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Parts Unlimited Off-Road Championship Series Round 5: Coyote 100 Overall winner Kyle Nelson leads Charlie Deutscher up a muddy uphill during the DP Brakes Coyote 100, round five of the Pans Unlimited OffRoad Championship Series. STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE BERKNER WAUKON, lA, AUG. 3-4 r7 ess than 10 hours before the start L!t of the DP Brakes Coyote 100, more than three inches of rain fell on what was already a very technical 10-mile course - nothing new for this year's seven-round Parts Unlimited Off-Road Championship Series (or "Mooserun Series"), where the weather (primarily rain) has played a factor in the outcome of each race. However, the rain-soaked trail conditions helped KTM rider Kyle Nelson emerge as the overall winner. Nelson finished the four-lap race with a time of 2:06:59 - one minute and 18 seconds ahead of Gas Gas pilot John Strangfeld. Gas Gas rider Kirk Foster, Husaberg jockey Matt Stavish and KTM-mounted Adam McKillip rounded out the top five overall. At the third round in June at the infamous Mooserun, the 26-year-old Minnesotan finished second overall. Nelson then finished second overall again last month during round four in Millville, Minnesota. Nelson has finally put together his first overall "Mooserun Series" win. "I guess my riding style is getting more patient," said the wily Nelson, who is both the 2000 and 2001 Minnesota Enduro and Hare Scrambles Champion. "In this series, you have to know when to start racing, if indeed it's a race and not just a survival run. You just can't afford to go out too early. It's all about staying out of trouble and knowing when to twist the throttle. "I got a pretty good start," added the KTM/Larson's Cycle/Motion Pro/Lube Tech/Scott-backed Nelson. "I was able to take the lead by the end of the first woods section and traded the lead back and forth with Stavish for the rest of the first-lap." "With the rain, it was obvious that the first couple of laps were going to be slippery," Stavish said. "By the end of the first woods section, I was right behind Kyle. We swapped the lead back and forth a couple of times and eventually I got by. [On the second lap,] [ tried to pick up the pace a Kirk Foster rides through one of the many off-camber sections en route to a third-place finish in Waukon, Iowa. 58 AUGUST 28, 2002' .. Y .. I e n e _ s little but ended up having a hard time staying on the trail. Eventually [ ended up off the trail, stuck in the bottom of a ravine, and Nelson and Deutscher got by_ By the time [ got the bike back on the trail, [ was completely exhausted. Two weeks ago [at the Millville round], [ ended up in the hospital with heat exhaustion, so I decided just to pull over and catch my breath." "Deutscher and I broke away [from Stavish]," Nelson said, "and then I missed a rerouted section where he [Deutscher] got by me. When I caught up to Deutscher again, he just pulled over and let me by. We started freight-training again, and then he got by me in a rocky section." "Nelson and I had just gotten by Stavish," Deutscher said, "when he completely missed a rerouted section and [ got by. [ guess I felt bad passing him that way, so I just slowed up a bit and let him go by. From there, we were off again. I made another pass in a rocky section, but [ bent my chain guide and lost my chain. He made it by, and that's the last I saw of him." "After getting a dead-last start," said Iowa City Motorsports' Foster, "[ never was sure where [ was in the [overall standings]. I knew [ was making my way up to the front, but I never really had any idea how close I· was getting. For the most part, I rode by myself. At one point, [ saw Stavish stuck on a hillside, and shortly after that I came upon Deutscher, where he was working on his bike." Foster held his position for the next two laps, giving up his secondplace position to a hard-charging Strangfeld. "When Strangfeld caught up to me," Foster said, "[ was riding a good pace. I didn't realize we were on our final lap and [ just let him by." "By the third lap," said the Moose/Keytime Motorsports/Wiseco/ DP Brakes/Scott-sponsored Strangfeld, "[ really started to charge hard and got by Foster in one of the early technical sections. [ knew it was time to make a move and really started hammering. When I came up on him, he just pulled over." Stavish was also on a mission, trying to make up time he'd lost during lap two. "By the [start of the] third lap, I was back - and started to make a run," said Stavish, who posted the two fastest lap times of the race during laps three and four, with times of 28 and 27 minutes, respectively. eN Cayote 100 Waukon, lawa Results: August 3-4, 2002 IRound 5 of 71 O/A: 1. Kyle Nelson (KTM); 2. John Strengfeld (GG); 3. Kirk Foster (GG); 4. Matt Slavish (Hbg); 5. Adam McKillip (KTM); 6. Jesse Blomberg (KTM); 7. David Stickel (Suz): 8. Dylan Debel (GG); g. Daniel Wancket (Suz); 10. Jeff Fredette (Kaw). PRO: 1. Kyle Nelson; 2. John Strangfeld; 3. Kirk Foster; 4. Matt Stavish; 5. Adam McKmip. A: 1. Larry Berquist (GO); 2. Chuck Garetson (Han); 3. Quentin Blomberg (Suz). VET A: 1. Tom Farris (KTM); 2. Scott Hoffman (KTM); 3. Andy Larson (Hon); VET B: 1. Don Rascke (KTM); 2. Jason Soseman (Suz); 3. Bill Severance (KTM). 4-STRK: 1. Andy Potter (Hon). SR: 1. Dan Wancket (Suz); 2. Duane Eller (Yem); 3. Wally Mika (Hon). 0-200 8: 1. Kale Lawrence (Hus); 2. Brllde DeRiemacker (Hus); 3. Jim Woncket (KTM). OPEN B: 1. Bill Coisch (Kaw); 2. Jared Porker (Yam); 3. Mark Davis (Kaw). After leading the Coyote 100's Inaugural lap, Matt Stavish got hung up in a ravine, losing 10 minutes. The hard-charging Stavish closed the gap to less than four minutes by the end of the four-lap race to finish fourth. 0·200 c: 1. Nete Palmer (KTM); 2. John Henningsgaard (Yam); 3. Nate Thompson (KTM). OPEN C: 1. Alan Koop (Yam); 2. Rory Kress (KTM); 3. Brett Ryan (Kaw). 50: 1. Austin Wells (KTM); 2. Dylan Allison (KTM); 3. Jeremy Soseman (KTM). 60: 1. Matthew Dissell (KTM); 2. Dustin McDonald (Kaw); 3. Andrew Ballard (Kaw). 0-100: I. Blake Verstraet (Kaw); 2. Ryan DeFauw (Kaw); 3. Mike Morse (Kaw). VINT TW: 1. David Klimek (Hus). PRE·1994: 1. Dave Blacklaw (Kaw); 2. Robert Belongna (Kaw). 0-16: 1. Adllm Book (Hon): 2. Brede DeRiemacker (Hon): 3. Brian Deutscher (Yam). ]7-25: 1. John Strangfeld (Kaw); 2. Byron Wetzell (Han); 3. Kyle VerStraere (Yam). 26-35: I. Chuck Garetson (Han); 2. Sam Harper (KTM); 3. Russ Theis (KTM). 36-45: I. Steve Berkner (Hbg); 2. Mike Heinrichs (Yam); 3. Brian Ballard (Kaw). 46+: ]. Jack Potter (GG); 2. James Byrnes (Yam).