Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: Lucerne Valley (Left) Kawasaki Team Green's Danny Hamel won the final round of the National Hare & Hound Series In Lucerne Valley with room to spare. Hamel officially wrapped up the series title about a _k prior to the race when the AMA announced thet the final round of the series was cancelled . (Above) Ty Davis finished second In the race and In the series. By An ne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNEVALLEY, CA,OCT. 23 ith the mathematica l p ossibility of a new winner in the . Nation al Ha re & Hound series, the stage was set for fierce battles and last-ditch heroics in th e second to last round of 1994's sev en-ro und championship competition. Defendin g champion Danny Hamel ne eded a stron g fin ish to capture h is fourt h ove rall series win .in four years, and Ty Dav is, who had snapped at Hamel's heels for tw o years, was po ised ready to capitalize on his outside sho t at the elusive title. But the excitement was over before the race began, when Danny Hamel was declared th e winner of the prestigious series a full week before round six 's racing began. "The last round (at Carson City, Nevada) was canceled. That cu t the series to six races and it changed the wa y the points were added up. Instead of counting our best five finish es in the seven-race series, we onl y had to coun t our bes t fou r finishes out of the six races that we e n d ed up with," Hamel explained. With four first-place finish es already under his belt, Hamel was unbeatable in the six-race format and the new grand finale turned into a lame-duck circuit of the dusty California desert for pre-race hopeful Davis. "I didn't have much cha nce of winnin g - it would've taken something like (Ham el) DNFin g in both races, but it was over the minute the last round was canceled," said Davis, who admits he is getting a little tired of finishing seco nd to his Kawasaki Team Green teammate. "Second really isn 't okay. an y more," said Davis. "Two seconds in a row (in the National Hare & Hound series) are ' eno ugh for me." Round six of the Nationals was host ed b y AMA District 37's 100's M .e., w hich op ted for a unusual start layout for its 27th annua l hare a n d h o un d , which has been an AMA Na tional for the last four years. "We have tw o sta r ti ng lines," exp lain ed referee Bill Perkins. "W e are startin g the experts, interm ed iates and novices on the more d ifficult loop first so they can do it while they are fresher and it's cool. The other rid ers are starting on the second loop, which is the easier of the two." The expert banner dropped just after 9:30 a.m . and the first of the 450-strong field set off across the valley from the Bessemer Mine Road starting area. Th e firs t few yards were a ma ss of confusion as the top ra cers fou ght for the sought-after lines that they hoped would ge t them ahead of the choking dust kicked up by the riders. "I w a s going to m y line, but (Ted Hu nnic u tt ) beat me to it s o I went to Ha mel 's line," sai d Davi s, whose move for ced Hamel off the trail and out into the bushes. "I tho ught 1 was wide-open but (Hamel) came by me a gea r high er. Oops! Then he got in front of me again." Wh en the front-runners swep t past the bomb, Hamel was out in fron t and Vet Expert Abe Baumann was in second. "I usually get good starts. I'm only 155 pounds, so my 10<5 really takes off," 00 said Baumann. "It's almost like cheating bu t I make up for it when it gets tight and I have to try to lift the thing around." Hunnicutt, Davis and Larry Roeseler we re well positioned in th e front-runnin g group as they picked up the rib bon , just ahead of the blinding cloud of dust that made the rest of the field all but invisible. But being near the front o f the pack d id n 't guarantee a clean run, as James Su mmers fou n d when he h it the first wash jus t a few miles in to the 43-mile startin g loop. "I was first 250 in sixth overall, but I ran into a big rock pile four or five miles past the bomb and got a flat tir e," said Summers, wh o fought the rear flat for as long as he could . ~' I was going pretty well for a while but the tube came out and locked up the rear end ." Summers eventua lly cut the tire off, d raped it across his chest bandoleer style and headed back to the pits riding on the bare rim. Baumann's shot at top ten glory lasted abo u t as long as Summers'. "I hit a rock a few mil es out and it ti p ped me over, so I s low ed d own to ride my own race after that," said Baumann. "I just paced my self and , once I was doing that, it was oka y." . Fu rther back in th e pack, Greg Zitterkopf was turning in a n o -ho ld s - . " I I I , I I I I ! I. barred performance, despite a four-win record in this year's series that had already bagged the 250cc class title for the second year in a row. "I got a good start for me - a reall y good start, probably 15th, but 1 went to pass Kurt Hintz in the first wash and he fell and landed on me," said Zitterkopf. " I got stuck and it cost me about a minute." Zitterkopf was soon back in stride, working his wa y up through the ranks, and took Honda privateer Dan Richardson along with him. " I had a decent start, but noth ing really clicked today," sa id Richardson, who had th ird overall in th e championship series sew n up, thanks to th e Carson Cit y can cell ation. "I ended up back with (Zitter kopf) and I pa ssed a lot of people with him." . Despite kn owing that the battle for series points w as ove r, Hamel was charging hard all the way and had built up a com fortable lead just 10 miles into the first loop. For second-placed Davis, the goal was to keep the lead er in sight while, back in third , Hunnicutt admitted that he wo uld be content if he could just keep the lead ers' dust in sight. "I was rid ing as hard as I could but (Hamel ) and (Davi s) were gone," said Hunnicutt. "Th eir dust was about all 1 was going to catch." By the time they reached checkpoint three, some of the racers were starti ng to feel the effects of the "tough" loop . "I thought the enduro was last weekend," one of them complained as he got his fender card checked. But the word that most of the racers used to describe the tight, technical loop was "awesome." "That first loop was incredib le - lots of virgin tra ils, rea lly rocky, technical. Really a lot of fun," said Hamel. "The loop kept you on your toes the whole time and it was really w ell ma rked excellen t. I think th e club rea lly used some ima gination .w ith the ter rain. If a club is willing to d o so me extra work, they can p ut on a rea lly good race." Hamel con ti n ued th e tro uble-fr ee ride that his competitors ha ve com e-to expec t from him while others started to fall by the wayside. Todd Hoy wa s trying to overcome a front flat and recover from a thr ee-kick start. Steve Hengeveld had a fron t flat of h is ow n , an d 250cc Vet class le ader Mark Haugen was tryi ng to see around a rock that got embedded in his goggles. Jason Kawell lost time when he had to sto p to remove cactus from his crotch and Mark Lundgreen ground to a halt

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