Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127535
_ BGU~PIDXD~~ _~_~_~ _G_P _~ e Tho usands of competitors an d specators turned out for this year 's running of the Adelanto GP. He re, the 250cc Expert class hea ds into. the first turn. La rry Roeseler (38) aced th e Expert and Pro classes, but not without a fight. Roeseler relentless at Adelanto By Ken H arvey "T 12 ADELANTO, CA, FEB. 1 ยท2 hat's a lot of riding," Larry Roese ler said , sh aking his head. "I wa s hurting by the end of the weekend. Last week I crashed at the Na tional Hare & Hound, bruised some ribs, hurt my arm, and now I'm really sore." Sore or not, Roeseler performed a feat that per ha ps no one else on the ' plan et could hav e accomplished. H e ente red five classes at the grueling AMA District 37 Desert Viper Adelanto Grand Prix and went home with five wins. He had to work for every one of them. Adelanto's course was an eight-mi le affair th at took riders through som e paved sectio ns of the sleep y high-desert community, then spa t them o ut int o lo ng , fast sec tio ns of cross-gra i n whoops. As the course came back to the starting area, it changed character, becoming mo re and mor e motocrosslike. The Vipers had designed a twomile section tha t was watered and groomed, and contained everyth ing from a triple j ump to a giant waterhole leap. Thousands of spec tat ors some of the m cu rious local s and o thers , hard-core race fans - lined the MX parts of the course to wat ch the show. The Adelant o GP now is California's larges t off-roa d event, both in terms of spectators and participants. The even t attracted well over 2000 entries ' thi s year. T he firs t race of the weekend was the Unclassified race, which Roeseler chose not to ente r th is year. That left it wide open for a ba ttl e betw een H onda ri der Rex Stat en and ATK's T y Davis. Event ually, it was Staten wh o came up with the win there, pas sing Davis in the last few turns. Roesel er's first race, and first win, of the weekend came in the Veteran race. He rode a Kawasaki KX500, while Staten returned with a modified Yamaha YZ360. The two of them easily pulled away from the rest of the pack. " I wanted to use the Veteran race to learn the track ," Roeseler confessed later. "But I had to really ride. Staten mad e me go a lot faster than I intended. At fir st I pumped up, but eventually I started riding a little better. I think I had tall er gearing than Staten, and that made it easi er in the fast sections." Whil e they raged up front, Darren Cartwright and Kenny Parry cu t their way forward from a second-wave start, Eventually they situa ted themselves in th ird and fourth , respectively, and set abo ut battling for top 250 honor s. Both war s came down to the lasr lap. Roeseler had managed to sneak away from St a ten , wh ile Parry put hi s Kawasaki in front of Cart wrigh t in the last few tu rns. The Roeseler/Parry Kawasak i sweep was just a preview of th ings to come. Roeseler's next challenge was in the 125cc class. H e put hi s Kawasaki KXI25 into an early lead an d expec ted to have an easy' race, but J eff Kawell had o ther ideas. Kawell , also on a KX125, pass ed Roeseler on the first lap, and set an impressive pac e. Eventually, Roeseler got back in front, but he never man aged to pull away. Kawell sta yed just a few seconds behind all the way to th e finish . In the meantime, J ohn Braasch and Kapt battled for third place a little too hard. The two of th em coll ided and went down, kn ock ing themselves o ut of conte n tion. At the end, the Roeseler/ Kawell duo had a monstrous lead . Toward the end of the 125 race, Roeseler already was concentrating on