Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HARE &HOUND AMAN ATIONALHARE &H U D ON C AMPIONSHIP S R H E IES Round 4: Yerington, Nevada Hound win on fast and du sty cou rse in Yerington. Nevada. (Below) Waiting lor the bomb run: The Yerington H&H was run on a 93-mile course that in corporated a lot of virgin terra in. The event drew alm ost 200 riders . th ree or four miles out," Pearson. "He was rocking me real bad goi ng up a sa n d wash . Th en 1 passed O akl e y Lehman. It looked like he had hit a rock or something, because he was looking at his bike." Chris Brown crashed in a pile of rocks no t long alter he cleared the bomb and had to play catch -up for the rest of th e m ornin g, b ut some 0 1 th e ra cers w ere having trouble getti ng even tha t far. " 1 had a terr ible s ta rt;" KTM 360 race r Jim Gray said. " It took two kicks to ge t it going, a nd I rnu st' ve been deadlast off the line. The dust was wa y worse tha n it normally is at a race. It was that powdery, talcum-powder-type d ust that jus t hangs there." Da ve Ondas id le d back to the pits alter jus t six m inu tes of racing, and Ed McCoy was notlar behind. "I blew my radia to r abo u t 30 miles ou t when I was in sixth overall," sa id McCoy, a local favori te wh o was hoping the homet own terrain w ou ld he lp him ad d ano the r Vet-class win to the two he alrea dy has toward this yea r' s cha mpions hip title. " I ca n' t believe my luck. 1 DNFed here at last year's race, too ." Out in front, Davis ha d clear air and a s tro ng b ike , a nd he w a s enjoying every seco nd . " I knew it was way too dusty for the guys behind me to d o anything, so I knew I was pretty sale: ' Davis said. " I was having a lot of fun. The course wa s u nbe lievable . I've never r id d en any- : thi ng as fun a s that. It was just sand w ash es , bi g berms - ju st lik e a motocross track. Yeah, there were rocks and stull you had to watch out lor, but "I had a good jump, b u t th e bomb narrowed d ow n real bad at the end, so 1 kind of got squeezed into a ton of dust like everybody else:' Van Stee s a id. "Th ere were people going d own all over in the dust, so 1 just tried being careful, riding a good ride." When the s tarting frenzy wa s over, Davis had an almost-comforta ble lea d over his Team Green teammate Krause, who was a lso cam paigning a KX500. KTM 300- mounted Nick Pearson was hard on the gas in third, an d Vet Expe rt Dan Rich ardson, KX250 pi lo ts Ch ris Brown and D onn ie Bo ok, a nd Open Expert Da ve H amel on a Pro Ci rcu it KXSOO were snap ping at his heels . " It was so dusty tha t it w as almos t impossible to tell ho w yo u were doi ng off the start, and 1 rod e reall y cautiously after th at:' Richa rdson sa id. "A cou ple of guys passed me, but I didn't wan t to push it." O ne 0 1 the rid ers w ho elbow ed his way past Richa rdson was Russ Pearson. "I got him right off the sta rt - about it was so well-marked, real predictable. They had . on~ turn arrow like 20 fcc t belore the co rner s o yo u kn ew ri gh t w he re th e co u rse w ould turn, and it • was great. u Davis completed the firs t loop in 59 mi nutes and was racing o ut int o loo p two jus t a min u te and a half later. Krause id led into the 5-mph pits in seco nd overa ll, jus t o ver th ree m inutes behind the race leader, and Davis's lead had inc re ased to a lm ost five mi n u tes before the chase began again. Nick Pearson's Open-class KTM was just seven seco nds behi nd Krause going in to the 45-mile seco nd loop, and Do nnie Book' s KX250 was snapping at his hee ls in fourth. "I go t a fairly decent start - 1 was like filth or sixth, but it was just so fast in the morning that 1 could n' t keep up:' sa id Book. "They w ere just pulling me all m ornin g. 1 rod e my butt off and just kept it pinned in the rough stuff. There we re some cra zy passes in the morning b u t wi th all the dust, yo u don't know dus t was going to be' the word 01 the d ay . " I hav e no idea how I wa s doing 011 th e sta rt," KTh1250 racer Russ Pea rson said . "My gogg les were logging u p, so I went to clear them out and I was jus t getting ready w hen the flag d ropped, so 1 was a little bit be hind. A bu nch 01 pe0ple ju mped out in fro nt 01 me, and that was it. It wa s just putt, putt, putt, it was so dusty." Dana Va n Stee, w ho is lea d ing the champions hip poi n ts race in th e 125cc Expert class , got a much better start than Pearson, b ut he, too, w as tr apped in blinding d ust befo re he had a chance to pick up the pink ribbon that mar ked the first loop. (Left) Ty Davis made up lor his disappointing Ilnlsh at the Vegas-to-Reno race two days earti er by capt uring his lourth straight AMA National Hare & .. L By An ne Van Bevere n Photos by Tom Van Be ve re n YERINGTON, NY,SEPT. 21 awasaki's Ty Davis turned a fa st , du sty course to hts adva ntage a nd ran away with the win in the northern Nevada round 01 this year's Nationa l Hare & Hound series. The KXSOO ace put the 95mile course b ehind him in ju st tw o hours and 10 minute s a nd , with hi s lourth win in the best-fiv e-out-of-seven series under his belt, Davis is just one r-, 0\ 0\ ,..... 00 .... OJ .g ..... U o 46 victory away lro m wra p ping up his firs t National cha m pions hi p in th e prestigious Hare & Hound competition. "1 was in th e lead at th e bomb and just fe lt sorry lor th ose g uys in that du st," Davis said. , " It w as so bad . I lo oked back and I said, ' Yo u kno w what? They are go ing to ha ve to pl ay hell to ge t around me now.' There was no way th ey co ul d do it , so I kind 01 took it easy." The promise of cha mpions hip po ints and the lu re 01 a nearl y new rid ing area d re w al mos t 200 rid ers to the start 01 the round-four even t just outside of Yerington, a small town 50 miles sou theast 01 Reno . The racers were greeted by a twoloop course that included a liberal d ose 01 virgi n te rrain and a bomb run tha t w ould remain vi rg in u ntil th e banner dropped lor the sta rt of the race. "You can't prerun the bomb here. II's a BLM rul e: ' exp lained Chuck Worl ey, race coord inator for the High Sierra MC, which spo nso red its first National Hare & Hound last yea r. "The BLM gives us a lot 01 leeway out here - that's why we've got so much new terrain to ride - and not preru nning the bomb is what we do in return. I'd like to thank all the riders lor being so coo pera tive. They ha ve really been great with it." The no- p reru n rule d id no t apply to excursions o n foot, so the top racer s were out early , walking the opening section to pick a line and check ou t the big ditch tha t ran right across the middle of the bomb run. The banner dropped for the Expert riders at 10.30 a.rn., an d the re was nothing to S<'C but a cloud 01 d ust as the allout sprint toward the di tch began. "Pau l (Krause) go t the jump o n me and we drag-raced to the d itch:' Davis said. "Wh en we came to the d itch, he went straigh t and I cut to the ins ide 01 him like a motocros tum, and I got the s lead rig ht the re." The course began wi th a sho rt 7-miIe sec tion th at brought th e racers almost back to the pi ts, th en opened o u t in to the last-paced terrain 01 the rest 01 th e 48-mile first loop. Davis was more than 30 seco nds ah ead 01 Krause at the end 01 the openi ng sprint , and it was clear that

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