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/128349
he Las Vegas 200 has be e n rather cruel to Ho nda's Steve Hengeveld over the years, taunting him , it seems . On more than one oc casio n, he's ended up in the runner-up spot, wh ich is better than nothing, but for a champion, it's still the first loser. He finally changed tha t at the latest ed ition of the 200, ro und five of Best in the Desert 's Silver Stat e Series . Riding solo , since usua l partner Jo hnny Campb ell was out with an eye infectio n, Hengeveld took command from the gree n flag and held the lead thro ugho ut the remainde r of the race, was based ou t of t he dry lake bed nort h of Jean , to win it for t he first time in his career. His unofficial time for three 71-mile laps was fo ur hours , 36 minu tes and 3S seconds o n his Ho nda Pro Concep ts/M SR-back ed Oil s/Pre cisio n X R650R. And in ta king the victo ry, only his seco nd this season and the second in a row, Hengeveld ma naged to extend the lead he and Campbell enj oy in the overall series points st andings with only the series finale in December remaining. "Jo hnny [Campbell) had an eye infection," Hengeveld said. "He's good, but I just went ahead and prepared [myself) to run the whole [race) un less something happened or I got tired o r whatev er. The n he could get on . But, it was one of those [races) t hat I wante d to do solo because I've done it in t he past so many times [by myse lf) and almo st won. So I T 40 tho ught , 'Well, we might as well give it a shot this year.,,, And as it turned out, this was his year to make it happen, and he took both the O pen Pro and overall motorcyde/ATVwin. Though promoter Cas ey Folks declared tha t to ta l entries were up th is year to a record 177 teams (bike s, ATVs, buggies and trucks), w ith 92 of them being in t he mo torcycle/ATV divisio n (including lro nmen ), the Pro -class t urn o ut was light. T he Fo ur-stro ke Pros ended up with the largest number of teams, at three, and one of them took second overall in 4:54 :32, unofficially. Th at time was turned in by the Mike C hildress/Chuck Dempsey duo on t he X R's O nly/O' N e al! Ca rpetland XR650R. "Eve rything went go od," De mpsey re po rted . ''T he bike worked really good, all our pits were good, everyone came out and helped us, wh ich was good. It was a pretty good ride overall. " Their competitors ended up with major disasters taking them out of the running. Paul Krause , fo r instance, made it to about mile 17 (o n the half of the course that was west of 1 15) when his Malcolm Smith Moto rspo rts/ MSR/Goat-spo nsore d KTM 525 MXC seized, the victim of insufficient oil after the filler cap came off. Partner Elmer Symons never got on the bike. NOVEM BER 10,2004 • CYCLE NEWS Hengeveld celebrates with Best in the Desert promoter Casey Foiles at the finish. Though they ended up with a few points for starting, they no longer control the title chase and will have to rely on bad luck to befall the two teams in fro nt of them if they're to win the class championship. Christopher Blais and Andy Grider nearly suffered a similar catastrophe in th eir KTM debut on a Precisio n Concepts/ IMS/Goat-backed 525. Gride r noticed he had no brakes and looked 40th Anniversary down to see his boot covered in oil. After stopping, closer inspection revealed a missing oil filler cap and not enough oil to make it to the closest pit. So Grider turned into a tracker, walked back along the course and en de d up finding the cap. But he'd lost so mu ch oil tha t he wouldn't be able to go far: fortunately, the pit was only a few miles away. " A coup le corners after the eight-mile