Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

w ith KTM 's Kurt Caselli and Yamaha's Russ Pearson not far behind. A few laps later, Bo nds be came the first victim of the tough Glen Helen course as he fell be hind and never managed to catch the leaders. Word in the pits was that he pulled out afte r crashing in a tricky log section. As the race wo re on, Pearson bega n to , as he has done in pre vio us rounds, climb up to the fron t . O nce everything began to settle down, the fight up front bo iled dow n to a four-man battle royal involving Davis, Pearson, Abbott and Case lli. "The last tw o or three laps it was just one, two, three, four," Caselli said. "Ty, Russ, Destry [Abbott] and me just right there. I was hop ing that someone would tip it over o r so mething so I co uld get third." Pearson and Davis were the two riders to watch throughout the closing stages of the race, though. The Yamaha ride rs circulated the co urse in unison, battli ng for the lead. Davis didn't want to lose any more valuable points to Woods, and Pearson despe rately wa nte d to back up his win from the pre vious ro und in Colorado . So, need less to say, ne ithe r rider was going to give up wit hout a fight. "They ke pt saying I was a minute back, then 45 seconds," Pearson said. "T he n next t hing I knew I saw 'You can win' on the pit board. So I just dug down and gave it everything I had." O n the last lap, Pe arso n move d into the lead with everything going smoothly, and he had the chec ke red flag in sight when his bike suddenly and unexpectedly came to a stop. "I was leading com ing into the last loop, " Pear son said. "Right about a half-mile to the finish, the bike went, 'kunk.' It ran o ut of gas or something, I don't know. So I just started pushing and ended up finishing fourth . The bike worked great, I just came up a little bit short. About a half-mile short." With Pearson out of contention at the last minute, Abbott and Caselli bo th moved up a position in the finishing order. "I got into second behind Ty [Davis] past the halfway," Abbott said. "Literally, I was like a second behind him, and [the n I] passed him. Then I had to pit. I had to pit twice, so that was kind of a bad strategy for us. Toward s the end the re, it was the most exiting race I've ever raced, with all four of us dow n to the wire . It was just awe some. It was pretty exciting. I was getting nervous ; I was tired and no one was shutt ing off." In the end, Davis took the checkered flag just 10 seconds ahead of Abbott. Rounding out the top thre e was Caselli aboard his KTM 250. "The whole time it was awesome." Davis said. "I mea n, it was goo d racing; you're always racing with With on ly two rounds left in the series, Davis definitely has his work cut out for himself. Woods, however, is still sitting co mfortably in the lead positio n, poised to win his first championship since foregoing motocro ss and taking up off-road. eN GLEN H ELE N RA CEWAY SA N B ERNARDINO, C ALIFORNIA 16 · 17, 20 0 4 14) R ESUL TS: O CTO BER ( RO UN D 12 p-------------------------------------CJ someone." OF be lu lled 2 monthly pa yments) Name Barstow (Hon); 17. Shawn Wynne (Hon) ; 18. Nathan Wood s (Yam 19. Randall ); Han (Hon); 20. Bren dan lutes (Suz). SEM I· P RO: I. Ricky Diet rich (Kaw); 2. Brenden Rittmen (Kaw); J . Justin Soule (Kaw): 4 . Ere k Arnold (Yam): 5. Greg Jones (Hon); 6. Ryan Abbatoye (Kaw): 7. Dylan Murdock (Hon ). o o Add ress _ Eve ry week for two Yt"ars (llX ) Issues for $80 .( 0 ) S ix months second class o _ Ih ts ls a (25 iS SUl'S fo r $2.1.(10) C ity· Z ip, Sta te _ Phon e _ O rder Date o I' I€'d :>eb ill ow I pd pllt'nl of $.15 o Enclosed is m y chl.Ck or m one y " o mu 2 p a ymell ts P.O. Box 508·t Costa M esa , C A 92628-50 84 Toll Free S ubscrip tion Hotline (800) 831 -2220 Q _ Exp. Date 522 .50 order lln.. Me/Visa #: (Jf Chilr);l' m y U Vi sa 24-h o u r FA X Ord er Lin e (7 1-1) 751-6685 . E-m a il: Subscrtbefscy clcncws.co m Signat u re Subscription Re new al Q N ew o _ Send to:~ Inc. PRO O/A : I. T Davis (Yam 2. DescryAbbott (!

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