Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

who b roke his ha nd tw o weeks befor e the Baja 1000, cut off his cas t and rod e the opening sectio n to retain his Rider of Record sta tus. But his blistering pace on the p a vem ent was wa s ted w hen th e KX500 he sha red with Dan Wo rley, Earl Rob erts and Craig Ad ams bro ke a piston just 20 miles into the cou rse. " As it turns ou t, Rex - our injured rider - en ded up riding the majori ty of the distan ce that we went," said Wor ley. " You know it's a bad day w hen th at ha ppens." First off th e li ne, Roeseler wo rked hard to put time on the rest of the field as he raced so u th along the p avem en t, headed northwest to the upper tip of the cou rse at Che ckpoint 1 and then turned sou th again for the lon g run to Kawasaki' s firs t rider cha nge at Tres Pozos . The tea m' s "get out in front and hold the lead all day" plan looked promi sing as Hame l swung his leg over the KX500 for the first time, bu t h op e turned to despair just a few minutes later. "The b ik e s ta r ted runn in g ba d ly abo u t 12 mil es after I go t on it," sai d Ham el. " It wou ld n' t run wide open and that' s critical in a race like this. I shou ld've been lyi ng o n th e t ank go ing for it a n d ins tead, I wa s in third gear and couldn't even chan ge into fou rth ." H am el s till h ad the ph y s ica l lead w he n he pulled into the d ouble pit at Borrego for the first time, but he kn ew hi s le ad wo u ld n ' t la st lo ng with out so me spee dy rep airs. With his pit crew doin g little m ore th a n lo o kin g o n, Ha me l we n t d own on his knees besi de the bike, rem oved the Kawasaki's carbure to r, installed a replacement and d isappeared back on to the course in four minu tes flat. Kaw asak i' s chase helicopter, which had dropped team manager Mark Johnson in to supervise the rep airs, took off with Hamel and continued to follow the lead bike as it made its way around the course. Seco nd overall at Bo rrego, seve n minutes beh ind on adj us ted time, was .K aw asaki's "B" team - the trio of Pa ul ' Kra use, Ted Hunnicu tt an d Craig Smith , and Kawasaki's "Team Euro" powered .th ro ugh in third. Th e race was already star ting to ge t co mplicated for the Ho nda CR250 team of Tim Mo rton, Bren t Blou nt an d Brian Sch rnuc kle , w ho d ashed th rou g h Borrego in fou rth, four minutes ahead of Class 21 r ivals Ja s on Kawell, Steve Hengeveld and John Braasch, who were mo unted on a KX250. "O u r secon d p it was in the wrong . p lace - it was su p posed to be at mile.rnarker 100 but it was 15 miles fur th er on," sa id Morton , who had to bum gas fro m a Kaw asa ki pi t to mak e th e d istance. "And then nobod y sho wed up to take over for th e m in i su mm it (on the Borrego- to-Borrego inner loop )." Jo hn Flo res , who wa s sc heduled to ride the short interior loop, broke down w h ile s tarting for an open class en tr y and couldn 't reach Borrego in tim e to take over from Morton, who had to con tinue racing into unfam iliar ter ritory. " I' d never d one the mi ni s u m m it b e fore - not even prerunn in g, bu t it wen t ok ay. I only had my head in th e grou nd once," said Morton , w ho went over the bars on the downhill side of the su m mit. "Normally I blame my partners fo r all the crash e s but th is ti m e I'm going to have to take credit for some of [them myself." The 250cc entry of Tex Mitchell, Fred Willert, Jeff Martinez and Darin Sanford lost time loo king for their seco nd pit, which was also positioned 15 miles too far down the cou rse. "I had to bum gas off the Ho nda guys . They had no mixed gas so I ran s tra ig ht gas a nd t ip ped some motor oil in it," sa id Mart inez , who was aboard the tea m's YZ250. By the time Hamel returned to Borrego at the end of the mini sum mit loop his KX500 was running worse than ever. The Krau se /Hunnicu tt / Smith team had shave d four minutes off the lead b ike's safe ty mar gin and the 22-year-old pilot had lost his characteristic smile. "My b ike is run nin g so b ad . Yeah we ' re still in the le a d , b u t for how long?" said Hamel. "We put a new carb on, a sma ller main jet and a new spark p lug and it still won' t run wide open. How mu ch of the course is w ide open? Try all of it." Krause report ed smooth sailing for the second-placed Kawasak i as it began the lon g drag race so u th across Diablo Dry Lake, through Morella Junction and across the Matomi Wash to San Felipe, and the Trolli / Morris / Olivier / LaP or te team looked s trong in th ird, altho ugh third on adju sted time had been grabbed by the Class 21 Honda of Morton, Blount an d Schmu ckle. Kawell ' s KX250 p ow ered th rou gh Borrego fourth, equal with Tea m Euro o n adjuste d ti me, ahead of the rival Mitche ll / Willert / Marti nez / Sanfo rd YZ250. Japan's best end uro rider, Masami Ish ii, who was teamed with Tornom as a Yoshiwara, was seven minutes ahead of Class 40 rivals Chris Hai nes , Scott Forward and Jack Johnson in se..vent h ove rall. "We h ad a pretty go od race goi ng wit h the Japanese team ," said Forward . "What mad e the d ifference was that our bi ke was fla wl ess and everyon e rode really smooth and did their job all da y." Jason Tuck and Mark Green were out in front in the two-team 125cc Pro race, whi le the Cla ss 50 rac e - trimmed to three teams when the Al Perrett / Ar t More Husky bit th e dust in th e ve ry early going - was wa y too close to call. Out in fro nt, a rider change at the end of the Borrego mini loop put Davi s aboard the n u mber-one KX500 for the d ash so u th and it was one n ightm are after another as the miles sp luttered by. Kawasaki cha nged a m uffler at one pit and chan ged the bike's reed asse mbly at the next pit. " N oth ing we di d ma de any d iffe rence and ev e n tually th e y to ld me, 'You're on your own:" said Davis. "By that stage we knew it was the igni tio n but I had to make it all the way around the bott om loo p the way it was because they h ad no new ignition to put in it. I was afraid the bik e was going to blow up at any secon d - th at it' d go , ' Blip, blip: and that'd be it." Th e te am ' s le ad dw indle d as the sou therly loop wore on. They chan ged a tire in San Felipe but opte d to leave the igniti on change until Campo Don Abel. jus t before the grueling run up the infamous beach whoops. Kaw asaki's me chan ics as sembled at the point where the trail crossed H igh w ay 5 a few miles north of San Felipe, and laid out th eir tools alo ngside th e road . When th e bi ke ap pea red, seven p airs o f h ands wen t to work an d the ig n ition swa p was co m p leted in fiv e minutes and 18 seconds . Sto pw a tc hes cl icked o n as th e Kaw asaki he licopter lifted off to follow Hamel. who still had the physical lead, a n d Kawasaki ' s p it crew turned it s att ention to one of the chase va ns, which had gotten stuck in the sand in the rush to set up the makeshift pit. Everyone exp ected Kawasaki' s " B" team to be dangerously dose on ela psed time but when the bike appeared three minutes behind the leader, it was obvious tha t Team Green's second entry was havin g trou ble of its own . "It's popping really bad ly; it'll hardly _ run and there's just no power: ' reported Hunnicutt, who ha d nursed the ailing bike all the w ay from the end of th e Matomi Wash . "We need a n ignition, too ." A second ignition wa s not available at the way side pit, so Krause was forced to r id e 35 m iles o f w hoo ps b e fo re Ka w a s a ki m a d e i ts se co n d ign it ion ch an ge of th e d ay a nd found ou t th at practice does not always make perfect. "We had some asse m bly prob lems. We were scrambling a bit and the stator got put on wrong:' sa id Hu nn icutt, w ho watched 20 minutes tick by before the bike was ready to hit the trail. "The race had been p retty close up till then but it took us 20 min utes to th eir five to ch an ge the ig nition and that blew it wide open." Team Euro mad e it th ree for three with engine p robl em s when it stop ped to replace a head gasket com ing out of San Felipe . " It was blowin g out white smoke and you cou ld see wa ter coming out where the head gasket was blow n:' said Morris. "We argued about for 10 m inute s abou t whether to d o it and wh ere to do it." And wh il e tea ms t wo a n d three struggle d throu gh t he wh oops a n d foug ht to remed y their mecha nica l proble ms, Hame l wa s ma kin g up for lost time. " It was the first time since I had started rid ing it that the bike was perfect. It ran great and, whe n I go t off the be ach, I had the firs t pit ~ ll da y th at I could jus t get gas and go:' said Hamel. "I was so happy. I w iped the frown off my face." The frowns were also starting to disappe ar fr om the face s of Kaw ell , H en g e veld a n d Bra a sch , wh o we re wo rking on a lead in the 250cc division despite a rash of probl ems. "I ca ugh t one of those booby traps this morning the y'd dug a big hole and piled the sand up:' said Kawell. "You drop into th e Ignition troubles slowed the Paul Krause , Ted Hunnicutt and Craig Smith team . Des pite chan ging the ignition twice, the tea m finished second overall. hol e and it kicks your back end up and over the mound ." " It didn ' t s top the re, ei ther:' sa id Braasch. "We had all so rts of things go wrong; we broke a swingarm bolt and we lost ou r stee ring stabilizer and broke the mo un t on the stabilizer, too ." Mother Nature decided to enter the ra ce around 1:30 p .m., when dark, threatening clouds that had rolled in from the nor th finall y started dropping rain on th e in -bound riders. The ra in tu rne d fro m light sp rinkles to a steady drizzle by 3 p .m . and the "same old, same old" Baja 1000 course took on a new personality. "The course is pret ty chewed-up and when it gets wet, the sand gets packed. It ge ts bumpier and the rocks stick up a littl e hi gh er. It ' s act ua lly scarier than when it' s d ry," said Roeseler. As the racers continued north, the rain became more and more of a factor, and by the time so me of the later rid ers reached Laguna Sal ad a, w here it had been ra ining most of the d ay, th e d ry lake was any thing but d ry. "The lake beds we re under w ater - it was a nightmare: ' said Mike Barn h ill, who rod e the northerly section for Brian Free, Dennis Green and T im La w yer (leade rs of the Sportsma n 's . di vision for mo st o f the day. " I' m d oing 80 on the lak e bed and all of a su d d en the rear end s ta rts pas sing th e fron t. It was insane. There w as no road to look at, jus t a pa tch of d irt every now and then s tic king out of th e wate r, and you ' re go in g across th ere w it h n o goggles, leanin g w a )! o ve r th e h andl eb ars because you can't see a thing. It was h orrible, b ut y~s, of course I'd do it again." ":t' 0\ 0\ ,...... 0' ('rJ .... IJ) .o E IJ) > o z 7

• Cover