Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

OFF-ROAD Round 2: Silver State 300 BEST INTHED SERT S E ILVER STATE SERIES • ~~~j~~~~~!r~a~n;d~th ~e By Anne and Tom Van Beveren A 8 ~ 28 MESQUITE, NY, JUNE27 'obod y a t th e Silve r State 300 could accuse Johnny Campbell of being a run-of-the-mill racer. The 27-year -old Ho nda factory pilot showed up at Mesqu ite alone, opting to tackle the grueling 317-mile team race in the heat of a Neva da su mmer without a partner to share the load. He showed up at the pr edomina ntly tw o-stro ke eve n t on a Honda XR628. And he entered his thumper in the Open Pro class, choos ing to shoot for the overall win rather than settle back for wha t promised to be an easier battle in the Four-Stroke Pro class. The results were just as remarkabl e: After six hou rs and 18 min u tes of hardon- the-gas racing, Ca m pbell flashe d across the finish to take the overa ll win. He completed the course three min u tes ahea d of the nearest two- man team .and averaged 50 miles an hour on his way to victory. "I've never won a Best in the Desert · race before, bu t I knew I could win this race," said Campbe ll. "I've been training an d riding really hard . I did a lot of testing, an d I had a lot of d et erm inat ion comi ng in . I' ve also fo un d a better engi ne package that' s more reliable and eve n has more p ow er , so I k new it . wou ld be a good race for me." Th e long da ys of su m mer, cou pled w i th t he need to separate t he twowheel ed en trie s from th e Best in th e Desert' s new car and truck classes, put the motorcycle racers on the road early . The first bike left the line at 5:30 a.m. rest of the 95-entry-s trong field followed one bike at a time every 30 seconds . The lu ck of the sta r ti ng draw put Campbell in the lead -off position wh en the .race began, and the du st -free number-one s po t paid d iv id end s as th e op en in g sectio n of the dust y co u rse headed straight into the rising su n. "The firs t tw o sec tions wer e pretty scary because we had the su nlight right in our eyes. I thou ght the dust was terribl e, a nd it s tayed th at way a ll da y because th e course was sil ty all th e way," said Jim Gray, w ho was shari ng a KTM620SC with Todd Hoy in the Over 450cc Four-Stroke d ivision. "It was really toug h to pass guys. We started sixth in our class, plus we were behind all the Open, 250cc a nd Vet Pros off the sta rt, so there we re a lot of people to pass probably about 20 of them." Campbell stayed in the physical lead as th e co u r se hea d ed awa y fro m Mes quite, a ga m bling tow n o n the Neva da / Arizo na /Utah border 70 miles east of Las Vegas, and began a long loop to the north west towar d th e first pit, wh ich was just off Highway 93 at Kan e Springs. The H o nd a ace w as s til l i n fron t when he reached pit two at Pahroc Summit, 111 miles in to the race, bu t some of the hard-charging competition was closing th e tim e-adjusted ga p behi nd him . The KX500 piloted by Dave Ha mel an d Brian Brown dashed into the pit in seco nd , half a minute behind Campbell physica ll y, bu t the Kawasak i tea m' s o ne- m in u te sta rti ng d efi cit put th em half a minut e ahead of the Honda in the time-ad justed stand ings. There was a three-minute gap back to (Above) The team of Donnie Book and Ty Davis took runner-up honors. (Left) This was the view everyone had of Johnny Campbell and his Honda at the Silver State 300. He soloed to the overall vict ory. Nevada brothers Russ a nd Nick Pearson, who brought their KTM through in th ird. The Dave Ondas /Dest ry Abbott KX500 wa s jus t a hea d of the Ty Davis /Donnie Book Yama ha for fourth on adjusted time, and the KTM en try of Mike Heale y and Eric Hallgath cleared the pit in fifth. "Everything went really well at first," said Hallgath. 'We were the second bike off the line and I was still second overall going in to the first pit, but th en I got passed by the (Hamel/Brown) Kawasaki, and shortly after that I had a little get-off. The skidplate bolts came off the front and it dug into the ground. Thank good ness I was going really slow." Hallgath lost time removing the rest of the skid plate bolts, lost three more positions changing a shock at pit three, and then discovered that he would have to ride the rest of the race by himself. "H ealey d id 35 miles, then go t hurt. He hurt his wri st and could n' t continue, so I had to finish the race," sai d Hallgath. "On a course like this, wh ere you can' t pre rid e, it' s really.not that bad . It's not a big d isad vantage ridi ng sections you didn't plan to ride , because nobody else has seen them either." The 250cc Pro class ha d al rea dy developed into a no-holds-ba rred ' batt le between the lead-off Kawasaki piloted by Oakley Lehm an a nd Larry Roeseler and the number-two starter - a WR250 Yamaha sha red by James Summers and Shane Esposito. "We' ve led on time pr etty mu ch all the way," said Su mmers . "T he other team was in fron t of us on the start, but Esposito put us in the lead physica lly by the time we got to pit two . I like racing with Lehm an and Roeseler because we are so tightly matched. Ifs going to be like this all d ay - back and forth. I have a lot mo re fu n w he n it' s tight like thi s. When you're ou t in front or way beh ind , it's boring." The race for the Over-30 Pro lead was s hap ing u p to be a three-wa y battle b e tween t he Honda comma nded b y Darrol Brown an d Kevin Brown, th e KTM sha red by Daryl Folks and John Rudder, and blast-from-the-pas t racers Ted Hunnicutt a nd Ga r th Sw ee tland , wh o had team ed up o n a Montclair Yamaha YZ400F. The Brown brother s' Honda led thi way in to p if tw o, a nd th e KTM a nd Yamaha we re neck and neck for second bu t whe n Rudd er hand ed the KTM over, Folks became a team of one. "He (Rud de r) hurt his arm and said he th ou ght it might be broken ," said Folks. "H eari ng that kind of kn oc ked the wind out of me. I had a funny feel ing I wasn 't going to see him aga in fa the re st of the d ay, and th at told m what I was in for. I just wasn't mentall or ph ysically read y to do the rest of th race by myself . You 're bummed: and that takes you out mentally. If I was to start the race knowin g I had to do it b myself, that would be different -I'd gea u p mentally - but this was tough." Back in the 125cc Pro division, KXI25 racers Erik Griffith and Dana Van Ste were a different kind of alone. "We' re the only ones in our cl ass w hich is a bit of a bummer," said Va Stee. "It's a lot of fun racing a 125, but it's a lot more fun w hen you hav e sam body to race against." . Jonah Street and Taber Murphy had the lead in the Four-Stroke Ov er 450c class as they thundered into pit two, jus ahea d of class rivals Greg Bringle an d Craig Smit h, a nd Kawasak i-m oun ted David Fry and Scott Wilson were lead ing the Fou r-Stroke Unde r 450cc class. The race continued nort h through th high country to pit three at Pan aca, the d oubled bac k into Cathed ral Gorge fa the fourt h gas stop. The Kawasa ki pilot ed by Dave Hamel a nd Brian Bro w came into pit row in the lead and, after a brief brea k for service, was sti ll in th lead when it headed out for the 350mil dash to the last gas stop in Caliente. Campbell ' s H onda was 41 second back in seco nd , w hich pu t him a lmos tw o minutes beh in d th e Kawasaki 0 adjusted time. ; "Right after pit thr ee, I was kin d a d ogging it throu gh some tight sluff and Brown just se emed lik e he was being really aggressive - really on the gas," sa id Cam pbe ll. "It was too dan gerous for my ability and I had to let him go. Brown was going really fast, but I knew Ham el wo uld get back on the bike and I could probab ly stay with him , so I jus waited and wa ited an d waited." On das and Abbo tt d ashed ou t of pi four in third , but whe n the stopwatch were consulted, their total elapsed tim ha d them in seco nd, just 17 se cond

• Cover