Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the re, abou t 90 percent of the race was XR territory - fun roads, slid ing-the-bike fas t stuff - but the start wa s a bit slower." The Bry a n Folks / David Pearso n KTM was lead ing the 250cc Pro class in eighth overa ll w he n it cleared pit tw o, a hea d of O a k ley Le h man a n d Br ia n Bro wn ' s KX250. T im Staa b a nd Mike Heal ey brought the first four-s tro ke in the Ov er 450cc division through in 11th, just ahea d of Over 30 Pro leaders Da ryl Fo lks and j ohn Rudd er , o n a KTM . S te v e H en g ev eld an d j eff Ca p t h a d struggled throu gh the dust to bring their 365cc Kawasaki up to 21st overall to top the Under 450cc Four-S troke d ivision . "It was very dusty off the start," Capt sa id. "I ca ug h t th e leader in ou r class ' three tim es; I cou ld n' t ha ve been more th an fiv e s econd s behind him in th e tou gh , rocky stu ff wh er e it really takes so me skill, but any body can go fast on the roa ds and I'd ha ve to slow dow n becau se I couldn't see anymore." The dusty dash continued as the racers flew no;th toward p it thr ee bu t, ou t o n th e h ighwa y , t h ings ca me t o a sc reec h i ng halt for th eir pit crew s . Repaving had cut a la r ge se ction o f Hig hway 95 down to on e lane, and the support vehicles w er e held up for as much as half an hour at a time as flagmen alterna ted th e flow of nort h- and south -bound tr affi c th ro ug h 'th e co nstru ction area . "Abbott ended up rid ing a lot mor e miles than we'd planned because I go t (Right) David Ondas and Dest ry Abbott led for the majo rity of the Vegas-to-J:leno event, only to be passed by the Pearsons late in the race. Still , the Kawasaklmounted duo held on for second place. (Below) Paul Krause and Dave Hamel fin ished fourth overall , some 25 minutes behind the winning duo. s tuc k in the traffic," sa id and as , who was unable to reach pit three in time for the scheduled rid er change. "I was supposed to rid e fro m p it three to Fit five and t h e n w e w ere go ing to ke ep lea pf rogg ing, but ou r plans fell apa rt and we just had to wing it. They warn ed us about the construction at the rid er's meeting, but ther e wa sn 't anything we .could do except sit and wait. " Wh en it wa s finall y th e ir turn to move north up the singl e lane, some of th e ra cers w ere dela yed again . Many had to pull o ve r to le t an ambulance t h ro u g h , and th en wait again at th e • s ce ne o f a s i ng le -ca r roll-ove r jus t befo re the roa d into pit thr ee, and pull over ye t again to accom modate a la n e a nd -a-half-w ide s teel . fra me tha t was being t rucked sou th on the highway. By th e time th e p it crews caught up, things were starting to cha nge at the front of the pack. Th e Kra use / Ha me l Kawasak i was no longe r in the lead, ha ving fa llen victim to the Ondas / Abbott Kawasaki and the Davi s / Boo k Yam aha . "The bike was working go o d a n d w e w eren 't h a v in g a ny problem s," Ha me l said . "I just go t passed ." W ith O ndas ca ug ht in traffic, Abbo tt had to stav on the bike a ll the way to pit five, an d traffic also caused the Pearsons to miss their rid er cha nge at pit four. Russ Pearson, meanw h ile , kept busy while h e waited for his brother to catch up by wo rking his way up toward third overall. He was sur p r ised he did n o t get m uch oppositio n fro m the Ca m p be ll /Lewis Honda. "We d idn 't g o to o w ell tod a y ," sai d Campbell. "I h a d some o ve rh ea t ing problems and ther e was really not hin g we cou ld d o about it. The mo tor just got hot and we lost a lot of power. We basically just dropped back and back all day and wer e jus t mot oring along, trying to salvage what we cou ld : ' Fu r t he r b ack in th e p a ck , th e Staa b/ Healey Yamah a was still leading th e Ov er 450cc Four-Strokes a nd had . s k y rocke ted up throu gh th e overall ranks, but th in g s s ta rted to so u r as it reached the halfway point. "Every thing worked great at first and I was reall y happy to s ho w th at the Yamaha can run up front w ith the little mo to r and every thi ng, bu t something ca me lo os e in th e carb," said Staa b. "There's som e bolt that comes out, and I co ul d o n iv crack half-t hrott le fro m abou t mile '260. We could only ge t halfthrottle for the whole second half of the race." . A thr ee- way battle in the 250cc Pro class was also starting to unravel. The Folks /Pearson KTM 250 was sti ll goi ng strong, but an ea rly cras h had reportedly s idelined the Summers half of th e james Summers / Shan e Espos ito Yamah a te am , an d t he Le h man/ Brow n Ka w a saki was lo sing ti me to . cl u tc h problems. "The clutch just fell apa rt abo ut 100 miles in to it," said Lehma n. "We lost 10 to 15 minutes fixing it, mad e the time back up, then it we nt ou t aga in. We also had a lot of trouble wit h our Tech tubes. I g u ess th e hig h s peeds jus t m elt ed them ." By the end of the race, the team had re placed three clutches, three fro n t w heels and three rear w heels . As th e no rtherly dash co ntin ued tow ard Gol dfield, the racers s tarted to get so me respite from the blinding dust. " It rai ned two or three days ago on the nort hern part of the course, and the rain really helped a lot," said Nick Pearso n. "There were p uddles on the dry la kes a nd actually a little mu d out of Tonopah." ' T he Pearsons picked off th e Krause/Hamel KX500 in Go ldfie ld's pit six to take over third and then set their sig hts on Boo k. The KTM was right on Book's heels as he entered pit eigh t a t Mina , 311 miles into the 527-mile dash . "We go t him in the Mina pit when he was changing a tire," said Nic k Pearson . "Fro m pit six on, I cou ld see Abbo tt's dust a nd Book' s dus t, a nd I just ro de re all y hard . By To n opah , I was on e minute behind Book and I slow ly cau ght up u ntil we go t them at Min a." But getting passed by the Pearsons w asn' t the wo rst thing tha t happened to Book. "I guess he crashed pretty good in the dust, because it bent the bike all up, a nd when he go t into pit nin e, it took a while to get every thing fixed up," said Davis, who was waiting impatiently to take over the Yamaha . "He d idn' t break a nyt h in g, but the handl eb ars were

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