Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 3: Shawn Gerber Memorial (Left) Destry Abbott stops for a splash of gas between loops. He went on to finish sixth overall. (Below) Greg Zltterkopf fin ished third overall and, for the th ird time In a row , topped the 250cc Expert division. stop and dig it out and that wasted a lot of time." At the front of the pack, the going w as jus t as tough. Hamel and Davis went back and forth for 20 miles fighting for the lead, dicing in comers and showering each other with mud. Hamel grabbed the lead when he was first to spot the trail heading into a virgin valley, but Davis was back with a vengeance 15 miles from the pits when Hamel stopped to verify that he was still on the course. "1 got confused at the end of the first loop. I saw a sign saying Loop Two and I stopped and went back," said Hamel, who did not know that the sign marked where the abandoned mountain loop merged with the end of the first loop's trail. "1 had about 15 seconds on Davis right there. I rode backwards looking and looking - and Davis stopped, too. We finally kept going but that put us right together again." The back and forth battle resumed and when the racers hit pit row at the end of loop one, Davis was ahead by a mere four seconds. Hamel made a sp lit-second decision as his pit crew gassed the bike under the shelter of an umbrella, hitting the trail while Davis was still taking on fuel. "The last loop was only 28 miles and I d idn't need a full tank of gas, so we stopped IDling it half way and I go t ou t of the pits a bit ahead," said Hamel. The strategy did not help for long, however. "He caught up to me after a mile or two and we started all over again - back and forth, back and forth," said Hamel. Zitterkopf cleared p it row in third, well in the hunt just 42 seconds behind the leaders. Gray was in fourth w ith Krause, Headman and Abbott following in quick succession. " Th e first loop was really good except for some polypropylene liners I was trying under my gloves, " said Gray. "My hands kept slipping off the bars and I wrecked four times - but I felt really com fortable in the mud. I'm more used to it than the desert riders." Jason Kawell's KX250 was in eighth as he headed in to h is se co nd loop, ahead of Donnie Book, who mis sed his p it and had to double back down pit row to find it. Sorenson dashed through in 10th after playing catch-up all th e way from a slow start, w hile .Gerbe r, who led the Four-Stroke contenders, cleared the pit in 11th with Richardson hard on his heels. Gerber's nearest Four-Stroke ri val was Jeff Capt, who wa s back in 23rd and had almost given up hope of a win. "1 got a three-kick start, w hich left me behind everybody, then, 10 miles out, som ebody in front of me laid it down and took me with them," said the Honda XR600R racer. "It took me three or four minutes to get going because I flooded it out. Then I had to reglue my grips because they carne off. I figured I wasn't going to catch anybody." But Capt kept pushing anyway and, halfway through the 28-mile fina l loop, his persistence paid off. "1 was jus t riding for a finish, but then I sa w Gerber broken d o wn half wa y through the second loop . Hey, that's racing." The Over-40 honors fell into Steve Pitts ' lap in much the same way, when his neck 'n neck rival, Bill Maxim, hit a tree and sna pped off his clu tch lever. "We were really cl ose fo r a lo ng time," said Pitts. "It was pr et ty funny. We both had our goggles off and it was like two blind mice out there ha ving a trail ride. Neither of us could see a thing." Out in front, Hamel wasn't ge tting any breaks. Davis had fallen off the pace for a mile or two in the ea r ly stages of the loop, but a fresh set of goggles p ut him right back in the hunt. "1 go t the wrong goggles in the pits ones without Roll-Offs," sa id Davis. "Hamel started roosting me and I said, 'Man, this is going to stink: but Larry Roeseler saved the day. He was wa iting out there with goggles, so I stopped and go t Roll-Offs an d I w en t as fast as I could after that." The goi ng got tou gh er and tougher as the loop wore on. Hamel and Davis had trouble following the snow-eovered course in the higher regions. Zitterkopf went down twice when he slid out in corners, and Italian ISDE ace Davide Trolli colIected a rock from another racer that left him with an impressive swelling under his right eye. Further back in the pack, th e amateur racers faced the added challenge of a churned up trail with miles of deep, slick mud. "The course was reall y fun up where I was, bu t I'd hate to be further back in the pack: ' said Zitterkopf. "One mountain out there had a lot of snow and it was s till snowing heavy duty. It was getting a really deep groove and I bet a lot of people behind me had trouble with that section." As the loop started to draw to a close, the distance between Hamel and Davis widened. , In the last few miles, onl y a serious problem could ha ve put H amel's third se ries w in in jeopardy. Zitterkopf continued to hold his own in third, but behind him it was every man for himself in the final stages - a handlebar-to-handlebar battle for the res t of the top 10 spots. "It was like a two-loop motocross: ' sai d Kra use, who swapped back and forth wi th Gra y, Abbott, Sorenson and H eadman. " Wit h n o du st, we were right on each other the w h ole w ay. There was some great racing out there today." But the greatest racing of all was done by Hamel, who crossed th e line just afte r 1:30 p.m., an almost-comfortable minute and a half ahead of Davis. The Kawasaki Team Green/Thor/ Alpinestar/ Bieffe /Dunlop / Maxima / Procircuit/Scott/Sprocket Specialists/ Braking/Endura/F&L/RK Cha in/ IMS /Magnum/N Style/Scotts/Back Canteen/MXA-backed racer's victory was greeted by the first break in the race-long rain. "That wa s fu n - a really awesome race," said Hamel. "Davis and I were so close for so long. We rod e side by side for 20 miles in each loop." For Da v is and h is Varner /FMF / N Style / Maxima /LR Racing/Answer / Dunlop / Marzocchi-sponsored Kawasaki, the 66-mile journey included a collision with a tree stu mp, and a stin t wi th no Roll-Offs followed by a stin t with broken Roll-Qffs. "The roll-off thi ng broke five miles from the end - that mad e it really tou gh, but other than tha t, it was great ," said Davis. "We were so close I was trying to put my whee l on the insi de in the corners." Zitterkopf, on his USA /Z Racing / Dunlop / O 'Neal l FMF / SIDI/ Acerbis / EK/Bieffe /100% /IMS /VP Fuels / Smith/Bernardi Helmet Paintingbacked KTM, shot home in th ird to continue his clean sw eep of the se ries ' 250cc division, while Jim Gray's KTM 550 crossed the line in fourth. "This wa s one of the best hare and hounds I' ve ever ridden as far as fun goes:' said the Colorad o racer. "It was the comb ination of the wea ther and the trail. Usually in a hare and hound it's wide open, but this one had so me really tight tra ils an d I loved the mu d." Krause grabbed fifth in the final lineup, ahead of Abbott's KTM 550, with Ed Sore nson grabbing second 250cc Expert in seventh. Dustin Headman finished an im p ressiv e ei gh th, d espite a three-kick s ta rt an d an off-the-course excurs ion at the end of loop one, while Dan Richardson's "bunch of little problems" left him in ninth. Gerber' s m is fortune handed the Four-Stroke hon ors to H onda-backed Jeff Capt in 14th ove ra ll, and Kerry Lynn topped the Over-3D racers in 15th, just two spots ahead of Vet rival Kevin Bogue. "The two of us .were really close. I got him on the fast roads in the second loop:' said Lynn. Ed Price overcame a night without sleep and a dead-last start to ace the 125cc division in 28th overall, three places ahead of Steven Anderson . Christine Ogren was at the head of the Women's division for the umpteenth time. Nelson Lucero took his Handa CR250 to the head of the Amateur class, but the happiest Amateur of the da y was Mike Burgess, who caught the Amateur class hare and won a new Moto 6 helmet courtesy of ATK and Bell Helmets. "Wh en it came to giving something away, we thought Danny Hamel didn't need another helmet, so we decided to g ive it to the top Amateur:' sa id the hare, Frank White of ATK. ~ sahara Dunes Rec. Area Jericho, Utah Results: April 9, 1994 (Round 3 of 7) OIA: 1. Danny Hamel (Kaw); 2. Ty Davis (Kaw); 3. Greg Zitter kop l (KTM); 4. Jim Gray (KTM) ; 5. Pa ul Krause (Kaw); 6. Destry Abbott (KTM); 7. Ed Sorenson (Yam); 8. Dustin Hea d ma n (Hus ); 9. Dan Richardson (Han); 10. Jaso n Kawe ll (Kaw); 11. David e Tralli (Kaw); 12. Donn ie Book (Kaw); 13. Mar k Lund green (KTM) ; 14. Jeff Capt (Han); 15. Kerry Lynn (Kaw) ;16. Steve Hengeveld (Kaw); 17 . Kevin Bogu e; 18. Paul Pitts (ATK); 19. Jefl Lund green (KTM); 20. Rodcy Long; 21. Brad Christensen; 22.ja red Busby; 23. vtece Lucero; 24. Jefl Kelly; 25. Kurt Heinz (Kaw). OPEN EX: 1. Danny Ha me l (Kaw); 2. Ty Davi s (Kaw); 3. Jim Gray (KTM) . . 250 EX: I . Greg Zitterkopl (KTM) ; 2. Destry Abbott (KTM) ; 3. Ed Sorenso n (Yam). 125 EX: 1. Ed Price (KTM); 2. Steven Anderson (Hus); 3. Brook Fin linson. 4/STK EX: 1. je ff Capt (Hon); 30+ EX: 1. Kerry Lynn (Kaw); 2. Kevin Bogue; 3. Morrill Griffith. 40+ EX: 1. Stev e Pitts (ATIC); 2. Randy Lind se y (Yam); 3. jo hn Kunadson. OPEN AM: 1. Eric Erickson; 2. Neil Horton ; 3. Chris Sacket . 250 AM: 1. Nelson Lucero (Han); 2. Kaylen sperry (Yam~ 30+ A~ I. Seatt May; 2. Dale Ainl

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