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Optima SCORE Desert Series Round 3: Henderson Terrible's 250 on to ride the last two laps in a row after partner Andy Grider crashed shortly after taking the lead on lap three. That spil'l in the infamous "BLM's Revenge" section left him with a cut over his left eye and reopened a wound in his left arm that had required stitches after last month's Nevada 1000. He'd finish that lap and be done for the day, leaving Cooper to solider on to third place in 4:40:29 on their Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Answer Pro-Taper XR650R. Kawasaki made its return to the SCORE wars with Shane Esposito and David Pearson pairing up on a Pro Circuit/Dunlop/Acerbis KX500. After taking the unofficial lead briefly STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARK KARIYA HENDERSON, NV, JULY 13 hen SCORE introduced the brand-new Henderson Terrible's 250 into its Optima Desert Series, it moved motorcycles and ATVs into a SCORE race within the U.S. for the first time since 1995. That gave manufacturers and competitors a chance to take on the Honda off-road team in a SCORE race outside of Baja, where the Red Riders have dominated since 1997. But, U.S. or Mexico, the results were the same, as Honda's Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld emerged with their third consecutive SCORE victory of the season. They took their Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Renthal-sponsored XR650R to the finish in four hours, 33 minutes and 42 seconds, qualifying them for the $3000 motorcycle winner's bonus from the Herbst family. Counting the prize and contingency monies, SCORE officials claimed their new race to be the richest in the country, with a total of more than $500,000 up for grabs. Besides the $3000 motorcycle winner's bonus, winners of any Pro class with more than seven entrants earned an additional $1000, while the runners-up would take home $500. 60 JULv31, 2002ยท cue I e (Above) Steve Hengeveld (shown) and Johnny Campbell rallied back to win the Henderson's Terrible 250, the first SCORE race on U.S. soil since 1995 to Include both motorcycles and ATVs. (Right) Ty Davis (shown) and Russell Pearson put in a stead)' ride in the heat and over the rough course to finish second overall. Ty Davis and Russell Pearson ran a patient race to claim second on their Montclair Yamaha/Race Tech/ Moose-backed YZ426F in 4:39.18. They'd been in third going into the fifth and final lap of the 50.22-mile loop, but Pearson was fresher and managed to overtake a hurting Danny Cooper to break up the potential Honda 1-2 sweep. Somewhat dehydrated and in pain due to a crash, Honda~s Cooper hung neVIl's midway through the race, they exited prematurely when the shock broke. Campbell saw the win as vindication of Honda's efforts in Baja and validation that they're not simply cherry-picking. "A lot of the other manufacturers don't go down to Mexico, and there's always a question in their minds why we win in Mexico," Campbell said. "Basically, I wanted to come here and beat them all and show them that we're not just down in Mexico on vacation." The race began just outside town, not far from the Las Vegas strip, with bikes starting at one-minute intervals beginning at 6 a.m. SCORE's Sal Fish laid out a course bordered by Nevada State Highway 95 and the McCullough Mountains. Campbell had drawn the first start, and he tried to make his break from the field but found that the usual suspects were equally intent on blocking his ambitions of extending his win streak in this year's series. Grider, David Pearson and Russell Pearson all put themselves into contention behind the XR650R. Nearly every team opted to change riders each lap. Hengeveld got on for the second lap still in the physical lead, though Grider had actually put in a 53:31 that eclipsed Campbell's 53:35, so Cooper led on corrected time as he went out for his first stint. David Pearson's 54:57 was third fastest, despite tipping over, and he was followed by cousin Nick Russell's 55:26. Esposito rode the second lap and posted a time of 52:33, which proved to be the fastest lap of the race. That put him closer to the Hondas of Campbell and Hengeveld (53:04), and Cooper and Grider (53:48). "When I got on the bike, I think the second-place Honda was a couple minutes in front of us, so I really had no one to follow," said Esposito, who was unable to do any pre-running. "A lot of it was luck because I rode some sections faster than I probably should've, because I didn't know what was out there. I really didn't know how it was marked, so what normally I'm used to being marked as dangers wasn't, so I hit stuff a lot faster and had nothing happen." Lap three saw the race get really tight, as the front-runners caught up to lapped traffic, with both Grider and Pearson taking advantage of it the most, Campbell suffering the worst. "I came through the alternate pit and saw dust, and all of a sudden I looked up and, wow, there's Campbell right in front of me," Grider said. "There was a bunch of quads in front of him, and I knew we'd tighten it up. I got a break - he got stuck behind the quads - I got right on him. We both got by the quads together, but after we got by the last one, I got by