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Final Round:Hungry Valley SVRA ISTRICT 37 BIGSIX GRAND PRIXSERIES (Left ) At th e end of the first lap Pearso n takes over for Davis on th eir way to the ove rall. ond-overall finish , Harden still finished CI/I first in the Open Vet Expert class . Californ ia Grand Prix Hungry Valley SVRA Results: Nove mber 6-7, 1999 (Final round) A day before IInishing third at the White Brothers World Vet Championship Motocross, Montclair Yamaha's Ty Davis (left) showed up at the California Grand Prix and won the Four-stroke race. He then teamed with Nick Pearson to win the prestigious Team Race later in the day. (Above) Team Green 's Dave Ondas is in the hunt for his first 0-37 Open Expert championship. He bette red his chances by taki ng t he Open Expert honors on Sunday. Saturday saw Ondas and his Best in the Desert teammate Shane Esposito take second in the Team Race. " ~'" GORMAN, CA, NOV, 6-7 he Prosp ectors MC California Gra nd Prix is one of the most well-known d ates on the District 37 competit io n ca lendar for tw o reasons. First , the Hungry Valley SVRAhosted race is the final eve nt of the Big Six Grand Prix Series, w here more times than not participants are trying to get in one las t rid e to accu m u la te a s ma ny yea r-e nd points as possible. With each of the six events drawing well over I000 en tries a t every round , th e Southern California series has becom e one of the most pretigiou s in the country, and with conti ngency mon ey a nd class cha mpions hips on the line, roun d-six is a mu stattend race. Th e second rea son why to p riders like Ty Davis, Mike H eal ey a nd Spu d Walters attend the California Grand Prix is because of the p urse money tha t is giv en away af ter Saturday afternoon's team race. Over the past couple of years, Walters and partner Drey Dir cks ha ve been hard to bea t. In fact, the du o usually shows up wi th a bon e stock CR250, st eel ha nd lebar and a ll, and still man ages to hold off such compe tition as Jeff Wiloh and Erik Kehoe. But not this year. Word got out that there was a nice payday to be had at Gorman, and unfortun at ely for Walters, his u sual par tn er , Dircks, was not available to race. As it turns ou t, Hond a test ride r Ray Somm o filled Dirck's shoes nicely, but Montclair Ya ma ha ' s YZ400-mou nt e d te am o f Davis and Nick Pearson were more than f] m m m Q; .c E ll) <> ll) c 36 ,- '-G, l ~ < ''Il 'l 'll"'!l,""" " any' team coul d han dle after 90 minutes around the 9-mile course, The race schedu led before the team e ve n t o n Sa tu rd a y was the Fo u rStroke /Vinta ge /Class ic /Du al Spor t race, an d as a warm up for the mo ney race, Davis eas ily came away with the win after pa ssing YZ400-mounted Ga ry Trachy ea r ly on . 5 0, w hen th e tea m ra ce ro ll ed a ro u n d, Da v is was no stra nger to th e Prospecto r's cou rse, wh ich was run back w a r d fro m la s t year's event. A fter the completion of the firs t lap , Davis was out in fron t and handed the bike over to Pearson, who • was making his d ebu t ap pea rance on a Yama h a after a s uccessfu l career on KTMs. Pearson did not d isap point and kept th e u n familiar ride up an d running every time it was his turn to ride, Da vi s eq u a led th e d ea l, a nd th e pair collected first-place mon ey. , Behind the lead team we re so me 37 other teams, including second place finish ers Dave Ondas and Shane Esposi to, mou nted on a KXSOO Third went to the . newest ins tallment to Suzuki's off-road squa d, Mike Kiedrowski and Suzuki test rid e r Ri ch Ta y lor , A t times the Kied ro w ski /Tay lor RM250-m oun ted team go t awfully close to Esposito and Ondas, but be tween Ondas' off-ro ad savvy and Esp osito's motocross sk ills, th e Tea m Green- sponso red team was able to hold the runner-up spo t all the way to the end . Riding a Te a m G re en-spo n sor ed KXI 25, Kurt Ca selli an d Joe y Lan za screamed to fourth ove rall, finishing just a tad o ff the p a ce o f Ta yl o r an d , . Kie d'row ski: The rid e was impress ive indeed for an eigh thliter machi ne on a d efinite Open bike circuit. Rou nding out the top five w ere KTM-mounted Scot Hard en and Chri s Ne itzel. For the second year in a row, Harden received a last-minut e par tner, an d for the second year in a row he finishe d in a to p-IO mon ey-p aying position. As fo r th e Wa llers /So m mo team, ~ they suffere d ' p robl em s ea rly o n and the n ran ou t of gas, post ing a DNF for the da y . Mi ke H ea ley and M ouse McCoy were just as d isappoin ted, as they too had high hop es of taki ng the ove rall win. Ins tead McCoy cras hed on the first lap and cou ld not get the big YZ400 started for qui te some time. Sore and sha ken up McCoy fina lly go t th e bike to Healev, but it was too little too late. The crash wo uld not allow McCoy to race any further. Overall on the wee kend, Ondas and Espos ito actua lly post ed the most success ful resu lts . Espostio post ed a topth ree fini sh on a borrowed KLX300 in Satu rday' s Uncl assif ied race, and then went on to win the 250cc/ Open race on a bo rrowed KX250 during the Sunday program . Ondas finished seventh in the unclassified rac e on h is usu al KX500 mo un t and then wen t on to first Open Expert beh in d Espo sito in the 250cc / Ope n race. Harden had a busy weekend as well, wi n n ing th e Senior Expert / Ama te u r ev ent and fini shing se cond to YZ250m ount ed Will y Simons i n th e Ve t "Expert / Amateur race. Even wit h a sec-