Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128308
Steve Hengeveld got out to an immediate lead and kept it for his lap-and-a-half ride, but he and partner Johnny Campbell had to settle for second at the finish. With Team Green choosing to con centrate resources in oth er areas , that meant dropp ing its Best in the Desert effort. But Destry Ab bott and Bria n Brow n wanted to compete still, so they teamed up and gathered what support they cou ld for the first two rou nds of the ser ies that Abbott and Shane Esposito won last year. "We're ru nning ou r own stuff. so we're more com fortable w ith [the bike]." Brown said. Elmer Symo ns spent some t ime back home in South Africa at the end of last year and raced the Roof of Africa rally He led . it by a substa ntial margin most of the wa y, too, but he crashed and knocke d himself out abo ut 12 miles from the finish. The officials' helicopter following the leader saw the incident, landed and re fused to allow him to continue w he n he came to , making his effort a disappointing DNF. But he reasoned, "If something e lse happened to me [if I'd tr ied to ride to the finish]. I could be dead ." jump . He kind of dusted me out and rocked me a litt le bit , so I had to sett le in and hang w ith his dust as long as I co uld." Abb ott said, "O n the last big loop , the filter started clogging up, and I w as a little nervous about that . Leaving the main pit on the last loop, probab ly IS miles into it in a really rocky section , I was ab le to get around Johnn y and put a little time on him before the road. I knew I had to ge t by him before the road; otherwise we w eren't go ing to pass him. I'd rather try to get around Johnny than try to stay within 30 seconds of him , since we starte d be hind him." "Everythi ng was clicking," He nge ve ld said of his ride . "I just stay ed right there about a minute ahead . The re was a litt le bit o f w ind, so the du st w asn't holding them [the Ho nda team] too far back. Eve ryt hing w e nt really well - the bike handled really well ; the motor worked really well . I didn't have anything bad happen - no crashes. no bo bb les." Th e two fron t-runners e nded up less than two minutes apart , w ith the ir battle ca rrying them w ell ahead (more than IS minutes) of a tight three-way tuss le for Four-Stroke Pro honors . Starting the last lap. Elmer Symons led by a slight mar gin over Andy Gride r and Christopher Blais. but Grider man aged to shake Blais and pass Symons before t he finish to secure the spot and third overall. eN KTM P A RKER 25 0 PAR KER, A RIZO N A R ESULTS: JANUARY 10, 2004 ( ROUND 1) O/A : I. De st ry Abbo tt/B rian Bro wn (Kaw ): 2. Joh nny Ca mpbelVS te"e Henge ve ld (Ha n); J. C huck Dempsey/Andy Gride r (Ha n); ... Elmer Symons (KTM); S. Christophe r Blais (Hon); 6. Jason AJosi/Sean Be rry man (Ha n); 7. Craig Adams,IJohn Braasch (Kaw); 8. Don nie CampbelVOal Trubey/Jason Trube y (KTM); 9. Earl De sideriofJames Embro/D uane Schwab (KTH ); 10 . Randy Blevins/Greg Fou nta ine/ Kurt Sofka Jr. (Hon). O P EN PRO: I. De stry Abbott/Brian Brown (!