Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GHARE &HOUND AMA National Championship Hare &: Hound Series: Round 3 e .-------~ KTM 's Dann y Hamel celebrated his 19th birthday by winning the Check Chase Nat ional Hare &: Hound. It was hi s seco n d win of the three-race-old series. Garth Sweetland (left) finished third overall, while Hamel (cen ter) nipped Larry Roesel er (right) by 48 s econds for the win. Hamel by ahare at Check Chase National By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA: M 2·' AR. T M'S Danny Ha mel celebrated his 19th birthday in style with a wir e-to-wire win a t the no to rio us ly. to ug h Ch eck Ch ase Nati onal Ha re &: H ound, staged off Bessem er Min e Road . Hanlel g rabbed the lead less th an ' a mil e from the start and stayed a hea d of the pack a ll the way to the fin ish. How ever, Ka wasaki 's Larry Roeseler la u nched a last-minute cha rge in the fin al loop to make it close; wh en th e chec kered n ag fell after three hours of gru el in g racin g , Ham el to ok th e hon or s by a narrow mar gin of just 48 seconds. " I kn ew thi s was going to be a lon g race a nd a tough one, so 1 tried to ride K 10 sma rt a ll day," said Ha mel , who was too tired to tal k whe n he firs t crossed the finis h lin e. " I concentrated on savi ng my eq u ip ment a nd using m y head a nd every thi ng worked o u t grea t." . Thi s was win number t wo fo r Ham el, wh ich put the factory- backed KTM rider back on track after a " DNF" in round two of the eig ht-race series. , " I wanted to build u p a good lead in the firs t few races so it wou ld mak e things easier later in the year, " said ' Ha mel. " I used up .o ne of m y (two ) thro w-a ways a t the last event, so it feels good to ge t an other win tod a y." T he 38th Annual Chuck Stearns Mem ori al Chec k Ch ase Nati onal was hosted by AMA Distri ct 37's Ch eckers M.e. a nd was sponso red by Cob b Mountain Spring Wat er, Clea rly Ca n ad ia n Min eral Water a nd ATK Mot or - cycles. T he race was or ig ina lly schedu led as a 'po int -to-point race fro m L ucerne Vall ey to Park er, Arizon a . but a delay in the BLM 's enviro nmenta l assessment for ced the clu b to la y o ut a new three-loop, 135-mi le co u rse wi thi n the confines of Johnson Vall ey. " It isn 't th e po int -to -po int we were hopin g for. but I do n' t thin k a nyo ne' s goi ng to be d isappointed with it ," said Chec kers pr esident Bill Fuentes. " It's still a typ ical Checkers course and that makes it real Na tio nal ca liber. " T he banner dropped for the Expert start just after 10 a.m . a nd a ny hopes of a dust-free ru n dropped with it. Desp ite hea vy rai n the week befor e the event , the start ing a rea was blanketed by a thi ck brown haze as soo n as the race bega n a nd the slow er starters had to ba tt le near-zero visibility all the way to the bo mb . T he fast starte rs were o ut a hea d of the d ust as . they spri nte d northeast a lo ngs ide Bessem er Mine Road. Ka wasa ki's Ted Hunnicutt gra bbed the first row hol esh o t, leading the Experts past the bom b. but hi s reig n was sho rt- lived wh en Ham el cha rged by to tak e the lead less than a mile into the co urse . Ka wasa ki team mates Garth Sweetlan d, Pau l Ostb o and Roeseler were hard on Hunnicutt 's heels, as they picked up th e ribbon ed course, and C h r is Cranda ll' s AT K thund er ed al on g close behind. Whi le Ham el battled to str etch out a lead , his KTM teammates Jimmy Lewi s a nd Gr eg Searle had their work cu t o ut just getting to the start lin e. Mechanical problem s forced Lewi s to double back for pa rts right off the start a nd Searle was back in the pits in reco rd time aft er hi s bike seized j us t past the bom b. " I was hop in g for a much bett er sta rt tha n th is," said Searl e, as he worked to repair the damage. " It's go ing to take a whi le to fix thi s. but it's a to ug h race a nd the a ttri tio n rate's go ing to be very high. I wa nt to go back o ut a nd give it a go a nd I might end up with some th ing." Searle restarted th e first loop as th e fro nt-ru n ners were go ing o ut on their . second loop but called it qu its when the bike seized aga in just past the bomb. T h e front-runn er s wer e pulling away fast in th e wid e open terrai n of the ea rly running. They sprinted north tow a rds th e Microwave Rela y Statio n, th en turned to par all el th e power line road on thei r way back to the first pi t. Hamel charged hard throughout the 42-m ile first loop a nd was almost two minutes a hea d of th e pa ck when he sta rted dow n pi t ro w. Hunnicutt was going stro ng in second with Roeseler one minute back in th ird, a nd Tea m G reen rivals Paul Krause and Garth Sweetl and ru shed through neck a rid neck for fourth . Seri es points leader Don Griewe led the thumpers through in fifth on an ATK, Paul Ostbo 's KX500 led the Vets in sixth and 250cc front-runner Duane Sum mers was just two p laces back in eig h th . The tOP 125cc con tenders a rrived bunched up around 15th overall.

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