Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

OFF.-ROAO: ForcVI'ecate SCORE·Baja·tOGO . La Paz, Baja California Paul Krause (lett) and Ted Hunnicutt celebrate after securing, with the help of Ty Davis, Kawasaki's eighth successive Baja 1000 victory. By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Trackslde Photos and Tom Van Beveren LA PAZ, MEXICO, NOV. 8-9 f you had ever thought about racing the Baja WOO, this year's event had a lot of appeal. The course was the classic "all the way to La Paz" format, which boosted the motorcycle field up 0\ to 106 entries. The start line had been .... moved north to Tijuana, stretching the O\~ overall length to an impressive 1,146 N miles and adding one of the tightest sec\-< tions ever seen in a SCORE event, and ~ rain had laid much of the dust. And for once, the factory teams did Cl) not look invincible. Kawasaki was rac:> ing without the talent of the legendary o Danny Hamel and its other Baja ace, 10Z time motorcycle champ Larry Roeseler, had retired from two-wheeled competition to drive a trophy truck, while I g< S 6 Honda was sporting a two-man team that would put Johnny Campbell and Jimmy Lewis on the bike for more than 11 hours each. But when the checkered flag dropped after almost 20 hours of fast-pared racing, it was Baja as usual. The new Team Green"A team" of Paul Krause, Ted Hunnicutt and Ty Davis had grabbed top honors for Kawasaki for the eighth year in a row, with an average speed of 58.72 mph. "There's a lot of people who doubted that we could continue. We lost Danny, and Larry retired in the same year, which has made it very difficult for us. But we came here to win and we did," said Team Green Manager Mark Johnson. "We wanted to win this race for ourselves, and if we were lucky enough to do that, we would dedicate it to Danny. We did it for you, buddy." Excitement was high as the racers prepared for the 28th annual running of the SCORE Baja WOO and Tijuana welcomed with open arms the first race start it·had seen since the inaugural event in 1967. The lead-off riders got 'to see more of Tijuana than they had planned thanks to a delay that kept them cooling their heels on the starting line for 20 minutes while SCORE officials took care of last-minute road closures and waited for the coastal fog to lift a little. But it was full steam ahead when the starting flag finally dropped at 6:20 a.m. - for everybody except Dave Ondas, the lead-off rider for Kawasaki's B team. "About a quarter of a mile into the course in the first big turn there was a whole bunch of people running across the highway," said Ondas, who was teamed with Scott Morris and Craig Smith on a KXSOO. "1 went to slow'down and I didn't realize I was on wet concrete from the dampness of the morning. 1 was probably in second or third gear, doing somewhere around 40." Ondas grabbed too much front brake and he and the bike went sliding down the pavement. The l00-foot slide put a hole above the oil line in the KX500's case, took much of the skin off Ondas' forearms and elbows, and sent him back to the start for repairs. "They put some duct tape on the case to hold it until 1 got to the pi t where they could epoxy it. Everything else was okay, which surprised me after the way the bike was spinning around," said Ondas, who changed his jersey and headed back into his 455-mile section. "1 lost about half an hour to 45 minutes. 1 didn't feel too bad until 1 cleaned (all the scra pes) ou t. Tha t made them start burning." . The other top contenders left the start with a lot less fanfare. Campbell, who was riding the first 680 miles on one of American Honda's two XR628 entries, was number four in the starting lineup and the top Kawasaki entry, piloted by Ty Davis for the first 450 miles, was a minute behind, in fifth. "1 was pleased with my starting position - when you're close to the front, there's not as much dust," said Campbell, "but there wasn't a lot of dust anyway. I was able to pass most people quite easily." Unfortunately for Campbell, the dust wasn't holding Davis up, either. The Kawasaki pilot was racing all out trying to get around his main rival before they reached the 12-mile mark. "I didn't think there was any way 1 could catch him but I had to try because right after there you hit 30 or 40 miles of silt, and with the sun in your eyes, there's no way you can get by somebody," Davis explained. The pre-race favorites were almost neck-and-neck when they reached the critical section of the course. "We came across these railroad tracks. (Campbell) backed off and 1 just jumped them. 1 was going so fast 1 missed the corner in the gravel and 1 went off in the boonies. Mexicans were running everywhere," said Davis. "He ended up a couple of bike lengths ahead of me but 1 bagged him right there because I knew the road so well. 1 went right through the blinding dust and got the other guy that was in front of him, then he held Campbell up for me." The pass put Davis in clear air for the worst of the silt, and the unusually tight terrain of the opening section did the rest as the course headed sou th from Tijuana, turned east to parallel Highway 2 on its way toward Mexicali, and then veered south to parallel Highway 5 all the way to Borrego Junction. "The first section was very tight for a SCORE race - as tight as it gets," said Campbell. "(Davis) is National Enduro champion, so he's extremely good at the technical twisty stuff, plus I had to ride to just about San Ignacio, which is 660 miles, so I was saving myself. He set a pace I just couldn't hold and I lost about six minutes in the first 100 miles to him." A fast opening pace was also set by

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