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/128384
l\like (~hi1dress and l\louse l\lcCov .. beat the factories By BRIAN FARRIS PHOTOS BY MARK KARIYA as all bikes left the line 30 seconds apart. Like any good team, McCoy and Childress settled on a pre-race plan. "Mikey would try and get an early lead and stay smooth," McCoy said. "I would do the motocross-style section, which is my kind of my riding, and keep a good core pace. All I had to do was hold the lead. It was a great course, and we had a clean ride with no problems." McCoy, a Hollywood stuntman and the featured rider in the film Dust To Glory, added a few minutes to their lead before giving the bike to Childress for the run to the finish. He also credited his win to good communication with the air support to help him avoid the numerous spectator cars on the course near Mike's Sky Ranch. T~ether, Mouse McCoy (pictured) and Mike Childress beat the factory teams aboard their privateer Honda XR6S0. They took the early lead and never loaked back. . rivateer Honda riders Mike Childress and Mouse McCoy stepped into the middle of what was billed as a "Duel in the Desert" and a "Gunslingers Shootout" between factory teams Honda and KTM, and they came out on top. At this year's Tecate SCORE Baja 500, McCoy and Childress took their XR's Only Honda XR650 to first overall motorcycle, as well as first overall vehicle. Their winning time was 8 hours, 40 minutes, 25 seconds, with an average speed of 48.3 mph. It was an impressive finish considering they were up against factory-backed teams with tons of support. American Honda Factory riders Steve P Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell finished 9 minutes, 20 seconds later. They were closely followed by Honda's "B" Team of Robby Bell and Kendall Norman, who completed the top-three. The other factory team of KTM riders, Chris Blais and Andy Grider (who were expected to be running at the front), took their KTM 660 Rally to fourth and were only seconds behind the Robby Gordon Trophy Truck for fifth overall vehicle. "It was a dream to win th"is thing, I'm very happy," stated Childress, who had taken over the physical lead near Santo Tomas, some 80 miles into the race after working his way past I I bikes. Thanks to adjusted time, with the physical lead came a 4 1/2-minute cushion 36 JUNE 29, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS After Steve Hengeveld (pictured) crashed early on, they were forced to pit for repairs. It effectively dropped him and Johnny Campbell out of contention for the win. As for Hengeveld and Campbell, bad luck cost them a chance at the win - again. "It was a good race and a tough course," Hengeveld said. "We had problems this time, and it cost us. I wanted to be first bike into OJos [Negroes), but I went down at mile eight pretty hard and holed the radiator. I lost some time but got some of it back." Campbell took the bike from Hengeveld at Santo Tomas to ride the tight, technical lower loop. "I tried to give Steve a cushion when he got back on," Campbell said, but a faulty front brake took its toll. "I couldn't charge into the corners." With the overall win out of reach, it was important for the Honda team to