (Class 21) starting order a nd claim ed th e time-adjusted class .Iead ea rly in th e first loop, " T he sta rt was fast a nd really dusty so m y main thing was just to get through th at pa rt," said Ba ker. " I kn ew th e roc ks wou ld be taking some people ou t so 1 just concentrated on riding safe ly and sta rted to move up o nce I co uld see where I was going." The South Africa/southern California duo of Alfie Cox and Tim Clark was al so pouring on the pace in Class 21, but Cox, who led a South African team 10 the 250cc wi n at the Baja 1000, was not hap p y wit h their performa nce. " We didn 't have a street legal bi ke so we d idn 't prerun th e co urse a t all and that slowed us down a lot," said Cox . " If you do n 't kn ow wh ere you 're going it 's just throwi ng minutes a way." T he race was going no wh ere fast for the Honda CR250 team o f J ohnny Campbell a nd Craig Adams, who had o ne flat tir e going to' Midway and a no ther flat tire on the so uthern loop back 10 Midway, and the Ken n y Parry /