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HARE &HOUND AMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HARE &HOUND SERIES Round 5: Wells-to-Wendover • .•. By Anne and Tom Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren WENOOVER,NV,SEPT.14 ith three d iffer ent win ners in th e first four ro u nds an d th e ationa l title still u p for grabs, it' s on ly nat ural that the re wou ld be a lot of d rea mers on the sta rting line w hen round five of this yea r's AMA Na tional Ha re & H ound Cha m pions hip Series kicked off in Well s, N evada. But how of te n d o yo u ca tch every racer in th e field wit h his head in the clouds? It ha ppene d h igh in th e moun tai ns so mew he re nea r the halfway point of the 100-mile dash fro m We lls to Wendover, the we ll-known Bonneville Salt Flat town th at lies rig h t on the Nevada /Uta h bord er 120 miles west of Salt Lake City. On its way from the sta rt at 5600 fee t above sea level to th e fin ish line at 4500 feet, the course ran up and over two impressive mounta in ranges. Sto rmy w ea th er a n d ele va tio ns that topped 9500 feet did the rest. "I got lost in the fog ou t there on top of the mountains," said Yamaha-mounted Donnie Book , who was leading the pa ck wh en th e clouds cl o s ed in . " I cou ld n ' t find th e ma rk in gs in the fog and people sta r ted to cat ch up to me . Russell Pearson a nd I w ere out th er e togeth er and, man, we jus t motoed. We did so me really crazy stu ff trying to find out wh ere we had to go." Book rega ined th e lead as th e du o d ashed out of the whiteout and he was still in front when the chec kered fla g dropped a t the end o f a lm os t t hre e hours of racing. " It was alwaysm y goal to w in a atio nal har e and hound on a 250, and toda y I did it," said the YZ25D.-mounted racer , who is n ow fo u r th on overa ll poin ts going in to the final two rou nds of th e bes t-fi ve- out-of- seven se ries . The lead is still in th e hand s of Ty Da vis, w ho ha s won two of the series' events, with Arizon a's Destry Abbott in second, and Kawasaki KX500 racer Dave Ondas in third. Th e weather wa sn 't th e only thing that w as unsettled w he n the 100-p lus racers lined up on the outskirts of Wells for the star t of the po int-to-p oint cou rse la id ou t by Ron Dill on' s USA Promotions . Rou nd six of th e competition, W sched u led for Yeri ngton, Nevada , jus t two weeks later, had bee n canceled and rumors - later confirmed by the AMA w er e cir cul ating about a repl acem en t race in Murphy, Idaho , on September 26. Pitch-bl a ck clo u ds had th e ra cers checking the skies as they wa ited for the sta rt, but there was no time for d istra ctions w hen the ba nner finall y dropped at 10.30 a.m, The uneven bomb run , littered w ith sagebrush and rocks, called (Above) Donnie Book ca ptured his first National hare-andhound win at the Wellsto-Wendover race. (Left) Russ Pearson took runnerup honors. 30 ' for a slow-but-steady approac h, bu t the hard -charging competition did not, and it was full spe ed ah ead in the opening dash. "T he s ta rt w en t really go od ," sa id Nick Pearson, who was racing a new KTM 380 MXC. "Me and Ty Davis came in to the bo mb run side by side. I go t him t hroug h the sageb r us h a nd had th e holeshot, and I led it for the first 10 or 15 miles." The o p e n in g m il e s turned in to a thr ee-w ay battle as Davi s and the hard charging Donnie Book, who had swept pa st th e bomb in third , s truggled to make up time on Pearson. Fur ther bac k in th e pack, there were struggles of a different so rt. . "I wadded up really bad on the sta rt - just crashed really hard - and I ended up just crashing an d cras hi ng the whole first loop, " said KX5OD-mounted Abbott, who wa s looking for a good finis h to close up the series poi nts gap on Davis. "I actu ally thought abo u t calling it quits because things were going so badly." Ondas also got off to a disappointing start. "It wasn' t too good and I wa s probab ly about 30th a t the bomb," said the Kawasaki Tea m Gree n racer. "I kind of go t a little tim id off the sagebru sh and stuff, but once I started goi ng, I started catching people an d bcin g consis ten t." A nd th en th e re w as Brian Brown, whose p romising opening run was shu t d own almos t before it began . "Off the start, I was do ing good until we had to go in between the banners," th e Id ah o ra cer ex p la ine d . "I jumped an d one of the Pearson s cut in front of me w he n I was in th e a ir. After that I land ed a n d w ent o ff to th e left and ended up getting stuck. I had to flip the bike back aro u nd, an d then I go t stuck ag ain a nd eve rybody was gone. I was the last one off by the time I go t going." But even a good start is no gua rantee of vict or y , as Da v is di scover ed about eight miles int o the race. "T he three of u s were reall y close me, Davis a nd Boo k," N ic k Pea rson sai d . "Book we n t by me, then he blew the comer an d I go t back by, then Davis go t by Book and he was rig h t be hind me . We we re battling for a w hile, then Davis went by me and all of a sud d en he- just pulled over. He was off to the side of the course and I presume that he ' broke down." Davis was forced to retire, reportedly wit h clutch problems, and his hopes of a good-eno ugh finish to w ra p u p the . overall series victory we re back on hold-, Wit h two wins a nd two second -place finis hes tow a rd this yea r' s five-race points total, Davis will sti ll be tough to beat , but he will have to finish at least j one of the two re maining events if he wants to enjoy the National title for the second year in a row . With Davis ou t of the ru nning, Book d ecided to ge t serious abo ut the win. "Wh en I saw Davis sitti ng on the side . of the road, I kind of cha nged my ga me p lan a nd pu t m y head d own a nd th e ham me r down, and I pull ed ou t a pretty d ecent lead ," said Book, wh o was just in , front of Nick Pearson when he reached the first pit , 35 miles from the sta rt. Rus- : sell Pear son was push ing ha rd in third , Honda-mounted Ed McCoy was leading . th e Ve t-class ra cers in fou rth overa llz a n d O akl e y Lehman a n d G reg Z it terkopf were not far behind. Th e r a cers h a d al rea dy s u rv ived miles of trees, th ree tr ick y d ownhills and a few wid e-op en sprints when they