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/128641
E lsinore G rand P r ix S T O RY A N D PHO TO S BY M ATT F REEM A N LAKE ELSINORE, CA, NOV, 11-12 T he newly re vived Els in ore Grand Prix is a far cry fro m the woods of the AMA Grand Nationa l Cross Coun tr y Ser ies , but th at obviously doesn 't matter to T eam Suzuki Off-Road . For the past few years , Suzuki 's off-road racing effort ha s c oncentrat ed on th e GNCC s, which is a 14 -round serie s held in st ates east of the M issi ssippi Rive r. The co u rse l a y out i s ofte n muddy , ch alleng ing , semi-t ech nical and, after thre e hours of racing, a guy 6 NOVEMBER 29, 2000' cue nam ed Wat ts usuall y st ands atop th e podi um . At Californ ia 's Els in ore Gr and Prix , m ad e famou s by th e m ov ie On A ny Sunday , th e co urse is blisterin g fast, not techni c al at all , lac ed w ith pavemen t , d irt roa ds a n d du st. Sha ne Watts did win a few ra ces th rou gh out Despite be ing hit i n the face w ith a rock In the early laps of the Hamel 100, a b leeding M ike K iedrowski kept a blistering pace to take the overall win at the Els inore Grand Prix's premier event. tw o d ays of ra cing in th e t own of Lake El sino re, but he didn 't w in th e big one . T'eam Suzuki Off -R o ad ' s Mike Kiedrowski took th at hono r. The b ig on e is th e Hamel 100 , held in hon o r o f off-road ra c in g l eg en d Danny Hamel, w ho wa s k illed in an accide nt at the SCORE B aj a 500 in d ay 15 -race schedu le. It's a huge cl ima x after tw o da ys of racing around a si x -mil e cir cu it. Past w inners incl ude two -time AMA 125c c National Mot ocro ss c ha m p io n St eve Lam; son , former N atio n al Fo u r - St r o ke I e n e vv s 19 9 5 . What ma k es th e Hamel 10 0 big is th at it's the 15th rac e on a two- M oto c r o s s champion L a n c e Sm a il and j ack -of -all -trad es Mike Hea ley. Ki ed r o w s k i ac t u a lly r aced the Ham el 100 last year on a RM250 as a new member of Team Suzu ki. He ran at th e head of th e pack , but poor pit tactics resul ted in an em pty fuel cell , wh ich led to a DNF. This yea r, mounted on a 200 1 DR-Z400 , and pitted out of the Yoshimura /Suzuki sem i similar to that of Superbik e Champion Mat Mladin, Kiedrowski and company did everything right. So much so that teammate Steve Hatch fin ished the Hamel second overa ll aboard an identi cally prepared machine. "M y bike was geared perfect for th e tra ck : Kiedrowski said . " I didn 't want any less or any more high speed. It revved out right at the end , and tha t was perfect." T he entire Suzuki tea m, including Rod ney Sm ith , Hatch and Kied rowsk i had lackluster results on Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of Smith's win in the Over-30 race and a runnerup finish in the Open ra ce. However, by Sunday aft ernoon , every ch ange th at was made to the team 's DR -Zs under the Yoshimura tent throughout th e weekend definit ely paid off (even th ough many th ought they might have been out of the ir elem ent) . " I was kind of ske pt ic al of being here," Hatch said . "I'm not much of a hi gh -speed man . I like tight and te ch ni c al. The woods back east is my cup of tea . I got used to it though. I th ink that also ca me into it . I d id a cou pl e races ye sterday , but I told every body I' m not going to race until 1 p .rn . on Su nda y , bec au se we we re still testing and I was c hecking o ut l in e s. W e didn ' t r e ally show o u r co m ple te sp eed until today ." Team Suzu ki Off-Road didn 't supply the onl y ye ll ow b ikes t o take a checke red fl ag . A ft er racers used Saturd ay 's uri -sc ored Unclassified eve nt to become fam il iar with th e GFI Rac ing -create d course, RM 12 5- m oun te d R.J. T hompso n won the 9 a.m . 125cc ra c e. T hompso n 's m ain c ompet ition wa s KTM ' s Shane Wa t t s and T eam Green 's D estry Abbott, both fresh off go ld -med al performances at the ISDE in Spain . T hom pson , an 18-year-ol d m ot ocros s ph enom , who is obv io usly used to sta rti ng o n ce ment st ar t ing pads, grabbed a subs t antia l lead from th e wo rd go. Abbott nabbed second p l ac e , but b y th e ha lfwa y po int he could no longer hold on . "I got really bad arm pump ," said Abbott. "I had m y m otocross suspen si on o n, so t he stu tte r bumps w ere b ad . Watts pa ssed m e t o w ards the end. I don 't know if I could have done an y better an ywa y . They were rid ing rea ll y we ll. " Abbott went on to finish th ird, but ยท had it been for a be tter start on the part of Watts , the Aussie might have been abl e to g iv e Thompson a run for hi s m on ey. " I got a bad sta rt. B y th e tim e I ca m e throu gh , old m ate on th e Suzuk i wa s gone: explained Watts, abo ut