Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD e SCORE International San Felip_e_50 2 Larry Roeseler (shown) and teammate Ted Hunnicutt scored the San Felipe 250 win. --'-----,-_ _ Teammates Paul Krause (sho wn) and Garth Sweetland finished second overall. Roeseler/Hunnicutt unbeatable in Mexico (again) By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren SAN FELIPE. B MEX, APR. 6 .C., he seemi ng ly unbeatabl e Kawasaki Team Green du o of La rry Roese ler a n d T ed Hunni cu tl Cont inue to do mi na te th e off-roa d racin g scene in Mexi co with a win in the 2nd Annual SCO RE Internation al Teca te Baja 250. Foll owing recent win s at the Baja Intern acional and th e Baja 1000 , th e Kaw a saki KX500 team blasted the competi tio n again with a 219-mile sprint through the du sty, wh ooped-out desert near the resort beach town of San Felipe. The winning team averaged ju st a shade under 60 mph o n a course th at most racers decribed as the tou gh est they could remember in SCORE racing hi story, and took the checkered flag four minutes ahea d of th e runner-up learn of Paul Krau se and Garth Sweetlan d, a lso Ka wasak i Team Green riders. " The course th is year was reall y fast and choppy, with lots of rocks and lo ts of whoops ," said Roeseler, " It was rea lly dem an ding on a mo tor cycle a rea l ha ndful." Thirty-one motorcycle teams lined up for the 6:00 a.m. sta rt of the race, wh ich was staged under the arc hes that mark the entry way to the to wn of Sa n Felipe. The KTM team of Dan ny H amel and Ji m my Lewis dr ew number o ne in th e sta rti ng order and made th e most of th e d ust-free lead when the gree n flag dropped for the firs t tim e. Hamel was hard o n the gas o n the sho rt open ing sectio n up Hi gh way 5 and never missed a beat as he left the pavem ent, following the first dirt road heading north a lo ngs ide the highway. The rest of the field foll owed o ne bik e at a tim e every 30 seconds a nd du st beca me a cr i t ica l fa cto r a l most immedia tely. " It was reall y du sty off the start. It was j us t layin g in the bu shes and on the road a lo ng th e co urse a nd I immediately lost a bunch of time," said Hunn icutt, who was number three o ff T 14 the start. " You can' t afford to take any chances a nd it's tou gh knowing Hamel 's p u lling tim e on you a ll the way." T he lead-off bike in the 250cc class (Class 21) featured a four-man team . " O ur motto 's the mor e the merr ier and if we can' t win o n speed, we sho uld be abl e to win o n o verall weight," said Roger Hurd, wh o rode wit h teammates SCO ll Morris, J oey Lan e a nd Dan Richardson. T he first 17 mil es ran north along the west side of Hi ghway 5 and then crossed to th e east side of the highway for the gru eling run up the wh oops 10 th e northern-most poi nt of th e course at EI Chinero. Ham el was pouring on the pace a ll the way and put o ne and a half minutes o n H unn icuu before the first pavement crossi ng. Gr eg Zitterkopf (riding a Kawasak i KX500 wit h pa rt ner Paul Ostbo) crossed the highway half a m inute behind Hunnicut t o n adj us ted time in thi rd, a nd the Sweetla nd / Krause Kawasaki KX500 learn was go ing stro ng in fourt h. Kawasaki KX500 teamma tes Kenn y Parr y and Sco tt Forwa rd and th e Hon da CR500 team of David Rees and Wayne Martin were d uking it ou t fo r the Class 30 lead , an d Morris was ma king sho rt work of his Class 21 riva ls. The inf am ou s sand wh oops lived up to their rep utatio n an d pou nded the riders all the way to check poi III o ne at EI Ch inero, Hamel was sti ll extending his lead . desp ite time-ou t to cha nge a bro ken rear whee l in the first pit a t Borrego, and was nearl y four minutes a hea d o n tim e as he sta rt ed th e sout herly run toward s the next p it o n Zoo Road . A promi sin g o peni ng bid by l25cc (Class 20) pil ots J ohn Braasch and J eff Kawell ran into trouble ju st after the El Ch inero checkpoint. '" cras hed abou t five miles from the El Chinero road cross ing where I go t o n the bike a n d reall y h urt m y shou lder," said Kawell. " I rode the wh ole way and kept th e lead but I know I lost tim e." Teamma te Braasch lat er reported that Kawell had dislocated his shoulder in the fall . T he course was unusuall y rough for a CO RE event a ll the way 10 the halfway point a t Zoo Road. Hunnicutt was looking forward to handing th e bike o ver to Roeseler, as he mad e the final dash down the long vall ey to the midrace pit. "It's 95 miles of whoops, rocks, real treacherous terrain, really dangerous stuff, " said Hunnicutt. "This is probably the toughest SCORE race I've ever ridden. I didn't get this tired in the Baja I()()() and I rode 330 miles there." Hunnicutt was chasing hard all the way but was un abl e to mak e up tim e o n Ham el. He was resigned to finishing th e loop in second pl ace when he found Ham el work in g o n hi s bike just five miles from th e pi ts. " I had about five minutes on Hunn icutt. Everything was feeling good and everythi ng was working great and then I broke a chain," said H am el. "There was noth ing I cou ld do. I just had to sit there and fix it and wa tch everyo ne go by." Radi o reports from the chec kpo int just a few miles back gave Ham el a comforta ble lead goi ng into the halfway pi t and pit crews and spectators were taken by surprise wh en H unniCUll stormed th rough in the lead . A qui ck refuel put Roeseler o ut into the second half of the course, and it . was time for ano ther sur p rise three minutes later when th e Ostbo/Zitterkopf Kaw asaki raced throu gh the pits in seco nd. T h ird, fourth and fifth were also Kawasaki-mounted rid ers. Sweetland handed o ver to Krause a minute behind Ostbo on adj us ted time, with Parry and For ward ch anging riders neck and neck with Over 30 rivals David Callaway, J ohn Silva and Dave Ford 15 m inutes behind the overall leader. " I had to stop and adjust the clutch and that 's wh ere he caugh t me," said Parry. " T he clu tch was slipping so badly I couldn 't even gas it, so I had to stop and I lost a lot of time. " Hamel's bike was in for repairs by th e time th e Morris/Hurd/Lan e/ Richardson 250 led the Class 21 racers through, but th e 250 cc race was heating up as Darren Sanford, Tim Morton and Freddie Willert brought a Suzuki RM250 through two minutes lat er almost neck and neck on adjusted time. Johnny Campb ell and Randy Moral es, aboard a Honda CR250, dashed through four minutes later, and Lewis headed out hard on their heels , now a lmo st half ' an hour behind Roesel er and Hunnicutt. " A lot of 250s got by while we were fixing the bike so I had a lot of people to pass," said Lewi s, wh o wasn 't wasting any tim e despite being unfamiliar with the Class 22 (O pen) bike. " It takes a while to get used to but the big bike makes quite a difference. I'v e ridd en them in Grands Prix before but never in a long race like this one." At th e head of the pa ck, Roeseler wasn 't wasting any time either. His Kawa saki KX500 was topped out all the way across Diabl o Dry Lake and made record tim e o n the northerly run to Ch eckpoint 5 at Lower San Matias Pass. Ostbo was pu shing hard too, until hi s bik e locked up tight at the end of the Diablo lak e bed. "A I0 cent part broke in the water pump and it fried itself," said O stbo. " I could see Roeseler off to the left and it was running perfect, then all of a sudden it just squeaked." Ostbos misfortune gave seco n d overa ll to Sweetland and Krause, who were hoping their race strategy would help them reel in the leader. " We broke the course up (swapped riders) a bit more than the other teams," Sweetland said . "We rode it in four sections,

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