Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128083
Grand Prix '" '" '" ~ ~ ~ Q) .c E Q) (J Q) o 28 and pulled out a pretty goo d gap, proba b ly 10 seco n ds or m ore. Destry [Abbott] and Scott Myers were in there for a w hile." Abbott a n d M yers did chall en g e Watt s for a wh ile, but a fluk e throttlecable problem for Abbott took him ou t o f th e ra ce. Myers we n t o n to fi nish fourth behind second place Trachy and third place 10<250 rid er Dana Van Stee. Accordi ng to the KTM pit crew, howeve r, Watts' lap times durin g the 250cc race were slowe r than those of the 125cc r a ce, a fac tor that Watt s b la mes o n course cond ition. "I felt goo d on the 250, except I got real, mass a rm pump. That wasn't too nice," explained Watts. "I was apparent ly five to six seco nds fas ter a lap on my 125. Th e tr ack was rougher w he n th e 250s were out there, though ." Ju st af te r Watts put KTM o n th e podium for winning it s second race ov erall on th e day, KTM Sp ortmotorcycl e s N at ional Sales Mana ger Scot Ha rd en won ye t an ot her Legends race at Elsinore, his third in four tries. "Ma rty Moates got th e s ta rt and I pa ssed him on th e second lit tle paved road sec tion," sai d Harden. "Comin g into town I had a real big lead and I was ab le to cruise the rest of the way. Th e w in is really neat, especially considering there were guys like Rex Staten and LR [Larry Roeseler] and [Bren t] Wallin gsford , a lot of my personal heroes in that race." Wallingsford, Moates, Ron Turner and a di sappointed Roeseler rou nd ed out the top five in the Legends race. "I didn't do too good," said Roeseler, who rod e a KX250 during the eve nt. "I got a bad s tart and I honestly haven't (Right) Compet ito rs of the fir st annual Harve y Mushm an team race were required to carry a Bean ie Baby wit h them when th ey rode and then hand It off to the ir partners along with the bike . It didn 't bo the r the winn ing team of (left to right) Watts, Bob Rutten, Bren t Walllngsford and Harden any , as the fourman team barely beat out an ATV for the win. ridde n since the middle of Sep tember." Roesel er wo uld later red eem himself on Su nday, wi nn ing th e Over 40 class in the combined Over 35/ 0 ver 40 race. With n o Watts, a n d Harden n ot entered in the Open race, KTM turn ed to Scott Myers, who outl ast ed Heal ey ' s ea rly lead to win the overa ll. YZ400mounted Trachy notched ye t a no ther top-five finish, this time finishing runnerup, ahead of Team Green's Dave Ond as. Watts finished the day by teaming up with Harden, Wallingford and Bob Rutten to wi n the Ha rvey Mu shman team rac e, an even t he ld in honor of ac tor Steve McQueen . . "Our team was made up of three old Baja r a cers and a man fr om' d own und er," comm ented Harden. Th e " ma n from down und er," by coincidence, was quite impressed with th e entire wh o opla of th e Elsin ore Grand Prix. . "Th e course is good," commend ed Watts. "I like all the tarmac bits. I nev er ge t a cha nce to race on the st reets at home. It was really fun because you come ou t of a comer, do a big slid e out, grab a nother gear and keep doing those big d rifters. It's awesome." With fun still on his mind, on Sunday morn in g W at ts a n no u nced tha t he wou ld r id e a 125 in th e H am e l 100 ins tea d o f a 250 because of the h ighspeed circuit. "I proved that I could race this stuff w ith the good gu ys, and I won, " sai d Wa tts abou t his su ccess on Saturd ay. "Today is just like a holiday. If I win it's a bonus , if no t I had an awesome d ay yesterday and I'll hav e some real good fun today. Plus, riding the 125 gives me a good excu se if I d on't win." More good guys showed up to race on Sun day, and the ones that were already there on Saturda y picked up a not ch with money on the line. Ty Davis, Mike Kiedrowski, S teve La m son , Gord on Ward, Esposito and Abbott all s igned u p for the Unclass ified or the age-di vi- sian races on Su nday morning . Every scheduled race on Sunday basically turn ed out to be a wa rmu p fo r the Ham el 100, es pecially for Hea ley, who finally came to terms with a motorcycle durin g the Over 25 race. "Las t nig ht I sta rted talking to Larry [Roesele rl abou t ra cing th e H am el ," explai ned Healey, who gave up hope on th e KX500 on which h e h ad b roken d own twice on Sa tu rday . "La rry said, 'You ca n rid e my KX250 or KLX365: and I thou gh t, 'Well, I don't wa nt to rid e th e 250, it' s too ro ugh and it will kill me: I said, 'Can I rid e the KLX?' and he said, 'Yah, yah, you can try it out in the . morning and see what you think: I tried it and I loved it, so we decided that I'd rid e it. I raced the Ov er 25 class against Ty [Davis] and those guys and won. It pulled the bigger bikes easily." , At th e end o f th e first lap of the 1 p.m. Hamel 100 race, it was no surprise to se e Davis in the lead a b oa r d h is YZ400 with Healey, Watts, Myers , Tra-