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/128232
B e s t in the D e s e rt Si lv e r S t a t e S e r ie s R ou nd 6 : B a ja Mex 300 (Left) Daryl Fo l ks (p ictured) and Paul Krause ran into major problems wh e n the chain on their KTM broke. They still fin ished s ixth overall. fo rwa rd to th e c o m pe ti tion co m ing down. T hey rode a good rac e." Cam pbell and Hengeveld suffered a flat rea r tire at last year's Baja Mex and fini shed second to Childress and Gr i de r (w ho t e am e d u p o n a n XR650 R at th e tim e ). Bla is soloed and arrived at t he fln ish first among the Fo ur -Stro k e Pros and fou rt h physically, but when Gr id er pulled u p next, everyone went to work co mpa ri ng st a rt a nd f ini sh ti mes . A s i t tu rn ed o ut, t he Dem psey / Gr ider t eam prevailed this time afte r working the entire race to overcome thei r deficit. "I' m not sure how far I was behi nd Chr is Blais when I go t o n at pi t three, bu t I was ab ou t t wo minutes beh ind Krau se," Gr ider said . " J ust wh en I left the pav em en t and hit t he go at tra il [nort h of Vall e de Trin ida d], there was dust. A t th e top of th e goat trail it was wet, and I co ul d see hi s helmet, and I slid righ t in . Within a c ouple m iles, , got by him , and I had no du st all th e way to th e fini sh, except for a co up le spec t ato rs here and the re. " At the finish, Grid er add ed , '" never saw Ch ris o nc e. , got into p it fi ve at Inde pe nde ncia, and th ey t o ld ra in ruts . Com ing in t o p it si x ( t he f ina l o n e , mil e 287 ) I d idn' t fee l m yself cha rg ing any m ore. 1 go, 'I' m ju st go ing to put Steve on [t he bik e) here ,' because I feel li k e m y rac e is done . That w a s m y r i de . It w a s a clean ride, I m ade time on them · but , basically , I guess J ohnny Campbell (Above) As u sual, Ch ristoph e r Blais rode every mile of the race and finished fifth overall and second FourStroke Pro. (Below) Doug Heil, Jeff Kaplan and Joe Villegas made a strong case for the saying that o ld age and treache ry beat youth and enthu s i as m , as the tri o of Ove r-40 Expe rts b eat all ot h e r Sportsmen t o the finish a nd were seventh overall m ot o rcyc l e. needs the Baja 1000 to [come fr om that far behind) ," he quipped . " I loo k BRIEFLY••• Kurt Caselli on leading the entire way in his first Baja race: " It's kind of sketchy when you 'r e coming arou nd those corners; you don' t really know if there's a car com ing or anyth ing. I saw , like, maybe thre e cars , and dude , I almo st hit a horse so bad! He wa s on the right side of the course. and I rew ed the engine. and I figur ed he' d keep going to the right , but he tumed back and went straight across in front of me , I just loc ked 'em up, and luck ily it jump ed right as I was going past him. But when it jumped , it bucked. and his feet we re - I swear - right in front of my face ' The people out here are awesome. They love it when we're riding by , Some of them are kind of c razy - they' ll dig ditche s - but besides that. it' s fun. I like it. I wo uldn't mind co ming down and do ing so me more races. You 've just got to ride heads-up . " Mike C hil dre ss reported on his close enco unte r with traff ic on the co urse : " I was abou t five or six miles back [f rom the finishl . I was just cruising to the finis h. it was an Isuzu Trooper. and he wa s go ing backward s [on the coursel. I clipped the back of him. I didn't fall. but I stalled the bike and had a few word s w ith th e per son inside of it. • Among the many adventures in Baja. Kurt Ca selli and Joey Lanza experienced one while pre· running with Larry Roeseler (who preran on a KTM but raced to third overa ll and the Class 7200 win in his Ford Ranger), In the latte r stretches of the cou rse , which they hadn't prerun yet. Caselli and Lanza got separate d from Roeseler with darkn ess com ing on quickly and no headlights on their bikes , They co ntinued to press on slower and slowe r as the light faded , eventually putt ing along in first gear unt il they finally ran out of gas. ' W e're pushing our bikes down the road [in Uru apanl at midnigh t , and we see LR comi ng backward s loo king for us, ' Lanza said. ' W e' re all freaked out, before he showe d up, not knowing where we're at, but we made it. Yeah , it was scary' W e were just about ready to put our bikes down and camp out on the tra il. because we cou ldn't see anyt hing ! We kept crashing. Neither one of us had lighters or matches. We were out of water. We 're like. 'This is like out of the movie s!' " Paul Kra use 's ride came to a halt o n the eas tern side of the course w hen the bike's chain b roke. Fort unate ly, it didn't wad itself up into a ball around the countershaft sprocket. U nfortu nately , it flew off into the bushes . and Krause probab ly spe nt just as much ti me searching for It as he would've if it had wrapped around the bike . He eventually found it and made repairs afte r a good half hour . The first Expert team to finish turned out to be a trio of • seaso ned ' veterans: Over 40 Experts Do ug Heil, Je ff Kaplan and J oe Villegas rode an O'Neal/ Xft ' s Only/ Heil Co nstruc tion-backed XR650 R to their come -fro m-behind class and overall Expert victory. In fact. two of the first three Expert finishers were Over-40 tea ms. Esteban Cruz, Roge lio Pando and J . David Ruvalcaba were 10th ove rall but. more importantly . sco red firs t on two accoun ts - Four-Stroke Expert and Mexican team . Ano ther all·Mexican team comprised of Francisc o Septien , Carlos Vega and Victor Villalobo s C of Ensenada , as all weill were the first Ama teurs, winning the Four -Stroke Amateur class and finishing 20th overall. 52 S EPTEM BER 17, 2003 eye I e n e vv s