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"mini summit" loop that circled east to meet Highway 5 at lbree Poles and then doubled back to Borrego, all ears were straining for the first sound of the Honda. [t cleared the northern loop six minutes behind Hamel, with a flat front tire op a damaged rim. By the time repairs were made, a new air filter was installed and the rear tire was replaced, Miller was another minute behind as he set off in search of Roeseler. The chase was short-lived. "The bike seized about 20 miles out of Borrego on the inside loop," said Miller, who was towed back to the pit by his teammates. "We're not really sure what happened. It was kind of a surprise, because-it's the same setup we ran at the (Baja) 1000 and Parker and everything was going so well. The bike had been working really well and we had really done our homework. We thought we would be a real threat at this one." The Honda team changed the cylinder and ring, and then went on to finish the race. "We were way down - three or four hours by the time we got back in, but we wanted to finish - for ourselves as well as to stay in the points chase," said Miller. With the Class 22 Honda out of the picture, second overall went to .the . Morton/Flores Honda CR250 for a split second before the bike was reported crashed at a road crossing with an injured rider. Second was then inherited by Morris and Smith, who had chased the rival 250cc all the way from the Oasis pit. The Morris/Smith KX250 cleared the Borrego pit in 10 seconds, 12 minutes behind Hamel and Roese1er on adjusted time, and just one minute ahead of the KX250 team of John Braasch, Dave Ondas and Jeff Capt. Fourth overall (16 minutes behind the leaders on adjusted time) was the Over-3D Adams/Kaplan/Eveland entry, just three minutes ahead of the sputtering Class 30 entry of Roberts, Worley ahd Staten. Japan's top Baja racer, Ishii Masami, brought his Class 22 Kawasaki through Borrego in sixth, two minutes ahead of first-time Baja racers Bryan Holmes and Mike Korenwinder, who ran out of gas an hour into the course but survived on reserve long enough to make it to the Oasis Road pit. 5chmuckle and McKay were another three minutes back in eighth overall and the Prayther/Lane KX125 was holding its own not far behind. Chris Haines and Bill Tanner had the Gass 40 lead almost an hour behind the overall leaders when Haines took over midway through the mini summit loop, but the state of the new Kawasaki KLX650 four-s troke told Haines tha t things had not gone well for his partner. "He hid crashed and there was blood all over the bike," said Haines. "1 didn't get the chance to talk to him so 1 wasn't really sure of his condition." Haines' Canadian co-rider had run into trouble in the whoops near Borrego. "The bike was a lot heavier than I'm used to riding - about 50 pounds heavier," Tanner said. "We had a good run and 1was feeling pretty comfortable but in the last whoops just before the pit, 1 got a little out of shape and went over the bars." But Tanner was in great shape compared to Joe Ludlow, who parted company with the KX500 he shared with Jeff Sheets, Jim O'Neal and Keith O'Neal two miles before the Borrego pit. "There was about an eight-inch rock sticking out the same color as the sand right there. 1 drilled it and it put me up and over the bars." said Ludlow, who was bleeding badly after he tore some chunks of flesh out of his left arm when Exdll8tlely.".".,. . . . . . r 4CFIm; i~: 9402 ......---- Wheatlands Court, Suite A, Santee, CA 92071 (619) 562-1440 Fax (619) 562-6687 Fast-By-Ferracci's Doug Polen wins! Laguna Seca Superbike Race with Bel-Ray .011 the way. 33