·H R
A ESCRAMBLE : Final Round: Laughlin U.S. HS Championship
. Best in the Desert S State Series
ilver
Davis - was out of gas three miles from
the finis h line..
"I knew it was going to be a really
tou gh race - this course is always tough
and the competition here is really tough,
too," said H a mel. " Davis ca ugh t me
her e las t year, so th is time I wa nted to
m a ke s ure I h ad eve ry a dva ntage I
cou ld ge t and ev e ryt h ing worked out
really welL"
Now in its seventh yea r, the Laug hlin / Riverside Unite d States Hare Scramb les Cha m pionsh i p h a s lo ng been
re gard ed as the tou gh es t race in th e
series pu t on by Casey Folks' Best in the
De se r t organ iza tion, an d th is year 's
eve nt liv ed up to its re putation. Th e
course consisted of two lap s of a 43-mile
figu re eight tha t the rid ers described as
tight , tech nical and demanding all the
wa y.
"That was one of the most physically
dema nding cou rses I've ever ridd en,"
said O pen Exp er t ra cer Bren t Bush . "It
was tight all the way, so th ere wasn' t
anyw he re to res t. Th er e we re lot s o f
rocks, lots of cactus an d not man y sand
washes th at you cou ld get up to speed
on."
The race began at 9 a.m . on Saturday
morning 10 miles west of the Colorado
(Left ) Dann y Hamel ended another
successful season on a winning note by
topp ing the Laughlin Hare Scramble s.
(Below) Ty Davis ran out of gas late in the
race and had to steal gas out of a parked
motorcycle. He st ill ende d up th ird overa ll .
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70
.-evenge
By Anne Van Beve renlP hotos by Tom Van Beveren
LAUGHLIN, NY, DEC. 3
ulling off a victory in the last race
of th e fi ve - ro u n d Be st in th e
Desert Series took almost as much
s trategy as i t did s pee d , but
Kawasaki's Danny Ham el was up
to the task .
In an unusu al move for a desert
racer, the 22-year-old from Boulder City,
Nevada, made his first st rategic move at
sign -u p, opting to start back in the dust,
d ead last in th e Pro division . Ham el' s
se co n d s tra tegi c mo ve ca me ju s t 27
miles fro m the end of th e eve nt when,
w ith th e ra ce s ti ll too close to ca ll ,
H am e l op te d fo r a " be tt e r su re th a n
sorry" strategy and took some time ou t
for an extra pit to splash some gas in his
tank for the last few miles.
When the checkered flag dropped at
the end of nearly five hours of racing,
Hamel's strategic plan ning had paid off.
His Kawasaki was ou t in front of the
co m p e t itors he had s ta r te d beh ind ,
which eliminated the danger of an unexp ect ed loss on ad justed time , and hi s
clo ses t ri val - Ka was aki teammate Ty
