Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF ROAD Hare & Hound Series: Final round m .... o ,......., l-! Q) ~ Q) > o Z arne er ec ! By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, OCT. 24 it h the overall tit le and most of the class battles already dec ided, the last round of the seven-race National Ha re & Hound Series seemed destined to slip by without any fanfare. But th at was before Kawasaki ' s Danny H am el arrived on the st art ing line with a season six-fa r-six record in overa ll wins, just one victory aw ay from the first clean sweep in the prest igiou s event's eight-year history . The 2 1- year-old from Bou ld e r City, N e vad a, was uncharacte ristica lly somber as he prepared for th e s ta r t of the race , which was orga n i z ed b y AMA Di stric t 3 7's 100s M .e. . H e had little to sa y a n d h is usu al quick smile was re p lace d b y a n all-bu siness attitude as he contempl ated th e difficult ta sk ahead: 80 m ile s of Luc erne Valley ter rain , a total lack o f wind , which left blindin g silt hangin g ove r the trail, and a la rg e fie ld o f riders that i ncl u ded th e best ra cers in desert co m pe tition. But when the banner dropped, th e old Hamel - the Kawa saki KX500 racer who has dominated the series for threes trai gh t years - was back. The Team Green racer grabbed the lead on th e bomb run and ran trouble-free all the way to the checkered flag to finish a perfect seven-far-seven race season almost fo u r and a half m inutes ahead of his nearest rival. "Nobody's ever won all the races in th e serie s be fore . This is a first, " said W 12 Hamel. "I tried to approa ch it as just ano ther race, bu t, now that its over, win ning this an d winning them all is a really good feeling." The large field, which was swelled by out-of-state National competitors, riders competing for points in the Best In The West Series and local desert racers seeking end-of-the-year points to secu re D istrict 37 class titles, lined up for the 9:30 a.m , star t on the east side of Besseme r Mine Road . The Amateu r/ Expert start go t away close to on lime, but thick d ust an d an injury in the starting area delayed the second row start for almo st an hour. Hamel leaped off the line when the banner dropped for the first lime, and was out in front all the way in the long drag race that headed east across Upper Johnson Valley tow ards the Rea gan mountains. "It was such a 250 or 500 start. That's wh at you had to be on to go anywhere on that bomb," said Jeff Cap t, who was trying a KX250 on for siz e after wrapping up the 125cc series title at the previous round. " It wa s e igh t miles long with a bit of an upgrade at the end. It was like a freew ay all the way." Hamel had clear air as he passed the bomb and picked up the start of the ribboned course, but beh ind him, the dust was alread y taking a toll. "I was right behind Ha mel but he dust ed me out so bad I wen t left and (Ted) Hunnicutt go t by me," said Ty Davis, whose KX500 was trap ped in the d ust kicked up by Hunnicutt's Kawasaki KLX650R. Capt used the extra power of his 250cc mount to gra b a place in the top five at the bomb, and KTM-mounted Danny Hamel completed his sweep of the series with a start-to-fi nish overall win at Lucerne. Todd Hoy an d Dan Richard son, aboa rd a mix-an d -m at ch Honda CR500, wer e also in the hunt. "My '93 bike was all ready to go bu t I . bl ew th e base gaske t las t night : ' said Richardson . "We pulled the mo to r ou t of the new '94 I'd just bought an d put it in the '93 frame. I broke the motor in on the bomb this morning ." Ho nda's Dan Ashcraft was sti ll try ing to get to the bomb. "The dreaded fo u r-s tr oke strikes aga in ," sai d th e Honda XR600 pilot. ..It took five kicks to get it sta rted. Once you miss, you've go t to clear it out and then try again, and it took ages. By the time I got to the bomb, I saw the leade rs going over the hill way in the dis tance. It was so bad." But it co u ld hav e been worse . Ashcraft ' s tea m m a te Chuck Mill er . re tire d h is XR600 when it ..... s ta rted crapping ou t - popping and banging.: " at the IS-mile mark; David Ondas barely made it past the bomb before a fouled plug forced him to call it qu its, and Jim Gray drove all the way from Colo rado to DNF a t the five-mile mark. "A guy crashed in front of me and I we n t thro ugh hi s d us t. I d idn't see a road they had plowed that had a berm abo u t three feet hi gh. I flew about 40 feet and landed on my shoulder: ' said Gray. Hamel used the clear air at the fron t of the pack to his advantage in the wid eopen eas terly sp rin t that led all the way to check one in the Hartwell Hills. Further back, blinding dust slowed the racers and made the going especia lly d ifficult as they neared the first check. ..It was so dusty I didn't see the first check a t all:' sai d Senior cla ss racer Terry Davis. "They put it back in a corner and I d idn ' t even kn ow I'd missed it un til I got to check two." The tri als continued as th e course head ed north across Galway Dry Lake, loop ed toward s Bessemer Min e an d then ran back do wn the valley towards the start/finish area. Paul Krause hit the ground wide open in fou rth gear when he clipp ed a rock in a come r just before check two. Ove r-40 race r Steve Pitts tweaked his bod y and his bike in wha t he rate d as his "best endo of the year" near the 2o-mile mark, and a promising ru n by Jeff Cap t hit the skids when the first-ti me 250cc pilo t tu mb led over a sa nd dune halfway a ro u nd th e firs t loop . Todd Hoy' s luck ran out a t the alter na te gas, just befo re the final spri nt into th e pits. "My bike had ga s but it quit three tim es . I was out there s ilt in g ar ound for ages," said Hoy, who had been as high as fourth in the early runn in g . ..It was o kay m o st of the way around loop two, bu t then it quit again near the end." For most of the racers, the first loop was a frustrating mix of high spee d terrain and blinding dust. ..It was so dusty I couldn't even find a trail for the first hal f of the race-I just had to follow the dust, and it was wide open all the way so I knew I was losing lime," said XR600 pilot Dave Donatoni, who was battling back from a slow start that left him 15th at the bomb. A dust-free ru n in the n umber-one spot let Hamel make the mo st of th e fast-paced cours e. The KX500 racer completed the 42-mile first loop in 55 minutes flat and sprinted into loop two's 38mile circuit three minutes ahead of second-placed Hunnicutt. Richard son 's CR500 was charging hard in third a minute behind HunniCUll at the pits; Davis held fourth, and Rex Staten, lead er of the Over-30 pack, inherited fifth wh en Capt called it quits due to his sand dune-related injuries. Larry Roe seler, aboard a KX250, had ba tt le d thr ou gh the dust a fter a mediocre start to take sixth, ahead of the KX50 0 d uo of Ku rt H in tz and Ma rk Haugen . The Honda trio of Donatoni, Ashcraft an d Johnny Camp bell we re battling for 10th as they head ed into lo op tw o; Hoy's mechan ical problems ha d relegated him to 14 th, and a battered KX500 de livered Krause to his pit in 17th. Bill Maxim conti nued his series-long domination of th e Sen ior division in 22nd ove ra ll; Dave Kersting led the Ove r-50 class in '44 th , a n d Qu int Betts had flogged his KXl 25 through the fast terr ain to grab the 125cc lead in 45th, despite losing his muffler 10 miles into the loop .: The terrain changed dramatically as soon as loop two began . "I thought the second loop was awesom e - really good," said Roeseler. "The cou rse criss-erossed back and forth and it wa s technical all th e way. Th e club used a lot of imagina tion. Dav is, who inherited th ird behind Richardson when Hunnicutt took time au t in the pits to check h is bra ke s, agreed . "Th e first loop was terrible - it was abo ut a 'one: and the dust sucked, but the second loop was pretty tough. I'd give the second loop about an 'eigh t.:" said Davis. Hamel continued to lead comfortably as he battled through the technical terra in, bu t beh ind h im th ere wa s one turnover after ano the r. Davis swe p t past Richardson to claim second in the first five miles, but when Hunnicutt tried to follow suit just a few miles fu rther on , the fou r-s tro ke pil ot found the going a lot rockier than he'd expected. "I was trying to pass Richardson on road; he kicked up a rock with his rear wheel and it hit me right in the face - it almost knocked me ou t," said Hunni- a

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