Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,...,..------- - - - - - - - - - - - ,.:. , HARE &HOUND {~ Round 1: Lucerne Valley, California AMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HARE &HOUND SERIES s a ots lJ a ~ .are ~ By Anne Van Beveren Photos by To m Van Beveren LUCERNE VALLEY, CA,JAN. 25 efending champion Ty Davis had th e first rou nd of thi s year's N ational Hare & Hound Series won in just 100 ya rd s. Problem was, it was th e last 100 yards of a grueling tw o-hour dash through th e d u sty desert near Soggy Dry Lake in Lucerne Valle y, California. It took an unusu al four kicks for the ex- Kawasaki h otshot to get hi s n ew fo u r-s tro ke Yama ha YZF400F m oving when th e banner dropped for th e start of th e eve nt, and that put Davis in the ra re positi on of pl ayin g catch-u p for the rest of the day. "I d idn' t get a first -kick start, I didn't ge t a seco nd, I d idn't ge t a third. I wa s just w ay, w ay be hind off the start," said D avi s , whose modus o peran d i h a s always been to get ou t in front fast and stay ther e. "I didn't think I'd be able to ca tch the f ro n t-ru nners b ecause they had clear air, and it wa s so dusty ba ck where I w as. The dust wa s bad." But Davis ad opted a never-sa y-die att itu de and, af ter sq ueaking pa st one rid er after an other throughou t th e 73mile s p rin t, he found himself within striking d istance of the lead in the final valley . He launched an all-out blitz with th e checkered flag almost in sig ht an d dodged arou nd KTM's Nick Pearson to grab the number-one spot less than 100 yards from the finish. "I hope the rest of the Nationals are a little easier than this," sa id Da vis, gri nning to ex pos e teeth caked with dirt from ru nning in the dust for so lon g. " It fe els good to w in , especi ally wh en I . really didn't think I coul d d o it aft er a st art like that. " Th e first race of 1998' s seven-ro u nd AMA H ar e & Hound Series brou ght ou t a lot of last yea r's ho tsho ts, but what a d iffer en ce a yea r m akes. Davis' tr ad emar k green tw o-stroke was go ne, and in its place w as a four-stroke backed by the Yamah a factory in combinati on with Montclair Yamaha . Donnie Book had made the sa me swi tch, but his Yama ha Hare and H ound d ebut had to be postponed after a crash in practice four da ys before the race left him with tw o broken wrists. "They're not really bad," said Book, who sp or te d two heavy casts. "I jus t chipped the bone in each wrist and the y wen t in and screw ed each chip back onto the bone." Destry Abbott had traded last year's Vosburg Racing-backed KTM for a new KX500. Th e Honda XR628 tha t car ried Jeff Capt to victory in 1997's Four-Stroke clas s had been d ropped in fav or of a KX500, which he will rac e in th e Open Exper t di vision, and defending Vet-cla ss champ Ed McCoy tu rned up on a brandnew Honda CRSOO. But th e ra ce faces w ere the same just after 9.30 a .rn ., wh en th e' b anner (1) ,l 22 dropped for the start of the new season of com pe tition, and 460 racers powered up the bomb, Ru ss Pea rson go t th e sta rt of a lifetime and fou nd him self ou t in fron t on a KTM250. "I started off to one side becau se the bomb w ent u phill and I knew I cou ld n't pull the guys," Pearson sa id . "I got an awesome sta rt, then I we n t ove r to the r ig h t a nd ju st w en t b y every body because they w ere in the dus t." Pearso n's lead d id n' t last long, how ev er, as he w ent d o wn o n a d rop-off abo u t five miles past the bom b. "They d idn't have it marked ," Pearso n said . "Ther e was a w hoop on the ot her si d e a nd I s lammed in to it re a l ha rd . Tha t high-sided me an d , after that, I just kind of cruised to try to ge t it back go ing. It kn ocked me a bit silly." Th e crash left Dan Rich ar dson, Capt and Abbott, all mounted on KX500s, in a three-way tussl e for th e number -one spot . Capt moved u p to tak e over th e lead for a while, but he w as relegat ed to seco nd after five or six miles b y th e hard-chargi ng Abbott. Some of the best starters in th e bu siness were now here to be seen . Da vi s was b ack n ea r 60th pla ce w hen h e reached the bomb . A 10-kick sta rt left Vet ace Abe Baumann way at the back, and H onda ' s Johnn y Campbell wa s somewhere in the 50s inst ead of in his us ual top-10 spo t. "I didn't get the jump lik e I w'!inted .~ (Right) Ty Davis s hakes his fist in triumph after winning the open ing round of the AMA . National Champ ionship Hare & Hound Series, in his first race on a Yamaha YZ400F. (Below) After . Davis got a horrible start and after 73 miles of racing, the race came down to the last 100 yards , whe re Davis (1) was able to get around KTM's Nick Pearson (3, part ially hidden ) to steal the win. and a lot of guys just pinched me off at fir st, " Campbell said . " It w as pretty dusty in some sections and I just had to w ait until it clear ed u p before I could pa ss. I just had to play work-up all d ayjust mak e up tim e, make up time." Abbo tt wa s goin g strong at the head of the pack as he neared th e halfw a y po int of loop one's sweeping 34-mile circui t to the northeast, but his lu ck ran out sud denly. "I go t a front flat abou t th e 15th mile," Abbott said, shaking his head . "I'm .reaI m ad at m yself because I ju st put a tu be in when I sho u ld' ve u sed a crescent tube - one of the Dunlop tubes. I re a ll y felt like I cou ld 'v e won it, because I had a good lead when I got the flat - about a minute, m inute-and-ahalf ." But a minute wasn' t nearly eno ug h, and Abbott w as.bumped back to seco nd when Ni ck Pe arso n' s KTM 380 ca me charg ing by. " I go t a good st ar t an d w a s a bo ut fourth to the bomb," sa id Nic k Pearson, who d odged by hi s brother Ru ss a nd then m oved up b ehind Abbott as th e terrain tighten ed u p . "I followed him for a w hile and he go t pumped up or so mething. I got by him about 20 mi les into the race." Pe ars on d a sh ed into pit row after almost an hour of racing with a 51-seco nd lead over Abbott, who Spent a frus tratin g co u p le of minutes watch in g other riders go by before a fr esh front tire had him back on track for loop two . Capt' s KX500 w as in the numbert h ree spo t when it e ntered pit row ahead of 250cc Expert leader Russ Pears o n in fourth, KX500- mou nted Dave Ondas in fifth and Davis, who had battled back from almost 60th at the bomb to an impressive sixth overall. "In the fas t stu ff, you cou ld n't get out of line because there's tons of rocks out here," Davis said, "so you just had to eat their dust and wa it for a tec hnical section to try to close th e gap and make it up a bit." Luckily for Da vis, the first loop laid out b y D esert MC h ad a n unusual amo u nt of technical terrain. "The ra ce w as kind of backwards," Ondas said. "The first loop was kind of tight and technical, and the second loop was kind of fas t," O ndas said . "They

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