Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·OFF-ROAD... " ..S CORE International.DesertChampionshipSeries Round 1: SanFelipe 250 broke his ankl e battling his Kawasaki B team co-rider, Craig Smi th, for the King of the Dese rt crown near EI Cen tro, Califorma . The crash relegated Krause to the p its for the Sa n Felipe event and left Kawasa ki with tw o so lo teams, whic h were combined into one make-shi ft duo just a co uple of weeks befor e the San Felipe event began . Smith pre-ran the cou rse on a repl ica of Hamel's race bike but he was still ge tting used to the idea of being bumped up to the A tea m wh en the starting flag dropped. "1 wasn' t too stressed until about 30 minutes before 1 go t on the bike, then it rea lly hit me," said Smith, a 21-year -old college st udent from the farm ing com munity of Brawley, Californ ia. "1 didn' t feel any pressure to fill (Lar ry) Roeseler's boots because nobod y can do tha t, but I was ner vous abo ut making a mistake because so m u ch w as ridi n g on me." The sky was one so lid gray cloud and rain was fallin g stea dily as the first bike left the starting line at 6 a.m, The drawing had put Hamel in the numbertwo spot but he elbo wed his w ay past the number-one starter to take his usu al p osition a t th e head of th e pa ck, less than five miles int o the course. The firs t few miles we re a wor ry ing tim e fo r the Ka w a s aki ri d er, w ho reme mbered the pocket of cold air tha t had seized some of the top com pe tito rs jus t a few miles off the start of last year's even t. Hamel had taped his radiator to (Left) Danny Hamel (left) and Craig Smith (right) cele brated their overall victory in th e San Felipe 250. The win marked Hamel 's fourth at San Felipe. (Below) Fred Con over pits for gas. He and teammate Rex Staten grabbed sec ond overall and the Class 30 win. Sy Anne Van Severen Photos by Tom Van Severen SAN FELIPE B.C, MEXICO, MAR. II sho rt cou rse that kee ps yo u hard on the gas from start to finish and ba ltering terrai n fu ll of whoops a n d sa nd puts the SCO RE San Feli pe 250 at the top of man y rid ers' list of the toug hest eve nts in Mexico. Thi s year's event was eve n tou gh er than usual thanks to rain tha t dren ched the riders for the first 75 miles and left the dry lakes in the second half of the course all bu t im passa ble, bu t it was business as usual for Danny Hamel. Wit h three San Felipe wins already under h is belt, th e Kawasaki h otsh ot wasn't about to let a little bad wea ther stan d in the wa y of wi n number four. Hamel had his Kawasak i KX500 ou t in front of the pack by the en d of the first five miles an d he was 20 minutes ahea d of th e nea rest compet it io n w hen h e handed the bike to h is n ew co-rider, Craig Smith, near the halfway poi n t. Smith kep t the charge going through out the treacherou s second half and took the most important ch ecke red fla g o f h is career with jus t over half an h our to sp are. " It rained pretty hard off the start but all that really did for me was make the traction perfect," sa id Hamel. "Every thing went gre at. We had no close calls, no crashes, no mechanical probl em s - no nothing. It wa s a smooth race the whole way." The ninth running of SCO RE's San Felipe 250 got off to the soggiest start in me mory. The leading edge of a powerful storm th at h a d ca use d havoc in Sou th ern Californ ia pa ss ed ove r Sa n Felipe just before th e race was d u e to leave the line, dumping heavy rain an d bu ffetin g th e racer s wit h stro ng gus ty wi n d s as th ey wai ted for the s ta rt beneath the arches on the northern edge o f th e coastal fishin g to w n turn e d touri st mecca. The re w as a fl urry of la st-mi n u te activity as the racer s Rain-Xed their goggles an d so me donned tra sh bags ov er thei r riding gea r to keep ou t the wo rst of the water, but th ose weren 't the onl y last-minute changes that kept the riders . hopping. For Kawasaki Team Green, preparing . for the first rac e of SCORE's mod ified motorcycle race seri es th at had unexpec te d ly been shortened when tw owhee lers were dropped from the trad itional opening round at the Parker 400 in Janu ary, h ad brou gh t one cha nge after ano ther. The fir st chan g e occurre d w hen H am el ' s regular teammat e, Ty Da vi s, opted to abandon the Mexico desert in . favor of mo tocross competition at Daytona's Motorcycl e Week . The change, co upled with Larry Roesel er's recent retirement from Baja com petitio n an d Ted Hunnicu tt's d ecision to s it ou t a round, left Kawasaki's A team with only one rid er. Hamel, h appy to tackle the event' s 250-mile cou rse alone, decided on a solo rid e to defend his title. Change number two came just three week s before the race wh en Paul Krause guard again st the cold and was keeping a close eye on a new water-tem peratu re gauge that was mounted on his handlebars, but there was never even the hint of a p roblem and he ha d ya nked th e tape off by the tim e he reached the first highway crossin g at Camp Don Abel, 17 miles into the race.

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