Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HARE &HOUND AMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HARE &HOUND SERIES (Left) Defending champion Greg Zitterkopf came from behind to finish second overall. (Right) Paul Krause ran a strong race, finishing third overall. (Below) Brian Brown scored the 250cc Expertclass win. 12 ground, he found his cloud had somewhat of a silver lining. "When I picked up my bike, I looked at the right side and saw that I had a hole in the case. A rock must've come up and hit it, so falling off gave me a chance to fix it," Baumann said. "If I hadn't gone down, I would've burned out my transmission, but I caught it early enough that all I had to do was put some duct tape on it and put more oil in it. I lost 30 or 40 positions doing that, but I got to keep riding." After 55 minutes of racing, Davis was still leading the way and had stretched out an almost comfortable two-minute lead over second-placed Krause as he headed into the pits. His lead grew even more comfortable when the Kawasaki mechanics started shouting at Krause just before he set off for another 36 miles of hot pursuit. "They hollered stop because all the disc bolts were coming out - the ones that hold the rear disc on," Krause said. "I had to change a rear wheel before I could get out of there and I ended up leaving the pit in seventh or eighth." . A fast loop by Zitterkopf put him half a minute behind Krause when he hit pit row in third, just ahead of Capt and Pearson, and Idaho's Brian Brown led the 250cc Experts in sixth. Dan_ Richardson dashed through the pits in seventh, ahead of XR628-mounted Paul Ostbo, and Russ Pearson and Dave Hamel rounded out the top 10. Steve Hengeveld, Todd Hoy, John Spaeth and Ed McCoy were close behind. The racers soon found that the Desert Me's threat of a tough second loop full of technical terrain and rocks was no joke. "There was a big difference between the loops," Davis said. "Loop one was pretty much flat ground but loop two was really hilly and it had some really tough stuff - some really difficult sections. There were two downhills, one at the very beginning and one at the very end, and those things were gnarly. They were all big rolling rocks and you really didn't want to tip over." It was mountains nearly all the way as the trail paralleled the military base to the far end of the designated riding area. Davis was riding comfortably in front, Zitterkopf was pushing hard to catch up from what he didn't know was second. "I thought I was third and it was Krause in front of me; I didn't know that I had passed him in the pits," Zitterkopf said. Krause had launched an all-out blitz to regain third. "After losing all that time in the pit, I uncorked it and just pinned it to try to catch up:' the KXSOO racer said. Jim Gray was dodging past some of the tiring riders trying to edge up into the top 10 and, not far behind him, Dana Van Stee and Kris Keefer were locked in a tight duel for the 125cc honors. "They told me he was about a minute in front of me in the pits so I just started riding smooth and I caught him eventually," Van Stee said. "He was really tough to pass and I was behind him for a while. He was going really good, but then we got into some rocks." "I crashed in the rocks and kind of lost my wind, so he got past me and rode good from there on out:' Keefer said. "He beat me fair and square but I had a lot of fun. 1 like riding o1,1t here." Out in front, it was smooth sailing all the way. Davis completed his second 36 miles in just under an hour and took the checkered flag a few minutes before noon, with four minutes and 25 seconds to spare. . "I thought the course would be a little wetter - it was dry, real dry - but it was a really good course:' the Kawasaki Team Green/MooselKawasaki-backed rider said. "The club did an awesome job and the marking was great. They used. more arrows than anybody I know. The turns were really well marked and the dangers were really well marked - everything was seeable." Zitterkopf was surprised and "really stoked" to discover that he had cap- . lured second overall as well as the win in the Over 30 Expert class. "I could see the dust in front of me, but I thought it was Krause and I kept hauling ass trying to catch him:' Zitterkopf said, "but then I fell down like twice and decided I'd just settle for what I thought was third. I didn't want to hurt anything because it's a long series. ''I'm really, really happy to do as good as I did after the start I got:' Zitterkopf added. "If that wouldn't have happened it would've been a really good race." Third-placed Krause also was happy with his finish. "I worked hard to catch up in the second loop and it worked out:' the Team Green racer said. "I didn't really know anything was wrong in the first loop. My brakes just kept fading and I had no idea why. What was happening was that the (disc) bolts were beating up the caliper and it would spread the pads, and then I would have to pump them up to get brake again." Capt topped the four-stroke division in fourth overall, despite slowing down to nurse his XR628 home after it started to develop mechanical problems late in the race, and ick Pearson's KTM 300 claimed fifth. Dan Richardson was surprised to find that he and his KX500 had crossed the finish in sixth. "1 just got this thing going yesterday:' Richard said. "I brought it out to break it in, rode the bomb about three times and then the base gasket went out. We spent yesterday rebuilding that, so 1 was just basically learning how to ride it today. It was a good course and I had no problems - just got a little tired toward the end." With the exception of a broken pulley on his roll-offs, Brian Brown reported a trouble-free ride to seventh overall and first 250cc Expert, ahead of KX25Dracer Steve Hengeveld and foui-stroke pilot Paul O/ltbo, who was forced to battle through the pack after a missed shift put him back in the dust off the start. . Jim Gray came back from a seize on the bomb to finish in 10th overall, ahead of Dave Hamel, and Russ Pearson took 12th despite running out of gas five miles before the finish. Pearson was followed home by Todd Hoy, Vet contender Ed McCoy, KX250 racer John Spaeth, Vet 250cc racer John Rucj.der, who fought bronchitis all the way to the finish line, and Tommy Ady, who battled pumped-up arms and shoulders. Dana Van Stee finished one spot ahead of race-long dval Kris Keefer in 19th overall, and Rex Staten topped the Over 40 racers in 23rd. 0' Desert MC Lucerne Valley, California Results: January 26, 1997 (Round 1 of 5) Olk 1. Ty D.vis (!<;.w); 2. Greg Zitterl

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