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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127531
Ty Davis scored third in the Open class and fifth overall aboard his factory ATIC.
Darin Cartwright firtished third overall and first in the Over·30 Pro class.
alley. As the KX500 powered out of
the pits to tackl e th e final 41 miles of
the race, it was a full four mi nu tes
a h ea d of second-place Sweetland.
Cartwright dashed through the p its in
third on adjusted time, five minutes
beh ind Hamel, Zitterkopf held the
250cc Pro lead in fourth overal l, and
there was half a minu te back to Davis.
KTM 's Scot Harden , wh o was chasing
Cartwright for Over 30 Pro honors,
was sixth on adjusted time, foll owed
by Ondas, Mark Morris, Open Pro
T odd Hoy, and 250cc Pro hopefuls
Rudder and Sanford.
Folks arrived in th e middle of th e
leading bunch , still trying to regain
the time he'd lost helping Abbott in
loo p one, bu t Scott Morris had abandoned any hope of im p rov ing his
finis h. "The bike was still giving me
problems. It stuck again and 1 had to
have a pi t person tow me to get it
star ted, and 1 stopped in loo p two to
help another rider wh o 'd fallen. By'
that stage 1 was just ridi ng to get a
fini sh," said Morris.
Man y of th e riders were hoping for
a rest as the y headed int o the final loop
of the course, but th e last 41 miles were
every bit as tough as th e 77 miles they 'd
already comp leted.
"The th ird loop was no fu n a t all,"
said Ri chard Wilk, who led the Ope n
Experts for mos t of the race. " It went
down in th e flat area where there's
noth ing but pure sill, rocks and roads.
It was j ust p ounding, pounding,
pounding, with no break. It wasn 't
really a race of skill - it was just a
test of how strong your back muscles
Hamel gree ted the checkered flag more than four minutes ahead of the competition.
were."
Even Hamel slowed down for loo p
three. " A lo t of it was an old buggy
course and it was really scary because
the rocks blend in and you can 't see
them," he explained. " You couldn' t
charge reall y hard through the re."
But desp ite th e slower speeds , Hamel
sti ll maintained his four-minute mar gin. Sweetl an d was unable to close the
d ista n ce from seco n d a n d , while
Cartwright closed in on Zitterkopf and
gained more of a margin over th e
fourth-place rider , he was unable to
make up any time on the race-long
leader.
Further back in the pack, hopes were
fadi ng fast. Harden lost his bid to catch
Cartwright when he hi t a rock 20 miles
from th e finish. " I was right behind
(Mark) Morris andRudder and 1 hit
something in the du st ," said Harden.
" I was in fourth gear and 1 went clear
over the bars. 1 loo ked down and saw
a bunch of rocks bu t 1 landed rig ht
between them in the only soft spot,"
T odd Hoy disappeared from the top
10 somewhere in loo p th ree, T om
Webb 's bid for Over 38 Expert honors
was put on the line when his rear tire
came comp letely off the rim in the las t
few miles, and Davis was unable to
hold on to the nu mber fou r spot, " I
wa s do in g o kay un ti l my h a nd
cra mped up. It was reall y bad and 1
co uldn 't twi st the throttle or any th in g," the ATK pi lot expl ained.
After 118 mil es and nearly th ree
hours of racin g, H am el's four-min u te
margi n wa s still i n tact when h e
charged home to take the checkered
flag. "The course was great and it was
rea lly marked well. That's what saved
us in a lot of places," said Ham el
(Kawasaki/ Pro Circu it/ Answer/ Metzel er /Maxima/ Acerbis/ F&L /RK/N St yl e/ Scott/ Sprocket Sp ec.lScotts/
Shoei/Bak Canteen ). " It was a challengin g race, and 1 had a great time."
Sweetland's KX500 mad e it two in
a row for T eam Green. " It was p retty
uneventful. 1j ust tri ed to ride hard and
consistent," said the KawaskaiiShoei/
Smith /Tsubak i/ Acerb is/ Metze ler /
Max ima /FMS /Suno co / D u n lo p /
Scott's Suspension-backed racer. Sweetland said his only problem was cau sed
by the gu sty conditio ns. " It was a little
windy and that bothered my eyes. 1 got
some stuff in them because it was
blowin g so hard, but that's abou t it,"
he repo rted.
Cartwr igh t brou g h t h is 250cc
Yamaha home in th ird overall to claim
the Over 30 Pro win. The WR250 pilot
was less th an six m in u tes behin d
H amel and topped Zitterkop f, the first
250cc Pro , by 21 seconds. "The course
was too fast for me," said Cartwrigh t
(Mont clair Yamaha/F&LlTop Fuel/
Cauby Cresby). " I slowed down in the
third loop. I'm 30 now and it takes
longer to heal. "
Zitterkopf su m med h is rid e up in
on e sentence. " I screwed up a few tim es
in th e second loop, but overall 1 had
a great tim e."
T y Davis claimed fifth overall (third
Open Pro) ahead of David Ondas, Scot
Harden too k second Over 30 Pro in
seven th overall , and Ma rk Morr is
edged J oh n Rudder out of second 250cc
Pro by half a mi n u te. "That was a great
cour se," Onda s said. "I didn' t thin k
it was that tough, but it was all virgi n,
with twisty tra ils and cross grain. "
Scott Gl imp edged RichardWilk o ut
of 10th place and the overall win in
the Sportsman division by just six
seconds. Chad Tichenor bro ught the
first 250cc Sportsman entry home just
15 seconds later in 12th. " Other than
the clutch slipping on the top end on
th e fast roads, everyth ing went okay.
The clutch made a bit of difference,"
said Gl imp (KT M).
J ohn Braasch took a wire -to-wire
win in the 125cc Pro class in 16th
overall. The Kawa saki / Maxima /
Smith/Pro CircuitlTricklNGKIUni/
AXO -backed racer com ple ted the
course more than five mi nutes ahead
of second-place fin isher Charles Klin e,
wh o rode two-up on a Su zuki with a
Nin ja Turtle called Michelangelo.
Bill Maxim was out in front of the
Over '38 Pros by a full 15 minut es.
"Good course - a little bi t of everything," was the verd ict fro m th e
KX500 racer. Max im 's closest competition came from Kevin Colan (KT M)
in 51st overa ll an d Sam Bass fin ished
j ust three spots back to claim third.
Eighteen- year-old Shawn Harris
came ou t on top of the Amateur class
competi tors in Hid overall, and Dan
Pow er s wrestl ed his Vintage class
H usky home at the head of the pack
L"i
in four and a half hou rs.
Results
0 / A: 1. Danny Hamel (Ka w) : 2. Ganh Sweetland
(Kaw); 5. Darin Canwright (Yam ); 4. Gr