Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.HARE &HOUND " AMA National Championship Hare &Hound Series Round 7: 100's Me National' H&H up way too far to the right," Zitterkopf said. "I was third at the end of the bomb, but the wind blew down a marking and first and second place kept going straight, but I saw the tum and just went on by them." With the race only five miles old, Zitterkopf had taken the lead with Arizona's Destry Abbott, 250cc leader James Summers and Honda's Jeff Capt not far behind leading the Four-Stroke class. "I got a great start and was first to the bomb," said an excited Abbott, who races the Open class on a KTM360. "I've never led a national before. About five miles out, I got huge arm pump, and that's where Greg (Zitterkopf) passed me./I Not everyone got the start of their life, unfortunately. Vet-class racer Abe Baumann got an unusual two-kick start, as did Team Green 250cc pilot Donnie Book. '1 got the worst start I've ever had," said Book, who made the trip from Colorado to race. "I was probably 50th to the bomb, but I just rode real hard the first loop and caught a lot of people." As the wide-open first loop went on, a lot of tight racing appeared within the dust as 250cc racers Steve Hengeveld, Nick Pearson, Brian Brown, Oakley Lehman and John Spaeth all rocketed through the first loop with no less than a minute separating the group. Chasing the lead of Summers, it was Hengeveld and Brown who diced the cloSest all the way through the loop. "I was trying to keep up with Steve (Hengeveld)," said Idaho resident Brown. "We diced a lot off the start." Less than 40 minutes after the start, (Above) After winning the AMA National Hare & Hound title at the last event, Team Green's Greg Zitterkopf came out and smoked the field at the final round of the series In Lucerne Valley, California. (Right) Team Green's Dave Ondas finished a minute behind Zitterkopf, earning second overall, and won the Open Expert class. (Below) Honda's Jeff Capt had to ba~le all the way to the finish to take third overall and the Four-Stroke Expert win. By Matt Freeman LUCERNE VALLEY, CA, OCT. 27 esPite losing his silencer halfway through the race, newly crowned National Hare & Hound Champion Greg Zitterkopf wrapped up the series with an overall win at round seven in Lucerne Valley, California. Zitterkopf, who clinched the overall title at round six in Reno, evada, and the Vet class title a round earlier in Yerington, evada, had virtually nothing to lose coming into round seven, which. was hosted by the 100's Me. The 100's laid out an 82-mile course for the 352 racers that consisted of a very fast 4D-mile first loop and a fairly virgin 42-mile second loop. After two hours of racing, Zitterkopf and his KX500's nearest rival was Kawasaki teammate Dave Ondas, who turned a sixth-place start 0\ into a run for the lead. ...... "I got something like a sixth-place CI')~ start to the bomb and made up a spot ...... right away when some guy fell in front I-< of me," said the KX500 racer Ondas. ~ "Between 10 ~d 15 miles out is when I finally passed everyone to take second." (JJ The only one Ondas didn't pass while he was working his way up was Zitterkopf, who had to do a little catching up of his own at the end of the long uphill bomb. "I screwed up at the start and lined ~ ~ 2i< S· 5 Z 8 Zitterkopf entered pit row with Ondas less than a minute back. Capt held on to the four-stroke lead in third overall, followed by Summers and Abbott, who had watched his best National start get progressively worse when he managed to crash more than once in the first 10 miles. What came behind Abbott in the pits looked like the main event in an AMA Su percross. The 250s of Hengeveld, Brown, Lehman, Spaeth, Book and Pearson all gassed up within two minutes of one" another. at far behind was usual Senior class leader Rex Staten aboard a . KX500 and 250cc Vet Yamaha pilots Keith Cunningham and John Rudder. Working his way up from a 20thplace start, 125cc defending champion Jimmy Lewis pjtted in 13th place, first in class on a TM 125 that he had seized Saturday while practicing the bomb. "The whole loop was fast," said Lewis, who had no competition anywhere in sight. Things got choppy on the second loop, and it was not just the terrain. "Just a mile out of the pits my muffler broke," Zitterkopf said. "I tried to pull it off when I was riding, but it wouldn't come off. Two guys from Pro Circuit were out on the loop watching, so I stopped and asked them to pull it of£. They pulled on it till it came off and I just rode the rest of the race without it."

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