Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.HARE &HOUND &Hound Series R u d2: IdahoNational Hare &Hound on AMA N ational C hampionship H are snaked backw ards an d forwards, and peopl e we re u p on the sid e of it getting a straight shot. " Zitterkop f w as soo n makin g up th e lo st g ro u n d . Kra use tu ck ed in close behind as the battl e tow ards the front of the pack began, but a ligh tn ing run by local racer Brian Brown catapulted him pa st Krause and put his KX250 through into the number-two spo t. Further back in the pack, the casualties were mounting. Senior ra cer Tom Holmes had to limp back to the pits after he endoed over the bars five miles pa st the bomb and Uta h' s Mar k Lu ndgreen was forced to drop ou t at the tw omile m ark when a rock hit his goggl es so hard it centerpunched his left eye, which promptly swelled shu t. Teen age hotshot N ick Pearson saw ab out 20 miles of th e Murphy terrain before a b roken ch ai n forced h im to join th e DNFs. And life was far from troubl e-free for th e ra cers who com plete d the 31-m ile first loop . " Th is is a lot di ffe re n t th an o ur desert," sa id Sou the rn California racer John Rudder. "There is no p assin g roo m here at all. If you ge t off the trail you get into all the littl e bu shes -th ey' re every. where." "1 ha d a tough time adjusting to the way they ribbon he re," sai d To mmy By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beyeren MURPHY,!D, MAR. 17 h ick brush, sea t-deep water and terrai n so tig ht the top r ac e rs averaged only 35 miles per hour in the second loop made life diffi cu lt for the National Hare & Hound conte nders as they battled for points in rou nd two of the series in Mu rphy, Idaho. And the competition was as tough as the terrain. With round-o ne winner Ty Davis back east for a N a tiona l Enduro, all of th e ho tsho ts had turned out and every one of them had their eyes firmly set on the overa ll wi n. When the checkered flag finall y fell at th e en d of 84 mil es and more th an two h ou rs and 20 m in utes of endurotigh t racing, the honors went to Kawasaki Team Green 's Greg Zitterkopf, serv ing no tice that this year's championship cou ld well be a th r e e- w a y b attl e betw een Zitterkopf an d hi s Kawasaki teammates Ty Davis and Paul Krause. "1 got out in fro nt in th e first loop an d then, w he n I looked back and d idn't see an yb od y, 1 sta rted cru is ing, but it wa sn 't all easy . I ha d so me in teres ting m om en ts, " s aid Ka w a s a k i KX500 moun ted .Zitterkopf, The eve nt drew 172 racer s> a lar ge turnout by Id ah o d esert racin g s ta n da rd s. They we re g reeted by a fi ne sunny day, but a stro ng w ind blew the chill down from the sno wy peaks to the west, making hats and gloves the or der of the da y amo ng the spectators. An 11 a.m , start gave the racers time to catch u p on their sleep, but many of them were u p at the crack of d aw n to make sure th ey reserv ed a pri me p osition for the bom b ru n, which h ad relatively smooth lines on the left side an d was p ockmarked w ith d ro p -o ffs an d ditches on the far righ t. "We go t up early to get our bikes out here on the best line," said Krause, who parked his practice bike next to the stake that he thou ght mark ed the left side of T (Above) Some 172 riders blasted off the lin e to start round two of the AM A Nati onal Hare & Hound Series in Murphy, Idaho. (Right) Kawa saki Team Green's Greg Zitterkopf bagg ed the win by the slimmest of. margins, serv ing notice that he Int end s to give teammate Ty Davis a run for the title. the start line an d then rod e his race bike out to p ractice the line he ha d chosen . Disco nten t sta rted to brew w hen Krause and some of the other early risers returned to find that the starting line had been ex tended far th er to th e left, giving last-mi nute a rr iva ls a s tr aigh t sh ot at th e fastes t lines on th e tricky bo mb . . " peop le were compl aining b ec~use the li ne was ge tting to o crowded so I extendedit on bo th ends to make room for everybody," sai d Bill Walsh of Dirt Inc., the club that organized the event. . ':They sho u ldn' t h ave extended th e line in a way that wou ld give some peo p le a n a dv a n tage," s ai d Kra use . "N obo dy re ally knows what the rul es are, bu t if th ey ha d to do anyth ing, I think they should've onl y extended it to the righ t. It's just plain and simple etiquette. Once the start is ma rked, that's where it sho uld stay." The last-minute con troversy delayed the start 10 minut es, but the club's ruling remained in force and, after a 45-secand banner, the racers powered off the start and took the ir best shot at whatever line they ended up wit h . All o f the racers, th a t is , e xce p t Honda's Jeff Capt and KX500 racer Scott Morris. "I check m y wa tch wh en the banner goes up and use that to know when 1 h av e to be ready to s tart," sai d Capt who rode an XR628. "1 was expecti ng a one -m in u te banner, so I was looking down whe n they dropped it. 1 hea rd the other bikes start and I panicked." Capt's panic nett ed hi m a four-kick start an d left him back in the dust alongside Mo rris, w hose bike was takin g a littl e w hile to get w ith t h e pro gram. Despi te their bad lu ck, the pair wa s still ahead of Joh n Rudder. "I went back to the van for tools and I didn' t see th e bann er go u p , " sa id YZ250-mounted Rudder . "I wasn' t even on the bike when the bann er d ropped, and then I got a 15-kick start becau se I hadn't warmed it up." Out in fron t, thin g s were ge tting d ecid edl y warm for Z it terko pf arid Krause . "I w as th ird to the bomb and 1 go t into first when we m ad e th e left turn, then su d d e n ly I w as b ack in fifth or six th ," s ai d Zitterko pf. "Th e w ash Roberts, who also hail s .from Sou thern California. "Th e co rners a re m a rk ed with ye llow ribb on - th ere ar e n o arrows , and it really threw me off." For Vet Expert Abe Baumann, it was the bike that w as tryin g to th ro w him off. "The firs t loop was reall y tight and we ju st port e d th is bik e," the KX500 racer said . " It was great for the start - I was second or third at the end of th e bomb, but in the tight stu ff I cou ld n' t ha ng on to all that horsep ower." Rac ers lik e Jeff Lund gr een, who ende d up at the back of the pack after he . stop p e d to h elp hi s inj ured br other Mark, spen t thei r open ing loop coping with thic k dust and dela ys at the occasiona l bott leneck. "There were a coup le of areas wher e I ha d to sit and wait - places wh ere you had to lift yo ur bike aro u nd some limbs, ro cks and mud," sa id Lundgreen, who batt led throu gh to 40th by the end of the opening loop . Zitterkop f was on stride all the wa y once he hit the front of the p ack and he held the lead positi on to the end of loop one. He com ple ted the 31-m ile first loop

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