Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD e SCORE Intemaiional San Felip_e_50 2 _ Greg Zitterkop f took the ch eckered flag leading th e way, recording the overall win with teammate Ted Hunnicutt. Hunnicutt, Zitterkopf sizzle in Baja heat By Anne an d Tom Van Beveren P h o tos by Tom Van Beveren 16 SAN FElJPE, B.G., M APR. 25 EX. .s o meth ing was missing when the field of 38 motorcycle teams lined up for the start of San Felipe 250. T he entry list looked much the same as usua l. It showed last year's Open cla ss winners La rry Roeseler and T ed H unnicutt teamed with Greg Zitt erkopf. The Dan ny H am el/Garth Sweetland/ Paul Ostbo trio tha t top ped th is year's Parker 400 was back, and so was th e factory H onda team of Dan Ash cra ft and Ch uc k Mill er. But the pi cture wasn 't quite comp lete. T he Kaw asaki ra n ks looked strangely thin wh en the 265-mile event began , and th ey looked even th inner fo ur -a n d-a -ha lf h ours la ter w he n Roeseler's tri o beat th e H am el team by less than three m in utes to score the overa ll win. When the dust finally settled, the prob lem was identified. Roeseler and Hamel were now her e to be seen. . "T hey 're mis sing in action," . said Team Green Manag er Mark Johnson. "They went to Oklahoma for th e ISDE Qual ifier, and the y didn' t mak e it back. They had a pretty tight schedule an d th ey must've missed th eir n igh t." T he no -sho w cost Roeseler and Hamel points toward the 1992 SCO R E Cha mpions h ip Series - the ru les require th e rider of recor d to start or fin ish an event to earn poi nt s, but both were still listed in SCO R E's overa ll resu lts. Out on the course, th ough, their respec tive teammates filled the gap wi tho ut missin g a beat. They simply split the ridi ng in to two sect io ns in stead of three, and dominated the competi tio n fro m start to finis h as tho ug h nothing was awry. . " We kn ew it mi ght happen and that we had to cover our bases, so we prerode the whole course. As it turned o ut, it wasn 't a m ajo r deal ," said Hunnicutt. The race began shortly after sunrise under the arches at the en tra nce to San Felipe . For Hun ni cu tt , who was number three in the one-bike-every-30seconds sta rti ng order, the 6. 15 a.m . gree n flag came a few minutes too early. " I went for a ri de to look a t the road (the race began on) and I rnust've pi cked up a nail ," the Kawasaki KX500 pilot said. " Abou t a minu te before the start th e guy behind me told me I had ' a nai l in my tire but there wasn't ti me to do an yth ing about it." Hunnicutt began th e race with a rear flat and battl ed it for 40 miles as he raced north to the first rider change a t EI Ch inero. " I couldn' t carry any speed in the whoops. I was constantly figh tin g to keep it straight," he said. But the ba ttle did not seem to slow him dow n. Hunni cutt h ad passed th e two earl ier starte rs and was almost two minutes ah ead of hi s neares t rival on adju sted time whe n he handed over to Zitterk opf for th e north er ly loo p th rou gh Oasis Road an d back to Borrego. Sweetland ha nded over to Ostbo in second a t the El Chi nero pi t, and Ash craft , who ha d burned rubber all the way down the pavement from the start line, was fou r minutes beh ind the leaders in third overall. The Kawasaki KX500 pi lo ted by Scott Davis and Jeff Darl and was fourt h o n adj usted time, just ah ead of th e J eff Marti nez/Fred Wi llertlTroy Pearce Yamaha YZ250, and Brent Farre ll and Steve Ogren were next th rough o n a Kawasak i KX250. Som e of th e late r starters too k a slow but sure approach to the first 40-mi le sectio n, wh ich was p lagued by thick du st, no breeze and the low angle of the early-morn ing sun . " I just rode slow an d tried to mak e it through," sai d J oey La ne, lead -off man for th e Scott Morris / La ne / Cra ig Ad a m s Kawasaki KX250 team. " O ne rider passed me and rig ht after tha t he went over the bars . There are so man y rocks out there ." T he bike that p assed him - a Kawasak i KX250 piloted by Keith O 'N eal an d Steve Cole, " DNFed" . Even further back in the line u p, Class 30 (riders over 30) hopefu l Kenny Parry describe d the start as " hopeless." " It was so dust y yo u probab ly could've got off and wal ked faster tha n I was riding, " said Parry , who paired wit h Lee Scheffers o n a Kawasak i KX500. . Class 30's Jim Eveland was n 't goin g slo wly eno ugh . T he Kawasaki KX500 pi lot went down hard on his way to EI Chi nero and took himself out of the race after handing over to partners David Callaway and John Silva. " I go t off in the rocks in the wh oops and I've never go ne down th at hard before. I brok e my helm et and th en th e bike pushed me int o the gr ound," said Eveland. Class 50 (riders over 50) racer Sam Bass went down soo n after wh en he hit a speed bump in a mountain secti o n . "It la u nche d me over the han dlebars. I'm bru ised up prett y good and I scratched up my he lmet," said Bass, who team ed with Ca nadian Al Perrett on a Kawasak i KX250. Zitterkopf made the most of the du stfree num ber one spo t as he led the way north to checkpoint two and started to put ti me o n the field as he mad e th e norther ly turn and sp rinted towards the double check at Borrego. " It was really ro ugh but it was fun for me," said Zitterkopf, wh o had been worried about starting the race. " I cras hed p rerunning on Wed nesda y really hard and hurt my leg. I was okay once I got going." The temperat ure wa s starti ng to rise as th e racers h eaded tow ard s Borrego and specta tors were ap p lying su nscreen even th o ugh it was no t yet eigh t a.m . High h umidi ty mad e th e morning seem even hotter a nd dust hung in mo tionl ess clo ud s over th e p it area . The Hunnicu tt /Zitterk opf Kawasaki KX500 was ahead by a min ute and a half as it led the way into th e sma ll loop "in the center of th e course that led from the double check at Borrego, sout h thro ugh chec kpoin t four at the powerline road, an d then back th rough Borrego for a second time. Ostbo was hard on the gas in second, and the Ashcraft/Miller Honda caught some impressive . air through the pits in th ird, four min u tes beh ind on time. Davis an d Darland were still in the hunt in fo ur th , only n ine minutes off th e pace desp ite seizing their Kawasaki KX500 three times in th e first half of th e race, and Dave Donat oni, and Joh n ny and Jam ie Campbell had battled to the front of a close 250cc (Class 21) battle. "The star t of th e race was very close with the (Ma rti nez) Yam ah a team, and we had a real clos e ba ttle wi th the (Farrell) Kawasaki team. We had some good contact wi th them, " said Donato n i. " I lost the silencer when I crashed co ming into Borrego. I had passed the Yama ha team and I was rid ing too fast through the whoops. I wouldn 't slow down becau se I ha te losi ng." .T be Yam ah a was a min u te behind as it cleared Borrego in sixt h, ahead of Morr is' Kawasa ki KX250 an d the Ka w asak i KX50 0 pi lo te d by Ji m O ' Neal, Gra nt Pal en ske and Mike McDona ld. " We lost some ti me righ t off th e ·start," said Pal en ske. " We stayed on the course in the dust and everyo ne was go ing o n the beach. " A promising run by T im Morton , T im Funk and J ohn Flores hit the skids wh en the ir Kawasaki KX250 ran .out of gas in the center sectio n of the co urse. " I sat th ere for abo u t 30 minutes waitin g for gas. You just wait a nd hope somebo dy co mes," sa id Flores. " I think we were lead ing on tim e, too . I h ad j ust p a ssed the (Marti nez) Yamah a and th e (Donatoni) H onda wasn 't that far ahea d." T he cour se was taking a toll on some of the o ther racers as well. Ashcraft and Mil ler 's hopes bi t the du st when the thunder ing Honda shut down aft er clearing the Borr ego pi t for th e second tim e. "The cases broke again. We got 240 mi les in the (Baja ) 1000, 240 miles at Parker and about 170 here. I g uess we're going backwards," said Hond a's Bruce Ogilvie. "We'll have to try something else." Ogilvie said Honda's goal was to get th e highl y modified XR600 to finish at its present hors epower level, which he would not discl ose. " We cou ld bu ild a bike tom orrow that would fin ish the (Baja) 1000 bu t not at the horsepower level of th e current machine. T hat's what we are attempting to do." A big H onda was working well for Dan Ashcraft's .fat her, Bob Ash craft, wh o was lead ing the Over 50 cla ss with teammate Al Guzman . " Bob had a terrifi c run on hi s first leg (fro m EI Ch inero to Borrego ). H e pass ed all the

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