Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Ins tead of th e usual ~O-second interva l between each bik e, SCORE dropped the gree n flag once every mi nute. The one-minute margin improved safety, but kept some of the later starters sitti ng around 'until al most 8 a.m. "The du st would've been a big dea l if they'd sta rted us ~ O seconds apart ," said runner-up in Class 21 J oey La ne, who shared a Kawasaki KX250 with Scott Morri s and Roger Hurd. "The one -min u te int erval s really helped. You cou ld ca tch the gu y ahead of you easily instead of cat chi ng two or th ree at a time in a huge cloud of dust." Du st was no problem for Roeseler. He was third off the line and blasted through to tak e the lead by the end of th e first 10 mil es. The open ing stretch from Ensenada to Ojos Negros had not been open for prerunning, and 60 miles of tricky terrain kept speeds lower than expected. "T he first part was exciting," said Greg Zitterkopf, who led off for his teammates Garth Sweetland and Paul Krau se on a Kawasaki KX500. " It went through pine trees and in and out of a river abou t a foot deep for more than a mile. It was reall y green and prett y through there. " Back in Class 20, Kawasaki's l25cc racers had no time to look at the scenery . " We got off to a dis astrous start," said J ohn Braa sch , wh o shared the KXI25 with Jeff Kawell and J eff Capt. " Kawell parked the bike next to a truck on the sta rt lin e. The gu y drove off and the bik e fell over an d bent th e handlebars. Then he went about two miles and it seized. It broke loose and then it seized again. Then right before the first gas stop he go t a flat." Roeseler controlled the lead as he hit Hi ghway ~ j us t sout h of Oj os Negros, and began th e sprint sou th toward Santa Ca tarina . H onda 's tea m of Chuck Mill er, Dan Ashcraft and Bruc e Ogilvie, raced through in second, two and a half minutes back on adjusted ti m e. T hey wer e pilotin g a very radical -lookin g HRC XR628 fo urstroke, wh ich featured a sma ll fairing , and an oi l coo ler mounted underneath the front headl ight. It was rumored to have a top speed of 125 mph. ATK 's J ohn Rudder, Rex Staten and Willie Musgrave trailed the factory Honda another two minutes back in third. Greg Searle slid th e Brandon Gerber/Brent Fox KTM past the turnoff in fourth, Zitterkopf raced th rough in fifth and KTM 's Danny Hamel/ Jimmy Lewis/David Ondas team was n eck -and-neck w ith ATK 's Don Gri ewe/Ron NaylorlTy Davis entry in sixth. The ATK's starting burst was shortlived , however. Davis ran ou t of gas before th e firs t pit and lost tim e bu ying more from a local farmer. " Ka wasa ki protested o u r spar k arres tors on th e start. We had to cha nge them and it crea ted a whol e lot of back pressure," said ATK pres ident Ken Wilkes. "The comp uter (in ATK 's fuel inj ection system ) is very sensitive to any cha nges a n d i t cu t o ur gas m ileag e." SCORE officia ls ins pected ATK's original spark arres tor at th e end of th e race and said it was legal for competition. " It 's desert approved and th at's what th e rule boo k says it has to be, bu t it was too late by then ," said Wilkes. Roeseler was up by two minutes on adj usted time as he passed the 100-mile mark nea r El Alam o Road and headed into the easterly loop th rough Cohabuzo Junction. H onda 's Dan Ashcraft was in hot pu rsuit, and the Ham el/ Lewis/ Onda s KTM team had edged past the SweetlandiKrause/ Zitterkop f team to take over thi rd overa ll by less than a minute. The Danny Hamel (shown)/Jimmy Lewis/Dave Ondas team finished second overall after passing Sweetland late in the race. R oesel er wa s ch argi ng hard to stretch the lead when he hi t a booby tra p near Cerro Col orado. "I h it a speed bump th at the Mexicans had made wide open and went rig h t over the bars," said Roeseler. " I bent the bars and I sprained my thumb a bit, but I came out of it pretty good." Roeseler scra mbled over the su mm it, th en handed off to Hunn icutt for th e run into Borrego, but th e fall had cost valuable tim e. Ashcraft was 2~ seconds behind on adj usted time whe n he hit the pit at Borrego, but a quick look at a crac k in th e Honda's case told him th e bik e would be lucky to mak e it to .the fini sh. , "I don 't kn ow how it happened. I didn 't hit anything; th e first th ing I kn ew was wh en th e brakes went ou t a t Tres Pozos," said Ashc raft. "T here was oil all over the bike and it got on the di sk." T he H onda team topped off the oil and raced into th e . southerl y loop towards San Felipe, but th e cra ck go t wor se and started blowing oi l, kn ocking the H on da team ou t of the ru nnin g a t Diablo Dry Lake. The SweetiandiKrause/Zitterkopf entry was the next bik e into Borrego, ni ne minutes behind the lead Kawasaki on adj us ted tim e. KTM raced th rou gh half a m inute later and Kawasak i's p it rad ios repo rted the rival team two minutes ahead on time just a few miles further down th e cour se. The top 250cc team s were dead even on adj us ted tim e as they raced into Borreg o . J ohnny Campbell , Dav e Donatoni and Jamie Campbell led the way on a H on da. Ca nadians Blai r ' Sh arp less, G u y Per rett and Craig Woo ds were next through on a Su zuki, a nd Kaw asa ki 's Morris/ Lane/Hurd trio and Suzuki pi lots Darren Sanford, Fred Willert and Brian Schmuckle were close beh ind. ' "It was a cli ff-ha nger all day in our class ," said Morris. "The four of us were really c lu mped tog ether. Every second was cri tical. " An equally tight race was shaping u p in Class ~ O (ri ders over 30 years of age) . David Rees, Wayne Martin and Craig Ada ms were chargi ng hard in the lead, desp ite having crashed near Scott Morris, Joey Lane and Roger Hurd finished second in Class 21 (250cc). th e su m m i t. Manuel San tana a nd Arturo Vasq uez had their KTM well in conte ntio n in second and Kawasak i pilots David Callaway, J im Eveland and J ohn Silva were still in the hunt in third despite missing a pit and los ing mo re than a n h our whil e look in g for ga s n ear Cohabu zo J unction. At the front of the pack, it was tim e for Mar ty Smith to put in his tim e on the bike. "They put me in the ro ug h stu ff because th is is my first race down here and I'm not used to going 95 miles an hour down a dirt roa d," said Smi th, who rode th e southern loop as far as Zoo Road .. KTM 's entry was hard on th e ga s, too , bu t mi nor probl ems were starti ng to add up. "We di dn' t really have any big problems all day - j us t lit tle stu ff like wheel changes and brake pa ds, and stuff th at rea lly pu t us bac k," said Na tional Hare & Hound Ch amp ion Hamel. "We,just rod e our ow n race nothing really exc i ti n g and happened." AT K had all the exci tement it co uld handle whe n Griewe da shed into the Borrego pi t with a blown base gasket. "The vent hose go t plugged and it blew all the oil ou t, " Griewe sai d as he removed the gas ket and rep laced it with silicone, costingthe ATK team nearly two hours. Kawasaki 's pits were also busy after its number-two bik e lost an ai r filter. "The glue sep ara ted for some reason and it came apart. We sucked a bunch of din and fouled three or four pi ugs in th e lower loop," Krau se said. The 250s were still too close to call as th ey flashed thro ugh Borrego for th e second time and head ed west through Mike's Sky Rancho towards the west coas t. The lat e stan was cat ch in g up wit h them and Morr is, La ne and Hurd ins talled their ligh ts before leaving Borrego. A brok en wire left Morris strugglin g wit h on -again/off-agai n lights over Mike's. Morris repo n ed almost hitting a cow on the road in to Mike's before h is Kawasaki lost its bra kes near Santo Tomas. The rival Honda team lost time too . Sixteen -year-o ld Jam ie Camp be ll -inj ured h is knee near Vall e de Trinidad, bu t ma naged to ride almost five mi les to th e next p it to hand over to his big brother Johnny and partne r Donatoni, The Bra asch / Ka well / Cap t Kawasaki KXl 25 team reponed no problems and was stretch ing o u t a comfortable lead in Class 20. " We kept pull ing mi nu tes here and there and that add ed up," said Braasch. Darkness sta rted to close in on 7

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