Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127965
OFF-ROAD Round 4: Las Vegas to Reno BESTIN T EDESERT H S ILVER STATE SERIES Sy Anne Van Seve ren Photos by Tom Van Severe n I ~ a ~ .. 00 0'\ 0'\ ......, ...... N ~ OJ RENO, NY,ocr.2 e va da ra cers ick a n d Ru ss Pearson teamed up on a fours tro ke KTM to turn thi s year's off-ro ad da sh from Las Vegas to Reno into a famil y affair. In a closely contested battle th at saw the lead swa p back a nd forth between Ka wasaki , Yamaha and KTM, a nd th a t saw the top three finishes just 10 minutes apa rt after 527 miles of grueling racing, the Las Vegas based brothers had their 1999 KTM 640 ou t in fro nt w hen it cou nted and took th e chec kered flag by jus t ove r three minutes. . "We are p retty stoked," said 20-yearold Nick Pearson , who repor ted a troubl e-free rid e a ll th e way. "Th is is th e first Best in the Desert race we' ve ever o ve ra lled , a nd it fe el s reall y good . We' ve beenracin g professionally thr ee years now a nd it' s nic e to finally w in one." The famil y affair continued when 15year-old David Pearson , a cous in of the Open Pro w inners, brou gh t the KTM 250 he shared with Bryan Folks across the finish line in seventh overall to take the win in the 250cc Pro d ivision . More tha n 100 mo torcycle teams got up early for the third annual running of the Veg as-t o-Re no event. To p ut the motor cycles well ahea d of the truck and car racers, the firs t bike was sched uled to sta rt at 6:15 a.rn., and most of the racers had to facto r in a 6D-mile drive east fro m even t headquarters a t the Sah ara Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip to the starting line in the town of Pahru m p. The Ka w a sa ki KX500 du o of Pau l Kra use and Dave Hamel had drawn the co ve te d number -on e sp ot on th e onebike-every-30-seconds starting grid, but it was far fro m full speed ahea d as the sta rting light flashed green. "I co u ld n't beli eve th ey took off so earl y," sa id N ick Pea rs on , w ho ha d drawn a spot at the rea r of the Op en Pro pa ck - a good position for ke ep in g an eye o n th e co m pe tit io n bu t a di s tin ct d isad vantage on a d u sty race co u rse. "You cou ld n' t see a thing. Going up the firs t w ash wi th the dust in the dark, it was really hard to see. I ju st too k it easy and didn't pass an ybo dy in the first valley." The cou rse head ed northe ast fro m Pa h ru m p , pa ssed throu gh p it one a t Johnnie and then par alleled Highway 95 up th e Am argosa Vall ey and thro ug h Beatty. . The top runners were averag ing close to 55 mph as they dashed into pit tw o, 75 miles into the 527-mile course. The Krause/H am el Kawasaki wa s still out in fro n t as it cleared the p it , bu t the KX5 00 pi lo te d by Dav e Ondas a nd Destry Abbott was less than a min ut e behind on ad justed time in second. The Curtis Sparks Yama ha 430 shared by Ty Davis and Donnie Book raced thro ugh in th i rd, a head o f th e Honda XR628 co m ma nded by Johnny Campbe ll and Jimmy Lewis ; the Pearson KTM cleared pit tw o in fifth . "The course was gnarly, wi th lots of w hoops and si lt," Ca m p be ll sa id . "I thi nk from the s tart to, like, pit four was probab ly the roug hes t and most tom up we've ever seen it , becau se it ' s been raced for a lot of yea rs. On ce we go t past .c 0 .... U 0 16 The KTM-mo unted team of Russ and Nick Pearson gets fuel ed up en route to vi ctory in the Vegas-ta-Reno off-road race - round four of th e Best in the Desert Series .