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Greg Zitterkopf took advantage of Davis '
mis fortune by moving into second whe n
Davis ran out of gas,
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"My plan wa s to rid e really hard off
the start, pass Davis and put him behind
me," said Hamel. "I wanted to break his
confid ence ri ght off the get-go and .
establish m y self int o a rea ll y go od
pace."
Hamel's p lan w as pa ying off as he
flashed through the pits at the end of the
fir st 16 miles an d sta rte d into th e 27mil e seco n d h alf of the fi gure e igh t.
Alrea dy up to e igh th in the physical
s ta n di ngs, H amel had p assed Dav is
near the seven-mile mark and had also
passed ano ther pre-race favorit e, KTM's
Greg Zitterk opf . The Kawasaki ace held
the lead on adjus ted time - a full minute
a nd a h a lf ahe ad o f se co n d- p laced
Davis.
Zitter kopf was th ird in th e t im eadjusted standings, 40 seconds behind
Davis, and less than a minute separated
De stry Abbott, Scot Hard en, Donnie
Book, Jim Gray and Bryan Folks.
Ham el's blitz continued as he tackled .
the second half of the figure eight. He
passed rider after rider until only frontro w s ta rter Book stood between him
and clear air. At the end of the first com p lete loop o f the figure ei gh t, Hamel
wa s sec ond in the physical stan d ings
a n d s till exa ctl y a minute and a half
ah ead of Davis on adjusted time. H is
on ly problem wa s the mi leage he wa s
get ting out of his KX500's tank.
"Comi n g in on th e first loop I wa s
really, really low on gas . r looked at my
tank and I only had an inch of gas left,
. but tha t was the only th ing that really
wor ried me," said Ha mel. "Goin g ou t
on th e se con d loop I knew it was my
race to win or lose. r had the lead and I
had the dust to my advantage."
Third overa ll o n tim e, and righ t
behind Hamel in the ph ysical standings,
was Greg Zitterkopf, who was trying on
the 620cc four-stroke he'll be campaigning for KTM in 1995.
"I stalled three times and fell twice in
the first h alf jus t trying to get used to
the four- stroke," said Zitterkopf. "After
the pit stop (ha lfway through the figure
eight) I wa s right behind Hamel and r
stayed right beh ind him until ab ou t
mile-marker 25. I hit my foot on a little
rock and I didn't go ha lf a mile befor e I
hit the same foot on a rock again. It hurt
really bad so I backed off a bit."
Fourth on ad justed time wa s in the
hands of Colorado KTM p ilot Jim Gray,
Destry Abbott had hi s KX250 in fifth,
and Book 's front-of-the-pack d ash had
him six th on e la psed tim e, a he ad of
H arden, Bryan Fo lks an d 16-year-old
N ick Pearson, w ho was le adin g th e
Expert d ivision racers in an impressive
ninth overall.
Garth Sweetland was enjoy ing 10th
ove rall as he headed int o his pit at the
end of the first figu re eig ht but he lost
an imp ort ant two minutes before he was
able to hit the trail for his second lap .
" We had a pit malfunction," said
Sw eetland, who w as piloting a Hu saberg for the first time. "We were tryin g
to m ak e su re we topped th e tank off
because o f th e m ilea ge and w e ove rflowed it. The filters are right under the
tank a n d th e y got flo oded, so it
wouldn't start."
Other racers wou ld' ve been happy to
swa p problem s w ith Sw eetland, Scott
Morris, wh o w as running 11th at the
end of the first 16 miles, was stuck at a
check near th e 23-mile mark afte r his
suspen sion mount s g a ve wa y and
turned his KX500 into a low rider.
" It happened pretty quick. There wa s
a clunk when I came down an d tha t was
it," said Morris , who limped into the finish wi th h is fender resting on the rear
wheel.
Over-38 Pro Steve Pi tts seized h is
ATK in a sand wash 25 mi les off th e
start and had to wait 15 min utes for it to
cool down enoug h to conti nu e. Bryan
