"Nob od y can argue tha t h e has the
speed, but at the beginning of las t season. he had a ten de ncy to make mental
errors. We 've worked on that a lot this
off-season, and Steve did a good job of
maintaining his concentration."
Davis ga ined back a point on Hatch
in the first special test of loop three.
Ha tch finished the toug h third and final
loo p wi th a total of 12 points d ropped,
with Davis two poin ts back at 14.
"I ju st went slow to be fast, " said
Hatch. "I tried going fast a couple tim es
ou t there , and ended up scaring my self,
so I backed off a notch. I had a lot of
fun ; it w as a good event."
"After I burned tha t check, I figured
m y score w as ruined," said Da vis. "I
just pinned it for the rest of the way; I
co ul d n't believe I en d ed up with sec·ond ."
Pepper was another two points back
in third ove rall, while H a w kin s
dro pped 17 points for fourth. "I just had
a hard time getting a rhythm out there,"
said Hawkins, who rarely w ins the season opener. "I never really got com fortab le all day."
National Hare & Hound Champion
Danny Hamel made a strong showing
by finishing fifth on his KX250, collecting a total of 19 points. Team KTM's Jeff
Russell was three more points down in
sixth, despite some mistreatment by an
Arizona boulder.
"I crashed ha rd," said Russell, a former Nationa l En duro Champion. "I
came over one of those blind rises
where th e trail turned, and I hit a big
rock and went over the bars. Then the
rock tu mbled down and landed on top
of me."
Larry Roeseler piloted a KDX200 to
seventh overall ahead of Jim Gray , with
Kevin Hine s co llectin g eighth. H ines
was rid ing a new Honda CRE260, and
had a good ride going before running
out of gas n ear the en d of loop two.
(Suz) 17; 5. Danny Ha me l (Ka w) 19; 6. Je ff Russell
(KTM) 22: 7. Larry Roe se l et (Kaw) 22; 8. Jim Gray
(KT M) 25 ; 9. Ke v in H in e s (H on) 25 ; 10 . Terry
Cunningham (Yaml 31; 11. Donnie Book (Ka w) 35; 12.
Dana Van 5tee (Kaw) :>7; 13. Ron Schmelzle (Han) :>7;
14. Tom Web b (Kaw) 39; 15. Matt Stavish (KTM) 41; 16.
G
