Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

B e s t in the D esert S ilve r S tat e Serie s Round 4 : N e vada 2000 Others got into trouble a lmost immediately , howeve r. Th e o t he r Team Gre en e ntry of Shane Esposito and Dav id On d a s ba rely made th e first turn of the prologue when the trans m iss ion in their KX500 broke. Wh ile Te am Green te chnicians wor ked frantica lly to split th e case s a nd re place the gea rbox with one that worked, the clock ticked , and other teams kept rid in g o ff in to th e d ist an c e . The y wo uld not m ak e up that time . Do ing a littl e bette r wa s th e Ty Da vis /Russ ell Pe arson du o o n the ir Mont clair Yam aha YZ426F. At one po int, they unofficially pulled into the lead o n co rrec te d tim e. Unfo rtunat e ly, the ir luc k didn't hold beca use the pis to n did n' t. Th e y were ou t a t mile 30 an d relegated to th e ba ck of th e pa ck th e following da y, si nc e th e ir break down occurred du ring t he race and thus inc urred a time pe na lty. DNFing th e e ve nt was Austral ia n de se rt spe cia list St ephen Gre enfi e ld, winner o f t h a t coun t r y 's tw o -da y STO RY AN D PHOTOS BY M ARK K A RIYA LAS VEGAS, NV, JULY 8-15 e a m Hon d a ' s J ohn ny Campbell and Tim Staab never enjoyed the satisfaction of winn ing a single da y during th e first ( a n d mayb e onl y ) Nevada 20 00 , bu t wh e n all of t h e rac e 's six days a nd 1467 miles were over an d don e with, th e ir con siste ncy and pa tien ce rewarded the m with th e overall victory . Th e du o' s winn ing time in Am er ica's long est desert ra c e was 25 hours , 28 m inutes a n d 57 seconds. Bac k in g them up we re fellow T eam Hon d a XR650R ra c e rs S teve Hengeve ld a nd J on ah Street, with a n ove rall time of 25:41 :53 . Ove r-30 Pro winn e rs Rick Bozarth a nd Daryl Folks took third overall in 2 6:50:44 on th eir KTM 3 00 , th e first two -stroke finish er. Kawa sa k i Team Gr e e n 's De stry Abbott a nd Brian Brown got off to a qu ick start, acing the pr ol ogue a nd j u m pi n g into the le ad o f th e race . T 36 AU GUST 2 , .2000' c u e I e ne ""s Johnny Campbell (shown) and Tim Staab found themselves in second place every single day, but their consistency paid off In the end because their cumulative time for the week put them at the top of the charts In th e Nevada 2000. Finke De se rt Ra ce. a nd , in his first go a t the event last year, the Australian Sa fa ri. He broke h is coll a rbo ne in a crash, never m a king it to Mesqu ite . Ab bo tt / Bro wn m ade it to th e finis h i n 1: 5 1:03 on th eir BelRa y/Dunl op/ Acerbis-sponso re d KX, sett ing the tone fo r th e week. Campbe ll/ S ta ab turned u p a co uple min ut e s later in 1:54: 18 on the ir Dun lo p / Pro Ho n da Oil s /IMS XR, while He n g e ve ld /St re e t pl aced th ird for th e day in 1:5 5 :3 1 o n the ir simila r ma chine. Mike Ba xt er/Robb ie Zimmerm an too k fourth o n th e ir Racers YZ4 2 6 F, while O ver -30 Pro e n t ra n ts Mi ke Healey/ Scott Morris rounded o ut th e top five in 1:5 7: 16 on their Price Rac - ing KX500 , the only other te a m to go under two hours for th e jo urney . "We've go t a couple mi nutes ' lea d a fter the first da y; we 're just go ing to go out fron t a nd cruise [the rest of th e wee k] ," Ab bott s a id a fte r finish ing . "We push ed a little bit to day to get the first starting position for the secon d da y, a nd we accomplishe d that. Now , it' s ba s ic a lly jus t [t ry ing to] keep th e bik e togeth er. Brian a nd I fe el like we're c a pa ble of winning th is th ing a s long a s o u r b ik e s t a ys to geth er. " It 's goi ng t o b e in t eresting, though . It' s s ix da ys long , and a ny thing can ha p pen . I mean, tw o [teams] a re a lready ou t - two of the [t e a ms] that wer e go ing to be a threat. We' ll see wha t happens . Brian and I hav e both ridd en Six Days ; hopefully th e expe rie nc e will help. " Campb e ll prob abl y has more exper ienc e w ith lo n g desert ra ces th an an y of the o t he r contend ers , e s pecia lly in Neva d a . As an ISDE ra cer and the winn er of the last Neva da Rally, especia lly, he placed more emphasis on cons iste ncy than sheer s peed: "We' re loo k ing re a lly wel l. I know we finished second for th e day , which was right about where I wa nted to be. I didn't expect to win the first day; I just wanted to be right there in the hunt. I just wa nted to take it e asy on th e first da y an d ride smoo th a nd be eas y o n e q u ip ment beca use it's o ne of th e roughest days - just to get thro ugh it in good sha pe is good for the re st of the week because we have so many days to go. " The travel ing entourage d idn 't get mu ch rest in swelteri ng Mes qu ite , it s e emed , b e c au s e in or d e r to m a ke th e 5 :30 a.m. starting time ( irnple mented fo r the re st o f th e week ) in Alamo (s o m e gO m iles from Mesquit e ) , th ey h ad to g e t u p between 2:00 a nd 3 :00 a .rn, Abbott/B rown once aga in proved the fastes t in the 28g -mile run north then east to Caliente and northward again , finally stopping 5: 16 :24 later in th e Humboldt Nationa l Forest south of Elko . Here, at around 6000 feet , it was definite ly c o ol e r and would rema in a bit more tol erable until riders returned to the southern pa rt of th e sta te on the final da y. Campbe ll/Sta ab closed th e gap , at one po int eve n ta k ing th e lead o n co rrecte d tim e unoffi cially , but a flat tire slowed their ch arge , a nd th ey finis he d seco n d ag a in , t h is ti me in 5 :17: 0 1. He nge veld/Stre e t rema ined strong an d alone in th ird with a time of 5 :22 : 18 afte r be in g sl ow e d with brak e problems , while Bozarth/Fo lks e a rned fourth fo r th e da y and first Ov e r-30 Pro s on th ei r 300 M/XC in 5:33:37 . Hea ley /Morris rounded out t he da y 's top five in 5 :33 :45. Ch ad Hou c k/Tex Mitchell/Phillip Ziegler put the ir XR650R into s ixth ov eral l in 5:45:22, g iving the m firs t Expert and Open Expert honors.

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