Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD m Danny Hamel began the new season with a victory at the Winter Classic Hare &< Hound. Hamel was never headed during the race. Hamel starts where he left off at Lucerne By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, JAN. 24 anny Hamel kicked off the 1993 National Hare &< Hound Series with a double celebration at Lucerne Valley. The two-time series champ began the day with a wire-towire victory in the first round of this year's five-race series, and then accepted a gold-engraved plate from AMA Amateur Competition Manager Roger Ansel in honor of his title last year.. Hamel's easy win at Lucerne, which saw him cross the finish line 5.5 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, was a good omen that he will enjoy another season of desert racing domination. "If things keep going like they did today, chances look really good," said the Team Kawasaki rider. "My bike's working excellently and 1 feel 1 have the best crew out here. With everybody's help, 1 hope (winning the series again) won't be too much of a problem." The Winter Classic Hare and Hound, • hosted by AMA District 37's Desert M.e., drew an impressive field of 543 riders to the starting line on the east side of Bessemer Mine Road. Desert M.C:s first-loop captain, Ed Schneiderhan, attributed the turnout to the fact that the race didn't conflict With the Super Bowl, as it usually does, and to the two weeks of wet weather that had left the desert almost dust-free. "The conditions are actually very muddy in some parts of the course," said Schneiderhan. "We had to re-route D 10 the course off Melville Dry Lake and go way to the northwest because the lake was too muddy to race on." The starting banner dropped for the first time at 10 a.m. and the long line of Expert class racers left the start in a blur. Five other waves, each 10 minutes apart, sent the Amateur, Novice, Beginner, Quad and, finally, the Vintage class contenders, out onto the course for races of their own. Hamel grabbed the number-one spot the moment the Experts kicked their bikes off the dead-engine start. He made short work of the across-the-valley bomb that included patches of slick, grease-like silt as it skirted the edge of a damp dry lake, and he was 30 seconds ahead of the competition as he passed the 10-mile mark. Team Green's Ty Davis flashed by the bomb in second on a KX500, just ahead of the KX500 piloted by Kawasaki teammate Ted Hunnicutt. The 40-mile first loop followed a fast/slow /fast format that sandwiched 20 miles of tight, technical terrain between two, 10-rnile sections of hardon-the-gas sprinting. The problem was getting to the tight stuff. "The traffic was awful and 1 was probably 10th or so at the bomb," said Larry Roeseler, who was hoping for a promising start in a race series that he has yet to overall. "With little dust like that, everybody was going berserk and it was hard to do anything until we got to some tighter terrain about halfway through the loop." Top 250cc contender Greg Zitterkopf had even more traffic to contend with. "I really screwed up on the start," said the KTM pilot. ''I'm not used to the dead engine thing and 1 didn't kick it right off. 1 was way back at the bomb. 1 had to be out of the top 40 - at the very end of the group:' Nevada racer Destry Abbott barely made it past the end of the bomb run before he went down in a heap and broke the handlebars off his KTM 300. "I hit some whoops about 10 miles out in third or fourth gear. 1 came off one and hit the next one sideways," Abbott explained. "I never have good luck at Nationals. I've raced about three of them and 1 haven't finished one yet." Jimmy Lewis caught a rock early in the loop and scraped his leg in the fall that followed, and Derrick PaIement, who had worked his way up into the lead bunch in his third race since back surgery, suffered a race-ending flat rear tire midway through the first loop. Out in front, it was smooth sailing all the way for Hamel. He led the charge past Means .Dry Lake to the southeast comer of the competition area, through the technical sections in the mountains and back towards the pits via Victor Pass. 'They put a nice tough first loop in - 1 was glad to see that," said Hamel. "Normally, first loops are really fast with lots of valleys. (Desert M.e.) used some valleys, but they had rocks and tight washes too:' The first 40-mile loop was over in just under an hour and Hamel had a threeminute lead as he gassed, grabbed a quick drink and headed out towards loop two. Davis dashed through the pits in second overall, a minute and a half up on third-placed Hunnicutt, and motocrosser Rex Staten, who was entered in the Vet Class on a KX500, brought his mount through in fourth. Roeseler raced into the pits in fifth with Dave Ondas hard on his heels, and the long string of KX500s was finally broken when Zitterkopf's KTM 250 headed down pit row neck 'n' neck with Lewis' KX250 and John Rudder's YZ250. Todd Hoy was running strong in 10th place at the halfway point aboard an Open-elass KTM, Ed Pierce, Jr. was second Vet in 11th, and Utah's Ed Sorenson turned in a fast lap for 12th in his first ride in the California desert. "The flats are a little spooky - that's high speed," said the Yamaha-mounted 250cc Expert. "I could catch a few of them in the mountains,.but 1 didn't have my bike set up for the roads." The next rider through was also from Utah and, after a spectacular crash in Victor Pass, was lucky to still be in one piece. "I went down so hard coming in off the first loop," said KX500 racer Brandon Gerber, who had to be helped to his feet after he hit a rock in the whooped-out, narrow sandwash. "I felt my hip pop back after that one. 1 think 1 might've put it out of its socket." A back-and-forth battle for the 125cc lead ended with Jeff Capt's KX125, in 19th overall, half a minute ahead of the KX125. of Jason Kawell, and Chris Crandall thundered down pit row first in the Four-Stroke division, only to have the class lead go to Curt Wilcox when the clutch on his Pro Tec-sponsored Yamaha 630cc went out three miles into loop two. As the 42-mile second loop headed west towards Cougar Buttes, Hamel's flawless ride continued, but others in the hunt were not so lucky. Staten, who had caught third-placed Hunnicutt and was fighting off continual challenges from Roeseler, came to grief just a few miles into the loop when he caught a rock with his toe. "It feels like 1 broke the top of my foot," said Staten. "I caught up with Hunnicutt but I was in so much pain, I had to drop off the pace:' But while Staten fell back, his challenge left Hunnicutt surging ahead. ''It took me a long time to get going. My arms pumped up really bad and my body wasn't ready to ride that fast," sajd Hunnicutt. "But having (Staten) right behind me gave me a bit of a boost. It motivated me not to get passed." The motivation put Hunnicutt hard on Davis' heels and then took him through into the number-two spot. "Those guys are really fast. They pull a lot of time on me going across the flats. I'm not used to going so fast (that) everything's a blur," said Davis. . Loop two received a variety of reviews. Roeseler called it "really good; fast for the most part but with some tight stuff - rocks, canyons and ridges that made it interesting." Utah's Steve Pitts, on the other hand, described the loop as "nothing to write home about. The tough sections they had were good, but I think the first loop was more technical than the second one - vice versa from what they advertised," said Pitts.

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