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/128316
- - OFF-ROAD --1 R o u n d 1 :~ Tecate SCORE Off-Road Series s off-road races go, the 18th in the process. The tire change helped . "I had fresh meat to ride the Chanate annual Teca te SCORE San Wash," Hengeveld said of the tire change. ~ Felipe 250 was an easy race Chris Blais, Beau Hayden and Chuck .II to score: Give the first bike Dempsey brought their XR650R to secff the line the green nag for ond overall motorcycle and second in the the 227-mile course, wa it roughly four hours, and give the checkered nag to the Open class. The ir time was 4 hours , 30 minutes, 54 seconds , for an average same bike at the finish . speed of 50.4S mph . Steve Hengeveld and johnny "Everything went smooth ," said finCampbell, aboard the ir American Honda ishing rider Chuck Dem psey. "We left Precision Concepts-prepped XR650 R, were never ser iously challenged, posting the line fou rt h, and Chris got us into a winning time of 4 hours , 6 minutes and second place right away. We had a clean ride , no pro blems ." 49 seco nds. The pair averaged 53 mph over the usual rocky, dusty course. The Blais/Dempsey/Hayden bike stayed Nthough the 6 a.m. start was delayed in second the whole day, down 5 '/I minutes fo r 28 minutes wh ile SCORE got its ope rafter 50 miles and eventually finishing 21 at ions helicopter airborne, neither the minutes after Hengeveld/Campbell. Class 40 riders jim O'N eal, jeff Kaplan, delay nor the unusually cold morning air Tim Withers and Louie Franco picked up bot hered Hengeveld, who was calm until . thir d overall and fi rst in class on an the nag dro pped. "This isn't my first time as lead bike," immaculately prepp ed Scott Do nlavey Hengeveld said at the start. He later Berkley Honda XR650R. "Best bike we ever had," said O 'Neal. explained , "It was nice and easy, and Ididjeff Kaplan, w ho rode much of the first n't have to pass anybody. The course was section and also brought the bike to the rough, but I just had to dea l with it and finish, agreed with O 'N eal: "The bike was focus on what I was do ing." awesome: it ran even faster at the end." Campbell's race was pretty uneventfu l, However, Kaplan's start wasn't so too . "I had a fun ride; It's always nice to smooth. " I felt kind of tight," he said. " I win and a good way to start off our season," he said. just couldn't get going. My first time on The only glitch in the ride for the the bike was kind of slow, but when I got Honda team was when Campbell melted on again at Monelia, I did much better." the knobs off his rear tire near the North "We stuck to our plan, and it went end of the course in the Diablo Dry Lake beautifully," O 'Neal said. "Slow Lou ie area. With the cushion they had already down and give the horrible rock sec built up, Campbell did the tire change tion to Tim . He 's our rock man - they himself, dropp ing pro bably two minutes have plenty of rocks in Hawaii [where t ... 58 MARCH 24, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Tim Withers lives]." The second-place Class 40 finishers , jim Mcintos h and Tom Willis, took fi fth overail and were 20 minutes off the O 'Neal team 's pace. Bajaveteran Class-50 rider Dave Olen acted in a team-manager role, helping out with race logistics. "We' re pleased w ith fifth overall," Olen said. "We just need to iro n out some small things, and we are looking forward to racing together in the upcoming Baja events ." Class 30 had the most entrants, with nine starters and seven finishe rs, with the Ensenada team of Gerardo Rojas and Sergio Vega bringing in thei r XR650R to a class w in and fourth overa ll mot orcycle. "No problems," saidVegaat the finish . But he did spend severai minutes trying to help the Magana Class-22 tearn, whose rider suffered at least one broken leg in a high-speed collision with a cow that had wandered onto the course . Temecula Motorsportsbackedjames Bartnick and lim Filerrode yet another XR650R to second in Class 30. "Everything went pretty good," Filer said. "We rode the wh ole way without doing anything to the bike, and we didn't take any chances." With no other entrants in Class 21, the 40th Anniv ersary joe Des rosiers/Mark Daniels/jesse Sharpe Yamaha YZ250 was assured of a first-inclass with a finish, but the team also wracked up eighth overall. "We didn't ride with any less effort than usual," Desrosiers said. "We wanted