Round 1
OFF-ROAD
__
B ES T IN THE DES ERT SILVER S TATE SER IES
Rbbott, Brol.Un Raise
The Kawasaki duo does it their own way
Destry Abbott started 2004
the same way he started 2
w inning the KTM Parker 250.
time, though, he d id it w ith
partner, Brian Brown. _
estry Abbott and Br ian
Brown proved that even
privateers can win big. At
the Parker 250, the opening round of the Best in the
Desert's Silver State Series, t he Kawasaki
KXSO
O-mounted duo claimed the overall
wi n despite their Kawasaki Team Gre e n
team deciding not to participate in this
year's ser ies - at least for a w hile. Riding
the same KX500 that Abbott used in the
National Hare & Hounds last year (he also
prepared it himself), the FMF/909/Acme
Suspens ion-backed duo came from behind
to take the win over Honda's Jo hnny
Campbell and Steve Hengeveld , who rode
their Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Pro
Honda Oils XR650 R to second overall .
For Abbott, it was his second win at this
race , and for the Honda pair, it wasn't the
outcome they had hoped for, but it sure
beat their DN F last year.
He ngeveld got off to a great start and
immediate ly began to put time on t he field.
All three of t he O pen Pro entries Campbell/Hengeveld, Abbott/B rown and
Mike Ch ildress/ David Pearson, on the
D
the
BAR
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
MARK KARIYA
Temecula
Motorsports!Team Green
KX500 - showed speed superior to the
rest of the field.
However, various problems eventually
eliminated the Childress/Pearson te am
from the equation (t hough they would soldier on and finish), making the race for the
overall victory a two-team affair.
Hengeveld held point for the lap and a
half that he rode, and he handed the big
Honda to Campbe ll at the alternate pit
after his I 16-mile stint was over.
"Brian rode rea lly well, but we just
couldn't get past Hengeveld ," Abbott said.
Campbell shot out for his first look at
the course and kept the lead until a few
miles afte r the main pit.
"I thought I was doing good ," Campbell
said. "When I got to the main pit [the first
time], they said Abbott was 25 seco nds
behind me . Then we got up into that really
rough section between mile fiveand 10, and
it' s real whooped out and rocky. I hit a couple rocks in there, got kind of sideways and
lost my momentum, lost some seconds in
there. Destry came up alongside of me and
just jumped over a rise that I didn't want to
40th Anniversaru
