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Best in the Desert Silver State Series Final Round: Las Vegas 200 -ime On ~bbott& Es~ osito's Side Shane Esposito (shown) and Destry Abbott claimed the top spot at the Las Vegas 200. The Team Green stars also wrapped up the Best in the Desert Silver State Series championship. diately off the start in hopes of putting ground on the rest of the pack. He finished out the first lap before handing the bike over to teammate Campbell, who was weighing some heavy thoughts before getting on the bike. It was at this race last year that his teammate Tim Staab was seriously injured; he is still recovering. "I felt a little apprehensive," Campbell said, "coming off of last year, with Tim's accident and all. To be honest, it bothered me coming here. I thought I rode pretty smooth, pretty smart, didn't take any chances. I lost some time getting back to the main pits but was still physically first." Behind him, the pack shuffled around. Team Green's Brian Brown and David Pearson, the second team off the line, dropped back a bit and would finish fourth, which wasn't too bad considering both were returning from broken bones suffered at the last two rounds of the AMA National Hare & Hound Series in October. Abbott, winner of last month's Harvey Mushman 100 at the Elsinore Grand Prix, moved up into second place after a fourth-place start. Abbott had been sidelined for most of the year, recovering from injuries, but he only missed two Best in the Desert races. Esposito soloed those two races to first- and second-place finishes to keep their title hopes alive. In fact, it put them in the driver's seat for the series championship, having won four out of six races so far. As a Destry Abbott gets a little out of shape he.... STORY AND PHOTOS By ing Fuels-supported XR650 Honda team, to take their fifth win of the series. The win also secured the Best in the Desert crown for the green team. Finishing third in the race and second in the series was the Yamaha YZ450F -mounted duo of Ty Davis and Russell Pearson. The Montclair Yamaha/Race Tech/Moose-backed team led the race at one point, at which time the rear tire decided to disintegrate. The final round of the series was made up of a 67 -mile course, ridden three times by the 81 motorcycle and A TV teams. (The truck/buggy competitors again tackled a separate loop to the south but utilized the same main pit area.) For those unable to complete the full 67 miles, there was an alternate pit at mile 23, located near the main pit. As it turned out, many of the racers used the provided gas stop for either a splash of fuel or a spot to change riders. Hengeveld, who had drawn the first starting position, sprinted imme- MARK KARIYA JEAN, NV, DEC. 7 onda's Steve Hengeveld was the first to see the checkered flag wave at the third annual Las Vegas 200, but that wasn't enough to beat the Kawasaki team of Destry Abbott and Shane Esposito. After crossing the finish line first, the Honda team of Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell could only wait and watch the clock slowly tick away, as they hoped that they had built up enough cushion to beat the next-closest team on adjusted time. But time just stood too still for too long for the Honda team, as the Team Green bike came in and crossed the finish line with a little over a minute to spare to win the race. After an eventful 201-mile race, the IMS/Maxima/Dunlop-backed Kawasaki KX500-mounted team officially stopped the clock at four hours, 21 minutes and six seconds, edging out the 4:22: 14 time put up by the Precision Concepts/Dunlop/VP Rac- H 42 JANUARY 8, 2003' cue I e n e _ s