Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

an up arrow to tell you to go fast or a tum or a dan ger or wh at. It was on the b rak es hard until yo u could see w hat was coming up." Da vis, Z itt e r ko p f and Ca m p b e ll raced on towards their first rider chan ge at pit four, 135 miles into the course, but so me of th e ot her tea ms had adopted d ifferen t strategies . "We decided to do a ride r chan ge at the first pit to make up some gro un d," sa id KTM's Sco t H ard e n, w ho was tea med wit h br other-in-law Jack Johnson in the Over 30 Pro class. "1 work ed my way up to behind the first starter in our class and we passed him in the pit while he was cha ngi ng his goggles . A rid er change is faster than goggles, and th at gave us the lead." Prob lems were a lready s tarting to plagu e so me of th e top runners, like Donn ie Book, who crashed the KX250he shared with Steve Hengeveld soon after the start. , " He d eci d ed to lay her d own in a corner jus t to ad d so me intere st to it. After the crash we ende d up rubbing a hole in the pipe, and we had to rep lace that at 125 miles," said Hengeveld . KTM 250 racer Nick Pearson was disa p poi n te d w hen he h it a ro ck and cra shed ou t of the 250cc Pro lea d and then lost time with a plugged fuel filter, bu t at least he w as still in the hunt. Some of the racers, like 250cc Pros Tim Morton an d Craig Smith, had given up hope of ever seeing the lead before they completed the first 100 miles. "1 we ar glasses an d the dust off the start just killed me," said Morto n. "Then we missed a pit an d ran out of gas. We were back there ru nning with the quad s by abou t pit two ." Some of the field didn' t even make it th at fa r. Am a te u r racer s who s ta rt ed more than half an hour beh ind the lead ers r ep orted seeing one brok e n bik e after another. "It wa s carn age out there. The course just swallowe d up m oto rcycl es," sai d Lori Conway, whose Four-Strok e Amateur entry put her in the last class off the line. "1 saw a bike every 10 to 15 miles easy - broken chains, dead motors, ou t of gas. It was awful." It wasn' t all beer an d skittles at the front of the pack, either. "1 had to sto p and ope n one ga te," Da vi s re po r te d . "The re were co ws everywhere - all you could do was slow d own a nd hope th ey d idn't ru n in to you. And 1 saw deer - four of them. Following the course was tough at times, too . Th e ri b bo n was n't very close together - they we re miles apart in some sections, so you wo ndered whether you we re even o n the race co urse. Th e n you' d see a little p iece of ribbon tw o inches long that a cow had left after eating the rest of it and you'd be like, 'Oh yeah: A little bit of ribbon can mean so m u ch when yo u 're in th e m idd le of nowhere." When the racers reached gas three at Joh n ni e, Nevad a, Davis had a threeminute lead over Zitterkop f on adjusted time. The Cam p be ll/Cap t Hond a was ano ther three minutes back in third, Jim Gray and Robert Laug hl in's KTM was fou rth, ahead of Scott Mor ris/John Flores (KX500) and Daryl an d Bryan Folks (KTM 300 ), a n d KX250 ra ce rs Ste ve Hengeveld and Donn ie Book were seventh overall and m or e than a minute ahead of their nearest 250cc Pro competition . LaPort e an d Kinigadner had rocketed up th r ou gh the ranks to e ig h th ove rall and first in the Four-Stroke Pro d ivision, and the KTM duos o f Dan As hcraft lJim Lo h an d Destry Abb ott / Nick Pearson rounded out the top 10. then Ondas as they cleared the Tonopah pit and head ed towards Kawasaki's second scheduled rider change at Mina, 150 miles from the finish . Third overall was still held by the Honda team, which ha d made its final rider swap one pit ea rlier at Tonopah. " I d id a bit m o re of the co urse because I'm more familiar with Neva da tha n Cap t is," said Campbell, who saw a lot of the course competing in the week. long Nevada Ra lly, which he won in 1995. "1 wish everybody had to navigate in this race like they d id in the rally. I'm pretty go od at th at now, bu t this rac e was abou t 50 d egrees coo ler th an th e rally, and that was nice:' The Gra y / Laugh lin KTM a nd th e Morris/ Flores Ka wasa ki wer e s till in Ash craft had time to stop in the middle of the course to give an interview. "We're not havi ng a good day. We' ve lost th e sho ck," he sa id, bouncing the back of the bike to prove his point while the rest of the field powered past. "It's a .ha ndful in the rocks - jus t all over the place:' Th e top-ru n n in g Kawasaki tea m s chan ged riders for th e first time when they took on gas in the Amargosa Valley, just south of Beattie. Davis ha nded over to Kra use an d Zitterkop f handed .over to On das, who was hard on the gas from the moment he left the pit. When they reached the next pit, Krause' s lead had been cut to two and a half minutes, and it was down to just two seconds on . adjus ted time wh en th e pair pitted 61 miles later at the Cottontail Ranch. The Campbell / Cap t Honda was four and a ha lf minutes behind the leaders in third at Cottontail 's pit seven, swap ping back and forth with the Gray / Laughlin KTM, which had run poorly for a whil e after it seize d twice on a d ry lake but was back to running strong. Harden and Johnson had battled th rough to fourth overa ll and we re s till ru n ni ng a t the head of th e O ver 30 Pro pack .despite running th eir tan k d ry just before gas th ree. The Morris / Flores Kawasaki hit Cottontail in fifth overall, two minutes' ahe ad of the top- running four-stroke of laPorte and Kinigadn er, an d Hengeveld handed over to Book with the 250cc Pro lead in seventh overall, in front of the Folks brothers' Open Pro entry and the Yamaha YZ250 p il oted by Oakley Lehman and John Braasch. As the racers continued north, th e course got faster and faster and, by gas eight a t Goldfiel d , about halfway th rough the 502-mile course, some of the pit crews were having a hard time staying ahead of their racers. Nevada Highway Patrol activity near the Cotto ntail Ranch d id n' t help. One pit crew after ano the r was pulle d over for exceeding th e 70-mp h speed limit and one NHP officer suffering fro m w riter's cramp was heard rad ioing for assistance. "They're all coming throu gh at 85. I can't write fas t enough," th e o ffice r complained to his partner, wh o was just as busy a few miles further north. Back in the spo rtsman ranks, the pace was slower but the race - and the pitting - was just as thrill ing. "1 did my best impression of a na cnac tod a y. 1 hit a bou lder and flew thr ough the air. It made me think about Jeremy McGrath - he has so much time (Above) The Dave Ondas and Greg Zitterkopf team lurk ed in Davis and Krause 's sh adow the whole way . The Kawasa ki " B" team fin ished second. (Right) Scot Harden and Jack Johnson scored the 30+ class win, fin ishi ng 10th ove rall. . up there he has to do something to fill it in," said Alan Cohn, w ho was sharing his first desert race on an XR600 with Joh n O ssenkop and James Williams. " The re were lots of braking bumps en tering the comers and ruts exiting the corners by the tim e we go t there, bu t they kind of helped. At least they told you there was a comer coming: ' The course hea ded into the hills near the ex-mining town of Tonop ah, and racers who h ad time to look around were treated to spectacular views of sno w -covered peaks in th e no t-so-far dista nce. They were also treated to everchangi ng terrain tha t helped to stave off boredom in the long stre tches betw een the pits . "I' m surprised th er e w as so m uch d iffer ent terrain ou t th er e," sai d Bill Maxim, wh o rod e th e bulk of th e race after his partner crashed in his first section . "We went up hills and d own hills, there wer e some nice rollers, roads with sweepers that were nic e and smooth, rocks and sand, and scenery like a pos tcard. It was great: ' Out in front, the orde r in the top five stayed the same and none of the racers had time for sightseeing. It was Krause fourth and fifth as they cleared Min a. Kiniga dner an d the KTM he shared wi th La Po rt e were s till leading the FourStroke Pros in sixth overall w hen the rally ace reached Mina, bu t h is pit crew was ru nning wa y back in the pack. "1 tried to bor row gas fro m three people and no body would he lp m e. 1 was so angry that 1 just turned the bike off and I sat there. 1 said, 'Okay, 1 quit: Finally so mebody felt sorry for m e," said Kinigadner. "1 was mad when 1 left, an d 10 mi les after that 1 hit a very big hole: ' The impact put Kiniga dner over the bars at about 75 mph. "1 bit m y ton gu e . For a wh ile I th ought it w as in two p ieces . 1 w as d rinkin g so much of my blo od 1 got completely sick in the next section with all th e u p and d own hill s," said Kinigadner. As Honda made its last ride r change, and th en Kawasaki followed su it, th e pace started to pick up even more. "I had a two-minute-50-second lead when 1 got off th e bik e the first time, and Ondas took care of that between pit four and pit five," said Davis, wh o took over from Krause for th e sp rin t to the ...... ..... .... P-. -< 23

• Cover