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/127992
II , Off-Road Round 2: Tonopah 300 BEST IN THE DESERT SIL VER STA TE SERIES (Left) Rick Bozarth (shown) teamed with Daryl Folks to win the Over 30 Pro class. II I III I!lI II iii Q • ! _ on i:i :::lE 48 wound up breaking, r guess, or something, because r caught him and he was coasting off, and he told me to keep gOing, so I don't know what happened te him. I just set a pace for the rest of the day and finished where I did." Esposito was asked if he dreaded the thought of soloing the 288 actual miles. "No, not really," Esposito calmly replied. "This course - r don't want to say it's easy, but it's the easiest one Casey Folks puts on, so r wasn't really too concerned riding solo; just worrying about staying hydrated, what to eat, was the main thing." For Campbell and Marshall, the day turned out to be comparatively uneventful. After a disappointing first half of the race, they picked off riders during the second half until they found themselves in third. "Things were looking up, and I tried to catch the Kawasakis," Campbell noted, ''but they were having too good of a day, so [just rode it in." Marshall, a resident of Northern California, was more comfortable in the woods. '1. just can't judge the speeds of corners when they come up:' he admitted. "Esposito, he passed me before we came into pit three. I got a little ways out of his dust, and you couId see he was going. He was definitely keeping it clipped that much faster, never really. slowing down for corners but just enough to make it through. After that, I started getting it down a little better. It does help you out to watch these guys. I need to go riding with them more." The best racing of the day turned out to be for the top 250cc spot, as four teams hacked away at each other, including the teams of Hengeveld and Lelunpn, FT James Construction Yamaha-sponsored Danny Cooper and Dave Hamel, KTM/Pro Circuit-backed Bryan Folks and David Pearson, and Team Green's Doug Chiapuzio and James Summers. Hengeveld and Lehman inched away from the rest only in the last part of the race for a three-minute margin over Chiapuzio and Summers. "It was real close:' said Chiapuzio. "We were all within 30 seconds to a minute of each other. It was tight racing all day long. It was a lot of pressure, but it turned out really good." The only real bit of controversy for the day occurred in the 250cc class. The Folks/Pearson team finished ahead 0f all but Hengeveld and Lehman, but they were docked five minutes for an unauthorized course excursion at pit six tha t cut substantial time from their overall score. The controversy happened when Pearson dived off a IS-mph street section and onto a dirt road, where he got on the gas. The move was premature, as everyone else was required to ride to the end of the street and then onto the dirt. 'There was a flagman:' Pearson said, defending ltis case. "He was waving me down, so r pointed down, (like asking to go down on the dirt). 'Yeah', he nodded his head, so I took off down, and I hooked on the course and r took off. J guess r was supposed to go straight. I didn't go straight, so they might disqualify me." Interestingly enough, though, none of the 250s bea t either the Over 30 or Under 450cc Four-Stroke winners. The team of Rick Bozarth and Daryl Folks took the Over 30 win on their KTM (Right) Tonopah's a big-bike course, yet the 250s provided a tight duel among the top four in class. Steve Hengeveld (shown) and Oakley Lehman came out on top at ninth overall. (Left) A crash destroyed the rear of the Donnie Book/Ty Davis Yamaha, necessitating a lengthy pit stop to swap parts from the VZ400. Davis would motocross the next day (see page 50?).