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/128409
The Honda duo takes title, championship By MARK KARIYA PHOTOS BY LOUIS WORTHY eam Honda's Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld successfully defended their race and series championships by winning the season-ending Henderson's Terrible 400, round six of the Best In The Desert's Silver State Series, in six hours, 44 minutes and S6 seconds. It was no runaway victory, however, as privateer KTM racers Matt Gosnell and Carl Maasberg pushed the duo the entire way, finally ending up second overall and second Open Pro - just over a minute behind. Despite having to solo the grueling 253-mile race when partner Chuck Dempsey was unable to attend at the last minute, Mike Childress finished third overall in 7:21.27 en route to winning the Four-Stroke Pro division. Run over basically the same course as last year, motorcycles and ATVs would start out on the fast truck/buggy circuit, though they would use only 43 miles of its 70 miles. After finishing that loop, they would then be directed onto the rocky, technical and rough 35-mile motorcycle/ATVonly loop run, six times. Kendall Norman, the fastest qualifier, stunned the field by blitzing the truck/buggy loop on his Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Honda Pro Oils-backed XR650R. When he finished that loop and headed out for the first bike/ATV loop, he had about six minutes over Childress (the secondfastest qualifier). followed by Hengeveld and Gosnell. Norman's lead, however. WQllldn't last much longer: "I clipped a rock with wheel," he said. "It T m. Steve Hengeveld saw the fOUrminute lead he'd built up evaporate when he got stuck behind an ATV for several miles late in the race. Matt Gosnell (shown) and Carl Maasberg pushed the eventual winners all day, finishing second after the rear tire started coming apart on the finol lop. .-~ 'J~lOtI~'l: R o kicked the bike out and ejected me forward. I came down on my hand, and it really hurt my thumb. The bike was very tweaked - or the front end was. The front brake didn't work; the triple clamp was bent. I was riding well. I didn't really make any mistakes up to that point. I was probably still pulling [away]." After picking himself up and getting restarted, Norman made it to the alternate pit where he and Bruce OgilVie replaced the front wheel and brake. He then got the bike to the main pit where Bell took off, but a lap later would stop to have the entire front end replaced - right down to the triple clamps. HaVing passed Childress on his XR's Only/O'Neal/Scott XR650R, Hengeveld then found himself in the lead. "We chose to go with stock gearing so we kind of got eaten up in the first [truck/buggy] loop, but we knew that on the bike loop, that's where we'd make up our time," Hengeveld revealed. From that point on, it was smooth sailing for him and Campbell as they remained in front, though on Hengeveld's final stint on the fifth lap, he ran into a major problem. "We had, like, a four- and a half-minute lead, and I got stuck behind a quad for several miles and the guy would not move over," Hengeveld said while waiting for his partner to finish the final loop. "Now we're 20 seconds up [on Gosnell/ MaasbergJ so I'm a little disappointed in that, but Johnny will bring it in and hopefully win this thing." Indeed, the surprise of the race was the pair of Nevadans on their SuperMex Restaurant/Advanced Chiropractic/ Needham Realty-backed KTM 525 Xc. "We started off a little slow; we lost a couple minutes on the first lap, but we got into the slower, tighter loops and just started picking them off a little bit," Gosnell said. "We went out and gave it I00 percent all day long, just trying to chase them down, but couldn't. We were actually leading overall off the first 35-mile loop; we were 40 seconds behind Hengeveld and he owed us a minute. After that, it was anywhere between a minute to two minutes was our gap. When we went out on the last loop, we had to make up 12 seconds. Me and Johnny were both pushing as hard as we could. Johnny ended up coming out ahead; he put a little bit of time on me." It didn't help Gosnell that the rear tire started coming apart on that last loop. In fact, the mousse tubes in