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New Year's '96 Tune-Up Grand Prix
By Kit Palmer
Pho tos by Peralta Design and Palmer
CALIFORNIA CITY, CA, JAN. 6-7
awasaki Team Green's Greg Zit terkopf said he wan ted to use the
Cali forn ia City GP as a warmup
for the u pcomi ng o ff-road season, but
fro m the look o f thi ngs, Zitterkopf is
already ple nty warm, if no t d ownright
hot. Zitterkopf was simply in a leagu e of
his own as he ripped the compe tition in
bo th the Pro and Vet divisions to get his
new year started off on the right foot.
"I heard abou t th is race a little while
ago, and I th ou ght it would be fun to
do," said Zitterkop f. "No press ure, just
go ou t and ha ve a little fun ." And that
he did .
This event marked the return o f offro ad ra cing to Cali fornia City, as the
sm all, desert comm un ity ju st north of
Mojave hadn't seen an officia l off-road
mot orcycle race within its city limits in
man y years. Lou Pera lta of Baja Promotions pulled all the right strings to get racing back to California City and enjoyed a
modest crowd of racers that came out to
parti cipate in the two-day event.
"Ca lifornia City was a hotbed of racing many years ago, and the city want s
to bring racing back and bring in more
'revenue," said Peralta. "I really ·hav e to
thank the city of Cali forn ia City, the
m ayor, the cit y cou nci l and th e EDC
(Economic Development Corporation)
for their help , as well as the Desert M.e.
for so me o f th eir guys comin g ou t to
help wo rk checks and sweep."
Local desert racers felt right at home at
Cal City, as the GP featured a lG-mile-alap course over semi-technical desert terrain, much of which consisted of "rollercoa st e r" tw o- track dirt roads, so me'
single-track cross-grain sections, a couple
of hills, a long. pa ved straightawa y section, but very few fast wh oop-de-doo sections to speak of. Those wh o chose to gear
up for the event were happy to find out
th at th ey had in d eed m ad e th e right
choice. The checkered flag came out at the
one-hour mark for each race, resulting in
most riders getting in four laps, except for
the Pro race, w hich lasted 90 minut es.
"We didn't want to m ake this one a
killer," said Peralta. "This was a tun eup
race, and we didn't want to beat eve ryone up so early in the year. We want ed
to introduce everyone here, make everyone finish and ha ve a good time. In our
September race here, which will offer 037 points, it will be tougher."
Zitterkopf competed in both the Vet
and Pro-class races and cru ised to victory in each ou ting . In th e Pro race, Zit terkopf jumped out to an early lead and
enjoyed abou t a 4S-second cushion ove r
Team Honda ' s Jeff Ca p t, ridin g an
XR600, by the end of the first lap. Zitterkop f nearly d oubl ed his advan tage
over Capt th e next tim e aroun d a nd
wen t on for an easy victor y. Ca p t finished all alone in second, wh ile Kaw asaki Team Green rider Da n Vanstee
rounde d out the top three.
In t he Vet ra ce, Z itte rko p f aga in
stro lle d to victory, whil e Bill Ma xim
rode his Kaw asaki to second pla ce over
Doug Mohr.
Ja son H ig g in s a n d Jon Pa r ks
squeezed out five laps in their battle in
the Open Exp ert class, an d when th e
du st had se ttled, it was Higgins who
had emerge d victorious . The top Open
Amateur was Greg Cook, who finished
K
(Abo ve) Kawasak i
Team Green's Greg
Zitterkopf (15) jumps
out 10 an early lead
ahead of Dana Vanstee
(1B) at the start of the
Pro race at the
California City Tune-Up
GP. Zillerkopf went on
to win as well as take
the overall In the Vet
divis ion.
(Left) Honda's Jeff
Capt look runner-up
honors In the Pro
class.
third ove rall. Brian Keys was the number-one Open Novice in eighth overall.
Amateur-class riders Mike Dion and
Rhett Higgins filled th e top tw o p ositions in the 250cc class, beating the topfinishing Expert-ran ked ride r Scott Forward, w ho too k th e checke re d flag in
third overall. Jerem y Lillywhite topped
the Novice class, and Cha d Peters aced
the Beginn ers.
In th e 12Scc race, Ch ris [onnum
opened up a quic k lead and was never
cha llenged to the checkers, desp ite su ffering a hard get-off on the last lap .
The largest race of the weekend featured th e Seniors, Magnum, Super
Seniors, Wom en, Cla ssic and Vintage
classes all running togeth er, with Senior
Exper t ride r Scott Ander s scoring th e
overa ll win over Steve Argubright and
. Tom Holmes.
(~
New Year's Tune- Up GP
california City, California
Results: January 6-7,1996
PRO, I. Greg Zitterkopf (Kaw); 2. jeff Capt (Han);
3. Dan Vanstee (Kaw): 4. Tom my Roberts (Kaw); 5.
Craig Hunter (Hon) .
OPEN EX: 1. Jason H tggtns (I