Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HARE &HOUND AMA NATIONAL HARE AND HOUND CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES By Anne Be ve re n Ph otos by Tom Van Beveren LUCERNEVALLEY, CA, OCT. 26 a m a h a - m o u n ted Ty Dav is put ~.. th e icin g on hi s N a tional Hare , and Hound cak e with a wi n in I:: the la st round of th e se ries in Southern Californ ia's Lucern e Vallev. With th ree win s a nd two seco ndpla ce finishes und er his belt a t the end of rou nd six, the defending series champion h ad w ra p pe d up h is secon d straight title before the race began - but that di d n't stop him from pulling ou t all the stops in the fina l race of the series. With a s u ppor t h eli co pter h o ve ri n g a b ove h im , the Ya ma h a M o to r Co rp ./ Mo nt clai r Yam ah a-backed YZ400F racer had his fou r-stroke out front all the wa y around the dusty and of ten highl y techn ical 80-mil e co u rse and , in spite of losing the trail and taking a wide detour within sight of the finish, h e cha rged home to tak e his fina l wi n of he se ries almos t fiv e minu tes ahea d of his yearlong rivals. " It's be en a go od one, and it feel s good to win the last race," sai d Da vis, su mming up his second year as Na tional Hare a nd H ound Champion . "It' s been probably one of the tou gh est years I' v e h ad - a much hard er s easo n, because the competition's getting stiffer. It's making me wo rk a t it , whic h is good and] d on 't min d . It's good for the sport tha t a lo t of guys a re co mi n g up and steppi ng up to the pla te." ~ 00 0\ 0\ .-, ..- Final Round: Lucerne Valley Th e last round of Hare and Hound co m p e titio n was org aniz ed b y AM A District 37's 100s Motor cycle Clu b and co -s p o n so red by Mo n tcla ir Yamaha , which wo wed the 320 racers by.entering everyo ne who signed u p in a Saturday night drawi ng that had racers w alking . away w ith suc h goodies as a Yama ha PW50, a Yam ah a patio set and a Royal Star letterm an's jacket - as well as tires, fil ters, hat s and shi rts from Ty Davis' sponsors. G us ty wind s mad e getti ng a good !1ight's sleep difficult after the p rize fest, and Lucern e Valley was still being buffe ted th e next morn in g as the ra cers mad e last-m inu te prep ar at io ns for the 9:30 a .m. s ta r t. The wind m ade th e sunny morning see m mu ch colder than th e 60 d egrees th at regi st ered on the thermome ter a t race time, but it helped a lot when the charge began u p the silty bomb run . Id aho' s Brian Brown led the u phill dash on a Kawasak i KX500, but Davis had his Yamaha close beh ind an d swep t past Brown to take over the num ber-one spot as he passed the bomb and set off in sea rch of the course ribbo n. "I go t a good start, an d me and my Curtis Sparks four-st rok e w ere righ t there, second to the bomb," Davis said . "I passed Brown in th e w hoo ps and I led it from there on." Brown tu cked in behind as the 38mil e firs t loop go t under way, but he w as pu sh ed back to th ird by a h ard ch a rgi ng Pau l Kr au s e - and t h e n k nocked b a ck int o fourth as Da v is ' Yamaha teammate Donnie Book go t his YZ250 movi ng at full speed. Fast starts were also logged by Arizo na's Des try Abbo tt (w ho w as n eck a nd neck w ith Book on points for th e runner-u p s p o t in t h e p r e stig io us Na tional Hare and Hound series when the ban ner dropped for the final round ), KX500-m o u n te d Jeff Capt, a n d th e KTM-backed duo of Nic k Pearson and Russ Pearso n. "We d id t he pr e- run for Terribl e Town (an u pcoming Ne vada eve nt) yester day, so we d idn 't ge t as mu ch time on th e bomb ru n as w e'd lik e to - but it ended up okay," said KTM 250-mounted Russ Pearson . "I go t about 15th to 20th at th e sta rt, bu t I was ju st kind of struggli ng . The dust go t to me and I d idn' t really have a very good first loop." Da ve O ndas, w ho was push in g to hold on to a spo t in the series' top five, got a good jum p off the line, but his start didn't turn ou t to be quite the su ccess he was looking for. "I had a decent s ta rt, but w he n we we nt down the valley, it kind of horseshoed ," the KX500 ra cer ex p lai ne d . "I was on th e cou rse and a lot of people cut across, but I was able to ca tch back up. I actually passed a lot of people on the first loop." l-< Q) ..0 E Q) ::o Z 20 (Top) Ty Davis had already wrapped up his second consecutive AMA National Hare and Hound title, but that didn't stop him from end ing the season with a dominating victory in Lucerne Valley. (Left) Kawasaki-mounted Paul Krause slides his KXSOO en route to third overall in the National. Jeff Capt had a similar experience. "I had a good start, and I was right behind Davis all the wa y to the end of the bomb," said Cap t. "I came in behin d him, sw ung wide to the left and, by the tim e I realized wher e I was, everybody maybe 10 guys or something - had got around me. They hung wa y to the right up to the mountains." And then there was Tommy Roberts. "Ho w was m v sta rt? It was horrib le, h orrib le , h orribl e ," sa id Rob e r ts. " I cou ld n' t ge t the th in g s tarted . It took abo u t 20 kicks, and then ] had to pass every body. I cou ld n' t tell you how far back] was , and I got really tensed up, but I ju st tried to con ce n tra te a nd it seemed to work." The terrain wa s fast-paced almo st all the wa y as loo p one took the racers from the start jus t off Bessemer Mine Road nea r Sogg y Dr y Lake ou t to Mel v ill e Dry Lake . It head ed ou t to th e north side of Means Lake for a da sh up a lar ge sa nd hill , went ov er to the north and west of the marine base, and then took the racers across the top of Galway Lake and int o a motocrosslike dash through the mud hills and "moon rocks" to the fina l chec k. . Da vi s w as ou t in fro n t all the wa y and Krause w as push in g hard in second, trying to d o so me thing about it. "I went hard after Davis and] could make a littl e time in the fast stuff, but when w e'd get in the tigh t s tu ff, he would pull away," said Krause. "It was a really good race course and it was marked well. The first loop was pretty fast but fun . You had to work the whole time." Book rod e a co nsisten t third all the way aro u nd the 38-mile opening loop.

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