Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Off-Road Round 3: Silver State 300 BEST INTHE DESERT SILVER STA TE SERIES south to the fin is h, agai n loca te d off Highway 93, but closer to Alam o. Dus t was forem ost in th e minds of those who chose - or we re assigned - to sta rt, as they'd be go ing into the sun and ove r th e tri ck ies t terra in in th e ra ce. Ru s s Pe a rs o n wa s a m on g th os e th e ro cks cla im ed; ge tting thro wn off the KJ"M 380 M / XC he sha red w ith Brian Garrahan nearly tore his chest protector fr om hi s b od y , th ou gh h e g ot go ing again relatively quickly. " I w a s jus t tr yin g to b e pati en t, " Brown said of his rid e through that section chas ing ·Zilterkopf. "The sun wa s in my eyes, so I didn' t wa nt to go down. I lost four seconds or five seco nds there between the start and pit one." That was abou t the last time the duo lost time to anyone, tho ug h. A loose rear end tricked Abbott into thinking the rear tire was going flat as he headed toward the finish, but it turned ou t to simply be worn out. The second -degree rig h tshoulder se paration he suffered at the AMA National Reliability Enduro Series finale in Te nnessee the week before apparently did n' t affect him, as he feared it might. "Not too many peo ple knew abo ut it, and I rea lly didn ' t wan t a nybody to know abo ut it beca use they migh t think they'd have an advantage," he reveal ed afterward . "I jus t felt good w he n I go t on at (pit) two. Iw as only going to rid e By Mark Kariya ALAMO, NY, JUNE 26 awasa ki went 1-2 for the second race in a row, wi th Destry Abbo tt and Brian Brown taking a convi ncing win at the Silver State 300 a boa rd th e ir Tea m G ree n/ Du nlo p / Tri ck /Bel-Ra y / G K/ IMS/ Re n thals po nso red KX500 over Shane Esposito and David Ondas on a simila r mach ine, 5:54:59-6:03:24. The emerging favorites in the Best in the Desert's Silver Stale Series, Abbott /Brown a lso won the previou s series race - the Ton opah 300 - and are now two-for-three in the five-race series. Abbott and Brown checked ou t less than 130 miles in to the 290-mile eve nt, grabbing th e poin t position from early lead er Greg Zilt erko pf (who was first off the line at 5:30 a.m., wi th others following at one-minu te intervals) as he sat by the si de o f th e trail with a bro ke n KX500 . Fro m th ere, th e y s im p ly stre tche d their lead and, w ith it, their series point lead as well over Esposito/ Ond as. "John (Braasch, the Team Green technician) built a go od bike, and we both -3 rod e reall y good toda y," Brown said ..., while waiting for Abbott to finish . Third overall for the second race in a 24 K row we nt to Honda's Johnny Ca mpbell, who chose to so lo on his XR600R. (At To no pa h, Esposito so loed to second overall since Ondas was still recovering from injury, while Ca m pbell rode with Cole Marshall, who has since refocu sed on woods racing.) Ca mpbell finished in 6:05:30. Though headquarter ed at the Oasis Resort Hotel in Mesquite, the race started a nd finishe d abou t a n hou r and a half away, righ t off Highway 93 sou th of Ala mo . Fro m there, it headed eas t 44 miles - into the risin g su n - to pit one at Kane Sp r ings, a sectio n m ark ed by rocky, technical going. The cou rse the n turned nor th to Dry Lake Valley and pit two, 38 miles away. By now , th e course began w indi ng its way int o the higher eleva tio n, with more trees, as it hea d ed eas t, took a sho rt loo p sou th then turned north and eas t to pit three in Caliente, 46 mi les away. Afte r Ca lien te, racer s spe d eas t, w en t th rough some w a ter cro ss ings, then veered no rth and west to reach pit four near Panaca 48 miles later . Cont inui ng west, com petitors cou ld then ge t a s p las h of gas a t t he a lt e rn a te pit 30 mil es away, because pit five at Pahro c Su m mit w a s a n a d d itio na l 39 mil es away. From th er e, it wa s a 46 -mile s h o t (Left) Brian Brown (s hown) and Destry Abbott co ntinued to roll in the desert, winning the ir second Best in the Desert Silver State Series event in a row at the Silver State 300. Doing so stretched their series point lead to 16, unofficially, over fellow Team Gree n racers Shane Esposito and David Ondas. (Right) After soloing to second at the previous race in the se ries, the Tonopah 300, Shane Espos ito (s hown) got his partner David Ondas back from the injured res erve list and added another runner-up tally to his total. They were some 8 1/2 minutes beh ind the winners. one section, but I felt really good w hen I pa ssed 'Zit' ... and I was rid in g really go od . "Th ey asked if I wanted to get off at three , a nd I wan ted to ride one more (section) so I rod e one mor e an d ma d e up more time. Then Brian rod e anot her section, and I hopped back on and rod e the last section. I was real hap py with th e wa y m y sh ou ld er and ev ery th in g else felt. It ju st worke d rea lly. good. I had one slide- ou t today - that wa s abo ut it; everything else went really good. " I think th e bigg es t th in g w as th e othe r Kawi e team wa s goi ng to be our biggest competitors, we thought. I don 't th ink th ey co u ld ge t a ro u n d Jo h n ny (Cam p bell) a n d t h e Pe ars on (b ike) . Being second off (the sta rt) ma d e a big d ifference and bei ng able to chec k out before anybody go t aro und. Three hund red miles - you think it's a lon g ways, but it goes pre tty quick. "(Promoter) Casey Folks di d a great job on the course; it was marked real well. I'm pret ty happy to have two in a row. My ma in goal is to "in this series." The win ena bled them to stre tch their se ries po in t lead over Es pos ito and On das from a single poi nt to 16. For On das, Silver Sta te marked his firs t ma jor race since he brok e a w rist earlier in the year, and his return came at the right time. "The first time I go t on the bike tod ay, I wasn' t in to it," Esposito

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