Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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ยท .OF~ROAD. " ,' . . Best in the Desert Grand Slam Championship Series" Round 3: Las Vegas-to-Reno Kawasak i Team Green 's Ty Davis (shown) teamed with Paul Krause to win the Inaugural Las Vegas-to-Reno off-road race. A 5:15 a.m. start had the motorcycle racers up early, heading for the startin g line at Sloan, 20 miles west of Las Vegas, but nobod y was complaining. The early start meant most of the field had a fighting chance of reaching Reno w ithou t having to use.lights, and it put a gap of almost four hou rs between them an d the first of the buggies, which were scheduled to star t at 9 a.m. The racers lined up two abreast for th e timed st art in the pitch dark, and dawn w as just a fain t gli mmer on th e horizon at 5 a.m . A five-mi nute de lay was called to let the gloom lift enough for the lead-off riders to see the course, and the s tarting flag dropped for the first two riders at 5:20 a.m. The Open Pro s .were at the front of the starting grid. Davis led off for his team from row thr ee of the two-riderseve ry -15-seconds start. Zitterkopf was on,row fou r and the distinctive Campbell / Capt H ond a, which u ses twin exha us ts to ge t a more tw o-stroke feel ou t of its four -st roke powerplant, was on row five. The air w as thick w ith dust before the 13 Open Pro teams had left the line and eve ryo ne from the 250cc Pros back was fo r ced to 'con ten d with a to tal brownout. "It was like thick fog from the start to the first gas," said Lisa Gallo, wh o was partnered w ith Lori Conway in one of th e even t's two all-fem a le motorcycle team s and started near the very back of the pa ck. "You co ul dn 't see a thing. There was no way you cou ld race; you just had to try to survive." Davis knew the value of clear air and d id everything he cou ld to grab the lead in the first few miles as the cou rse headed west toward s Pah ru m p. H e picked off th e 'earli er starters one by one and, d esp ite having to conte~d with missing By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Bevere n and Steve Berkner RENO, NY, MAR. 29 he inaugu ral running of Las Vegasto-Reno was billed as the "Longes t Off-Road Rac e in the Un ite d States." It sho u ld also have been billed as the fastest off-road race in the United States, the closest SO -mile battle D in off-road com petition and the toughest event in mem ory for pit crews. Th e w id e t r ail s mandated b y th e even t's car and truck en tries m eant it w as full speed ahead for th e to p tw owheel teams as they sp rin ted from one gambling mecca to the other. The almost 60-mph ave rage at the front of the pack had pit crews dodgin g, spee ding tickets as they d ash ed from pit to pit in fin often vain attempt to get riders and gas to the right pl ace at the right time. And th e pi t crews weren't the on ly ones who were sweating. With less than T ..... l-i 0.. -< 22 th ree minut es separating the top three teams for much of the journey, there was just as much stress out on the course . " It m ad e for a n in teresting r ace becau se any thi ng coul d've happen ed . There wa s no room for mis takes," said Kawasaki Team Green's Ty Davis, wh o partnered with Paul Krau se on a KX500, and spe nt most of the race locked in a neck and neck battl e w it h fe llow Kawasa ki rid er s Greg Zitterkop f and Dave Ondas on a matching KX500 an d jus t ahead of Am er ican Honda racers Johnny Campbell and Jeff Capt on an XR628. "The cou rse was in teresting, too," said Davis, who gained more tha n three m inutes in the last 100 miles and das hed hom e to take th e checkered flag by a slim four -m inute margin . "It was fast" but it was a fu n fast . It wasn't like a scary death fast. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty fun race." The promise of a 500-mile race within the confines of the Ll.S, borders drew 244 m ot orcycle team s, 15 .quad team s and 47 car and truc k teams to race headqu arters at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Th e fie ld inclu ded ri ders from 28 states an d eight coun tries, who were mounted on everything from the usual lineu p of Kaw asakis, Hondas and KTMs to exo tics like BMWs, a Du cat i a nd a Tr iumph Ti ger, an d drew TV crews an d magazine journalists from as far away as Australia and Japa n. "It's got a lot going for it if you want to compare it to Baja. It's got m ore vari atio n in th e terrain - it changes all the time. You've go t roa ds and sa nd and rocks, so time goes by fast, and it's alot ..safer th a n Me xico, too," sai d Danny LaPorte, w ho team ed w ith forme r World Motocross Cha m pion Heinz Kinigadner on a KTM 620. "1 feel a lot more secure ridin g he re. You' re not alw ays worried about wha t's going to happ en next, the lo cal s d on ' t ma ke triple jumps on the stra igh taways and you can get first ai d if you need it." cour se m arker s tha t h ad been bl own down b y 55- m p h w ind s the n ight before, he had a tw o-minute lead as he paralleled the highway on his way into gas two at Wheeler Pass. " It was too bad we had the gnarly winds. They knocked a lot of the arr ows down and if you we ren' t payin g attention you could get lost really easy ," said Davis. "1 got lost between gas one and two . There was a left-hand comer with tw o roads. 1 d idn't see the second road so 1 g~t on the first one and 1 got a mile and a half down there before 1 realized there was an arrow missing." With no pr erunnin g allo we d, other than a th ree-day gu ided tour of selected parts of the cou rse in fou r-whee l dri ve vehicles, missing arro ws kep t the racers on their toes mos t of the day . "You'd be racing along and you'd see a piece of lath sticking out of the ground wher e th e wind had blown th e ca rd off," said Paul Krau se. "That was scary becau se you didn't know whether it was