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/127413
eHARE SCRAMBLES I.Hamel lands Laughlin win,takestitle Best in the Desert Grand Slam Championship_Se_ri_es_:Fina_lR_o_UD_d __ ~ By Anne Van Beveren Ph otos by T om Van Beveren '-- Danny H amel wrapped up the Best in the Desert Grand Sla m Championship Series title with the La ughlin win. Jimmy Lewis finished second overa ll, 10 mi n utes behind Hamel. Lewis scored the 250cc class victory. ---=-_ LAUGHUN, NV, DEC. 7 n a fou r-h our battle on one of the toughest courses of the year, KTM 's Danny Hamel scored the overall win at the Laughlin Hare Scrambles, addin g yet another championship title to his name. With the Laughlin win, the 'recen tly crowned Hare & Hound Nationa l Champion, Hamel, clinched the Best in the Desert Grand Slam Championship title. The 19-year-o ld racer from Boulder City, Nevada, led from start to finish, taking the checkered flag approximately I0 mi nutes ahead of his nearest riva l - teammate J im m y Lewis. Rou n d in g out the top five were Kawasaki's Scott Morris, ATK 's John . Rudder and Yamaha-mounted Brent Fox. "T h is was definitely one of the best races of the year, " said Hamel. "The course was challenging; it never let up for a minu te - you never got a break." The fina l round of the Casey Folk's Best in the Desert Series attracted 200 riders to the race site, located near the riverside gambling resort of Laughlin close to th e Nevada/Arizona border. The drawing for start posi tions put Hamel on th e front row alongside KTM-mounted Daryl Folks. The rest of the 29-rider Pro class field lined up beh ind th em , an d a long line of Sportsmen entries stretched off into the distan ce. Wh en the gree n sta rt i n g light flashed at 9 a.m., Hamel rocketed out of the chute and into the lead , leavin g' behind a cloud of 'd ust. The two-rider waves followed at !lO-second intervals. The course was laid out in a figu re . eight, with a nine-mile first loop and a !II-mile seco nd loo p . Pros a nd Experts faced three laps for a tota l of 120 miles, The rest went two loops. The two 40-mile laps had many of the racers worried. - " I only have a stock tank on the bike and I wasn 't sure I'd ma ke it," said Over !l0 Pro rider Darin Cartwright, "There's a lot of sand ou t there and it eats up the gas. " Car twright carried an extra q uart of gas just in case, and ma naged 'to use it all in the first thr ee mi les of the race. " A cactus punctured my gas bottle in the first part of the short loop and .emptied gas all over my crotch," said Cartwright. "You could've wrung my I pants out." 40 Kevin Steele got off to a slow start when the spark pl ug fouled in the first three yards. The Open Expert-classed rider los t four minutes installing a new plug, but his luck was still better than Over !l0 Pro Bria n Schmuckle's . Schmuckle crashed in the jetting area the day before the race and was out with a broken shou lder before the event even began. ) Hamel co m p let ed the n ine-mile opening section in 20 minutes. He £lashed through the pits a minute and a half ahead of Folks, and was already one minute ah ead of his fastest rivals on adjusted time. KTM 250cc rider Greg Searle and J immy Lewis were the closest, a minute beh ind an d racing n eck-and-neck for second, with Honda-mounted Dan Ashcraft , KTM rider Destry Abbott and Car twright less than a half a minute slower. Meanwhile, Hamel maintained his lead. " It was pretty tough being first off the line," said Ham el. "The course was all virgin. There were no other tracks to follow so it reall y wasn 't to my advantage." The course was tight and technical all the way. It twisted through sandy washes, dodged back and fo u rt h among crowded cactus and ploughed through pil es of loose rocks. "It beat you to death. You ' could