Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ 0FF·R0AD Heslin the Desert Grand Slam Series: Round 2 e . Two-time National Hare & Hound Champion Danny Hamel overcame a few minor problems to win the Gold Strike H&H. David Ondas finished second overall, approximately nine minutes behind Hamel. Gold Strike win to Hamel By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LAS VEGAS, NY, FEB. 13 awasaki's Danny Hamel made it two-for-two in the five-race Best in the Desert Series with a runaway sprint through the rugged desert west of Las Vegas. A rapid pace from start to finish kept Hamel's Kawasaki KX500 ahead of the pack for two and a half hours, and K 42 added the Vacation Village/Gold Strike World Championship Hare & Hound honors to the Gran Prix title he won at the series opener in Mesquite, Nevada, just one month earlier. Hamel described round two's hare and hound as one of the best races he had ever ridden. 'The conditions were ideal with the wet dirt and everything, and there were a lot of new, virgin trails," said Hamel. "It's not often that we get to ride on stuff that's that neat and that fun. Racers who missed it are really going to be sorry." The three-loop, 110-mile course laid out by race promoter Casey Folks drew 154 riders to the starting line in Jean, Nevada, 10 miles east of the California border. The racers assembled on an abandoned road behind the Gold Strike Casino. Positions in each class were determined by a drawing and the twoabreast line-up stretched almost a mile as the racers prepa red for the timeadjusted start. Hamel had drawn the front row of the grid and he grabbed the lead as soon as the starting light flashed green at 9 a.m. Tires spun and handlebars clicked together as the later starters left the line in hot pursuit. They cleared the pavement in seconds and dug a long trench in the damp soil that led to the first hard left turn. Folks had designed the course using a two-easier/one-harder loop strategy and had put the less difficult terrain up front. "In previous years with big mountains in the first part of the race, there were too many bottlenecks early on," Folks said. "Doing it this way, gave the racers a chance to get scattered out before they went into the tough stuff." Hamel made the most of the fast ground in the 38-mile opening loop and began working to establish a comfortable lead. Fellow KX500 racer Dave Ondas was pushing hard to hang with the leader off row two of the starting grid, and Todd Hoy, on a KTM, was making his presence felt despite a row five start that put him two minutes back when his starting light flashed. Heavy rain a week before the race, which had left standing water on the dry lakes and caused some last-minute rerouting of the course, helped the tailend starters to match the pace at the front of the pack. The lack of dust was particularly helpful to the top flight Over-30 Pro class, which saw hotshots like Scot Harden, Rex Staten and Dan Ashcraft tarting back on rows 13 and 14. Utah's Jeff Lundgreen needed more than a lack of dust to keep him in the hunt. The KXSOO racer fouled a plug on the starting line and was till working on the bike when his row left the grid. Lundgreen wa nearly three minute down on adju ted time before his race finally began. Scott Morri , riding in the Open Pro c1as on a KXSOO, also needed more than clear air to get him back on top. "I was in trouble all the way to the first pit," said Morris, who started second to last in li'b division. "My arms got so pumped up 1 couldn't ride." Tony Bergman wa another early casualty. The KTM pilot lost the advantage of a row one start when he flattened his front tire 20 miles into the race. Honda CR250-mounted racer Dave Donatoni went one better and flattened himself. "1 threw it away really hard about 15 miles out. 1 hit a rock, did a big endo and landed on my head," said Donatoni. "It made my back really sore and I was just gri tting my teeth trying to keep the pace." The same rock had already put Ondas and Yamaha pilot Jeff Martinez on the ground. "1 crashed and couldn't get my bike started. I had to kick it for two or three minutes," aid Martinez. "Ondas came by me, hit a rock and landed right in front of me, then Donatoni came by and hit the same rock. He rode the front for a long time before he feU off." Bill Maxim ended up at the back of the Over-38 Pro class when he stopped to loosen a wri t brace that had numbed his hand, and Steve Thickener was going nowhere fast in his bid for 125cc Pro honors. "1 was leading my class, but 1 was the only one (l25cc Pro) out there," said the Suzuki pilot. "It's a lot more fun when you have somebody to ride with. With someone else in your class you know whether you should speed up or slow down, but at least if I'm the only one, 1 know I'll get the win." Hamel raced through the first loop in one hour. He was a minute and a half ahead on adjusted time when he entered pit row, but his lead had been cut in half by the time he reached the other end of the pits and headed out into loop two. "Somewhere in the first loop 1 hit a rock and bent the chain guard really bad," said ·Hamel. "We had to bend the chain guard back out so the wheel would spin and wouldn't wear the sprocket out so bad. It was already about halI worn out by the end of the first loop." Ondas cleared the pits in second, a minute ahead of Todd Hay's Open Pro KTM on adjusted time. Destry Abbot and Jim Gray were also running strong near the front of the pack, but they were knocked back in the time-adjusted standings when Over-30 Pros Harden and Staten dashed out of loop one less than three minutes slower than Hamel to steal third overall. "1 had a lot of fun riding with Staten in the first two loops," said Harden. "He's a tremendous rider. He just needs to learn to read the terrain a bit. Once he gets some experience, he'll be a handful." John Braasch's KX250 was half a minute ahead of the 250cc Pros when it cleared the first pit, but with Husqvarna-mounted Jamie Campbell and Donatoni almost close enough to touch, and Suzuki pilots Darren Sanford and George McQuiston hard on their heels, Braasch had no time to rest on his laurels. Mike Sixbery and Steve Pitts were

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