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ual Suzuki/MTAIKenda Texas Pro Cha llenge Almost a National Johnson and Dumuth trade wins STORY AND PHOTOS BY KEN FAUGHT Kev in Johnson (78) come away with the 125cc-class win. Arenacross champ Josh Demuth handl e d the 250cc Pro class. V Past rana was so excited is to race at Swa n Cycle Par k t hat he st oppe d at a Suzuk i dea lersh ip and bought an RMZ2 S0 t o ride in t he 125cc class. The re were also nearly 100 Pro ride rs that turn ed out from 17 states to ride the event. The attraction of this race : An im ma c ulate ly prepare d 1.3- m ile -lon g course, a $25,000 guaran teed purse and tho usand s of Texas fans starving for an outdoor nat ional. Ho weve r, as it wo uld t urn out , the pre vio us year's to p ride rs would not get to race this year. Two of th ose riders were Pastrana and O klahom a's Robbie Reynard . Pastrana's luck, as always, turned from bad to wors e when he got a poo r jump out of the gate during his 2S0cc-c1ass qualifie r and hit a dow ned rider in the first turn. The incident sent Pastra na over the bars and left him with a dislocated left shoulde r. Reynard also had proble ms during his qualifier and went home with what the track crew said was an injured lower leg. These injuries, combined with the absence of defending Te xas Pro Challenge Champion Kevin Windham , opened the door for a new hero to emerge. In the 12Scc class, that tu rned out to be KevinJohnson, while former AMA Are nac ro ss C hamp, Josh Dem uth, dominated the 2S0cc ranks. Keith Johnson of Albuquerqu e, New Mexico , and Robbie Smith traded qualifier wins in the 12Scc class, while Demuth and Smith did the same in the 250cc ranks. Whe n the gate dropp ed at the start of the first of two I2Scc main events, Chr is Nihan got the ho leshot aboar d his T 60 CRF2S0R and quickly established a twosecond lead. As the pack came around to complete the first lap, four-stroke mo unted Erick Vallejo followed Nihan in second ahead of Keith Johnso n, Vernon McKiddie, Taylor Painte r and Kevin Johnson. A lap later, Kevin took over fifth, and two laps later he took ove r fou rt h. Meanwhile, Keith began to fade as the batt le for the lead began to intensify Vallejo, of Garland, . Texas, and Kevin starte d to challenge Nihan for the lead. Nihan tried everything he co uld, but co uldn't kee p the tw o Y amaha riders at Bay. Shortly after the midway point, Vallejo too k the lead for a lap before Kevin fought his way ahead of Vallejo and re mained ther e until the end. Vallejo held on for second , follow ed by McKiddie , Nihan and Keith Johnso n respect ively. Nihan returned to holeshot the second moto ahead of Kevi n Johnson , Valle jo, Painte r and Chris Whitcraft. Whitcraft was one of the fastest riders but fell in th e first mo to and cou ld only salvage a 28t h. Shortly before the e nd of the first lap, Kevin Johnson worked his way into the lead , after bumping Nihan out of the rut in a tight right-hand turn . Things remained the same for a few laps until Valle jo began to fade . He dropped off the leader's pace, and fell back to sixth, just as Nihan cr ashed o ut on lap five . But Vallejo regrouped and managed to work his way into second during th e late stages of the race. He held that position until th e end, as Johnson scored the win. Whitcraft finished third, followed by Jeff Gibson and Chad Ward , respectively. oaOBER 13, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Johnson's I-I gave him the win, followed by Vallejo's 2-2 and Ward's 6-S. "This was a rea lly fast track and it' s important to get good starts," Johnson said. "You can't afford to make any mistakes othe rwise you can get passed pretty easily It's impo rta nt to kee p up you r . momentum and make good line choices." Robb ie Smith, w ho encounte red problems in the 12S-c1ass, nailed the start of the first 2S0cc moto. Dem uth was second, followed by Red Bull KTM 's Josh Woods, with Jam es Marshall in fourth and Chad Charbonneau in fifth. Smith built up a three-second lead during the first few laps before Demuth caught his fellow Yamaha rider and then forced his way into the lead. While the two batt led, they pulled away from third-placed Woods by more than five seconds. However, once into the lead, Demuth couldn't establish much of a cushion. Smith was about two seconds be hind at the finish. Woods claimed an easy third, ahea d of Ch arbonneau and Zach Blackwell, respective ly. Smith returned an hour later for the sec ond moto to claim yet another holeshot . J.J. Pecso k started in second, ahead of Kevin Johnson , Jeff Gibson and Co ry Green. De muth got off to a med iocre start and was sixth by the e nd of the first lap. On the third lap, Smith fell , allowing Pecsok to inherit the lead . By this point, Demuth had moved into second after passing one rider on each of the thr ee preced ing laps. During the last half of the 22-minute plus two -lap moto , Demuth began to chip away at Pecsok's lead. Three laps fro m the e nd, Demuth , moved into 40th Anniversary the lead . Simult aneously, Jacob Saylor moved into th ird after starting the moto outside the top 10. At the finish, Demuth claimed victory by more than three second s ahead of Pecsok. Saylor was more than 10 seconds back in third, followed by Gibson and Ke ith Johnson . Demuth, from No rth Richland Hills, Texas, claimed the overall win with a per fect moto tallyand pocketed $4000 for his effort. Yukon, Ok lahoma's Smith went 2-2 fo r se co nd , w hile Knoxville 's Saylor claimed third with a 6-3. "I was rea lly disappointed that Pastrana and Reynard got hurt," Demuth said. "I was really looking forward to racing them on this track . Aside from that, th ings turned out really good. I got some pretty goo d starts, I rode smart and didn't have to take too many risks." "I really thought I could win this," Smith said. "I made a mistake in the second moto , and that cost me my chance. Still, I had a lot of fun racing against Demuth ." eN Suzuki/MTA/Kenda Texas Pro Challenge Tyler, Texas Res ults: Septmeber 25, 2004 125 PRO: KevinJohnson; 2. Erick Vallejo: 3. Chad Ward ; 4. Jacob Saylor; S. Jeff Gibson ; 6 . Vernon McKiddie; 7. Zach Blackwe ll: 8 . Trevo r Monk s: 9 . C harles Cashoo : 10 . Clayton Miller; II. Chad Cook : 12. Brandon Fulton; 13. Chris Whitcraft ; 14. Taylor Watts: IS. lvldre w Cannon: 16. De re k Kemp; 17. Jose Fernandez: 18. Chris Nihan; 19. Austin Squires ; 20. Taylo r Painter. 250 PRO: I. Josh Demuth : 2. Robbie Smith ; 3. Jacob Saylor; 4 . J.J. Pecsck; S. Jeff Gibson; 6. Cha d Charbonneau ; 7. Keith johnson; B. Cary Green ; 9. Austin Squires; 10. Josh Woods ; I I. Robert locke; 12. Zach Blackwe ll; 13. Blake Keeran: 14. C hris Craft ; I S. Mike Menger; 16. Shane Mitis; 17. Kyle Phenix ; 18 . Brandon Beaubou t ; 19. Michael Gage ; 20. J ames Marshall.