Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'0'.... :.'. :; :· · O FF~ROA · · <; :SCQR Desert ChamPionsh ~" . E ip Round 3: Baja 500 I Teamreen Photo s by Trackslde Photos ENSENADA, B MEXICO, JUNE 3 .C., t is said that more is better, but when it comes to winning the Baja 500, it seems that less is best. You see, after scanning the prerace entry list for this year's Tecate SCORE Baja 500, it became very evident that there was enough talent filling the starting grid on Boulevard Lazaro Cardenaz in Ensenada that anyone of at least 10 teams had a realistic chance of winning this year's race . But, as is the case with just about any long-distance, endurance-type competition, the winner is perhaps more often than not determined by those who experience the least amount of difficulty. Take Paul Krause and Ted Hunnicutt Jr. for example - two extremely fast offroad racers that pretty much breezed to victory unscathed. "The race was pretty une ventful, nothing really went wrong." said Krause, who, along with Hunnicutt, rod e a Team Green-backed Kawasaki KX500 across the finish line in fir st p lac e afte r the long 465.3 0-mile race. "No problems," he said. Well, not exactly no problems, but close enough. "The bike tried to tie itself up (seize) on the pavement, but Ted caught it just in time," said team manager Mark Johnson. Hunnicutt had to "cruise d own the pa vement to keep it go in g," bu t the engine soon freed itself up an d performed flawlessly, though slightly down on power, the rest of the race. Desp ite a coup le of crashes a long th e wa y, the Krause / Hunnicutt team crossed the finish line in a winning time of nine hours, 17 minutes and 16 seconds, averaging just over 50 mph. As well as beating all of the mot orcycle teams, they also beat the winning four-wheel vehicle, a Ford F-150 driven by Dave Ashley of San Bernardino, California, by over one hour and 11 minutes. The first vehicle to actually cross the line just ahead of Ashley was a Porsche-powered car driven by Pat Dean, but he was later disqualified for running over motorcycle Class 30 competitor Scott Nolind, who was hospitalized with a badly broken leg. Despite being the third motorcycle to take the checkered flag. the Larry RoeseierI Garth Sweetland Class 22 team, aboard a Kawasaki KLX650 four- stroke, ended up second overall - but not without their share of problems - in the final standings with an elapsed time of 09:21:15, averaging 49.743 mph. Another Class 22 Kawasaki entry, made up of Italian Davide Trolli and former Baja 1000 winner and 1982 250cc MX World Champion Danny LaPorte, finished third (09:22:43/49.613 mph), less than two minutes off Roeseler and Sweetland's pace. The first non-Kawasaki machine on the leader board was a modified XR628 ridden by Team Honda's Chuck Miller and Charles Halcomb. The duo completed th e dry and dusty race in 09:23:08, with a 49.576 mph speed average. Roundi ng ou t the top five aboard another XR628 thumper was Bob Rutten I 18 and former motocrosser Drey Dircks (09:42:07/47.960 mph). The first sub-5OOcc motorcycle to take the checkered flag, in seventh overall, was a Yamaha WR250 piloted by Tex Mitchel and Fred Willert. Mitchel and Willert celebrated the Class 21 win over Kawasaki riders Jason Kawell and Steve Hengeveld , who finished ninth overall . There were no Class 20 (12Scc) starters. W ithout surprise, the seemingly unbeatable duo of 40-year-old Rex Staten and 35-year-old Dan Worley topped Class 30 (age 30 and over) again, posting the 11th-fastest overall time of 10:27:50, averaging 44.467 mph. Forty-one-year-old Eizaburo Karasawa, from Japan, so loed th e race in 10:46:47 for 12th overall and topped the over-40 class (Class 40) aboard a 1991 Honda XR600. Leroy " Ski p " Crew, 53, and Joe l Parker, 52, fin ished 26th o verall in 12:06:13 on a Kawa saki KLX650 and scored the Class 50 victory. A total of 44 motorcycle teams started the event in Ensenada, with 32 making it to the finish line. Th e first bik e off the line was the number 2X machine of Miller and Halcomb . At 6:01 a.rn., Miller powered his team 's XR628 in to the lead and took ad vantage of the dust-free (at least for him) condi tions. "It's a real ad vantage startin g up front ," said Miller. "It's been a while since we 've (Team Honda) had that ad van tage ." But closing ground rap idly on Hunnicutt and Miller was another Honda team of Johnny Campbell and Jeff Capt. Capt starte d out for his team, and app roxi mat ely 225 miles lat er th e duo had ph ysically caught up to Hunnicutt, were within ea rshot of Miller, and were leading on adjusted time . "We were up by about three minutes (adjusted) at one point," said Campbell. "I got on the bike at El Alamo and passed the (Dan) Aschcraft bike, Dave Ondas and LaPorte. I came in at Ojo Negros rig ht behind Hunnicutt and Krause." . "At one point, I had actually caught Krause the second time I was on the bike," said Capt, "bu t he mudded me ou t. I d idn't have my Roll-Offs on because I d idn' t think I'd need them. I never actually ph ysically saw Miller, but I was told he was just up ah ead. " Kawasaki's Paul Krau se (shown) and teammate Ted Hunnicutt fought past team Honda 's Chuc k M iller and Charles Halcomb to win the SCORE Tecate Baja 500. The MlllerlHalcomb duo ended up fourth. However, earlier in the race - at Honda's fourth pit - oil had been noticed on the engine case of Capt and Campbell's bike. "We basically thought it was the typical oil thing. you know, out of the breather hose or something like that." But b y the time they had reached Honda's sixth pit, it was found that the oil had been caused by a crack that had developed on the right case near the base gasket. "The crack spread downward to the counter-balancer bearing," said Honda's team captain Bruce Ogilvie. "We really don't know why it happened ; it's very possible a rock could've come up off the front tire, or it was just metal fatigue. " As a result, vibration made the bike nearly unrideable and all of the engine oil had soon blown out of the bike. Capt had no choice but to pull off the course .before the engine inevitably locked up ,

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