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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127733
OFF-ROAD . SCORE Interna tional Desert C hampionship Serie s Rou d2: Baja 500 n on the bike, puttin g in a new ignition. We had p ut in a b ra nd new ignition ' when we were pr ep aring the bike an d the one I chose ou t of the box jus t happen ed to be bad . It wa s one of those freak things we enco unter every once in a while." Krause used the extra speed of his Op en class mou nt to stretch the lead as th e cou rse par all eled Hi ghway 3, and he was ah ead by jus t over a minute on a dj usted ti me w he n he r each ed El A la mo and handed th e bi ke over to Craig Smith for the next 100-mile section, w hich head ed across Highway 3, ran north thr ough the pine fores t, and t he n tu rne d south towards another highway crossing at Valle de Trini da d. (Left) Team Green's Dave Ondas take s the checkered fla g and the overall win but not without the help of teammates Paul Krause and Craig Smith . (Below) Steve Hengeveld Is about to hand off to teammate Tim Morto n wh ile run ning second overall. The MortonlHengeveldl John Flores team ended up fin ish ing there, posti ng the 250cc class win. By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren 28 ENSENADA, ac, MEXICO, JUNE3 he Kawasaki Tea m Green trio of Pa u l Krause, C raig Sm it h and Da ve Ondas too k a wire-to-wire win in this yea r's 385-mile SCORE Baja 500, completing the course 23 minutes ahea d of the nearest competition with an ave rage speed of 54.6 miles per hour. But there was no victory celebration for this year's winners. Smiles abruptly turned to tears just minutes after the winning Kawasaki KX500 crossed the finish when SCORE officials announced that the leader of Kawasaki's "A'~ team, the legendary Danny Hamel, had been killed when his motorcycle collided with a car less than 10 miles from the start of the race. "I felt pretty good until 1 walked up here and hea rd the news," said Krause moments after crossing the finish line. Krause also cap tained last yea r's winning team a t the Baja 500 - a race in which Ha mel b roke d ow n just off th e start. "We hea rd p r etty ea r ly t h at Hamel ha d hit a ca r an d that th e bike was d own but nob od y wou ld tell us an y thi n g d u r i n g t he day . We've rad a red th e bikes at between 110 and 115 miles a n hour and I kn ew that it was a b ad d eal , but I ne ver, e ver woul d've believed that he would die." The race beg an on th e. pa vem ent in d owntown Ensen ad a just after d awn . Krau se' s 1994 victory put him a t th e front of th e one- bike-every-3G-seconds li neup an d he led the way d own th e pa vement w he n th e green flag wa ved for the firs t tim e at six a. m. Jeff Capt thundered off the line in second aboard the Ho nda factory entry and Hamel followed in third . The opening section followed its usual rou te through the city streets and then hea ded sou th along Highway I to the first dirt section near Maneadero. Ha mel d id not reach the dirt. He reportedly co llided with a car that turned in front of him on a long straightaway near the military base sout h of Ensenada and later died of internal injuries at a local hospital. The racing wi\s fast and furious in the opening stages as the top riders vied for the early lead. Krause stayed half a minute ahead of Capt while further back in the pack, John Flores, who was leading off for a three-man KX250 team that included Tim Morton and Steve Hengeveld, matched the frontrunners on adjusted time while he leapfrogged his way up from 12th on the starting grid. Further back in the pack, the sight of Hamel's crumpled motorcycle lying on the side of the road had slowed some of the veteran racers. "They were starting to pu t Hamel in an amb ula nce w he n I go t there," said O ver -40 co ntender Bill Ma xim , who was 25th off the line. "I jus t kind of freak ed ou t. I tho ug ht about it all the way and I was so cautio us af te r that going d own the roads that I know we lost a lot of time. It was a bad thing to see and it really mad e me think." Krause was still in fro n t when th e ra cer s hit H ighway 3 a t Ojos Negros and started a short run down the third pa ved section in the ra ce . Fl o r es br ought his KX250 throu gh in second, jus t seven seconds behind Krause on adjusted tim e, and th e KX250 team of Gabriel Pelaez, Juan Ortiz an d Sergio Vega was neck and neck wi th Eizaburo Karasawa and Jason Ingersoll's Honda CR250 for third less th an fou r minutes back on adjusted time. Hond a was checki ng the horizon for the first sign of its XR628 four-s tro ke. "We los t the ig nit io n a t th e ri ver crossing just before Ojos," said Johnny Ca mpbell , who rod e back to loo k for teammate Capt. "I found him wo rking H en geveld took.over fro m Flor es, wh o had a firm grip on second despite cras hing when he was heading into the su n in th e early going, a nd th e Karasa w a/ l n ge rsoll KX25 0 passed the Pelaez /Ortiz/Vega team to grab third ph ysically and on adjus ted time while the Ens enadans wer e changing riders alongsid e the highway near E.I Alamo. The CR 25 0 campa ign e d b y Tim Staab, Jim Loh and Brent Blount crossed