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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127572
front of the four wheelers that started in
the third wave.
Greg Zitterkopf was another early
casualty. The KTM rider was sidelined
less than 10 miles into the first loop
when he reportedly lost the ignition.
The 37-mile opening loop kept the
racers on their toes all the way.
"The course was excellent," said
Roeseler. "It had so much variety. There
would be a fast road for a couple of
miles then it's into tight stuff for a couple of miles, then fast again. They kept
alternating which made it interesting."
At the head of the pack, Hamel was
having an interesting time trying to hold
off Davis. The two Kawasaki KX500
pilots were less than 20 feet apart the
whole way around the loop and less
than 10 seconds separated them as they
dashed into the first pit at the end of 45
minutes of racing.
Yamaha WR250 racer Ed Sorenson
made the most of the varied terrain and
rocketed up from 10th at the bomb to
third overall at the pit, despite crashing
"all over the place."
"I fell eight of nine times before the
race was over. I just kept washing out in
the comer," said Sorenson.
'
The local racer's charge knocked
Gray back into fourth at the end of loop
one, just ahead of Roeseler and
Headman, and Richardson had moved
up from ninth at the start of the loop to
a respectable seventh.
Richardson had his work cut out as
he headed into the 25-mile second loop,
which was billed as "the mountain
loop."
The Honda CRSOO pilot had Utah's
hard-<:harging Jeff Lundgreen on his tail
and was running out of rear brakes.
"I went through a sage brush'"thing
on the first loop and bent my brake
pedal. If I had my foot on the pegs, my
brake was on and I pretty much fried it
in loop one," Richardson said. "All
through loop two and three, I was saving the brake for emergencies. It was
pretty hard in the tight stuff. Finessing
this thing around in the trees without
using the brakes isn't a lot of fun."
Vince Lucero, a 250cc Expert rider,
raced into loop two in ninth overall
ahead of Open Expert Mark Lundgreen
and Idaho's Curtis Dice headed the
Over-30 division in 11th on a KTM 300.
Bill Maxim's Kawasaki KX500 led the
Senior contenders through in 31st overall.
The tight terrain of the second loop
kept speeds low. Fifty minutes had
passed before the leader appeared at the
end of the 28-mile section and despite
riding hard all the way, Hamel had
nothing to show for it. Davis was still
less than 10 second behind him. "There
was tons of pressure the whole way,"
said Hamel. "I could hear him every
time I braked in a comer. I could hear
him on the gas catching me. That keeps
you on your toes."
By the end. of loop two, Davis had
had enough of second place.
"I would be within 15 to 20 feet of
him in the tight stuff but every time I
would reel him in, we would hit a powdery section and he would blow dust,"
said Davis. "I'd have to slow down and
wait for the wind to blow the dust
away."
Davis was also waiting for Hamel to
tire.
"I could tell he was getting tired in
the second loop. I could see his (tire)
marks going wider and wider in the corners. I hoped that would make a difference," said Davis.
Roeseler put the tight mountain terrain to good use and came out of the
loop in third overall, four minutes
behind the leaders. Sorenson was right
on his tail in fourth, and Gray had
slipped two minutes behind to fifth.
"I was doing really good the first
loop, then 1 tensed up and made a couple of bobbles," Gray said.
.
Richar1ison was holding Jeff
Lundgreen at bay by the skin of his
teeth in sixth overall, while Mark
Lundgreen and Dice battled for eighth a
minute behind.
Dice's ninth overall put him eight
places ahead of his nearest Vet class
rival - Yamaha WR2SO racer Jeff Boyd,
who lost time and a rear fender in a loop
two crash. Boyd's longtime local rival,
Kerry Lynn, was just one place behind
him for third in class.
A fast rider from 15th overall at the
end of loop one put Suzuki RM250 racer
George McQuiston in the number 10 spot
with only the 28-mile third loop remaining, and brothers Corky and Chance
Maughan rounded out the top 12.
"I was running up a lot further in the
first loop, but I hit a tree and dropped
the bike about 20 miles in," Corky
Maughan, the older of the Suzuki
RM250 siblings, said. "I couldn't get the
bike started and it took me all day to get
back all the people who passed me."
Loop three was as tight and technical
as the two loops before it and the 28mile section took the fastest riders
almost an hour to complete. The grueling course had motocrosser Rex Staten
reconsidering his recent change to
desert racing.
"Motocross riders think they're pretty
tough, but this is something else. This is
damn hard," said Staten, who finished
third overall at the San Felipe 250 the
day before but was running a disappointing 28th overall midway through
the National. "I went down once on the
first loop.and two times on the second
loop. Once I overshot a tum, hit a branch
and it ripped me off the bike. These guys
just hook it through here. I'm stillleaming and I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever
get (to be) any.good at this."
The Hamel/Davis chase continued
throughout the final loop. The thick
dust that had worked to his advantage
kept slowing Davis just enough to keep
the lead intact.
"The third loop was kind of easier
and he pulled away a bit in the fast
stuff, but I really got close in the tight
stuff, especially in the sand berms," said
Davis.
"I think the only thing that kept me
motivated was Davis behind me the
whole time," said HameL "That kept me
going. That, a lot of Advil and a whole
lot of adrenalin."
The order a t the front of the pack
stayed much the same until the final
stages of the loop when Gray missed a
comer.
"I don't know how it. happened. All
of a sudden I was off the trail and two
guys both got by me," said a disappointed Gray. The two guys were Richardson
and Jeff Lundgreen, who was still glued
to the Honda's fender after almost two
complete loops.
"I caught him abOut the nine-mile
marker on the second loop and raced
the rest of the way with him," said
Lundgreen. "I'd pass him; he'd pass
me. U was a really fun race on an excellent course."
Gray was not the only racer to report
trouble with the course marking in loop
three. Curtis Kelly of Grand Junction,
Colorado got so confused he gave up
altogether and followed the pit access
road home to the checkered flag.
"It was on a ridge half way, maybe
three-quarters of the way through the
last loop," the Husky pilot explained.
"There were backtracks going all over. I
went back to the last marker several
times, but I was leaking gas and I
thought I was going to run out of gas in
the middle of nowhere, so I gave up and
headed in."
Ty Davis led the early part of the race, but couldn't fend off Hamel's relentless attacks.
Travis Burgess looked a little longer
.and found his way out of the same
spot.
"It was just one turn," Burgess said.
"A wrong-way marker was mashed flat.
You just had to keep looking."
Not content with winning the Vet
class by a comfortable margin, Dice
tried to move up on KTM 550 pilot
Mark Lundgreen to improve his place in
the overall standings with just a few
miles to go. "Big mistake," said the
KTM 300 racer. "Three miles from the
finish I had it going for all she was
worth on the country road trying to
catch the 500 and it just locked up. I got
a little too ambitious, I guess."
The KTM unstuck just long enough
to get a grateful Dice across the finish
line. As the third loop near the 50minute mark, all eyes were trained on
the edge of the trees, waiting for the outcome of the Hamel/Davis standoff.
There was a cheer when the first green
bike flashed into sight and a gasp when
the second green bike cleared the clearing just seconds behind.
When the KX500s crossed the finish
line, Hamel had taken the win by a mere
five seconds.
"What a tough race," said Hamel. "I
knew I had to pass Davis before we got
out on the trail because I knew it was
going to be dusty. Getting him early and
getting a little lead made all the difference."
"I just wish it (the trail) had been
wet. Then I might have been able to get
past him instead of chasing him all the
way," said Davis.
Roeseler brought the third KX500
home five minutes behind the leaders.
"Considering everything - the way I feel
and flying in last night - I'm happy to be
finishing. This is nothing to be ashamed
of," said the Team Kawasaki-backed
racer. "I wish I felt a bit better. Maybe
the three of us could've battled."
Sorenson survived his multiple
crashes and crossed the line fourth overall to take the 250cc class honors.
"I don't race much, so I think knowing the terrain around here made a difference. I live about 20 miles up the road
from here," said Sorenson. "This is my
backyard."
Dan Richardson's Honda CRSOO held
Jeff Lundgreen at bay all the way to fifth
overall.
"We battled the whole way," said
Lundgreen. "My filter plugged up and I
couldn't get any top end, so he ran away
on top, but it was the funnest time I've
had out there in a long time."
Jim Gray's off-the-t:ourse excursion
left him in seventh. The Kawasaki
KX500 pilot wanted to dedicate his ride
to the memory of 24-year-old Burton
Vickery, a Colorado rider who was
killed in a collision with a train during a
cross-country race in Nebraska.
Mark Lundgreen brought his Oean
Racing/KTM-backed E/XC 500 home in
eighth overall, just ahead of Dice, whose
late-in-the-race seize had him wondering if he would ever see the finish.
"I got a lousy start, I got lost twice
today and I ran into everything out
there. It was an extremely fun day," said
Dice.
.
Second Vet went to Jeff Boyd five
places back in 14th overall. Boyd
grabbed the number two position from
race-long rival Kerry Lynn when Lynn
got lost five miles from the finish.
"We're hometown buddies. We dice
it out all the time," said Lynn.
Bill Maxim topped the over-40 racers
in 24th overall, ahead of Charlie
Spellman in 28th, and Larry Wahlberg
took first Amateur on a Honda CR250 in
20th overall.
"It was a great course," said
Wahlberg. "It was a mixture of everything you could imagine all the way and
they had it marked really well."
An ill-fated race for the 12Sec Experts
finally came to an end when Scott
Hansen crossed the finish in second-tolast place. The Suzuki racer reportedly
suffered a rear flat and brake problems
on the way to the long-winded victory.
The next nearest finisher was Jason
Kawell, who lost his head gasket three
miles from the finish and finished the
race in the back of a pickup.
The founder of the sponsoring club,
Preston Gerber, said a special thank you
to the Sage Riders' Marilyn Tipton and
Bonnie Hutchings, who put in long
hours 'each year to ensure that the
National goes off without a hitch.
0Results
OIk 1. Danny HamoI (Kaw); 2. Ty o.vis (!