Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Off-Road Championship Series R ound 3 : Washougal MX Par k S TO RY AND P HOTO S BY KIT PA LMER WASHO{JGAL, WA, J{JNE 10 h e off -road racing commu nity p r o b a bl y w is he s th a t D e s tr y Abbott wo uld stop trying to pro v e to th em th at he ' s a capable all-a ro un d and versat il e off-roa d racer, n ot just a d es er t g uy. B y n o w , t h e y n o do ubt ha v e gotte n t he m essag e , b ec au se Abbott, th e defendi ng (a nd most ll k eIy soon -to-be two-time) AMA Nation· al Hare & Hound Champion , has been going exceptionally we ll in a variety forms of off-road rac ing . Jus t one week e a rli e r , for example , Abbott o v e r a ll ed the Idaho C ity Two - Da y ISDE Qualifier, and he h as now fol lowed that up with one of his most imp ressive w ins yet, at the GN C C styled World O ff -Road Championship Series (WORCS) race in Washington. In a talent-laden field that included such riders as Sha ne Watts . Ty Da vis, Ro d n e y Smith , Steve Ha tch . M ike K i edrow s k i , and the G arr a h a n and Pearson bothers, Abbott pretty much led from start to fini sh in the two -hour " s p r in t " race (as com pa re d to a thre e -h ou r G N C C races). b ut the K awasaki KX250 ri der wa s pressu red all th e w ay on the m ostl y narro w , r o ck y a n d rough co u r se tha t zig zag g ed th rough th e wood s th at su r roun d th e Wash oug a l M X facili ty. De spite the constant hound ing. m ain Iy b y th e Su zuki DR ·Z400s r idden by T 50 JUN E 27 , 2001 • c ue I .. Sc ott Myers (1 9) pulls the holeshot ahead of Ryan Terlecki (4 5), Destry Abbott (11) and the rest o f the Pro c la ss at Washougal. Smit h a n d Ha t ch , Abb o t t ke pt his cool and rode o ff with the win , but b y o nly 12 seconds o ver Hat ch and one m inu t e and 30 seconds o ve r Smith. "Th is i s a we so me," Abbo t t said . "T h is is a p lace I didn ' t t hi nk I was going to win at. It's m ore East Coast , and it's really neat to beat the East C oast guys here. A lot of gu y s sa y t h at us desert racers aren 't as fast. I' v e be en try ing to become a good , all -around ri der, and I th ink I k ind o f proved tha t today , maybe." One of th e keys to Abbott's suc ce ss at Washougal was his ability to keep m istakes down to a m in im um , while taking advant age of sm all (b ut costly) gaffes by Sm ith and Hat c h · mainly slip-ups th at resu lt ed in them stalling their bik es' four-stroke m otor s. Forty -fi ve Pro ri de rs li ned up to do business in wh at would be a l Ovlap race around t he ap p ro x im at el y s ix mi le co urse, wh i c h was not only rough b ut al so ru tty and extre mely slick in ce rtai n areas, m ai n ly in the w oo ds . T he d r op of th e M X · st yl e b a c kw a rd ·fall in g st art i n g g ate sa w KTM 520 · moun te d Scott Myers take t h e hol es h ot wi t h Ryan Terlecki , o n t he Hu sab erg FC470 thum p er, close beh in d him . As the pa c k ro unded the neVIl's sec o nd t urn and h eaded u p the MX tr a c k ' s long uphill sec tion be f o r e v eer in g off to the right and into the woods. Kiedrowski and Pat Garrahan were left beh ind after they tangled . Garrahan quickly took off after their get·together. wh ile Kiedrowski bumed up time getting his big thumper started. The s er ies po ints leader , Kiedrowski , got back going i n last pla ce. "I had a good start, went int o th e se c ond turn , a n d so me body c a me across a nd t o o k o u t m y front e n d and I high -sid ed ," K iedrowsk i sa id. Less th an a m ile later , Watts also went down after crossing p aths with Smith . Watts tapped hi s front against Sm ith 's rear wheel, and the subse qu ent crash left W atts w ith a tweaked motorc ycl e a n d a hurting thumb . But , luc k i l y for him , th e g et ·off occurred near th e pits, wh er e he was able t o sto p im med iate ly for rep airs before re- enter inq the ra c e , though many minutes in arrears o f th e ma in p ac k . " I wa s in the p ack th er e an d was on Rod n e y i n t h e new se cti on th a t got us over to th e p its," W atts sa id . " He thought it was more o f a sha rp turn to get onto the ne w sect ion , an d I knew it wasn 't. I was carry ing more speed on the in sid e of hi m, a nd he sort of came over on me. It wasn 't h is fault. It didn 't seem li k e tha t b ig o f a crash , but t here we re big reperc u ssions o ut o f it. It messed u p th e t ripl e clam ps , t he h and leb ar m ount and all that st uff. I gu arantee ya m y th umb is brok en , it's c r un c h ing a nd s-· li ke th at ." De spite th e thumb, W atts sucked it up and went back out on t he track and c h arge d t hro ug h th e p ack , e ve ntua ll y fini sh ing a re ma rk able 10th. "T he first lap s, I wa s pr obab ly run - Abbott g ingerly negotiates one of the course's tricky down h llls. Abbott pretty m uch led from start to finish, b ut the Suzu k i guys kept him p us hing the whole way . n in g o n adrenali ne more tha n an yt hing," Watts said. " On the downhills and the bra k ing bum p s , i t was a problem . There was a downhill in the back ; I was screaming all the way down, it was hurting so much. I just tr ied to stay out of the bumps. " The r a c e for the w in eventually boiled down to a t h re e - ri der battle in v o l v in g Abbott , Smith an d Hatch . B y t he halfway point, t hese th ree r iders w ere all wi t hin shouting d istanc e of eac h other , and as the ra c e progres sed , Hatch see m ed to be getting faster and faster. He soon caug ht and p as sed his te ammate Smith and reeled in Abbott. At o n e point, Hatch nearl y passed Abbott , but th e Kawasaki rider held him off. After that, Abbott emerged o ut of the woods with a small lead again , after both Hat ch and Smith had m inor problems , giving Abbott a l itt le breathing room at t h e finish . Abbott took th e checkers j u st 11 seconds ahea d o f Hatch , wh o fin ished a li ttle over a m inute ah ead o f Smith. " Luck ily , I ha d a good start ," Abbott sa id o f h is rac e. " I th ink I was th ir d in th e fi rst c orner; Te rl ec k i an d Scott M y ers we re in f ro nt of m e. I got around T erl ec k i in th e grass track a co uple of miles o ut, th en M y ers went down in t he woods section - he hi t a rock an d sl id out. I h ad th e lead from t h ere, I j ust kind of wan t ed t o m ake sure I w as breathing; I wan t ed to rid e good . I started pu tt ing a little time on Rodney , or Steve, whoever wa s ba ck th ere , and I kn ew if I kept a go od p ace that I' d be there. My ma in goal was th at - I don ' t ca re if they passed me . I just wanted to stay with them. With them having four-strokes , t h ey stall it here and there, and that really helped me out. I didn't go down. " T o wa rd s th e en d t here, seco n d -

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