(Left) Brian Brown battled with
Pearson for the win. (Bottom left)
Joey Lanza won the Four-Stroke
class. (Below) Idaho's own Tommy
Ady. (Below center) A dusty David
Pearson. (Bottom) Destry Abbott
struggled with a damaged footpeg .
"It was a good
dropped for real. Some riders jumped
and then killed their bikes only to have
the banner drop all the way, signaling the
start. Some of the others jumped and
kept going, leaving the re st a bikelength
or more behind. But that didn't seem to
matter to Abbo tt , who got to the front in
a hurry. Right on his tail was Kendall
Nor man, who has given up his usual
12Scc mount in favor of a 250 this year.
Brown , who had what he said was "about
a 25-kick start," was mire d in the dust
behind the leaders. Despite having his
prechosen bomb-run ro ute blocked by
anothe r ride r, Russell made due with a
new line and emerged from the dust
among the leaders. Not long after the
mass start , the pack disappeared over the
valley and into the hills.
The first loop was 60 miles, and the trail
too k the riders into the O wyhee
Mountains sout h of the Snake Rive r. By the
time they re-emerged into view, an hour
and 20 minutes later, a lead pack had distanced itself from the rest of the fiel d. With
the pits in sight, four bikes were separated
by less than 30 seconds . Brown was leading, followed by David Pearson and then
Abbott. and Russell's Yamaha was the
caboose on a freight train of KX500s.
The Team Green pits had their hands
full when the ir top three riders showed up
within seconds of one anothe r. To make
matters wo rse, Abbot t came in wit h a broken footpeg and had to get that patched
up. losing precious minutes in the process .
Brown was in and out of the pits first ,
and David was not far beh ind. Just down
Pit Row, Russell grabbed fres h goggles
and just enough gas hopefully to reach the
alte rnate gas on loo p two.
Heading out on loop two, it was a drag
race between the two cousins - Russell,
on the Yamaha, and David . on the
Kawasaki - as they headed out side by
side. Russell to ok to the sagebrush rou te ,
apparently confident there we re no hidde n rocks or holes, while David got shuffled back to third . Shortl y thereafte r,
Abbott left the pits. now in fourt h place,
as he headed into a loop full of big
whoo ps with a foo tpeg that still was n't
www.cyclenews.com
day for me" I
mean its always
a good day
when you WI n'
- Russell Pear son
CYCLE NEWS • APRI L7,2004
39
