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HARE &·H U D ON AMA National Hare &HoundC pionshipSeries ham Round 4:Red Mountain me in the sand and upgr ades and stuff like that, but the stock bike works better in the tigh t stu ff." An ything in the top 10 w as a relief for Campbell , who was "abou t a millionth" to the bom b. "1 got a good line once we passed the bomb and passed a lot o f guys," sa id Campbe ll, who co nti n ued h is rise at Cap t' s exp ense, elbo wi ng his way past the rival Honda to take third in one of the faster section s. " It was a good loop for a four -stroke." Ou t in fro n t, Da vis had settled into cruise mode and his on ly rea l concern was keeping track of the course. "They ribboned it rea lly, reall y well but th e wind blew a lot of the arrows d ow n. I got lost once when I blew a corn er in loop one, b ut other th an th at, it was fine," Davi s reported . Zitterkopf also spent a minute or two searching for the course in places, but a (Left)The National Hare & Hound circ uit return ed to the Southern California desert, and when all was said and done , Team Green 's Ty Davis (3) recorded his third win of the series. (Below) Despite winning every National Hare & Hound he's co mpeted In, Davis Is second In points to s econd-place finisher Greg Zltterk~ pf. By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren RED MOUNTAIN, CA, APR. 28 he only thing that passed Kawasaki's Ty Davis at round fou r of the Na t io na l Ha re & H ound se ries was his own dust. The Kawasaki KX500 racer w as ou t in fro n t at th e e n d of th e bomb an d spent the next 80 miles d usting the com peti tion, but with winds gu sting as high as 50 mp h in some sections of the course Davi s wa s dusting himself just as badly every time h e turned to run with th e wind at his back. Despi te the blinding dus t, a series of tri cky d ownhill canyons arid acres o f loose rocks that sen t man y racers limping home ea rly w ith flats an d bruises, Davis enjoye d a tro ub le-free ride all the wa y to his third overall wi n in the bestfive-of-seven series. With tw o m ore rounds of competition penciled in on his busy race sched ule, Da vis looks set to take the battl e for the prestig iou s N ational titl e a ll th e way to the wi re wi th Kawas aki team mate G reg Zitterkopf. Zitte rkopf is a race up on Davis, who missed round two in Idaho because o f a conflict with a Na tiona l En d u ro back east, and leads the points race with one win, two seconds and a seventh. "There we re lots and lots of rocks ou t there todav but I had a lot of fun," said Davi s, wh o crossed the finish three minutes a h ead of Z itte rkopf: " Th e b ike wor ked fine, the cou rse was good and they mar ked it rea lly well - that makes a differen ce." The tw o loops laid ou t by AMA District 37's Vikings M.e. formed a figure 8 in the Teag le Wa sh /Spangler Hills ridin g area 60 miles east of Mojave. The ra cer s appreci ated a cha nge of scenery from the more common ly raced [ohnson Va lley area, but soon found th at Red Mountain 's whoop s and silt were everything they rem embered . "Th is w as a tou gh N at ional. In the other ones, you 'd get little spots to rest bu t here, whenever you could get into second or thi rd"gea r, you were in 5-foot T whoops," said Zitterkopf. " It hammered you the wh ole wa y." Just ov er 300 riders lined up for the 10 a.m. start and it was every man for him self when the banner d rop ped and . th e dash across th e silt y sta rting a rea began. Dav is w as ou t in front as the powered past the bomb. KTM360-mounted Robert Laughlin w as in the hunt afte r a "h a lfw a y d e cent s ta rt," while James Summers was fifth, Kaw asaki hotshots Paul Krause and Zi tterk opf w ere battling for sixth, an d the rest of the starters were hidden by a thick cloud of dust. "I w as second to the actual bomb," said KX500-mounted Vet Abe Baumann. "The only probl em was that everybody else had gone way to the left, abou t half a mile off the main line, and they all got to the trail in fron t of me. After tha t, it was just a matter of surviving in all the dust." And dust wasn't the on ly problem the racer s had to contend wi th . "I hit a rock about 15 m iles ou t. It was a big crash. I stepped over the bars in t h e a ir," sai d Cra ig ' Smit h, wh o returned to the pits with the back end of his KX500 so badly beat en u p th at the exha ust pipe was sticking sideways at a 90 -de gree an gl e . " You were hitt in g rocks everyw h ere. If y ou got off the course to ge t ou t o f th e dust, you hit rocks. And if yo u sta yed on the course in the dust, you' d be riding along just waiti ng to hit so meth ing you cou ldn't see." Smith wasn' t the only racer knocked out by the treacherous rocks. As the 40mil e fir st loop progres sed , th e rockind uc ed probl ems ra nged fro m a flat tire su ffere d by Dave On das to a su sp ected broken foot su ffered by Steve Hen geveld. " It w as so dusty that, if yo u had a probl em lik e I did, yo u m igh t as well just call it qu its," said Ondas. "By th e time I go t to th e pit for m y spa re , I wou ld 've b e en w a y , way back. The whole cou rse was just blow sand and rocks." ., Davis continued to lea d as the terrain alternated between fas t washes, tricky rocks a n d se ctio ns of d e e p w h oo p s. Honda fou r-stroke racer Jeff Capt was in second at the first check, but Zitterkopf rocke ted up to grab second by the halfway point and was hangin g jus t a few ya rds off Davis' s rear fender. Lau ghlin crashe d ou t of third halfway throu gh the loop, leaving Capt to figh t it out for th ird wi th H onda teammate Johnn y Campbell and KX500-mounted Krau se. "I'm riding a stock XR600 an d Cam pbell's riding an XR628, so that made it kind of interestin g," said Capt, wh o was as determi ned to bea t his Honda team mate a s he was to bea t Kawasakimounted Kra use. "Cam pbell can 'p u ll determined charge had him sna pping at Davi s' s hee ls by th e t im e th e course started to tum back towards pit row. "Zitterkopf cau ght m e a littl e bit," sa id Davis. "I w as slack ing. Ther e was a bunch of cross-grain whoops and I was just loping along . I looked back and he was on me, so I got on it for a whil e." Davis flashed into pit row after battling the first 4O-mile loop for an hou r. A quick refu el and a repl acem ent zip-tie had him back on th e cou rse in 23 secon ds flat. Z itt erkopf w a s a minut e behind as he en te re d pit row bu t he gained a little ground thanks to a 16-second performan ce by th e Kawasaki p it crew.' Ca mpbell was another two min-