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/128601
Adelanto. CA . Febf"'uery 5--6, 2000 District 37 Big Six Grand Prix Series Round 1 : Adelanto Grand Prix (Above) Steve Hengeveld (41 leads Erik Wolfe (111. Doug Chiapuzio (251. Paul Krause (161 and a slew of other Open race contestants Into the first tum at Adelanto. (Above rightl What would the Adelanto Grand Prix be without a water hole jump? Several attempted it, but very few escaped it without getting at least a little bit muddy. (Right) The event Is a haven for many things. and costumes are just one of them. Nobody knew if this guy was an official member of the Metal Mulisha or just a pledge. After approx~mately 90 minutes of racing, Campbell crossed through the finish shoot for the final time on Saturday with plenty of time to spare. Campbell claimed $2000 for the Pro race win, his second in the last three years at Adelanto. Esposito rode a blistering pace on his 250 to claim an impressive second overall. Lehman fought off the hard-charging Esposito as long as he could, but finally gave way in the closing laps. Still, Lehman claimed third overall, second Open Pro. Fourth-place finisher Baumann stayed in the mix, and Roeseler did not disappoint by riding to a consistent fifth-place finish. Staab finished sixth - fifth Open Pro - and was not overly happy with his results. "I got a 12th-place start and caught up to Roeseler and just stayed there," Staab said. "I wish I could have gotten a better start because I think I could have gotten second behind Johnny." Ward continued to polish up on his grand prix skills, finishing seventh, one spot in front of Myers, who was new to the Adelanto experience. "I've never ridden that fast in my entire life," Myers, a seasoned motocross racer, said. "I rode the Baja 1000 last year, but we never went that fast over such fast terrain. I was scared the whole time." Myers' finish was rather impressive considering the fact that he had never before ridden the bike that he had competed on. "I am contracted to ride a KTM 380 in the grand prix series this year, but 16 FEBRUARV 23, 2000' IC U IC we had some power valve problems with the bike earlier this morning," Myers explained. "Scot Harden and I just decided that I'd ride the new 520, so I got on it and rode. It took me a while to get used to the bike, but once I did it was no problem." Krause and Hengeveld rounded out the top 10 overall. Finishing an impressive 11 th was Healey, who shook off Capt to win the 125cc Pro class. "Besides having to start in the last row, which sucked, everything went okay," Healey said. With the pressure of Saturday's Pro race behind him, Campbell lined up for Sunday's 9:15 a.m. FourStroke/Dual-Sport race. Davis was originally entered in the event, but after his motor failed him in the Pro race the day before, he was left with no race bike, but it didn't take Davis to give Campbell a run for his money. Campbell's American Honda teammate, Staab was all that Campbell could handle. "I got the holeshot and Johnny (Campbell) and Larry (Roeseler) were right behind me," Staab said. "I faded my front brake out somehow on the end of one pavement stretches, and at the end there's a couple of s-turns, and without my front brake Johnny blazed by me." Campbell confirmed Staab's account of the proceedings. "I was working on Tim (Staab), and lout-braked him on the pavement, and I got by him," Campbell said. "Pretty much, he was stuck on my rear tire the whole time after that. I e n e .... s I couldn't let up at all. He finished really close to me." Roeseler was in third early on, but a broken oil pump ended his hopes of a finish. Hengeveld took over for Roeseier but shortly thereafter blew a corner, letting Krause and Harden by. The two former Baja champions finished third and fourth, and Hengeveld rounded out the top five. With his YZ426 sitting in the Montclair Yamaha pits, Davis was forced to ride a YZ250 in the Vet race. Myers proved that he will be a grand prix force to be reckoned with as he put the 520 in the lead early on and never looked back. Davis had skirmishes with the Open bikes of Staten, Ron Shuler and Capt, but finally put his 250cc machine into second, quite a distance behind Myers. "I couldn't keep up with that KTM," Davis said. "He just pulled me big couldn't even keep him in sight. I just didn't have the top end. Yesterday was pretty sandy, and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to pull the gearing that they had, so I went a little bit lower. Today it got harder and I had a lot of wheel spin. Oh well." Davis crossed the finish line with Lehman and Healey in tow. Hengeveld got the start that he had been looking for all weekend when the banner dropped for the Open event, the final race of the weekend. Hengeveld led the charge down the pavement to the first turn, but Chiapuzio got a better drive out of the corner and took over the lead. Campbell and Krause soon followed suit, leaving Hengeveld in fourth. With the race course dustier than ever, it was hard for the riders to stay close to one another, but Campbell did his best while following Chiapuzio. "I was right behind Chiapuzio, and I didn't want to let him get away," said the second-placed Campbell. "I did a couple turns and straightaways that were a little bit faster than I wanted to go, but I eventually got by him. Before I did, he was playing the dustyou-out road game. We got on this dirt road, and he just kept weaving and roosting me. It kind of pissed me off. Once he was weaving slower than I was going straight, so I went by him and then shook it on him. From there I stayed pretty steady." Chiapuzio stayed a steady second and Krause stayed a steady third, but Hengeveld let Staab get by in the dust, claiming fourth. Hengeveld claimed his third fifth-place overall finish of the weekend when the Open race came to a close. "Staab found a better line than me somewhere because he got by me and I never saw him," Hengeveld said. Staab came from behind due to a bad start. "I got a two-kick start and got caught up in the dust," Staab said. "It was hard to go fast in the dust this time because they didn't water it late in the day. This bike starts first kick every time. I must have just blew it." AdelantD 6rand PriI AdelantD, Califomia time." Results: February 5·&, 2000 (Round 1 of &J Davis may have gotten pulled big time in the Vet race, but just after it he did the pulling in the 250cc race. "That was a good race between Healey, Oakley (Lehman) and I," said Davis. "They passed me and I passed them back." The Davis/Healey/Lehman battle went on for a while, but before long the battle began to spread out. "I was up there with those guys the first half a lap, until we hit pavement," said Healey. "I just wasn't geared tall enough. Oakley (Lehman) went by me first, and I tried to draft behind him and then he just left me. And then Ty went by me, and I ole: I. Destry Abbott (Kaw); 2. Johnny Campbell (Hon); 3. Todd Hoy (Hon); 4. Kurt Caselli (KllW); 5. Steve Hengeveld (Hon). SR: 1. Larry Roeseler (Kaw); 2. Craig Adams 3. Scel Harden (KTM); 4. Rex Slalen (VOR). 200: I. Destry Abbott (Kaw); 2. Mike He~ley (KllW); 3. Shane Espisito (Kaw); 4. Ty Davis (Yam). PRO: 1. Johnny Campbell (Han); 2. Shane Esposito (Kaw); 3. Oakley Lehman (Kaw); 4. Abe Baumann (Kaw); 5. Larry Roeseler (Kaw); 6. Tim Staab (Hon); 7. Gordon Ward (VOR); 8. Scott Myers (KTM); 9. Paul Krause (Yam); 10. Steve Hengeveld (Hon). 4-STRK: 1. Johnny Campbell (Hon); 2. Tim Staab (Hon); 3. Paul Krause (Yam); 4. Scot Harden (KTM); 5. Steve Hengeveld (Hen). VET: I. Scett Myers (KTM); 2. Ty Davis (Yam); 3. Rex Staten (VOR); 4. Jeff Capl (Kow); 5. Craig Adams 250: 1. Ty Davis (Yam); 2. Oakley Lehman (Kaw); 3. Mike Healey (Kaw). OPEN; I. Johnny Campbell (Hen); 2. Doug Chiapuzio (Kaw): 3. Paul Krause (Yam); 4. Tim Staab (Hon); 5. Steve Hengeveld (Hon). «tm»; «tm». Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - March 4-5, San Bernardino, California _Round 3 - April 1-2, 29 Palms, California