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/1542578
P92 FEATURE I JACK JOHNSON'S 1979 SCORE BAJA 500 WIN ing the 1977 Baja 1000, they collided with a car and DNFed. At the '78 Baja 500, Larry was injured weeks before the race, forcing Jack to ride with last-min- ute replacement AC Bakken. They led most of the way but finished second. Meanwhile, Brent Wallingsford and I— riding the other factory Husky—were in the middle of a historic run, winning four straight SCORE overalls. Jack and Larry finally ended both our SCORE streak and their slump with a win at the 1978 Baja 1000. At the season opener, the 1979 Parker 400, Brent and I squeaked out another win, so as the 1979 Baja 500 approached, Jack was hungry. But once again, fate intervened. Larry suffered another injury just before the race. Most assumed Jack would scramble to find a replacement. Almost nobody rode the Baja 500 solo, especially not riders seri - ous about winning overall. The race was simply too long, the terrain too punish- ing, and the heat too dangerous. The previous year, temperatures in the lower desert reached 128 degrees, and a racer died from heat exhaustion. But Jack Johnson wasn't most riders. When he announced he would ride the entire 403-mile course solo, many quietly questioned his sanity. That year's course was brutally technical: tight canyons, deep silt beds, rock gardens and long high-speed sections where a single mistake could be cata - strophic. More than a third of the race ran through the lower desert near San Felipe, where heat and dehydration were By the mid-'70s, Jack had established himself as one of the sport's rising stars, capable of winning hare scrambles one weekend, hare and hounds the next, and a grand prix the weekend after. But regional suc- cess wasn't enough. He wanted wins at the majors. His breakthrough came at the 1975 Mint 400, then the most prestigious off-road race in America. Jack and Mark Mason shocked the factory Husqvarna teams aboard a modest, local shop-supported Ya- maha YZ250. A second Mint 400 win in 1976—this time with Rolf Tibblin—earned Jack a coveted spot on the factory Husqvarna team for 1977, paired with the young phenom Larry Roeseler. In their first major race together, they won the 1977 SCORE Baja 500 overall. It looked like the beginning of a dynasty. Instead, adversity followed. The rest of 1977 and much of 1978 were plagued by bad luck. While lead - Johnson is the first and only rider to win the Baja 500 without a teammate.