Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

- Briefly... ''The sport is heahhy," said SCORE CEO Sal Fish, citinS the record number of entries in both wvo wheel and four-wheel vehicles. A total of 2 i9 of the 340 official starters finished within !he l0-hour time limir in the race. Robert Laughlin, tr"ying to follow-up solo wins in all three Baia races in lhe Sportsman class, wasn't able to find a comfortable pace while competinS in Class 30, but still manated to finish in the top 20. lim O'Neal has competed in all 20 Felipe races. Cameron Steele competed in three diflerent classes - two in four-wheel vehicles and as a Class 22 competitor. Andy Grider has not recovered sufficiently to race a motorcycle yet. but that didn't keep him from parti.ipatang in the eveot all together - the Baia racer did some pre-running in a Trophy Truck. Because of the hiSh number of entries, both Factory Hondas fin- ished before the last four-wheelers left the start line. SCORE offi- cials had their hands full managinS traffic as the bikes crossed the finish/start line. from Temecula Motorsports and Precision Concepts, also PlSR." Ron Wilson, who was lucky to 8et to the finish when he did, rode solo to a third-overall finish in 5: l3:20. "lt tried to blow up, and I could only ride it half throttle; it ran out of oil," Wilson said of his threarening-to-seize bike. "The rain made it pretty excitinS - everything went very well, we had no crashes " Jim O'Neal, Jeff Kaplan, Randy Morales, Tim Withers and Tom Willis teamed up for fourth overall with a time of 5: l5:07, Team O'Neal also continued their stranglehold on first place in Class 40, win- ning the division for the sixth consecutive year. "This team is like fine wine, it keeps getting better with age,'' O'Neal said. "They're all veter- ans and they iust don't mess up. Our bike was dead-on reliable, but also the fastest bike in the race. This was once in a lifetime conditions, and I never had so much fun riding the Huatamote Wash. I did have a scare on Laguna Diablo going maybe 95 when the rear end came around. That spooked me and I backed off " Kaplan took the bike just offthe start for Team O'Neal and rode the first 30 miles. then took over again at Percebu and brought the bike to the finish. His usual pace was slowed a bit due to a hard crash during pre-running. "l had a slow ride in the morning," Kaplan said. "l just rode, not really rac- ing, maybe a little better at the finish. The Dunlavey-prepped bike was magic." Jon Ortner, a 45-year-old pro motocrosser, piloted a CRF450X to fifth overall, soloing in a time of 5:15:21. Onner, who "traveled light," regretted his decision to forgo body armor when he rode up on a cow drinking rainwater out of a tire rut. ''The cow swung his head to look at me and the horns nearly got me," Ortner said, demonstratinS how he had to turn his body on the bike to clear the horns. Kenneth Lopez, I 5-year-old Roberto Villalobos, and Victor Hernandez rode their fZ450F to a first overall in Class 2l , in 5:33:29. Lopez finished with a bro- ken wrist sustained in a crash 40 miles earlier, but was upbeat about their day. ''The course was rough, but it was a lot of fun," Lopez said. "There was a lot of competition." Rounding out Class 2l was the team of l"lartin Beiarano and Chuck Dempsey on a CRF450R, who finished over four minutes ahead of Ernesto lnowe and Victor Gomez, riding a Y2250. With five decades of Baja racing, the Dempsey Brothers - Gene and Sam - teamed wath other Baia veterans Doug Smith. Charlie l"larshall, Dana Reed and Eric Biorklund to win Class 50 on an XR550. The team admitted to one get- off and said the rear shock staned going away after half the race, but they weren't bothered by the wet conditions. Team O'Neal also had a Class 50 entry, which had to settle for a second in class after winning both Class 40 and 50 last ).ear, Besides Jim O'Neal, the other riders were Mike Sixberry DouB Heil, and Kenny Hayden, and they rode an XR650. lJnlike the O'Neal Class-4o entry the 50 team had some problems, including a crash; missing a pit and having to backtrack for gas; and at least one other reported high-speed get-off. "l don't like a second, but I'm happy it was my friends, the Dempseys, who won," O'Neal said. The Over-25Occ Sportsman class saw 27 starters leave the line. Solo rider Scott Mapes had to work his way past l5 riders ahead of him to get the class win. Mapes had the suppon of longtime Baja motorcycle racer David Callaway, and they decided that the CRFX450 would be more suited to a solo effort, "l'm pretty tired - it was a solo run," Mapes said. "l had one decent fall, but it went pretry good for my first race in l9 years. l'm ready to turn 40 and l'd thought l'd give this a try" Rounding out the class winners were Alberto Gonzales and l'4anuel Espinoza, who piloted a KTM around the course in 6:26:38 to win the Under-250cc Sportsman division. For the first time since the mid-'9os. Johnny Campbell didn't race, but did act in his new Honda role as a team coordi- nator, assisting Bruce Ogilvie, and he suited up as a back-up if needed. His plan is not to race until the Baja 1000, where he has a nine-race winning streak on the line. Gll BAJA sUR SaN FELTPE, MExrco Rrrurrsi MaRcH I 2o05 CYCLE NEWS O APRIL 5, 2W6 41 t 7) Ii L I / 3 q+=. \ \ n I Briqn Pinord (pi

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