Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ 0FF·ROAD SCORE International Baja 500 e (Left to right) Kawasaki Team Green members Danny Hamel, La rry Roeseler , T ed Hunnicu tt, Pau l Krause, Garth Sweetland, Paul Ostbo and manager Mark Johnson celebrate after claiming the top two overa ll po sitio ns at th e SCORE Baja 500. T he Darren Sanford/Fred Willert team (461) claimed the Class 21 win . Who else but Roeseler/ Hunnicutt/Krause at Baja By Anne Van Beveren Photos by T om Van Beveren ENSENADA ac. M JUNE 6 , EX., large mo torcycle turnou t and a sho rt 334-mi le course co mbined for an exci ting fini sh at th is year 's runn ing of the Baja 500. With 4S team s vyin g for th e twowheel honors, there was no mar gin for error. T he event turned into a six-anda half hour sprint that left the overall and five of the six class titl es to be decided in the last 50 mil es - a ll by margins of less than five minutes. The overall win came down to j ust o ne m inute a nd 22 secon ds a fter Kawasa ki's T ed Hunnicutt, riding A 24 clea n-up for Larry Roeseler and Paul Krau se, launched a do-or -die blitz 20 mi les fro m hom e. " Abo ut 20 miles back, I went , 'th is is it - wi n or lose right now,' " said Hunn icutt. " I kn ew the road rea lly well , so I ju st pi nned it." T he last-di tch effort closed the gap on T eam Gr een ri vals Danny Hamel , Garth Sweetland and Pau l Os tbo, who had established a small lead early in the race. H unn icu tt crossed the line behin-d Sw eet land , but whe n th e start ing times were adjusted, he was clos e enough to claim victor y over th e rival Kawasak i KX500. Stopwatches clicked again half an hour la ter wh en th ird and fo urth overa ll came das h ing ho me.and Darren Sanford and Fred Will ert took the 250cc h o n o rs o ne minute a nd 10 seconds ahead of the Tim Morton, J ohn Flor es and Keith O' Nea l team. The stopwatches contin ued to click all th e way back to Class 50, where just under five m inutes separated the AI Guzman/Bob Ashcra ft/ Dave Rockwell Honda team fro m the Kawasaki shared by Al Perrett and Ro n Duga n. "SCO RE didn 't do us a real favor making the mileage so sho rt," said Ham el. " It wasn 't a real race. It was so short yo u didn't even work up a swea t, and any little problem cou ld cost you th e who le th ing: ' T he first mo torcycle left the starti ng lin e just eas t of Oj os Negros at 6:00 a.m . and th e others followed o ne bik e at a time every 30 seconds. T he 4S-team lin eup repr esente d almos t a third of the tota l race ent ries. O ne of th e sh o rtest ri d es ever recorded a t the Baja 500 was turned in by David Jones, who was team ed with Br ian Schmu ckl e a nd Todd McKay in Class 30. J on es, wh ose jaw was wired together a fter a' recen t injury, took the team 's Kawasaki 100 yards - just far en o ug h to ea rn SCO RE points as the rider of reco rd, befor e handi ng over to h is teammates. Former Western Regional l 25cc Supercross Ch a m pi on T y Dav is, aboa rd the factory ATK en try, was the next racer to retire. Davis reported ly chalked up o n ly 20 m iles before retiring wi th mech anial problems. Ho nda's rad ical factory Hon da XR600 , p ilo ted by Chu ck Mi ller and Dan Ashcra ft, sta yed in the hunt all the way to Mike 's Sky Ran ch , but reported ly lost the ignition with half the race still to ru n. The early ru nn ing was plagued by thi ck du st tha t h ung o n th e still morni ng air. T he sky was overca st, so racers were spared the usual glare of the sun in th eir eyes, bu t the clouds lost their silver linin g ju st a few mi les down the co urse. " Up in the hill s we ran into clo uds and fog and they were reall y to ug h," said Ken ny Parry, who shared a Class30 entry with Cra ig Adams. "They mad e everyt h ing wet and stuc k to your goggles, bu t everybody had to deal wit h it." The first sectio n of the course ran so u th eas t fr o m the sta rt at Oj os Negr os, 35 miles sou th of Ensenada, to EI Rayo and made a welcome cha nge from the wide-o pen ru n ning that Baja racers have come to expect. " T he first 40 miles is new and it had a lot of neal SLUff," said Mike McDon ald, wh o teamed wi th Jim O 'Neal and Grant Pa lenske o n a Class 22 Kaw a sa ki KX500. H am el left th e sta rt in the n umb er two spot with o n ly th e factory Honda ahea d o f him , bu t d us t was a pro bl em even a t th e head o f th e d raw. " I caug ht Mill er th ree mi les ou t, but I co u ld n' t do a ny th ing i n the d ust," H am el sa id . " I had to follow hi m for 15 miles. We ended up racin g han d leba r to handl ebar go ing sca ry- fast for two mi les - j ust rea ll y intense , an d I fina ll y o u tbreaked h im into a co rner. " O nce Ham el got the lead, he made the mo st of the clear air, know ing that Roeseler wou ld lake lon ger 10 break th ro ugh fro m sevent h in the start ing or der. " T he du st back there was bru tal. I go t by two gu ys rig h t away but it too k me a lon g time to pass af ter that," said Roeseler. "T he du st was defini tely a factor in the fin ish in g times." But , as Hamel was findin g o ut, the num ber o ne spo t was no pic ni c either. " I had probl em s with some Mexicans go ing th e same way as me, but luckily no o ne was comi ng the wrong way a n the course, and all the ga tes were open," Hamel said . Ham el was in and ou t of the EI Rayo pit in seven sesconds , but Roeseler wiS not as lu cky as he ap proached pit two at Nu evo J un ction . He had to slow down to keep track of a swi ng arm bolt th at had backed off, and lost more time tighten in g th e bolt in the pi ts. The pro blem s cont in ued as Kra use took over for th e next SO -mile sectio n. " In the first four miles, I h it a cow and a dog ," said Krau se. " I just glanced off them - no biggy, but I thoug h t, 'Gee, th is is go ing to be a lon g SO mi les: Lu ckily, the rest of the way was smooth saili ng ." When the racers hit the pavement of Highway 3 near th e IIO-mile mark a nd . pow ered past Vall e de Trinidad, Hamel's Kawasak i KX500 was three minutes ahead of th e Roeseler Kawasaki KX500 o n adj usted lim e, with an other 30 seconds back to the Mill er/ Ash craft Honda. An even closer battle was sha ping up in Class 21 (250cc mo torcycles). The Sa nford/ Willert Suzuki was th e first bike to reach the highway, bu t the Ka wa saki KX250 p ilo ted by Tim Morton, J ohn Flor es and Keith O 'Neal took over the time-adjusted lead by 40 seco nds wh en it appeared in second. T he lead turn ed over again when the th ird 250cc appeared - thi s tim e to Roger Hurd and David Ondas on a Kawasaki KX250. T he KX250 of Scott Morris, J oey La ne and Craig Smi th was fourth in class , a disappointing fo ur minutes off the pa ce. " I crashed 12 mil es off the start, " said Morr is. " I came around a tu rn an d clipped a big rock and it threw the bike o ver sideways in the air. It too k me a wh ile to get go ing and I go t stuck behind a Japa nese rider for abo u t 50 mil es. You just can 't pas s in the dust." T he racers dashed sou th for 12 miles a lo ng Highway 3, then turned west for a 50-mile loop th rough Mik e's Sky Ranch and back to Vall e de T rinidad. Ostbo had taken o ver from Ham el and was trying to establish a workable pace in the number-one spo t. " It's hard bein g the fir st bik e. I co uld' ve go ne faster but everyo ne said totake it easy and pa ce myself," said Ostb o. " I'm a lot bett er wh en som eone,

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