Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.. ~ HARE &HOUND AMANATIONALCHAMPIONSHIP HAR &H U DSERIES E ON Round 6: Idaho National (Left) Ty Davis came away from the Murphy Nationa l Hare & Hound with a fourth-place finish, but that was enough to clinch his second AMA Nationa l Hare & Hound champi onship in as many years. Davis also gave the Yamaha YZ400F four-str oke its first AMA off-road title. (Right) KTMrider Nick Pearson rebounded from a minor s pilland charged hard enough in the muddyIdaho conditions to s core the overa ll win and top the Open Expert class. Sy Anne and Tom Van Seve ren Photos by Tom Van Severen MURPHY, !D, SEPT. 26 h o says close on ly co u n ts in a nd ha n d hors e sh oe s grenades? In round six of th e seve n- race AMA Na tio nal H are & Houn d Championshi p series , Ty Davis pro ved tha t close also counts in desert racing. Stiff co mpeti tio n a nd an off-theco urse excursion hal fw ay through the 92-mile race in sou thwest Idaho knocked Davis back to fou rth overall w he n the checkered flag fell on the second- to-last race in this yea r's seven-even t series , but fourth w a s clo se e no ugh to give the Ya ma ha-mou n ted ri der h is seco nd Na tio na l C hamp ions hip ti tl e in tw o yea rs . With two wi ns and two secondplace finishes und er his belt goi ng into the race, Davis kn ew that almost any finish that paid po ints wou ld be enough to sew up the titl e in the best -five-ou t-ofseven points race, and he was all smiles w he n he brou gh t h is Ya ma ha Mo to r Corpo ra tion /Montclair Yama ha- backed YZF400 across the finis h. "Two in a row feels good, and it feels eve n bett er because I've given Yamaha \\J OC; 0\ 0\ ,..... 0:::1' ,....." l-< 0,) ,.Q o ..... u o 54 th eir firs t Natio na l Hare a nd Hou n d cha m pions hip," Da vis said. "It's also grea t because I was ridi ng a fou r-stroke, a n d a 400 fo u r -s troke, too . I'm no t k n ockin g it d own , but the re 's more weight to d eal with, and it's just not a tw o-stroke, and it's not like this bike was p rov en in th e d es er t like th e Kawasakis have bee n for years. I took a bike an d di d the bes t with it I could, and this is what happened. It's great. " Out in front of Davis, the round-six finis h was KTM all the wa y. Nevada racer Nick Pearson overalled the race on a KTM 380MXC, an d his younger brother, Russ Pearson, took second on a KTM 250 to topt he 250cc Expert class. Curtis Dice topped the Four-Stroke class on a KTM 620SC in 10th overa ll, just ahea d of Eric Hallgath, who piloted a KTM 125 to vic tory in th e eig h th- liter division, and KTM-mount ed Ala n Deyo topped the Over 40 Experts in 13th , The second- to-las t 'r ace in this year's series was orig ina lly sla ted for Yering (Right) Rus s Pearson, s hown here tearing away from a checkpoint, bagged the 250cc Expert win and was seco nd overall, finis hing less than a minute behind his brother. to n, nea r Reno, Nevada . Id aho' s Di rt Inc., which h os ted ro un d two o f the series back in March, stepped u p to the plate w hen the Yeri ng ton club's lastminute cancella tion thr eatened to cut the series back to six rounds and seriously impact th e s till-too-close-to-ca ll po in ts race. The course sta rted on pri vate lan d ow ned by Paul Nettleton, a sy mpathetic nonrider w hose fa mily is th e old est in the Murphy area, and cons isted of on e 92-mile loop with two remote pits and a variety of cha llengi ng terrain, Heavy rain the night befor e the race had mad e the cou rse slick and mu dd y in th e h igher e leva tio ns , an d it was po uri ng when the field of more than 80 racers left the line at 10:30 a.m. "I had a pretty good start," said Nick Pea rso n, w ho mad e sho rt work of the scrubby bo mb run tha t was litter ed wi th s mall h ills, ditch es a n d rock s . Bria n Brown just barely edged me ou t an d I was in second . I followed Brown for a little w hi le; then Ty Davis go t by me an d it was the three of us ." Dest ry Abbott tuc ked his Kawasaki 10<500 in behind the lead trio as the 35mile d a sh to pi t one bega n, and Rus s Pearson and Yama ha YZ250-mounted Donnie Book were close behind them. The arting area tau ght Hallgath a less on a bo u t h ors ep o w er a n d h ow , so meti mes, bigger really is better. "I had a really bad s tart and then it w a s a h ors epo w e r thin g th e w ho le w ay," Hall gath said . "I w as sh ort on horsepower on the hills, and it was really bad in th e hi gh a lt it u des, bu t the co u rs e w as excep tio na l, a n d I had a good time. These guys are incred ible. I like coming here." Hall gath was o ne of m a n y race rs w ho p raised bo th th e co u rse a nd the club's mar kin gs. "I thou ght the course was great and I had a real good time on it ," he said . "The marking was real good, too , If you d idn 't see a ri bbon, yo u kn ew yo u weren' t on course, so yo u looked for it real fast. I think they d id a good job." . Davis di d a good job in the early run -

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