Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HARE &HOUND AMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP H E& HOUND SERIES AR Round 7: Wendover, Nevada (Left) A large turnout of ri d ers showed up for the series finale in Nevada. (Below) Dave Hame l ju mped o ut to an eart y lea d and raced to vtctcry - the first National overa ll wi n of h is career. By An ne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Va n Bevere n WENOOVER,NV,NOV. 1 he last rou nd of the National Hare and Hound Championship series saw a dream come true, but it wasn't a dream that a ny bo d y was expecting. Witli the overall victory w rapped up and an impressive six-for-six overall wins to his credit, Kawasaki's Ty Davis went into round seven of the competition in northern Nevada dreami ng of a clean sweep, and the re was n't a rider in the pack wh o didn 't expect that d rea m to beco me a reali ty . But w he n the d ust se ttled at th e end of the 85-mile co urse, Da vis had been sidelined by me chanical p ro blems a nd the win belon ged to Dave Ham el - a 28ye a r-o ld Kawasaki ra cer from Spa rks, Nevada, w ho had never overalled a race in his life a nd was rid ing th e Ha re & Ho und series for the very first time, and a racer who just happens to be the older brother of five-time National Hare & Hound champion Danny Hamel. "l' m so happy, I'm o n c100d nin e. To . tell yo u th e truth, th e w hole th ing is a bi t o f a bl ur," sai d H a m e l. "T his is beyond my greates t hopes - above my wil dest dreams. It' s un beli evabl e, and it's rea lly special because the last tim e th is prom oter put o n th is r a ce , m y broth er won it. That was back in '94." The fina l round of this yea r's cha mpionshi p series wa s hosted by Ron Dillon 's r-, US A Pr omotions. It wa s originall y 0planned a s point-to-po 0,..... Well s, Nevaad a, to O asi s, int race fro m Nevada, but 0\ turned into a three-loop dash through ,..... the rock y terra in ju st so u th o f W en.... do ver, a town on the Nevada /Utah borClJ ..a der, 120 miles due west of Salt Lake City. "We had to move the race because of huntin g seaso n," sa id Dillon, who is ClJ :> well -known for d ev eloping o ne of th e o biggest mountain-bike race series in the Z Uni ted States. "Th is area has a real nice trail sy stem d eveloped by the Dezert Foxes, and probably the biggest plus is E 16 tha t it is administered through the Elko BLM, wh ich is probabl y the nicest , most pleasant-to-work-with BLM in the entire country ." The race drew about 250 rid ers. Some were prepared to d o battle for crucial last-minute points while o thers, wh ose classes had already been sewn up, were looking forward to a fun ride through some unfamiliar terrain. Davis go t his usual jump on the field when the ba n ner dropped and had his Ka w a s a k i KX500 out in front at th e bo mb , but his bid to tum his first Championship Hare & and Hound title iot o a se ries clea n sweep fizzled shortly after he picked up the ribbo ned trail. "As soo n as I pas sed th e bo m b , I shifted up, ca me to a rise and went to d own shift, and it kept staying in gea r," Dav is sa id . "I kept hitting it and hitting it. I was thi nking, 'Hey, someth ing 's not righ t here.?' The Kawasaki racer made short work of a 3-mile opening sectio n that d oubled back past the pits to mak e things a little more fun for the specta tors, bu t his rid e was alreadv all bu t o ver. "At firsi I thought it was a bolt tha t had come out, and I wen t into the pit to fix it , but it was in terna l," Da vis said. "Th e shifter spring broke and I knew it would tak e me 40 minutes to pu ll all the stuff to fix it, and tha t's if I had a spring in th e bo x van. The re was no way I could rid e it like that. Even in tha t firs t sec tion, th ere were so me tigh t sections where it wa s bogging down . It's a d rag, but it ga ve so me body else a cha nce to win. " While Davis set tled into the unusual role of pouriog g as and hel ping o the r Kawasaki racers pit, Hamel took over th e lead and set a fas t pace as he headed out in to the 32-mil e first loop. "Davi s disappeared abou t fou r mi les into it , a nd all o f a sud den I w a s in front," sa id Hamel. "It was clean air an d I sa id to myself, 'O h, my God .' I just tried to ride smoo th and stea dy :' Destry Abbott se ttled his O pe n-class K1M in to second, right on Hamel's ta il. ge r because you can' t see it. I was going down a road and hit a rock a nd went over the bars. I wrecked rig h t past the firs t check." Pau l Pitts ran hea dlong in to a pile of rocks wh en he was in fifth o ve rall just past the bomb , and Dan Richa rdson and F Tod d Hov were next on the D ~ T list. " I wa; going a roun d a second - or third-gea r comer an d hit a rock with the front w heel and the front end kicked out," said Richard son. " I pu t my foot out to save it and just twisted my knee really bad, and that was it." 'The course ",'as ma rked well and it would've bee n fun , bu t yo u jus t cou ldn 't se e a thing. There were so me sections and KTM 250 ra cer Ru ssell Pea rson swoo ped in to claim thi rd . "I got a good start. I sta rted off to the left so 1 didn' t have to get in anybody's dust," said Pearson. "We'd walked the first couple of miles and I knew there were no ro cks righ t off the sta rt, so I kind of pulled off to the sid e an d everyone else was in the d ust backi ng off." _ The thick J ust, cou pled wi th rocky terrain, mad e backing off the only sensible option for mos t of the racers. "The start was terrible. The re was su much d ust, I m ight as well have pulled o ff and wa ited for five minutes," said Spoka ne, Wash ingt on 's Pete Russell. "It was so dusty you could n' t see a stinking thing ." Donnie Bou k was o ne of th e few contenders wh o ma naged to recover fro m a less-than-pe rfect sta rt. " My s tart w as ho r rible," sa id the KX250 race r, who had sewn up the 250cc di vision cha mpions hip before the final round of the series began. "It took two kicks , and I don' t eve n know where I wa s at the bo mb . I just went berserk and by the time we went by the pits, I think I was fifth or sixth. " Thick d ust plagued the racers all the way around the first loo p, an d northern Ne va da's tric ky terrain, wit h its th ick brush a nd hidd en rocks, di d th e rest. Before long. there was a stea dy strea m of racers lim pi ng back to th e pits and the start/finis h was DNF City by the end of the first ho ur. Idah o' s Chris Brown wa s being trea ted for a possible neck injury when his bro ther Brian Brown cre pt in to pit row . "As far as I'm concern ed, thi s race is a joke," sa id Brian Bro wn. "You ca n' t mark with one arrow in front of a dan- where you had to ride literally 2 miles an hour," said Hoy, who was running right behind Richardson in 10th overall when he decided to pull over. "My throttle was sticking and I ha d brake fade. I'm ju st here beca use I wa nt to be, so I stop ped . It' s no differen t fro m Lucerne (Valley), so it wasn't tha t much fun." Ou t in front , Hamel w as turn ing a dus t-free ride an d su pe r-fas t terrain into a wi nn ing com bina tion. "I don' t wa n t people to think I was riding over my head. I'm a p retty cau tious rider, hut 1 had no dust and th e first loop was a rea l 500 co urse. It was roads and sand washes and more roads • just fast, fast stuff," said Hamel. who had a co m fo rta b le lead a ll the wav around the 32-mile loop. ' Ba ck i n second , A b bott w a sn' t as lucky. Pearson was d ogging him all the way and fina lly sli p ped a round him to sna tch second. . Ham el completed the firs t loop in 43 m inu tes. Pea rson was a m inute and a half be hind him in seco nd as the frontrunners d a sh ed i n to th e p its ; Abbo tt was running third and Book wa s just a few bi ke le ngths ba ck in fourth . Ed McCoy, Jim Gray a n d Nick Pearson round ed o u t th e top seven, but fo r McCov, the race was a lmos t over . 'The rod went ou t abo ut a mile after the firs t pit and that was the end of my story," sa id McCoy, who had wrapped up the Vet-class win in round six of the series at California's Lucerne Valley the previous week end . "It was a good race from what I saw of it." The fast pace continued for the first 15 miles of loop two, which helped Over 40 series lead er Steve Pitts in his bid to recover from a slow sta rt.

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