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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127808
.OFF-ROAD State Championship series Round 5: Desert Cross Scrambles
.
Best in the·Desert Silver
By Anne Van Beveren
Photos by Tom Van Beveren
JEAN, NY, OCT. 19
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22
asey Folks had the top racers' in
the desert running around in circles in the hills above Jean, Nevada, at the first-ever Las Vegas
Desert Cross Scrambles.
Breaking the tradition of long-distance events like the Vegas-to-Reno
point-to-point and the 300-mile
Tonopah team race, series organizer
Casey Folks surprised Best in th.e Desert
regulars by throwing in a short-butsweet desert dash that bumped this
year's points race up to a six-round
competition.
The fast and furious extra event saw
the racers compete European Scramblesstyle on three different courses that varied from four to seven miles in length.
The racers dashed around and around'
each tight, technical loop as many times
as they could in 50 to 60 minutes, then
took an hour's break to rest before moving on to the next course. At the end of
the day, each class was decided
motocross style by combining the points
from all three races.
"I thought it would be fun and different, and I wanted to do it because.
nobody has ever done three races in the
same day before," Folks said. "1 also did
it to give the people who couldn't afford
to do Vegas-to-Reno an opportunity to
catch up on some points."
The new-styJe event drew a smallerthan-usual field of 120 riders. Some of
the Pro riders complained about a lack
of competition, but there was plenty to
keep them busy each time the starting
light £lashed green.
The Pro competition started on
course one at 8 a.m., while the Amateur
and Expert racers went head-to·head on
courses two and three. The Open Pros
left the line in the first wave, with the
250cc Pros, 125cc Pros, Four-Stroke Pros
and Over 30 Pros each in their own separate wave behind them. The starting
waves were not timed because racers
were only supposed to be concerned
about their place in their respective
classes, and there would be no extra
points for overalUng the race.
But you wouldn't have known it when
the Pros leaped off the start line for the
first time and dashed headlong into the
technical terrain of the first loop. Ty
Davis, who had selected a Kawasaki
KX250 as his weapon of choice, made up
the 250cc Pros' half-minute starting deficit
in record time and had a la-second lead
over the earlier Open Pro starters by the
end of the first 16-minute loop.
"The first loop was the hardest
because there was no trail," Davis said.
"You really had to watch out for the
rocks, the choya and the Joshua trees
and piek your way through. It was just
like trail riding.
.
Paul Krause w.as leading the Open
Pros in second overall, with KTM250
pilot Nick Pearson and Kawasaki's Greg
Zitterkopf (KX500) close behind.
"A big bike is definitely not the bike .
of choice for this race," said KX500mounted Krause. "This is really technical-the course could be a special test in
an enduro, and there's nowhere to go
wide open."
The only place to open the bikes up
was in the-final wash. Donnie Book was
blasting through in fifth overall at the
end of his first lap when his KX250 started to head shake in the thick gravel. A
split-second later, Book was down and
rolling, and Jim Gray, who was right
behind him on a KTM360, was forced to
take evasive action that ran him smack
dab into a construction barricade that
was being used as a course marker.
"He was going from side to side and
I couldn't go around him so, finally, 1
had to lock it up, and 1 hit the sign and
wrecked pretty good," said Gray, who
had already lost a little time when he
ran into a yucca tree halfway through
loop one and got stuck.
.
Book decided to sit out the rest of the
race and was soon joined by Bryan
Folks, who retired from the head of the
two-entry 125cc Pro class with a rear
flat. .
Davis shaved two minutes off his lap
time as the course started to bum in and
stretched his lead to almost a minute
over Krause by the end of lap two. Pearson was still in third, two seconds ahead
of Zitterkopf, and Vosburg Racing's
Destry Abbott blasted through in fourth
on his I