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/1542356
Johnion \/.rlley OH\, ArGo Lu.6rrre Vollay. CA Destry AbboE wds hopins ro clinch rhe 2(Xl6 fitle ol Lu.6rne wilh o win. He hqd ro settle for cecond. OYERAIL I . &aell Pei]5@ (.Yah): 2. O6try Abtotr (Kaw); l. KendallNol1M (Hon);4. Brian 8rcwn 1&w);5. David Pe.M (fi11); 6. Qlinn cod/ (Hon); 7. ft.( G6n.ll (fiM): 8- Kellon walch (KTM): 9. Rr& Kdli (Ye): 10. Nichols su'M (K.w)r I l. D.rd Kamo (fiH)l 12. Mlthew HEndetun (&w)i ll. Cld Masb€r8 (Y ): 14. Brent Herd€n (KTll)r 15. Rld' Abbetoye (x,w)r 16. R!@ Hda (fiM); 17. Matt Eddy {KTH): 18. BrEtt s&ndeB ((aw)i 19. Joff Tolryo (KTH)r 20. Chadea AIYA FMF NACING NATIONAL CHAI.|PIONSHIP HARE & HOUNO SEiIES POINTS STANOINGS (4ft.r t of 7 ro{,nds): L De6r/ Abbou { I 35/2 wiE)i 2. Rs*lr FEnon {1212 win5): l. Kndall No.me (89)i 4. David P6arson \8Zl win): 5 Man Gohell (74J. 6. Quinn Cody (70): 7. Kellon walch (58)i 8. Rlan Kldla (41): 9. D.vid Xrno (43, 10. Ca.l t1@b€r8 (42); ll. stere HeEevdd (15)i 12. l',I*hew Hend6on (30)r ll. R€€c. Htrea (28); 14. Ni.hola Boen 12s); ls. s.or MFE (23)i 16. Ty D&i! (21)i 17. (nE) Bnan growdl'1ik Childress ( I 8): I 9. RFr Abb.toF ( I 7): 20. (rlE) L!k. Oodsod&ent Harden (13). AMA,/FMF Racing National HanE f, Hound Scnies hough there are seYen rounds in this year's Al'4A,/ FMF Racing National Hare & Hound Series, reigning cham- pion Russell Pearson and three-time champ Destry Abbott battled at round five as if it was. the last race in the world. ln a way, it was for at least Pearson, who was in a must-win situation. Team Green's Abbott - the current series points leader rhanks to his consis- tent 2- | - | -2 record so far - wanted to wrn it in order to wrap up the tirle early. Zip- Ty Racing's Pearson needed to win it; a finish of third or worse would hand the championship to his rival right there, a reflection of his comparatively disappoina- ing l-3-3-3 run. But after two 38-mile loops in the Johnson Vdley Ofl-HiShway Vehicle Area, Pearcon ended trp with an extremely hard- fou8ht triumph, having ridden on $e edge and, at times, well over it to stay in front of Abbott. Honda's Kendall Norman ended up third, while Team Green s Brian Brown passed KTM's David Pearson, the round- four winner. in the final miles for founh. The VikinSs Motorcycle Club hosred the Virgin Voyage National and came up with two loops rhat rncluded a surpnsrng amount of technical and virgin terrain - a fact rhat both title contenders favored - though it also included a few fast runs across valle),,s to satisfy the speed junkies. One of those fast stretches included rhe bofib run, which was a couple miles long and wide open through the bushes, and it was Pearson reaching the bomb first on his Zip-Ty Racing/Montclair Yamaha/ Moose YZ450E Norman tucked in behind him on his Precision Concepts/Honda Pro Oils/O'Neal-backed CRF450X with Abbott a close third on his Pro Circuir/ Dunlop,/THOR KX450E Abbott managed to 8et past Norman early in the loop and set his sights on Pearson, but he couldnt 8et quite close enough. Norman sat back in third and watched. "The first loop was kind of fast, but there was a little bit of tight stuff," Pearson said. 'lt was just fun out there. But the guys rode well; they stuck right on me - Destry and them- I came into the pits and they said, 'Destry's right there, l0 seconds back.' Im hke, lt4an. I tust rcde my butt offl' I go, 'Okay, we've got 40 miles on this loop. They're going ro throw us in some gnarly, virSin ro.ks. lt's going to be havoc!'5o I just pinned it and tried to stretch my lead but never could stretch it on them.'' About l0 miles into the second loop, Abbott squirted past and grabbed the lead for the first time. From that poinr on, the pace got fastei and the chances the two players took grew more desperate. "From that point on. the pace just got so fast it was sickening," Abbott said. "V/e were on the edge: it was pretty hairball, because Russ would pass me back or whatever. "There was one time when I was lead- ing and went down, over the bars, down a hill," Abbott said. ''l had to jump off the bike and run back to the bike. Both Kendall and Russ got by, and I was really mad. I lost a lot of time there, and the bike was a little tweaked." Pearcon said, ''Vy'e came down this downhill and I was kind of pinning it - | mean. these were three- or four-foot boulders we were just ricochetinS off. iust pinnin8 it. He was pinning it to the left. I 80, 'Okay, l'm going riSht!' He hit one and fell over. I looked back iust to make sure he was all right. He was already up, run- ning back to his bike. l'm like, 'Holy cow!' I 80. 'He ain't hurt; this ain't over yet!"' No it wasn't - not by a long shot. "We kept Soing back and forth at that point," Abbott said- ''lt was jusr hairball. We both wanted to win, for sure. He knew he had to win, and I wanted ro win, so it was prerry wild. The last, maybe, five miles, I was leadrnS. and he got by me in some rock),, section. l'4aybe he had a bet- ter line. I was in his dust and hit a rock and went down, then kind of jusr rode it in. "lt's pretty frustrating," Abbott said- "lr was definitely one of the wildest second loops I've ever ftrced. lt was hairball. Neither of us was backing off. He'd be behind me just rewing it, rewrng it, trying to make me mess up. lt was fun; it was good racing, for sure." But Abbott can take consolation in the fact that he still owns a comfonable lead in points. The way thinSs stand now, Pearson must win rhe final two races in order to retain the number-one plate on his Yamaha - a tall order but not out of the realm of possibility. "That's how I treat them all," Pearson said. ''l just go to win races. We're still in it; we're going to go try to win the next two. We have to keep this number one." lCll JoHNsoN VarEY OHV PARK LucrRNr VAl.Lrn CauronNlA REsurrs: APRI 23, 2006 (RouND 5 or 7) 66 MAY lo, 2006 . CYCLE NEWS OFF.ROAD Round s A?ril 23, 2006 ,- r a '-- X Peo.son kept himself in - 6de tontenlbn wilh o h.rrd- fftiLr *ln ct the.viktigft'e ---"1, Noticncl Hqrc-&+lor,nd. -, v l a a {2 C'' '',^-\ - Russ Peorson out duels Abbott ,-li Lu,:elr) yucl)?1 srogglo BY rl ffi ) I I F n b ,' I h T I l