Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"I was winning, and the n I lost my front brake and cras hed real hard," said Abbott, who mad e th e trip to the race from Arizo na . Wi th Abbo tt ou t of th e picture, Campbell and his XR628 broke into the lead , w hich wo u ld p rove to be the firs t of man y lead laps on the day for Campbell . "I had a rea lly good start for starting on the thi rd row," Campbell said. "I was going in third on the first lap and a couple of guys seized or so meth ing and then I was in the lea d . I ju st kep t it strong fro m there." Campbell was no t the only front-ru nner, however, who had to work his way u p thro ug h the pack. KTM 550-mounted To dd Hoy tu rn ed a m id pack starting positio n in to a ra ce for the lead as h e close ly fo llowed Campbell around th roughou t the first lap . "I star ted way back on the sixth row, but I go t a good start and made up time in the fast stuff," Hoy said . "I cou ld see Johnny (Campbell), but I couldn't catch him ." By the end of the first lap, third p lace wa s taken over by another ride r no t on the front starting gri d . - " I started on the fifth row, and by the time I got ha lfw a y I probably was a t lea s t l Oth," said Tea m G reen KX500 pilot Da ve O ndas. "The n 1 worked my way up to third." Not eve ryone was able to come through the pack as quickly as the top three . Team Green's Paul Krause had trouble getting his bike started . " Fo r so me reason my bike didn 't s ta rt on th e s ta rting lin e ," Krause sai d . "I just kicked and kicked and kicked ." Eventu all y Kra use go t sta rted (though it would no t be the las t time that d ay tha t he would ru n into problems with his KX500). Krause then mad e h i s w ay th rough th e dust to finis h fourth , figh ting off th e likes of Vosburg /lMS /KTM-backed Mike Hea ley and KTM's Russ Pearson. "It' s the saine old thing," said Krause ab ou t th e cou rse. "It ' s really fast. I' m surprised, wit h all the rain we had this week. It' s really dusty." At the finis h of the hou r-long ra ce, Campbell was nea rly a minute in front of second-p laced Hoy. Ondas held on for third, followed by Kra use . By the end of the Unclas sified race, co m petitors were beginnin g to worry abou t the cond itio n of the course - especia lly th e top Pr os, who all had the ir eyes on th e $1500 first-place Pro prize money. "It 's just really fas t out th ere, an d th er e' s a lot o f cho p yo u just ha ve to fi nd yo u r w ay aro u nd ," sai d KTM ' s N ick Pearson, who (a lo n g w i th h is yo unge r brother Russ) hails from Nevad a. "It's goin g to get nasty for the Pro . race." "The course is fun, fast and it' s startin g to ge t beat up a lready," sa id race w in ner Campbell. "T he square edges are coming ." Th e Senior I Magnu m / Su per Senior race go t under way, a nd race favorite Rex Staten wasted littl e time in ge tting ,his KX500 into the lead. Staten led from the first tum on and never looked back to take the win over TM-mounted Cra ig Ad ams and Bob Maxw ell in third place by almost five minutes. Fighting off second and third pla ce was no problem for Sta ten ; it w as the lapped tr a ffi c th at caus ed him grief. "You have to be careful when you co me up on all the lappers," said Staten, who lapped more than half the competition and was ready to move on to the Pro race him self. "Gu ys are tr ying to find better lin es, and they go from on e sid e to the other sid e and here you are at, like, 100 miles per hour. "I'll ride the Pro race," Staten continued. "I hope to win. If Ty (Davi s) has a little bit of a problem , 1 should be able to win it o r at least be se cond to hi m . I think my bike is faste r than his and he'll be at a d isad vantage th er e . He rails; though." Still a top con tender in any race, Staten sat and r ela xed a s th e Vet Expert/ Amateur race roa red to a start. Abe Bau ma nn go t the call for the lead as his Rocket Rex Racing KX500 rounded th e first lap in the lead. Donnie Morriso n came thro ugh in a close second, bu t it was not lo ng before bo th Morrison and Ba umann wo uld g iv e way to a hard-charging Krause. "Kraus e caught us on the road befor e check two on the second lap," said Morri so n, wh o stayed clo se be hind Baumann for the entire hour. "That" Honda of mine is just hard to hang on to, man. It' s a hand ful. Abe was flying; he's got so m u ch muscle on him. That cat can hang on ." The race for fourth turned into a d ogfig h t be tween the 250s o f G r eg Zitterkopf, Gordon Ward, Adams and John Rudder, who wa s co m p e ti n g with stitches in his hand . Zitterkopf and his new Ga s Ga s eve ntua lly pulled away from th e 250 on sl au ght and actuall y sta rted making time on the 500s of Mo rrison and Baumann; but tim e ran ou t a nd th e 199 6 AMA National Hare & H ound Ch amp ion se t tled for fou rth ov erall. Ward motored his way to fifth on a TM 250. Krause cros se d th e fini sh line with time to spare over second -p laced Baumann an d th ird -p laced Morrison . Even thou gh Krause's win seemed effortless after he made the pa ss for the lead, he was experiencing more bike problems. "I broke a radiator, and for some reason (the bike is ) runnin g really rich ," sa id Krause about his bike' s status for the upcoming Pro race. "I d on 't kn ow if I sucked some di rt throu gh the air cleaner or what. I still have' a couple hours to play around with it." Th e 0-200cc/ W o me n / M ini ra ce marked the first time the crowd wo uld get to see Davi s, who had chosen to sit ou t the Unclassified ra ce earlier in th e day. As the racers en tered the motocross sectio n of the course at the end of the firs t lap, KTM of Mojave-backed Erik Hallgath was in the lead ab oa rd his 200 M/XC, but Davis was right on his tail as they ent er ed the infiel d and headed ou t o n t o th e s e co n d lap, du rin g wh ich Davi s cau ght and passed Hallgath and opened up a huge lead. "I worked my way th rou gh the pack and passed everybody, and the n fell in for a comfortable pa ce," Davis sai d. "It , w as no problem at all ." T eam G reen's Ste ve H eng ev eld look e d to have t hird pl a ce, b ut hi s KX125 ran ou t of gas on th e la st la p , for cin g him to give way to Russ Pearso n. Hengeveld ma naged to get a splas h of gas to still finis h fourth. Th e Ka wasakis of Anna Co dy a nd Kelly Yan cy wen t one-two in the Women's division. Be fore a ny of th e top 125cc ri d ers cou ld catch their brea ths for 15 min ut es, , they were on the starting line again for th e 90-m inu te P ro race. With a purse tha t consisted of $6000 and a 75-p ercent entry pa yback, the likes of Da vis, Dan a Van Stee, Oakley Lehman, Healey and Russ Pearson wasted littl e tim e in ge tting to the starting line for the start of the Pro race. (Above) The 250cc Experts make the transition from street to dirt. (Right) Rex Staten overa lled the Classici Vintage/Sidehack race on his old factory YZ400, won the Sen ior race, and even finished second in the Pro race. (Bottom right) Destry Abbott den ied Davis the Open-class win and finished first 250cc in the Pro race in fourth overall. The drag race down the pavem en t to the fir s t turn sa w Ondas in th e lea d , with N ick Pearson and the rest of the field rig ht on his tail. The d u st on th e first lap was getting bad, and th ose who got a bad start or we re in the middle of the pack had difficulty w orking th eir way up. "There was so mu ch dust out on the first lap," sai d Am erican Hond a's Tim Staab. "Some of the dust was so thick, at times 1was rid ing, like, 20 miles per hour." Some riders had problems before they could even ge t into the dust. Capt and Ru ss Pea rson b oth suffered fro m bad star ts. "I go t a n eigh t-kic k sta rt an d was dead last," Ca pt sai d. "The guy in front of me didn't start his bike on th e firs t kick, so he w as in . my way," Pearson said. Out front , On das was feeling a lot of pressure from be hi nd , and even tually gave way. "Ca mpbell got by me and then (Nick) Pearson, bu t I passed him back," O ndas sa id. " Ty was b eh ind m e fo r a littl e while and then he wen t by me." . A s Da vi s a nd hi s big-b ore YZ2 50. went by Ondas, he put Campbell in his sig hts and, by the end of the first lap, Ca mpbell's lead was any th ing but comfortabl e. Staten had w ork ed his way in to th ird and w as bei n g cha se d b y Ni ck Pears on , Ondas, Team Greens' Lehman and 15-year-old Dou g C h iapuzio, who had traded in his normal 250cc mount for the power of a KX500. The 250s of Hengeveld, Russ Pea rson, Abbo tt arid Wa rd fe ll in behind Chiapuzio, but it was Krau se w ho was co m ing up fr om a n other ba d s tar t through the pack. Krause's cha rge, how ever, did not last long, as his race en ded early when his tired KX500 fina lly qu it. "It loo ks lik e I lost th e main sea l," Krause said . "That's why it was running so bad in the Vet race. I' ll be ready for the Open rac e tomorrow , with another bik e." As the miles wound down, Campbell began to feel the pressure from Davis, a nd w he n the two riders entered th e mot ocro ss section at the end of the second lap, th e crowd cou ld hear a twostroke in the lead . "Ty (Davi s) cam e up behind me and m ad e m e really ne rv ous," Ca m pbell said . "Then he passed me and his dust was gone." Davi s' dust disappeared because, not lon g afte r h e p a s sed C ampbell , hi s speed y YZ seized to a halt, en d ing all cha nces for a finish, m uch less a win. Ondas was one of the first rid ers to realize that he had moved up a spo t due to Davi s' misfortune. "All of a sudden, people started signaling me that I was in third a gain," Ondassaid. Campbell was just a s s u r p rised to find himself back in the lead. 17

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