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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127671
Round 3: Baja 500
The Jason KeweIV
Steve Hengeveld
Kewuekl tee m
battled for the CIa..
21 (25Occ) win the
whole race, but
Cl'lls hes reIeglIted the
tee m to second.
James Cloud and Cliff Matlock, aboard a
414cc Suzuki DR350, rolled into Santo
Tomas 15 minutes la ter - four minutes
behind Henderson, Loh and Lane on
adjusted time. "We tore the trip meter
off; we had to adjust the clutch - other
than that it was a perfect ride," said
Matlock.
~
Baja 500
Ensenede, B.C., Mexico
Resu lts: Ju ne 3, 1994 (Round 3 of 4)
o
the help of tuners Ron Heben, Johnson,
Dave Pyle and Jim "Bones" Bacon, they
managed to completely rebuild the topend of the KX500 in well under 10 minutes . But from the time the bike locked
up to the time it re-fired wi th a "new"
engine, the Davis/Hamel team had
thrown away 24 valuable minutes to the
leaders.
With Sweetland sidelined, and Davis
and Hamel having, for all intents and
purposes, lost any chance of winning,
team manager Mark Johnson had to do
some quick shuffling. His number-one
priority was getting the KLX650 fourstroke, as well as series points lead er
Hamel, to the finish, preferably near the
front, so knowing that Sweetland was
out and that Hamel and Davis were way
back , Johnson decided to replace Sweetland with Hamel, and let Davis ride solo
pretty much the whole way. The plan
obviou sl y worked, and e ven Dav is
placed well in eigh th overall, completing the race in 09:54:50.
" It was a long d ay," said a ti red
Davis. "I do n' t want to ride again for a
long time."
Fifth overall was the Bob Rutten and
Drey Dircks Honda team. Rutten was
the last Class 22 rider off the line, but
made a lot of passes before handing the
bike off to Dircks, a former motocrosser.
Dircks said he gained gro un d on Roeseler before plowin g into a rock hidden in
the shad ows of trees and los t 10 minutes. The next 100 miles he held a steady
pace all the way to Oasis, where a wheel
wa s replaced an d the frame strai ghtened, costing them 15-20 minutes.
The fir st 250cc machine across the
line was piloted by Fred Willert, Steve
"Tex" Mitchell and Jeff Martinez in seventh overall, one spot ahead of Davis.
Willert had it easy: "I started and
rode the first 28 miles (before handing
off the Yamaha WR250 to Mitchel) then
1 went to the beach."
"I rode 190 miles in three sections,"
said Mitchel of their team's ride. "I was
five minutes down from the leader
Oason Kawell and Steve Hengeveld)
and got off in the dust while go ing
through the pine forest. 1 later passed
the second- place 250cc bike and handed
(our) b ik e o ver to Martinez, and he
made up another minute on the leaders.
1 got on the bike again coming into Ojos
Negros and passed the Kawasa ki (o f
Kawell and Hengeveld ). There wa s a
Quad in front of me and 1 couldn' t get
past it. It slowed me down enough so
the Kawasaki passed me back. At th e
end of the pavement section, the
Kawasaki had to pit and 1 passed it
back . At our next pit at Cerro Colorado,
we had to change a wheel and a filter
and the Kawasaki went by again! Martinez got on at Cerro Colorado and he
put two minutes on the Kawasaki. 1 got
on for