Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Right) Mike Healey ran away with the Vet race and, with teammate Tim Staab, finished second in the Night Race at the Prairie Dogs Grand Prix at Glen Helen Raceway. (Left, from left to right) En route to a third-place finish, Spud Walters hands over to teammate Scott Myers during the Night Race. The XR600 of Johnny Campbell and Jimmy Lewis won the event, while the KX2SQ-mounted team of Healey and Staab finished second. By Beth and Bob LaRock SAN BERNARDINO, CA, MAR. 6-7 . \" . 'rare than 1400 riders came '. /J from all over the West Coast to Glen Helen Raceway for the Malcolm Smith Motorsports seventh annual Prairie Dogs Grand Prix. This was their once-·a-year opportunity to race on the 10-mile course that consists of roaas, washes, downhills and ridge trails that winds throughout Glen Helen Regional Park. The most unusual event of the weekend was the Saturday night Semi-Pro Grand Prix team race, held on a completely unlit track. "It's a rush," said the winner of the Unclassified race, KTM team rider Nick Pearson, who paired up with his brother Russ. "It's not like daytime. It's adrenaline-punched." Acerbis/Sidi/Dunlop Tire-sponsored Johnny Campbell and Jimmy Lewis, the Baja 1000 champions, were not concerned with the prospect of riding in the dark. "We're both really good night guys," Lewis said, laughing. "We ride a lot of nights just for fun, so when they finally have a night race, it's really conducive for us. I think 90 percent of these guys have never ridden at night before." One team that definitely fell into the "never ridden at night" category was the team of Spud Walters and Scott Myers. Both Walters and Myers had a weekend off from the PACE Off-Road Series and decided to come out for the night experience. The current Off-Road Series points leader, Walters, said that they had borrowed a YZ400F from Applied Racing because it had a headlight. They w~re at a disadvantage, though, because they had a street-legal headlight, not a large, Baja-style headlight like those found on many of the bikes. The Dave Ondas/Oakley Lehman team were "half-experienced" for night racing. Ondas said that he had raced at night in Mexico, while this was Lehman's first night race. The Honda XR600-mou~ted Campbell/Lewis team took an early lead, followed by the Mike Healey /Tim Staab, Ondas/Lehman, Alex Zapata/ Chuck McCarthy, and Walters/Myers teams. During lap two, the Campbell/Lewis team developed a 30-second lead. Ondas/Lehman pulled into second, Healey /Staab into third and Walters/ Myers into fourth. . ru.. On the white-flag lap, Ondas crashed in the back section of the track, cutting his face and breaking his wrist. Earlier in the race, in the same section of track, Nick Pearson had also fallen, breaking his wrist and leg. At the finish line, the Campbell/ Lewis team held a commanding one.minute-and-50-second lead over the Healey /Staab duo. The ecstatic WaIters/Myers team came in third, with Steve Hengeveld and Jeff Capt in fourth. The Walters/Myers team could not believe they had come in third. '1t was so much fun, but the first lap was kind of scary," Walters said. "We didn't know where we were going." Myers was equally enthusiastic about the event, adding that he was surprised that the headlight had worked as well as it had. In other events -' races held under natural lighting - one of the largest classes to line up at the starting line was the Vet Open Experts. Team Green/IMS-backed Mike Healey showed his motocross/off-road versatility. He started off with the holeshot, and by the end of the race he had a oneminute-and-44-second lead over Vertimati-mounted Gordon Ward. '1 was going slower today than I was last night," Healey laughingly admitted, "just because I could see everything." Healey was asked·about his relatively new career in off-road racing. "The off-road racing is definitely more difficult," Healey replied, "a bigger challenge. You have to be mentally more alert. Motocross tracks you get to practice and train on. You know the track, lap after lap. Usually in the desert, it's just a first-time dea'l and you can't judge what's going to be out there." Ward, who appeared to be challenging Healey in the .first lap, lost his back brake in the second lap, which slowed him down, making him more cautious through the rest of the race. "No problem being third in a group like that," said KX500 rider Abe Baumann after being informed that he had placed third behind Healey and Ward. "I'm not a motocrosser. All of the motocrossers were banging bars, so I waited until the rocky straights and I'd try to get them back. I'm a desert racer fifth gear, pin it." Fourth-place finisher Rick O'Donnell said that he and Baumann passed one another three' or four times during the race.. . "I'm a motocross spe<;ialist," O'Dp,n, nell admitted. "The rocks like Abe likes scare the hell out of me." Another highly anticipa ted race was the Senior Expert class. Prior to the event, KTM marketing direCtor Scot Harden, a three-time winner of both the Baja 1000 and the Baja 500, admitted that watching other race starts makes him nervous. "You never know," Harden said. "Every race is like your first race. You don't know until you ,get out there. I like the course. It's a lot of fun. I just try to ride and have fun. I try to ride at a pace I feel safe at 'and then have fun with it. The distric.t has done a good job with the Grands Prix. I've been bringing my kids out and we've been riding. It's a good family thing for us." "I missed my first race, so I'm going out there blind," said TM-mounted Craig Adams on the line. "A lot of other people have already raced." Adams had bike problems on the starting line of the Unclassified race. Harden did not show any anxiety on the starting line when the flag dropped. He easily claimed the holeshot and rocketed into the back section of the track. Adams did not get as fast a start and came through the first turn in sixth. Nine minutes into the first lap, the riders re-entered the Glen Helen track for the motocross section of the Grand Prix. Charging hard with a 30-second lead, Harden was riding smooth. Adams power.ed his way through the pack into second. . With a 70-second lead on Adams at the end of the s.econd lap, it Was obvious that:.,unless Harden made a major error, he was going to handily win the Senior Expert class. Harden was able to maintain the l7-minute-and-30-second pace to the finish line. "I felt really good out there," said Harden. "My bike's working really good. It was a lot of fun. Once I got the lead, I rode my own race." "Scot was gone," Adams acknowledged. "It was a fun course. I rode the best I could." Third-place finisher John Ferro, on a Honda CR500, was pleased with the .race results. "I started in fifth," Ferro said, "so I had them all counted in front of me. I passed a couple, so I guessed I was in third." He added that a Grand Prix race is as much a mental contest as a physical one. "You can beat guys with your brain. It's so rough, you have to pick different lines. Your brain wakes up for it. 1I The final event of the weekend, the Expert/ Amateur l25cc/250cc/Open Four-Stroke event, saw Campbell take home a win in the Expert Open class. "It's nice to go home with another win," said Campbell. "I was so tight I made a lot of mistakes," admitted Kawasaki Team Green's Steve Hengeveld after winning the overall in the Expert class. "Oakley (Lehman) caught me and passed me; I passed him back; we diced back and forth for a couple of laps. Then I got him back just before the last lap." . Due to the large amount of riders who participated in the Prairie Dog Grand Prix race, results were not yet available.as of press time. ,. CJ) CJ) CJ) 43

• Cover