Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

OFF-ROAD BESTIN THE DESERT S ILVER STATE SERIES Round 3: Silver State 300 a By Mark Kariya (Above) Donnie Book (show n) teamed with Devld Ondes to overellthe Ineullural Sliver State 300. They're now two-for-two In the Best in the Desert Sliver State series. (Below)Brothers Nick (s hown) and Russell Peerson felt right at home, since the course pass ed their home rid ing area in Pioche. They took advantage of the relatively ti ght cou rse to come from behind and greb second overall on their 250. 54 ELY, NV, JUNE 21 hey're known as the "B" team, but th e ir results this year have outs ho ne th e "A " tea m . Everyone s ho u ld have a backup team li ke Donnie Book a nd David Ond a s. With misfortune agai n striking the Tea m Green' s Ty Davis /Paul Krause "A" team, Book /O nd as ag ain struck go ld in the Silve r State by winning the ina ug ural Silver State 300, rou nd two of the Best in the Desert Silver State Series. Unlike in ro und one (the Tonopa h 300), Davis/Krause did n' t even make it to th e first pi t in the 298-mile course, which ran from the barren sands outside of Mesquite to the mountain pin e forests so uth of Ely. Th e Book /Ondas KX500, pr epared by Team Gree n techni cian and fo r me r d e sert s ma ll -bore ace John Braasc h, blasted into the lead ear ly an d kep t a swa rm of KTMs at ba y all d ay; the ir winning time wa s six ho u rs; 10 minu tes, 36 seco nds. Teen-a ge br oth er s Nic k a nd Ru ssell Pearson ca me fr om be h ind o n their 250 to claim second overall in 6:12:49, ah ead of Open Pr os De strv Abbott /G arth Sw eetland (6:16:41l a nd Rick Bozarth /Jim Gray (6:17:33). Rounding out the top five wa s the KX250-m ount ed team o f Bri an Brown and O akle y Lehman, w ho crossed t he line in 6:24:05. (Fo r mer motorcycle racer Danny Anderson led a ll four-wheeled entries in his Mirage race ca r, hi s 6:55:17 the 14th-fa st esl time.) . The new course began about a do zen miles south of Mesq uite - typ ical sandy desert terrain with so me scru b brush jusl after 5:30 a.m., the still air not havin g cool ed muc h fro m t he pre viou s day's heat , with tempera lUres in excess of 100 degrees. The terrain ind uded lots of fast dirt roads in the 60 miles to the first pit on Kane Sp rings Road south of Caliente. Pi t tw o w as locat ed 49 ra ce miles awa y. Using some of the same dirt ro a d s a s the old Nevada Rall y , the course head ed eas t for a bit before tu rn ing no rthward once more to eventually reach pi t three a t Stam pede Ga p, 50 mil es from Caliente and a few miles nor th o f Pioc he . All the whil e , th e course climbed in elevation, with racers leaving the barren desert floor once they left pit two. By the time they reached pit four at Pony Springs in Lincoin County (a 48-mile secti on), the cou rse kept them on the eastern flan ks of the Schell Creek Ra nge of mo u n ta ins; wi th tr ee s and 6000-foot elevatio n the norm. (It also proved co n s id e r a b ly cooler than Mesqu ite.) A nother 51 mil es n orth ; e n tra n ts found themselv es at the Geyser Ranch for pit five. From th er e, th ey popped over the Schell Creek Range in abo ut 20 miles, drop ped d own to a flat, brushcove red plain, and pinned it another 20 miles to the finish , which was 10 miles sou th of Ely. In a ll, ra ce o rg anizer Casey Folks needed to secure eigh t sp ecia l perm its from various government agencies (the BLM a mo ng them ) as well as re ceive permissio n to pa ss from a d ozen private-properly owne rs and 16 ran cher s. The Sil ver S taie 300 is th e seco n dlo ngest off-roa d ra ce in th e coun try, behind .only the Vegas-to -Re no 500miler (which is roun d three of the series an d which will take place September 1821). Some might' ve thought it pr esumpruou s of Folks to call it "the most scenic race in the world ," but he 'got no argu ments. As Marc McManus of th e winn in g Expert team sa id, " It w as very scenic , like they said. On ce you go t over that pass, it was just grea t; I wanted to stop and look around ." Despite th eir late-race DNF at th e Ton opah 300, th e Davis /Krause team seemed to be the one to beat when the ' gree n li g ht fla s hed fo r first s ta r te r Destry Abbott o n his Vo sburg Racin g / P ro Circu it / FM F KTM 36 0. Unlike Ton opah , how ever , they didn't ge t far (only 31 mil es ) before disaster s truc k. "I was go ing to pass this guy and ge t out of his d ust going into a valley, an d it seized, " Davis said . Unable to fix the fata l seizure (unlike in other races, p it crew s aren' t allowed course access to aid their racer until the race is over , so it's up to the racer to get hi s ma chine under w a y a gai n>. h e resigned himse lf to silting by the side of th e trail a nd w a tc h in g . But th at w a s before fellow Team Green racer /former riding mentor Larry Roeseler of Hesperia, California, cam e along. Though ridin g Iron man Expert, the se m i-re ti red Roeseler stopped and gave Davis a ride to the pit - a longer trip than expected (see "Briefly... "), Abbott' s tum at the front lasted jus t three mil es before a mys terious rea rbrake problem began haunting him. "I wa s really excited; because it wa s going to be dust y, I wa s looking for ward ... to starting first, " he said. "(But) it seems like every time I start out front, something happens. Three miles into it, I completely lost my brakes. I go t off the bike and looked at it and go t ba ck on. I sa w Don ni e (Book) - he s ta r ted righ t behind me, and I was hop ing to stay in front of him - but there was a rocky road wi th u p-and-down hills, and I just really di d n' t want to crash . He came by me, and he wa s rid in g reall y good . I d ealt with the problem, and we bled it at the firs t pit. It kept go ing back and for th. So m e tim es it'd work; sometime s it wouldn't. " Book qu ickly assumed the lead , and the MSR / Sh oei / Sco tt-ba cked tea m would never relinqu ish it, thou gh thei r rid e wasn't entirely trouble-free. "We had trou bles with the pipe (nea r the end ), but we cha nged that and were able to hammer d own and pull ou t (a comfortab le lead) again," Book said . Most of the close action took place behind th em, with th e var iou s KTMmounted tea ms duking it out. Though their disappearing brake s kepi Abbott /Sweetland a bit off the pace, that wa sn't as bad as the Husky-KTM of Gresham /Cooper Oil /MSR-sponsored 360 of Bozarth /Gray . " We ran out of gas, I think, four times altogether, so it cost us a bu nch," Gray said. "Rick go t barbed wire caug ht in his rear w hee l once, so that kin d of hurt us. I gues s we had the bike jetted

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