Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD SCORElntemationaI!Ia'a500 ~ Greg Zitterkopf rode most of h is first section with a broken foot, and was later replaced by rival team rider Larry Roeseler, The Alfie CoxlKeith O'Neal/Chuck Dempsey (472) trio scored the 250cc class win. Team G strikes teen again in Mexico By Anne Van Reveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren ENSENADA ac, MEX. JUNE 7 , he Kawasaki tri o of Garth Sweetla n d, Pa u l Kra u se and Greg Zitt erkop f, with the help of riva l T eam Green member Larry Roeseler, scored the o verall win at the SCO RE Baja 500. T 18 It was uphill all th e way [or the Kawasaki KX500 team alte r Zitterkop f broke hi s foo t less than 15 mil es into . th e race whi ch left Sweetla nd and Kra use to battle back [rom a 10-mi nu te deficit of the leaders. The du o close d to within th ree minut es of rival ATK and KTM en tries and. with less than 100 miles fro m the finish , handed their mo unt over to Baja ace Larry Roeseler [or o ne last crac k at the chec kered n ag. Roeseler, who started the race teamed with Ted Hunnicutt o n a separa te ' en try, was sidelined halfway th rough the race with mechanical problems. After that, Roeseler step ped in and fil led [or the inj ured Zitt erkopf on the wi nning Sw eetland/Krau se/Zitterkopf team . ."SCO RE p u t in a new section right at the end. It was supposed to be Zitterkopf's sectio n, so neither of us had ri dden it ," Sweetland said. " Bu t Roeseler knew that part and he was ou t of the race when his bike broke, so the op timal choice was to put him o n our bike." Roeseler's last-m inute dash through the new forest section took him pa st the challengers to the head of the pack and put Sweetland in the clear for th e fina l sprint to the fin ish. Sweetland fin ished the 429-mile race in just over eight and a half hours to take the win a minu te and a half ahead of the ATK trio of Do n Griewe, Ron Nay lor and T y Davis, wi th the KT M team of Danny Ham el and Jimmy Lewis third. " It's a n i m portan t win," sa id Krause. " T hese races are im po rtant because everybody's here and pu tting o ut th eir fu ll effort. To bea t the best teams around is great." Warm su n and d usty co ndi tio ns greeted the 58 mo torcycle teams that lined up for the start of this year's race. The mo torcycles bega n o n Highway 3 near Ojos Ne gros, rac ed south through Santa Catarina to Mike 's Sky Ra nch , and th en made a large loop to the west to run up th e Pacific Coast before do ubling back to Sa nta Catarina and turning north for the final sprint to Oj os Negr os. KT M drew the number o ne spot in the starting order, p utting Hamel out in front wh en the starting n ag dropped for the first ti me at 6:00 a.m. " It was tough bein g first because you 're first to warn the Mexicans tha th e race has sta rted," sai d Ham el. "There were a lot of them ou t on th course and I almost had two head -o collisions - one with a motor cycle an one with a truck - th at was really reall y clos e." Dust mad e th e start just as tricky fo th e other racers, who followed Harne one at a time every 30 seconds. r The tri cky com bination of sunris and du st kep t the riders in single fil and at half throttle most of th e wa to the first p it at th e intersection 0 El Alam o Road and Highway 3, bu there was still pl en ty of room for error A slow-speed crash put Joh Braasch out of the running just 2 m iles from the start. " I was going about 15 miles an hou because I cou ldn ' t see an ything and hit a rock. I n ipped, landed right 0 my shoulder and broke. my collar bone," said the Kawasaki KXI2 5 pilot Braasch rode 20 miles to the El Alam pit and llanded over his mount to co rider Roger Hurd before calling i quits. " We lost nine or 10 minutes whi isn 't too bad. but it 's all up to Roge now," Braasch sai d. . Zitterkopf came to grief about 10 miles into the ra ce wh en he bottomed out dropping into a wash and broke . his foo t. " I blew the shock an d the foo tpeg broke off taking my foot with it," sai d the Kawasaki KX500 pilot, " I wobbled around a lo t bu t I kept it on two wheels." Zitterkopf hobbled into EI Alamo where a fast pit had the bike back in action less than 10 minutes la ter. H amel still ha d the physical lead and had opened up a 30-second timeadj usted margin as he storm ed across the highway at El Alamo. Roeseler, who started the race as lead-off rider on the Kawasak i KX500 team with Hu n nicu tt, was th e secon d ra cer through, 30 seco n d s beh i nd on adjusted time. Zitterkopf's bike arrived for repairs a minute an d a half back in third an d MXer Ty Davis brought ·the ATK en try he shared with Griewe and Naylor through in fourt h , jus t 25 seconds behi nd Ha mel on corrected tim e. :: >. Close racing contin ued all the way to pit two a t Valle de Trinidad . Roesele r and Hamel 's KTM co-rider J im my Lewis were neck- in- neck go in g into the 50-mile sou therly loop that ran th ro ugh Mike's Sky Ra nch an d th en doubled ba ck to Valle de T rinidad. " I rode about 15 miles, then I hit a rock an d crashed off the road an d do wn a ravine," said Lewis. "The cras h wasn 't bad but it broke a lot 0 parts on the bike li ke the fron t brak e and the p ipe, It wou ldn't go and i wo uldn' t stop, so I had some problems alter that. " Lewis nursed the bike through th loo p but was more t n-.seven minutes behind Roeseler and three mi nutes behind Naylor aboard the ATK wh e he limped into the pit. Ext en siv repairs put Ham el back o n the bi k 16 minutes behind the new race leader , and ju st ahead of Sweetland, who da shed th rough in fourth alter ridin all but two . miles of the Mike's 100 with a nat tire. KTM 's Greg Searle and Brandon Gerber came out of the Mike's loo p in fifth, ahead of John Alexander an Kawasaki KX500 rider Roberi Woolley and the ATK p iloted by Klaus Nennewitz, William Diaz and Detle Herrmann. Ri ck Salter, Dan Worley a nd Earl Roberts a nd th e team 's Kawasaki KX500 were in front of their Class 30 riva ls in eighth, three minutes a head o f Kenny Parry and Scot

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