Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

..HARE'&·HOUND '::· '.AMANatioilal Championship Hare &Hound Series Round 4: Vickings M.e. or (Left ) Kawasak i's Danny Hamel . sewed up the '95 National Hare & Hound title with his fou rth stra ig ht win of the series , at Lucerne Valley. , (Above) Greg Zitterkopf rode a four-st roke KTM to seco nd overall and first place In the four-stroke class. By Anne Van Beveren Photos By Tom Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, APR. 23 omeWhere in Lucerne Valley the fat lad y sang. It was round four of the six-round National Hare a n d Hound cha mp ionship . With two rounds of the se ries still to go and many of the class battl es still way too close to call, the competition was fierce. But when the song w as over, so was the battle for the over all series hon ors. For the fourth tim e in as many races, Kawa sa ki KX500 desert a ce D a nny Hamel ro mped h ome to an easy w in and, as hi s fourth ch eckered flag fell , Hamel became im possible to top in the series best-fou r-ou t-of-six race format. If se w ing up the champ ionship in Ap ril wasn't eno ugh cau se for celebration, the win also gave Hamel h is fifth Na tional Hare and Hound title in a row an d tied th e record se t by Dan Sm ith , who wo n the cha m pio nship for its first five yea rs. "To win it five times in a row, and to . wrap up the series so ea rly thi s yea r it's just incred ible," said Ham el. "It says so much for Kawasaki, my pit crew and everybody who su pports me. My goal was ·to tie Dan (Sm ith)'s record an d 1 did it." S The only goals that Ha me l h as left are making a clean sweep of this yea r's se ries and going on to win fou r mo re series tit le to beat the all-time amateu r series win record set by enduro ace Dick Burleson. ' " I d on 't wan t to mak e any predictions. I'll just take it one race at a time:' said Ham el. "1 thi nk the se ries itself is stayi ng abo u t the same but the leve l of competition has co me way up. The re are a lot of p eople th at go really fast now ." . The fact that a lot of people rode fast w as about all th at th e 354 racers w ho turned out for the eve nt cou ld ag ree on . Ou t-of-staters called the first National course laid ou t by the Vikings M.e. the best thing they had seen in California in a long time . Some of the local riders said the SO-mile rout e wa s one valley af ter ano ther and lacked imagination. "It was a really nice course - a litt le different from the normal stuff we ge t ar ound here:' sa id Ove r-40 Exp ert Bill Maxim . "Th ere were so me tig ht li ttle sandwashes, some really tech nical areas - s t uff w e h a ven 't s een b e fo re . I'm h appy they're finally doi ng a little more research here and getting some d ifferent stuff." " The re w as n o te chn ica l, " sai d D a vid e Trolli , w ho rod e a H o nda XR62S. "I like technical and there wasn't any . It was just out through the desert straigh t ahe ad. It made no sense ." The racers left the sta rting lin e just north of Soggy Dry Lake sh ortly aft er 10 a.m. Paul Krause got the jump on the 'field wh en the banner dropped and h is KX500 led the way into the 37-mile first loop th a t headed ou t to Galw ay Dry Lake and then circled northwest on its wa y back to the p its alongside Bessemer Mine Road . Priva teer Dan Rich ard s on had his Ho nda CR500 in second wh en he sw ept past the bomb and Hame l was working hard to cap tu re third. Abe Bau ma nn used Hame l's expertise to gra b fifth. "H am el really kno ws how to pick a good line," said Bauma nn, with a smile. "I followed him aro und a who le bunch of riders." Ted Hu nnicu tt mi ssed h is sho t a t fourth when he turned away from a line that pa ralle le d Hamel's a n d h ead ed west across the va lley to avo id the dust. The move put him jus t ou t of the top 10 as he picked u p th e first of the ribbon bu t he was w a y a hea d of th e later , starters who got trapped in a layer of the worst dust tha t some of the racers could remem ber. "Jus t off th e s ta rt we d ropped into the little canyon. You couldn't see anything because of the dust," said KX250 racer Craig Smith. "1 glanced up and there was a rock about two feet around rolling d own the trail. I went right over the top of it." The dust turned KTM 250 pilot Jim Gray ' s bad s ta r t into an eve n w orse opening section. "The start was terrible. My bike started right away but just as 1 got into third gear, all the 500s came rushing by me:' Gr ay explained . "1 had to pretty mu ch come to a stop and it scared me thinking s omebo dy w ou ld hit me in th e dust. Th ey were ridi ng like id iots - totally blind." It was so dusty that even being careful didn't help . "O ne gu y we n t s i de w ays in the whoops," said Gray. "I T-boned him in the dust and went over the bars." H amel dod g ed past the e a rl ie r starters and had taken th e lead before the five-m ile mark. Baumann went right along with him and tuck ed into second. . " I ki n d of pu t it on cruise con trol from there:' said Hamel. "1 d idn't wa nt to make an y mistakes. I jus t d idn't want to d o anything stu pid and throwaway the whole series ." H am el mad e the most of the numberon e spo t, which gave him the ad vantage of clear air in th e hi gh-speed terrain. Back in the dust, the competition was suffering. Richardson cras hed ha rd when he hit a roc k in a sa n d wash, which let Gr eg Zi tterko pf and Todd H oy move up a spot. Krause flat tened hi s rear tire and Ho nda-backed Jeff Ca pt tip ped over in a can yon. "It was righ t off the start;' said Cap t. "1 jus t laid it down. 1 did n' t even kill the mo tor - just picked it up and kept going, but 1 lost some tim e rig h t off the sta rt and th at' s really importa n t, especially when it's dusty like this ." A little further back, Hunni cutt start ed to suffer when the vent hose on his tank came loose an d b eg an s p rayin g him with gas. Johnny Cam pbell's XR628 followed su it but the Honda was spraying its ride r w ith oil.

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