Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD I Bestinthe Desert Grand Slam Series: Round 4 Greg Zitterkopf came from the eighth row to score the win at the Mesquite GP. Zitterkopf'srevenge at Mesquite GP By Anne.and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren MESQUITE, NV, SEPT. 21 espi te an eigh th row sta rt that left h im battling dust and traffic for most of the 65-mil e Mesquit e Gran Prix , Kaw asaki T eam Green's G r eg Zitterkop f sco re d th e tim eadj ust ed win and the $ 1248 purse by a slim two-minute m argin over Kaw asaki teammate Garth Swe etland. " It wa s a real di sadvantage sta rti n g back wher e I did. I had dust all the wa y un til the last loop and th ere was traffic th e whol e way to o, " Zitterkopf sa id. "I knew I'd have to really g o for it to win this one." Th e Mesquite Gran Prix wa s round four of th e five-race series sponsored b y Ca sey Folks' Best in the Desert organ iza tio n . The race co nsisted o f fiv e loops of a 14-mile co u rse and dr ew 209 rider s to th e small town of Mesquite, 80 miles east o f Las Veg as . The co u rse began outside th e local h igh school. It used paved streets and D 22 wa sh es a n d th en crossed a n d recrossed the Virgi n River as th e co urse h eaded th e rid er s to th e eas t end o f town. The ra cer s faced a sh ort motocross sectio n near th e Mesquit e Exi t from Interstate 15 and th en co nti n u ed west back to th e sta rtfinish line. The festivities got underwa y with a parade lap through town and th e ra cers then took th eir posi ti on on th g rid for the 8.30 a.m. start. Over-38 Pro Tom J ohnson had drawn the coveted front row start and led the way when the sta rt ing light flashed green for the fi rst time. The rest o f the field followed four a t a time every 30 seconds, power i ng o ff th e pav ement a n d into th e deep sa nd o f th e twi sty opening stret ch. Sweetland won th e dr ag ra ce o ff th e seco n d row start and h ad soon powered past Johnson to capture the du st -free overall lead. KTM 's Jimm y Lewi s go t the drop o n the co m pe titio n on row four and Ma rk Morri s was o ut in fro nt o ff row five. A no-holds-barred duel off th e ro w six sta rt put KTM 's Danny Hamel down o n th e pavement less th an 50 feet from th e start ing line. " I didn 't kn ow who was beside me go ing into th e first corner, but he obvio us ly th ought I was going to sh u t off," said Daryl Folks, wh o a lso started o n th e sixth row . " I clearly had the line so I kept go ing. H e rubbed up agains t me th en I felt him go down . I almost wem th rou gh the fen ce a nd I had to stop at th e next corner to untangle the banners." Zitt erkopf rocketed off row eigh t and charged out in search of th e lead ers. " It was too dusty to do much at the beginning. I just had to cruise because I couldn 't see anything in the dust," Ziuerkopf said. But despite the limi ted visibility, Ziuerkopf was soon moving up steadily to pass the earlier starters. Out in front of the pa ck, Sweetland's number one. position proved to be a mixed blessing. " I didn't have any dust but I had to break the trail. Basically I was out th ere warning everybody in town that the rac e had started," he explained. " A lot of th e flats had kn ee to waist-high grass. You can 't tell if there's anything hidden in th ere whe n you're th e first one th rough , so I had to be cau tio us." Despite his caution, th e lead-off rider still had a number of exci ting moments. " The scaries t tim e was wh en I bar ely m issed th e co w," sai d Sweet land. " I was on a really fast road and the cow step ped right o u t o f th e bush es in from o f me. I think th e cow took off after th a t but I was a bit leery for a while." J ohn Braasch , in th e I 25cc Pro class , had a n even closer encou n ter with a co w o n his fir st circu it. " They were righ t on the course abou t half way round. I missed the first four, th en th e dust cleared and there were three more right in from of me. I hit on e of them," Braasch said. "I was on ly doing about 15 mi les an hour and th e co w was gone by th e time I got up but I'd already fall en o nce before that and I went over the bars aga in about a mile past that, so I called it quits at th e end of the lap." Sweetl and completed th e fir st 14m ile lap in 25 minutes, thundering past pit row a minute and a half ahead o f Suzuki pilot Darren Sanford, wh o had been besid e him o n row two o f th e starting grid. Lewis ca me ou t of th e loop in third, one minute behind Sweetland o n adjusted time, and Zitt erkopf raced through in l l th , j ust 10 seconds behind Lewis on adjus ted tim e. "The dust was bad in th e first couple of loops a nd I knew I had to try to keep up with th e gu ys in from th at didn 't have any but it was pretty tough," said Zitterkopf, " There was a lot o f sand a nd the traffic kicked it up, so I couldn't see very much." The temperature was already starting to climb as the racers headed into their second loop and the criss-cross sec tio n through the Vi rgin River provided so me welcome relief. "It was rea lly dry and dusty in some parts but there was lots of water too," said Hamel. "The Virgin River was great. It was seven or eight feet across and about a foot deep. The water parts really coo led you down." The battle for the time-adjusted lead continued as the ra cers tackled their seco nd loop of the course. Swee tland was picking up speed as the terrain became familiar but less traffic meant Zitterkopf was coming on just as strong behind hi m. By th e end o f the seco nd loop, Ziuerkopf had elbowed his wa y th rough to fourth in th e physical sta nd ings and was less than a minute behind Swee tla n d o n adjusted time. Lewis was holding tight to third overa ll , a minute a hea d o f Utah race r Brent Fox in th e ra ce for th e 250 Pro crown, and Hamel had bounced back from his early sp ill to claim fourth in th e o vera ll results. KTM ' s Scot H arden was half a m inute, ahead of Cartwright in th e Over-Sf) Pro battle a nd Bill Maxim had already stre tched out a n impressive margin over the competition in the Over-38 Pro divi sion. " I thought everyone in th e class would be starting together so I didn't bother to send my entry in early, but they just drew ra ndom numbers and we were scattered all over the place," said Over-38 entry T .V. Holmes, who had been chasing Maxim's dust all year. "I was back on th e nimh row and that made it hard to catch him. I've been trying to bea t that guy for ages." Zitterkopf slowed during the th ird loop and fell back to a minute and a half behind Sweetland going into pit row, but he was -back with a vengence in loop four. Hi s Kawasaki KX500 powered past Fox and then went by Lewis to grab second in the physical standings, a nd a t th e end of loop number four, Zitterkopf was half a minute ahead of Sweetland on time. " Being in from is a disadvantage later in th e ra ce because you don't kn ow where anyone is behind you," sa id Sweetland. " T his was such a tough race in th e heat that yo u co uldn 't go flat out wire to wire a nd it's hard to know how much to push without having somebody to gauge you rself against. He had an adva n ta ge being the on e behind that was trying to cat ch up." As he raced into his final loop of th e course, Sweetla nd had no way of knowing that Zitterkopf was snapping a t his heel s. Lew is was four minutes back in third, with race- long 250cc rival Brent Fox in fourth, a nd Hamel was hanging tough in fifth. Harden was maintaining his Over-30 Pro lead in sixth overa ll , th ree minutes ahead of Cartwright, and Greg Searle was less than half a minute behind him in seven th, chasing hard despite a tender wrist from a carpa l tunnel ope ra tio n a month ago. Maxim was keeping a stranglehold on th e O ver-38 cla ss 13 minutes behind th e lead ers a nd Roger Hurd blasted through th e pi ts at th e head o f the l25cc Pro class. Even th e fro m -ru n ners fell victim to th e tricky cou rse. " I had o ne crash. I endoed in the river," said Sweetland. " It was a pretty good one a nd th e bike had me trapped . underneath it for a while." Zitterkopf's problems came in the fast sections. " I'm used to doing about 50 or 60 mph at most of (Fo lks' ) races but this one was a lot faster than normal," he said. " I probably did 90 or 100 in a lot of places and I didn't have my bi ke geared right for those sections." Despite his p roblems, Zitterkopf looked strong all the way through the final loop and was still pouring on the gas when he flashed across the finish line just over a m inute behind Sweetland. Stopwatches clicked off and, after two hours and one minute in the saddle, th e 26-year-old from Chino, Ca lifornia claimed the fastest time of the day by a margin of just one minute and 47 seconds. But the result was still not final. A

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