Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

In time, the Pfeiffer brotners were still second overall with only the Jeff Kaplan/Bruce Ogilvie Honda close behind their Yamaha. The French female team of Paris to Dakar class winners Christine Martin/Veronique Anquetil were running an hour off the pace, but would eventually finish third in class and were an hour and a half ahead of eventual second place finishers Dale Vranck.x/Blair Sharpless, a Kawasaki entry from Canada. Class 20 was still a paint-trader between Hopkins and Morrison. A Mexican Honda entry was within seven minutes of the two leaders. After the second check was the venue of the first amazing Baja stories to filter back. Kinney Jones went over the bars on the Diablo dry lake. He woke up, figured that he had lost about 10 minutes, picked up the bike and rode the roughest part of the course, the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters area is a giant rock pile that SCORE president Sal Fish said in riders' meeting was the worst it had been in 13 years. Jones apologized for being late then drove home to Riverside. He could not get out of bed the next morning and went to the hospital to learn of two broken vertabra through X-rays. He commented from his hospital bed that it was worth it. Fast riders were into check-three at San Felipe nearly an hour after leaving check two. Johnson was there in 59 minutes. Kelly an hour and Harden four minutes more than that. The injured Arnold was in in an hour also. The Steve Bell/Gary Drean Honda set fast class pace to the third check, clocking a one hour and four minute arrival. Previous leader Jackson lost four to five hours machining a 430 Husky piston to fit a 500 Husky before taking the bike to his partner and was way down at this check. Class 38 was tightening instead of spreading as every entry still running (six) was within 45 minutes of the others with four teams within five minutes. In elapsed time, the Bishop Watkins team was leading. Class 21 was still a Pfeiffer/Yamaha versus Kaplan/Ogilvie/Honda affair with the Honda actually ahead a shade on time. The three 125cc teams that were close at check two were closer with all three within eight minutes of the the others. From San Felipe and check three the course wound down the eastern coast before heading inland toward EI Crucero where check four was to be found. The ranks were beginning to thin by check four at where the course took off across the peninsula to join the highway for· a long stretch of pavement after El Arco, where the fifth check was placed. El Arco was also the halfway point and where most two-man teams would change riders. Before check six the battles would widen in Class 22. Scot Harden had the ignition in his Husky go out, but knew it was a weak area and had a spare in his fanny pack. He lost around 40 minutes to the speedy Honda team. The Australian team of Philip Lovett/Peter/Geoff Curtis seized their KTM and found a man willing to loan a top end from his KTM - quite likely the only other KTM 495 in Baja California. Dan Ashcraft was really having problems. At the finish he explained his delay, "My partner got a flat in the Three. Sisters and lost about 25 dr 30 minutes changing it on the course. Then I got on the bike; I rode about 10 miles and I got a flat. I didn't have a tube so I rode for 35 or 40 miles on a flat. Every pit we worked on the bike for about 10 minutes. Finally, my pipe cr"cked and melted a hole in my gas tank and all the gas leaked out. After trying to fix the tank for two loot Q.) ..0 E Q.) ;;.. o Z hours I bummed a tank from a guy, -but it was a three gallon tank so I had to carry gas." Ashcraft/Kelly still managed fourth overall. Lee Scheffers had crashed the Scheffers/Stearns 480 Honda and then the bike had ignition trouble. The check four to check five section was difficult, taking the fastest riders nearly three hours. Three teams were checked in during the 15th hour, race time, in Class 22, plus the Class 21 Pfeiffer brothers. They were only 10 minutes out of second overall. Honda mechanic Chris Haines set fast time between the two checks, clocking in three minutes faster than the leading Honda. Haines was riding the last 650 miles alone due to teammate Arnold's hand which contained a broken bone after his crash and swelled to the point of uselessness. In Class 30 things were getting hot between the two teams in contention for the lead. Mike Goodwin had taken command of the Shirey/Goodwin Yamaha and was closing on the Steve Bell and the Bell/Drean Honda.The action was cut short as Goodwin met Bell going the wrong way in the fish camps below San Ignacio. Goodwin had a strategy he recalled at the finish, "A lot of people were lost on the tidelands, but I knew where I was going. I cleaned house through there. I met Bell and he and I rode side by side for seven miles till I got him to the Honda pits. I took off and noticed six or seven guys following me so I took a zig zag through all that stuff. I think I got a lot of people lost, (Top) Scott Pfeiffer gets congratulations on his co-win. The crowd was enthusiastic. (Above) A casualty. but so was my competition!" Bell was not competition for long as his lights went out and he crashed heavily, damaging some ribs, a shoulder and a Honda. That put his team out. Racing in Class 38 had been tight at check three, but by check six it was a new story. The Folks/Switzer Husky was an hour down and the Bishop/ Watkins Yamaha and the Davidson Grant Husky were close. The Yamaha would soon drop from the race. Between check six and check seven, Switzer made up the deficit, then made up the winning time in the last section before the finish. For Class 38 the racing was essenti;,tlly over. The tight battle for the supremacy of Class 21 was over by six after the challenging Honda dropped from 9

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