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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127847
too rich (because) it'd ru n good down in
the valleys, but yo u ' d get up on the
mountains and it just wouldn't hardly
move . But we had a fun day . The racecourse was awesome; Casey o u td id
himself this time. It was incred ible."
Unlike their 36D-riding teammates,
the Pearson brothers reported no difficulties with their 250.
"We started first 250, which was
nin th overall," Nick Pearson said. "The
first (section), I started and got by a couple of peo ple. Johnny Campbell stalled
h is fou r-s tro ke, so I go t by him an d
came into th e first p it where we were
running fo u r th (be hi nd Boo k / Ondas,
Abbo tt /Sweetland and Bozarth /Gray)."
"After 1 got by Garth Sweetland in
tha t second secti on, from there I caught
Bozarth," Russell Pea rson said. "He was
kind of d usting me and a little bit fast er,
so I could n' t ge t by him. So I jus t kind of
maintained my pace and gave it to Nick.
He moved up to seco nd, and from there
on I just rod e to the finish. It went real
good - no problems or an y th ing. "
As fo r th e rela ti ve tig h tness of the
co urse, es pecially in th e Pioche a rea
where they live, N ick Pearson sai d, "It
was actua lly pre tty tight. Casey go t us
up in the trees. I'd say he probably had
a hundred miles in the tight trees, where
a 250 was almost an ad vantage,"
"Th e tight stuff's always fun ," Russell agreed. "It's more technical, a lot
more challenging. The fast stuff anybody can go fast on. And we 're on a 250,
so we kind of like the tight. I figured it'd
be pretty tigh t because I kind of know
the country, because we live u p here."
Ondas felt no such advantage, however.
"I liked (the tight sections), but it jus t
didn't see m like I was real flui d tod ay;'
On das said. " I race down in Southe rn
California, where it's a lot fas ter - I don't
ge t to rid e a lot of out-of-state races - but
all in all, the race was awesome,
"Donnie rode rea lly good ," O ndas
conti nued. H rode th e middle se ction,
I
an d I was supposed to ride that last
pa rt , but he was on such a roll tha t I
didn't wan t to get in his way, so I let
him go."
Asked if he felt he had an advantage
in the trees d ue to being from Colo rado,
Book answered, " I think in a way, yeah,
because it's like around my house with
the trees a nd s tuff. It' s not rea l tig ht
tre es; it's kind of rhythmy trees - just
h ammer th rou gh 'em . It was a good
course - ma rked excellently . It wa s really coo l; we r an up over some hi g h
mountain passes, got into so me really
cool bermed-up areas. It was one of the
best races I've ever ridden in Nevada ."
Brian Brown proved a worthy last minute su bstitu te for th e inju red Steve
Hengeveld . Team ed with O akl e y
Lehman o n a Pro C ircu it /Da ve
Chase/Maxima KX25O, they had to contend with two flats and getting lost once
en rou te to runner-up in class and fifth
overall. That put them seven minutes
ahead of Honda's Johnny Campbell and
Bruce Ogilvie on the Pirelli /Fox/FMFbacked XR628R.
"Bruce rode from pit two to pit three,
abou t 50 mil es," sa id Campbell, a former Nevada Rall y winner who's looking
forward to hi s ISDE d ebut in two
months. "We were planning on me soloing it this year - Tonopah and this - but
si nce my ankle (in jury ) happened , I
haven't been rid ing, ha ven't been in
shape, so we decided to break it up.
That was e no u g h fo r m e . I couldn't
focus after 250 miles.
"I found a lot of sections fami liar,"
Ca mpbell continued. "It wasn' t anyone
whole section or route put together like
(Above) Despite an inconsi stent rear brake wh ic h plagued them the entire
way, Destry Abbott (s hown) and Garth Sweetland took second Open, third
overall.
(Right) Glenn Taylor and Marc McManus topped the Experts for the second
race In a row, despite be ing "'ol d guys" In the Over 30 class.
(a t) the rally, but (Folks ) d id parts and
pieces of the rally, so that made it kind
o f fun , b ecau se I kn ew some o f th e
roa ds, I kn ew where I was. 1 believ e 1
had an advantage just beca use I've bee n
in Nevada an d ridden (here) for a long
tim e a nd a lo t of miles ric k / Johah
Strr1!t /Srott Vonba rgen ( Hen): 2. JI J. So-a rlM/ SIl"V1!' Searles
);
(}(a w ); 4. Rick Rambe rg / Davf' Simpson (Hbg); 5, Pau l
Davin /Wayne Tumu (Hon).
35+ EX: 1. Kelly SUrl"l\.
'lOn/ lJlck Yardley