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HARE>&:HOUND::... .r: : . AMANational Championship.Hare &Hound Series ' Round 3: Shawn Gerber Memorial Defending National Hare & Hound Champion Danny Hamel (1) and his Kawasaki Team Green teammate Ty Davis (2) battled back and forth for most of the 66-mile race In Utah before Hamel pulled out to a mlnute-and·a·half lead at the checkered flag. The two riders have finished 1-2 In all three rounds run thus far. . HAMIL~ DAVIS DUKI IT OUT Sy Anne Van Severen Photos by Tom Van Severen ff JERICHO, lIT, APR. 9 or desert racers accustomed to dry, dusty conditions, the continuous rain, slimy mud and near-freezing temperatures that greeted round three of the National Hare & Hound Series came as quite a shock. A s to r m over Utah t ha t dumped heavy rain on the race site at the Little Sahara Recrea tion A r ea , 100 m iles so u thwest of Salt La ke City, for three d a ys befor e the eve n t had th e racers breaking out their warmest clothes and wrapping themselves in plastic tra sh bags. Snow in the higher elevations forced the closure of the 18-mile second loop, cutting the race to onl y 66 miles, but the saturated, mud-caked riders enj oyed every inch of the unusual terrain. "What an awesom e r a ce," s ai d Danny Hamel, who raced neck 'n neck with Kawasaki teammate Ty Davis almost all the way to the checkered flag. , "It rained or snowed or hailed most of the way, and up in the mountains there was no trail - even the ribbon was covered with snow. I had a great time." After a motocross-tight battle for two hours, Hamel pulled ahead of his racelong rival just in time and the two top racers in this year's series finished as they had in the first two rounds of competition in California, with Kawasaki KX500-mounted Hamel a minute and a half ahead of his likewise-mounted teammate. The win gives Hamel a three-forthree record in the seven-round series and puts him one s tep cl oser to his fourth consecutive National title. The Sixth Annu al Sh a w n Gerb er Memorial Hare & Hound , which is organized by the Sage Riders M.e. , drew more than 180 riders to the infamous starting area in the Little Sahara sand dunes. Bleak gray ski es a nd s teady rain prompted a number of local ri de rs to canc el their entries be fore the race got . underway at 11:30 a .rn, but ou t-o fstaters were too busy wo rking ou t the best s tr a te g y for ta ckl ing the tr icky opening section. "The dunes aren' t that big, but there are a lot of drop offs on the other sid e that you don't kn ow you' re going to hit ," said Honda CR500 p rivateer Dan Richardson, who followed Ham el and Davis home to take two third-pl ace finishe s in the open ing r oun d s o f the series. "I hurt my kn ee about 100 yards off the start here one year, so I wasn't going to fly off the drop offs like some of these guys." Hamel got a quick s ta r t when th e banner dropped for the Exp ert racers, but, like Richardson, he op ted for a cautious approach to th e sand d unes that left him trailing Da vis as they pa ssed the bomb and picked up the start of the ribboned course. "Davis basically pulled away through the dunes and when we got to the end of the bomb, I couldn't even see him," said Hamel. "I wanted to take it easy and ride conservatively this morning. I just wanted to get through the sand dunes and survive. It's kind of crazy to go fast through there." Hamel picked up the pace as soon as the san d end ed and at the first road crossing, eigh t miles into the 38-mile op ening loop, he was hard on Davis' heel s. Richardson came off the line in third but had slipped back to 12th at the end of the sand, leaving third overall in th e h ands of KTM-backed Greg Zitterkopf, who was looking for his third series win in the 250cc division. "I got a good start, and Hamel and I were ha ving a great time through the sa n d d u nes. I passed him , then he would pass me - but then he roosted me so bad it nearly knocked me off my bike," said Zitterkopf. "I've never been roosted tha t hard ; it ruined my goggles." Colo rad o' s Jim Gra y, on a KTM550, put his experience with wet terrain to good use, grabbing fourth in the lineup at the eight-m ile mark. Not far behind we re Salt Lake' City hotshot Dustin H eadman, aboard a Husqvarna 360; Pau l Krause, on a Kawasaki KX500; Brandon Gerber, piloting a Husqvama 610 fou r-stroke; and Donnie Book, on another KX500. While the leaders freight-trained the ir way cross-country in the s teady rain, 125cc hopeful Ed Price was just leaving the start. " My car got a flat tire. We drove until three in the morning on a little space-saver spare and ,then had to wait for a tire store to open," said Price. "When I got to the start, everyone was lined up waiting. It looked like I made it on time - but then I sawall the tire tracks. The Experts had already left." Price wasn't the only racer to get a disappointing start. Bike problems left KTM pilot Jeff Lundgreen racing for the bomb after the banner went up for the Amateur start. KTM 550 pilot Destry Abbott had his work cut out after he missed a first-kick start, and Ed Sorenson lost valuable seconds trying to power his Yamaha off the line in neutral. . The problems didn't stop there. Cold temp~ratures fogged the racers' goggles, and roosts of thick mud cut visibility to almost zero . "Hamel ruined my goggles when he roosted me. I needed to take them off but we were only a few miles into the loop, so I waited ," said Zitterkop f. " G r a y passed me, then Gerber and Krause passed me, so I finally got rid of them. Once I could see, I rode really well." Muddy goggles caused Scott Morris to cartwheel his wa y out of the top 10 midway through the first loop . " I pulled out to pass a guy and caught a rock that I couldn't see through the mud on my goggles," said Morris. "I was in fourth gear wide open and the bike landed on top of me. I had to sit and catch my breath. It knocked the wind out of me pretty good." For Steve Pitts, who was battling for the lead in the Over 40 Expert division, the problem was snow-eovered goggles. "It started snowing 20 miles into the first loop and it packed in my .goggles. I reached up to clear them and, right there, I caught a rut and went down on my already sore ribs," said Pitts. .But getting rid of fouled goggles brought its own set of problems, as ATK pilot Paul Pitts found just seconds after he abandoned his 'eye protection. . "As soon ~s I took my goggles off, I got dirt in my eyes," said Pitts. "I had to

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