Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

; OFF·ROAD Series: Round 1 ~ Danny Hamel (shown) teamed with Larry Roeseler and styled to the overall win. Dave Donatoni (shown) and Dan Ashcraft overcame a broken pipe for second overall. Hamel, Roeseler blaze to Parker 400 win By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren' PARKER, AZ, JAN. 23' he only thing smaller than the turnout at this year's Parker 400 was the distance between the racers as they fought back and forth for nte lead over 260 miles of Arizona desert. The 20th annual running of what has traditionally been SCORE's only U.S. motorcycle competition drew a mere 24 bikes to the siflrting line on the edge of the Colorado River. But what the field lacked in size, it more than made up for in excitement. Kawasaki Team Green stars Danny Hamel and Larry Roeseler, who teamed together for the first time ever, had their work cut out in the first half of the race trying to keep Kawasaki's only Open class (Class 22) entry in front of the Honda factory team's XR628, which was piloted by Dan Ashcraft and Dave Donatoni. And it was touch and go all the way in the 250cc division (Class 21) as a three-way battle went all the way to the checkers. When the four-and-a-half hour sprint was over and adjusted times were tallied, the Hamel/Roeseler KX500 came out on top of the battered and burned Ashcraft/Donatoni Honda by less than eight minutes. And a last-ditch effort by Scott Morris and Craig Smith had catapulted Kawasaki's only factory-backed entry in Class 21 into third overall, a mere three seconds ahead of the hardcharging winners of Class 30 (riders over age 30). "This win is good for Kawasaki," said Hamel. "All the SCORE races are important - they carry a lot of prestige, and this one is even more important because it's here in the States and we can do a lot of advertising with all the American spectators." Many explanations were offered for the small motorcycle turnout, which included just one Class 40 (riders over age 40) entry and only two entries in the 125cc (Class 20) division. Some riders blamed it on the recession; others blamed it on a $630 entry fee; and some T 14 even attributed it to shell-shock from the time and expense of racing last November's Ensenada-to-La Paz Baja 1000. Whatever the reason, it certainly wasn't the course. The first round of SCORE's four-race motorcycle competition followed the same route as last year. The two-wheeled racers started outside the Blue Water Marina on the outskirts of Parker, Arizona, and raced two laps on a 130-mile figure-eight loop, which ran north through Mineral Wash to the center point at Midway, south through Graham Well and back through Midway to the main pits at Shea Road. Seasoned racers described the course as "typical Parker." "It's not that challenging, to be honest," said Bob Ashcraft, who shared an XR600R with Sterling Varner in the Over-50 class. "The Swansea (northern) loop is a little tougher than down below, but the whole thing is pretty fast." SCORE had made its usual concessions to the motorcycle racers. They started four hours ahead of the trucks and buggies to ensure that only the slowest riders would be lapped on the common course, and a small motorcycle/ATV-only section added 10 miles of semi-technical terrain near the end of the northern loop. ''I'm glad to see that SCORE is putting new stuff in for the motorcycles. It's good to see they care about us," said Hamel. The 6:30 a.m. motorcycle start had the riders up before dawn. The air was brisk and a winter wind cl'lilled the starting area as competitors warmed their engines and checked their bikes one last time. A prerace drawing to determine each rider's starting position had put Hamel at the front of the pack. He was hard on the gas the second the green flag dropped and the front wheel of his KX500 was off the ground all the way down the paved road that led out of the ceremonial start area. The rest of the racers followed, one bike at a time, every 30 seconds. Johnny Campbell, who left the line in third, caught the eye of the small group of hardy spectators who lined the start when he hid his XR628's fairing under a' blanket until the starting flag was about to fall. The spectators' heads turned a second time when Ashcraft left the line in fifth, smoking his rear tire until he was out of sight around the first bend. Stormy weather in the weeks leading up to the race had left the western Arizona desert damp, giving racers at the back of the starting order a welcome brealc. "There wasn't a lot of dust today and that let you race really close," said Roger Hurd, whose KX250 was 10th off the line. "You could catch the guy ahead of you and see what he was doing. It made it a lot easier to go fast." Hamel was trying to do just that as he put the town of Parker behind him and headed north into the first section of the figure-eight course, but the 20year-old from Boulder City, Nevada, took a while to settle into stride. "I rode really easy this morning through the rocks," said Hamel. "I just didn't feel really comfortable going fast for the first 20 miles." Despite his slower-than-usual start, Hamel still had the physical lead when he reached the Mineral Wash Pit at the northern-most point of the figure eight and turned south towards his first rider change at Midway. The time-adfustedlead was another story. "I was 40 seconds ahead on time at Mineral Wash," said Ashcraft, who pushed the factory Honda as hard as he could in the opening stages. "And when I handed over to (Donatoni) at Midway, we were only three seconds apart on time." The ba ttle for the 250cc lead was closer when it reached Midway for e~en the first time. With eight teams in the hunt, Class 21 was the biggest of the motorcycle divisions and none of the teams were giving an inch. Greg Zitterkopf, who shared a KTM with John Rudder, was moving up fast from the back of the 250cc start. Motocrosser John Flores was going great guns on Tim Morton's KX250 despite never having seen the Parker course ·before, and Scott Morris, last year's overall SCORE motorcycle champion, was also in the hunt despite taking a slow-but-sure approach to the opening section of the race. Even Darren Sanford, who shared a factory Suzuki with Jeff Martinez and Danny Anderson, was in the running, despite an early crash and a battle with pumped-up arms. "It was so close, you could've flipped a coin all day," said Sanford. "One little problem and that's it in a race like this." The Over-30 class was just as tight as it swept through Mineral' Wash. Earl Roberts, riding lead for Dan Worley and Rex Staten aboard a privateer KX500, missed a comer right off the start, which put the John Silva/Craig Adams and Brian Schmuckle/Tod McKay teams (both mounted on KX500s) hard on his heels for the first 30 miles. The Roberts team got some breathing room when Silva crashed hard just before Midway and later suffered a plugged silencer, and they got another break when Schmuckle's bike bit the dust in the second half of loop one near the farthest point from the main pits. Another early casualty was Roger Hurd, who dropped back significantly when his KX250 lost its plug wire 20 miles into the race, and Mike Young, who took over from Johnny Campbell at Midway, wasn't having any fun either. "I hit a big old bump and it pitched me over the handlebars," said Young. "I think I got knocked out." Young escaped with scraped hands and a few bruises, but the crash left the

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