Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ENDURO Tecate250 m Fourth overall finisher T y Davis scored the Op en class win. (Left to right) Davis, Roeseler and Lewis at the awards ceremonies. 14 Defending 250cc Natio nal H &H champ J immy Lewis was third overa ll. Dave Bertram fin ish ed fifth overall and second in the O pen class. fami liar a nd appreciated Mag 7 lunch a nd a more -welcomed 45 -mi'nu te br ea k. T he th ird loo p was mo re of the same tou gh trail wi th a prom ise of even more trad itional challe nging Tecate tigh tness . T he p rom ise was delivered. Bu t it was Roeseler pulling out all th e stops and ca rd ing a 'on e' th rough th e first specia l test tha t too k two points from Lew is. Pepper and Dav is. After a sho rt reset came a 24-m ile lon g special test t ha t h ad riders imita tin g mountain goats a nd cra wling u p a nd down rocky ledges: It wa s Tea m Gree n /Thor /Ts uba ki/ O akl ey/ F M F/ T ro y Lee Desi g n sbacked Roeseler wh o again smoked through th e section dropping two a nd five, tak ing hi s loop to ta l up to eig h t. Pepper mad e the move that grabbed him seco nd p lace with a two a nd six score th rough th e test. T y Da vis made hi s big four-s troke move and ca me through wi th ,a two a nd seven scor e wi th Lewis 's three and eig h t being th e next fastest. T he last 20 mil es o f th e loop 'was a ca kewalk wi th th e top group zeroing it all the way to th e fini sh. And to no one's su rprise, Larry Roeseler scored th e overa ll win, bu t it was a close ba tt le · for positions after tha t. KTM/ MS/ M o o s e z S rn i t h /D u n l op / Ara i l Dura lube-sp onsored Pepper turned in a score of 18 for seco nd po sit ion. Lewis put h is Dirt Bike-backed KTM into th ird . edgi ng o u t Davis. who had a 2 1po int ri de, good eno ugh for the O pen class win. " I di g it. Aweso me co ndi tion s and th e cl ub did a grea t job," sai d a happy Roeseler. "T igh t. tech nica l and lot s o f it. T h is is rea l similar to the stuff tha t I p rac tice in so it feels good to wi n. " T he win ma kes it three-strai gh t for Roeseler a t Tecate. . Pep per was ha p py with h is performa nce but q uick to pack u p for hi s trip back to Co lo rado. After a slo w start, Lew is kept u p th e pace to tak e home third pl ace. dep ite nursin g a foot inj ury. " I was sort o f cru ising. I'm still a littl e timid abou t m y foot hittin g a roc k, so I took it easy in tha t sense. " sai d MS/ Powerbar/ Me tzeler/ Bieffe/ Smith/Tsu ba ki-bac ked Lewi s. Davis , who recen tly sw itched o ver to o ff-road fro m mo tocro ss, had to have Roeseler he lp pro gram hi s com p u ter. "Everythi n g we n t o kay . excep t I crashed on the seco nd loop a nd lost lo ts of time ," said Davis. Bert ram su rprised lots o f doubters by bringin g hi s DR hom e in fifth · pos itio n and second in th e Open class. ''I'm still ge tti ng th e hang of it (the DR ). I' d crash or sta ll an d it sti ll tak es me a t least 30 seconds to start th e bi ke. Other than th a t, I go t some dirt in th e ca rb a nd had to dra in the floa t bo wl o u t on th e th ird loop , but I enjoy the bike...· K'TM' sScot H arden scored the Vet clas s win in sixt h overa ll , just ah ead of T om Webb. Webb . who co uld be a histor ian o n th e event . said . "T h is was the best T ecat e ever. It hasn 't been th at to ugh since it was a two -da y even t. And if I hadn' t burn t the first chec k o n th e third loop I would o f beat H arden !" H am el did wh at a desert racer us ua lly does for mos t o f th e race an d keyed o ff end u ro rider Da rren San ford . " Da rren saved m e a few times. I was usin g my wa tch to gu ide me into th e checks after the resets a nd I a lmos t missed a few ." sai d H am el. U nfo rtuna tely for Sa nfor d. H a mel edge d him out by o ne minute a nd he had to sett le for ni nth pl ace. P uttin g th e third four-strok e in the top 10. Da vid Rhod es su m med up hi s rid e by say ing , " I burn ed way too many checks. fou r of th em. " Rhodes a lso d ispl a yed a p u nc ture wound to his left arm th at he had received during th e in fam ou s seco nd loop. Grant Pa lanske mad e a return to racing after getting married and was th e third hi gh est p lac ing Vet class rid er in 11th pl ace. The fir st l25cc class fini sh er was northern California 's Donnie Sim on e in 16th overall. eN Res ults 0 / A: l. Larry Roeseler (Kaw): 2. Kel by Pep per ( KT M ): 3. Ji mmy L ewi s ( KT M ):·1. Ty Da.., (ATK): 5. Dave Bert ram (SUl): 6. Scot Harden (KT M); 7. T om Webb ( Kaw): 8. Da nn y Ham el (Ka w); 9. Darr en San ford (SOl); 10. David Rho des (Hbg ): 11. G ra m Paianske (Ya m); 12. Kevin Davis (KT M); 13. Garth Sweet la nd (Kaw ); 14. Mike Webb (Kaw ): 15. Duke La mbert (Yam) ; 16. Donn ie Simo ne (Kaw) : 17. Rick Mun yon ; 18. Dee Taylor (Hon ); 19. Bill Berret h (Kaw): 20. Steve Ogre n (Kaw).

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