Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Hengeveld as they climbed the tight, last rocky hill, but Hengeveld held his ground, with Gosnell tipping over momentarily to seal the finish order "He had passed me in some rock. probably about nine miles out firom the fin- ishl," Hengeveld said. "So then I was chas- ing him through all these vallep. Finally, I got him coming around this sveeper riSht before the finish. He was on the inside, I iust railed on the outside and I got him- Coming through the tiSht switchback before the finish, he was iust, like, in panic because he wasn't expectinS me to rnake a pass on him. When we got to the final dimb, it was whoever gets to the top of the hill fim. He slammed me hard. But no hard feelings, that's racing. l'm cool with it.'' "lt was wild,'' Gosnell said. "l didn't expect him to pass me right at the end. I knew he was back there. He iust kind of snuck up behind me, then when he does that, it's, 'Well, I've got to Eive it one last chance, What's the worst thing that's going to happen? I'm going to fall over and finish behind him?' I gave it one last shot and didn't make it." Gll JoHxso[ V UEY OHV ARra LucErNE VauEY, Cau;oR r Rllurrsr JaHUATY 22,2006 (Rorrrc f) Former pro motocros$r Andy lefrcrson, who how concentrates on the WORCS series, where he rides in the Senior Over- 40 class, wa5 convinced into riding the Nadonal H&H by Monrclair Yamahy'Zip-Ty Racing chie{ Ty Davis. After survMng both loopr, he sa( in the back of the ream s box van enterhining the crew with his wide- eyed accoum of every aspect of his first- ever desert race. "l think it was the hardest thing l'\ie done in a long ti.ne, but it was fun," he said. "llyou come out, you ve got to be prepared - that's the bitgest thing. The dust and the technical sections were the biS8est challerEes. The speeds aren't bad, bot the technical sections are really tough. They're a lot tougher than most p€ople would ever think they are." Ty Davla no longer chases the Hare & Hound championihip. b{jt he Bually rides the Desert MC event simply because he likes it. "This one's just a good one to go to because the club does a really Bood job. Usually rhe races out here they put on are realll. really Sood and fun, and it's lhe first one of the year. With Destry lAbbott] rid- ing a four-stroke, I rhought it'd be kind of coolthat we'd all be on four-strokes, Pr€tty much allof us arc on 450s now." Red Bull KTM'S Chris Blair was on hand to watch and support his wife, htty, who r.ces AfVs. Having finished fourth at the Dakar Rally iust seven days before, he chose not to mce Lucerne, saying, "l was almost going to race, bu! I iust got the bike on Friday. I didn't have my suspension or other parts for it. I said, 'You know what? lt ain't worth the .isk if lthe bike's] not even right. I'll just to out ahd hant out.' I was just cominS to ride anyway lto break it in]. I rode this thing through the whoops and I go, 'Whoa! This thing is scaryl Okay, l've got to tet used to riding little bikes again!"' - I _, (Lfi ro righr) D..iry Abbon workcd hic woy up to r.(ond, but Ruts Peorron wqo olrcody gone; Luke Dobson (9) rode o 45O for the firsr dme qnd gpr eiglrrh phce, (for right) Ty Dovir ro& "iust 6or fun" ond gor on rhc podium in ttrird phce. OYERA!1j I . Rusll PEfion (Ym): 2. Datry Abbott (Ktw)i 3. Ty Davir (Ym)r 4. Hike childB (Hon): 5. steve Heit*ld (Hon): 6. l,l.!t Gdrell (fi1'4)r 7. Qumn Cod/ (Hon)i B. LlkE Dodsn {Su!); 9. Prur Klue (KTl'1)i 10. ,utdn Morow (Yam)i ll. tlorsa CBMord (fiM)i 12. Rr.n X!dl. alam): 13. l(ellon ltlch (fi1',1)r l{. R6e(e Honea (Hon)i 15. Chrlie Morris (KTM): 16. c.d Maarrb€rr ftm)r 17. Man Edd/ KrPl); 18. Nick Bu6on (rQw): I e. RF. Abbato/e (Kaw): r0. RFo spanslor (Hon). Desrry Abbott cheered on his son Cooper, as did Johnny Campbell for his son Pr$ton during Saturday's kids' race. Cooper Abbott celebrated his eighth birthday the day before of what was his first of, no doubt, many more desert races. Honda's Kendall Norman and KTM's David Pearson both suffered DNFs, while former H&H champ Brian Brorvn decided not to compete after crashing his KX450F the day before. He sat it out wi$ a sore chest. 9 Lrke Dodson 8th Place Like many others now' Luke Dodson is ridint a 450, having moved up from a 250. "l got a one-kick start, which really surprised me," the Barstow Motorcycle Center/FHF/O'Neal- backed rider admitted. ''Starting on the 450, l've had two-stroke tendencies, so one kick was good. The first loop went good. I got kind of tight goint across all the fast whoops. The second loop, ljust rode better, got loose and didn't really make any mistakes and had fun. lt was a Eood course: they had a lot ofchallenting stuff. The uphills weren't too bad, but drere were some downhills that were pretty tood, that weren't burned in yet. The 450 pushes a little bit more than the 250. I can teel (hat weight coming downhill, and it made a difference a couple times." Ol paut Krause 9th Place/lst Place SeniorA Paul Krause rode the same l'lalcolm Smith l,lotorspons/FHF/MSR KTl,l 450 XC that he rode at the Endurocross in November. "There was a lot of good rocky stuff, and rocky stuff that we've never been down before - or no one had been downl" Krause said. "You got to the top and you ,ust looked for the orange-paint mark down the rocks. When it's that virgin, you really have to stay on the course. I just took rny time. I made up a lot of time on Morgan lcrawford] andjustin l4orrow, because they were racing with each other. They were overshooting stuff, and they were gettinS themselves into places they shouldn't hav€ Sotten into." Mv OwN RAc€ CYCLE NEWS FEBRUARY 8, 2006 39 I Fl FJ L F' I !ar I t I { 4, h r" t4: i, :t rj 7 Ze --.t- Briefly... I t h )n^ $ "l had a pretty decent line,'' he said. "l lust got dusted out a few times and had some bad line choices. I think I was eighth or something like that at the bomb. "By the time lgot into second - Ithink I passed Steve Hengeveld at mile 30 - Russ was longgone. I couldn't see his dust anymore. Then I started tD/ing to ride harder to make up the time, and I started makinS more mistakes and not ridinS like I should. lt was frustrating." Pearon would take the win by sever- al minutes over the Team Green/Pro Circuit/Thor-backed Abbott, despite one crash on the last loop when some- thinS,ammed his rear-brake pedal on a nasty downhill, causing him to cartwheel in the rocks. Davis, flfth after the first loop, cruised in for third on his Montclair Yamahy'Zip- Ty Racing/Moose YZ450E "l knew that the second loop was going to be really gnarly, so I pretty much knew if I could keep it on two wheels, I could pass Childress and Hengeveld at the end," Davis said, "l knew I couldn't catch DestD/, he and Pearson got away. I was right behind Destry at the beginning, I iust didn't get by the Hondaguys like he did, and that was iust enough for him to scoot away." Childress managed to hold onto a soli- tar), fourth place on his big 650. Behind him, though, Hengeveld had a good duel with KTIY's Matt Gosnell riSht up to the finish. Gosnell passed Hengeveld about l0 miles from the finish when the Precision Concepts/Honda Pro O|IVMSR CRF450X- mounted rider went down. Hengeveld managed to get Soing and chased down Gosnell just before the finish, holdinS it on to ride around the outside in a long left- hander near the finish. A surprised Gosnell tried to retaliate by ramming his FHFlIaglFly Racing-backed 525 XC past 1 0, 7 'a

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