Briefly..•
at the front, Nonnan second and Pearson
third until Norman fell. With that,
Pearson took over second. A dusty wash
and flat-out run aaoss the final valley to
the finish allowed Abbott to maintain his
slim lead and thus move up to tie Pearson
in series points.
"I'm happy," Abbott said. "I tied up the
series again with two rounds to go. I think
it's going to come down to the end
between Russ and I for sure. He's riding
at
well; I'm riding well."
My
15
V _ M/C V - VOYAGE
l.ucnN1 VAllEY, CAuroINA
llsuus: ANa 24, 2005 IR- 4
3
David Pearson
6)
(Yam); 10. 8rett Saunder> (Yam).
AHA/FMf RACING NATIONAl. HARE & HOUND
C_ONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS (Aft... 4 016
...........): I. (TIE) Oestry Abbott ( II 0/2 wins)lRusaelt
Peanon (110/2 wins); 3. S-fter that, I was
riding bad," Norman said. "It kind of got
me out of my rhythm. Being that close to
the leaders - Abbott and Pearson - again, so
suddenly, it just threw me off. I wasn't riding the way I was earlier on in the race." He
attributed a late-race tip-over to that.
KTM's Brent Harden had a horrible day.
Off the start, he hit someone who'd
stopped in the dust. After picking himself
up, he got going again-and worked his way
back up in the pack before going down
again, this time suffering more severe consequences. "It was 15 miles out," Harden
said. "I'd just got done passing three other
125s and just hit a rock and endoed. I got
up, and my arm was laying behind me." At
first, he feared he'd broken both bones in
the forearm, but that proved negative at
the hospital. Harden did dislocate his elbow
and possibly tore a few ligaments.
Matt Gosnell rode his KTM S25 MXC, but
only after switching some of the parts off
his 450 the night before. A brush with a
yucca left him on the ground in an estimated 35th place. He picked himself up and
regained a number of spots to hit the first
pit around 10th. By the finish, he was sixth.
CYCLI NEWS • MAY 11, 2005
51
