Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD e Best in the Desert Grand Slam Championship~Se _'es:_ ou.. nd_2 _n _ R_ .,. . Kawasaki 's Paul Ostbo (shown) and teammate Greg Zitterkopf scored the overall win. Runner-up was the J immy Lewis (sho wn) and Da nny Hamel KTM tea m. Zitterkopf, Ostbo score Las Vegas 300 victory By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren TONOPAH, NV. MAR. 30 n a closely fought d uel th a t lasted more th an si x ho urs, T eam Green riders Greg Ziu erkopf a nd Pa ul O stbo emerge d victorio us at th e pr estigious Las Vegas 300 team race . After a flawl ess performance for 243 m iles, th e KX500 duo took th e chec kered flag eig h t m inu tes a hea d of th eir nea rest ri val wi th a n avera ge spee d o f more than 40 mph. " We had a grea t day - no problems a t a ll, a nd that's what it took to win th is ra ce," said Ostbo . " It was so close tha t one problem would ruin your chances.': I 8 The team 's top rivals agreed. Rea r brake problems knocked th e heav ily favored KTM du o of ' Dan n y H a mel . a nd J immy Lewis out o f content ion near th e halfwa y point, a nd Scott Morr is and Garth Swee tla nd lost th eir sho t a t th e win wh en thei r KX500 lost a footpeg 20 miles from th e fini sh . T-he even twas round two o f the Best in the Desert Ch am pi onsh ip Series, a nd it was th e o nly team rac e in th e five-rou nd series, which is organized by Casey Folks. The race was sponsored by The Station H ouse H ot el Gaming Saloon a nd was th e first o f its kind to be held in To nopa h, w h ic h is 200 mil es northwes t o f La s Vega s a nd best kno wn as the home of th e Stea lt h fighter. The hills'surrou nding the town were dusted with sn ow as the racers lin ed up for the start, but a clear, sunny m orning with mi ld temperatu res promised a perfect da y for th e 125 teams o n the starting grid. T he stagi ng ar ea was laid o ut o n a n abando ne d highway south of tow n a nd th e racers lined up two abreast fo r th e timeadjusted start. Sweetla nd a nd Lewis were side by side o n row one wh en th e sta rt ing lig h t turned green for the first time. Sweetland got th e holesh ot o n th e short spri nt down the pavement, slid around th e firs t corn er and Jed th e way into the openi ng section of th e figu re eight course. ATK-mou nted Sco tt Stea rns a nd Ra nd y Moseley were th e o n ly sta rte r on row two, after Dar yl Fo lks, riding the Iron Man class, do ubl ed back to th e pits for wa ter at the last m in u te, and Ziuerko pf and Brent Fox, riding with Brandon Gerber o n a KTM , were neck and neck all the wa y o ff row th ree. The first ha lf of the fig ure eigh t headed west, doubled back th rough a rock y secti on a nd th en made a 43-m ile loop through the wide open terrain to th e sou th. The racers were hard on the gas all the way and th e high-speed course took m an y of the P ro class ra cers by sur p rise. The unexpected terrain had the KT M team worried. " We thought this was going to be a typ ical Casey Fo lks race so we rode a KTM300 (ra ther than th e bi gger 540cc)," sai d Lewis. " It was a good idea wi th a tight, technical cou rse, but now we're not so su re." Ra ce o rga nizer Folk s sa id the Tono pah co urse was designed to suit a var iety of ri ders. " We 've got a lot of Sports ma n riders out here - it's not jus t th e Pro s, a nd you have to la y th e co urse ou t wi th th em in m ind, too ," said Folks. " We wa nt th e co urses to be cha lle nging a nd fun , and we wa nt peo p le to be ab le to finis h th em ." T he co u rse pro ved cha llen g i ng enough for Anna Cody Merrit , wh o teamed with A.]. Alsup in th e 250cc Ama teur class. " I h it a dip righ t o ff th e start so hard I broke m y wrist," sai d Merritt. " I didn 't fall o ff or anythi ng. I d idn 't even kn ow a ny thing waswrong until I tried to gas it." Alsup eventua lly took over a nd rode the entire race. Ziuerk opf enjoyed a trouble-free run in the first half o f the figure eigh t and completed th e 43-mi le run in o ne hour. H e pushed past th e earlier starters to grab the physical lead a nd was a minute a nd a half ahea d of Lewis when he handed over to Os tbo for the first time. Sweetland handed over to Morris two minutes back in third a nd KTM 's Scot H a rden gave the first 250cc Pro entry to tea mmate Greg Searle in fourth. Charlie Klin e and Mich ael Palmer had the 125cc Pro lead in 10th overa ll , but th e Su zuki pilot s were dea d even wit h Kawa sak i team m a tes J ohn Braasch and Jeff Kaw ell o n adjusted time. Wh ile the leaders headed o ut into th e second half of the figure eig h t, Tim Ca uby had to coo l hi s heels for more tha n 12 minutes waiting for ATK 250 partner J ohn Rudder to fini sh loop on e. " J ohn cras hed on th e first loop and kn ocked himself o u t," Cauby said. " H e said he was back on th e bike riding wh en he wok e up a nd he has no idea how long he was o u t. We were pretty far back after that." _ The seco nd half of th e co urse was only 38 miles long but so me tricky , terrain lo wered th e speeds and kept th e fastest times to just over an hour. The • back-and-forth maze in the firs t few mi les cut O stbo 's lead to th e bone. " H a mel passed me about fou r m iles ou t: Four mi les - that's all I got," said O stbo , "The first part was really rocky a nd tight - first gear stu ff, a nd I missed the ribbon abo u t three times in the little canyons. I was havin g tro u ble seeing it so I had to turn arou nd and go back and th en , bang, th ere he was." Greg Sea rle, 250cc class lead er , used th e tight terrain to reel in th e Open I cl a ss leader s. " G reg rode such a beau tiful loo p he was lead in g overa ll o n tim e at the end o f it, so we sent him o u t agai n," sai d teammate H arden . " T h is was m y first ra ce in six months and I had problem s with my hand. It kept falling as leep a nd I I cou ld n' t hold on, so we m ade him ride another loop to let m y hand recover." After battlin g the terrain for just over an hour, Ham el stor me d into th e pits ' for th e second rid er change th ree m inutes a hea d o f O stb o o n adj us ted tim e. Swee tla nd was five m inutes back in th ird, just a hea d of th e Gerb er/Fox KT M. Searle was t he next racer th rough with a five minu te lead over th e next 250cc Pro entry, a nd Braasch was nea rl y th ree mi nutes ahead of the 125cc Pros. Lewis had his work cut out as he led the way into th e seco nd lap o f the figure eight. Zitterkopf was pushi ng hard to close the lead and the KTM was provin g to be a handful. " We 're no t a very well mat ched team. I weigh abo u t 150 and H amel weighs abo ut 2 10," sai d Lewis. " The bike's ba sically hi s set up with a few little cha nges to accom modate me so I have to work pretty hard. It slows me down a bit when it gets rough." The close race for th e overa ll go t even close r wh en H amel started to slow nea r th e end o f loop two. " We lo st the back brake at th e end o f th e second loop," Hamel said. " I rod e ab out 10 miles with no brak es at all then we tried to fix th em in th e pits. " Hamel came in first at th e end of th e loop but time out to insta ll new brake pads put th e team three minutes behind O stb o and Zitterkopf as they wen t into th e final loop. And the situatio n went from bad to wo rse when KTM found th e repairs hadn 't worked. " We still had no brakes so we had to sto p aga in a nd put on a set o f brakes we pulled o ff a n o ld bike," KTM 's race coordi nator Dave Chase said. " We lost more than seven minutes overa ll tryi ng .to fix th e brakes." o KTM 's misfortune put Morris and ' . Swee tla nd into seco nd overa ll, but their hopes were fading too . Morris limped into th e pits after cras hing la te in the second loop and was ta ken to t he h o sp it a l for a check-up, a n d Sweetla nd was left ridi ng so lo, seven m inutes beh ind th e lead ers with 81 l m iles stil l to go . I And tha t was n't th e end o f Kawa - l sak i 's p roblem s, ei ther. Sweetland's last -ditch effort to save th e race hit the skids again when he lost a footpeg 20 miles out from th e finish. " I think I could've made a run for it but once th e footpeg went, it was all over, " said Sweetland. Out in front, it was smooth sailing a ll the way for Ostbo and Zitterkopf. ~ The KX500 racers had a five minute I lead at th e fin al rider change and with less than 40 miles to go , there was nothing anyone co uld do to stop them, though, Lewis decided to try anyway. " I' m doing this real heavy-duty meditation to try to get Ostbo's bike"

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