Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ 0FF-ROAD AMA National Hare & ijound Championship_S_eri_es_R - - -.:.6 : _ou_nd _ ~ The 14D-rider pack roars off the start line and heads out onto the hot and dusty three-loop, 96-mile course. Hamel bowls em o e Wen o e v rin d v r J By Tom and Anne Van Beveren WENDOVER, NY,SEPT.II ith this year's Nation al Har e & Hound Championship a lrea dy sewn up, ther e was no need for Kawasaki's Danny Hamel to even make the 400-mile trip from his home near Las Vegas to Wendover to compete in the second -to-last round of the National series. But for the Kawasaki KX500 pilot who earned his third National title in a row with th is year's five-wi ns-in-fiveraces record, the competition won't be over until he has raced all seven events and become the first rider ever to c1eansweep the desert series. "My goal is to win all the Nationals all seven in one year. Nobody's ever done that before and I don't know if it will ever be done again," said Hamel. "To do good in all the races, you've got to have a great bike and everything's got to go perfect. The competition's so stiff, any little thing at all will put you W out." 22 Hamel's dream came one race closer to rea lity in round six's 96-mile sprint across no rth e rn Nevada . The Team Green hotshot was out in front at the end of the short, uphill bomb run and stayed there for nearly three hours. When the checkered flag fell , the 21year-old desert star was eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor and only one race away from his objective. "I got the holeshot and basically had no problems all day," said Hamel. "I never fell down and the bike didn't miss a beat. Now all I need is one more win and I've reached my goal." Round six of this year's seven-race series began just south of Wendover, a gambling town on the Nevada-Utah border, a two hour's drive west across the salt flats from Salt Lake City. For the first time in the five years that it has hosted a National Hare & Hound, the sponsoring club opted to run the . event on Saturday rather than Sunday . According to Larry Oliver, president of the Utah Desert Foxes, the change was designed to attract some of the Utah riders who d o no t race on Sundays, give out-of-state riders a more relaxed drive ho me, and he lp the club's small mem- bership get an early start on cleanin g up the course . The 140 racers who lined up for the 9:30 a.m. start faced a d usty three-loop course and unusually high temperatu res in an area that had been enjoying a cooler-than-usual sum me r in the w ee ks lead ing up to the race. Hamel got the jump on the combined amateur/expert field when the banner dropped for the first time and was out in front as the racers powered up the silty bomb run. Utah's Jeff Lundgreen was in second as the bomb funneled into the first sweeping left-hand comer, but the rest of the field was obscured by a thick cloud of dust. "I had a good start. I was right with Hamel, but towards the bomb everybody swarmed in together and it turned into a big dust cloud," said La rr y Roeseler. "There were people everywhere and they were just berserk. I saw thr ee or four people crash, so I backed off." Despite slowing in the dust, Roeseler, who was piloting a Kawasaki KX250 in hopes of keeping Greg Zitterkopf's KTM out of the 250cc winn er 's circle for the fourth time in the serie s, was still way ahead of his quarter-liter class rival. "I got a really bad start and got stuck in the dust," said Zitterkopf, who needed only a finish to clinch the 250cc Expert class title. "I got a good jump but I'm close to 200 pounds and the 250 just doesn't pull as well as the Open class bikes with me on it:' The 25-mile firs t loop circled to the west of the starting area. In an effort to keep speeds down and minimize injuries in the dusty, handlebar-to-handlebar racing off the start, the Desert Foxes had included some of the tightest, most technical terrain in the area . "There's one section about 12 miles into it that's called the Choked Cherries," said Oliver. "There are some trials-type rocks that you have to bounce up on in first gear in the middle of some overgrown willow-type bushes." But some of the racers did not make it past the first obstacle - a single-track, off-camber hill less than two miles off the start, that caused a bottleneck that delayed the second starting wave until 10 a.m. "I hi t a rock on the uphill and tripped trying to ju mp off the bike and it fell down the hill," said Lundgreen, who had to return to the pits after he burned his hand on the exhaust pipe during the fall . "It made me mad because I was running second behind Hamel." Lucki er racers like Over-30 Expert Curtis Dice used the uphill to make up for a bad start. "I was back a bit but everybody was stuck on the off-camber hill. I kind of hung it ou t on that and got around them, so I made up some time," said the KTM racer from Idaho. The field continued to thin out as the racers battled the rocks, trees and tight turns of the first loop . Kawasaki 's Dave On das blew a head gasket at the end of the first five miles and Ed Sorenson, riding with a head injury after he collided with a play rider the weekend before the race, dropped out soon after when he missed the course on a downhill. " I go t down in some ledges and couldn't get up fo r a while," said Sorenson, who had an outside shot at the 250cc crown if Zitte rkopf did not finish in the last two rou nds of the series. "I just had enough and came in." The terrain in loop one even slowed Hamel to a crawl, and 47 minutes had elapsed before he cleared the wash at the end of the 2S-mile section a nd sp rinted down the dusty road to pit row . Todd Hoy flashed into th e pits three minutes behind Hamel in second, and was back on the course in a matter of seconds despite a front flat. "I decided to leave (the flat tire) on there because I was a few minutes up," said the KTM S50 pilot. "I knew the second loop was fast, so I thought I could pull it off." Colorado racer Jim Gray had his KXSOO in third at the end of the first loop, but he missed the ho me check and ended up fourth, behind Roeseler, by the time he doubled back to get his fende r tape marked. Danny Hamel posted his sixth win in six races, coming one st ep clos er to a perfect sweep. Fifth ove rall was in the hands of Brandon Gerb er, who had canceled the ret irement he announced in Mar ch to ride a factory-s up ported ATK. " I haven 't raced si nce the e nd of March, so I just want to finish this," said ATK 60S-mo unted Gerb er, who was racing on a fou r-strok e for the first time. "I've been trail rid ing on a four- stroke before but that's about it. That's why I say I'm only looking for a finish toda y." Destry Abb ott, who w as hoping to shake a jinx that has seen him DNF each of the four rounds of the National Hare & Hound Series he entered th is yea r, had h is KTM 300 in si xth overall. Seventh place wa s held by Over-30 Expert Kerry Lynn, who had a slim lead over Vet class rival Curtis Dice in eighth. Sam Taylor and Over-40 series leader Bill Maxim rounded out the top 10. Zitterkopf's slow bomb run had him stuck in the dust in 14th overall and 125cc class points leader Jeff Capt, who like Zitlerkopf needed only a finish in either of the last two rounds to take his third class title in a row, was 16th. "It was long drive up here but this way I've got two races to get the finish I need," said Capt. "I wanted to play it safe and not leave it all on the one last race, even though that one's a lot closer to home." The terrain opened up in the second loop and the racers were hard on the gas for the high-speed washes and roads that made up the 28-mile southerly section. "The second loop was crazy, I thought," said Gray. "It was a little bit too fast for my liking; roads as fast as you could go:' Hamel was still enjoying dust-free conditions at the front of the pack and his lead go t larger and larger as the loop progressed. Back in second, Hoy's flat _ tire started to take its toll and Roeseler, Gerber and Abbott all charged past, leaving the KTM racer struggling in their dust. . "Leaving the flat on was the wrong decision," said Hoy.."I came in after the second loop and changed it, but it took a long time and I never got back in the groove of thi ngs . I ended up out for a • joy ride:' Despite taking over second, Roeseler found it impossible to close the gap on Hamel and the top two bikes were six minu tes apart when they entered pit row for the second time.

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