Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I just couldn't get my act together, not till the end." But Campbell wasn't the only one who'd saved his best for last. Abbott wanted to add another fat payday to his resume, and he also put his head down and cranked. "Brian had a couple big get-offs," Abbott revealed, a missing side panel and crushed exhaust confirming it. "That hurt us. I hopped on early; he was going to ride more, but I ended up riding quite a bit more [than planned]. We were like four or five minutes down. I felt like I rode really well towards the end. I had a slow start but finished really well and made up a lot of time. "We lost by less than a minute,. I think it was, so we were happy in that respect, but I was kind of bummed to lose the 10 grand and then to fall two corners from the finish and lose second, too, by seconds. That was my fault·. I was really bummed with myself after the race because it would've been nice for Kawi to get one-two." As it turned out, Abbott and Brown were four seconds shy of that goal.. The next couple bikes were spread out, with Hengeveld and Street fourth overall, fourth Open Pro at 5: 10:36; Doug Chiapuzio and Oakley Lehman rounded out the top five at 5:28:35. An even better race included the next four, however, with just over a minute separating them. They includ· ed the top three Four-stroke Under 450cc Pros led by desert racing newcomers Andy Grider and Trevor Sheridan on their Feather Surf· boards/Sinisalo/Gaerne YZ-F. Grider and Sheridan actually were the third in class to see the checkered flag. David Fry and Kirk Stephensen, who started first in class on their MS Concrete/Economy Steel Yamaha, were first in class to the finish followed by second starters Paul Krause and Garth Sweetland who shared a Montclair Yamaha/MSR/IMS YZ-F. But after compensating for the differences in start times, the finish results were inverted with Grider/Sheridan on top of the heap at sixth overall in 5:29:57, Krause/Sweetland the class runners-up in 5:30:34 for eighth over· all and Fry/Stephensen ninth overall in 5:30:41. Over 30 Pro winners Rick Bozarth and Daryl Folks split them up by finishing in seventh overall at 5:30:13. According to Sheridan, all three thumper competitors maintained close tabs on each other for practically the entire race, despite crashes by all of them at one time or another. As he chased the Fry /Stephensen bike near the end of the race, Sheridan said, "Sweetland ended up catching me [after his partner Krause ran out of gas] because he had clear sailing with no dust behind me, so he was able to pick up a couple minutes. Then I crashed, and he was right on me. For about seven miles, we were riding side by_ side the whole time into pit seven, just wide-open, in and out of turns. "All three of those guys ended up crashing from pit seven to the finish, and it still ended up 1-2-3 at the finish, [Fry /Stephensen] finishing first on the road, Paul Krause finishing second and us finishing third_ And we edged them [all] out by seconds." Bozarth and Folks, on the other hand, enjoyed a trouble-free, virtually unchallenged ride on their Dunlop/ THOR/Sportsman Cycle KTM. "We got out front and stayed out front," Folks said_ Danny Cooper and Matt Gosnell rounded out the top 10 in 5:36:48 and won the 250cc Pro class on their IMS/Dunlop!Troy Lee Designs Yamaha comfortably ahead of Team T Racer Husky-mounted Nate Pearson and Kellon Walch. "We were second [off the start]," Cooper related_ "Matt passed him before the first pit, and we just kept increasing our lead after that_ I don't know if the other riders had problems or not, but it went real well, just having fun the rest of the day. You couldn't ask for anything better." Greg Zitterkopf certainly couldn't ask for much better. As an lronman Expert, he started next to last in the Expert wave on his family-sponsored Honda CR500R, but he didn't stay there. He kept passing rider after rider until he'd taken the overall Expert lead, even beating all the tworider teams, and that's after stopping to clean, the carburetor twice. Told of his accomplishment, Zitterkopf seemed surprised. "Oh, cool. I lost a few minutes, five to seven minutes, stopping those two times and doing that," said Zitterkopf of his carb repairs, "Otherwise, I just rode. It went pretty good, I mean, in the middle part I rode pretty good, Towards the end, I got really tired," .Jonah Street led the earty going; he and Steve' Hengeveld took fourth overall. Despite his fatigue, Zitterkopf beat the next Experts; Chad Houck and Tex Mitchell on a Baja Designs XR650R, by just over six minutes with his 5:40:35, eN Brian Brown crashed hard a couple times, but he and partner Destry Abbott, the defending race and series champs, rallied to move into second place, only to lose it by three seconds when Abbott fell two comers from the finish. They ended up third. 250 EX: 1. Eric Caudillo/Michael Caudillo/Zack Dodson (Kaw); 2. Paul Ashford/Putter Ashford/Scott Saunders (Yam). OVER 30 EX: 1. Mike Garvin/Lester Lehigh/Jon Parks (Kaw); 2. Glenn Taylor/Chuck Sun/Richard Wilk (Hbg); 3. Richard Hersh/David Wilson (NA); 4. Brian Cunningham/Earl Desiderio (Yam); 5. Mark Goelz/Lenny Schenk (Hen). OVER 48 EX: 1. Ramey Peticolas-Stroud (Hen). Terrible's Town 250 Pahrump, NV Resuhs:ApriI8,2000 OVERALL: I. Shane Esposito/David Ondas (Kaw); 2. Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab (Hon); 3, Destry Abbott/Brian Brown (Kaw); 4. Steve Hengeveld/Jonah Street (Han); 5. Doug Chiapuzlo/Oakley Lehman (Kaw); 6. Andy Grider/Trevor Sheridan (Yam); 7. Rick Bozarth/Daryl Folks (KTM); 8. Paul Krause/Garth Sweetland (Yam); 9. David Fry/Kirk Stephensen (Yam); 10. Danny Cooper/Matt Gosnell (Yam). OPEN PRO: 1. Shane Esposito/David Ondas IRONMAN EX: 1. Greg Zitterkopf (Hon); 2. Cory Ayers (Hus); 3. Steve Blakely (Yam); 4. Ron Purvlnes; 5. Mike Tyner (Yam). OPEN AM: 1. Ron Darling/Steve Scales (KTM). 250 AM: 1. Rich Jesse/Mike roth/Oran Wheeler (Hon). (Kaw): 2. Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab (Hon); 3. OVER 30 AM: 1. Steve Pankas/Richard Purvines (Yam). Destry Abbott/Brian Brown (Kaw); 4. Steve Hengeveld/Jonah Street (Han); 5. Doug Chlapuzio/Oakley Lehman (Kaw). 250 PRO: I. Danny Cooper/Matt Gosnell (Yam); 2. Nate Pearson/Kellon Walch (Hus); 3. Bryan Folks/Matt Murphy (KTM); 4. Dennis Belingheri/Joey Lanza (Hus). OVER 30 PRO: 1. Rick Bozarth/Daryl Folks (KTM): 2. Darrol Brown/Kevin Brown (Hon). OVER 40 PRO: 1. Mark Davidge/Ross Williams OVER 35 AM: 1. Tony Aguilera/Kelly Hall/J.L. Wray (KTM). OVER 40 AM: I. Rodger Fleming/Steven Heitchew (Yam). 4-STROKE UNDER 450 AM: 1. Jamie Graham/Dave Hagedorn/Curtis Moon (Yam); 2. Manual Salazar/Miguel Mereado (Han); 3. Joe Gallagher/Ashley Vaughan (Yam); 4. Larry Perkins (Yam). (KTM): 2. Steve Pitts (ATK). 4-STROKE UNDER 450 PRO: I. Andy (ROMAN AM: 1. Gary Bosemer (Kaw); 2. Mike Kaplan (Kaw); 3. Jerry Fisher (Han); 4. Jet Peery (Han); 5. Mike Ohlhausen (Kaw). Griderrrrevor Sheridan (Yam); 2. Paul Krause/Garth Sweetland (Yam); 3. David Fry/Kirk Stephensen (Yam). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3-Tonopah, Nevada, May 19-21 Round 4-Las Vegas. Nevada, July 8-15 Round 5-Las Vegas, Nevada, December 1-3 OPEN EX: 1. Chad Houck/Stephen "Tex" Mitchell (Han); 2. Bert Bradford/Rob Phillips (KTM); 3. Jacob Phillips/Wade Phillips (KTM); 4. Clint Connelley/Clay Gremel/John Levie (Kaw); 5. Cody Gremel/Wayne Sapp (Han). BRIEFLY. •• TY TV? Maybe. Ty Davis is the driving force behind a proposed one-hour television special on motorcycle desert racing, production and filming being handled by acclaimed film maker Don Shoemaker. According to Davis, "Don Shoemaker is handling all that [airtime purchasing] for us. Dan's made it really easy for me. He just told me to come up with the 25 grand. and he'd handle the rest. (Davis got five of his sponsors to chip in $5000 each.l He deals with Speedvision so much, he can get air dates. He says they're going to like this show because it's a unique show; it's off-road racing, and it's never been done before. I think it'd be neat to have all motorcycles [on a desert showl. I hope they've got enough coverage. I hope it's not just an all Ty Davis-type thing. I think it'd be nice to have other riders and make it a big thing." Tex Mitchell, who teamed with first-time Best in the Desert entrant Chad Houck to win Open Expert, was happy to be racing. Mitchell broke a neck vertebra at the Baja 1000 in November and then suffered a back injury while practicing at a motocross track a couple months ago. Cory Ayers, the Ironman Expert runner-up, made his debut on a Team T Racer Husky 610 after owning the class last year on his Honda CR500R. "It's a different game, but it was fun, a lot of fun," he said of his first race on the big thumper. Honda's Johnny Campbell has finished second three times in a row at Terrible's Town now, seemingly missing the win by less than a minute each time. Asked if he was frustrated by that. he replied, "Yes and no. It's frustrating in that I've gotten second and haven't won the money, but at the same time it kind of shows maybe I'm one of the most consistent riders. because if you took the three moto scores from the three races, I would've won." Campbell could take consola- tion in at least one fact, though: "We're leading [in series] points now. A lot of guys that did well at Laughlin didn't do so good at tTerrible's Townl. and the guys that did bad did better. It ended up [where] we're looking pretty good in points now. We need to do a little more testing and more training, and we should be right there." Campbell added, "If you look at my scores on the XR650R since I started riding it in the major races, we haven't got worse than second. It's a pret- ty good record." Never-say-die honors went to the Over 30 Expert KX500-mounted team of Mike Garvin, Lester Lehigh and Jon Parks. After Garvin left his truck keys in another team's chase vehicle at pit one and the vehicle drove off, members of the team had to hitch hike from pit to pit in order to switch riders and re·fuel. Soar thumbs and seven gas stops later, and the Garvin/Lehigh/Parks team was fortunate enough to celebrate their first class win in many attempts. eye. e n e _ 51: 'APRIL 26, 2000 25

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