Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·E D R N U O···. .FordlTecate SCORE International Baja 1000 . By Anne Van Beveren Photos by.Tom Van Beveren and Kinne y Jone s - -- - - - - - - MEXlCALI, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO, NOV. 11-12 he Baja 1000 has earned a reputation as one of the tou ghest even ts on th e racin g cal end ar but th is yea r it exceeded eve n the wor st expectations . Last-minute cha nges in the race's for mat mad e for confused rid ers dashing all over Mexica li, tryin g to ge t into position for the start. Spectato r-bu ilt booby traps took one rider after ano ther down in the first 100 miles and may be respon sible for leavi ng a top Hond a rid er hospit alized with he ad injuries. Mechan ical prob lems pl agued eve ryone fro m th e top Pro contende rs to competitors in the Spo rtsman 's class. And lat e-in -th e-d ay ra in mad e aft er-d ark racing cold and miserable and left d ry lakes near the end o f the 620-mile co urse a ll but im passable. It was eno ug h to wipe the smile and optimism off even Danny Ham el's face for a while, but whe n the checke red flag finally fell , the smile started to co me back. Afte r mor e than 10 h ours of touchand -go ra cing, Hamel had led the winnin g cha rge for the third yea r in a row. Teamm ate Ty Da vi s took hi s seco nd Baja 1000 win in a row , whil e Larry Roese le r, th e third man on th e w inning team, racked up his 10th overall victory in what he said wou ld be hi s last Baja 1000 on Kawasaki 's "A" team. "Th is is number 10 for me and I'm done, as far as ridin g on th e A team with Danny and Ty goes, an yw ay," said Roeseler. "If I rid e th is again, I will rid e for fun - maybe Class 30 to La Paz solo or so me thing stu pid, but I'll move aside t~ let the se guys keep on wi nning ." T Mexicali, Baja California The ra ce w a s mu ch more intens e than the team 's 21-minute margin suggested , and Ham el shook h is head in di sb eli e f a s h e lo oked ba ck o n the mechan ical p roblems th a t had turned the lO-hour, 20-minute race into one of 'the lon gest journeys he h as ever mad e on a motor cycle. "To have the number of pr oblem s we .had and to be still lead ing is incred ible it' s in credibly lucky," sai d Ham el. " It says a lot for the su ppo rt that Kawasa ki has down here that they can make sp litseco nd decision s and make everything w ork togethe r so great. Ther e were so man y times when I thou ght we we ren ' t going to be able to pull this off." Th e 27th Annual Baja 1000, w h ich was spo nso red by The Sou thern California Ford Deal er s and Tecate beer, consiste d of a 619.7- mile loop th at began and ended in downtown Mexicali. Th e mot orcycle s we re sche du led to leave the cere mo n ia l s tart ou ts ide th e Holiday Inn Cr own Plaza at 6:00 a.m . but n ob od y see med to know exactly wh ere or wh en the racing wo uld begi n . Th e racer s h ad origin ally been tol d they wo uld sta rt with a par ad e sect ion th at wo uld take them down the pa vemen t to a tim ed sta rt at the 16-kilom eter mark. But somewhe re alon g the line, the rules chan ged . "The race was timed rig ht from the beginning - ri ght fro m th e m id dl e of town, " said Class 30 contender Rex Staten . "Some people heard about it at 10:30 p.m. (the night before the race) but most heard about it on the radios as they were goi ng down to th e 16-kil ometer mark. It was a rea l mess an d they had everybo dy confused . Most pe op le had sent their pit crew s d own to wh ere we turned off the pav em ent , and it was too late to do an ything about it:' Th e co n fu si on took a hu ge toll o n Kawasaki's "Team Euro," which con- sisted of Itali an Davide Tro lli, Fre nch man Ala in Olivier, temporary Fre n ch resident Danny LaPorte and Scott Morris, who was called in a wee k before the race to take over for Trolli after the rider of record crashed during pre running and ad ded to a spa te of recent injuri es. To com p ly w ith SCORE's rul es, Trolli h a d to be on th e bike wh en th e ra ce began, so he planned to cruise the first 16 k ilome ters th en h and th e te am ' s KX500 to LaPorte for the time d start. But w hen th e o pe ni ng s ec tio n cha nged fro m a 30-minute transit section to a full-on spri nt wi th only 10 minutes' warni ng, LaPorte d id n ot h a ve time to make the connection. "I can ' t beli eve it. Everythi ng h appe ns to m e," sai d Tro lli. w ho h ad slipped his boots on over a pai r of sho rt socks and ha d bor ro wed a helm et for wha t he tho ug ht was a go ing to be a 10mi n u te trip. "I ge t to th e end of th e pave me n t a n d I'm lo ok in g a ro u n d. Where's the second rid er? I wait for a few seconds and there is nobod y. I thi nk maybe he is o ne mile down the d ir t ro de. I ride one m ile" then one more, . then I ride 150 miles:' Despite the pain of an injured sho ulder and the handicap of never having pre-ru n the opening sect ion, Tro lli managed to hold his own fairly well. "It was a really fas t sec tion and [ knew I wa s losing time. It was stup id to throw away the race like this," said Trolli. But Tea m Euros problem s w ere minor co m pa re d to the d isa sters tha t some of the other team s en cou ntered in the early goi ng. On e of the two Honda entries was down for the count before it '. even reached the outskirts of town. "The ignition went ou t af ter 5 kil ometers. There was no spa rk at all," said Johnny Ca mpbell, wh o wa s lead ing off for Jeff Capt and Drey Dircks aboard the factory-backed XR628R. "By the time we Steve Hengeveld (shown), Jason Kawell and John Braasch teamed up to win the 250cc c lass, finish ing th ird overall. go t th e chase tru ck in with wh at we need ed to fix it, we los! abo ut an hour: ' Cha rles Halcomb, aboa rd the other H ond a e n try, h ad a cl ose ca ll in the tricky rig ht-hande r that took the racers off the pavem ent and on to the d irt at the 16-kilom et er m a rk . Th ere w ere some tense mom ent s for spec tators when Halcomb head ed int o the comer locked up a n d sli d ing, a n d eve n mo re ten se mom e nts just two ri de rs later w hen John Flores la id his KX500 down and raised sparks all the way down the last 50 ya rds of pavem ent. Flo res was back on his wheels in no time flat, taking no time out to check for injuries to himself or the bike. Bu t th e wo rst inj u r ies of th e d ay came near the 75-mile mar k .wh en Halco m b crashe d h ard . Tro lli found the Ho nda racer un con sciou s by the side of the course. "The Mexican peop le mad e a square step and he hit it:' Trolli expl ained . "He was not okay . He was lying there and it was so 'scary. I tried to use his radi o but it was smashed in to a thou sand pieces, so I had to ride to ge t hel p." SC O RE o ffici a ls reported th at an ambulance reached Halcomb in 16 minut es and he was helicoptered to Mexicali Am ericana Hospital soo n after. He was air -lifted to San Diego 's Sharp Mem orial Hospital in the afternoon with suspected injuries to h is h e ad, shou lder. an d ribs. Injuries ru ined the day for Ov er-30 hopeful Eric Wolfe, who was out with a broken femur less than three ho urs into the race, but Over-30 classmate Rex Staten got his injuri es early eno ugh to plan around them. Kawasaki-backed Staten.

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