Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EVENTS EDITED BY CAMER NC AmEY O O By Matt Freeman SANB ERNARDINO, CA, OCT.-I-5 r:-= ea rn 'MS /j o hn Bu r r Cycles- . backed Mike Healey set th e 24th annual Viewfinders Gra nd Pri x on fire as he blazed to the checke re d fla g in three of th e four races he entered at Glen Helen Racew ay. Healey started off the weekend by coming fro m behind to win the Unclassified race and then rushed ove r to the starting line agai n to eve ntu a lly take the Fou rStroke race hon ors . On the second da y of racing , H ea ley a nd teammate Jeff Capt led th e team race fo r over a lap until s u rrenderi ng th e lead to Tea m G ree n's Ty Dav is a nd Do n n ie Boo k. H owever, before th e da y w as over , Heal ey made good usc of his Sunday by takin g the win in th e Open /250 /125 race by a minute and a half over secondplace competitor Pa ul Krause. More than 700 en tra nts showed up at Glen Helen to compete in round five of the six-round AMA Dist rict 37 Grand Prix Series . Famous for their ultrapopuJar Grand Prix of the '80s, held at Riverside Racew ay , the Viewfinders dedicated the event to . the memory of Craig Rimlin ger, a longtime club member who passed away earli er this yea r. The event marked the first time that the Viewfinders hosted one at Glen Helen, but it was the third time that a round of the series was hel d at the racing facility. That does not mean that th e terrain - or the outcome - were the same, however. The Viewfinders laid out a 7-m ile circuit through Gle n Helen Raceway that started on the National Motocross track and then actua lly took racers outside the park throug h a high -speed sand wa sh. Before re-entering the park via the Team Chaparral supercross practice track , rid ers were tested o n the ir Toad racing s kill s, s p eedi ng a ro u n d th e J. 5-mile pavement on the San Bernardino County Sheriff rood course. Upo n com pleting a full lap, the cou rse ran clockwise, circling the Glen Helen speed way tra ck, giving rid ers a taste of a true Grand Prix racing experience. Unique among a ll the Grand Prix ra ce s in th e District 37 Series, the Viewfinders kept tra ck of each individ- I I:"-.. 0\ 0\ ...... N' N ... CII ..c o .... u o 42 0-37 Big Six Grand Prix Series, Round5 f----- ------------~~---------- ----' Team IMSlJohn Burr Cycles-backed Mike Healey dominated the Viewfinders Grand Prix, winn ing three ou t of th e four races he entered. ual rider' s race times. It was not un common to see big names such as Healey o r American Honda' s Johnny Ca mpbell lin ed up a few ro ws behind th e front row at th e s ta rt . Thi rty to 45 seco nds separa te d the start of every line, bu t each rid er, w hether starting on the first ro w o r th e last ro w , was given a fair chance at a good finish. Healey di d not need anyone to keep track of his last-row starting time in the one-hour Unclassified race as he immedia tely pushed to the front of the pack before the race was even a lap old . Starting on the seco nd line in fro nt of Healey wa s XR600-mounted Jamie Campbell , wh o jumped ou t to take the lead on the first lap. Behind Campbell and Healey came the onslaught of Johnny Campbell, Ma tt Mu rphy, Krause, and Team Green r ider Dave O ndas; all of w hom were running hig h up in th e p hy sical lead. Eventu ally, the Team Green rid ers su rrendered to the pits when Krause blew a head gasket and Ondas blew a front tire on their KX5OOs. Making a rare appearance on a tw os troke, He al ey and h is CR250 made their presence known to Jam ie Campbell throughout th e entire race, but Ca mpbell was able to hold o n to the ph ysical lead going into the last lap. Healey' s lead on time wa sn 't go od eno ug h for him, however , as he push ed Campbell hard , trying to take ov er th e physical lead . "Ou t in the w ash o n the last la p , Healey was rea lly ca tc h ing me, s o I wicked it u p," Campbell said. "It was really cross-grain ou t th ere, and 1 went w ay right off th e trail for a fast er lin e and I hit a railroad tie. It wasn't marked o r anything . Wh en I saw it , I m o ved toward th e back of the bike, an d then I just hit it and crashed ." Campbell's ge t-o ff sen t him back to the pits, handing the race wi n to Healey. "I started on the back row, so it was like follow -the-l eader throu gh the wash because it is so rocky," Healey said . '" got around Jamie (Campbell) in the sand wash w hen he cartwheeled, 1 hope he is okay for the Fou r-Stro ke race, because he was going pre tt y good . I'll be o u t ther e if I can ever ge t the tingli ng out of my finge rs . Tha t bi ke has su percro ss suspens ion on it ." Behi nd H eale y a t th e fi nish w a s a nothe r C R250, ri d de n by Murph y . John ny Cam pbell cru ised to the finish in third after stopp ing mom en taril y in the wa sh to see if his brother Jamie wa s okay . Fourt h a nd fifth we n t to Bob Maxwell and Kurt Pfeiffer, respectively, who ran strong on adjus ted time. The tingling in his fingers mu st ha ve d isap pea re d , as Hea ley a n d h is IMS XR440 thundered to the ho leshot in the Four-Stroke/Vintage / Class ic race . Tailin g the leader wa s Johnny Campbell and Capt, both abo ard XR600s. Befor e Campbell co uld make a se rious th reat fo r the lead, he suffered a flat tire, handin g second pla ce to Capt. Ca m pbe ll rushed off to his box van to fix the proble m, but lo s I too much time in the process to po st a good finish . . When all was said and done, Healey ha d moto red his way to a near-sevenminute lead at the finish, ahead of Capt, Willie Phee, Shane Reed an d end uro ace Ji m McG ra th . Rex Sta ten top ped th e Vintage /Classic race af ter nabbing th e lead halfw ay through the hour-and -ahalf race. The sig n-up shee t for Sunday morning's Tea m ra ce looked m o r e li ke a National Hare and Hound than a Grand Prix . Team Green's Ty Davis and Don nie Book and Vosburg /Racing 's Destry Abbott sh owed up to give Healey and co m pany a r u n fo r th eir m oney . The team of Healey and Ca pt holeshot th e firs t row and ju m ped out to a n ea rl y physica l lea d . Davis got his KX250 off the li ne first in th e second w ave and head ed out in hot pursuit of Healey . Wh en H eal e y ca me arou nd at the end of the fir st lap, he handed o ff to Capt with less than a 30-second lead on Da vis . Ca p t rip ped o u t oft he r id er excha nge pit area just as Davi s hand ed o ff to Book. The team 'of Ondas and Oakley Lehman fo ll o w ed aboard a Tea m Green -backed KX250. Abbott pu lled intn the rid er-exchange area with a fro n t-a nd-rea r flat on hi s new KTM 200M/XC, which totally eliminated him and teammate Ron Lawson from a sho t at a podium finis h. The Davis /Book team, who were already leading on corrected time, managed to take over th e phys ical lea d when Book passed Capt out on the seco nd lap. That wa s all Davis needed, as Book handed him the controls to set out on the third of four laps. Davis opened up a co m ma n d i ng lead of a l m os t a minu te by the end of th e lap, givi ng Book the oppo rtunity to ride cau tiously to the checkered flag. The Hea ley / Capt team rumbled in for second, foll owed by On da s /Lehman, the KX500 of Doug Ch iapuzio and Jason Higgins, and th e fifth-p lace team of Chuck McCarthy and Alex Zapata. After w in ning th e Vet race, Krau se was back to cha lle nge Healey for th e co mbi ned Open /250 /125 ra ce . At th e start, Healey had a clear holeshot, but Krau se reeled him in going into the back sand-wash section of the course. "O n the fi rs t la p, we were ridi ng I throug h th e sa nd wash fast er tha n any other la p : ' sa id Krause about his battle with Healey for the first-lap lead . "We were goi ng through th e ro cks so fas t and I tho ug ht, This is crazy: so I bac ked o ff a little bit. I was abl e to smoke him in the sand y Seturns after the sa nd wash, but I cou ld not ge t around him." At the end of the first trip around the course , Healey had on ly three seconds on Kra use . Johnny Ca mpbe ll was within striking distance of seco nd place, as was the first -p lace 250 of Abbott. The 125s of Ru ss Pi g got a n d Q u i nt Be tt s found th emselv es in a h eated battle for the class lea d when clas s fa vorite Dana VanS tee seized his Tea m Gree n-bac ked KX125 o n the pavemen t sec tio n of th e course, chalking up his first DNF for the yea r. '" wa s fly in g down the pavement and I saw VanStee's rea r wh eel lock up and start smoking in front of me," said YZ-mounted Piggot of VanStee's misfo rtune. "His tire was smoking and everything, so I knew that he seized." Murphy came out on top of the 250cc class after Abbott s lam med his handlebars in to his thu mb, swe lling it up so mu ch that he d ecid ed to call it a day. Behind Murphy we re th e KX250s of Jo e y Lan za a n d Steve Hengevel d . Lan za ' s effo r t land ed h im a w elld eserved second in class, followed by Hen geveld , who jus t returned to racing a fter b reaking his n eck la s t June . Healey' s wee kend ended exactly th e sa me as it began, wi th a chec kered flag and an ov erall victory. "He was hauling ass on that thing," said Krause about Healey' s performan ce on the XR440. "I started to realize that I was n' t goi ng to catch him and that no one wa s going to catch me, so I backed off a bit ." . Krause finished a minut e and a half back, followed closely by Johnny Campbell, who turned a slow start into a close ru n for second place. On das too k fourth overa ll, followed by th e first-p lace 250 of Mu rphy. Piggot finished first 125 and 11th overall. '" just got my bike back from Italy," sa id Piggot who ra ced in th is year's 'SDE . '" recently moved down from Northern California to go to schooL This race is a bla st . It' s better than the hare scrambles up north." ." Glen Helen Raceway san Bernardino, California Unofficial Results: October 4-5, 1997 UlCLm : 1. Mikr Bealer (Hon); 2. Man Murph y (Hon): J . Jo hnny Ca m pbel (Ho n); 4. Bob Ma xwell (H en): 5. Kurt Pfeitter (Yam), 4·STKK EX: 1. Mike Heal ey (Ho n); 2. Jeff Cap t (Hon); 3. Willi e Phcc (Hon); 4. Sha ne Reed (Ha n); S. Jim McGrath (Han). VINTICLSSC: I. Rex Staten (Han), 80 EX: 1. Kur t Cu elll (Ka w); 2. Dan a Sla ter; 3. Dusty Rode. WMN EX: 1. Anna Cud y; 2. Kelly Yancy (Ka w ). SR EX: 1. Craig AddD\!> (G-G); 2. wnu- Kennedy (Hon); 3. RktlolnJ jde-hun (I

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