Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127596
teams had personnel problems ("If I was riding by myself, I'd be overalling it by now"), while others had disasters in the pits ("What do you mean you didn't mix all the gas? What did we just put in the bike?"). . For Ashcraft and Campbell, the problem was a broken chain on a downhill eight miles into.the second half of loop two. "At the bottom of the hill I went to rev it and there was nothing there," said Campbell. "I had to run up the hill and find the chain, then fix it." A worn-in trail, coupled with no more brake problems, gave Hamel and Roeseler faster lap times in the second loop and put them almost four minutes ahead of the competition. But a leaky dry brake that left .Roeseler almost out . of gas at the alternate pit had the team worried and the Kawasaki pilots decided to pull over for repairs before the final 77-mile figure eight. A new rear wheel, a new gas tank and a quick refuel put the KX500 back on track in one and a half minutes - still two minutes up on the Gray/Books 10<500 in second. Krause handed over to Ondas four minutes back in third, but a fast pit was ruined when the 1O<500's new rear tire went flat before the end of pit row . Ondas doubled back for a replacement but the delay bumped him back to eighth behind the Ashcraft/Campbell Honda CR500, the Morris/Smith 10<500, and the 250cc entries of Zitterkopf and Hunnicutt, which were dead even on adjusted time. Zitterkopf suffered a setback when he crashed heading out of the pits. "1 hit a couple of bumps and cartwheeled," Zitterkopf said. "1 ripped my visor off and wadded the bike up. It took a couple of minutes to get going again." Repairs at the end of Zitterkopf's half of the loop cost even more time and the KTM 250 team had lost the physical lead to Hunnicutt and Davis when Capt headed into the final 38 miles. "It's a bummer to lead the whole way except for 30 miles, but that's racing," said Zitterkopf, who was resigned to second place. But his partner wasn't ready to call it quits. "1 kept going as fast as I could, just hoping something would happen," said Capt, whose wish came true when he found Davis working on his 10<250 10 miles from the finish. "The air filter plugged up and I ended up ripping the whole thing off so it would run," Davis said. "It went about a mile but it sucked so much dirt it ruined the spark plug and Capt went by me when I was changing that." Davis retook the lead with just a few miles to go, but was sidelined again when a second spark plug bit the dust. By the final rider change halfway through the third figure eight, Hamel had more than doubled his lead and was a comfortable six and a half minutes ahead of the field. Gray and Books continued to dominate second, ahead of Ashcraft/Campbell and Morris/Smith, and the 250cc Pro battle was still too close to call. Folks and Abbott had overcome their wire problem to take eighth overall, ahead of 250cc Pros Paul Pitts and Aron Huntington, who had a setback of their own when Pitts missed a third-gear stab at his broken brake lever and endoed the team's 10<250 into a pile of rocks . Just two places back, Open Experts [arrod Wheeler and Craig Baker and Brian Miller and Mark Morris continued to battle it out for the overall Sportsmen's honors. A perfect final lap left little chance for an upset in the overall standings and Roeseler brought the Kawasaki/ Answer / Acerbis/ Beam /Bieffe / Dan Ashcraft (shown) teamed with Johnny Campbell and finished third overall. The Jim GraylDonnie Books contingent finished a very respectable second overall. A flat tire slowed the Dave OndaslPaul Krause duo but they still finished fourth 01A. Braking/Dunlop/Don Joy /F&L/RK/ IMS/Maxima/Magnum/N Style/Pro Circuit/PowerBar/Scott's Perf./Scott/ Sprocket Spec'; Back Canteen/MXA/ Xtreme/Oakley /Bel-Ray /Dunlop / Pro taper / End ura /Trick / NGK/ Alpinestar/Shoei/Troy Lee/lOO%/LR Racing-backed KX500 home in first place with a total elapsed time of five hours and 18 minutes - seven and a half minutes faster than the cloSest competition. "It got really silty and really dusty, and on the third loop when you are trying to lap the slower riders it made it that much more challenging, but 1 thought it was a really good course and I had fun," said Hamel. "We had a solid ride and the bike was awesome," said Roeseler. "We had no real problems all day." Gray and Books and their Vickery Motorsports/PJ1/Smith/Race Tec/ Moose Racing/Sun Sports-backed bike also reported an almost trouble-free race. "We both got lost in the second lap," Gray said. "A lot of the slower riders had blown through the course and knocked down a lot of the markings. The first loop was excellent, but after that it started to get chewed up a bit." Third overall, and third in the Open Pro Class, went to American Honda/ AGV /Fox/ Alpinestar/Scott USAf FMF/Pro Circuit/IMS-backed Honda CR500 pilots Ashcraft and Campbell, who held off a strong challenge from the Morris/Smith KX250 throughout the final loop. "1 was trying to ride in every silt pod 1 could find to dust them out," said Campbell. "I thought (Morris) was going to get me for sure." Morris finished a minute and a half behind Campbell on adjusted time and took fifth overall behind the KX500 entry of Dave Ondas and Paul Krause. Davis's late-in-the-race problems gave Capt the edge he was looking for and the last-minute recruit brought Zitterkopf's KTM 250 home in sixth overall to take the $520 purse for the 250cc Pro division. "That's the way racing goes - you get good luck and you get bad luck. Today was our day," said Capt. A crash that rounded out Davis's last loop left no doubt that the Kawasaki pilot's luck had run out. "Coming in, 1 was out in the tules and a guy fell right in front of me," Davis said. "I just plowed into him. I thought 1 was never going to get to the finish." Paul Pitts and Aron Huntington overcame Pitts's crash to score third in the 250cc Pro class. A close race from start to finish put Jarrod Wheeler and Craig Baker wheelto-wheel with Brian Miller and Mark Morris and just one minute apart on adjusted time as the top two Sportsmen teams crossed the line. Wheeler reported no problems at all for the Open Expert Honda CR-mounted team, but Morris reported an injured knee for his partner plus broken peg springs and a broken silencer on the team's Kawasaki. "When I saw (Wheeler and Baker) behind me, my knee got 100 percent better," said Miller, who twisted it in the early stages of the event. Brian Schmuckle and Dan Worley completed their three loops of the course in 24th overall to take the Over30 Pro win, while Sixbery and Pitts called it quits after two loops to take first-and last-in the Over-38 Pro division. "We had nobody to race against but, for once, the bike ran well and everything went great," said Sixbery, whose team is sponsored by Corbin Racing, Pirellt, Answer, Acerbis, Scott and O'Neal. The partners will decide the class championship when they race against each other in the final round of the five-race series at Laughlin, Nevada. The 125cc Pro victory went to the southern California duo of Jamie Campbell and T.J. Jones, who brought their Husky home in 32nd overall, more than an hour ahead of the only other 125cc Pro finishers in the field. ~ Results OIA: 1. Danny Hamel/Larry Roeseler (Kaw); 2. Jim Gray /Donnie Book (Kaw); 3. Dan AshcraftlJohnny Ca mp bell (Hon); 4. Dave Ondas/Paul Krause (Kaw) ; 5. Scott Morri s /Craig Smith (Kaw); 6. Greg Zitterkopf /Jefl Capt (KTM); 7. Ted Hunnicutt/Ty Davis (Kaw); 8. Daryl Folks /Destry Abbott (KTM); 9. Paul Pitts / Aron Huntington (Kaw); 10. jarred Wheeler/Craig Baker (Hon); 11. Brian Miller/Mark Morris (Kaw) ; 12. Joey LanelJim Loh (Kaw); 13. Kurt Hintz/Dan Parrott (Kaw); 14. Jell Boyd/Kerry Lynn (Kaw); IS . Craig Hunter/Robert Baehr (Kaw); 16. Mike l.ongtine /Danny Anderson (KTM); 17. Thayne Stanworth/Ed Sorenson (Kaw) ; 18. Scott Gl imp/Floyd Bradley; 19. Pat Prosser/Gwin Vaughn (Hus); 20. Troy Kalina /Craig Deck (Hon); 21. 0.1 Trubey. Jr./Jason Trubey (Kaw); 22. Jay Heying /Donnie Bird (Hon); 23. Eric Larson/Nat Wilder; 24. Brian Schmuckle/Dan Worley (Hon); 25. Bob Jones/Rob Windham (Hon) . OPEN rRO: 1. Danny Hamel/Larry Ro eseler (Kaw) ; 2 . Jim Gray / Do n n ie Book (Kaw) ; 3. Dan Ashcraft/Johnny Campbell (Hon). 250 PRO: I. Greg Zitterlcopl /lerf Capt (KTM); 2. Ted HunnicuttfTy Davis (Kaw ); 3. Paul Pittsl Aron Huntington (Kaw). 125 PRO: I. Jamie Campbell/T.J. Jon es (Hus); 2. Stephen Tichenor/Chad TIChenor (Suz). 1)..30 PRO: 1. Brian Schmuclde/Dan Worley (Hon) . 6-38 PRO: 1. Mike Sixbery/ Steve Pitts (Yam). OPEN EX: I. jerrod Wheeler/Craig Baker (Hon); 2. Brian Miller/Mark Morris (Kaw); 3. Kurt Hintz/Dan Parrott (Kaw). 250 EX: 1. Troy Kalin a/Cra ig Deck (Hon) ; 2. Eric Larson /Nat Wilder; 3. Brent Bush/Brett Gale (Yam). 125 EX: I. Greg Smithllohn Steele (Suz); 2.Jerimiah Dav ison/Paul Kline (Suz); 3. Paul Ziegler/David Ziegler (Suz ). 4-STK EX: I. Bob Jones/Rob Windham (Hon); 2. Nipper Alsup/ A.J. Alsup (Hu s); 3. John Phillips/Kurt Kutzleb (H on). 6-30 EX: 1. Jeff Boyd /Kerry Lynn (Kaw); 2. Mike Lon gtin e/Danny Anderson (KTM) ; 3 . Pat Prosser /Gwin Vaughn (Hus). 0ยท25 EX: 1. Brad Chri stensen /Shawn Maxfield (Yam); 2. Guy Glotrowski. 0-35 EX: 1. Jim Stott/Tim Lehee (KTM); 2. Don O'Kuly /~ Pearson (KTM); 3. Mark Daniels/Chris Eberz (Kaw). 17