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DODGE
Mickey Quade (he re) & pa rtne r Howard Utsey proved to have the speed and consistency wh ich ga ve t hem and the ir 450 Hus ky th e b ike w in .
b y Dave Sch o onm ak er
Photo s by T oddy R afferty, Bobi a nd
T om MX Culp, a nd Sc hoo n ma ke r
BAJA CALI FORNIA , MEXICO , Junc 7
- M an y an old Baj a d ese rt ra t has sai d
that Baja is f ull o f tri cks. T hi s year's
Baj a 500 pulled off a full scale illusion;
it turned o ut to be 610 m iles lo n g. To
th e co m pe ti to rs it p robably see me d to
be ab ou t 1,0 0 0. Th e 5 00 m il e Baj a
eve n t traditionally b egins and e nds in
Ense nad a, co ve rin g so me 5 0 0 mil es
d own the West co as t o f the peninsul a ,
then across th e peninsula , u p the East
co ast a nd b ac k across t o Ensenada. 8 0 0 f
the 12 0 mil es of p avemen t , wh ich have
alw ay s led do w n to Ch eck One at
Cam ulu , were elim inated this year, in
fav or o f some cl iff runnin g along th e
Pacifi c O ce an. Lots o f sc reams b y
burn ed up bikers, and m aybe a little
th ough t to t he n am e National Of f- R oad
R acin g As sociati on brought ab o u t the
pleasan t c hange.
With a ro ugher, d irt ier, cu rv-ier
co u rse , m an y o ld b ik e sa ges h oped fo r
th e o vera ll win wh ich h as escaped to the
h ands o f the fo ur-wh eelers for th e pas t
tw o years. It almost happened. Almo st,
b ut n ot q ui te, F our tc ams of bike rid e rs
were in th e runnin g, Mi cke y Quad e and
Howard U tsey came th e closes t , guess
wh o w on ? Parn elli. Wh o els e ?
Du e to th c lo nger course th e first
bike too k off two h o u rs earlie r this
year, at 10:01. The number o ne entry,
Bonhurst and Bonhurst ab oard a 4 50
K aw as aki, met immediate d isast er
b efore getting o u t of Ense nada. A p olice
bi ke pull ed o u t in front a nd - bam - a
broken arm for Bruce. At least it wasn ' t
(Co ntin ue d on pag e rl S }
Gene and Sam Dempsey turned in a fantastic performance on the ir 750 TriumPh sled, taki ng second bike.
Th e rear tire from the winn ing Husky afte r being excised at the halfway po int .
I
The Dempsey Triump h was a very sana rig.
