Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Three 's a charm for Kawasaki's Danny Hamel. The National Hare & Hound champ matched last week's third with another third in Arizona. (Above) Colorado's Kelby Pepper rode a Kawasaki KDX200 to a fourth-place finish. (Below) Randy Hawkins emerges out of the thorny brush and finished fifth. Check out the huge hand guards on Hawkins ' Suzuki. heading to Idaho to d efend his National Hare & Hound Championship title , for the third time. In o nly its second yea r as a National race, th e Wick enburg enduro featured a mix of brutal ro ck y terrain an d o minous b reeds of local cactus . Bes ides cap a ci ou s amounts of bod y armor, many of the rid ers individualized their defenses aga in st th e trail evil. Seni or A Yamaha pilot Grant Pal enske sho wed his creative ness by duct taping a cutou t w at er bottle to hi s fore a rms. Othe rs , incl u di ng secon d pl a cer H atch, con structed la rge plastic h and guards in a d di t io n to th e ir n orm al bran ch bu st er s t o s h ie ld the ir h and s fr o m impend in g n eed le s. Hatch ' s leve l of preparedness includ ed pa ckin g a set of tweezer s to pull th e prickles ou t of his legs at the resets. Although mu ch o f the co u rse fo llowed a s i m il a r route to last ye a r's en duro, the Ari zona Trail Riders threw in a nasty waterfall section to cool things off in th e third loop . The narrow canyon plu mmeted off numerous moss covered falls before escapi ng back into th e d e s ert a nd th r ou gh to ugh sa n d washes towards th e finis h . Well su ited to the rocky terrain was Colorado's Kelby Pepper. Peppe r, a second-yea r recru it at Team Green, rode a Kawasaki KDX200 to fourth place. "I had no prob lems with th e bike," Kelby reported of h is s mall-bore m achin e . "On some of the san d wash sectio ns it was a little u nderpo wered , bu t once we go back to the tigh ter terrain back East, it will be right at home." Team Gree n 's Larry Roe s el e r schooled the bulk of the field by po sting a se venth -place finish. " Basically my program is this," RoeseIer said. " I go out and do the best I can, both represe nting Kawasaki, racing, and h elping you n ge r riders. I'm n ot go ing to Georgia, but I will race wh en it comes back to California." Roeseler played host to yo u ngster Donnie Book the week before National, and by the look of Book's eighth-place fin ish, he obv iously had some impact on the up-and-coming rider. Italian rally star Davide Trolli tried his ha nd at end u ro riding for the first tim e on an Al Baker prepped Honda XR600. Although new at the rigors of timekeeping, the easygoing Trolli did well until he caree ned into a Choila cactus and covered his shoulde r and arm with a mass of l~ goll-ball-sized clumps of thickets. Arizona Trail Riders Wickenburg, Arizona Results: February 26, 1995 O /A : 1. Ty Davi s (Kaw): 2. Steve Ha tch (Suz); 3. Danny Ham el (Kaw); 4. Kelby Pepper (Kaw); 5. Rand y Hawkins (Suz); 6. Jim Gray (KTM); 7. Larry Roe seler (Kaw); 8. Donnie Book (Kaw) ; 9. Christo ph er Smi th (Yam ); 10. Steve Silvestri (Ya m); 11. Scott Stretch (KTM); 12, Tom Webb (Suz) ; 13. Michael Lafferty (Kaw); 14. Ron Schm eWe (Hon ); 15. David Lykke (H on); 16, Garth Sw eetland ( Kaw); 17. Sco tt Meyer (H us ); 18. G reg Zi tterko pf (KT M); 19. Matt Stav is h (KTM) 20 . Pat Du ncan (Ka w ). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Gree nsboro, GA, March 19 Round 4 - Navarro, CA, April 2 .Br'..fl'i ' Ie .. claimed. ' But since it's an East coast event, I have to ride 250cc to avoid any problems.". .. _•....:.... .•_ _ .....,.__ . Davis was the 1990 Westem Region Super.•_ .. .cross Champion before comil)g toott-road Uniike his Suzuki counterpart 'Steve Hatch, . .racing. . Randy Hawkins was seen with a se t of con' ventional Ohlins forks on his RMX250. ' I'm The manufacturer's battle continued in Wicksold on' them; Randy said about the old tech- eriburg with Kawasaki and SuziJk! taking the ·nology. making a 'come back.. ' With bigger. . ' first five spots' in the rostrum; The firslri der to axles there is littre fl ex and ·they wcirk.really . break the SuzukilKawasa ki ranks was KTM's · J im Gray .· Gray.tied Team Green 's Larry. well in sq uarsedqed ~ff." . . . . Roeseler with.a 22-point score, but beat RoeWhat will one of the most versatile .riders In seler·on tie-brea ker points. Kawasaki had the ott-road do on his day oH at the Camel Motor- most bikes in the top 20 with eight, followed cycle Wee k? Ty Davis will mount a Kawasaki . by KTM with four, Suzukf with three. Honda KX250 to Contest the. Daytona Supercrcss. "] . al)d·.Yamaha with -two each, and Husqvama . . wanted to ride, a 125cc at Daytora," Davis had one rider finish in the top 20 overall. a

• Cover