Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

into the lead after the first turn. It Hughes, who had to pit twice dur- didn't take Hughes long, however, ing the two-hour race, had built up to get around Pearson and start enough of a cushion to maintain his stretching out his lead. By the time lead during those two stops. he completed the first three-mile lap, "After I pitted the first time and which was made up of Glen Helen's main motocross track and REM had plenty of time, I thought, 'Okay, I'll be all right for the rest of the track, Hughes had already built up a m race,'" Hughes said. small but comfortable lead over it seemed, anywhere from about 50 Davis, Naughton, Gurnee, Mark Tilley Destry Abbott The Kawasaki Team Green rider and former National Hare & Hound Champion never figured into this one. Even though the Glen Helen race was basically a long motocross and quite the opposite from what Abbott is used to, Abbott is a formidable MXer and has nearly qualified for National Motocrosses in the past, but he just couldn't get it together at Glen Helen. "I wasn't myself today," an obviously dejected Abbott said. "I tweaked my knee earlier in the week, and I'm going to have an MRI done tomorrow, but that isn't an exc"se. I just didn't have it today. Ty and those guys didn't get good starts either, but they made it to the front, and so should I. I just feel bad." Hughes' lead over Russ fluctuated, Pearson, Woods, Sheak, Smail, seconds to a minute, though he and Campbell. Abbott didn't get a slowed down a little on the last lap, good jump, nor did Garrahan, David Pearson or Brown. officially finishing approximately 45 Russ, who has noticeably picked "My plan was to go hard the first up the pace over the past few Own Race couple of laps and race through the months, did an admirable job of seconds ahead. corners," Hughes said. "I felt my keeping Hughes in sight after the first advantage was in the turns, and that's lap while also pulling away from why I didn't want to run a stabilizer, Sheak a little bit. By the third lap, because I can't turn [with a steering however, Russ had lost touch with the stabilizer]. I pulled 30 seconds after flying Hughes, who had developed a three laps, pitted a couple of times, 30-second lead. Russ was hoping to put in some more good laps, and stay close enough to Hughes to per- then I wanted to save the bike. haps pass the Red Bull KTM rider or "It was a lot of fun; I really enjoyed at least to gain big ground on him myself," Hughes added. "I felt fine when he pitted. Hughes would have towards the end, and my fitness was to pit at least twice (Russ once), and good for my training - it was at Glen up time." ~ Y1:SGu Johnny Campbell The Baja specialist probably felt a little out of place on the motocross-style track, but Campbell pulled off a very respectable seventh on his CRF450R. "I just stayed the same," Campbell said of his race. "While some of the guys went fast and then slowed down and then went fast again, I just stayed about the same the whole way. It was actually a lot of fun, and I had a good time." good. I thought this race would be the spin-off gas cap on his KTM 1] ®'lkGu Joey Lanza Joey Lanza spent the race trying to make up for some bad luck suffered early on. "On the third lap, I sucked up this six- to eight-foot cable," Lanza saiel "The cable got caught up in my bike and around my brake pedal. It kept pulling the pedal, and I had to stop and pull it out. I spent the rest of the race just trying to make would take extra time. But Russ' Helen, and $5000 to win; heck, you plans can't beat that." Russ ran a strong and consistent didn't pan out, because Hughes, who is very familiar with the Glen Helen tracks, was just too fast. "Actually, my plan was to go as race, though he did have to battle with fellow Yamaha rider Davis fast as I damned-well can," Russ said jokingly. around the midway point, but Russ pulled away in the latter stages to Ryan Dudek Supercross rider Ryan Dudek was one tired rider after the two-hour race. Dudek raced the San Diego Supercross the night before and then "changed gears" the next day for the WORCS race. "I didn't get much sleep last night," Dudek said. "I raced last night, and it's quite a change of pace coming here. I got a little tired today; I'm used to four-lap races." @1:SGu Robert Naughton Despite waking up Sunday morning feeling sick to his stomach, the Suzuki support rider hung tough and pulled off a remarkable sixth overall. "He woke up this morning sick," Naughton's tuner Mike Jankowski said. "He was throwing up this moming and was throwing up in his helmet during the race, but he just kept going and plugging away."' 1] ®1:SGu Brian Garrahan The hare scrambles rider didn't have one of his better days at Glen Helen. He got off to a mediocre start and couldn't do much with it. He reportedly had problems with his bike sputtering and pulling top gear, most likely due to dirt getting sucked into the engine. He also was nursing a sore knee that he suffered during the week. (Left! Pearson, who can usually be found winning desert races, was impressive on the motocross track. He ran second all day. (Right) Ty Davis, not a bad motocrosser himself, was hampered by a bad start, but he stili caught up to third. cue I e n e _ S • FEBRUARY 19, 2003 17

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