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'i;. , OFF-ROAD Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 o By Brian Faris 00 0\ 0\ ,..... 0\ .... ill ..a E ilJ U ilJ c 8 LA PAZ, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO. NOV. 13-15 oh nn y Ca mpbell a nd Jimmy Lewis teamed up to 'win th is year' s 31st running o f the Tec ate SCOR E Baja 1000. The Honda XR600 rid ers comp leted the J062-mile, San to Tomas-to-La Paz race in 18 hours, 58 m inutes and 48 second s, av eragin g 56.38 mph . Their w in Campbe ll ' s seco nd a n d Lewis' fir s t was Honda 's nin th Baja 1000 success, and thi s year's race saw all five classes won by Honda-mounted rid ers. Fini shing se co nd o verall, also o n a Honda - a ki tted XR628 - was the three- man team made up of G reg Br.ngle, Craig Smith a nd Jonah Street. They crossed the finish line a little under an hour after th e Ca m pbell /Lewis bike, stopping the clock at 19 hou rs, 57 minut es and 39 seco nds . Of the 28 motorcycle-class entra nts, 2I of th em saw the finis h line. Campbell was the sixth rider to leave the start line Friday morning, bu t he ha d the lead on ad jus ted tim e af ter just 10 miles of racin g. Ca mpbell, w ho called it a "clea n s ta rt," then took ove r as th e ph ysical lead bike aft er the firs t checkpoint, located at Ce rro Solo, 42.9 miles into the course . J ohnny Campbell (show n) teamed up with Jim my Lewi s to w in this year's Teca te SCORE Baj a 1000. The w in was also Team Honda's ni nth at the 1000. Tea mmate Lewis too k ove r and rod e th e 60-m ile second sec tion. giving th e bi ke ba ck to Ca m pbel l ju s t past Sa n Qu intin. By the tim e Lewis go t back on the bike at San Ignacio to com p lete the pen insula run, their lead was so so lid th at Lewis co uld back off his top end and conce nt ra te on stay ing away fro m mechani cal problems or any high -speed get-oHs th at co ul d qui ckl y cha nge things. "Th e bi k e worke d re all y good , " Campbell said afterward. "I tried to stay smoo th and not hit any big rocks. From o u r pi t five to t he b ea ch was rea ll y rockv and twistv." Ca m p be ll sa id hi s m o st exci t ing moment wa s when he left the course to av oid a truck (w hile try ing to reach his pit. located past Catalina) and ended up "jump ing a Port- A-Potty." Eddie Mulder, the 55-yea r-old Cla ss C rider wh o team ed with Scot t Du n lavey a nd ex-rno tocrosser Ric ky Johnso n, had so me anx ious mom ent s as well, ca ll ing hi s s ec tio n o f the ra ce " ha m me r tim e ." H e reca lled b ei n g ca ug h t b y th e Iv an S tewart Troph y Tru ck a nd be in g p a s sed tw ice . (Th e truck suffered two flats.) Muld er , w ho still rides with a too thpick in his mou th, sa id, "It's a n ho no r to rid e with Scott and Ricky and a rea l pl eas ure to be in the race at my age ." • Third Open Pro-class bike was a Baja Designs-prepped XR600 pilo ted by Joel Tarq uin, Ala n Rou ch , Richard Jackson, Chad Pet relli and Eric Brow n. Their finis hi ng time was 22:6:8 . T hey had a smooth run with no major prob lems and were ve ry pleased with their light in g system, an important factor w hen racing the Baja 1000 at night. They ran one nonfilame nt HID bu lb with another standard halogen bes ide it, more or less as a backup. Baja De sign' s Alan Rouch, who designed the majority of ligh t sys tems used in the race, said, "The HID light was three tim e s b ri ghter and only pulled 45 watts." Things got exci ti ng for Ta rquin on th e last section wh en he go t clipped by a Class I buggy. I 0 re al damage was caused, but after that he said it was hard to get back up to speed in what was a 70-mph sect ion . In Class 21 (250cc) racing . Francisco Cas tro and Arturo Davila, bot h of La Paz, bro ug ht in a CR250 in 25:52:54 for the class win. Th ev bested Tom Grisham and Carl Fische r by more than an ho ur . Less than six minutes separ ate d first an d second pla ce in C la s s 30. Mik e Barnhill and Brian Schm uc kJe, Cliff Matlock and Ma tt Barney fin ish e d in 22:31:52 in sp ite of five flats, two broken rims a nd a bad co un tersha ft seal. Edy Ga rcia fini shed se co nd w ith a time of 22:36:47. "The Hon d a pits were grea t," Barnhill said, "a nd we had a smooth run for the firs t 170 mil es." Du rin g the next 400 miles came the wheel-a rid- tire troubles . Also, the countershaft seal failed, "w hic h the Honda pits replaces in minutes," Barnhill said. Meanwhile, in Class 30 com pe tit ion, the Dunlavev / Mu lder / Johnso n XR628 w as having-its own problem s. They ended up pushing a dead bike to the finis h line - an effor t that locked up th e class p oints win for Dunlavey and his crew. With Johnson taki ng the class lead a t EI Arco an d ru nning fift h overall, they blew the transmission. After several ho urs of attempted rep airs, the team w a s a ble to get t h ir d gea r o n ly a nd nursed the bi ke to with in sig ht of th e lig hts of La Paz. There, at the last summ it before the finish, the bike locked up for go od . Th ey too k th e chain off and push ed the bike to the fin ish . A grateful Dun la vev ca lle d their finish "a ' tr u e team effo~t.'· In C lass 40 ac tio n, all fo ur sta r ters finis hed . Th e XR60 0 Ho nd a of Garv Tepn er and Ross Grego ry ende d up taking the win over the Chris Haines KTM en try.