Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

levers, Hunnicu tt was back underw ay, though not bef ore bo th Honda tea ms had passed him in the pits. Before long, however, Donatoni carne motoring back to EI Chinero on Honda's ..A" bike, which ground to a halt right in fron t of the Team Green truck. Dona toni pushed the wounded XR over to a truck team's pits, and the Honda van rolled up soon af ter . However, they soon d iscovered that the motor was too far gone for a quick repair. "I got about a m ile out and it jus t went, 'boom: and the top end made a noise like there were marbles in it," said Donatoni. " I go t off and looked at it, then turned around and came back. It jus t quit right h ere. It' s a bummer, because we ha d made up a lot of time after Dan 's problem ." At that p oin t, Honda decided to move all of their "A" team rid ers over to the " B" sq uad, in order to sa lvage as high a finis h as possible. Fortuna tely, they had planned ahead by sig ning all six riders up for both teams, so all were eligibl e to ride either bike. Meanwhile, Kevin Foley was waiting in the El Chinero pits for his second stint aboa rd Team Green's Cla ss 21 KX250, on which he was splitting riding duties w ith Danny Anderson, Aaron Huntingto n and Morris. Th is was the first offroad race ever for Foley, who is a top amateur motocrosser from Florida. "I rode the morning section, and the bike wouldn't pull fifth gear, " said Foley. "They put on a big huge flywheel at the last min u te for the lights, an d the tall gearing cou ldn't pull it." . Ha mel turned the leading Kawasaki back over to Davis at Borrego, for the seco nd lap around the San Felipe loop . This was when the top bikes go t their first encou n ter with car traffic, and some riders had bett e r luck w ith the fourw heelers than others. "I've got to han d it to those drivers," sa id Miller, a tw o-tim e w inner of the 1000. "I was kind of concerned before the race, but now I have nothing but resp ect for th os e g uys . Th ey'd move over for me, a nd Leven raced with a coup le, but it was clean racing. You bag a car and you really feel like you d id somet hing:' " I d on 't like be in g anywher e near those cars:' said Morris, obviously less thri lled wi th the cars . "Some parts of the co u rs e w ere one-Ianed, a n d when I wo uld corne up beh ind a truck, it was hard to pass. A couple times another car wo uld corne up behind me; I was afraid they couldn' t see me beca u se o f th e dust, so I was looking back and waving my arms at them and stuff:' Davis was going strong and extending his team's lead, when he hit his second stumbling block of the day. "Everything was goi ng bitchin'. I was passing cars left and right until I got to Matomi Wash. I went to gas it around a truck and the chain broke. Luckily, two guys (spectators Skip Crew and Don Simone) were right there on a KDX250. They gave me their chain and it fit perfectly. I was lucky. l owe those guys a lot:' "We were out the re waiting for the firs t rider to come through: ' said Crew. "We saw the helicopter, so we knew Ty must be corning, but all of a sudden it stop ped and was flyin g arou nd in circles. We figured somethin g was wrong, so we rode up the re and fou nd him. We gave him the chain, an d it fit so good he di dn't even have to adjust the wheel: ' Davis got back underway afte r losing abo ut 10 minutes, and he gave H amel the bike at San Felipe with their healthy lead still intact. Until then, strong winds a n d bl o w ing dust h ad been Mother Na tu re's primary weapons against the rid ers, but as night began to fall, so did the rain. Ha mel got as far as El Chinero , ~ ' H OJ ~ OJ U OJ Q (Opposite pag e) Ty Davis leads Michael Coleman's Class 4 truck through Matomi Wash. (Above) After thei r An team' s bi ke expired, bo th Honda sq uads team ed up on the UBn team bike and finished second overall. (Right) Pau l Krause, Garth Sw eetland and Ted Hunnicutt cha nged their KLX6SO's clutch on the way to a thi rd-place finish. (Below1eft) The John F10reslBiII McClintockffim MortonlFreddy Willert team came out on top . in Class 2l. (Below right) While a dazed Danny Hamel refueled the winning KXSOO, Larry Roeseler made a repair to the broken subframe. U 7

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