Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

h ands me th e bike a few minutes down a nd says 'go for it.' " Os tbo 's problem was compou nded by tra ££ic on th e course. He came close to rea r-ending two trucks tha t were out o f sight o n the far side o f jumps a nd narrow ly avo ided a head-on collision o n the way ba ck into Valle d e Trini da d. T o ugher than usu al terrain near Mi ke's Sky Ra nch made th a t sectio n o f the co urse even more challenging than usual. "The rain had caused a lot of was houts ," sai d Krause, wh o crept clo ser a nd closer to Os tbo as the loop co nt in ued. " You had to be really precise wi th wh ere you went. You co uldn't drift th e corners a t hi gh sp eed lik e you normally do, bu t I had a rea lly sm oo th ride ." Krause' s smooth rid e had closed the time-ad justed ma rg in be tween th e two to p bik es to j ust o ne a nd a half minutes as he handed over to Hunn icutt for th e fin al loop u p the coas t and northeast to the fin ish line a t Oj o s Negros. . T he 250cc lead ers were neck 'n ' neck a ll th e way. T he Hu rd/ Ondas Kaw asak i was mar ginall y ah ead o n ti me, b u t th e p hys ica l lead was often too close to call. " Sa nford and I tra ded the p hysical lead over five times fro m EI Rayo to T rinida d," sai d Morton . "He was a head of me mos t o f the time I was suc ki ng his d ust for about 110 mi les straight, but I wou ld pick him o rr every now a nd th en ." A front fla t on th e Sa nford Su zuki made the ba ttle even tighter through the Mi ke's loop a nd th en Hurd m oved u p to challe nge for the physical as well as th e timeadjusted lead . " Up a t Mike' s in the roc ks I caugh t right up with Morton but I almo st fell a few times," said Hurd. " It's scary up there. I oversh ot a turn in the du st and went orr th e ed ge, o u t through th e woods." The 125cc (C lass 20) race was a little easier to foll ow . J ohn Braasch and J eff Kawell blasted past the two rival teams right off th e start and had th e physical a nd time-adjusted lead all th e way from the 12-mile mark. By' th e time their Kawasaki KXI25 hit Mik e's , the duo was almost 15 minutes a head of the rest of the class. Kawa saki KX500 ra cers Parry a nd Adams made gre at strides in th e early stages of th e Class 30 co m petition . They had passed five earl ier starters and had a com forta ble th ree-minute lead on their first pass through Vall e de Trinidad, but disaster struck as th ey approach ed Trinidad for th e second time. Adams was off the bik e and pushing two mi les from th e sch eduled rider chan ge. " It seized ," Adams said: " We tow ed it to try to get it going, but then we had to change th e top end and we were down a t least an hour. We had a four or five minute lead up until then." The Kawasaki team 's misfortune turned the Class-30 lead over to the Kawasaki KX500 piloted by Dan Worley, Earl Roberts a nd Mark Vanscourt, but with th e Geo££ Sanborn/ Connie Morrison H onda team and th e Jones/Schinuckl e/McKay Kawasaki less than six minutes behind o n adjusted time, it was still a n ybod y's ra ce, as th ey headed for th e coast at Puerto San Isidro. The overall win was also up for grabs as th e fin al 100 miles got underway. Sweetland went down just before the coast and was struggling to make up time as he dashed north toward Uruapan. " I crashed really hard and it took a while to get going again because I had blood in my eye," said Sweetland. But Hunnicutt's ride on the rival Finishing second overa ll and second in Class 22 with team members H amel and O stb o, Sweetland (662) enters a checkp oin t. Ka wasaki KX500 had also hit the ski ds. " I. go t a fro nt flat on the beach ," Hunnicutt said. " I wo rked really, reall y hard tryin g to make up grou nd - pushed as hard as I could trying to be as safe as I co ul d." . The bik es were two m in u tes apart as th ey raced dow n th e sand a nd H u n n ic u tt closed the gap to o ne mi n ute a t the end of th e beach. Whe n he pulled into the Kawasaki pit at U ruapan to change the wheel Sweetla nd was just p u lli n g out. " We changed the wheel and I left the p it 15 seconds in our favor on time," said Hun nic utt. T he chase continued as the ra ce headed into the final 50-mile stretch . Hunnicu tt kn ew he had to fi nish wit h in two a nd a half minutes of Sweet la nd to tak e th e win and as th e finish line drew closer, he picked u p th e pace. " I was p ushing way too hard a nd I made a few mista kes," said H unnicutt. " About four mi les back (fro m the finish), I fell. I thoug h t I th rew th e wh ol e thin g. There was a big hai rp in with a bi g bou lder on th e a pex. I landed totally sideways and sta lled it in th e bus hes, and I co uld n' t get th e bik e ou t." Hunnicutt was still struggli ng to free th e bike when Sweetland reach ed th e red flag that marked the en d of th e mot orcycl e co u rse. Co -r ide r s a n d sp ectators alike held th eir brea th as th e sou nd o f th e second bike was heard in th e distan ce. When Hunn icutt charged across th e fin ish, the stop . wat ch es showed he had gra bbed th e o vera ll and th e Cl ass 22 win for th e Ka wasak i /Bel- Ray/ D u n lo p/T r ick/ NGK/ Acerbis/Rentha IlPro-Circuitbacked team by on e min ut e a nd 22 seconds. . " It was a tough ra ce because i t was so sh ort," said Krause. " Ha mel had 80 miles of clear air whi le we were still fighting through dust, and he is hard to ca tch anyway, a nd we lost some time with th e swing arm. T hat ca n be all it takes in a race like this." Roe seler agreed: " It was a great race co urse, but it would 've been better to ca ll it the Baja 300," Roeseler said. " Basica ll y for us , th e longer , th e better." Disappointment sho wed o n th e faces of the second-placed team o f Hamel , Sw eetland a n d Ostb o , wh o wer e ba cked by Kawasaki , Dunlop, Trick , NGK and Bel-Ray. " It 's a n awful lot of pr eparation for a short blast. I wish I could 've been on th e bike twice as long," said Ostbo. " Bu t it's still a heck of a race." There was a quick turnover as th e 250 cc entri es headed to wa rd s the finish. Hurd and Ondas disappeared from the front of th e pa ck and ea rned a DNF in 'th e final results. Morton lost two minutes changing. a wh eel nea r the halfway point and Sanford was on J oey Lane flagged down his ride before finishing third 250cc wi th Scott Morris. th e gas , mak ing u p for a Mike 's loop fla t. . Wh en th e dust cleared at th e finish line, Sanford and Willert had grabbed th e Class 21 win with an avera ge speed of 48 miles per hour a nd just over a minute to spare. Their 'to ta l ela psed time of just under seven hours was half an hour slow er th an th e winning tim e in th e Open cla ss. . " It's like a sprint race ," said th e Am er ican Suzuki/Pro-Circuit/Dunlop/Trick/Shoei-backed Sanford. " If any team had a p roblem, i t's over. We were running so close all day ." " We made a bi g mistake changin g the wheel a t Vall e de T rinidad," said Morton . " We didn't need to - it was just scheduled , so th ey did it. It co st us two minutes at least." Sco tt Morri s was philosophical about thi rd in th e 250cc division. "I'm a bit deje cted , but there' s a lway s th e (Baja) 1000." The Worl ey/ Ro berts/Va n sco u rt Kaw asaki came home in six th, snatching th e Class 30 w in away from J ones, Schmuckl e a nd McKay by o ne minute and 48 seconds, and Jim O'Neal, Grant Pal enske a nd Mik e McDonald ca me in two a nd a half minutes back to cla im third. T he Br a as ch /Kaw ell Kaw asaki KXI25 scored the on ly decisive win in the motorcycle d ivis ion , taking Class 20 honors in 13th overall, with a n average sp eed o f 44 miles an hour, a full 40 minutes in front of th e next 125cc competitors. Class -40 h on ors went to John . Etc hard , Rich ard J ackson and Frank Shuter on a H onda XR600 in 14th overa ll. " We had 13 minutes the first time through Trinidad, but Etchart ran out of gas up in th e Mik e's loop ," said Jackson. " He had to go to a Mex ican who had a 15-gallon jug in the back of h is tru ck. They threw gas everywhere trying to get it into th e bike ." The delay left Class-40 rival s Chris H aines and Ri ck Shirey breathing down their ne cks and th e Kawasaki duo finish ed second in ' class by ' j ust under two and a half minutes. AI Guzman, Bob Ashcraft and Dave Ro ckwell topped Al Perrett a nd Ron Dugan by four and a half minutes to tak e th e honors in Class 50. CN Results 0 / A: I. Larry RoeselerlTed Hunnicutt/Paul Krause (Ka w) . CLASS 20 (125): I. J oh n Braasch , J r.lJelf Kawell (Ka w): 2. Garth J oyce/Keim pe Van Dijk (Kaw); 3. Jamie Ca mpbell/ Larry Gross (H us). CLASS 21 (250): I. Darren San ford/Fred Will en (Sur ); 2. T im Monon/Joh n Flores (Ka w): 3. Scott Morris / Joey La ne (Ka w ); 4. R ick Lundin/Justin Lund in (Ka w) ; 5. Masami Ish ii/Hisao Yoshito mo (Kaw) . CLASS 22 (O P EN ): I. Larr y Ro esel ez/Ted Hunnicutt/Paul Krau se (Ka w); 2. Danny Ham el! Ga rth Sweetland/Paul Os tbo (Kaw) : 3. J im O'Nea ll Gra nt Pal en ske (Ra w) ; 4. Geo H Sanborn /Connie Morrison (H on ); 5. Ro y Bueln a/Oscar Hale. Jr . (Hon). CLASS 30 (30-39 YRS): I. Dan Wor ley/ Earl Roberts (Kaw); 2. David Ca llaway/ john Silva (Kaw); 3. J ell Sheets / Mike Webb (Ka w) ; 4. Scott Burch / Mark Vansco urt (Ho n ). CLASS 40 (20-49 YRS): 1. John Etchart/Richard Jackson (Hon); 2. Ch ris Haines/Rick Shirey (Kaw); 3. Ron Bishop/Dick Vicx (H bg ); 4. Tom Steph en s/ Howard Juckett (Kaw): 5. Bob Van Dyke/Rich Case lli (KT M). CLASS 50 (50-PLUS YRS): I. AI Guzm an /Bob Ash craf t (H e n): 2. Al Perr ett /Ron Dugan (Kaw). 25

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