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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128104
AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Ser ies R o u n d 4: S a ger id e r s M. C. S T O RY AND P HOT OS BY D OUG KARCHER DELTA, QT, APR. 28 lt ho ug h Dest ry Abbott took the overall win at the S a g e r id e rs Nat iona l, it didn't come easy , as the Ka wa s a k i Te a m Green ride r had to overcome more than just the usual dusty conditions an d skilled competitors. A one-minute penalty for speed ing in the pits and a short off-course excursio n kept the competit ion nipp ing at his he els . But Abb ott stuck to his plan and mad e it to the finish first , furthe r padding h is po ints le ad ove r tea m m ate Brian Brown. Se c ond to Russ Pearson at th e end of the bomb , Abb ott soon took ove r th e le ad, which he nev e r relinqu ished despite the problems. "I set my goals and felt like if I ride s m a rt, I'll ha ve a good sh ot ," Abbott said. Th e 9:30 a. m . s ta rt wa s th ro ug h rel ati vely virgi n te rr a in , an d was a wide -o p en d rag race through s age bru s h and s c ru b p in e , dropp ing quickly in t o t h e t ight terrai n t h a t com p ris ed m o s t o f t h e first lo o p . Spect ators go t their first rea l glimpse of t he leaders when they emerged from th e twisty t rail s e ve ral mil e s from the sta rt, t hen c rossed a road and dove back into th e sc ru b pine. It was no surprise to see Abbott first. A 52 MAY 16, 2001 • C Y Die Close be hind came Russ Pea rson , followe d by Ty Da vis and Kurt Casell i. The re st of the front- runner s came by in a cloud of du st so th ick the nu m be rs we re ba re ly visi ble. Somewhere back a rou nd 10 th p o s it io n , 1999 National Ch a m p ion a nd round -two winner Brown was looking for pla ce s Riding a "little" 250 (to its limits, judging by this photo) , Kurt Casein notched a runnerup finish in Utah. n e vv s to pass in the dust. He needed a win here to get even with Ab bott in the points chase. bu t between t he t ight co urse and the dust, he ha d h is wo rk cut out for him. Abbott he ld h is le a d for the rest of the 43-mil e first loo p, getting in and o ut o f t he Team Gr e en p it at the hea d of pit row before Da vis a rrive d . Yamah a -mounted Cas elli was next to e nter t h e p its , followed by Bro wn . But Ab bo tt m ay ha ve be en jus t a bit too anxious as he rode the length of the pits befo re head ing out on t he second loop . Just as he was getting ready to open up th e b ig, gree n bike , he was wa ved ove r by a ra da r- gun wi e lding co ur se-wo r ke r, who info rmed th e defendi ng champ th at he ha d be en clocked do ing 28 mph in th e 5 m ph p its a nd wou ld have to serve a one- mi nute pena lty . The 60 seconds must have felt like an hou r, e s peci ally a s he watche d Da vis pass h im to ta ke over the lead . Unfortu nately for Da vis , his lead wou ld be short-l ived . Less than 10 miles into that loo p , his left fork leg came apart. Discovering Dav is off the bike , Abbott stopped to check that he was okay a nd got back on t he g as , in th e lead once again . Brown was having a tough day , too . A c rash at Best in the Desert a few weeks earlier had left him with a broken no se (and po ssi bly a de viated septum) that m ad e breathing at all or t a king in wa te r a c h all e nge , ne ve rm ind racing in the dust. "I co u ld ph y s ic all y tell m yself whe re I wa n ted th e b ike to go , but just mentally it wouldn 't go wh ere I wanted it to ," he said. In spite of th is , he m ana ged to move up more than half a dozen places in the tight and du sty first loop. He picked u p three more places on th e s econd loo p to finish third overall. Meanwhi le, Mic hael 's Yamaha rider Ca selli was hol ding his own on th e YZ25 0 . He credited h is ult imate second -p lace finish in lar ge pa rt to a good start. Lining up ne xt to Brown an d ve tera n desert racer Paul Krau se, he p ut his 250 in front a nd be at them b oth to the line . From th ere , t he re was no looking ba c k, a nd at the end of t h e bom b he was righ t b ehind Davi s in fourth plac e. He lost a bit of ground to Da vis' big four-stro ke, but mo ved into third pla ce when Pearson ran out of gas . The 17 -ye a r-o ld from Palmdale , California , sta rted the sec ond loop in th ird plac e , mov ing into s econd wh en Da v is b ro k e , and tho ug h he d idn 't know it at first , he wa s gaining gr ound on Abbott. "I st a rt e d s e e in g dust , and that always makes me go fa ster," he sa id. Destry had blown a turn a nd was getting back on the course when he rea lized Caselli was close behind.