Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD e SCORE International Desert Charnpionship _e:_R_ou_Dd_I _S_eri s Garth Sweetland (shown) teamed with Danny Hamel and Paul Ostbo an d scored th e Parker 400 victory with littl e room to spare. The Larry Roeseler (sh own)/Ted Hunnicutt/Paul Krause team led for most of th e race but wo und up finishing second. - ... .. Hamel, Ostbo, Sweetland fir at Parker 400 st By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren PARKER,AZ,JAN. 25 t was aback-and-for th battle all the way, as Kawasaki's two premier three-man teams fought for victory over 298 miles of fast-paced Arizona desert at the Parker 400. Kawasaki veteran Larry Roesel er , a nd team- I 10 mates, held a sligh t edge for the first two hours, but when the chec kered flag fell at th e end of th e race, it was new recrui t and defending National Hare & Hound Cham pion Danny Hamel, and his teammates, Paul Ostbo an d Garth Sweetla nd, leading the trio's dash to vic to ry. Both teams were mounted on identi cally prepared Kawasak i xxsoos, After nearly five hours of racing, H am el, Ostbo and Sweetland edged -----, rival s Roeseler, Ted Hunnicutt and Paul Krause by o ne m inu te, to take the overall an d Class 22 victories. " We requested a last pl ace start so we kn ew wh ere th ey were all da y," H am el sai d. " We kn ew what we had to do a nd we ju st rod e as hard as we cou ld." The fir st even t o f SCORE's fou r-race series began in th e pre-dawn cold on th e banks of the Co lo rado River. The tem perature was in th e mid-30s when th e ra cers began arriving a t th e Blue Wat er Marina on th e Arizona side of th e river, and it was still below 40 degrees whe n th e first ra cer was waved off th e line a t 7.30 a.rn , Mountain Standard Time. Mike McDonald led th e charge down the opening sectio n of pavement and out of th e marina, a nd Roeseler snaked off the lin e in the number two spot j ust half a minute later. T he rest of th e 41 mot orcycle en tries followed, one a t a time every 30 seconds. Hamel started at the back of the Open class field. " Start ing last was part of ou r strategy," said the 19-yearold from Boulder City, Nevada. " We co uld watch the best teams and it was rocky at th e beginnin g, so I knew I co uld pass people before we got into th e dust." Hamel rocke ted past th e sl ower starters in th e early going, but when Tim Funk a nd Tim Morton tried the same strategy in Class 21, th ey found the tail end of th e 13-sttong 250cc field more of a hinderance than a help. " We requested a rear start to keep an eye on everybody but it was just too dusty to get through ," said Funk. The early morning sun plagued the racers as they headed up the first wash to the Shea Road pit and then turned left for th e first of two anti-clockwise circuits of SCORE's Arizona loop. H amel rod e with on e hand, stretching th e other out in from to block the sun. This year's cou rse included a new motorcycle a nd ATV-on ly section just before Midway and so me ex tra miles had been added in the so utheast corner of the hourglass-shaped loop to ex tend the race to a to ta l of 289 mi les. _ " It 's a rea l short ra ce - just a sp rin t,' said ' Roeseler. "There's no pacing yourself like th e Baja 1000. It's just as fast as you ca n go all the way." The lead racers ran wide open to the first pit at Midway. Hamel had worked h is wa y up to third and he ld a 39second lead over Ro eseler as they handed off to th eir number two riders. . H amel's bi ke was go ing stro ng and Roeseler had recovered well from his m oun t's teeth ing p ro blem s. " It was co ld th is morning and I stuck it about four mi les from the rid er change. It was o nly a lit tle one. I just bumped it and it broke loo se," said Roeseler. Dan Ash craft wa s not as lucky. H onda 's factory en try ran out of gas at th e 50-mile mark and left him half an hour behind the fron t-runners. " It wasn 't running good in th e morning. I think our jelling was off," said Ashcraft, who had intended to solo, bu t handed over to Chuck Mi ller and Bruce O g ilvie at the halfway point. "We were so far back I figured they should ride to give more feedback to J apan . We're just using th is ra ce to work out the bu gs. We really want to win Baj a." Class 30 hopeful J ason Inger soll fo und himse lf do in g double du ty after . his partner cras hed early in the race and had to struggle wit h a loose exhaust that finally came off com pletely and stuck itself in th e from wheel. Fellow Over-30 racer Josh Giles lost two partners in th e first .80 miles and rode more than 200 mi les on his

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