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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127974
OFF-ROAD BES TINTHE DESERT ILV TATE SER IES S ER S Final Round: Terrible'sTown250 Yamaha's Ty Davis (above) and Donnie Book (left) teamed up to score a narrow win at the Terrible's Town 250. The duo will split the 510,000 they earned for winning. I m vS C. ce ;:l ~ -, 54 PAHRUMP, NV, DEC. 5 hen Honda desert star Johnny Ca mpbell crossed the finish line first, he wasn't rea dy to celebrate. T he only th ing that concerned him was time - in particular, how mu ch of it he had over the Montclair Yamaha tea m of Donnie Book a nd Ty Davis. Af ter lead in g most of the day, Ca mpbell need ed a cushion of 3 1/2 minu tes over th e boys in blue if he hoped to retain the $10,000 cash earmarked for the overa ll motorcycle win ner in the Terri ble's Town 250, the final round of the 1998 Best in the Desert Silver Sta te Series. In fact, th is race lived up to its claim of bei ng the richest offroad race in Nevada - and probably in the cou ntry - w ith the H erbst fami ly (ow ners of Terrible's Town Casino, the race head qu a rt ers) and BITO fro n ting th e majority of th e $68,0 00 co mbined payout for the bikes, ATVs, tru cks and bu ggies. ':At the halfwa y ma rk, w hen Ty go t off It, I probably had close to a 45-second to a m inut e lead o n time," XR6 28 Rmounted Ca mpbell said. "I think Don nie go t on , and he was on a miss ion. Pit to pit, he was making a little time on me. I tried to click up a no tch, and he did, too. " I ca me into th e m o torcycle -onl y (final) sec tio n, " Ca m p bell conti n ue d, "and I knew tha t if there was anywhere tha t Donnie was go ing to make time, I th ou g ht th e y 'd m a k e tim e there. I haven't been riding in that type of terra in this year too much, where it was real twisty and tigh t, hare-and-houndlike. And sure eno ug h, when we go t to the next road crossing , we were about tied on adjusted time; he was maybe up abo ut 20 seco nds or so. I just hammered down the bes t I could all the way to the finish . "W hen I got to the finish," Ca mpbell concluded, " I did n ' t know what to think, because I had no idea w here they were in relatio n to elapsed time. They en ded u p coming in , like, two minu tes a nd 52 secon ds b ehi n d me or somethi ng like that ; I came up short by 42 seconds. I saw the dollar signs just go ou t of m y sight. It was th e agony of defeat. But I had fun, and I gave it my a ll, a nd go t so me respect fro m th ose guys." Ind eed he d id . Officially, Book and Davis took 4:48:11 to finish the loop course, whi le Cam pbell needed 4:48:53. Thi rd wen t to Vegas-to-Reno winners Nic k and Russell Pear son on their KTM 640 in 5:01:25, ma king it a fou r-stroke sweep. " Physica lly, w e ca me in seco n d," Boo k re lated af te r th e fin is h. "We 'd need ano ther 200 miles (to catch Ca mpbell p h y s ica ll y ). Joh n n y ro de rea lly good, th ou gh ; h e was t h e man - he soloed. My hat' s off to him . "I think whe n I go t on," Book ad ded, "we were like five minutes down, and I jus t slowly started picking away at him section after section. Then we hit th at bike-only section; I knew I could make up some serious time on him in there. Our bike works well in there, plain and simple. Th at' s w hat I ride - hare-andhound-type stuff - so I just pu t the hamme r down and go t us inside the bubble to where we were act ually winning." His p art ner Da vis, who s ta rte d in sub-freezing tem per atu res, sai d, "I just ran out of gas that one spot. Ot her than tha t, it was flawless . Donnie rod e really good. It was all on his sho ulde rs. He lost .a littl e bit of tim e at pit five; we wer e beh ind . If he came in the sa me or bet ter, he'd stay on the bike. If he los t mor e, the n I was go nna jump back on. But he did good . He rna inta ine d, and it w as flaw less . He d idn't wad him self up; he stayed on two w heels, so I'm real proud of him." At the finis h, Boo k and Davi s didn't even men tio n the $10,000 in $20 bill s they'd ea rned , The wi n ea rned the m ano ther series title, prompting Davis to excla im, "Wha t a way to end the year! Betw ee n Donni e a nd me , we've go t three cha mpionships . He won the 250ccclass champ io ns h ip in th e (A MA N at io nal) hare and hounds, I won the overa ll cha m pionshi p in the ha re and hounds, and we bot h wo n this. It's really nea t, especially wit h it bein g Yamaha' s firs t year back in d esert racing." With a la ug h, he a d ded, "I guess we jumped on the wave at the righ t time." Bu t th e y were n' t th e on ly ones in good spirits - or w ho'd had good dices. Bry a n Folks an d Da v id Pe ars o n worked their way th rough the pack tb take the 250cc Pro win at fourth overall in 5:07:25 on their Vosburg Racing KTM. And despite being penalized two minu tes for failing to sto p a t a roa d crossing, th e KTM-bac ke d Rick Bozar th ! Dary l Fo lk s team edged Da rrol and Kevin Bro w n for the Over 30 Pro will, 5:12:12 to 5:14:09. . -! "We started second, bu t I did tha t on purpose," Daryl Folks revealed . "1wanted to sta rt behi nd the Brown bro thers. We were one point apart, as far as series points we re concerned, and it seems like every time I sta rt beh ind them , if we can ge t a head of them , it's alwa ys worked o u t in ou r favo r. We s ta r te d ri g ht beh ind th em, a nd th ey ac tua lly rode ""