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/1542337
?50 Epic Ro.ins Pork.7. AZ I o Pqul Krquse roloed the roce for rider oI t \ I OFF-ROAD !d^uo.y 7, 2CXr6 )7 I I I IIIL- (' w E I - l- E I ( I i I +-t- E.'EA I I ftB I U E I ike Childress finally got that overall win everyone predicted he'd 8et when he teamed with Quinn Cody and ran away 'rith place on the DH l/Pro CircuiVlMS 525 XC that he was sharing with new KTM recruit David Pearson. Unfortunately, their ride ended when the bike quit on Pearson about 53 miles into the race. That put Shaun Hanson and Jimmy McKay into the runner-up position on their Temecula l'4otorsports/Precision Concepts Honda CRF450X desert devel- opment machine, though they would eventually drop back to finish seventh overall motorcycle, second Open Pro. They reported an uneventful day, Solo racer Paul Krause found himself in second overall for much of the race despite havins not raced a Nvo-stroke or a 250 in years. With 250cc Pro Champion Elmer Symons in Africa handling the mechanic duties for BITD competitor James Embro, Krause agreed to ride and get points for Symons. "l think the last off-road race I rode on a 250cc two-stroke was here in'88," Krause said of his ride gn the Malcolm Smith Motorspons/FMF/MSR KTM 250 XC. "lt went p€rfect from start to rinish. I got tired with about 35, 40 miles to go and slowed down. I knew I was going to 8et tired the last lap, and I really wanted to have a good, clean run allthe way from the main pit back, basically, to Shea Road because it's pretty fast and easy all the way to Midway; then from Midway back to mib 50 - it's 20 miles of technical going. lt's slower and there's a lot of rocks so I really wanted to make sure I Eot at least to the aqueducts clean. "Coming into lvlidway, I was b'rried in dust from the ATvsin fact, so bad, that I ,t r T the Epic Racing Products Parker 250. round one of Best ln The Desert's 2006 Silver State Series. The only things slow- ing them down all day in the Ihreelap, 232-mile race was a flat rear tire and 8et- ting around lapped ATVs, but they pre- vailed and went wire to wire for the vic- tory in four hours.39 minutes and six seconds on their American Honda/ Berkley Honda/O'Neal-backed XR650R. l4eanwhile. Brian Melsheimer and lason Trubey surprised a number of people by earning second overall, as well as first Expert overall, wrth their time of 4:50:32 aboard their Temecula lYotorsports/FMF/Suspension by lake- sponsored Honda CRF450X. Chris Ray, Jeff Trulove and Robby Woods rounded out the top three on their FMF/GPR/||4S KTM 525 l4XC in 4:57 41 . Run over essentially the same 7S-mile loop as last year, Childress took offat 7:30 a.m. from the start, near Pop Harvey hrk in town, and headed out, dropping into Osborne Wash after a few miles. After dashing east through Osborne, he arrived at the 26-mile alternate pit at Midway before turning north for a large loop around Planet Peak and then back west toward the main pit, skirting the south slope of Gibralar l'4ountain. Shane Esposito moved up quickly from his rear start position to settle into second g & * il f, \ I t a t t I . a-.1.::'',,,.i :..-. '.'1 i'{::. l when lgot into the pit at Midway, the people in the pit couldn't see me and I couldn't see them. We tried to get out of there as fast as we could, and I followed three quads all the way back to the ridgei there was norhing l could do about it. The constant goinS and hanSing on, going and han8ins on, going and hanging on, it killed me. I knew going in the dust that long, I was in trouble." That allowed Trubey to catch and pass him, with the RayflruloveMoods entry also sneaking past in time. time ond not only ExpGrt, bul were Cody also had to contend with slower ATVS as well as lapped motorc/cles when he took his turn aboard the winning bike. ''l rode right in the middle of all the quads," he said, "l'd get some clean air for a little while, then l'd get into a pack of live or six of them, all stacked up on each other. " "Coming in at the end of my first lap, I got a flat, right when I crossed Shea Road-l guess I hit a rock or something," Childress said. "So I had to ride like that for 20 miles into with a flat. I didn't have a 32 JANUARY 25,2006 . cYCl.E NEt /S Best ln The DcsErt Silver Statc SEri€s a \ Pqeker morkcd the first overoll win for thildress (lefi) ond Cody. DA { \ Melsheimer ondTrubey eorn o surprising second. Srorv ruro PHoros BY Mmx Klnra W:" -& ".8 t' I I r